avatarLiam Ireland

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e the cut with the readers most likely to be interested in these stories.</p><figure id="2bfa"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*z2cqqXQ5svMTLq3-.gif"><figcaption>tenor</figcaption></figure><p id="74dc">Medium’s algorithms weight those stories for extra distribution across Medium.</p><p id="27ef">In regard to boosted stories…</p><blockquote id="cd70"><p>“(i)nstead of being the judge of what’s good, the algorithm will play more of a matchmaking role between what humans think is good and what readers like to read.”</p></blockquote><p id="aa32">Plus, almost all articles will continue to get distributed by the recommendation algorithm.</p><p id="6306">However, “engagement” (the old gold standard of curation) is not the same thing as providing satisfying reads.</p><p id="b098">This is what the algorithm is looking for:</p><ul><li>what topics a reader follows</li><li>what they read</li><li>who they follow</li><li>what people they follow read and clap for</li></ul><p id="3f52">Let’s dig a bit deeper now into the role of publications.</p><h1 id="a8b5">The impact of Community Curators and Publications</h1><p id="e337">Before I get into the FAQ section, I think it’s worth speaking about the role of publications.</p><p id="fe52">Publications will become important curators.</p><p id="df5c">At the moment there are <b>15 Medium publications </b>that are testing the Boost button and are having a major say in what gets boosted.</p><p id="3b39">In the near future, it can be any high-quality publication.</p><p id="1ae1">The owners and editors know “so much better than (Medium) what is an important read and why”.</p><p id="e7a4">For becoming a trustworthy partner, Medium will pay editors based on the number of stories they successfully recommend for boosting.</p><p id="ff37">Medium is looking for taste: “taste comes down to having the experience to know what is true, what matters, and where there is debate”, <a href="https://blog.medium.com/a-new-boost-for-top-stories-541884654fdb">Tony shared.</a></p><p id="07a4">Medium’s wish is to spark an influx of new publications.</p><h1 id="74ea">FAQ</h1><p id="ba42">These new changes are raising a lot of questions.</p><p id="a1fc">I aggregated the most popular questions from the comments, stories and official announcement:</p><h2 id="92ac">Who qualifies for this Boost?</h2><p id="dc92">Everyone.</p><h2 id="621d">Does my story have to be in a publication to be Boosted?</h2><p id="ee92">No, but it does help a little.</p><h2 id="c5e5">Which publications are curating?</h2><p id="02b4">Medium isn’t telling us yet who the 15 publications are.</p><p id="f0ed">Here’s the reason:</p><blockquote id="6304"><p>“The first is that it’s the job of these curators to find you. The second is that listing them now has a tendency to stick when we expect it to shortly be many or most publications.”</p></blockquote><h2 id="5baa">What should I write about to get boosted?</h2><p id="8178">Tony’s #1 tip: “write what you want to write.”</p><p id="3728">Since there are a lot of meta stories about Medium that are totally misguiding.</p><p id="b2b6">Here’s what Tony recommends:</p><h2 id="bfb5">Tips from Tony Stubblebine to get boosted:</h2><ul><li>writing can’t move you in any substantial way unless it can first move you to click and read.</li><li>Medium wants to reward you for writing your best stuff, but only you know what that is.</li><li>the top-performing stories had the most engaging titles, the most compelling intros, and the most entertaining writing.</li><li>attention-grabbing is not the same as useful or valuable or entertaining.</li><li>often the tricks of engagement lead directly to disappointment.</li><li>Authors who promote their articles through social media, email, to their followers, and publications are now more likely to get their articles picked up for a boost.</li><li>Medium wants to boost great writing, not great growth hackers.</li></ul><h2 id="d26a">Which posts are Medium boosting and why?</h2><p id="975d">These are the types of stories Medium is looking for:</p><ul><li>constructive</li><li>original</li><li>written from relevant experience</li><li>well-crafted</li><li>memorable.</li></ul><p id="650c"><a href="https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006362473">Click here to read the updated Distribution Standards.</a></p><h2 id="ba86">Is the Boost big enough?</h2><p id="5920">In the test period, Medium has seen boosts between 5

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00 views and 100,000 views.</p><p id="f473">Medium’s goal: every Boosted story should get at least 500 extra views within 7 days!</p><p id="70b0">Why?</p><blockquote id="a11f"><p>“In practice, that’s usually enough to tip a story over to a much, much wider audience.”</p></blockquote><p id="50fa">According to Medium, it’s the highest-level boost ever.</p><h2 id="edb4">Is traffic shared evenly across all authors?</h2><p id="78fb">No.</p><p id="a6da">Plus, what gets boosted changes as new readers and authors join.</p><h2 id="4f3d">How many recommendations does Medium make per month?</h2><p id="c0a4">In total, Medium makes several billion recommendations each month.</p><h2 id="9030">Can other people Boost?</h2><p id="9ff2">No other people than publication editors and owners.</p><h2 id="6f0e">Why is a Boost necessary?</h2><p id="8dff">Often authors join Medium because they want their stories to get more views and reads and to (finally) feel rewarded and recognized.</p><blockquote id="1b0d"><p>“Often, the best writing comes from people who don’t want to be audience builders. With the rise of the creator economy, these doers are often left out. Our goal is to find the best individual stories, regardless of who wrote them, and give those stories to a wider audience.”</p></blockquote><h2 id="01cc">How did Medium give the highest quality recommendations in the past?</h2><p id="cdbe">Medium had many ways to boost a story on Medium…</p><ul><li>via the recommendation algorithm</li><li>tags</li><li>newsletters</li><li>publications.</li></ul><blockquote id="518a"><p>“To give readers the highest quality recommendations, we’ve seesawed between two primary heuristics. The original model was mostly human curation, with a bias towards well-written, well-constructed, and well-supported stories. Then we swung to a heuristic that was dominated by machine learning algorithms biased toward engagement.”</p></blockquote><h2 id="fa9e">What about evergreen stories?</h2><p id="1987">Medium has already other mechanisms for boosting stories in the works.</p><p id="8e8d">Medium has started several projects to organize the best of Medium as a form of boosting.</p><p id="8310">“Evergreen writing should get boosted well beyond the day it publishes.” <a href="https://blog.medium.com/boosting-the-boost-d983f0552ab9">Tony shared.</a></p><h2 id="bcd3">What about canonical stories?</h2><p id="b7b7">Medium has already other mechanisms for boosting stories in the works.</p><p id="23d0">Canonical stories are part of it.</p><h1 id="03e9">What’s next?</h1><p id="bbcd">Getting Boosted on Medium definitely takes some effort and strategy, but it can pay off in terms of more readership and engagement.</p><p id="2b0d">Follow the tips shared above to optimize your stories for distribution and visibility on Medium’s network.</p><p id="5159">Although Medium doesn’t publish any income reports anymore, I bet a lot of writers will share how many views/reads they got and how much money they earned thanks to getting the Boost!</p><figure id="c399"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*Vzcb3tiIB5cKOJ5Z.gif"><figcaption>tenor</figcaption></figure><p id="0bf2">If you’re one of them… feel free to share your insights in the comments or send me a screenshot to [email protected]</p><p id="5bf6">Last but not least, I hope my story helped you to have the breath and no excuse to not execute and get Boosted!</p><h2 id="fd7a">Found it valuable? Want to see and know more?</h2><p id="0dc8">Sure thing!</p><p id="d2b0"><a href="https://kristinagod.substack.com/">Why not join my Substack newsletter </a>and tell me what you think?</p><div id="3262" class="link-block"> <a href="https://kristinagod.substack.com/"> <div> <div> <h2>Kristina's Newsletter | Kristina God | Substack</h2> <div><h3>Medium Blogging Tips and Tricks. Click to read Kristina's Newsletter, by Kristina God, a Substack publication with…</h3></div> <div><p>kristinagod.substack.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*1y2gGHnpmOCPEBwH)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="341f"><b>P.S.</b> I hope you enjoyed this post. If you did, please give it a clap👏 or share it with someone who might find it useful😊</p></article></body>

How To Get Through Hard Times

It's all in the mind and be grateful for what you have

Photograph by Sylvain Mauroux on Unsplash

For many reasons today is a joyful day. The sun is shining through the net curtains lighting my life and warming my bones as I sit comfortably at my pc typing to my heart's content. I have food, shelter and the deep love and amazing care of a good woman in abundance. I want for nothing.

It hasn't always been that way. I well remember hard times from the distant past when I felt so alone and abandoned that I really just wanted to curl up and die.Thankfully, I was able to set sail from those troubled waters and put a lot of distance between me and them. It wasn't easy, but it was worth all the effort.

I know I am not alone on this journey through life, and that is a great help. Apart from my lovely wife I am blessed with some amazing friends here on Illumination Tree Langdon, Stuart Englander, Britni Pepper, Agnes Laurens Dr Mehmet Yildiz Dr John Rose, CR Mandler MAT Haimish Mead Thewriteyard Dr. Preeti Singh Geetika Sethi........all fellow writers and editors, but so much more than that, they have all become very firm friends. These guys n gals form the backbone of my 'Dayteam' of carers, along with a handful of personal friends back in Spain and the UK and beyond. I would feel very lost without any single one of them.

This past six months has been, and still is, something of a challenge regarding on-going health problems. However, I refuse to let that get me down. I am trying to accept things for what they are and see things in a positive light. The biggest thing is to concentrate on all of the wonderful things that you have rather than what you haven't.

During a recent stay in hospital I was amongst people breathing their last breaths, old people very clearly at the end of their days. I am absolutely sure that each and every one of them would change places with me in a heartbeat if they could.

For me, hopefully there is still a long way to go. But I have the wind in my sails and I am fair set towards a beautiful blue horizon. Despite very limited physical mobility, I feel good. I still feel like I could move mountains if I chose to, though in reality I am even further way from moving so much as a small rock as I ever was before.

One of the most important things I have learned is that a lot of what holds us back in life is over-thinking the negative things. And if you think negative then that is what you will get, negative results. So kick Mister Negative out, get rid of him, he will do you no good at all. Mister Positive however will bring you nothing but joy and happiness, even at the hardest of times.

Many times I have seen somebody trying to walk a plank thinking "Uh uh, I'm going to fall." And fall they do. It is what you might call a self fulfilling prophecy. However, if you walk that plank thinking "I'm going to be ok, I can do this, I got this." then indeed you will be just fine and dandy.

In conclusion, if you are ever passing a hard time in life, I urge you to be thankful for all of the wonderful things that you have and if you must over-think anything, over-think positivity.

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