Lessons From 46 Curated Stories in 6 Months on Medium

Because I was recently reminded of the value of good Karma!

I first started writing on Medium in mid-July, but as a newbie I was still learning my way around things. It was August 11, exactly 6 months ago that I got that first “coveted” curation email that validated I was a half-decent writer, in my mind. The story that got curated was this.

Remember, these were the days when Medium sent email notifications on curation, and hadn’t “de-emphasized” the importance of curation, and also told you exactly the topics in which you were curated.

Since then, I gave myself a mini-goal — in addition to writing what my heart desired, I also wanted to write most of my pieces at a certain quality that I would be seriously considered, and hopefully awarded the coveted prize of Medium-curation more often than not.

Six months on, and I’ve had a total of 46 curations, across at least two dozen different topics, because I don’t stick to a niche and like to explore whatever catches my fancy.

January was probably my lightest month in terms of writing frequency — because I was busy at work for the 2nd half of the month and wrote NO stories — so a total of only 12 stories in January. Yet I maintained my $100+ earnings for the month, thanks to some old curated pieces doing well.

January was also the month, when kind fellow writers Holly Kellums and Sabana Grande falsely accused me of being the guy who had Medium curation all figured out, and credited some of their success to my advice — allegations that I vehemently deny. They’re both AMAZING writers in their own right and they were curated because of that very reason.

Yet, I realized there are a lot of amazing writers on Medium, who haven’t been discovered by the platform’s curators, owing to probably the smallest of reasons that they may have overlooked. So I’ve decided to pay back to the writing community by baring all my secrets that I think have worked for me.

#1 — Choosing a Topic

The first thing you need to understand about curation is that Medium curates stories in a certain list of topics. Not tags, topics.

Medium topics can be found here:

Now, how do you pick a topic you want to write on? Well, firstly go with what suits your expertise and writing style because that definitely enhances your chances of writing a quality piece — the most important factor in curation.

Second, if you have more than one topic you are comfortable with, remember that not all topics are created equal. Topics such as Self, Relationships, Money, Life Lessons, Writing, etc. are some of the most widely-written-about topics on Medium. Hence you are competing with more stories for that coveted curation.

So if you can, pick a topic that’s a bit more “niche” or less-written-about. I wrote a few stories specifically targeting certain topics, and did achieve curation success. How can you tell if a topic is frequently written about or not? In addition to just common sense, you can click on each link under the topics list. The only stories that show on that page are stories that were curated in those topics. This is also how you figure out what topic your story got curated in — by scrolling through those long lists!

Also, when you “tag” your story, try and tag it under topics that make it easy for the Curators to guage what are the right topics to curate the story under.

#2 —Get the Basics Right — Curation Guidelines

So, this is extremely important. For the 34 curators (think that’s the official number) that Medium has, it is impossible to go through all tens of thousands of stories that are published everyday.

How the process works is — an algorithm sorts through the stories first, and removes the ones that violate any of Medium’s curation guidelines. You should go through these in detail, to ensure your stories have a shot at curation. Eg. this current story you’re reading WILL NOT be curated because it is about writing on Medium — and those are the type of stories Medium doesn’t curate, because it is sort of self-promotion, and Medium cares about its readers, and doesn’t want them bombarded with Medium tips.

https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006362473-Medium-s-Distribution-Standards-What-Writers-and-Publications-Need-to-Know

Make sure you go through these guidelines and ensure your story doesn’t violate any of these rules.

#3 — Getting Your Title Right

While the image + title might be the combination that attracts your readers, according to my understanding, the title is the single most important factor that can make or break your chances of curation.

Don’t try to be too cute on this one. Medium, like any other writing platform, likes catchy stuff, but it also penalizes you for “click-bait” headlines. What Medium expects from the headlines is, a fair and clear peek into what the story is supposed to be about? The title shouldn’t just pique the interest of the reader, but also give him a fair judgment into what can be expected from the story, so (s)he doesn’t waste their time on a story that promised one thing, and delivered something completely different.

Here is a solid example of what works and what doesn’t. In my first few days as a Medium novice, I wrote a story titled “Forget FIRE, Introducing ICE” — sounds catchy doesn’t it?

But what do I even mean? Well, I was talking about the concept of F.I.R.E or Financial Independence, Retiring Early, a movement that’s quite famous among generations today.

And, instead of that I was introducing my own framework called “Inner Calling Exploration — or ICE” — which to me sounded “oh, so cool!” But, alas! my excitement didn’t translate into Medium curation.

With my enhanced understanding of the Medium game and rules of playing, I used some of the same ideas and wrote a new take on that original story as below — and it got curated within a couple of hours and remains one of my most “applauded” and “engaging” pieces with maximum claps and comments. As you will see, the title leaves little to “guesswork” and is very clear for the reader — and it was curated in “Money” which is one of the most coveted topics on Medium.

#4 — The Actual Content

There are a few things you can look to achieve with your content, but each of them have to keep the reader at the center of your story.

You can tell yourself all you like that you write just for yourself, but the reality is if you’re writing for curation / external validation which is the case for all of us, you also want to be read, and heard as widely as you can be. Which means that you need to keep the READER at the center of your story and write it for the reader. Write it for one reader or a 100, the end result will often be a good one. But if you just write a journal entry, or a rant, it is unlikely people will care.

Here are a few “types” of pieces you can look to write:

• Educate your reader — tips on leading a better life in any way
• Engage your reader — write about a topic that invokes empathy or a feeling of “I can totally fell you on this one”
• Be Vulnerable — If you can’t give them advice, seek some. We all have issues and problems in our lives, that often feel a lot lighter if you share. So share and seek advice, and let yourself be vulnerable. We’re all humans and emotions drive what we do — people love to be there for others and be a part of your emotional journeys
• Curate for the reader — There are a million books, a thousand movies, hundreds of famous people that I want to learn from, but don’t have the time for. So if I find a story that does a summary of them for me, I love it. And this is why a lot of such stories also get popular.
• Help them discover — The “did you know” type of stuff has been popular for ages and will remain popular forever. This is because we’re all a curious lot, and love to find out about new things — so discover something for your reader.
• Topical Issues — It is Black History Month right now, and there is a lot of content and interest on the topic. There were the US elections a month or two ago, or the pandemic that was also of interest for most of 2020. Write about stuff that is topical, and give it a unique perspective.

These are only a few of many things you can look to achieve with your content — but make sure the quality of your writing is high and it provides something of “value” to the reader.

#5 — The Luck Factor

If you follow all of the above rules, I am not guaranteeing that you will be curated. There are atleast a few dozen pieces that I still feel deserved curation as much as these other 46, but didn’t end up being curated.

So don’t let curation be the only barometer of your writing success. There is definitely a chance factor involved, because no processes are perfect. So don’t be disheartened by not getting lucky with curation — continue to put in the work and something will work for you just as it did for me, and for many others on here.

A final disclaimer — curation doesn’t guarantee virality or monetary success. I’ve had stories that are close to earning $100, while others that have not even made a single dollar. Both curated, both seemingly well written. But that is just how the game works.

Curation also means that your story stays alive in the Medium algorithm and is shown in readers’ feeds every now and then — so curation guarantees a longer shelf life to a story that might otherwise die a quick death after the first few days. Here is a chart of my most successful (monetarily and member reading time) story on Medium, and you’ll see how it has a second wind and a third wind.

On that note, all the best and please comment / send me a private message if you need further advice or clarifications on any of the points. In addition, at the end of this story I am also going to tag some of the most brilliant writers on Medium, who are also my fellow-editors on Illumination and related pubs, who are all more than willing to help, as we all figure out the mystery of writing on Medium.

ILLUMINATION-Curated, ILLUMINATION, Dr Mehmet Yildiz, Tree Langdon, Brian E. Wish, PhD, Dr Ron Pol, Dr Michael Heng, Dr John Rose, Paul Myers MBA, Karen Madej, Joe Luca, Dipti Pande, Kevin Buddaeus, Kate Maxwell, Arthur G. Hernandez, Bill Abbate, Michael Patanella, Aurora Eliam, CMP, René Junge, Geetika Sethi, Ahmed Jamal, Britni Pepper, Selma, Earnest Painter, Dew Langrial, B. A. Cumberlidge. Lanu Pitan, Agnes Laurens, EP McKnight, MEd, CR Mandler MAT, The Maverick Files, Sumera Rizwan, Liam Ireland, Tony Young, Jr., Neha Sandhir S, Desiree Driesenaar, Stuart Englander, Ntathu Allen, Thewriteyard, Haimish Mead, Maria Rattray, Cristo Lopez, PhD, Dr. Preeti Singh, Holly Kellums, Kristina Segarra, Yohanan Gregorius, The Dozen, Audrey Malone,janny’s heart, Sabana Grande, Jennifer Friebely, Zen Chan, Aamir Kamal 🚀🚀🚀, John Cunningham, [arlie] PEYTON, Georgia Dimitrious, Kim Petersen, Josh Balerite Acol, Terry L. Cooper