Medium Curation: Batting .454 for 3 Months of ILLUMINATION

What I’ve done right and wrong for my first 38 stories.

I’ve been on Medium for just over three months, and this is the first article I’ve written about Medium itself. Dr. Mehmet Yildiz felt like I’ve had some success at curation, and asked me to share what I’ve learned. I’m hoping that this doesn’t jinx me.

Like a lot of other articles on Medium, I am going to tell you some rules on what I think gets you noticed. Unlike those, I’m going to show you my work by giving you my analysis of each success and failure to date. If you just want the conclusions, scan the chart below, and then skip to the last section.

I think the exposure on ILLUMINATION definitely helps. I have only tried three publications, but for a writer like me with a lot of interests, I can touch a large diverse audience here. Plus, I’m not the only one who is successful on ILLUMINATION. Check this one out if you ever need to read a great story.

My batting average

This will be my 39th article published on Medium, and most likely will not meet curation criteria because it’s about Medium. Out of the other thirty-eight, I don’t count the first three. I had wanted to make some professional looking posts for Facebook and LinkedIn, and Medium provided a platform for me to communicate.

I also didn’t expect “What Really Motivates Me” to be curated. It was my introductory article for ILLUMINATION. Even though I tried to write it as a more general story, it wasn’t something that would reasonably get curated. Likewise, the “Why I Write for ILLUMINATION” story is writing about Medium, so I don’t count it when doing analysis either.

Take away those five articles, and that leaves thirty-three that reasonably could have been curated. From those, fifteen have been distributed by the Medium curators across nineteen topics for a rate of around 45%.

Curation isn’t everything. I only have 314 followers right now (SHAMELESS PLUG: FOLLOW ME NOW AND READ MY STUFF), and even my best-curated stories get views and read in the hundreds, not the thousands.

On the other hand, curation is very helpful. My higher performing/earning stories are curated. Distributed stories earn more and have longer tails. On the gripping hand, as you will see in my discussions below, it’s possible to be distributed and not get any views. If you know what the gripping hand is, you are a science fiction reader with a long history and memory.

Now I’m going to go through my stories one by one, and give some thoughts on why each did or did not get selected, so skip to the end if you just want the rules.

Early Stories

Not Curated. I had repurposed a story I had written earlier and never gotten published. Looking back, if you aren’t deep in academia, you won’t get the ‘Non-Academic Path,’ though the subtitle explains. If I had to do this again, I would have named it “5 Costs and Benefits of Getting A Ph.D. Unrelated to Your Job” and turned it into a listicle.

Curated #Education. My first. Medium occasionally likes high-concept pieces. I think they liked this one because it was a fresh, critical take on education. I started with history and then made an analogy with manufacturing, which I know something about.

Not Curated. My sense is that coronavirus articles have a high bar because of the millions of armchair epidemiologists, but there are a couple of other problems here too. First, the title is unwieldy. I was trying to get COVID-19 and CARES act into it for search purposes. Next, the subtitle is also vague. Finally, when I look at the first paragraph, it takes a while to get to the point. I should have laid out the thesis more clearly. It wasn’t a bad article; RealClearMarkets.com picked it up (and gave it an even worse name). It has my highest number of views and reads, it just didn’t make much money because they are mostly external.

Curated, #Self #Work. I published this one on April 2nd, and it was picked for distribution on April 22nd, nearly three weeks of “Hang Tight!” Notice the title makes you want to know what the lesson is and the subtitle gives you a big hint. The opening paragraph starts with a personal story to try and draw the reader in.

Not Curated. I was disappointed with this one. It helps solve a problem that college professors have. Maybe the audience is too narrow? I was also proud of the picture…she looks furtive to me. I used the personal story opening strategy, but it isn’t very gripping. Overall, between the title, subtitle, and opening paragraph, it just doesn’t grab the non-college professor reader.

Not Curated. This was another article I had on my desktop which I had tried to publish elsewhere. I was passionate about the material, and feel like I wrote a good article, but at the end of the day, who on Medium is all that interested? I’m making a strong argument that someone else’s conclusions are wrong, but if no one cared about the first article, why would they care about my rebuttal?

Curated, #Education. The title tells what I didn’t know and intrigues you that you are going to hear five things. Actually five and a half. You want to know what a half thing is. This has a much broader application than “Ph.D.s on the Non-Academic Path” because it targets anyone thinking about getting a doctorate or even just curious what it might be like. It provides important information in an easily digestible form.

Curated, #Self #Work. This was written on April 14th and selected April 23rd. Again, the article titillates a little bit by promising three things, then reverses in the subtitle that maybe I’m not going to tell you. The first paragraph launched into a personal experience to suck the reader into the story and illustrate how I learned the concept of coming up with easily digestible mission statements.

Curated, #Philosophy #Politics #Coronavirus #Economy #Health. Home-freaking-run. The title tells you the thesis, that getting a vaccine quickly is more important than a perfect vaccine. Plus, the title tells you that it’s going to be examined up against an accepted social science paradigm, utilitarian ethics, and the subtitle confirms it by referring to John Stuart Mill, a name anyone interested in philosophy likely knows. The picture was perfect, and I hadn’t seen it before so I was one of the first to use it. I started out describing the tough conversations my brother and I were having with regards to my 93-year-old mother to personalize the argument. Also, when published on April 16th, only the two education articles had been curated. The other two earlier curations popped afterward. This reaffirmed to me that I could do this Medium writing thing.

The drought

Not Curated. I had some hopes for this one, but it was the beginning of my nine-story dry spell. Based on my previous success, I set up a paradigm of how America fights its wars and showed how we followed the same messy approach for the pandemic. I think the title might have been too esoteric. Maybe something like “We Fail at Disease Like We Fail at War”? The first paragraph was story-form, and I thought it was interesting enough to get the reader to the first section. I think the article was well written, jut not perceived to be something that would get clicks. Also, I think being coronavirus related hurt the chances of curation because so much was and is being written.

Not Curated. This was a coronavirus story and discussed the ins and outs of IHME’s prediction. I don’t think curators are generally inclined to distribute a technical rebuttal to an established university’s methodology, even if they are in error. Yes, I stand by my observations about what probability distributions they were using. Maybe I could have said something more attention-grabbing like “Here’s Why We’re Underestimating Deaths,” but I don’t think it would have been distributed in any case.

Not Curated. This was my first attempt at a light lifestyle article, giving some history about how my drinking habits have evolved as I matured and my best picks for cheap scotch. I thought the title was catchy, but maybe it would have been “My Three Affordable Scotch Whiskeys for Lockdown.” Looking over the story as a whole, it’s cute and enjoyable, it just doesn’t grab people.

Not Curated. I’m disappointed in this one because it would have done well with a wider distribution. Of the few people that read it, over 70% became fans, and I received favorable comments. The title doesn’t exactly tell you what the story is, but the subtitle points to the much-abused Dunning-Kruger effect. I thought this had a good chance since I was discussing a widely accepted paradigm and how it is applied without much critical thinking. I think my opening paragraph could have been stronger. Instead of a weak personal story, I should have started with a clear thesis. It also has one of my favorite lines I’ve penned in the last few months:

Incompetent to recognize irony, armchair psychologists light their torches, sharpen their pitchforks, and swarm those they disagree with yelling “Dunning-Kruger! Dunning-Kruger!”

Not Curated. This is another fan favorite, with a 55% read ratio and 70% of readers becoming fans. A friend at work told me she liked the story and it had given her a new way to look at some of her choices. I think the opening is great, a story about me as a young boy. The title killed it, and the subtitle didn’t help much. I should have stuck with “How to Find Your Passion” or something like that. I was trying to be too literal about what the story was saying; it doesn’t help you find your passion, it helps you tell whether or not you’ve found it. Maybe I could have even done “One Rule to Find Your Passion.” If I remember correctly, I also screwed up the title casing when I first published it…a kiss of death.

Not Curated. This was a followup to “Are the Models Still Wrong?” As a numbers-based coronavirus story, critical of establishment math, it was unlikely to get curated. Rereading it, I don’t think I could have written it any better. The picture also wasn’t very good. It takes you a minute to figure out what you are looking at, especially on a small mobile device.

Not Curated. As I reread the title on this one…BARF. I should have said “Three Tips for Better Online Student Engagement” instead of burying the list in the subtitle. I was trying to get across that I had a problem, took actions, and fixed my problem. I think the intro was good, but why would you even get there? I should also have numbered the three tips. This is my worst performer. Don’t do this.

Not Curated. I thought this one was a shoo-in. I show you how to build a no-kidding website for free, complete with your own domain name. No one else had written about Mailchimp’s new feature. If you want to see what I did, check out brianewish.com, and while you are there sign up to receive an email every time I publish. Maybe it wasn’t techy enough for a techy article, or maybe the title was too long.

When it rains, it pours

Curated, #Society #Environment. Here I returned to the theme of using an established paradigm to analyze events. I didn’t make it an obvious listicle in the title, but I did in the subtitle and wrote a generally good story. Unfortunately, because the subject matter is a little obscure, it doesn’t draw the reader in and I did not receive many views.

Curated, #Politics #Society #History. This story performed well. The title tells you what to expect and organizes it into a digestible list. You want to know what the times were. I think the picture helps; Americans have an emotional response to American flags. Reading again, the first paragraph might have been stronger, but the article overall holds the reader’s attention with interesting trivia. It also presents a positive, hopeful view of our current situation, and I think there is a thirst for that. Note that it was published before police killed George Floyd.

Curated, #Politics. This is a hot-button, current affairs issue and I think it is very attractive to Medium curators who are probably steeped in social media all day. The title is clear and the subtitle is apocalyptic to draw attention. The first paragraph quickly states the thesis and the first part of the article lays out the argument. Unfortunately, this one didn’t get many clicks.

Curated, #Sports #Fitness #Lifestyle. I published this in Runner’s Life. My thought is that while the circulation is smaller, the readers are interested and focused on running. The picture is great because it clashes with every other picture on every other story on that publication. Most running stories show someone running. Clydesdale and Athena are weight categories sometimes for larger runners in races. There are a lot of listicles with tips for runners, but this one focuses on a specific subset. Still, runners who aren’t large might click to see what the differences are. I both lay out my thesis and let the reader know that I’m speaking from personal experience within the first paragraph.

Curated, #Economy #Politics. This one baffled me at first; I thought it was a snoozer. Reviewing it, the question in the title piques the readers’ interest. The picture is relevant if a little boring. The first paragraph states the thesis but doesn’t give enough information to understand why, so it draws the reader in a little. I think the reason it was curated, and the reason it is one of my better performers is that the article addresses something different than race or coronavirus. If you scan the politics feed for a few days, the articles start to sound the same. For every ten stories on race published, curators wade through hundreds more. Readers hunger for something different.

Not Curated. The title is way too long. Maybe “My Towns Struggle with Racism” would have gotten it over the top instead of putting it in the subtitle. I think that along with recognizing current problems, we can also take a positive view of the progress that has been made. I also think the first couple of paragraphs should have started right in to talk about Mansfield, TX, rather than rehash that the country has a problem. In the end, it just didn’t stand out enough from all the other similar stories.

Curated, #Lifestyle #Self. This is my prime example of the curation of a story no one wants to read. It has everything; two lessons you want to know, touch-feely kindness stuff, inspiration, a personal story, etc. The first paragraph is a great hook:

It wasn’t a Personal Record (PR). My favorite running memory had nothing to do with the strength of my run and everything to do with my connection to a stranger. I’ve never shared this story before because it sounds like bragging. As much as I like to pat myself on the back on the inside, I try not to do it in front of others.

This story has my fourth lowest number of reads, and the lowest of any curated story.

Not Curated. I thought this one had a chance. It analyzes the bargains that America has made with itself regarding race over the last couple of hundred years according to the concept of a Kuhn-style paradigm shift. The story used contemporary theory to explain history and examine where we are. I think it failed because I tried to do too many things at once, writing both the personal experience and scholarly deconstruction into the same work.

Not Curated. I would have liked this one to have made it. I think I lay out a complex web of interrelated pieces that need to be addressed for real reform. I think the title invites, and the subtitle lets one know the content. Possibly the introduction could have been stronger to keep the reader’s interest to get to the meat of the story.

Not Curated. I read an unfair article. I passionately disagreed and wrote about what I saw were the flaws. But who on Medium cares about the LA Times? Enough to get clicks? I think the article is well written and makes some good points, but even among the uncurated articles, it performs notably badly.

Not Curated. I thought this had everything…a lurid headline, a personal story, something everyone needed to know. The curators thought differently. On the plus side, I published this in Runner’s Life, and it was a featured story for several days, so it did get a few readers. ILLUMINATION is fantastic for getting stories wide exposure, niche publications might be the right choice in certain situations.

Curated, #Leadership. A little mystery in the title, a little clarification in the subtitle. I started with a personal story from being stationed in Korea, similar to my “Your Organization Must Focus on Three Things” detailed earlier. There are millions of Star Trek fans, and the picture of the young Captain Kirk grabs you.

Curated, #Politics #Justice. This is my best performing story so far. It asks a question that might be on a lot of folks’ minds. The subtitle teases two different scenarios. Don’t you want to know those scenarios? The opening paragraph leads with a clear thesis, and the rest of the story delivers tight analysis backed up by historical examples of when similar events happened.

Curated, #Pets. I decided to try something new. The story is cute and light. I think the best hook is the picture. Willow is looking into your soul. Don’t you want to know a little more about her? It hasn’t gotten a huge number of views because not that many people follow #Pets.

Curated, #Politics #Election2020 #San Francisco. The title is long but tells you what the story is about. It also hints at a mystery. The picture is from a government website. Generally, pictures attributed to the government are public domain because they were paid for by the taxpayer. The opening paragraph lays out the thesis and the first couple of paragraphs lay out the supporting argument that will be fleshed out later. Not everything that gets curated is perfect; I had a couple of mistakes that early readers thankfully caught. # Election2020 was a newer tag, and #San Francisco doesn’t have that many writers, so writing about San Francisco helps.

Not Curated. I’m disappointed. I think I laid out an important case that the wrangling over qualified immunity for the police won’t mean much in the end. I struggled with the title for quite a while. I think if I had something more descriptive or catchier it would have helped.

Lessons learned:

I’ve tried to distill what I’ve taken the last few days to write down. By all means, feel free read everything I’ve published in great detail to see if you think my conclusions are on target :) but here is what I think I have learned:

1. You need a good title

You can see from my efforts that the title makes a difference. My stories that were curated explained the stories in the title and alluded to some mystery that the readers might want to know about. Avoid stinkers like “How I Fixed My Online Student Satisfaction Failure” that are awkward.

Starting with “One big lesson…” or “Three things…” works, but I wouldn’t do it every single time. Sometimes I would bury the list indicator down in the subtitle. Check out this article by Chris Hedges that talks about the psychological power of lists.

2. Your opening paragraphs have to be strong

There are two ways to do this. One way is to start telling a story. My best was probably “Vaccines Now…” but I used the technique several times, including “My Favorite Leadership Lesson…” and “Your Organization Must Focus on Three Things.”

The second option is to state your thesis clearly and boldly at the beginning, showing how you are going to support your argument but leaving the reader to want more. Good examples are “The US Needs a Digital First Amendment” and “What If The Police Revolt?.”

3. Your writing must be fresh

Another coronavirus or racism story isn’t going to make an impression unless it stands out from the crowd somehow. Writing about “Did John Roberts Save the Tax Code?” didn’t fill me with a lot of confidence, but in retrospect, I wasn’t competing with 100 other articles on John Roberts or the Supreme Court.

If you are going to address big topics going on in the world, do it from a fresh angle, like “Vaccines Now, Safety Later: The Utilitarian Ethics of Rushing” or “What If The Police Revolt?”

One way to do this is to analyze a subject using someone else’s paradigm, as I did in the vaccine story or in “Hardening America: Effects Based Analysis of Existential Threats.” If you do this, make your strategy clear in the title.

4. Pay attention to the picture

My picture of my dog sells the story on “I Think My Dog Is Trying To Go Viral.”

5. Follow the darn rules

I know the Medium curation guidelines. I attribute every picture and graphic. I don’t embed affiliate links. I don’t embed friend links. I don’t have a ridiculous Call to Action (CTA) or signup form. Everything is (mostly) grammatically correct. READ THE GUIDELINES. FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES.

Brian E. Wish works as a quality engineer in the aerospace industry. He has spent 29 years active and reserve in the US Air Force, where he holds the rank of Colonel. He has a bachelor’s from the US Air Force Academy, a master’s from Bowie State, and a Ph.D. in Public and Urban Administration from UT Arlington. The opinions expressed here are his own. Learn more at brianewish.com.