Med Matters: Can You Have Success On Medium Without Being Curated?

With curation being the lay of the land is it still possible to make money via the Medium Partner’s Program if you’re rarely curated?

Since Medium has turned into a completely closed system, prioritizing engagement from paid members above all else, the importance of curation has become a hot topic.

Once upon a time in the not so distant past, curation was a guarantee of significant views and engagement from the Medium community. That has changed, and curation no longer guarantees much of anything.

Curated posts may or may not lead to a significant boost in views and claps, and for many writers who’ve been on Medium for a while, they’ve seen their views and engagement drop after curation became the lay of the land.

So how beneficial is curation in this new Medium landscape?

Can you still have success if your articles aren’t curated and given a shot at being exposed to a larger audience?

Here’s what I’ve learned so far in my admittedly short time on Medium.

1. If you’re new to Medium curation still has major benefits

If you’re starting out on Medium from scratch, having articles curated early can help you start to develop a following. Followers play a much bigger role now that Medium is a completely closed system, and outside marketing efforts aren’t likely to increase your earnings.

The SEO benefits that Medium used to boast no longer exist. What you need now if you’re in the Medium Partner program is a dedicated following of paid members who will engage with your content once you hit publish.

One of the best ways you start to develop that community is to get your articles in front of as many eyeballs as possible early and often. The best way to gain eyeballs, in the beginning, is to write regularly and get as many of your articles curated as you can.

2. Curation may give your articles a longer lifespan

Along with many of the other changes that have recently happened on Medium, articles no longer have the shelf life they once had.

Apparently old posts could still bring in a significant amount of traffic over time, but with the paywall firmly in place that has changed. This change shouldn’t be all that surprising.

If the focus of Medium HQ is growing a subscriber base, those subscribers are going to want new content to justify their subscription. Medium needs to feed the beast, and this explains their recent hiring spree as well as their increase in publications and publishing partnerships.

In certain categories, once curated, your article may hang around longer on the front page giving your article a longer life. I don’t think this is equivalent to how old posts performed in the past, but it is a (slight) benefit of being curated.

The thing is, however, this only seems to apply to articles that aren’t in some of the more popular categories, as those pages update fairly regularly with new content.

Now if your article goes viral, you’ll experience a long lifespan as it will appear in the ‘Popular [Inset Category Here]’ section, but you can’t predict what’s going to go viral, so that doesn’t really count as a benefit of curation you can depend on.

3. Followers matter more than curation

As mentioned above, followers are what matters more than anything is the new Medium ecosystem. These are the people who are going to be notified when you post new content.

Your articles will appear in the ‘From Your Network’ feed on their Medium pages. Your followers are the ones who are going to comment, clap for, and highlight your work.

Curation can help you get more followers. But if you never or rarely get curated, you can still build a community that will make up the base of people that help you make money through the Partner Program.

Final Thoughts

I think you can have success on Medium if you aren’t getting curated regularly.

Medium is more like a social network now. Gaining followers, engaging with other writers, commenting, and clapping are the activities that are going to make the difference in your ability to make money on Medium these days.

Curation shares a part in that, but it isn’t the magic bullet it used to be and shouldn’t discourage you from writing and building a community on Medium if it isn’t happening for you regularly.

This is How I Made $135 Dollars in My First 30 Days On Medium

Only seven to nine percent of writers make at least $100 each month on Medium. I did it in my first month. Here is what I did each week to achieve my goal, hopefully, you can use my journey to $100 a month to achieve yours.

If you enjoyed this case study check out my latest case study: How to make $100 a week on Medium.