Medium Month 1: 4 Curations, 2000+ Views, ~100 Followers, 11.55 Dollars

Scientific analysis and some not-so-common tips, tricks, and observations

Here’s my customary piece after my first month of writing on Medium. However, having read numerous versions of this as a newbie, I want to try and focus on the main questions that everyone has on their mind, but also provide a different take on each.

I will take you through my first month from the perspective of my wins (what worked), failures (what didn’t), what matters (curation, publications, followers), the $$ issue (how earnings work), and some nuanced things you probably didn’t know.

What I WILL NOT focus on but what you should know:

• Write as much as you can / write every day or minimum 4 times a week
• Write for the big publications — they get you extra eyeballs, help curation chances
• Market your content on social media if you can
• Don’t check stats — actually scratch that, I check mine multiple times a day — it’s just who I am :)

Now that we have that out of the way — let us get to the real meat.

My First Month in Numbers

I technically started on Medium on Jul 15 but we’re gonna leave that half a month aside as a basic “getting to know Medium” period. I’ll focus on my first FULL month on Medium.

Important to note, I have a 2 yr old and a lovely wife who are top priorities always, I have a full-time job in finance that takes up most of my time during the day, and writing is the rest couple of hours a day — a quick hour at night or sneaking in a few mins during the day and the weekend. While I am NOT here to make full-time income, I enjoy doing whatever I do, the best I can.

• 28 Stories — 19 non-fiction 4–8 min solid stories. 7 poems or haikus — 1–2 min reads. 2 micro-fiction stories — 2–3 min reads.
• 4 Curations Across 7 Topics — Four stories that got the nod from curators — 3 on two topics each and 1 on a single topic — ALL 7 SEPARATE topics.
• 2000 views, 1,220 reads — The total is a bit more than 2k but I like the rounded screenshot for the 30 day period.
• $11.55 earned — The amount I earned for August via the Medium Partner Program.
• 98 Followers — Given that I don’t promote my work massively, a good number at the end of month 1.
• 8 Publications (or 12 in total) — I got the privilege to publish across 8 publications — namely Illumination, The Startup, The Innovation, The Creative Cafe, Equality Includes You, Runner’s Life, The Wide Open Space and Post Graduate Survival Guide. I am also a writer for another 4 but nothing published yet — The Ascent, The Writing Cooperative, A Parent is Born, Never Fear.

My Strategy — Breadth of Topics for Depth of Following

So here is my argument that isn’t the most common consensus from what I’ve read. It is NOT the publications, NOR curation that you should rely on.

What you should rely on is — Your Own Followers.

The trick to any of the superstar writers on Medium is that they have such a huge following, that their pieces get a very basic level of organic readership EVERYTIME. We’re all here to reach broader audiences, large following often means a higher chance of getting into Tier 1 Publications, and Curation — everyone wants the easy win.

Another counter-intuitive thing I focused on was BREADTH of topics. I want every kind of reader to follow me and so I want to offer all cuisines.

I’d rather start with a multi-cuisine restaurant, with something for everyone than focus on high-end Italian and limit myself right at the start. I can always specialize later, once I know what my following looks like.

I am NOT chasing the “top writer” status just yet, I’d rather be curated around a variety of topics so I reach a larger variety of audience. I feel the 1000 mark is the holy grail — once you cross that, you grow exponentially, I feel.

I’ve written fiction, non fiction. I’ve written about women, equality, racism, business, leadership, innovation, marketing, writing, travel, fitness, poetry, short stories, romance, and a whole host of other things. Long-form, short-form. The whole works.

Curation — My Take On What Worked?

I’ve been curated on 4 stories — and I will provide my view on each. And additionally on a couple that I think deserved curation, but also why you win some and lose some in the Curation race.

What’s ruled out?

Anything that’s short-form has low likelihood to be curated, and also anything that doesn’t follow Medium Curation Guidelines. This very piece is about Medium and has many CTAs (links to my own articles) so by definition it will NOT get curated. But the goal here is not to get curated, but to spread the wisdom.

What likely works?

Let us see my four curated stories and see what I think worked for each.

Curation #1 — Aug 11: Curated under “Women” and “Equality”

What Worked? A very relevant and thought-provoking topic. A unique personal perspective with actionable steps for everyone to ponder over. Detailed analysis and some solid background research in addition to the usuals — good formatting, title, image, etc.

Published with my favorite, most friendly publication — Illumination.

Curation time: 14 hours post publishing

Curation #2— Aug 17: Curated under “Work”

What Worked? This is an interesting story. I submitted to PGSG, got rejected, self-published, got curated under “Work”. When I flagged to the editor, he graciously admitted that he liked the content but wasn’t sure of the heading (I agree it’s a bit out there), and was happy to then include it in the publication. So what worked here was I think the nature of content — some very valid points for the work place, and a unique tag which I don’t think has that much good content? My guess…

Curation Time: ~16 hrs post publishing

Curation #3— Aug 19: Curated under “Leadership” and “Business”

What Worked? Big publication — The Startup. The fact that they accepted it through a stringent process meant the story had some good content, well-researched, interesting perspective on a relevant topic.

Curation Time: 2 hrs post publishing

Curation #4 — Aug 31: Curated under “Fitness” and “Travel”

What Worked? The story. I think this is by far my most engaging piece, 100% based on a true experience. Personal perspective, interesting title, original images, exotic locations, good formatting and content. Published in Runner’s Life.

Curation Time: 50 mins post publishing (insane!!!)

In a nutshell — what I think works for curation? (My views)

• Follow the Guidelines — You first go through an “algo” or bot test — so if you fail on semantics, formatting, basic curation guidelines you’re a No.
• Personal Perspective, Interesting Theme — I assume the algo then pushes some candidates to curators who review content and see what is valued. Niche topics / relevant topics, unique personal perspective, good reader-friendly content is what gets you there.
• Big Publications — I do think the curators rely on the big publications to do a bit of the screening for them, so getting accepted there does enhance your chances, but it is NOT the only way. You saw #2 above.
• Tagging — 6 of the 7 topics I got curated under were also tagged by me in the story — Travel for the last piece was the exception which the curators probably added.

Other Pieces that Worked But Not Curated — Why Not?

Good piece, High curation chances, Still pending — This one was submitted to The Ascent but because of their Tech issues no review for 13 days, so impatient I, pulled it and submitted to Illumination. It is still under processing, but given it’s been a few days, I doubt it’s chances. But I am certain it would have gotten into The Ascent, and curated IF I waited. But I just wanted it to be read — closest to my heart.

Resonated well, most claps — But poetry / short form so harder to be curated as I am not a very technically correct poet.

Almost made it to The Startup but some healthy difference of opinion on the direction of content — but possibly not unique enough / not super relevant to the current context — there’s probably enough info out there about emails, and I wasn’t adding much value?

The Earnings-How the $$ works and Some Unique Observations

Sorry, you had to wait this long to get to the business-end. But trust me all of the above is what adds up to the money. Let me explain.

• How Earnings are Calculated? The single factor that matters is “member read time”. A minute of member read time translates roughly to 2–3 cents based on the readers. So focus on READS than views, and write pieces that engage readers and make them WANT to read the whole thing.
• The Outliers — I had one story this month and one story in July that had odd behavior. Below is a story that had THREE views and made more than most of my stories. With 53 secs of member reading time, HOW? Let me explain simply: Each paying member pays $5 a month for a subscription. Let’s say Medium keeps $3 and pays $2 out to the readers. If a user ONLY read my piece and one other in the whole month, his $2 gets divided into the 2 pieces he read, based on the timeshare. So likely a rarely-on-Medium user ended up reading my piece, and at the end of the month, I got a big chunk of their payments!!

The Strategy to Ace Earnings?

Create a portfolio of pieces that will continue to pay you money every month. The more you write, the more stories you have to gather you small and big money here and there. It all accumulates, and it is a game of compounding.

Other Tips — Some More Unique Observations

Search Engine Optimization is KEY

The good part of writing about Medium is, as a platform it already has some advantages on showing up in Google / other searches. You can enhance this by simple methods.

“SEO Settings” — on the SEO settings of your story, MANUALLY change the “SEO Description” to include top keywords as this will increase chances of your piece showing up in Google searches, and driving traffic.

Example below — my most read piece was NOT curated and got most of it’s traffic from Google.

The story shows up on PAGE 1 when you search “P&G The Choice Campaign”. The ad had gone viral, so people want to know about it and it talks about a very relevant topic. So while external views don’t always make money — they provide shelf life and continuous volume to your story.

Summary Observations

• Focus on followers and Breadth of Portfolio — Writers are creative beings and aren’t limited by their expertise. Write on a variety of topics, but go deeper on the ones you know most about.
• Engage with like-minded writers — Read more and comment / highlight other pieces and engage with other readers and writers
• Curation — Follow the basic guidelines, write your best piece but add your unique personal perspective if you can — EMOTION sells.
• Technicalities — Good titles, Good Images, and Good SEO settings will help in the longer run
• Earnings — If you build a consistent portfolio of writing, the earnings will come gradually — it takes time, no castles are created overnight!
• Publications — Don’t always go for the big ones — niche publications can give you more visibility for a specific piece than big generic publications where you get lost among many. Sure, go ahead target the Tier 1 Pubs — it’s a challenge that will keep you motivated!

In the end, I’ll say writing on Medium is a VERY engaging and fun journey. Don’t make it your only job or only source of income until you’re at a certain threshold, but enjoy the ride, as it is surely a fun one and if you do it right, YOU WILL SUCCEED! Happy writing!