Medium Updated Their Curation Guidelines. Here’s What That Means For Writers.

A clarification and a new rule.

A Medium Friend Link is the special URL that allows you to give readers a free read of your story. When you share that link and someone clicks on it, it doesn’t use one of their limited number of free reads for the month.

I’ve always advocating sharing your friend links far and wide. I personally never want to send a reader to a story they can’t read. There’s no downside to sharing that friend link — you’re paid if that reader is a subscriber, and a non-subscriber might become a fan and a subscriber thanks to your post.

I even used (and suggested other people use) friend links within posts, when I wanted to direct readers to another one of my posts.

But in April, Medium changed their Curation Guidelines.

Under the ‘Disqualifying story elements’ section of the updated guidelines, it specifically lists: Including a Friend Link in the story.

So, share those friend link when you’re sending emails and posting on social media — but keep them out of your posts.

Other Interesting Changes

I’m especially glad to see a very concise description of what constitutes an acceptable Call to Action (CTA.) Medium has always been relatively vague about that, and the screenshot above shows the clearest explanation I’ve seen from them.

Let’s look closer at it.

Medium writers are welcome to promote themselves and their products/services in their writer bio. Yay! This is very straightforward. In your bio (the automatic bio that shows up next to your little picture) you can promote yourself. Very clear.

Any calls to action (CTAs) in the story should be simple, clear, and brief (under 40 words or so), including for publications. Embeds that collect user information must do it off-site only (collecting user info on Medium is a rules violation.) I love this, because the old advice was particularly unclear. Now it is very clear that while a form or other direct request for an email address is against the rules, a short CTA that directs readers to a landing page where they can join your email list (or do something else that you’d like them to consider) is within the rules.

Your CTA has to be clear, concise, short, non-intrusive, and non-deceptive.

But you can definitely have one. This is fantastic news, if you use your Medium writing to build an audience.

Newsflash: You should be using your Medium writing to build an audience.

Medium has a couple of massive draws for writers. One is, of course, the opportunity to earn money relatively quickly and easily. The other is the vast number of readers already here.

If you’re a writer, you need an audience. That means, if you’re a writer, you need an email list to be as successful as you’re capable of being. There’s no way around that. You might not want to have an email list. You might hate email marketing. You might be highly resistant to the idea.

But if you’re a writer, to be as successful as you’re capable of being you really do need an email list.

It’s really good news that Medium has clarified exactly how you can stay within their rules and still let your readers know what you have to offer.

Here’s my secret weapon for sticking with whatever your thing is.

Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She is an out-of-place Nevadan living in Northwestern PA with her husband, three superstar kids, two dementia patients, a good friend, Alfred the cat, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes and is the author of Viral Nation, Rebel Nation, The Astonishing Maybe, and Center of Gravity. She is the original Ninja Writer.