My Huge Medium Mistake that Got Me Banned from Curation
…and how I made the best of it
Being curated on Medium will earn you ten times more money from your stories — maybe 100X. If Medium is your only source of income, you’ve got to do everything you can to get curated.
- Curated stories last years, not days.
- Curated stories continue to pay you over time — long after you write them — while you sleep.
- Curated stories get found a lot easier than non-curated stories.
My stories used to get curated a lot. Then I got banned.
At first I didn’t notice. I thought Medium was getting more-strict and my loosey-goosey writing style upset some folks in the editing department.
100 consecutive non-curated stories later, I noticed.
And it wasn’t my writing style that did it. I made a conscious marketing decision with my Medium content. Before the ban, at the bottom of each story I had a wimpy call-to-action, asking creators to join my tribe.
One day, in 2019, I decided to take a much more aggressive approach to my list-building. Instead of a one-liner at the bottom of each story, I expanded the call-to-action into the bottom-third of most stories.
Now, while Medium allows us to link to our email lists, they aren’t too keen on us using their platform to grow our own lists, aggressively.
Now, save for three ‘mistakes’ where I skipped one in and got curated by accident, over the past month or so — I haven’t had a curated story since October of 2019. We’re talking hundreds of non-curated stories.
I chose something better than curation instead
While the monthly Medium income is great, as we’ve found from the recent pandemic, these writing residuals are nothing we can count-on. Over the past few months, the partner program has tanked for even the biggest writers.
Yes, there are plenty of exceptions, I know, but in aggregate, the partner income is way down.
I knew, while Medium as a source of writing income, was fantastic, it was also fragile. The income is dependent on attention. And the platform controls how our stories are seen.
I wanted something more for my work. I knew I needed a platform I owned.
If you build your business on someone else’s platform, the platform owns your business. I wanted an insurance policy for my writing, so instead of working towards pleasing the curation team, I chose to please my tribe.
I got more-aggressive with growing a list of the people I serve, so I’d have a direct line with which to serve them.
While I don’t recommend this choice to anyone (as it will directly-effect your earnings on Medium), I don’t regret this decision. I was able to grow my list faster than I would, had I left my call to action more quiet.
The great thing about Medium is you don’t have to take an all-or-nothing approach. Maybe you want to go hybrid and publish a few lead-gen/aggressive stories, mixed-in with your deeper content.
There are no rules.
I chose the long-game.
The long-game of growing your creative business is more-lucrative than focusing on an extra few pennies per story. While curation is great, and the monthly partner income is very helpful, the long-game of building a tribe for life, is hands-down the more-unbreakable way to go.
We all need a tribe
Whether you choose the more-aggressive list-building approach, or you have a quieter call-to-action, every creator needs her own tribe.
Your email list is your personal lab.
These are the folks you serve with your best work, and now you’ve got a direct line to them, with no platform in the way as a middleman.
When there are people or businesses between you and your readers, both sides suffer.
There’s a disconnect in the communication. There’s a disconnect in the sales process. And there’s a disconnect in your ability to contact every member of your tribe.
Email is the last great frontier.
When you build your own tribe, it’s like buying an insurance policy for your creative business. No one can take your income away without your permission. When you build a business on another platform, they also control your income.
…oh, and I’ve got something for you — the writer or creators.
I built a free email masterclass for you. I hand-crafted the whole thing. It took me a couple months. I call the masterclass the Tribe 1K.
I’ll show you how to get your first 1,000 (or your next 1,000) readers without spending a hot nickel on ads. Past students include New York Times bestselling authors. Yep, the ones you see in the bookstore.
Your email list will help you build a legacy writing business.
If you want to grow your writing business you need email before you lose that valuable reader. Start your list before you need one. Once you need one it’s almost too late.
Guarantee your seat before I start charging an enrollment fee.
We’re waiting for you.
Enroll in my Email Masterclass. Get Your First 1,000 Subscribers
August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. As a self-appointed guardian of writers and creators, August helps folks who want to make work that sells and sell work they make. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.