PRO TIPS FROM OLD FACE

Tag Like a Boss

The easy way

Forgive me for the digression, but the need for this PSA grows by the day:

Help us do the job for which we Mudditors are not paid but perform entirely out of love for you, our writers.

Please do not dismiss or delete the private notes. 

Thank you. Now on with the article!

Susan Brearley discussed the whys and wherefores of tagging more than a year and a half ago.

Not wishing to walk the plank for the crime of repetition, much less plagiarism, I turn my attention to the hows. Specifically, how the ever-loving f*** does anyone manage to choose a tag when they can’t even see the tag? We have all been there.

What am I looking at? Cryptocurrency Trading? Training? Traffic?

Note the three dots in the example above. I chose the “Change tags” option from the drop-down list and was rewarded with this shit-show.

What to do? This is one area of the Medium writer’s life where getting things done ahead of time does no good. It will not help you to get up at 4 am, despite whatever Rachel Hollis says. No, you must wait until the last possible moment. This is especially hard for me. As a small child I postponed every unwanted task to the point of extremis. I can still hear my mom’s drunken taunt, “He always waits until the last gun is fired!”

I required years of therapy as well as copious quantities of drugs before I could add my tags just before submitting my article to a publication. In the case of articles so gross or disturbing Mateja Klaric refused to pollute The Rabbit is In with them, that would be just before publishing as an individual. The results repay every expense and trouble. Behold!

This time I clicked on the three dots and chose “Add to a publication” then chose my very fave ❤️, then choose Select and continue, then started adding my tags. As you can see, now when I enter “Cryptocurrency-tr” not only can I see all of each choice, but the list no longer stops at two items! I can even see those numbers in parentheses, whatever-the-heck they mean.¹

Having trouble deciding which tags to use? Want to go back and reread your article to see if anything comes to you? Never fear! If you choose a tag at this late stage then hit the little x in the upper right corner of the screen, the tag stays chosen. So keep calm and tag on!

¹ Ask Susan Brearley. She knows.