Summary

Charlotte Ivan discusses her experience with writing on Medium, highlighting a 41% curation rate but noting that curation doesn't always lead to a significant increase in followers or income.

Abstract

Charlotte Ivan joined Medium in early May and quickly achieved a 41% curation rate on her articles, with 17 out of 41 pieces being curated. Despite this early success, she realized that high curation rates do not guarantee a large following or substantial earnings. Ivan's curated content does receive more views, but the difference is not as significant as one might expect. Her writing spans various topics, with poetry being a prominent focus. In June, she amassed a substantial number of views, which contributed to her modest earnings of about $20 for the month. Ivan emphasizes that understanding one's audience is challenging and that getting curated frequently does not immediately translate to success. She advocates for continuing to express oneself authentically on Medium, viewing any earnings as a bonus rather than the primary goal.

Opinions

Ivan initially believed curation was a rare achievement and a path to success on Medium, but she learned that many writers are curated and it does not necessarily lead to more followers or income.
She acknowledges that being a successful writer on Medium with a large audience and high view counts requires significant effort.
Ivan observes that curation can be inconsequential, as the difference in views between curated and non-curated content is not substantial.
She notes that writing in popular topics or genres, such as poetry in her case, can lead to higher views.
Ivan believes it is difficult to predict audience preferences and to truly understand one's audience, which may take years.
She encourages writers not to be discouraged if they are not getting curated, as curation is just one factor among many that contribute to a writer's success on Medium.
Ivan values self-expression and considers any financial gain from writing on Medium as a bonus, aligning with the platform's ethos of enabling writers to share their work freely.

These Are My Stats With a 41% Curation Rate

Insight into my views, reads, and income

I joined Medium in very early May. I fell in love with its accessibility and the ease with which you could customize and publish unique content. The articles in my feed actually seemed interesting, and after a few days on the platform, I dropped the $5 to read members’ content.

My first curation happened early. I had written and published one or two articles, then on the third go, it happened. I published another article, and it happened again. Neither article was initially published in a publication (one was added later), and I was actually surprised they had been curated. Not because I thought the writing was poor, but because I truly had no idea what curation material even looked like.

When I was curated twice in a row, at the very beginning of my Medium career no less, I was certain that it meant it was only a matter of time before I’d “take off” as a writer on here. Of course, I had a lot to learn.

Being a truly successful writer on Medium, with a huge following and daily view count, is a ton of work. I came to this conclusion not from being one of them, but from going through a period of publishing curated content on a daily or weekly basis and experiencing, essentially, radio silence.

As you can see, the views, reads and earnings from those first two curated articles were still somewhat low despite one of them being curated in two different topics:

In total, I’ve now published 41 articles (including poems) to date. Of these 41 articles, 17 have been curated. That’s a 41.46% curation rate.

The first time I was curated, I was ecstatic. It felt unique, like it only happened to a handful of people and I was lucky. I quickly learned, though, that lots of people get curated, and it doesn’t necessarily mean more followers or massive income.

In my experience, curation can be pretty inconsequential. While it’s true that my curated content has more views than my content not curated, it’s still not that huge of a difference.

I’ve been curated in poetry, freelancing, business, relationships, self, culture, film, writing, and mental health. I haven’t necessarily had consistently more views in one area versus the other, but I tend to write more poetry than articles. As a result, the views on my published poetry tend to be a little higher.

These are, roughly, my total views from the month of June:

It might seem like kind of a lot, but that number includes views from a few articles recently published in July and many, many articles published from the month of June. It wasn’t just three or four articles.

In total, my earnings for the month of June were about $20:

Earnings for the month of June from Charlotte Ivan

That’s an excellent amount, in my opinion, considering I joined Medium as a way to casually write and share my poetry. These were my highest earners:

The rest of the $20 was scraped together by pennies, but still.

I genuinely believe it’s impossible to always know what your audience will want, and who they truly even are. It might take years to understand them.

If you aren’t getting curated, don’t lose hope. I’m proof that even if you do get curated frequently, it might not instantly mean much of anything. There are so many factors at play, and it’ll drive you crazy trying to figure out “what you’re doing wrong.”

In reality, you’re probably not doing anything wrong per se. I think, generally, lots of the advice on Medium is right — you just have to know your audience. But that’s no easy feat.

I’m happy my curated work will continue to appear on people’s feeds. If curation does anything, it keeps your work from sinking to the bottom of the Medium ocean floor, where only the few people down there are actively looking for it. A few reads is certainly better than no reads.

If people en masse don’t always resonate with my work, I’ll still continue to express myself the way I want to. After all, that is what Medium is all about. The money is just a lovely bonus.