What Every New Medium Blogger Should Know
If you want to earn money, you’ll probably fall into this trap
When I started writing on Medium, 18 months ago, it was a free for all. Curation didn’t exist. Anyone could roll up and earn $500 in their second month, like I did. The rules and the writers were different.
Fast-forward to now: Not only is curation the most important factor for earning money on Medium, but there are all kinds of rules you have to follow in order to be curated. You can get stuck in what’s called curation jail, without even knowing it exists or what you did to deserve the sentence.
If you do, that pretty much spells the end of your potential for earning money on Medium.
I used to advise people to rush in. Just start writing, start publishing, and let Medium teach you what does well and what doesn’t. Now, that advice doesn't fly. If you don’t get it right on the first three tries, you strike out.
This story will give you a bit of background around curation and curation jail, give you three rules to avoid curation jail, and tell you what your process should look like now.
I created a video on the same topic, so check it out if you prefer a video format:
What Is Medium Curation and Medium Curation Jail?
Here’s the great thing about Medium: It’s really, really good at recommending good content. This is because the algorithm runs on topics — things like culture, politics, relationships, AI, and more. Check out the full list of Medium topics here.
When Medium knows you like stories about art and history, for example, it can point you in the direction of good stories about art and history. This means that Medium readers know they’ll get good stories on the platform. Basically, Medium does your marketing for you.
How does Medium know what a good story is?
When Medium curators read a story, they can decide to distribute it, or curate it, in one or more topics. They might say, “This story is amazing — people who are interested in relationships and psychology will love it. Let’s curate it in those topics.”
Then, anyone who follows those topics might be shown your story in their feeds, even if they don’t follow you.
They read the story, and you earn money. It’s that simple.
But what if your story isn’t curated, you have no followers, and you don’t know much about SEO? Then, your story goes out into the void.
When does Medium stop reviewing your stories due to high volume?
Let’s continue our thought experiment. Medium wants to read and review every single piece of content, to make sure they’re recommending the very best stories. But Medium has tons of writers, and there’s a finite number of curators. How can Medium cope with the huge influx of stories, most of which won’t meet the mark?
Well, Medium gives you three chances, as far as I’m aware. You can publish three stories, and if Medium decides none of them are curatable, you get taken off the list. Curators will continue reviewing content from people who have proven they know how to match Medium’s criteria.
The problem is that if you’re a new writer on Medium, you might not know what curators are looking for. You don’t know what curation is. You might not know how to format your stories so they’re pretty. You’re good at writing, but you don’t tick their boxes.
You’re now effectively in curation jail. And it’s very, very hard to get out.
How Can You Get Out of Medium’s Curation Jail?
The easiest way is to never get stuck in jail in the first place, of course. These are the three biggest mistakes I see that get good Medium writers put in curation jail — just because they didn’t know any better.
1. Importing old blog posts
If you’re an established writer elsewhere, you’ll be thrilled to hear Medium allows you to cross-post. It even canonizes it so Google doesn’t penalize it for being a duplicate.
The bad news about this is Medium likes new stories. If your stories are too old, they’re automatically put on the do-not-curate list. Strike one.
2. Not formatting your stories with the Medium Editor
Medium is a beautiful place to read and write. Medium works hard to keep it that way. They favor pretty stories, with plenty of white space, no typos, correctly sized titles, and properly credited and relevant images.
Good news? There’s a lot of advice out there on how to master the Medium editor — I myself have done a video on it, and I’m definitely not the only one.
Make sure your stories look nice, and you’ll be one step closer.
3. Using clickbait for titles
Remember how I said Medium finds quality important? That means they heavily penalize clickbait titles.
This is hard because if you’re a writer anywhere else on the internet, you’re trained to write for clicks. But on Medium, you have to write for clicks and reads.
No “This one surprising trick,” and no “you’ll be shocked when you read x.” Be descriptive. And follow up on what you promise.
What If You’re Already in Curation Jail?
Maybe you’re slightly too late to this piece. What then? Luckily, if you’re already in curation jail, there are still a few things you can do to get out of it. All options are hard work, but it’s not the end of the world.
- Unlist or delete uncurated stories. This essentially cleans your three-strike slate and lets you keep trying.
- Start a new profile. A scorched-earth policy is sometimes best — leave it all behind and start afresh.
- Work with Medium-partnered publications. Forge, GEN, Zora, Marker, Human Parts, and more are all partnered with Medium. They’re hard to get into, but they manually curate stories, meaning you’re guaranteed curation if you get in. It’s harder to get in — but worthwhile.
- Keep hoping. One writer emailed me to let me know she was curated — suddenly, after dozens of stories and months of trying, she was out of curation jail. Her story was curated. I read the story in question — it was good, just as good as her previous work. I don’t know what the magic bullet was, other than patience.
How Can You Be Successful in Earning Money by Writing on Medium?
Curation matters a lot. Staying out (or getting out) of curation jail helps tremendously. The good news for you is you have both sides of the equation: Medium is explicit in telling you what they’re looking for, and they also show you the results of that rubric.
First, check out all Medium offers on how to be curated, what they’re looking for, what they consider good, and who they’re affiliated with:
Spend time researching what other writers have said about the subject. I know for a fact Shaunta Grimes and Shannon Ashley have developed a whole career around helping others navigate the tricky Medium waters, so a simple google will send you on your way.
As for the second part, you have free access to stories that have been curated, simply by browsing the topic page. Spend time reading stories that have been curated in topics you’re interested in. See the headlines, the formats, the images, and the subject matter. This tells you exactly what’s successful on Medium by curators, right now.
Both steps ensure you can easily make yourself familiar with what Medium is looking for, as well as showing you the successful writers.
Medium Is Powerful for Writers, But There Are Rules
If you want to make money writing, Medium is one of the best platforms out there because they put so much care into building a readership that trusts and enjoys their recommendation algorithm. There are no ads, there’s no clickbait, and good content rises to the top.
If you’re just starting out on Medium, it makes sense to take time learning what works, rather than just diving in. There’s a steep learning curve and a harsh penalty if you don’t pick it up quickly enough.
That being said, you have all the tools at your disposal that you’ll need to make Medium a place for you to earn money by writing about what you love. You have guidelines, success stories, resources, and more. Even curation jail isn’t the end of the world here.
Now that you know the biggest potential pitfall and how to avoid it, there’s no reason not to start writing today.