What I Learned From Being Curated Multiple Times In My First Month

Is curation really as amazing as it sounds?

During my first month on Medium, I published six articles, four of which were curated. All four of those articles were curated in at least three different topics.

Every single time one of my articles was curated I assumed this meant my article would become a huge success. Meaning hundreds of views and claps to accompany it, sadly that isn’t always the case.

Now I want to acknowledge that making money on Medium isn’t the most important thing, the actual writing is. However, as a broke college student who loves writing, having the option to make money while doing what I love seems like a great win-win situation.

If you’ve read any Medium writing article, you’ve likely come across someone telling you to try everything to get curated. I think that’s good advice, especially when you’re starting. However, curation is not going to lead to over-night success like you might’ve been led to believe.

So let’s talk about my experience with curation and why I believe it’s not the only factor leading to the success of an article.

Curation is Good, But it isn’t Everything

My third article was curated in five different topics, something I heard didn’t happen very often. I couldn’t wait, I assumed this meant I would get more views than usual and make money off an article. The reality is this article hasn’t even hit 100 views and has only made $0.72.

Curation will not make you immediate success, it takes time and a lot of luck. With the more articles, you publish increasing your chance of one of your articles getting lucky.

People still get views and make money off of articles that aren’t curated every day. I’ve made money off of every article I’ve written, even the ones that weren’t curated. So if you aren’t immediately being curated, be patient, and keep writing.

If you’ve been writing specifically on a topic, try something new. We all have a variety of different interests and knowledge on topics, it can only make you better by widening your writing horizon.

Publications Are Important

Yes, curation is important but there needs to be more emphasis on the publication you post your story under, as this will be where your story lives. Even after an article disappears from a topic as more articles take its place, readers could still stumble upon your article in a publication.

I’ve found I have a much higher chance of being curated if my story is shared in a publication with a good following. My first article curated was under Illumination and was curated soon after it was published. This means Medium is much more likely to take the time to consider your article if it’s in a publication with an active following.

Every publication’s followers are different. Don’t base the success you expect to receive entirely on the publication numbers, you will be disappointed.

An article I published in Better Marketing — a well-respected publication with almost 100k followers — received fewer views than an article I published with Age Of Awareness. Both of these stories were curated and are currently two of my most popular articles though they have a vast difference in follower count.

This doesn’t mean don’t try to publish with bigger publications, it means try different publications and see which ones have the best reader response. This is a great exercise in trying out different articles in a variety of different publications.

Popular Topics

If you go on the home page, you will see popular topics being written about, recognize the ones you would be interested in reading. Consider writing about topics related to those.

My first article to be curated was curated in Beauty, Race, and Self. Very popular topics at the time, however, two of the topics my article was curated in weren’t part of my five original tags. But because they fit into popular topics, Medium curated my article into those topics, giving it a better chance to be seen.

An article I wrote that wasn’t curated was about online dating during the quarantine. But because we’d already been in quarantine for months the interest in reading about that wasn’t there anymore.

Now, you should always write articles based on topics you’re passionate about, but also take time to consider topics Medium readers seem especially interested in reading. You will never be able to appease everyone, but it’s more fun and interesting to write about a little bit of everything and see what sticks.

Make Medium Work For You

I am still learning every day how to write successfully on Medium, but with my newest article becoming my most popular, I know I’m taking the right steps.

Of course, you should try to get curated — make sure your articles always follow Medium guidelines — but don’t be too dishearted if you aren’t curated. People can and will likely still find and love your work. Try to publish with a variety of different publications from small too incredibly big, and always look for new and exciting homes for your articles.

Continuing to write on Medium, even when it’s hard and you see no success is a strong step in itself. Keep going, keep writing, and keep learning, we can only become better writers from here.