Which of These 3 Medium Distribution Categories Spells Success as a Writer?

I have always relied on the third category for an important reason

Since last year, there has been a major shift to personal stories by popular demand as more readers want stories that connect with them personally.

Does that mean other articles, say, those about making money on Medium have lost their shine?

It depends on how you look at it. Many writers talk about tips, tricks, and secrets to how they gained followers, blew up their stats, and laughed all the way to the bank.

Usually following an algorithm change, their advice becomes obsolete unless they can quickly adapt to the new changes and update their ‘steal my secrets’ recipe.

Such posts are likely to attract readers eager to earn money through writing.

However, many don’t realize that with last year’s changes, an article's outcome is determined by 3 platform distribution categories.

🎈Do you take this aspect into account when you write?

Medium’s 3 distribution categories are:

Category 1: Boosted!

You guessed it — a boosted story gets pushed to a wider audience. This may result in a lot of views and cha-ching.

Recently, I heard a boost nominator talk about how competitive the nomination process for personal stories has become given their current popularity.

I am a personal story writer and have gotten 10 boosts so far. Here is the latest, in case you are interested.

They all performed nicely and the comment sections were lively.

The only downside is most were one-time commenters and were not heard from beyond the boosts. In other words, once the wave fizzles, you might revert to the same spot you were before the boost. Or not.

Category 2: General distribution

In this category, articles are matched with readers based on their interests and following. This is the standard category for stories on Medium.

A post of mine published a short time before the above-boosted article did equally well in terms of engagement.

It appears that it was well-matched with people interested in reading it namely nature and photography with a personal twist (wink, wink).

However, this may not always be the case. Sometimes, the algorithm buries an article within hours of being published.

Why? It could be due to this concerning reason. Can you relate?

Category 3: Network only

The best example of a network-only article is this post. Since it is a Meta article (an article about Medium) it is likely to be limited to my followers and the followers of the pub I have published in.

If you think that may not get eyeballs, think again!

I have always been big on community especially now when many writers, including myself, have been shaken by the latest bot culling cycle in which several innocent writers’ accounts were suspended.

Following that, I wrote about my musings and the community weighed in with their thoughts.

Have Writers Suddenly Become Shy About Engaging With Articles?

🎈I invite you to share your thoughts about the platform’s distribution categories!