“How to get curated on Medium?” is a question that keeps popping up nowadays all over my inbox. As a person who prides themselves on staying up to date with Medium’s changes, I thought it’s high time to write an article about it.

What Does ‘Curated’ Mean On Medium?

So first off, getting curated on Medium means that your article will get promoted to more people on the platform. Where? Well, on the homepage, on the tags pages you got curated in (shown below), in the Medium daily digest emails, and maybe even on the “featured stories” section at the very top of Medium.

What does that mean for YOU? More views. More claps. More fans. More money from the Medium Partner Program. Curation is THE biggest goal you should be aiming for as a writer on Medium.com.

Here’s a screenshot of a post that got curated from me. Look at how many views it got after getting featured!

By the way, if you want to get my free 5-day email course on how to get 1,000 followers on Medium, sign up below!

How Can I Tell If I’m Curated On Medium?

To tell if your article has been curated on Medium, just go to your “stats” page, then click on “details” beneath the story you published.

Then beneath the headline on the next page you should see either “distributed by curators in..” or “Not distributed in topics”

See, the one above was not distributed in topics by Medium curators! This one was, though (below).

Another quick shortcut you can use is, just look above the title on the stats page, and if you see a word like “freelancing” “work” “self” or “business,” that means it was curated in those topics.

It takes Medium a few hours/days sometimes to look over submissions, so make sure to give them at least 24 hours before checking your stats page too religiously. They probably just have a lot of submissions to go through.

Who Are The Medium Curators?

They’re ghosts. Nobody knows who the Medium curators are. They’re a team of dozens spread throughout the globe looking at every single submission that comes in. I don’t know how they do it. I have no idea how many stories get published on Medium at any given time, either.

Just know they’re watching. Always watching.

How To Get Curated On Medium?

Medium did something cool with their new “curation” focus. Too often algorithms drive what gets promoted–which means they can be hacked. People hack Instagram’s algorithm, Facebook’s algorithm, and Youtube’s algorithm all the time.

On Medium, it’s now impossible to hack, because you either get promoted or left in the dust based on how good your article is to another human being.

So, in the words of my emailers, how to get curated on Medium?

You have to write quality stuff now. But to be honest, most people take themselves out of the curation race with stupid mistakes. I want to go over a few of them here..

Medium has a set of curation guidelines right here. I’ll list them out for you below..

• Headlines: Write a clear and descriptive title and subtitle for your story. Headlines should accurately reflect what your story is about — please avoid profanity, misleading “clickbait” phrasing, and using all-caps. (And if you really want to get into it: Standard headline styling is title case for the headline and sentence case for the subtitle. This isn’t required but is ideal.)
• Proofreading: Avoid major typos, errors, or formatting quirks in your story so readers can focus on the piece itself.
• Images: Ideally, you will include a featured image with your story. It appears when we preview your story for readers on our homepage or your profile. It should be an image that you have the rights to use. Free-use resources like Pexels, Pixabay, Unsplash, and the Gender Spectrum Collection are great for sourcing Creative Commons-licensed images.
• Citations: Include links to facts (especially in the areas of science, medicine, health, statistics, etc.), quotations, and excerpts to their sources.
• Profile: Your profile on Medium helps readers know more about you and your expertise, so they can understand the perspective of your story even better. Edit your profile to include a clear picture of yourself, your full name, and a bio that describes your credentials.

Most people completely botch the headline and cover photo. I go over how to insert a good cover photo in this video at :28. It’s super easy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ImEKbZOSiQ&feature=youtu.be

As far as headlines go, most people just don’t clearly communicate the benefit someone is going to get from their article in the headline. They might write a headline that’s too vague like “Becoming The Boss” or “Sunday Morning Musings.”

Those headlines don’t show me the benefit I’m going to get out of reading them. 

Human beings read articles for themselves. They want to know what they’re going to get out of it. Show them. That’s how to get curated on Medium 101 right there.

Proofreading is another simple thing that can take you out of the curation race immediately. Curators want stories that have been CAREFULLY combed for errors. If you have blatant spelling + grammatical errors, you will not get curated.

Citations are a pretty big wild-card that I think are not talked about that much..

Insert some research, science, or facts and figures in your pieces as much as you can. For an extra 30 minutes of google searching, you can probably write another 100-200 words for your post, and include solid science-backed points. The Medium curators absolutely love it.

One More Thing About How To Get Curated On Medium

I think the topic REALLY matters. The tags you use are important as well. Here’s a little graphic I found online of some of the most popular tags on Medium.

Write stories under the topics at the top, and I think you actually might get curated on Medium more often.

That’s how to get curated on Medium!