What could keep a story from being boosted?
Medium’s mission is all about deepening our collective understanding of the world through the power of human storytelling, knowledge-sharing, and personal expression.
They truly value thoughtful, nuanced, and knowledgeable perspectives, and they know readers do too! That’s why one of their most important tasks is to elevate quality content.
Their team of curators dives into stories every day to find the absolute best to boost across Medium’s network, from the homepage to emails and apps, and beyond. Giving a story a boost means it has a better chance of reaching more readers, which in turn helps writers and publications gain more visibility and grow their audience.
When it comes to the stories on Medium, they categorize them into three groups:
- Boosted: These are top-quality stories that meet their Boost Guidelines (more on that below), and they get priority in reaching readers.
- General Distribution: These are stories that are also matched to readers based on their interests and who/what they follow. It’s the default category for Medium stories.
- Network Only: These are stories that are only shown to readers who follow that specific writer (and/or the publication, if it’s part of one).
No matter the category, all stories on Medium are accessible to readers through direct links, search engines, social media, and more.
Boost Guidelines:
They’re on the lookout for stories that enrich readers’ lives and deepen their understanding of themselves, others, their endeavors, or the world. Stories come in all shapes and sizes: nonfiction, fiction, poetry, personal essays, memoirs, humor pieces, photo essays, tutorials, and much more!
A story doesn’t have to tick every box to be boosted. They see these guidelines as more of a general target than strict rules. They’re aiming to present stories that they’re really proud to share with Medium’s readers.
Here is what you should put into consideration to increase your chance of boosting your story by Medium:
Story Content:
- Does the story make the reader’s life better?
- Is it unique and human-created?
Author’s Experience
- Does the author speak from real knowledge and experience?
Craftsmanship
- Is the story well-crafted?
- Does it leave an impact?
Now, what could keep a story from being boosted?
Well, stories with content that doesn’t quite fit the bill or violates Medium’s rules might miss out on a boost. Things like explicit content, shocking titles, or gratuitous violence can lead to disqualification.
And when it comes to sharing stories, Medium also has guidelines for what’s suitable for different audiences:
General Distribution: This is where most stories live, reaching readers across the Medium network as long as they meet distribution standards.
Network Only: These are stories that might have elements like clickbait or negativity and are only shown to the writer’s followers or the publication’s followers.
There are a few special situations, too:
Meta-Medium Stories: These are posts about the partner program, making money on Medium, or Boost itself, which are set to Network Only.
Stories in languages other than English: Unfortunately, they can only review stories written in English right now. So it will not get boosted.
Examples of boosted articles:
- Both Sides Now (personal essay).
- My Laundry-to-Landscape Greywater System Will Take a 25,000 Gallon Bite Out of the Drought (nonfiction, how-to).
- “How It Goes:” On Slacking and San Francisco (memoir).
- All You Need to Know to Build Your First LLM App (programming).
- The Audacity of Nope (nonfiction, self-help).
- The Frontiersman’s Diary (fiction).
- Coding, Fast and Slow: Developers and the Psychology of Overconfidence (programming).
- Design notes on the 2023 Wikipedia redesign (User Experience / Design) .
- Catching the Train in November (Poetry).
- How to Walk 100,000 Steps in One Day (how-to/memoir).
- Code Review Velocity — The Need for Speed (Programming).
- Into Darkness: AI and the Death of the Artist (Technology).
- I Won the 1968 Boston Marathon. And Ran Many More. After the Bombs, Everything Changed (Memoir).
- We’re Not All The Same: Why Lunar New Year Matters (Nonfiction) .
- An Inheritance of Pride (Nonfiction/Memoir).
- Sounds in Silence (Poetry).
- Three Magical Phrases to Comfort a Dying Person (Memoir).
- Negative Proof (fiction).
- Relax In Our Fragile Airbnb (satire).
- Measuring the Gender Gap in Animated Films Using Computer Vision (programming).
- Everything Everywhere All At Once: Severe ADHD and Tax Law Collide (nonfiction).
- Diary of a Brand: Blank Street Coffee (marketing case study).
- When I’m Gone (fiction).
For more details, check out the complete guidelines provided by Medium.