Medium's BIG Curation Update - everything you need to know + 3 actions to take

[@robylaird3738]

Great information. Your site has been a wonderful source of information. Thanks

[@caw25sha]

I've been looking at my phone regularly all day, impatiently waiting for Zulie's Video on Medium's Changes. And here it is. Thank you. It actually makes perfect sense: if I follow someone it means I want to see their stuff, and if someone follows me I assume they want to see my stuff. Anyway, I expect we'll find out how it pans out over the coming days and weeks.

[@bisimedia]

Me too

[@ZulieWrites]

More to come for sure! Excited to see how things change.

[@MeghanStark]

Medium seems like such an interesting platform, and I like that they prioritize the user experience and quality content above else. That's ideal to me! I can't wait to to delve deeper and get more out there over time. Thanks for your in-depth videos Zulie!

[@ZulieWrites]

Glad these are useful! Yes, I find that it's much easier for quality writers to rise to the top on Medium :)

[@amyhartsoughink]

Thanks for this, Zulie! I love your attitude - you always talk about rolling with the punches and embracing changes on Medium. Thanks for sharing your observations and tips with us! Cheers!

[@ZulieWrites]

You are so welcome!

[@manasbhardwaj3849]

Hey Zulie! In my opinion, curation was a standard , which forced the writers to polish their works to top notch quality. Now it's "partially gone", I am afraid of reading low quality articles. Building a following and publishing in publications is the key to go for now. Keep making more such videos, I love your writings though. :)

[@ZulieWrites]

I think this will mean that low-quality authors will lose followers more quickly, and if you keep to a high standard, your readers will be more likely to actually click on your stories. It matters more about the relationship you build with your readers - can they trust your attention grabbing titles? Will you deliver on your promises? This is the hope! We'll have to wait and see.

[@AbhidevVaishnav]

Hey Zulie, so excited every week for your videos! 😁😁

[@ZulieWrites]

Yay! Thank you!

[@marizamentzou3293]

Thank you for this video and all you're sharing, Zulie, I recently discovered you thanks to Tom's masterclass. I'm new on Medium and you inspire me to want to put in my best effort! The entire curation topic is still a mystery to me, I need to dig deeper to understand it.

[@springfieldpersonaltrainer]

As a new writer on Medium, I was honestly somewhat ambivalent about curation, even though most of my stuff seemed to be getting curated or into a publication right out of the gate. Yes, I like the chance to be discovered, since I don't have a big social media following to catapult me into overnight Medium stardom. But deep-down, I prefer a meritocracy, where the worth of my articles is based upon what Medium readers think (via read time/ratio), rather than the subjective opinion of just a handful of editors. I'm also super happy followers will now be shown my new posts, in a way they apparently weren't before. Having said all that, if Medium wants to promote my articles "for further distribution," I'm sure not going to turn down that opportunity.

[@ZulieWrites]

Yeah I'm inclined to agree with you, Jeff. I think this is going to be good for people who write for their readers, not for curatability. What I've seen (sample size of n = 3, bear in mind) is that the stories I write for my readers are doing better than the ones I wrote in an attempt to get curated.

[@MichaelCurtis80]

Thanks! I’m just getting started with the Partner Program and more frequent writing and your videos and articles have been super helpful!

[@ZulieWrites]

Thanks for letting me know!!

[@future_proof]

Thank you Zulie!

[@ZulieWrites]

Happy to help!

[@sarahparis8691]

Thanks so much for the informative video, Zulie! And, you've just gained another follower on Medium😉 (It's me! It's me!)

[@ZulieWrites]

Yay! Thank you!

[@shawnlaib8511]

So articulate and helpful, as usual!

[@ZulieWrites]

Glad you think so! :) Thanks!

[@leelameka]

Thank you. Appreciate this Zuile.

[@ZulieWrites]

My pleasure!

[@ViviFriend]

Uff just wrote my first article yesterday, hope it sees the light of day 🥺

[@M00NdaYn]

I wrote one over a week ago and it still sits at 0 views. Before the changes, I got at least 3-4 views, now nothing. I think I'm gonna move on now. If you didn't have a huge following before this, you got screwed.

[@ViviFriend]

@@M00NdaYn oh no, so sorry to hear.... I was so excited to become a write also 😭 I’ll write a few more articles to say I tried and see how it goes but pretty disheartened to be honest

[@M00NdaYn]

@@ViviFriend Yeah it's now been over a week and not 1 view. All 0's across the board. What a shame.

[@ViviFriend]

@@M00NdaYn my one has 3 views but not sure if it's maybe just medium staff?! Pretty confuse being my first week but working on another article for tomorrow. Best of luck if you decide to continue writing!

[@SimpleeEsme]

Thanks for answering my question and for this video! Excited to see what the changes bring.

[@ZulieWrites]

Any time!

[@don1lee]

Hi Zulie, thank you for your video. I just notice the changes a couple days ago and I was eager to hear what you had to say.

[@ZulieWrites]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for your email, it prompted me to make this :)

[@barryfraley4752]

Thank you for the information

[@ZulieWrites]

No worries!

[@loripulichino2803]

Love this explanation Zulie! I am super nervous that a new author is in a huge hole trying to figure out how to get seen on their own. If they already have a blog or a huge insta following.... they may be fine. But how many writers are in this catagory We nee a way to get a new voice a chance? Would love your thoughts

[@ZulieWrites]

Glad it was helpful! I think pubs are going to matter more now. Getting your voice in pubs with high engagement (not necessarily a high follower #, but ones that actually have an active and loyal readership - e.g. Storius Mag is great for this) will be the best way to get your foot in the door. It's also possible that when/if curation *does* happen, it will mean a lot more for your story and visibility. And finally, it could be that Medium will do more cross promotion. If a reader follows author A and tons of people follow both author A and B, Medium may recommend author B to the reader.

[@supppsyl]

I recently became a medium partner, to start publishing my writing. Upon doing more and more research, it's all feeling very overwhelming.

[@ZulieWrites]

No worries! It is overwhelming to begin with. This video shows you everything you need to get started (kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYDcdISClLaNoMk) but if you need anything else, just leave a comment and I'd love to help any way I can!

[@supppsyl]

@@ZulieWrites Thank you for this!

[@scoutthespirit1133]

i kinda like this, I'd rather have a platform in which i can carry my audience over where as i have more control, instead trying to impress medium. thank you for the vids, very helpful

[@caw25sha]

I agree entirely.

[@ZulieWrites]

Agree 100% - and I think this is why Medium made the change. Write for your readers, not curators.

[@bisimedia]

I've noticed that since this change, the views on my curated stories have drastically dropped. It seems curation doesn't mean anything anymore. Or maybe I'm still a beginner.

[@ZulieWrites]

It may mean that Medium is favoring long-term views. I've noticed a lot of my curated stories from months ago are suddenly experiencing an uptick, but same as you, my new stuff seems to be flopping. Medium's algo changes randomly every so often - best thing to do is write through it.

[@ellapearson]

Thankfully, they have added the author's name next to the publication name on the homepage now!

[@ZulieWrites]

Yes! thank goodness

[@komalvenkatesh4527]

And...just when I got the hang of it, medium goes out and changes it all. Lol.

[@ZulieWrites]

Haha I know - but I'm hopeful this is going to shift things to better writing, and less "writing for curation"

[@moniquecameron9767]

Please create these two detailed step by step videos: #1 How to create your publication (with special focus on graphics part) #2 How to promote your Medium stories on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and maybe others.

[@ZulieWrites]

Great ideas! I've added them to my list, thank you!

[@themexicoblue]

I'm a rank beginner with Medium. I don't understand what a curator is/does?? I've watched several of your you tube videos and think you do a great job. Also, I do follow you, but I don't get notifications when you have a new you tube? Would they come through email? Thanks for all your honesty and willingness to share.

[@ZulieWrites]

If you hit the bell sign, you should get notifications! A curator reads almost every single post published on Medium and decides whether to "curate" (read: distribute) further than just that author's followers. This means if I publish an article that is curated in the "relationships" topic, readers who don't follow me but DO follow the relationship topic may be shown my story.

[@sonicinkwell]

Thanks for posting this! It's helpful. (But where's the private jet BACKDROP...? Haha.) We'll see what changes are made, but we appreciate you sharing your thoughts.

[@ZulieWrites]

Working on it!

[@kieranaudsley8695]

Very clear explanation of the new changes thank you. My question is, now that followers are important are you going to treat the content you write like a topic? With a focused theme on your articles, rather than just anything that interests you. That way if you get a reader who likes one of your articles then they should like all of them because they are focused to that topic, and then more likely to get the follow. What do you think?

[@ZulieWrites]

Hey Kieran! Great question. I myself am going to continue writing about all sorts, but I'm not sure (yet) how it's going to affect my followship. I *hope* Medium's algo is smart enough to show my cat followers my cat stuff, and my psychology followers my psych stuff and so on.

[@kieranaudsley8695]

Yeah that’s a really good to be honest, better that than sacrifice the level of natural content production as well. And I just want to say a big thank you for your help I’ve got my first article written and I will be publishing it today!!

[@carllane6521]

Very helpful. Can you explain how doing a search show's you which key words to include in your tittle, subheadings, etc?

[@ZulieWrites]

I've added this to my video idea list! Thanks Carl!

[@caw25sha]

I think trying to pigeonhole both articles and reader's interests into a fairly limited number of categories for the purposes of deciding what to recommend was too arbitrary and restrictive. Maybe they are going for a looser or broader approach, taking into account the areas covered by an article rather than just one or two categories. One of the biggest areas of data science is that of recommendation systems as used by, say, Amazon, which seem to produce a mix of products directly related to what you have bought as well as a few off the wall items which were recommended by some more circuitous route.

[@ZulieWrites]

This is an interesting point that I hadn't considered! It's true that ~100 topics are restrictive. I'll be keen to see how things progress on Medium in the future.

[@activelifetransformation]

So basically they have turned it into Facebook? That means soon, they gonna roll out an ad function

[@ZulieWrites]

That's a pretty big jump to make! Medium has ALWAYS been anti-ad, from the very beginning. I don't think they'll ever include ads in their platform. They make money by people paying a membership fee.

[@grafismo85]

hey Zulie! Great to follow your tips, tks so much! :) I have a question, can I apply for more than one Medium’s Editorial Group with the same text?

[@ZulieWrites]

Sure! However I don't think you'll be successful - they're very diverse pubs, so the same text probably will either be too generic for them, or inapplicable to most. I'd recommend a more tailored approach.

[@grafismo85]

@@ZulieWrites Perfect, tks very much!

[@garymcbrine]

Hi Zulie. I love the information your sharing about Medium. I started writing for Medium last month and just received my first meager but promising pay. $$ !! :-) I have a question regarding embedding KZbin videos in a story. Since we are payed based on read time, will embedding a KZbin video count towards read time when they watch it? Thanks!

[@ZulieWrites]

Awesome! This is a great question and one I do not know the answer to. I'd guess no - I think Medium uses scrolling as an indication?? But I don't know for sure.

[@garymcbrine]

@@ZulieWrites Thanks Zulie. Maybe something for your next KZbin video if you find out. Thanks

[@marcuschan5664]

I think newsletters might matter more now, would like to see how you did it

[@ZulieWrites]

I'll keep you updated! I'm thinking I'm going to be doing once weekly from my pub newsletter. We'll see what it does.

[@autumnmarietaggart]

how long after publishing your first few articles should u expect to be curated before giving up?

[@ZulieWrites]

I'd keep going! From what I can tell, a) curation jail (e.g. when you had 3 strikes then you were out) no longer exists, and b) curation is supposed to matter less now. Less about the algorithm, and more about reaching your audience.

[@karolinaugowska801]

Do you have any tips for the new writers who don't really have followers? I'm worried it will take me ages to get noticed right now.

[@ZulieWrites]

Yep - this is a great question and one I'd like to do a video on soon. The short answer is pubs - hopefully this change means publications will have a bigger impact, so pubs may more useful.

[@Newsforyou-m6c]

Thank you for this informative talk!

[@ZulieWrites]

Glad it was helpful!

[@lovelightandpeaceforever622]

The curation system was good it meant you could spend more time focusing on the writing instead of having to worry so much about distribution. Sad times.

[@ZulieWrites]

I believe curation is still enabled! I still get distributed.

[@AdamariMedia]

I had just started on Medium lol

[@ZulieWrites]

I know they really love to keep us all on our toes!

[@darrylsmith7069]

On the plus side there is nothing 'new' for you to learn and compare to the 'way it was' so its ALL new...lol

[@nikhil_vemu]

Hi Zulie! What's the difference between 'Distributed by Curators in ***' and 'Chosen for further distribution'?

[@ZulieWrites]

Time! A few months ago, we got the former message. They changed curation, and now you'll only see the latter.

[@nkeonyeizuka2801]

Zulie thanks for this video. Please clarify. Does having a publication named after me increase the likelihood of me being found on Google with this new changes?

[@ZulieWrites]

Great question and I don't know! I'd guess yes, but unfortunately don't know the answer.

[@CassieB64]

They still have the writer's name on the actual article, just not on the home page

[@ZulieWrites]

They've updated it on the homepage too :)

[@CassieB64]

@@ZulieWrites Yeah I noticed. I also got a story published in a publication for the first time!

[@leensaleh1456]

Hey Zulie I'm a new writer on medium I have zero followers and I'm afraid without curation I'm not gonna get any:( what do you think?

[@kindablindmom3125]

Interesting… Does this mean it is better to niche down since followers matter now?

[@ZulieWrites]

Good question! Short answer: I don't know. I myself am going to continue writing about all sorts, but I'm not sure (yet) how it's going to affect my followship. I hope Medium's algo is smart enough to show my cat followers my cat stuff, and my psychology followers my psych stuff and so on.

[@ellapearson]

If you'd do all the SEO you mentioned, as in putting keywords in the title, subtitle, first 100 words, etc, do you think it would make a difference to just go into the SEO settings of the story and adding the keywords there, instead?

[@ZulieWrites]

You can do title, subtitle and first 100 words or so, but you can't do it in the subheaders throughout the story (which I think are fairly important). I'm planning on learning more about SEO so I will look forward to sharing more when I know more!

[@ellapearson]

@@ZulieWrites I think SEO is so confusing for some reason, I never really decided to dive into it. I'd love to hear what you learn, though!

[@bhudson39]

Hmmm... wondering if those without followers (newbies like me) may find it tougher? What are your thoughts Zulie?

[@caw25sha]

They are always saying they want to grow Medium so I don't think they would do anything to make it harder for new writers.

[@bhudson39]

@@caw25sha I'm thinking that curation promotes the best writing, no matter how new the writer is. Promoting those with the most followers tends to make Medium more of pop culture rather than a talent culture. Promotion on the basis of the number of followers is one form of promotion not available to those who are new. I have just 28, so that clearly isn't available to me (yet). I suppose the publications give new writers a shot. (Still a noob here, joined in September - so my opinions lack the depth of someone who has been on Medium far longer).

[@caw25sha]

@@bhudson39 No, not me. I have an underscore between my first name and surname.

[@caw25sha]

@@bhudson39 I don't know. We'll have to see and I am sure Zulie will advise us.

[@miamiguel8750]

@@bhudson39 Established writers and those with a following have a lot easier time getting curated than new writers. I've heard quite a few new writers complain that they almost never get curated or they never do. And, this is after they have put in some work and improved. So it is either a bias that curators have or maybe an algorithm.

[@tobipaul8275]

Please I need help, I don't know what I did wrong but after writing and then publishing, I tried view then I got this response "The post is under investigation or in violation of medium rules".... Please I need help asap😭😭😭

[@ZulieWrites]

Hey Tobi! Here are the Medium rules: policy.medium.com/medium-rules-30e5502c4eb4 You can email [e-mail] to ask for further clarification.

[@catherinetaranto9174]

Hi Zulie. I remember in a video awhile ago you said you wrote by a pen name. Is Zulie Rane your pen name? Or do you go by a different name on Medium?

[@ZulieWrites]

Zulie Rane is my pen name :)

[@miamiguel8750]

So if someone is in "curation jail"... a surefire way out is if a big pub publishes one of their stories?

[@ZulieWrites]

This has been the case in the past - not sure how this applies now, as not yet clear on whether "curation jail" exists anymore.

[@pandapandapandaSNAKE]

I have recently started my blog and have a few posts on there. Is it ok for me to publish some of those posts on Medium?

[@ZulieWrites]

Absolutely! You can import them using Medium's native import tool (help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/214550207-Importing-a-post-to-Medium)

[@pandapandapandaSNAKE]

@@ZulieWrites Thank you so much!

[@naznin8953]

Is sticking to a niche important now as followers are important now?

[@ZulieWrites]

It's interesting, really - I STILL think niche is overrated on Medium, and followers still seem not to matter... that much. Publication fit seems to be the most important thing today - make sure your story matches a pub's interests EXACTLY

[@naznin8953]

@@ZulieWrites pls make more video about how will new writer succeed in these terms of medium. I love your videos, they are very informative.

[@Yourfavouritegirl12]

I have a question. What does it take to own a publication and can one person own more than one

[@ZulieWrites]

Very easy to open one up! It took me about 5 mins. (instructions here help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004681607-Getting-started-with-a-Medium-publication) I'm going to do a video on this very shortly because a lot of folks have said it'd be useful for them. Yes - you can own up to seven!

[@islarbaig2184]

Hello zulie, I need your help I want to sign up for medium partner program but it's not available in my country now what should I do please give me a advice ??? Or do you think that I should use a VPN to sign up??????

[@ZulieWrites]

VPN won't help unfortunately here :(. at the moment, there is no way to be paid directly by Medium or Stripe if your country is not allowed. However, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from writing on Medium right now. You can totally sign up, start writing, build a portfolio and start getting followers now. You won't be paid by Medium directly YET, and I know that sucks and is unfair and I really hope Medium/Stripe change their policy soon, but a) there are other ways to earn money, like driving people to your own blog, using affiliate links and so on and b) eventually, I hope, Medium/Stripe will monetize for additional countries. If that's the case, you'll be established when that happens. Hope that makes sense and sorry I can't help more. I am always trying to find a workaround as it affects a lot of people, and I really believe that everyone deserves to be compensated for their writing, but as of yet, I have not found any good workarounds.

[@islarbaig2184]

@@ZulieWrites yeah that sounds sad for me and yeah I guess it's not in my fate but I will be keep trying for this and thank you replied to me it's means alot for me , PEACE.

[@spaceranger]

I want to change my name to a pen name. What is your opinion on that? I have about 200 followers and I don't want to confuse people or Medium...

[@ZulieWrites]

I changed mine completely about 500 followers in and didn't miss a beat :)

[@pingpoli]

It seems like this update is mostly screwing the smaller writers who don't have a lot of followers. With curation being a bigger factor to populating a reader's feed, it was possible to reach new readers. But if the feed is "spammed" with content from the people they are already following, stories from new writers might be buried if they are shown at all.

[@ZulieWrites]

Yeah, I'm intrigued to hear how things go for smaller writers. I'm planning on doing a poll a little later. I hope the way Medium will do this is be pickier about curation, so small writers who get curated get a *real* boost now.

[@kennedym.7295]

First!

[@lordwesley]

I have read that they will be adding the names back on soon. I haven’t verified though.

[@DavidGessner]

Do you remember where you read that?

[@lordwesley]

David Gessner link.medium.com/8zCqsYaUkab

[@ioanam.2374]

They added the names now :)

[@ZulieWrites]

Yep! Names are back :)

[@lordwesley]

Zulie Rane woohoo! Thanks for all your content by the way, you’re amazingly helpful 😀

[@TechTricks6]

Have you made any video on taxpayer form or if you can recommend someone else's video? It would be a great help.

[@ZulieWrites]

I haven't! Unfortunately I am a writer and not a tax expert, and I don't know many people who are. My best advice here is to speak with [e-mail]

[@bensaadaamina7615]

You remind me of Flannery O Connor who I love dearly I guess you both have that magnetic tone of voice

[@ZulieWrites]

Wow, I am extremely flattered! I love FOC

[@abhaysalvi9787]

Medium said that they may be bringing back the names next week Their developers are working on it and they said they've listened our feedback... I don't know if they make it real or not

[@bluepebbles7885]

Are you an Indian? Do you get your medium payments. I am not getting any payments though i managed to have a stripe and US bank account.

[@ZulieWrites]

They're back! Thank goodness :)

[@angelikamodawal5144]

Does anyone have the medium blog post link she’s talking about?

[@bluepebbles7885]

help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018677974-About-Medium-s-distribution-system

[@ZulieWrites]

Thanks Blue Pebbles! I've linked it in my video description now, Angelika, cheers for the reminder!

[@Baqsam]

_Dear __-Julie-__ Zulie, you are such a valuable content creator and a cutie pie as well. That said, is it not time for a _*_camera upgrade?_*

[@ZulieWrites]

Thanks for your feedback! It is time, but alas, the camera upgrade to provide a noticeable impact is about $1,000 which is quite pricy lol.

[@Baqsam]

_It's just a month's worth of Medium work that can have a _*_much bigger ROI!_*

[@KC-yu5ny]

People are very much creative and talented from the countries where Medium basically DENIED to pay by accepting such a payment method that's not applicable there. By not upgrading this payment method, it's missing more quality stories and those writers are now getting annoyed. They will move to different platform leaving Medium. They won't help grow Medium business for Free always. Time to move.

[@ZulieWrites]

I agree 100% - as long as Medium isn't able to compensate all writers, they're missing out on a huge swath of talent.

[@SkyronSF]

There's a man in your house!

[@SkyronSF]

Also @sabana-grande sent me here.