Mark Kolke
Nov 2 · 2 min read

Misty, I share your bewilderment. I am just a little over 30 days ‘back on Medium’ myself — having real challenges learning the nuances, as you seem to be. When I first got going I was keen to post a lot of things to ‘get seen’, do a lot of things to ‘get followers’, and ‘claps’. Just as I was getting the hang of things, the landscape changed. Many have written about this and I’ve done a few myself …

The larger issue, I believe, is this navigation of ‘getting curated’. Again, there are lots of writers extolling how easy it was for them and to ‘just follow my methods’. While some of it is hype, there is substance there too.

The ‘guidelines’ are there — the question is whether or not, after having met them COMPLETELY, is our piece will actually be looked at by one of the ‘curators’. Somewhere I saw the number 35. Only 35, worldwide? I assume there are software tools to sort the ‘eligible ones’ so the 35 may examine them. When you consider 35 people, days off, sleep, etc., how many are capable of scanning anything?

My sense is there must be multiple pieces of screening software, A.I. tools checking, etc. One might think that grammar and spelling might be key elements of that (I want that), but when you read some curated articles which fall woefully short. Someone wrote an article saying he had his best results ‘posting late at night’, but he didn’t mention his time zone …

Best of luck. For now, I am focused on writing less, not more, posting strategically to see if that happens and building a following for what I write. Meanwhile, I’m having a fun diversion learning how to do podcasts.

Happy Saturday.

Mark Kolke

Written by

Writer, speaker, small business owner. Divorced, recovered alcoholic, truth-teller, loves life, women, cooking, golf, and the Oxford comma

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