Stories that almost get Boosted
5 possible reasons an otherwise fantastic story does not get Boosted
Medium’s Boosting process is what we hang our hat on. It’s how we move away from a purely algorithmic feed and introduce a human element of curation and care into the stories we recommend to our readers.
What is a Boost?
In case you’re new to our concept of Boosting, it means that a writer writes a really good story, and Medium curators select it to be shown more widely across the platform. Curators pick stories from all across Medium, but a big source of the stories that get Boosted are those nominated by pub editors in the Boost Nomination Program. Curators review those nominations and either accept or reject them for the Boost.
Boosting can make a huge difference to writers and editors, too. When a story gets Boosted, it can get more views (and earn more money if you’re in the Medium Partner Program) than an un-Boosted story.
For editors, working with writers to get their story to a more Boostable state can help your publication grow faster.
But though we aim to be as transparent as possible with what we’re looking for, I know it can sometimes feel like a bit of a black box. You write something you think is great and… crickets.
Our team can’t provide feedback on every story they choose not to Boost (literally in the thousands every month), but I know that feedback is really valuable. I asked our curators to share a few times they said “We wish we could have Boosted this story, but [something],” so I could share them with you.
Before I go further, I want to note two important caveats:
First, this is not a checklist! These are not hard-and-fast no’s — each of these is just one of the factors that could tilt you from a yes into a no. Curators have Boosted stories that have one or some of these factors in the past. However, they’re worth keeping in mind as you try to write the most Boostable story possible.
Second, getting a Boost is not the only way stories find their audiences on Medium. To quote from another piece about how to get Boosted, “No writer should ever feel like they have to focus on writing for Boost — every month, there are five times as many UN-Boosted stories that find large readerships on Medium, as there are Boosted stories that find large readership.”
Onto the five possible reasons: Here’s what I learned could stop an otherwise Boostable story from getting a Boost.
Too much self-promotion
A quote from Terrie Schweitzer, our director of curation: “Out-of-control promo links/story links at the bottom can tip the scales away from Boost in some cases. It destroys the reader experience of being on an ad-free platform.”
What you can do: Limit self-promotional links at the bottom to one or two stories, or a single link to your website. Don’t request engagement from readers out of the blue — give them a reason to engage, and then let them decide to do it themselves (or not)!
Lack of context and development
A lot of stories fall into this category! A quote from one of our curators: “This story has great promise but basically turns into a long list of links with very little explanation. Could have been a genuinely great story that many people would have referenced later. As it stands, it’s a draft outline.”
What you can do: Share your post with a friend who is not an expert in your field and ask them to share their honest opinion with you. Make sure every point is developed.
Shocking, sexual, or gory header images
A quote from Terrie: “I hate to say it, but I would probably lean toward Network Only for this. I wish they would have used a different cover image. It makes sense in the context of the story and I don’t have a big issue with it personally, but in the context of homepage feeds, email digests, etc, it can be an unpleasant shock for unsuspecting readers and can be a form of clickbait.”
I’ll also mention that a few stories were not Boosted because of image ownership. From Terrie: “This story could have been Boosted if they hadn’t used a watermarked/all rights reserved image.”
What you can do: Think about how your post is going to appear across all our surfaces. Readers come to Medium to browse, and although your ideal reader may not care that you have a gory or sexual header image as your post, not all readers want that, and we have to prioritize their experience since we’re Boosting it to many, many readers across the platform.
You might want to err on the side of caution when it comes to using images. Use images that you have the right to use — your own images, or images from free-use websites like Unsplash and Pixabay, for example.
Lack of care and craftsmanship
There are a lot of almost-Boosted stories in this category as well. For example, stories have too many links that disrupt the reading experience. From one of our curators: “I was considering this story for a Boost but it has so many non-formatted links just copy-pasted in the body of the text that it lowers the quality of the reading experience.”
Another example: too many images that have a lot of text. From a curator: “This story had more text inside images than outside it. Maybe they’re trying to prevent the text from being copied without attribution? Regardless, it does not serve readers well.”
I also heard from curators that stories with excessive profanity might run the risk of not getting Boosted, either. A useful quote: “This article is well-written and worthy of Boosting in my opinion, except that it makes more gratuitous than humorous use of profanity, which might turn readers off.”
What you can do: Consider your reader’s experience. Hyperlink your external sources to the appropriate anchor text, and use embeds sparingly. Images should not detract from your written story.
Remember, readers are here to read. They want a focused reading experience.
Anyone could have written it
From a curator: “Anyone with access to the internet and a bit of writing chops could have written it. We’re looking for the kind of story that literally no one else could have written but that writer.” I’m actually paraphrasing Linda Caroll’s excellent post on her rejected Boost nomination here, but this feedback also came up time and again when I was doing my digging.
What you can do: Pick topics that you have unique experience with. Go deeper than the surface level. Be honest and ask yourself: could someone have written this post based on Wikipedia? If yes, that’s your cue to go deeper.
If you want to try to get your story Boosted, I recommend:
- Write about what you know. We know from our readers that they highly value personal expertise and insight, so that’s what we look for. Make sure that shines through. What can you bring to your story that no other writer could bring? You can read more in our Quality Guidelines for Boost.
- Submit it to a publication that is in the Boost Nomination Pilot program. A majority of the stories that get Boosted come through editor nominations. There are over 150 pubs in the Boost Nomination Program!
- Tag your story with five tags that accurately describe what your story is about. This helps both Boost nominators and our curators find the stories.
- Rinse and repeat. Not every story you write is Boostable, nor should it be! Not every story is meant to be Boosted. The best thing you can do is try again.
I hope this helped go a little bit beyond the Quality Guidelines we frequently link to and provide a bit more context behind what we’re looking for in our Boosted posts.
