How Does Getting Curated On Medium Affect Your Articles?
I got curated 5 times, and here’s an analysis of my curated articles’ stats so far.
When I first joined Medium, I kept seeing the term “curated” thrown around, and I got curious about how writers get curated in the first place. I wondered why a term would mean so much to many writers that they want to be “curated.”
Getting curated by Medium is an excellent way to get your articles in front of a larger audience. It is even more valuable if you are a new writer on the platform with a minimal follower base.
Read the “About Medium’s distribution system” article for more information about the curation and distribution process.
How did I get to be curated five times?
Frankly, I have no clue how my articles got curated, and while I wrote them, I didn’t set out to get curated in the first place. My simple goal was to write an article worthy of anyone’s valuable time to be spared for a few minutes.
How my curated articles performed on Medium (as of Jan. 8th, 2022)
First Article Stats:
How the Netflix Series Young Royals Sparked My Interest to Learn Swedish
Read Time: 6 min read
Lifetime Views: 89
Overall Reads: 31
Member Read Time: 13 min 35 sec
Average Read Time: 3 min 57 sec
Internal Views: 45%
External Views: 55%
Topics: Language Learning and Personal Development
Fans: 4 fans
Ratio: 35%
Publication: No
The first article that got curated was my 1st article on Medium, which was curated after ten days. Before the article got curated, it had only 42 views. After curation, it got 47 views.
My article received more member read time before getting curated, for about 11 min 42 sec, and barely got any member read time after getting curated.
Second Article Stats:
Digital Era’s Impact on Music Marketing
Read Time: 4 min read
Lifetime Views: 68
Overall Reads: 18
Member Read Time: 1 min 11 sec
Average Read Time: 2 min 42 sec
Internal Views: 37%
External Views: 63%
Topics: Music, Streaming, and Spotify
Fans: 3 fans
Ratio: 26%
Publication: Four Dash Four (my publication)
The second article that got curated was my 3rd article on Medium.
The article was curated the day it was published, but most of the views on the 1st day were external, and it got only one internal view on that day. On the 2nd day, after it got curated, it received 45% internal and 55% external views.
Overall, getting curated didn’t impact the overall internal stats of the article on the platform.
Third Article Stats:
Public Speaking From the Perspective of a Non-Native English Speaker
Read Time: 4 min read
Lifetime Views: 27
Overall Reads: 10
Member Read Time: 29 sec
Average Read Time: 2 min 17 sec
Internal Views: 63%
External Views: 37%
Topics: Public Speaking, Personal Growth, Life Lessons
Fans: 2 fans
Ratio: 37%
Publication: No
The third article that got curated was my 8th article on Medium, which was curated after three days.
It had 12 views before curation and 15 views after curation. After a week of the article getting curated, the article received its highest views ever, with 57% internal and 43% external views.
Fourth Article Stats:
What I Learned About Interpreters by Attending UN Events
Read Time: 4 min read
Lifetime Views: 69
Overall Reads: 19
Member Read Time: 47 sec
Average Read Time: 3 min 34 sec
Internal Views: 22%
External Views: 78%
Topics: Careers Paths and Change, Life Lessons
Fans: 2 fans
Ratio: 28%
Publication: No
The fourth article that got curated was my 16th article on Medium, which was curated after a week.
It had 12 views before curation and 7 views on the day it was curated. The article received a total of 33 views the day after curation, with 97% external and 3% internal views and 47 sec member read time.
Overall, getting curated had a considerable impact on the overall stats of the article on the day it got curated, but the article barely got views after two days of curation.
Fifth Article Stats:
Vocal Coach Answers Most Searched Questions About Singing
Read Time: 9 min read
Lifetime Views: 45
Overall Reads: 18
Member Read Time: 22 min 10 sec
Average Read Time: 6 min 33 sec
Internal Views: 47%
External Views: 53%
Topics: Music, Interview, Singer
Fans: 3 fans
Ratio: 40%
Publication: Four Dash Four (my publication)
The fifth article that got curated was my 21st article on Medium, curated on the day it was published.
The article received merely 3 views the day it was curated and published, but it received 15 views the next day with 73% external and 27% internal views and 7 min member read time.
On the third day of curation, it received 8 views, with 75% of it being external and a total of 9 min member read time. On the ninth day of curation, it received 7 internal views, and 4 min member read time.
Overall, getting curated had a significant impact on the overall stats of the article, mainly being promoted to members of Medium and receiving high member read time stats.
What sets this article apart from the rest of the articles that were curated is that it is a 9-minute read article and it’s an interview with an expert on the topic of singing and vocal training.
Takeaways from this case study:
- All five articles were at least 4 min read time, and two had 6 and 9 min read time.
- The two articles with the longest read time ( 6 and 9 minutes) had the highest member read time stats, 13 min 35 sec and 22 min 10 sec, respectively.
- Three out of five articles were about my personal experiences about a specific topic, what I learned, and some of my observations that I wanted to share with others (1st, 3rd and 4th articles).
- Most articles didn’t perform exceptionally terrific after getting curated, nor did the stats persist after a while.
- The time frame of getting articles curated in this case study shows that curation and further distribution may happen on the day you publish your article, a few days after that, or it could take about 10–14 days and even more.
My two most successful articles never got curated.
BTS Album Review — 2 Cool 4 Skool
Read Time: 3 min read
Lifetime Views: 1.2k
Overall Reads: 627
Member Read Time: 1 min 34 sec
Average Read Time: 2 min 48 sec
Internal Views: 3%
External Views: 97%
Topics: Kpop, Album Review, BTS
Fans: 2 fans
Ratio: 50%
Publication: Four Dash Four (my publication)
My most viewed and read article was my 11th article on Medium, which was never curated. I published it on Four Dash Four, a music publication I founded.
I can confidently say that this is a viral article in my case, compared with the rest of my work.
My Top 3 Language Learning Strategies — Examples, Tips, and Tricks
Read Time: 4 min read
Lifetime Views: 274
Overall Reads: 113
Member Read Time: 29 min 50 sec
Average Read Time: 2 min 47 sec
Internal Views: 84%
External Views: 16%
Topics: Language Learning, How To, Tips and Tricks
Fans: 10 fans
Ratio: 41%
Publication: Writers’ Blokke
My second most viewed and read article was my 12th article on Medium, which was never curated.
I submitted my article to the Writers’ Blokke publication which impacted the overall internal views, 229 internal views (84%), and 29 min 50 sec member read time.
Until this day, this article that was never curated and published in a publication receives on average at least 1 view a day.
Takeaways from the articles that were never curated and were the most successful:
- The power of SEO can do wonders. My most successful article, which got 1.2k views, has 390 traffic from Google and ranks high in search engines. I also assume the article was shared somewhere on a different platform, but the Views by Traffic Source chart doesn’t give an in-depth analysis and breakdown.
- Articles can take time to pick up traction. It might take weeks or months, but someday, someone will come across your article, and that might be the push your article needs to kick off. For instance, the one with 1.2k kicked off on the 12th day since publication.
- Submitting articles to publications with a large following can be the leverage you need to appeal to a broader audience on Medium; in this case, my 2nd most viewed article was published in Writers’ Blokke. Out of the many articles I have written so far, this article has the most member read time, 29 min 50 sec without any curation or distribution but by submitting to a publication.
Conclusion
In my experience, I have noticed that having your article curated or distributed doesn’t have much of an impact on the overall success of your article.
What might make your article successful is the quality of your writing and content, SEO Optimization, perhaps submitting to publications, your marketing strategy, headline wording, topics you choose to write about, read time, etc.
I think having Medium distribute your article has a form of influence on an article’s initial traction process, but it takes more than that to get a successful, good-performing article.
I wanted to share these stats to see if there is a pattern that there might be and if the term “curated” has an impactful weight on your articles more so than other factors I mentioned above.
While you should aim to be curated and distributed by Medium, you should also aim to master other factors that play huge roles in the success of your articles. Therefore, it is more than just getting exposure but grabbing their attention simultaneously and maintaining that attention, which translates to high member reading time.
