Will Bullet Points Help Or Hurt Your Chances of Getting Medium's Boost?
In some ways, we're all shooting in the dark
Hi Everyone!
I’ve got a lot of fun stuff to talk about today so let’s get right into it. As you know, a few weeks ago I sent out an offer to review your drafts and provide some feedback on how to get a Boost. A few of you have taken me up on that offer and I appreciate the opportunity to look at your work.
One thing that I wanted to clarify is that my niche on Medium is culture/diversity/racism/writing. I cast a pretty wide net, but you can see where my focus goes. I’m aware that there is a lot of demand for business/entrepreneurship type articles. I’ve done a few marketing articles, and I used to own my own business, but I’m not as often drawn to this subject matter as others.
Still, I’m happy to look at those articles and give you my thoughts. My “expertise” on Boost comes from the fact that I’m a Boost nominator (I think around 200 of my nominations have been accepted), and from my own Boosted stories (50+ as of today).
One common criticism of the Boost program is that you have to do some excavating to get examples of what the curators are looking for. It would be nice if Medium had a page of “recently Boosted stories” but even saying that I understand why they wouldn’t want to go that route. Boosted stories arguably already take up too much of a share of Medium’s traffic, and if Medium did even more to direct attention their way, other writers would find it discouraging.
As it stands, I know that even if one of my stories doesn’t get a Boost, it still has a chance of earning pretty well. If I average out to around $100 per article, then I’m more than satisfied. I know that stories can get that even without a Boost.
The point is that making a story profitable involves more than just getting Boosted. I think there are some writing practices that I’ve adopted in an effort to recreate the success of my own high performing articles. One of those practices is that I rarely use bullet points. I had some nice interactions with a couple writers recently that helped provide some clarity on how I think about bullet points. Let me just say that I really appreciate this kind of feedback because it helps broaden my understanding both of Medium and writing in general.
Bullet points or no bullet points?
A few days ago I received a lovely email from
. He’d sent me a draft, I sent him some notes, and this is what happened (I asked his permission to post this):For the record, Derek earned that Boost himself. I only made a couple comments on his draft, but sometimes that’s the difference.
Here’s the article (because everybody needs more examples of Boosted articles): How I Broke The Lead Magnet Rules (And Grew My Email List By 237%)
You’ll notice that he uses Bullet points… a lot!
Get to know the publications
Derek’s article was published in Practice in Public.
I don’t know that publication, so the first thing I did was go to the “About” page where I followed all the editors:
I don’t know for sure if this is a publication with Boost nominators or not (it could have been internal nominators not involved with the pub). I think that Medium released an official list that revealed which publications had nominators at some point, but I couldn’t find it. Here’s an article by Robin Wilding based on her own research. Robin does a really great job of connecting the dots and providing insight into what’s going on at Medium. She’s better at it than I am, you should follow her.
Update: has a great resource on the Boost Publications available here for free.
One of the best strategies for becoming successful on Medium is to get to know the editors of the big publications. Follow them, read their articles, and leave thoughtful comments. When they get to to know you, it’s MUCH more likely that they’ll actually read your submission.
You’re looking for a fair shake. No matter what kind of writer you are, a TON of submissions are rejected unread (that may be less true on Medium than in the wider writer’s market, but it’s something to consider). If you actually get eyeballs on your work, you’re WAY ahead of the curve.
I have shared emails and chatted with around 10 Boost nominators, so the relationships are a little more developed than just clapping and commenting. I’m not going to rattle off their names because I don’t know if they’ve "outed” themselves. What I mean by that is that some Boost nominators use that as a way to draw readers and writers into their publication. That’s fine and there are no rules against it.
I don’t hide that I’m a Boost nominator but I haven’t broadcast that fact on Medium. I don’t want to get flooded with weird submissions. I prefer to talk about it on Substack because anyone who subscribes to my newsletter has a better idea what I’m looking for (hopefully).
More evidence for bullet points
I also recently received a draft from
. She’s an excellent writer who creates a terrific newsletter (you should subscribe). As I understand, she’s carved out a lucrative career but she’s relatively new to Medium (speculation again… I think I have it right!).I habitually discourage people from using bullet points and I did the same on Maya’s draft. I sent Maya a follow-up email asking if my edits were useful and polite. I like to make sure that my constructive criticism doesn’t come across as mean. She sent me some helpful feedback about how one of her articles (not the one I looked at) was published and Boosted with Start It Up.
How Journalists Write So Much, So Fast (It’s Easy)
That article was an excellent example for me because it contains a lot of elements I thought that Medium has been trending away from. Let me sum up what’s at work (in bullet points!):
I don’t know the editors of Start It Up
I use “narrative style” rather than “information/instructional” style
I don’t optimize for skimmability
One of the things I realized is that I do everything in a rush based on all the assumptions I’ve picked up over the years. Also, we’ve got this issue where Medium inherently requires a certain amount of speculation. Add that up, and you get a knot of apparently contradictory information.
Honestly, working through knots like this is essential to editing. All I can tell you is what has worked for me. However, the tactics I use in my niche might not be as effective for other writers. I haven’t even tried to submit anything to Start It Up for a long time, and they’ve never published anything by me. Instead, I’ve gravitated to the other corners of Medium where I’ve had more success.
Do I now recommend bullet points and skimmability?
The thing that we have to keep in mind is that Boost is only one element of several factors that make up the earnings equation. I think I’ve been inadvertently conflating Boost expectations with my own best practices for writing a high-performing Medium article.
This isn’t malicious, as an editor it’s my job to help you maximize your earnings. However, it will be good for me to remember that bullet points and skimmability aren’t the disqualifiers that I might have thought.
I don’t have the earnings data for the articles I nominate. I do have the earnings data for my own articles. I spend most of my time attempting to recreate my successes.
An old school hook
After Boost, I feel that read ratio is the most important data point to consider. I suppose that bullet points offer what I call a “reading downhill” effect that keeps your audience engaged. There’s a lot of blank space that allows people to happily scroll along.
I see the value in that.
However, the tactic I prefer is a good old fashioned narrative hook, like this:
“No matter how much pressure I applied, the blood kept pooling up between my fingers…”
You kind of want to find out what happened don’t you? It’s a good story. Maybe I’ll tell you in a couple weeks…
A good hook keeps readers involved, but perhaps I should experiment with how to add bullet points into a narrative hook like that for the sake of creating some new, weird, modern, internet hybrid.
Should I:
Cry for help?
Try to drive the other dogs off my leg?
Worry about the knife in my abdomen?
Just forget about the knife for the moment?
Finish my value meal?
Sell all my crypto now that Bitcoin is at an all time high?
Okay, I was being facetious when I started that exercise, but now I’ve convinced myself that it might have some potential.
My latest boosted story
My latest Boosted story is this one which was published in Heart Affairs. Michelle Brown is the editor there, you should follow her, she’s good. Here’s the link:
How You Learn to Hide Things from People Who Delight in Tormenting You
If you just click on the three articles I’ve referenced, you’ll see that all of them have radically different styles. You don’t even have to read them, just scroll down to the bottom.
I’m not saying that any of the styles is better than the other. That’s the great thing about writing in general and Medium in particular. This is also the good side about some of the apparent contradictions inherent to Medium that we might be inclined to complain about.
It’s ideal that a lot of different approaches work on Medium. It’s perfect that there are different ways that success might look on the platform. I appreciate hearing other success stories because it gives me ideas of new things to try!
As always, leave your comments below: