Thanks Jessica for an informative article. Personally I write for my own amusement and in the hope of briefly amusing others by providing a perspective that is generally orthogonal to the meme du jour content that results automatically from a world in which mass media conditions people’s thinking. Hence I don’t mind the fact that in 9 months I’ve been curated precisely three times, because my goal was simply to earn back 40% of my annual subscription. So far I’m more than 1,000% over target (which of course only means around $450 in revenue) and thus I’m totally happy.

I would say that any writer seeking to turn Medium into a meaningful source of income needs to conform to mass journalism standards, which means a highly restricted vocabulary and sticking mostly to “received wisdom” (e.g. don’t challenge the herd beliefs of your particular audience niche). My analysis of curated articles indicates that employing a broader lexicon will reliably minimize one’s chances of curation, either because Medium’s curators are (like most people) in possession of a standard vocabulary and hate encountering words they don’t already know or, alternatively, are cognizant of the fact most readers hate to encounter words they don’t already know. Either way, sticking to the Time Magazine formula (reading age: 12 years old) is almost certainly an essential component if you wish to make significant money from this source.

Personally I love Medium as a creative outlet and I’m fortunate enough not to need the money, so I can be self-indulgent. Many are not so lucky.