03 · How Medium decides who sees your story, in plain words¶
Sources for every line: reference/medium-facts.md.
Three levels¶
| Level | Who sees it | How you get there |
|---|---|---|
| Network | People who follow you, and followers of the publication it's in | Any story that breaks no rule. Undisclosed AI writing stays here |
| General | Readers matched by topic and by the writers and publications they follow | Medium's system decides; useful, clear stories in followed topics |
| Boost | Many more readers: home page, emails, apps | Picked by people (Medium's curators, about half nominated by publication editors) against the Boost guidelines |
Not distributed at all: sponsored content, content marketing, stories whose only purpose is signups or traffic, and link farms. A post about your product is content marketing. A tutorial that solves a reader's problem, where your product appears once as one honest option, is not.
What that means for you¶
- Publications are the shortcut. A new account has no followers; a publication brings its own readers and its editors are the ones who nominate for Boost (06).
- Topics matter. Up to 5 per story. Pick the topics your readers follow, most specific first.
- First lines matter. Readers decide in the first screen; a read only counts for earnings after 30 seconds.
- Fresh matters for Boost. Stories older than 6 months can't be nominated, so the first weeks count.
- Traffic from outside helps. Reads from search, social and email earn more in the Partner Program; sharing your story on X, Reddit (where allowed) and your newsletter is expected, not cheating.
What Medium doesn't publish¶
The exact ranking for General distribution and how curators weigh signals. Anything claiming a formula ("X claps in the first hour = Boost") is a guess.