Why Your Medium Articles Fail to Get Boosted | Interview with Walter Rhein
How to write Boost-worthy stories and go from flailing around to getting nominated for a Boost.
Medium has just reached 1 million paying members.
On the buzzy publishing platform substance is more important than attention.
It’s a platform for HUMAN writing with 110 human Boost nominators.
He has been writing long enough that he still remembers stuffing submissions into envelopes and sending them off.
He has 20 years of experience as an editor, journalist, blogger, and novelist.
He has 10 years of experience as a certified teacher.
46,000 followers on Medium.
He has his own column in “The Writing Cooperative” one of the top 10 publications on Medium.
Do you want to learn from a real boost expert with high standards and expertise?
Then, Walter is your man.
He devotes most of his time to writing, and also is a caring family man.
He has…
proof of work
a heap of experience in reading and reviewing
experience as editor for “Cultured” and “Write and Review”
been Boosted multiple times per month.
Here are Walter’s Medium stats from March 2024:
12 Boosted stories! (You can tell by the circle with the upward arrow)
That’s freaking BONKERS!
This is Walter’s all time top earner from 2023:
In addition, Walter occasionally helps new and aspiring authors (for free as a service) to make their stories “Boost-worthy”.
I know that he also helped my friend and solo creator
to get Boosted.Walter’s growth on Substack
Walter experienced tremendous growth not only on Medium, but also on Substack, where he is growing rapidly.
Inside our “Online Writing School” community he shared this WOW-worthy screenshot with us:
His biggest growth driver was joining the “Notes Club” and taking advantage of Substack Notes, the internal social media site of Substack.
Several of his posts on Notes went “viral” with thousands of likes.
As I always say, it's not about either or, it's about “and”.
Substack and Medium can be in one ecosystem.
They are like peanut butter and jelly.
They go together perfectly.
New VIDEO: How to Get Your Medium Articles Boosted 🥳 🚀
So in today’s interview we not only talk about Medium and how to go from failing to succeeding on the platform by writing “Boost-worthy” stories.
We also talk about how to combine writing on both platforms, take advantage of Notes and Substack to build and grow an email list.
Here are some takeaways:
The whole idea of Medium is that it's one of the best platforms for somebody who doesn't have a following to get seen.
Medium is looking for original stories and images. Walter draws his featured images.
Boosts helps, but your stories can earn well on Medium even if they aren’t Boosted.
Boost is a human driven program. That’s the beauty of it. It means the decisions are made by actual human beings. A consequence of that initiative that we all have to accept is that human beings don’t always agree.
Working with Boost requires a fluid mindset. Frustration is not a productive emotion for a writer, so Walter tries to quickly turn negative energy into something more beneficial.
Writers have to understand and accept that if Boost feels inconsistent at times, that’s because it’s working.
Boost is changing. It used to be that nommers would pick stories from everywhere, from self-published and smaller pubs, but now you don't want to. So Walter is being more proactive and finding writers that he thinks have a good story to tell that don't necessarily understand the resources that are available.
and already watched our in-depth interview which people watch for about 10 minutes (!):
Upcoming LIVE event - Meet Walter Rhein Live and ask your questions
I’m thrilled to announce this week’s LIVE session!
LIVE session inside our "Be Seen & Read on Medium and Substack" with Boost Nommer & Top Writer Walter Rhein - with Q&A; Tuesday, May 7
07:00 PM - 08:00 PM CEST
We’ll talk about…
Medium
Boost requirements
disqualifying format errors
title, subtitle, featured image
Substack
combining Medium and Substack
capitalizing on Notes
when to go paid and what to offer
LIVE Q&A
But wait there’s more.
If you upgrade and become a paid member you also can meet Sarah Fay and David Mcllroy LIVE this month.
WOW! This is May, my friend!
We’re more than 140 members now and I’m thankful for every single one.
We’re building the RADDEST “Online Writing School” together with live session, Q&As, tutorial videos plus 1:1 coachings for members.
I get you and I got you, my friend!
Thank you Kristina! I had so much fun doing this interview! I hope the information is helpful, and I'm happy to answer follow up questions!
So interesting re Medium and the Boost program!
It's also great to see that stories without a boost can do great.
That one story that made 2K+ in one month is amazing.
Great duo you 2 🙌🏼