But I hear you, curation doesn’t seem to have the juice that it used to. This story was curated right away but the response in middling, if steady. It’s my top earner this month but of course that’s not saying very much!

Did you know…

…that the three item list of stories that appears below your responses is randomly* selected from your curated stories, if you have any — that’s one way curation provides greater exposure — or if you don’t, other people’s? I found that out because I noticed that for the first 6 months of 2019 the same one of my stories (my first curation) was always listed under my responses and I wrote to Medium help asking, what gives? They explained it.

From what you say though your reasons for being here are similar to mine. For me the chump change at the beginning of each month is is like a bunch of claps. It means a few people liked it enough to read it. They may or may not be the same people that clapped. Either way, dopamine rush! My monthly goal is to cover my five buck subscription, if that’s what it’s called. I almost always get there.

*that is it seems random except that more recent stories seem to appear there more frequently.