Similar stuff happened to me as well. My very first article on Medium was picked up by The StartUp.

To this day, I haven’t been featured on any Medium sponsored publication.

And even that doesn’t help all that much. Because this is how the algo works. There is just too much stuff out there for the algo to give a good bump to your viewership.

The trick is to do everything. Get published. Engage with other readers and get them to follow you. Read more, like, upvote, share. And hope for the best.

If anyone tells you differently, its nothing else but survivor bias.

P.S. My content is good quality. But I’m not a popular writer on Medium. I’m okay with it. ☺