Since I started the project I’ve had my articles featured in a lot of really great publications, and even setup a couple of my own publications.

Recently Ben Tossell approached me about taking his MVP for newCo and building version 1.0. I’ve worked with Ben on a couple of projects, and jumped at the chance to working together again.

It was a fun talking with Ben about his vision for newCo, reviewing what he was able to do with no code and thinking about what we could build now. Ben had some really great traction for newCo, paying customers, so it made sense to think about where the project could be longer term.

This got me thinking about some of my MVPs and perhaps taking them to version 1.0.

Planning

Although I never had a big vision for Top Publications, the continued traction and slow growth of the website indicated there was a real market for information that Top Publications was offering. As people reached out to suggest publications (usually their own 😀) I tried to talk with as many as I could. I asked them some simple questions: Why where they visiting Top Publications? Why did they want to list their publication? What could I improve?

As I discussed the site with more people, 3 distinct trends appears.

Where do I stand?

Since there is no official Medium leaderboard of publications, publication owners were curious where they stood. How their follower numbers compared with others, globally and in their specific niche.

Where can I submit?

Like myself other authors on Medium where looking for publications to share their writing. We often know about one or two publications that might be appropriate for our article, but being able to compare the reach of those publications and to be made aware of other publications that might be a good fit to expose our writing to more readers is important.

What’s good to read?

We all consume more than we create, users are curious of just what is out there on Medium. While Medium does a good job of surfacing high quality original content, seeing a list of publications in specific niches not just individual articles is a good way to find more great content to read.