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Get this right or people will scroll right past your article on Medium

I don’t care how great you think your Medium article is

Author

Tari Ibaba
April 12, 2025

Featured content

I don’t care how great you think your Medium article is.

If your featured image isn’t good enough, you will lose. Much more often than not.

They say first impressions last and guess what: this is first thing anyone scrolling through Medium is going to see.

You just can’t it wrong.

It’s the chief invitation to your article and it’s not something to treat like an afterthought.

But too many writers treat it like an afterthought—picking something generic, irrelevant, or worse, ugly.

Which ends up losing them crucial views and clicks and reads.

And your earnings end up being much lower than they could have been.

  • Stops the scroll: Your image shows up in Medium feeds, search results, newsletters, and social shares. A strong image increases click-through rates dramatically.

  • Sets the tone: A good image tells the reader what mood to expect—playful, serious, professional, emotional, etc.

  • Boosts branding: Over time, your image style can become part of your signature—especially if you write frequently in a niche.

1. Relevance

Your image must relate to your article. Not in a boring or literal way—but in a way that complements or amplifies the core idea.

Here my article was about a coding tool so I used a screenshot of the tool in action as the featured image -- drawing tons of attention and intrigue:

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Writers, you're going to want to read this.

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Thanks for taking the time to read today’s issue.

Kind regards,
Tari Ibaba