Yeah, it's a crazy rollercoaster.

With more sickbag moments than genuine 'wheeeeee!' thrills.

Those boosts keep bringing in a little stream of earnings, too. Even more so after they a a few months old, it seems. A lone read+engagement can be worth a few dollars, which actually feels like something. I find it's worth pinning boosted stuff to the top of your profile page, and rotating them a little, as that's what people always read when clicking to check a writer out.

As far as getting boosts go. My perspective with a teensy bit more inside info is that 'intense personal experience/academic or professional expertise' is the big clincher for Curation, and it's best to make that clear from the first paragraph.

It feels formulaic, but they really don't spend that long reviewing each piece, and I think they want to see those boxes checked right at the start.

Either a dramatic in medias res opening ('I froze as the bottle smashed against the wall just inches from my head'), or something that establishes you as a first-person, qualified narrator/explainer ('After fifteen years working as an inner-city ambulance driver, I thought I'd seen it all').

I'll be writing up my initial thoughts on All About M in the next few days, I hope.