I've had a few of my articles boosted and generally speaking they do perform better than non-boosted articles - more reads and more money.

But here's the thing. Since the Boost program was introduced, my top two articles, which have had way more reads than any others in that time period, and made more money too, were NOT boosted.

So you don't need to be boosted to have a successful article, but it helps.

As for how to get boosted, most of my boosted articles were in publications whose owner/editor is a Boost Nominator. This definitely helps, rather than waiting and hoping for Medium to pick up your article themselves