100 Followers in Just Over a Month

The Challenge

Prior to reading this article, please scroll all the way to the bottom of this page (past the suggested articles) in order for it to be considered a “read.” Thank you! For more of an explanation, read my article Views vs. Reads on Medium:

Before you read on, the following paragraph was written, unedited, from my phone using predictive text. I swiped in the general area of the letters I wanted to use, and sometimes my phone got it right, but other times it did not. This is in response to a conversation I had with Penelope Mayfield , so please check her out. She took on a challenge to write a post, unedited, using her phone’s predictive text/auto-type. Here is my submission:

I just got 100 followers, so how what? Do I wait and watch the money till in? How hard do I need to work? I tried really hard to get the flowers that I have now. I engaged, read, coddled, resounded to stores, commented on trapped, amass searched for other writers who wrote things that in interested in and maybe writing that is similar to mine. I believe my sis have merit and will resonate with readers but that may not be enough. I’ve applied to the partnership program so u hope to hey this all started soon. Thank toy to all who have filed me so far.

Now, I’m supposed to break this down and interpret it as it is…? Hmm…

Do I wait and watch the money till in? How hard do I need to work? I tried really hard to get the flowers that I have now.

Well, I suppose watching the money till in makes some sense if it’s going into the “till.” And yes, I could refer to my followers as “flowers” as they bloom and grow from the fertilization of my words — wait…does that mean my words are like manure? Let’s move on.

I engaged, read, coddled, resounded to stores, commented on trapped, amass searched for other writers

Coddled? Well, I suppose some writers need their egos to be coddled as I compliment them. Resounded to stores? I resounded with my comments to stores full of poems and such. Commented on trapped? A captive audience, maybe. Amass searched for other writers, yes.

I believe my sis have merit and will resonate with readers

Certainly my sister has merit and would resonate with readers, but I don’t plan on talking about her in my blog posts.

I’ve applied to the partnership program so u hope to hey this all started soon.

Yes, you should definitely hope to hey that it does!

Thank toy to all who have filed me so far.

Yes, and I’ll say again thank you to all the toys and to all the people too, who have filed me away in their hearts, minds and reading lists.

Okay, enough of this nonsense! If you’d like to join in this challenge, go ahead! Please link back to Penelope Mayfield (and/or me, if you’d like).

Celebration

When I reached 100 followers on WordPress, they sent me a congratulatory message and then sent balloons and flowers to my house! Okay, that last part isn’t true, but I did get a message. Medium didn’t celebrate me 😢 so I’ll do it myself! 🥳

Appreciation

Seriously, I want to give a shout out to Lark Morrigan , who was the first person I started following on Medium and, consequently, was my first follower here when I joined. She is a very talented poet and storyteller, so please visit her blog. Also to Pierce McIntyre , who became my 100th follower. I only recently started reading his work, but he and his wife are very entertaining.

F4F Not4Me

I gained 37 followers in October and 61 followers in the first 7 days of November; and no, I did not use the infamous “follow for follow” method. I’ll admit, when I first started at the end of September, I got a few followers that way, but quickly realized that was not a good idea. Yes, you can amass a large following in a short amount of time without doing much work, but for me, that’s not the point.

I want followers who like my content, who get something out of what I write, and who will want to read more of it. F4F will get you readers initially, but how many of them will stick around? How many will read and respond to your future posts? If they took the way easy to get to 100 followers, will they really put in the time to read, comment and otherwise engage with you on this platform? I’ll wager they likely will not.

So, How Did I Do It?

I engaged, engaged, engaged. I searched for content that I was interested in. Not all of it was good, but when I found quality writing, I clapped, commented, and responded to their comments and even clapped and responded to comments they wrote on other blogs (if I agreed with them). None of this, by the way, was disingenuous; I only responded to posts or comments that I liked. I had conversations with individuals who are interesting, deep, humorous, and friendly.

Aside from that, I have writing that is good quality. I’m a talented writer, and I probably hate saying that more than you hate reading it. I am not an arrogant person, but I’m proud of some of the things I do. I’m proud of my poems, stories and articles; otherwise, I wouldn’t publish them. I’ve written some crap, but you will never see it because it will not be posted.

That’s it. That’s the big secret.

Community

I’ve been blogging on WordPress for the past couple of years and found a great community of writers. We have mutual respect for one another and always support each other’s writing, and that’s the way it should be. I was skeptical about whether I could find that here, but I’m beginning to see the potential.

Now that I’ve been accepted into the Partnership Program, I hope to continue growing my audience and maybe start earning a little income. I know it will take a while, but I’m hopeful. I know money isn’t everything, but after losing my job, I have had a difficult time finding work as a writer. I know my blogs here won’t be an overnight success, but any little bit helps.

I hope you’ll check out my other posts and remember to clap 👏 for them. I’ve been told that you can clap as many as 50 times. I don’t know if the amount of times will help boost a story toward the top of searches, but it can’t hurt. Also, please leave a comment too. I want to know what you like or don’t like. I want my content to be appealing to the readers. Tkachuk you all very midi!

Thanks for reading! If you like my posts, please follow me to see more!