3 Things New Writers Need to Consider When Building an Audience on Medium
Sift through conflicting advice quickly to grow your audience.
As a new writer, it’s natural to want to listen to the advice of others.
Many writers on Medium have built up large audiences, made considerable money, and have great influence. It’s only natural to want to be like them.
Advice on how to succeed is everywhere on Medium.
There are articles and publications on how to gain followers, how to build an audience, how to get accepted into the Medium Partner Program, and what to do after you reach 100 followers.
But sadly, not all advice is good on Medium.
As a new writer, I’ve had to quickly figure out what is helpful and what should be considered suspect.
Based on what I’ve learned so far, here are 3 things new writers need to consider when building an audience on Medium.
1. Building an audience takes effort and there are no shortcuts.
If you are like me, you started writing on Medium with zero followers. Building followers is the only way to build an audience when starting from zero.
To do this, you must start writing before anyone notices you. While there is tremendous freedom in not being noticed initially, if you want to be a paid writer, you will need an audience. If you need your first follower, check out the article below.
Many first-time writers participate in the follow-for-follow method. Basically, you follow me and I will follow you back.
However, purists say that good writing should stand on its own and you should gain followers organically without the follow-for-follow method.
While I do not disagree that writing great content must be our main goal, it seems getting noticed on Medium takes more than good writing. After reading over 300 stories in just two months, I can say with certainty that there are a lot of great writers on Medium.
But monthly Medium-platform statistics paint a better picture than just my reading history.
According to J.J. Pryor, there are 175,000 writers on Medium, and a staggering 1,385,000 stories are written each month.
Yes, you may get noticed simply for being a great writer. I am not going to say you won’t. But with 1,385,000 stories published each month, you will get noticed a lot faster if you build up an audience.
In my opinion, the keys to building an audience on Medium are simple.
You must write regularly, read often, comment thoughtfully, clap vigorously, connect regularly, and follow other writers. I have been able to organically achieve 500 followers in just two months using the method I just described.
2. The follow-for-follow method will yield mixed results.
The follow-for-follow method on Medium can be challenging. On one hand, it works. Many people will follow you if you follow them.
But on the other hand, it’s been my experience that some people will want you to follow them, and as soon as you do, they promptly unfollow you! Not cool.
The good news is that people on Medium followed me, stayed with me, read my stories, commented, and genuinely connected. I am incredibly grateful for their support!
I’ve made new friends and learned from others, and it has made me love being a part of the Medium community. So, for me, the follow-for-follow method works.
Your follower number matters a great deal when you are starting out and need 100 followers to be approved for the Medium Partner Program. After that, your follower number becomes your audience.
3. Do your homework on follow-for-follow articles.
I noticed something odd early on and wondered if I was the only one until I read a story from D.W. Nickerson.
There are many stories on Medium from writers stating they will follow you if you follow them — basically follow-for-follow.
As new writers, D.W. and I read those stories and were curious enough to look at the writer’s profile. We both noticed something surprising.
Certain people who wrote “follow-for-follow” stories had inverted followers to following numbers. Meaning the number of people who followed them was much higher than the number of people they were following.
For example, one author of a “follow for follow” story had 1,000 followers but was only following 150 people. Realistically, if you truly followed everyone who followed you, the number would be the same. Right?
Here is an example of where to find the followers/following number on my page. On the right is my profile picture. Directly under it is my current “followers” number. Directly under that is who I am following and the “see all” following number.
You can also find the followers/following number at the bottom of my “About” page. There, you can see who is a Medium member as well.
As you can see below, I am following many more people than those who follow me. So, I do follow everyone who follows me. Plus, I love reading their stories. It’s a win-win!
To be fair, an explanation for the anomaly could simply be some stories are old and a writer may have decided to abandon the follow-for-follow method for another method of their choosing.
As mentioned before, the key to success on Medium is to write great content, connect with others, and keep honing your craft.
Closing Thoughts
Medium is full of opportunities for writers to grow, connect, and earn money. However, as a new writer, it’s important to carefully consider the advice you receive on the platform and ultimately find what works best for you.
Building an audience takes time and effort, but it’s a crucial step toward success on Medium.
So keep writing, keep learning, and keep growing. Who knows, you just might be the next Tim Denning on Medium!
P.S. Hey Medium friends, thanks so much for taking the time to read this post all the way to the end. If you enjoyed it, please give it a few claps so others can find it. Also, remember to click that follow button because I always follow people who follow me. Plus, every day I pick stories to read from my followers. If you are not a member yet and this is your last free Medium article, subscribe today using my referral link to sign up. What are you waiting for? Medium is amazing, and it’s less than $5 a month (cancel anytime).
