First Month on Medium: 100 Followers and Beyond Update
How my first month on Medium turned out.
Hello again, everyone!
I am so excited to write this new story for you. It seems like it’s been forever since I wrote this first article about the start of my journey.
I’m sure you’re curious as to which of the tips included there are actually realistic and could be applied to your own Medium writing.
Here are the results. Enjoy!
December: Here are some goals that I’ve set for myself to stay in the productivity mindset. I know that these will be beneficial to you if you are interested in pursuing writing as a career, not a hobby. I have broken them down into categories so that you can see the different areas.
Number of followers
December Goals
- Gain 100 followers in the first two weeks
What Really Happened
- December 15th — I gained 106 followers in the first 48 hours
- January 9th — 375 followers
February Milestones
- 700 followers by the end of the month.
Notes from December: In the beginning, I didn’t care about the quality of the followers that I collected because my goal was to reach 100. Now, I’m going to change my strategy to start following and gaining followers from writers who create awesome content in my niche.
This strategy worked really well! At first, I had to read/comment on about 20 articles daily, which gained about 10 followers.
After I hit the 300 followers mark, I didn’t have to work as hard. I gained about five followers daily without any work.
I still kept reading and commenting on articles, but I decreased it down to ten per day, which gave me 5 followers.
There are quite a few articles that say the key to gaining followers is engaging and interacting with the Medium community.
I believe that is exactly right. It also ensures that your followers are people who actually want to read your work.
Writing
December Goals
- Publish 400 words daily
What Really Happened
- December 15th —I wrote about three articles per week (1500 words)
- January 9th — 24 articles written (mostly short reads)
Goal not met. I’ve found that pace is not sustainable. I’ve had to cut down my writing time to two hours daily (when the toddler is sleeping), so it ends up being closer to 200 words daily.
February Milestones
- Write at least 1,000 words weekly
- By the end of 2023 have 300 articles written
Notes from December: Most of the articles I have read say that 7-minute reads are the most popular, or between 1500–2000+ words.
I’ve found that my shorter articles made better earnings (so far!) and they took less time to write.
A lot of Medium writers say that taking your time to write longer, excellent-quality articles pays off.
It’s probably true. You can split your time, though. Take half the time to crank out some short articles, then write a little bit each day on the long article.
Which type of stories earns more on Medium? Which type of writing style? Check out the stories below about my First Month findings.
Publications
December Goals
- Apply and be accepted to 1 publication a month
- By the end of 2022 be accepted into at least 12 publications.
What Really Happened
- December 15th — Accepted into my first publication within 48 hours
- January 9th — I’ve joined 13 publications. I started off with New Writers Welcome. Next, I applied to a few small publications (under 1,000 followers).
February Milestones
- Study one of the publications with 20,000+ followers and spend a week researching and writing a really good article to submit.
When I had written more stories and gained some confidence, I applied and was accepted to a couple of other publications with a reach of 10,000+ followers.
It actually wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I did my research and read/commented on a lot of articles in the publication where I wanted to apply.
I submitted articles that fit the tone and formatting style of the publication. One story was rejected because they were looking for a different writing style. I heard back from probably 50–75% of the small publications I emailed.
Email List:
December Goals
- 10 subscribers by the end of December.
What Really Happened
- January 9th — I have three subscribers!
February Milestones
- Gain five more subscribers.
Read my update below about how things went with building my email list the first month!
December Goals
- Create a title photo for each article
- Create a Pinterest business account and join at least 10 group boards
What Really Happened
- January 9th: Pinterest hasn’t exactly bombed, but it hasn’t succeeded as well as I originally thought.
Future Milestones
- I am slowly gaining followers on Pinterest (about one per week), so I am going to continue to keep my presence there.
I haven’t had time to dedicate to Pinterest since I’ve been writing so much.
I’ve actually found that since Medium has such a large following and excellent Google ranking, it should be my focus.
Facebook: Market research focus
December Goals
- Join at least 10 groups, some in my niche and some new bloggers
What Really Happened
- December 15th — Success! They’re pretty easy to apply for.
- January 9th: 10% or less of my reads come from posting my articles on Medium writers' Facebook groups.
Future Milestones
- I will probably continue promoting, although it needs to be cut down to once weekly rather than once daily to leave more time for writing.
Since I have such a small following, I don’t believe it’s worth it. The people who read/comment from Facebook are only looking for reciprocal reads on their own stories. They don’t actually want to read my work.
I’m okay with that since I’m doing the same thing for them.
My conclusion: I’m earning more by focusing my time on writing articles rather than posting on social media.
Notes from December: Here are some other sample goals that I found in my research. These other goals will help you to grow your following and add income.
Affiliate Marketing
December Goals
- Begin making money within 4 months of signing up for Affiliates
- Write 1 affiliate article each week
What Really Happened
- January 9th: I have no information to add. I haven’t written or studied much about any of these. I’ve been too busy!
Other Random Goals from December
Author Website: All of the successful bloggers that I studied say that you need your own website if you want to be a successful writer. It will give you an ability to have complete control over your own content, make money through ads or affiliates and create your own domain/email address.
Freelance Writing: You may want to have more of a diverse online presence in order to become more well-known, especially if you are wanting to publish books or get published by magazines. This is also a good idea for freelance work.
Ebooks: You can gain even more readers by compiling your most successful articles into ebooks. You can have short reads (closer to 3,000 words) or have a longer read (10,000+ words). Advertise in your email list and create a separate landing page for your ebook.
Digital Products: This is a great way to get some sales if you don’t want to write an entire ebook. You can create printables, calendars, binders, e-courses, spreadsheets, and more.
Now, I’m sure that all of you are wondering: How much did 24 articles earn?
Two whole dollars!!
It doesn’t sound like a lot, but considering how 75% of those articles are one or two-minute reads, I’m impressed with the results.
A lot of First Month articles said that they had only made a few pennies, so I am very grateful these did so well.
My next experiment is to see which types of articles are popular in larger publications and see if an increase in the number of followers causes an increase in earnings (hopefully, it will!).
I hope this has encouraged you on your own journey and given you more information so that you can chart your own Medium writing path!
Interested in more? Subscribe to my email list so that you can find out the sequel to how things go in February.
