How I Gained +15,000 Followers on Medium in Less Than 10 Months
Here’s an honest overview of everything I did and the bullshit strategies I avoided.
I started this year with less than 3,000 followers on Medium.
Today, I’m close to 20,000.
And even though your follower count barely tells anything about the quality of your work or how much money you make on Medium, more followers is what a lot of beginners aim for.
If done correctly, genuine followers, of course, make your life a lot easier because these are the people who come back to your stories and support you through claps, comments, or even shares.
So let’s get straight into it — here’s everything I did in the past 11 months to gain more than 15,000 followers:
I published +200 articles
If you opened this post hoping for a magic cure or a quick fix to gain thousands of followers overnight, I need to disappoint you.
There is no quick way to build a genuine audience.
Nobody will follow you if there’s no reason to do so. Makes sense, right?
And if you don’t create good content consistently, there’s no reason to hit your follow button.
Yes, quality matters but so does quantity.
On Medium, you’re competing against thousands of other writers every day.
And the most overlooked truth is that someone with 100k followers wants the same thing as someone with 10 followers: More eyeballs on their stories.
And if person A and person B are writing equally good stories, the person who shows up more frequently will always outperform the other.
Success is a numbers game: The more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it. Easy peasy.
And one of the main reasons most people who write on Medium will never see significant results is because they’re not willing to go the extra mile.
They believe their work is great as it is and don’t want to adapt to the rules of the platform. And they don’t put in enough hours of practice and work.
I wrote my first story on Medium in July 2018 and published almost 400 unique pieces ever since. Not to talk about more than 2,000 responses I wrote to interact with other writers and readers.
My success here is no coincidence but the result of:
- Studying the rules of the platform for months.
- Learning from various resources.
- And doing the damn work for two freaking years.
And the primary reason why I managed to make five figures on Medium in a single month and built a crazy amount of followers in such a short time is that I did the damn work consistently.
I published 28 stories in January 2020.
34 stories in February.
And 35 stories in March.
There are very few writers who published more than me for the first six months of 2020.
What you should do:
Stop believing in “luck” or waiting for the perfect time to do the work and just do it.
As the Chinese saying goes:
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
Of course, the best time to start writing on Medium was five years ago.
The first people on a platform always benefit from taking the risk of trying the unknown, but the second-best time to get started is now.
New writers are joining the platform every day, and the earlier you do the work and build your catalog of stories, the better for you.
Stop looking for excuses about why you don’t have time or can’t write and just do the damn work.
Opportunities always come to those who put effort into their dreams. And the most effective strategy you can follow to grow your audience on Medium is writing.
I replied to every comment for 6 months
In December 2019, I decided to take Medium more seriously in 2020. This also included responding to every single comment on my articles.
And I did that for more than six months. I literally replied to everyone who left a reply to my work, no matter if positive or negative.
While this might sound incredibly time-consuming, it’s actually not.
But what this did is strengthening the bond between my followers and me.
I know that most big writers don’t even read their comments, so I decided to do it differently. And I know that many of my followers feel deeply connected to me because of the conversations we had after they left comments.
And if people feel like they know you, they’re likelier to support you through claps and comments, but they also share your work.
What you should do:
If you’re a beginner, you won’t get many comments anyway and responding to the few you receive barely takes more than five to ten minutes per day.
Replying to comments won’t change your stats or earnings overnight, but it’s a long-term approach to building a genuine following of people who are truly interested in you and your work.
If you’re here for the long-term gains, make sure to connect with your audience.
I know what I’m talking about
I get at least two messages per week from people who ask me what they should write about.
And even though defining your niche can sometimes be a lengthy process, you’ll fail miserably if you want to write without knowing why you want to write and what you have to share.
Medium is full of unsolicited advice shared by unjustified writers who have no clue what they’re talking about.
Thousands of people write about personal development because they think it’s the way to success. It’s not.
I write about personal growth because I’ve worked with thousands of people in my seminars, workshops, and online courses. I’m a certified coach, hosted +50 workshops, and created dozens of courses on the topics I write about.
I can write about confidence, productivity, and mental wellbeing because I helped hundreds of people to be more confident, productive, and mindful in real life.
If I give advice, I know that it works because it’s what I’ve been doing with my clients for years.
It’s the same with all other topics I write about: I can talk about business because I’m running a 6-figure online business.
I can write about writing because I’m one of the best-earning writers on Medium and because I’m writing for some pretty dope brands outside of Medium.
If you’re writing about all these topics without having much to say, you’re exchangeable.
You might hit a viral article or two, but your success won’t be durable because people always sense who’s credible and who isn’t.
To build a following that’s genuinely interested in you and your work, you need to stop doing what everybody else is doing and start asking yourself how you can serve an audience with your unique background and experiences.
What you should do:
Stop going after trends and writing about “popular” topics. Find your own voice and niche.
If you’re writing about common topics hoping to get more views without having much to say, all you’ll get is a lot of competitors.
And the truth is that you’ll have a hard time when competing against people who actually know what they’re talking about.
Why? Well,
A) because big publications are being more and more selective about what they publish (and you definitely need major publications if you’re trying to build an audience)
and B) because someone who knows what they talk about will always outperform you because they have more time to focus on great writing while you’ll need to first study the topic you write about and have less time to work on titles, structure, etc.
So stop being a copy and ask yourself how you can serve the world in your unique way.
What I didn’t do
If someone’s telling you to follow other people hoping they’ll follow you back or to share your articles on social media to get additional views, run.
These are both bullshit strategies.
Sharing your articles on social media is nonsense unless you have a huge following. And even if you have a million followers on the socials, sharing your posts will probably lead to a few extra views but nothing more.
Your friends and family aren’t interested in your articles. And even if they were, their views won’t help you to grow your audience on Medium.
Following thousands of people and sharing your articles on small social profiles is nothing more than a waste of time.
And the worst thing is that these strategies make you feel as if you’re actually working while all you’re doing is trying to bullshit yourself.
If you’re serious about growing your readership and income as a writer, write.
And eliminate all these little, stupid to-do’s that are nothing more than a form of procrastination that feels productive but certainly isn’t.
The most crucial thing you need to know if you want to succeed here is differentiating the necessary from the unnecessary tasks. By doing so, you won’t only save a lot of time but also stay sane in the long run.
Long story in short: There’s no quick way to gain thousands of followers on Medium. And if there was one, you could bet that followers wouldn’t matter.
I see people trying to fake their follower counts every single day. But the truth is that fake followers won’t benefit you anyway.
You shouldn’t be after a certain number of followers, but after creating as much value as possible because that’s the only way to stay in the game for long enough.
By the way, did you know that I have a free 5-day course where I teach you how to make more money on Medium?
