5 actionable tips to get more followers on Medium

How I Got to My First 1K Followers on Medium

Honestly, it might have been an accident.

The number of followers you have doesn’t mean anything. The only meaning I can draw from a follower count is that I’ve been writing for a little while.

After publishing and writing at least twice a week (if not almost every day) for a year and a half, hopefully, I wouldn’t still have three followers!

Why the fascination with the number 1,000? I don’t really know. But I feel accomplished reaching such a milestone. Medium isn’t for the faint of heart. It isn’t easy to gain traction on Medium, and sometimes trying to figure out how to reach milestones can be hard and your efforts can seem fruitless for a while. That’s how I felt. Here’s my take on my first 1K followers and some tips on how you can reach that milestone as well.

You know how one dog year is like seven human years? Well, one Medium follower is like 500,000 followers on any other social media platform.

So if you’ve made it this far or are working towards 500 followers hats off to you!

Let’s admit it. Being on Medium is not all about followers, it’s about what we write, but who doesn’t love boasting a couple more followers, am I right? ;)

How to get more followers (the right way)

The old way is to follow-unfollow people. No one likes that. Medium doesn’t. Your new followers won’t. This method works to earn a few folks, but over time it’ll just get you banned or ignored by the algorithm.

There’s a better way to get followers.

1. Medium Responses

Writing Medium responses can draw thousands of views to your page. I decided to challenge myself to write at least one thoughtful comment each day. The results will flood your stats.

I challenge you that every time you read an engaging article, you’ll take another minute to comment or expand the discussion.

I have to say that “great story” or “I agree” are nice comments, and every writer loves to hear that, but it won’t drive much traffic to your page.

Use a different approach. Ask a good question, provide value for others. When you provide value for others, they might be more inclined to check out your other work. I’d do the same. Whenever I find something helpful from an author, I tend to search for his other work. When you like a film with Johnny Deep, you might search for other movies with him in the lead role.

The idea behind this approach is the same. You write a comment that others might find value in, and they click on your name to check your other work.

Here’s how to get started:

• Open Editor’s Pick or Popular on Medium page.
• Browse the stories, and find something you’re interested in (you won’t have a problem with it as there are many interesting stories here.)
• Read the story A to Z (don’t skim and go straight for the comment. You might embarrass yourself if the author has already addressed your concern in the article.)
• Write a thoughtful response.
• Design the response to resemble a short story. You can add titles, photos, and bold text.

This is pretty much it. This marketing tool is fun, lucrative, and you’ll learn a lot. You’ll also connect with other authors on the platform.

Responses are structured like Medium stories. You can do everything except place it behind the paywall.

The Only Downside

Response views are tangled with ones from your published stories. Such a system can create confusion. And you might wake up one day to 5K extra views that didn’t come from your paid stories. (Don’t celebrate just yet.)

You might ask yourself why can’t you put responses behind a paywall. Good question. I believe Medium should address this issue. Earning money from responses might help this community thrive even further.

For now, you can benefit from responses in indirect ways.

2. Write From Your Heart

People get glued to your writing through emotion. Many writers write with emotion, but they don’t use their own hearts.

The strategy is simple: When you have a bad day and want to cry, bottle up the emotion, and then spit it back out as a story.

When you lose a loved one, write about it. Take people through an experience or a story that is relatable. We’ve all dealt with heartache, loss, disappointment, discrimination, etc. Write about it and put us inside your head.

When a reader jumps in a writer’s head for a moment, they have the opportunity to hear that writer and then overcome their own adversity.

You should also write stories that work. If you want people to read your work, you’ve got to meet them where they want their content. Not what you think they should read. Look at your stories that work. Write more of those and fewer of the ones people hate.

3. Write Frequently

Write When You Feel Like It. And When You Don’t. The more content you create, the more opportunities you’ll have of someone reading your content.

There will be many times when you won’t feel like writing or you’re not sure what to write about. Write a list of headlines. See which one grabs you. Then try to write one sentence under the headline.

If you follow this strategy, you’ll see how all writing begins: with one sentence. So if you don’t feel like it, it’s okay. Come home with a headache and write one sentence. Watch how quickly you’ll forget about your headache.

4. Make Friends With Other Writers

The writers you come up with are the next writers of our generation.

They are the ones who proofread your work, introduce you to book publishers, help you make a few dollars on the side, partner with you to launch a product, tell you how to create an email list, and refer you to publications.

Writing is not a competition between writers.

The best followers are other writers.

5. Spend time on Medium

When I take time away from Medium my traffic (and my income) gets sliced in half. When I jump back on, Medium rewards me with some love. They want you to return and feed the content machine. Daily content is what keeps readers returning to the platform. If you stay active, Medium will share your stories with more readers, which gives you the opportunity for more readers to follow you.

It makes sense, doesn’t it?

Start out by following big-time (and not-so-big-time) writers you like (and you should).

You can look at hot stories in your niche and follow active users who hit the clap button.

Followers don’t make you special. I won’t be given any award-winning speeches with a list of credits at the end.

One thousand followers feels like 100,000 followers. As long as you have one person reading, then you’re being helpful, writing has nothing to do with followers.

Writing on the internet can take your life to many places you could never have imagined. Some places will be dream house of 10 years, and others will be haunted houses full of ghosts who want to steal your writing pens.

The way to reach 1,000 followers is to give up the follower game.

Write as many times per week as you can and keep the reader at the center of everything you do.

Follow your writing aspirations and see where they take you. You’ve got nothing to lose.

Now you shouldn’t obsess over metrics. But we all do obsess over it — even especially me.

Stats are somewhat of recognition of your work. The answers to how many eyes have seen your message and how many people agree are in the stats. Stats are essential. But you shouldn’t look at them frantically every 10 minutes.

Stats should be your tool, not your metric of success.

Followers are important, but your words and writing are more important.