I Followed Every Writer On Medium

How come I’m still tanking?

On December 28, 2019, I had 90 fans a day easy, and my earnings poked a hole in the roof.

I got this, I said, as I picked out the color for my new Lamborghini I’d buy with my next few paychecks.

In January 2020? For sure, I’d hit a hundred fans a day. After that, the sky’s the limit. I’d be an influencer on Medium. All the pubs would come at me shaking contracts for columns in my face. Zora would want me even though I’m white. ___would make an exception for a doddering little old lady slightly over the hill.

All because I had the secret to success on Medium. Follow 20 new readers a day and you’re gold someone wrote. Guaranteed.

So, I did it. I followed and followed. Every day, I added 20 new Medium folks to my following column. I was even following the janitor until he threatened to file a stalking complaint against me.

After a while, I didn’t have to go begging for followers. They came unbidden. Up and up went my numbers until I hit 1K followers, then 2K. And as my followers increased, so did the Franklins every month.

Watch out, Shannon Ashley I said to myself. I’m coming for you.

And when the new year dawned, I got a nosebleed from the heights my followers had hit. My earnings? Fuggedaboudit, I said, kicking back and buffing my nails as I watched them soar every day.

Until they began to sink.

Around the fifth of January. Just a little every day. Seasonal funk, I thought. Holiday hangover. They’ll come back up tomorrow once everything gets back in the groove.

But when my stats hit the toilet, and there was no water to flush, I knew what I had to do. Do what you do best, dude. Follow some new writers. They’ll follow you back, and then, well, you know the drill.

And that’s when my nightmare began.

I scanned the list of people who’d recently clapped for my articles. Pro tip: make sure you follow your clappers. Well, oops. I’d already followed them.

Another pro tip: follow your followers’ followers. So I started opening their articles and going down the list of their clappers. Yeah, I had pretty much nailed all of them, too, back in my newbie days, when I’d follow anyone with a pulse, just to increase my stats.

No worries. Look for new writers, I thought. How about all the new arrivals in the Facebook groups? The moderators are always touting new members. So I scanned the lists, but sure enough, I’d already followed them, too.

Well, damn, I said to myself. If all these people are already following me, how come they aren’t reading my stuff? Why are my earnings underwater if everybody and their drunk stylist follows me?

Got it! I need to troll new waters.

Get thyself into genres you don’t normally read, I said. I had to find writers out of my zip code. People I’ve never heard of, so I started following them. They’ll follow me back, I reasoned, just like in the early days, and start reading my brilliant articles. Bam. My earnings will start to pay the rent again.

Do they give out awards for brilliance on Medium. Because, I asked modestly, where do I sign up? I just hacked the key to hacking Medium.

I went on a follow binge. I followed everyone in FinTec, whatever that is. I clicked so many names in neuroscience they almost gave me an honorary degree. Dr. Page. I liked the sound of that, but did it increase my reads and earnings? Not a whit.

On to Fashion and LGBTQ. After all, I like my threads, and I’m nothing if not woke.

Or so I thought, but still no movement on reads or fans.

So back to the hunt for new follows. Click, click, click, the sound of me chugging new follows into my stable of potential readers had the neighbors yelling, “Keep it down!”

So, how come I wasn’t getting a response to all my follow action? I needed an answer and sent a text to my friend. What up? I said, attaching a screenshot of my numbers. I follow all these people, and all I get is crickets on my reads, I complained.

Seriously, she said? How can you engage with all those people?

Huh? I drew a blank. Engage?

Oh, frig me. I forgot the big piece about follows. You can wear your index finger down to a bloody stump clicking on every reader on Medium. But unless you read their work, leave thoughtful comments, and engage with them if they respond to you, they’ll spot you for the troll you are.

What? Me a troll? When you collect follows like they’re baseball cards? What else would you call them?

If you just drop your big follow numbers to impress your friends, but have no intention of following for the right reason — to read and engage, to comment and support — then nobody will trust your profile, your content, your intentions.

I learned that my first week on Medium. But in the glow of my early success, I’d forgotten the basics. If I wanted to pull myself out of the hole, then I had to start doing the work to get real engagement.

So I hunkered down in my favorite chair with my favorite cuppa. I opened my profile and clicked on my follows, prepared to start reading the writers I’d been clicking the last few weeks. That’s when I facepalmed myself so hard I almost gave myself a black eye.

I had more follows than Medium had members. What was I thinking? How am I going to read all those articles? Where do I start? Who among them are writing the stories I like to read?

Karma has no sense of humor. This is what I get for my indiscriminate clicking on the green rectangles.

Moral of the story: If you’re not going to read it, don’t follow it. Because you’ll never remember who’s writing what when you want to connect with a reader. How do I know?

I’ll tell you after I read an article or a thousand. Maybe by then, I’ll get noticed again.

I’m an editor and writer on Medium with Top Writer status in several categories. I’m also an editor for the publication, Rogues Gallery. I’ve published 55 titles on Amazon and edit for private clients. If you’d like to hire me as your editor for fiction, non-fiction, or business writing, please contact me here. If you’d like to read more of my work on Medium, click here to sign up for my newsletter. I’ll make sure you don’t miss a word. Thank you for reading.