I Gained Almost 10,000 Followers in One Month and I Wish I Didn’t

Dead followers mean nothing

It is something too complex to understand but then again it is also something I would like to get rid of. It sounds complicated and it surely is. The algorithm of the online world.

But then again isn’t it just easy and straightforward? Gain followers, that way you will gain views and with more views, you’ll automatically earn more money.

Unfortunately not. Not anymore at least. Articles advertising “How to Get More Followers” are being ignored by me. Even more, they are being hated by me. Because they lead to false hopes.

More followers do not lead to more views.

More followers do not lead to a higher income.

You don’t believe me? Then listen to my story.

The year my follower numbers skyrocketed

It was a few days past the 1st of Jan 2021 when I was celebrated hitting 1,000 followers. That was a milestone I had been working towards since I joined Medium in April 2020.

I worked hard. I read a lot. I wrote even more. I learned how to edit and proofread my own work. I experimented with photos. And with my voice. Until I came to the result to just be who I am and write what I think.

But just 3 months later I had doubled already my follower number. I reached 2,000 followers by the end of March. It seemed a bit unreal after I had been working so hard on getting my first one thousand. But I celebrated it.

Even though there was something starting to feel off. Sometime during February this year, my numbers were starting to skyrocket. Unrelated to how much I’d write, how much I’d publish, and especially unrelated to how many views my articles would get.

My follower numbers just kept on rising. And they kept on rising so much, I couldn’t and wouldn’t believe in those numbers anymore. By the end of May this year I was at 10,000 followers.

Ten thousand followers.

Let that sink in.

Now you probably are thinking, this is awesome. What am I complaining about? People all across media are dreaming of getting such high follower numbers.

I was still celebrating it. I wrote an article on it. I wrote an article on what I was doing to grow my audience. I wrote about engagement, my writing journey, and whatever else I thought led to this huge gain in followers.

(It is my biggest earner to this day. I am kind of ashamed of it. I wish it’d be about travel, nature writing, or something else instead.)

The moment I realized something was off

But part of it was a lie. Because yes, I was engaging with my readers. And yes, I was writing a lot. But I never, not once, had an article even just slightly go viral. Therefore, I not once made a mentionable amount of money off my writing.

Of course, we’re all not here for the money. Except for, we are. Sure, we write because it is our passion. But for all those hours of hard work we do put into this we would love to get paid for it as well. Preferably more than 10 cents per hour.

This was around the time Medium announced they were doing a thorough search through the platform getting rid of bots and fake followers. Publications such as Illumination lost about 100.000 followers. Some writers lost a few hundred, others a few thousand.

I was sure the same was going to happen to me. I just stayed in the back. I remained quiet. I was waiting and checking my numbers every day. But my follower numbers only knew one direction. Up.

I gave it time before I decided to dare the big step.

I contacted Medium to please delete my fake followers.

I was scared, a bit afraid, but also hopeful of their response. And their response was the opposite of everything I had expected. I was really disappointed even though their words should have been uplifting.

“We looked into your account, and you are being presented on many surfaces as a suggested account to follow.”

Well, that’s great. My account is distributed across Medium. But apparently, not my articles. People click on my profile, see the headlines and decide to follow me because I do seem like an interesting person. But then they never see anything anymore from me.

Great. Absolutely useless for me.

However. That was how far I was going to go. What should I have replied to them anyway? Please, I want more money? I want to get paid for my dead followers?

Seriously, it s***.

Distracting yourself

I learned to ignore follower numbers. I tried not looking at them anymore but I got constantly reminded of it. Loyal readers of mine would comment on it and congratulate me.

If they would only know!

I went back to my usual business. I’m not writing about writing. Not much at least. That’s probably why I’m not earning a lot either. Writing about writing on Medium sells.

I am very sad about it but my best earners are all about writing. Every month I have a different article as my biggest earner and they are almost always about travel, my life, or other inspirational words. But in the long term, only the pieces about writing continue bringing in money.

Is that really all we want to read about?

My loyal readers tell me they love hearing about my adventures in Africa. They enjoy my nature photography and the narrative that comes with it. They also enjoyed my documentation of the last days of my grandma and learning from her life remedies. Even the editors of Curious did and published my first article for them.

But only a tiny fraction of my now almost 50,000 followers are reading my words. Not even talking about views.

And just when I thought I was doing well with ignoring all those facts, a writer friend told me:

I’ve got more followers than Sinem Günel

I wasn’t even surprised to hear what Kristina had to tell me. I might have a number on my profile indicating I have more followers than her but my earnings are just a small percentage of hers.

I’m following Sinem and her newsletter and know she made last month $2,500 with just one article. Well, I published over 20 articles but I’m ashamed to tell you how much I made with it.

I’m just before hitting 50,000 followers. I’m just missing about 250 followers. I’ll probably hit that tomorrow. Or by the time this article gets published. Because followers are coming that quick.

But only a fraction of them reads my work. If you want to know how big of a fraction — well, it’s less than one percent. My most viewed article in October got 300 views. That is 0,6 percent of 50,000.

Let that sink it.

The algorithm

And that is now where the algorithm is working against me. Since most of my followers must be dead followers or bots or at least they aren’t getting shown my work the algorithm thinks my articles are bad quality.

If you got 50,000 followers and less than one percent decides to click on the article not even talking about staying and reading the piece, they won’t distribute it any further.

It’s obviously not worth it.

Maybe they’re right. My articles are surely not as good as those of Sinem. And I’m surely not as good of a writer as her. Plus, I’m not writing about writing. But, my work is surely better than being ignored by the online world.

I know that much. Those readers who click on my articles mostly read them as well. And a huge percentage of them also leave me comments or short notes.

The percentage of engagement is quite high in my work. If you only count those clicking on your work. But that is unimportant for the algorithm. I got 50,000 followers and not even one percent reads my work.

Off, in the corner with you.

Final words

Not sure what I wanted to achieve with this piece. It surely sounds like a rant thread. Because it probably is a rant. Everybody needs to rant from time to time.

But this is also a wake-up call for all those of you seeing a weird increase in follower numbers. And it should also be a wake-up call for all those writing about how to gain followers. Followers aren’t everything anymore.

Tim Denning recently wrote about why he deleted his Twitter account and how the algorithm now works in his favor. Yep, I know what you mean Tim. I surely do. But deleting my Medium Profile isn’t an option. Then I’d lose all my previously written work. Surely not worth it.

Or, is it?

Maybe you think differently about this. I would love to know your thoughts on this. Are you experiencing a similar increase in numbers? Please let me know in the comments below.

My most viewed articles in October:

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