I Got 500 Followers in My First Month of Medium With Nothing Going Viral
One month ago I didn’t even know Medium was a writing platform.
I discovered Medium by accident.
Whenever I randomly researched Google on various topics, the only articles I loved reading were the ones on Medium. I thought — what a cool site! I had no idea everyone could be a writer.
At one point I figured out Medium was not just for readers but also for writers, and I thought — wait a minute, I also love to write! Why not me? Let’s make an account.
So I did and started writing on April 3rd. I also kept reading and noticed that some people were making money from it…Umm, how? Nobody was ever reading my articles, I was just writing for the fun of it.
The Medium Partner Program to monetize your stories! You can join if you have at least 100 followers, but I didn’t even have 1. I started from absolute 0. I had no friends, no family, nobody with a Medium account to follow my stories.
I was lost, but not for long!
Here’s what I did and you can too. Step by step and 1 day at a time.
1. Search for articles that teach you how to get your first 100 followers.
There are plenty of them.
It’s a follow-for-follow system and a very good starting point for someone who has no followers at all.
Read the article and do exactly what it says. Leave a short comment describing your writing and openly tell the other writers that you are there to get your first 100 followers. You’ll see, the comments are all very similar.
You’ll most probably see my name in there too.
2. Follow everybody in the comments.
And I mean everybody. Especially the author.
You’re all there for the same reason.
Most often than not you’ll get a follow back and you’ll see the numbers rise very fast.
These 2 steps alone should be enough to get you your first 100 followers.
But why stop there?
3. Medium allows you to follow 125 people a day. Do it.
It’s just some clicks; you’ll be able to refine your process later.
Some of these people will follow back. Some won’t and that’s ok. It’s still a good start. Don’t question why they didn’t do it, it’s their right. The important thing is that you still got some new followers and that’s what you were looking for, right?
4. Follow back everyone who follows you.
Once you start writing and following and engaging, people will start following you. They need your help just as much as you need theirs, so keep checking your followers link and follow back anyone you haven’t followed yet.
The first 4 steps were just to get you off the ground. Before anything else, you need numbers. To get your stories monetized, to feel like you’re not just barking empty words into the void, you need to see those followers numbers increasing. But guess what? So does everybody else.
That’s why I left step number 5, and the most important, for last. I want you to have it tattooed in your brain.
If all else fails, step no. 5 will get you there.
5. Read and engage.
I couldn’t emphasize this enough!
You are not here only to write but also to read.
Comment, highlight, clap! Tell your fellow writers how much you loved their work. Highlight sentences that resonated with you. Give them 50 claps at the end of the article! It matters more than anything else.
Dedicate time to this beautiful Medium community that we are creating together.
Everybody wants to be read and to be enjoyed, just like you.
Without a doubt, it’s step no. 5 that got me to 500 in 27 days.
And guess what? While I’m writing this, it got to 503!
Thank you for reading until the end and let’s keep in touch! Subscribe here to get my articles in your inbox.
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