I Have 5K Followers. Why Do I Want More?

I’m not greedy, I’m facing a hard truth. Follow me and I’ll tell you what it is.

When I cut the cord with Comcast, I pulled the plug. On everything– the modem, the router, the cords, and any other dohickeys that hooked me up to the 300 TV channels I never watched that made $200 dent in my budget every month.

That was probably about the same time I stopped writing regularly on Medium. But I didn’t cut any cords. I didn’t delete my membership or take down any of my articles. I didn’t wipe my name from the Medium universe the way I did with my cable subscription.

I just stopped writing fewer and fewer articles each week so that, in time, Medium stopped paying me rent money and instead sent me a pittance each month.

In the end, I barely earned enough for my membership fee.

When I decided to re-energize myself in early March and began my personal challenge to write 30 articles in 30 days, I learned a harsh truth. It wasn’t my grandmother’s Medium anymore.

I didn’t post a story and automatically get 300 reads.

Sure, I still had my 5k followers. Medium didn’t take them away from me just because I couldn’t get my writing chops to work. But the readers I once called my fans weren’t waiting for me to start turning out purple prose each morning either.

They went in search of a loyal writer who served up their daily dose of interesting stories, someone who didn’t go into hiding when the writing got tough.

And then I discovered another unpleasant truth.

I wasn’t the darling of Medium’s algorithm anymore. Well, to the extent I ever was.

Yes, I may still have had my stable of followers, some of whom did welcome me back into the fold, but Medium wasn’t sending news of my return to the feed of every one of those wonderful 5k followers.

My return made nary a blip on their home screens. And I have the sad dashboard to prove it.

I did sneak under the $100 threshold that marks one as a success in the Medium universe, that rare number that only a small percentage of writers bankroll every month. Peanuts compared to what I left on the table by quitting my daily output.

Lesson learned.

But also, I learned that having 5K followers doesn’t mean all of them or any of them will necessarily follow you if you don’t give them what they want. Since I’ve returned to writing daily again, I’ve gained another 100-plus followers. But none of my pieces get 100 reads.

The ratio of followers to reads is, guess what, a numbers game.

I’m happy and grateful to all my readers, but I’m back to growing my presence again.

So, no, I don’t feel greedy asking for followers. I feel humbled.

I didn’t make a decision to stop writing. It happened the way sand flows through your fingers. One grain at a time.

One less article a week until months went by without publishing.

This isn’t exactly a mea culpa. I had other things going on. Like staying sane during my isolation and not catching the virus. Adjusting to this thing we call the new normal.

But now I’m back to hunting for followers because Medium is still one of my happy places. I’m old school. I believe in asking for what I want.

So in addition to reading all the articles about the new ways to get followers, I’m going back to what worked when I was a new writer here on Medium. Back in 2019, we didn’t have the pressure of finding 100 followers before we could join the Partner Program. My followers still count, so I still get paid.

But I want to find a new audience in addition to reacquainting my old readers with my work. That’s why I write. To be read. My reason for hunting for followers.

So I’m asking you to read me, and if you like what I write, let me follow you home. And please, follow me back because, trust me, there’s more where this came from.

Here’s my first story on Medium, written as a lark.

A PSA to help people cope when they wake up from major surgery on a ventilator.

And my advice for editing your work based on my 50 years as a writer and editor.

I’ve learned some lessons about getting and keeping follwoers. This time around, once I get a follower, I won’t let go.

Thanks for reading, and before you go…

I’m writer and freelance editor Medium with Top Writer status. I’ve published 55 titles on Amazon. I edit fiction and non-fiction 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. Thank you for reading, and stay safe.