I Just Reached 2K Followers

And I am proud of it

I can’t believe it. I just hit 2K followers. Two thousand followers! On medium. I am so proud. Happy. Thankful. Grateful. Thanking every single one of those two thousand followers.

I thank you for pressing the “follow” button. Because that’s what all of you did. And then I thank you for reading my articles. Which you do. I know that. Maybe not all of you. But those who do know I am talking about them. Thank you for being such loyal readers.

I appreciate your highlights, your claps, your comments, and also your criticism and feedback. You are the reason why I keep on writing. You motivate me. With every single comment, you leave under one of my articles.

How I got to 2K followers in less than a year

While I am saying about how I gained followers on Medium in general I have to add that I’ve written now 200 articles in less than a year. None of them is republished or copied pieces from my private blog.

I do write a lot. If I got time I write daily. If the publications work with me I get a piece published per day. Sometimes two. Or even three. And on others none. It all depends on how busy I am with my other life. The non-writing life.

But writing articles isn’t all that helped me gain followers. Engagement is the key. Engagement is what I love on this platform. The comments you receive. They are each and every single one humble and kind. Motivating. Those comments are what keep me going.

And because I do love receiving comments I leave a lot of them on the work I read too. If I should be direct I’d say I’ve almost published 2500 comments within 10 months.

And most of them are not just a simple “thank you”. Most of them are comments where I am having a conversation with the writer of an article. Or with the reader of my article.

So next to promoting my stories on Facebook to reach a broader audience and publishing in lots of different publications my main approach was to write a lot.

To write a lot of articles.

And to read a lot of stories in order to write more comments.

What I learned

What did I learn from this journey so far? That I love writing for sure. I’m having a great time here on Medium and enjoy the humble community of passionate writers and readers.

I learned that what counts is to be true to yourself. Read was sounds appealing to you. Tell the author if you enjoyed a piece. Say why. And what you loved in the article.

This is what makes them feel better too. Motivated. And happy. And this is what we all want, right? To support each other and know the others are getting the recognition they deserve just as much as you yourself.

I thought, in the beginning, I don’t get curated because I almost exclusively use my own photography in the articles. But I didn’t get demotivated by it. I wrote more. And I took more photographs. To become a better writer. And a better photographer.

The outcome of it? Every single story I posted in February and March so far has been chosen for further distribution. I do know medium has changed some rules and being curated isn’t the same anymore. But still. It counts for me.

As a motivation to keep going my own path. Eventually, it will bring me to the right destination.

My way forward

Where I am going next I don’t know yet. But I’ll definitely stay active on Medium. I will continue to write my soul onto paper and exchange words with lovely friends who do the same on this platform.

I hope you will do the same so we can continue reading each other's pieces and share different opinions and views of various countries. If I get quiet for a few days it’s just because I am on another adventure collecting new material for the next articles.

More about my personal essays…

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Anne Bonfert is a traveler. Photographer. Writer. Teacher. Skydiving instructor. Adventure enthusiast. Nature lover. And fell in love with the African continent.