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New Writers: Need 100 Followers? Read these Tips on How to Get Them
It’s really not as difficult as you might think
Welcome to Medium! So you’re new to Medium and you want to get your first 100 followers as the first requirement to being accepted into the Medium Partnership Program. Right? Cool. I get it. I was once in the same boat as you are right now, as was every other writer on here. We’ve all posted our first story and were delighted to get our first few followers. At least, I know that I was.
I’ve been a Medium member since August 2020. I was a reader only for maybe 6 months before that. At first, I didn’t write much at all, maybe one or two stories every one or two months. I wasn’t aware of how successful I could be making an income writing here because it just seemed too daunting when I would post a story and it earned $.06 with only a few views in a whole month! And I only had maybe three followers or something like that.
Writing here just seemed like it would never take off for me. I thought that I had missed the Medium boat and that I was too late to the party. But nothing could have been further from the truth. It wasn’t too late to be successful here, and it isn’t too late now for you either to earn money from what you love to do, which is writing (stick a pin here).
The only difference is that when I started here, there was no 100 follower minimum to join the Medium Partner Program and now there is. But no worries! I am going to tell you exactly what to do to get to 100 followers and beyond relatively quickly.
It’s really very simple but it’s not for the lazy. You will need to commit to putting in the effort to be successful here.
If you can do that, then you’ll get your 100 followers and more in no time!
So, what to do?
Tips on how to get to 100 followers (and beyond) on Medium
- First and foremost: Keep it dignified and DO NOT click around the platform asking people to follow you and don’t offer a follow-4-follow. That is largely frowned on here and likely a violation of Medium policy.
- Optimize your profile: Don’t just have a blank profile with no personality in it. Put up a pic or at least an avatar and either your name or a pen name. Fill in something about yourself or what topics that interest you in the Short bio section. And be sure to put something interesting about yourself on the About page. This is where you have some space to be more creative about yourself.
- Start a reading list: Do this in your profile. Make a reading list of stories that inspire, teach, or help you in some way whether that be emotionally, mentally, physically, financially, as a writer, or how to be successful on Medium. These stories will come in handy as you go along here. To add stories to your reading list, just click on the little ribbon with the plus sign, and they will be saved for you. See below. I have 69 stories on my reading list so far.
- Write 1 to 3 read-worthy stories per day: When I say “read-worthy” I mean stories that people can relate to as fellow humans, are entertained or anything that elicits an emotional response. Evoke emotions in your stories. Any emotion will do like happiness, fear, surprise, anger, curiosity, excitement, awe, etc. Just don’t be boring! Ask yourself if you’d like to read your story if you were somebody else. No need to worry about perfect writing. Just tell a story. Stories about personal experiences do really well, as just one example.
- Have a catchy title and subtitle: Your story title and subtitle are what will catch the reader’s eye and initial interest to make the decision on whether or not to click on the story and give a read. Your title should spark off an emotional response or tell people what’s in it for them to read the story. For instance, what about the title of this story made you want to read it?
- Choose a good story image: Your story image should be something that’s relevant to the story in some way or put the reader in a certain mindset. Just be sure that you DO NOT use copyrighted images. And be careful with some Creative Commons images because they may not be free to use. The two main sources that many writers use to get images are Pixabay and Unsplash (which can be accessed right here on the platform). To easily search Unsplash images, just hit Return anywhere in your draft and click on the magnifying glass.
- Pin stories to the top of your profile: Medium allows writers to pin up to 5 stories to the top of their profile. Take advantage of this feature to keep stories you choose where people can see them when they click on your profile. For the first pinned story, many people write a bio story about themselves and pin it. Or maybe you want to write a story on what it’s like to be a new writer and share challenges you’re having on the platform being new. Just some suggestions. To pin a story click on the three dots at the top or bottom of a story and select “Pin story”, and you can also click “Unpin story” when you want to change up what’s pinned to your profile.
- Increase your engagement: Get out of the mindset that it’s all about just you. One of the keys to gaining followers is to ENGAGE ON THE PLATFORM. This is very important and will 10x your success here. Read, highlight, clap (up to 50 times), and comment on AT LEAST 10–20 stories per day that interest you. Don’t shirk this. Actually engage with the stories and leave meaningful comments. Make it enjoyable! There are a ton of great and interesting stories to read.
- Participate in conversations on the platform: Find interesting conversations in the comment threads of stories that interest you. Or see what’s trending and scroll through to find stories to read and interact with other readers and writers in the comments. This is a good way to get noticed and possibly find some writers that you may want to follow because you like their writing.
- Apply to join publications that welcome new writers: You can do a search on the platform for “publications for new writers”, but I will suggest some of the best, and those are the ILLUMINATION publications. They include ILLUMINATION, ILLUMINATION-Mirror, ILLUMINATION-Curated, Synergy, and Technology Hits. Another great publication for new writers is Coffee Times. Be sure to read and follow submission rules and guidelines for any publications you are accepted into. Most publications will have a “Write for Us” or “Submission Rules” tab at the top of the publication or something similar.
- Self-publish too: Self-publishing is ok as well. To do this, you simply hit the green Publish tab at the top of your screen (after you add your tags, of course — see below). You don’t have to be in publications to be successful and earn money writing on Medium. NOTE: Most publications will only accept draft stories, not stories that have already been published. So keep that in mind.
- Add relevant tags: Tagging your stories is important for them to be found easier in search or to come up in the feeds. Medium tags work just like hashtags on social media. Each story is allowed up to 5 tags. Be sure to USE ALL OF YOUR 5 TAGS. To add/change tags to a story (must be in edit mode), click the three dots at the top of your screen up by your picture and click “Change tags”.
- Follow other writers daily: Find someone to follow every day on Medium allows us to follow up to 125 people every 24 hours. Follow new writers, seasoned writers, and other people’s followers who interest you, or follow people in the comments to your stories or other stories you read. There are plenty of ways to find people to follow. Don’t shirk this if you want to grow your own following, as well.
- Respond to comments on your stories: Comments left on your stories are an opportunity to engage with readers and other writers. Read your comments and leave a response and some claps on their comments. Follow people who comment on your stories and go check out something that they’ve written and engage with them on their stories as well.
The Takeaway
So, these are my tips on getting your first 100 followers and beyond. They are all helpful but the bottom line to growing your Medium following is to:
WRITE — READ — ENGAGE — REPEAT
If you do these four tasks consistently and just enjoy yourself here, you will grow a nice Medium presence and even earn some money in the process.
