One Year and 250 Published Stories Later, I Reached 10,000 Followers on Medium

My journey knew only one direction from the beginning: Up!

My follower count says 10 K; that means 10,000 followers. I still cannot believe it. Just now, when I clicked on my profile, it had changed from 9.9 K to 10 K. It still feels like a dream.

I did not write an article about how much I earned in my first month on Medium. I did not share advice with my readers after three months of experience. I did not take screenshots of my stats, or of my earnings. I just wrote. A lot. I wrote anytime a thought entered my mind. Then suddenly, I looked up and saw that I had accumulated 10 K underneath my name.

How did that happen? Didn’t I just celebrate reaching 1,000 followers over New Year’s? And a month later, I doubled the incredible achievement by gaining another 1,000 followers.

And now?

I don’t know how time flew by so quickly. It’s been a year now since I first heard of Medium, (Yes, as a non-American I didn’t hear about Medium before I started writing for them), and it’s been a year now since I signed up for the membership.

When I first became a member, I read gazillion articles about how to become a writer, how to get curated, how to make a six-figure income on this platform, and how to improve my non-native English skills.

Then, I ignored it all and just wrote what came to my mind. I wrote about the desert and about the ocean. I wrote about the sun and the rain. I wrote about traveling and being in quarantine.

Basically, I documented my life.

I realized over time I did take in some advice from all those articles, after all. Subconsciously. Slowly but surely, I improved my writing, my style, my grammar, and my punctuation. I learned which word is written this or that way in American or British English.

I read more articles about diverse topics. I read about travel and being at home; about van life and the tiny-house movement; about poetry and history lessons; and about nature, and life in all ages.

And I wrote nearly 4,000 posts in response to all those topics I read. I read and engaged. If I liked the piece I highlighted, clapped, and left a response. My responses often end up being long conversations with the author. Sometimes they end up in new opportunities, a new idea, or an inspiration to write.

My journey has been long. I spend hours of reading and writing time on Medium. I type on my tablet at the weirdest hours of the day, and in even more odd places. I use the app a lot to read and write. I upload photos, proofread, edit to complete the articles. I only use my laptop for the publishing process.

Yes, time has passed. And it was a long trip. But my journey only knew one direction: Up. I never looked back, and I aimed to become a better writer with each passing month.

How I went from 2 K followers to 7 K followers in under 3 months

In January 2021, the World Traveler’s Blog asked me to join their editorial team. I was already reading and publishing a lot of travel stories.

I was hesitant at first. I’ve never edited someone else’s story before. In fact, my mom still proofreads my German articles. I have no experience in running a Medium publication. And I am by no means a master of the English language.

But I really wanted to become part of the team. I was excited just thinking about working as an editor. I was motivated to learn about professional proofreading and study more about the English language.

Despite my lack of experience as an editor, I wanted the job. And because I had already been submitting articles in the publication and commenting on other people’s work, I got the unpaid job.

Now I am part of a team of editors who live on four different continents with the most diverse backgrounds and 25 years of experience in professional editing, I got taken in with open arms.

Being an editor of a publication changed Medium for me. I got closer to the writers of the platform by leaving private notes here and there. I eventually overcame the feeling of not being good enough and left feedback on how new and established writers could improve their work.

After all, I had learned something on the platform and now I can give back and still learn more.

In February I began editing two articles a day for the World Traveler’s Blog, including promoting each article on social media. I had just reached another milestone of 2,000 followers.

And three months later I was on 7,000.

How did I do it?

Well, by working for the publication. I gained a lot of followers just by being active with our contributors. I don’t read every single article we publish, but I do read most of them. And I definitely leave a reply to all the ones I read, and that effort usually comes back to me. These writers click on my profile, read my work, and follow me. It’s a slow process, but it works.

How did I reach a 100% curation rate?

I struggled, in the beginning, to get curated on Medium. In February 2021, a couple of my articles did finally get chosen for further distribution. That’s when everything changed.

All of a sudden, every single article I submitted to the platform was chosen for distribution.

Distribution did not give them the incredible boost I had hoped for; however, it does keep them alive. It keeps the articles in circulation via Medium’s algorithm. I receive reads and claps for almost all the articles published since February.

What changed to make all my articles suddenly worthy of distribution?

My writing improved based on my work proofreading for other writers. I learned to look at sentence structure, delete unnecessary words, and focus more on the structure of my articles.

I made it a habit to delete “that” in my sentences, provided the sentence could stand without it. I had read eliminating that one word is a great method to keep your narrative interesting.

I avoid using the same word twice in one paragraph. Synonyms are there to be used, and I use them a lot. Grammarly or even Google can help a lot with basic editing.

I only use the free version of Grammarly, and I am thankful for the typos, spelling mistakes, and lazy wordings the app has caught in my work. Of course, Grammarly is not the only way I proofread, but I do scan every piece at least once and go over each suggestion.

Looking back at it now I can see I did do something different to receive such a boost. (This article will, of course, reduce my curation quota since articles about Medium don’t get distributed.)

So what?

How I write my articles

I’ve been writing online for 7 years now. Since 2014, I’ve been writing blog posts in German on my own website. Since 2017/2018, I have published every article there in two languages: German and English.

Sometimes I publish daily. Sometimes once a month. Sometimes more. Sometimes less. After I started writing on Medium, I wrote less on my blog because I don’t earn money from it. But I still keep it alive.

On Medium, I write a lot of different articles. Mainly about my travels and adventures on the African continent, in Germany, and any other country I’ve visited in between.

I write whatever comes to my mind. Sometimes those thoughts are philosophical, sometimes basic. I’ve written about toilet seats and about the abstract meaning of time.

This year I began to write more nature pieces. I got into a community of passionate photographers and nature lovers who exchange words and pictures with readers and writers from all corners of the world.

Sometimes I write short articles, but most of the time, I write longer ones that are rarely over 10 minutes, but often over 5. I write quality content and sometimes quantity, too.

I publish at least 20 articles a month, more often up to 30. I write daily and if the publications play along, I publish daily, too. On some occasions, I won’t publish for a few days or a week. But then I return with more content and publish two articles a day.

I’ve learned that consistency is the key for anything in life. But especially for a writer. Being consistent is the only way to success. If you’re publishing consistently the algorithm will pick you up and work in your favor.

Even Medium itself might pay you for consistently writing and engaging with others.

Where do I submit?

There are three to four publications I submit my work to on a regular basis. I publish with each of them at least once a week, sometimes as much as they allow — 4 to 5 articles a week can go out with SNAPSHOTS, Weeds & Wildflowers, or the World Traveler’s Blog.

These publications aren’t big, yet, they aren’t small either. And what counts is they all have a great community of engaging writers and readers. I receive a lot of traffic when I publish with them.

I also publish my articles in smaller publications. I will get added as a writer from upcoming publications and give them a try. Sometimes you just need to give new things a chance.

Submitting to new publications means you’re offering your work to a new bunch of readers. Which is what we want — right?

I have been accepted as a writer for bigger publications, such as Curious, P.S. I Love You, The Ascent, and The Writing Cooperative. None of them have, however, ever published my work. I either don’t write for their niche or maybe my English simply isn’t good enough. Yet.

But, I’m not giving up. I will continue to submit to them. As I write this, I have a piece sitting in limbo with The Ascent. And this week I published my first article in Age of Awareness. It was the first try.

(Update: While I was producing this content, The Ascent just published my article. Read the story here.)

Writing for different publications is my method for increasing the number of reads I get. And writing for small and new publications to get new readers and writers to engage with.

How do I engage on the platform?

I engage on the platform by first reading a lot. I only follow writers I’m interested in. I read their work and if I’m interested in their narrative, lifestyle, or topics then I follow them. I don’t do follow-for-follow. There’s no point in doing that. Not for me at least.

I want followers who click on that button because they want to read my stuff. I also don’t want my daily feed on Medium’s homepage to be filled with stuff I’m not interested in. That is why I keep it that way. The writers I do follow, I also read their work. And with reading comes engagement. I highlight sentences whenever I can relate to them or I simply like the wording. I also clap on every article I read. Most of the time I give 50 claps because it doesn’t cost me anything to keep the finger pressed.

Then, I reply to the writer. I leave comments on almost every article I read. If I find something I related to, something I learned, or that I’m impressed by, I will tell them. The more I connect with the piece the more I leave in the comment.

I write about my own experiences and similar feelings to whatever topic the writer was talking about. I start conversations with them. I connect. I connect with the writers.

I build a community of loyal readers by being one myself.

It still works that way. Be the person you want to meet. Behave the way you would like to see others behaving. Treat others the way you want to be treated. I try to be respectful, caring, empathic, and understanding. And because I love socializing with the right crowd of people, I also enjoy exchanging words with them. I do it for my own joy.

What’s next in my Medium journey?

Writing. Lots of writing, reading, and engagement. I will continue to write on whatever topics come to my mind. I’m going to share my adventures across the world with my readers because I enjoy sharing my experiences.

I will continue writing and reading on Medium as long as I can. And I hope you will join me. My journey isn’t finished. I will keep on going up because that is the only direction I know.

I will keep going forward and up.

A big thanks goes to Glad Doggett for editing this piece. If you’re interested in professional line editing subscribe here.