Stop Looking for Followers
(It will get you nowhere — here’s why)
Dear New Writer
I know that it feels like you need to gain those 100 followers quickly so that you can join the Medium Partnership Program, familiarly known as the MPP. Sounds like a secret force, that you have to gain entry to, and in some ways you do. By gaining 100 followers.
But you probably came here to write and found yourself sucked into this follower whirlwind.
I know because that is what happened to me.
I started on Medium on the 25th November 2021. My goal was to just write. Well and to hopefully earn some money in time. Who doesn’t want some extra money, after all?
But I found that I needed 100 followers before I could join the MPP and get paid for my writing.
That’s when I got a bit lost. All I thought about was followers and how to gain followers. That became my goal.
I started to read article after article about gaining 100 followers and how to get followers fast.
You can read about those here and here. I could go on but there are many posts about this and you can easily search and find them.
Or you could spend your time writing.
I suggest that the more useful thing you can do is the latter.
In hindsight that is what I should have done too.
I wish someone had told me to write and write some more, rather than follow and follow some more.
Following like a sheep. Just following for no other reason other than to get followers.
Stop being a sheep!!
Here’s why you should not focus solely on gaining 100 followers.
100 followers don’t mean 100 readers who are engaged in your writing.
That is if you have even written anything yet?
If you haven’t written that first post, then go and do that now. Here’s my first post if you need some inspiration to get started.
Perhaps you haven’t written much after that first post, because you have been trying to gain followers.
Those 100 followers may allow you to join the MPP but if no one is reading your articles (or worse still you haven’t written many) then you are not going to see many financial returns on your writing.
100 followers don’t mean 100 readers.
No readers mean no money.
So, stop trying to get followers.
Here’s what I suggest you do instead and what I should have done.
Write. Then write some more.
I know this sounds crazy. But you need to just write when you start and not get sucked into this followers tsunami
I started writing for publications.
My first stories were with New Writers Welcome.
If you are new, then I suggest you join.
Writing for a publication will mean you get a bit more exposure than if you publish on your own.
There’s nothing worse than writing and getting nothing back in return.
That is why these publications for New Writers have started to help you gain your readers the right way.
When I started, I started writing about anything and everything.
I was testing out my writing voice and also working out the main topics I wanted to focus on.
I like writing on a variety of subjects, But sometimes I wrote, about random thoughts that entered my brain.
I know that I need to get a bit more focused so that I can define my writing a bit more.
You can read my first article here
3 Simple Questions to Ask, Before You Do Anything
I was trying to find my writing voice.
I tried writing different articles.
Like this one
Don’t be Defined by your Circumstances.
Or when I didn’t know what to write
And on the night I couldn’t sleep
I never suffered from insomnia until now
I started writing for other publications
Here’s What Happened
I found that once I started to just write, I naturally started to get people following me.
People who wanted to read what I was writing.
Not just following me for a follow back.
I found that I was gaining 2–3 followers a day. I know it seems slow but at least I was building a more engaged audience.
As I write I still haven’t reached 100 but that is not the ultimate goal and I know that I will reach it soon.
My first followers were probably not very engaged with my writing.
They came from the first articles I read about gaining 100 followers.
I got those followers because I fell into the I will follow you back pit hole.
I’ve stopped !!
I only follow back now if I like your Stories and About profile.
If you have not completed your About You profile I will not follow you back.
If you can’t be bothered to write a piece about yourself, I don’t think you are going to engage much or even be bothered to read or write a comment on my article.
So go and tidy up your About section, at least write something about yourself.
Write something interesting that will make your tribe connect with you.
I have edited mine a few times.
Here’s what it looks like now.
Freelance Writer. Coffee lover. Walking in nature, yoga & tai chi keep me grounded. I write about what inspires me.
And I will probably edit it a few times more as I start to find my voice on this platform.
What you really should be doing
· Read Stories That Genuinely interest you
I mean read the stories that grab your attention. And engage with them.
How do you engage?
If you like them give them a clap.
Speaking of clapping. There should be a warning for newbies about the clap system here.
If you were like me, you probably clapped once and thought you should be given a Brownie badge for engaging.
Hence my shame when I found that giving one clap is actually more of an insult than a help. (Hang my head in shame).
Apparently, you are supposed to give 10, 20, 30 even 50 claps, which is the maximum. Depending on how much you enjoyed the article.
Many have developed their system for clapping and maybe you should too.
I give 5 claps if I started to read. 10 if I got halfway. 20 if I finished it. 30 if it really engaged me and 50 if I thought wow I wish I had written that piece.
To give a clap, you just hold down the clap button and the number of claps will keep increasing. I didn’t know this, and I kept hitting the clap button, over and over to clap. This took a long time. I didn’t realize how easy it was to clap. Maybe that was just me, I don’t know.
· Comment on stories.
In the beginning, I set myself a minimum number of stories to comment on each day.
I had limited time. I’m working a full-time job, blogging, freelance writing in my spare time, and of course writing here.
I had to divide my time carefully.
At the start, I aimed to read and write 3 comments a day at a minimum on articles I had genuinely read.
I sometimes read more articles than that and write more comments than that.
When that happens, that is a good day for commenting.
Here’s what you should know about commenting
If I aim to write 3 comments, a day, during a month.
Let’s do the math.
If I write 3 comments a day for 30 days.
30 days x 3 comments = 90 comments.
That’s 90 comments in a month.
90 comments I have made on articles that I genuinely liked and enjoyed.
Articles that gave me something back.
Whether that was advice. A smile. Or learning a new perspective.
Whichever it was, I felt richer for having read the article rather than thinking I cannot ever get those minutes back again.
In time, those writers will see me reading and commenting on their work. Maybe they may come and read some of my work.
I don’t know. Maybe they will and maybe they won’t.
I have still gained as I have read articles that have enriched my life.
Also reading other writers will help my writing.
Building an engaged readership is what you need to do.
So, Dear New Writer, I hope that you are at least thinking of changing your strategy and are not following everyone who follows you. If you are just looking for followers maybe you should head over to Instagram or some other social media.
Take time to reflect, if you are here then you are probably a writer. Stay true to your values and why you came here in the first place.
Now go and write. Write some more. And Comment.
