What It Really Takes to Get 1,000 Followers on Medium

It’s not hard, but you’ll need to adjust your mindset

Here’s a secret.

“How to become successful on Medium” is the most popular type of piece on Medium. If you want to get claps, that’s what you should write.

The problem with these articles is that the author rarely follows the advice themselves. It’s not completely the author’s fault, of course. It’s one thing to do, and another thing to rationalize what you did, write and talk about it.

One reason for this is that once you hit 10K+ followers or so, you become important. You start to actually mean something (or at least so it seems) and you lose touch with reality.

But to teach others, you don’t need to be Tony Robbins. You don’t need to be a guru to teach life lessons. Just as you don’t need to have 100K+ followers on Medium to talk about ways to become successful.

You just have to teach those who are one step behind.

Say, you’ve got 1,000 followers — you can teach somebody who has 500. And the beauty of this “teach-as-you-go” approach is that you’re close to your students. You know what it’s like to have 500 followers — because that’s where you were, just a few weeks ago.

I am going to be completely honest with you.

If you’re reading this, you probably want to become a successful blogger. You want to make money with words, and you’re on your path to your first 1,000 followers.

Congratulations!

No matter what people say, it’s not that hard. Seriously. And even if it is, it’s not in the way you think.

There’s no tactic. And there’s actually no secret (I lied).

There’s no magic formula of tags, piece topics or publications that get you successful. Like in most things in life, becoming successful on Medium takes a few tweaks in the mindset.

Get those right, and you’ll get what you want.

It Takes a Shit Ton of Patience

Perseverance, patience and “sticking with it” — is the secret to success in most things in life. Becoming a successful blogger (including on Medium) is, too, an exercise in patience.

It will test you. It will make you want to quit. It will make you want quick results and life hacks. You’ll probably already looking for them if you’re reading this article.

But the truth is, there are no shortcuts.

You’ll have to be patient and wait for articles to get (or get not) accepted by publications — and learn that just waiting one more day can change everything.

You’ll have to be patient and not see any money come in the first few months.

And you’ll have to tell yourself occasionally to shut up and just keep going.

Eventually, you’ll learn to trust the process and focus on what really matters. And that is (almost always) is the writing itself.

It Takes Discipline

You achieve patience by being disciplined. As a blogger, what should you be disciplined in?

A few things:

1. Write regularly (I would recommend daily)
2. Not check your stats every hour (rather, tell yourself to check stats only once per day — that would be when you write)
3. Not feel lost and discouraged after seeing a hateful comment
4. Experiment with writing styles, ideas, and themes
5. Share your work with others and doing distribution
6. Always prioritize quality over quantity (although quantity may lead to quality)

But most importantly, it will take discipline to just stick with it without really knowing when the results will come (e.g. my Russian blog didn’t take off until the 4th year).

Tell yourself that there’ll be no results for the first 12 months. For the time being, just write.

It Takes Guts

If you want to be a successful blogger on Medium, you’ll have to set some Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) and have the guts to follow them, sticking to them, achieving them, and repeating the whole process again.

You’ll have to be courageous.

What do you want, in the end? What’s the goal? What’s the purpose of your writing?

If it’s only for the money, you’re lost.

You’ll need guts to withhold criticism. There will be people who hate you. After all, having a blog is not about being liked by all. It’s about being loved by those who matter to you.

Realize that in 99% of cases when people criticize you, they simply don’t get you.

But most importantly, getting to 1K, 10K, 100K followers takes guts to ship. Deliver. Hit “publish”, get out there — even if you don’t feel like it’s ready yet.

You’re an artist. And artists ship.

It Takes Dedication

There are a lot of ways to make money online. 99% of them are easier than starting a blog.

A blog (whether it’s on a website or on Medium) is a platform. It’s like having a megaphone through which you can communicate ideas, promote causes, sell services, and showcase your work.

It’s the most important asset of this century because it allows you to aggregate the scarce resource — attention.

Respect that. Respect the work it will take to build that. Respect the time it might take to get there.

When I think about all the benefits that having such a platform might do for me and my career, I become quiet. And humble.

I realize that even if it takes 2, 3, or 5 years to get to the point where I want to be (e.g., 100K or 200K followers) — it’s worth it.

If you’re serious about blogging, it might make your career. It might take you to a whole another level — professionally, personally, spiritually.

Respect that.

It Takes Your Full Focus

There are writers here who make a full-time income (i.e., $80K–$120K per year) from their writing. There are some who make even more.

If you want Medium to become your full-time job, you’ve got to start treating it like one. Spend the appropriate number of hours per day to create high-quality pieces that change your readers for the better.

If you half-ass your writing effort, you’ll receive half-ass results — whether it’s pay or follower growth.

Treat your each blog article as a masterpiece. One day, you’ll be right.

It Takes Love

Because it’s a long game, you’ll need to be patient. Discipline is not enough. You need energy, and the steel hand of discipline only burns energy. Love gives you energy.

If you love what you’re doing here (writing), if you’re in it for the enjoyment of the process, you’ll win. If you think that you can struggle now to reap the rewards later, go find something else to do with your time.

Writing is art, and art is a gift. You can’t give gifts without love.

It Takes Creativity

But not in the way you think.

There is a big misconception about creative people in society. Movies, books, and media portray an image of a creative person as someone who is poor, lonely (usually, crazy too) and is randomly inspired with genius ideas.

That’s a lie.

There is no dichotomy of “creative” and “not creative”. Rather, there’s a degree of each, with two extremes on both sides. Contrary to social standards, a creative person is not someone who breaks laws and exists in Lawless Land.

Creativity is about creating new laws where there were none. It’s about tinkering and rearranging what exists to come up with something new.

Use what you’ve got.

On Medium, you’ve got built-in features, headlines, subtitles, and images at your disposal. You can break your piece into sections and experiment with paragraph length. You can write 34-minute pieces (done that) or 1-min pieces (done that too). You can self-publish and still get curated.

There is no limit to your creativity, and Medium (and society) favors bold, high-quality, creative authors.

But It’s Not the Point

Getting to 1,000 followers is cool. It makes you a “serious blogger” rather than simply an aspiring one. Next stop — 10K. But that’s the point.

You’re not doing for the money, stats, followers or claps. And if you are, stop it. Now.

First of all, being a slave to statistics is playing with your self-worth. It becomes tied to your results. You become unhappy.

Second, most importantly, it will hinder your writing quality. Subconsciously, you’ll be writing for the money. You’ll be thinking about what they would love when all that matters is what you really think and feel.

As an alternative, quit setting goals. Focus on writing the next great piece. Make your KPI — getting your ideas and thoughts and feelings out there. That’s what matters and that’s what we want from you.

Make art

Because when you’ve got somebody paying you for your work, it ceases to be art; it becomes a transaction. An antidote to that — not checking the Medium Partner Program tab at all.

Be an artist. Get paid, alright (artists should get paid, and a lot), and have people follow you. The more — the better, and we all win as a result.

But don’t focus on it. It’s not the point.

Thank you for reading this.