Why Are These Writers Getting So Many Followers???

Repetitive Medium advice is getting more attention than actual, valuable writing.

That picture describes exactly how I feel as I write this article.

It is my second month on Medium, and I’ve written tons of articles and gained a few hundred followers. I’ve been growing slowly, or at least not rocket-fast like some others.

Why I’m infuriated

Anyway, when I’m on Medium, I often get drawn in by writing tips on Medium, or how some writer made $1000 in their second month.

Pretty intriguing, right?

Then I checked out the writer’s profile and realised that their articles were all about Medium or writing. Every. Single. One.

Their five most recent articles will look something like this:

• Do this to boost your views 10X
• How I gained 1.5K followers in just two months
• This is why people aren’t reading your stuff
• I hate clap-and-runners
• January: Here are my stats!

As a new writer, these articles are all especially intriguing. Of course I want to boost my views, get followers, and learn from those who succeeded!

I started following and reading writers like this and read all of their articles. That’s when something struck me.

Aren’t these writers getting views, followers and money talking about all those things?

They got their 1000 followers by talking about Medium. Not writing authentic, personal stories.

They talk about all sorts of things (which are very repetitive, by the way). From writing better titles to engaging with others. Blah blah blah repetitive advice that is useless to me.

Then they will post endless stats and earnings updates. Seriously?? Then have the audacity to post something like ‘I made $80 sharing my earnings’.

Why do people read this?

We are all writers, so it is natural for us to want to become more successful and read such articles. That’s why they’re becoming more and more popular.

The attention they get is concerning. What about the authentic and personal ones? Did you come to Medium to read about Medium?

Some of my favourite writers have pivoted to writing about Medium, which is disappointing, but I can’t do anything about it.

If I go to the comment section of these Medium-centric articles, I see tons of comments like:

• That is such great advice!
• Wow, this is an incredible perspective!

Really?

You’re telling me it was ‘great advice!’ when they told you to ‘use tags’ or ‘write a subtitle’. That advice is so generic, I’ve seen it at least thirty times.

And people in the comments act as if it is the most revolutionary writing advice they’ve ever heard. I’m not discounting that there is some true, amazing writing advice out there.

I remember reading some articles which have unique advice and tips on writing from writers who have gained hundreds of thousands of followers. I have nothing against that.

But these articles are different.

Some people argue these articles and writers are providing value.

For 99% of articles, I disagree. The advice is useless and generic — it probably took the writer a few minutes to type it all out.

It feels like writers are being encouraged to write these articles, instead of personal and authentic ones.

Why should I pour hours into writing an article, when I could spend a few minutes telling people to write better titles and get more views?

If all of us write things like this, what the heck are we even doing on this platform? I didn’t pay a membership fee to read articles like that — it’s a total waste of time.

Examples

No, I won’t be naming names here.

But if you want to know, go to the tag ‘Medium Partner Program’, and see which writers show up under it. They have thousands of followers and have made thousands of dollars in this niche.

When I was intrigued by these articles, I decided to write a few myself. These are some of them:

They are both about Medium and did pretty well considering I put them together in a few minutes.

I know, you’re going to say I’m a hypocrite.

But there is a key difference between me and these writers.

Exceptions

I’ve written a few of these articles myself. But it’s not like my entire profile is full of them.

I focus on writing personal, authentic and valuable stories.

I have nothing against writers sharing their monthly progress. It’s always amazing to see their progress, or sometimes the drops in views.

Sometimes is okay. But not always.

Some writers have unique writing advice and articles sharing how they gained thousands of followers by writing authentic stories. That’s amazing, and I love learning from them.

But I don’t care how someone who writes entirely about Medium did that too.

Not all Medium-centric articles are bad

I think this article applies mainly to generic writing advice and endless statistic updates. But some Medium-centric stuff isn’t that bad.

Some of them have perspectives on how Medium could be better, or how they’re struggling through a time with few views. They could be sharing their highest earnings story, or anything else.

Many of those have value.

Moving forward

I’m just not clicking on articles promising to boost my views and whatnot. I’m also not reading articles from writers I know only write articles like that.

I’ll still be writing the occasional stats update, and my perspective on anything happening here (like this one). But overall, I hope to continue writing about life, self-improvement and books.

What do you think about this?

P.S. Sorry if this article was a little bit of a rant. I just had to get this frustration out, it’s been brewing for a while.

I hope you found this article insightful. Thanks for reading!

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