Getting 100 Followers by the End of the Year Is Entirely Possible
Unless you’re reading this on New Year’s Eve. In that case, I can’t help you.
So now you need 100 followers by December 31st to make money on Medium. When I began writing on Medium, there were no requirements for follower counts. However, I was able to get to 100, actually over 200, by the end of my second month.
At the time I am writing this, you have two and half months left to get to your goal of 100. That’s about 15 weeks, which means if you started writing on Monday, you’d need 6 to 7 followers per week. Meaning, you will need one follower per day.
(Of course, if you’re reading this at a later date, you’ll have to figure out your own math.)
How did I do it?
I published regularly.
I wrote a lot of articles in the beginning. I’m not nearly so prolific these days, at least on Medium. I’ve got too many other things going on. And it shows, I get a lot fewer followers per month than when I began.
Not that I mind. I write on Medium when I want to, which is what I love the most about self-publishing,
But we’re talking about getting followers here. And to do that, you’ve got to write.
Some of my first articles had very few views but some took off and did quite well. It only takes one well-performing story to gain at least 100 followers. You don’t even need your story to go viral. You just need a solid performance of at least one or two articles to reach your goal.
I submitted to a variety of publications.
I don’t do this one much anymore. I’ve become set in my ways and found I’m much happier working with just a few of my favorite publishers. And sometimes I self-publish to my own profile.
But in the beginning, I published to a wide variety of different publications, and it made a difference in finding new followers.
I tried to get every story curated.
I will admit, curation was different back then. You would get an email that your story had been distributed, and then you would almost always see a sudden spike in views. Today you won’t get an email and I don’t always see a difference in views after distribution.
But still, writing for curation is good practice. All of the things required for curation are the same things that make people more likely to read your article, such as avoiding typos and grammar mistakes, using good quality images with proper attribution, having a clear take-away message, and referencing your sources.
If you’re new to Medium, do yourself a favor and read Casey Botticello’s guide to formatting. It’s the best one I’ve found and it will make your stories look like you’ve been writing here for years.
I read other people's stories and clapped and commented.
Medium is a community. It’s the best thing about this place. And if you read other people’s stories and put thoughtful comments on them, you’ll see followers grow from that.
But please don’t spam links to your stories in their comments. That’s a newbie mistake I’ve seen that won't get your story read, it’ll just irritate everyone that sees it.
What I didn’t do.
I didn’t buy followers. I didn’t even know that’s a thing. Apparently, it is, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Medium’s been cracking down on fake, bot accounts, and you’ll likely end up losing these pretend followers as soon as you get them.
I also never followed the strategy of following to be followed back. However, I might do this if I’d just started writing on Medium today.
But do this strategically, don’t just follow random people. Find a publication you enjoy reading and maybe even one that fits your niche. Find the list of writers and follow people from there. At least you’ll be following people that you may have something in common with and not just someone random.
But before doing this, make sure you’ve got a good profile pic, don’t neglect your bio, and have at least one or two stories written. Nobody wants to follow back someone that looks like a bot.
And once you’ve got to 100, stop doing this practice. You want followers that have read your stuff and think it’s so great they want to read more. Not someone who feels obligated to follow you back, but will never read anything you’ve written.
Trust me, you can do this
To sum it up if you’ve skimmed this whole thing:
- Write engaging stories without typos or glaring grammatical mistakes.
- Try submitting to different publications. Big or small doesn’t matter. I’ve seen small publications with viral stories.
- Read other’s stories and make thoughtful comments.
- If you feel you aren’t making much headway, you can try to follow for follows, but stop it once you've reached 100.
It may seem like a lot when you first set up your account, and your brother is the only one following you. (Okay, yes that was me.) But I promise you, 100 really isn’t that many once you get started.
Do you know how I said not to spam your links on other people’s stories? I’m breaking all the rules here! Someone did this for me when I first started on Medium, and I never forgot it, and now I’ll do it for you. Beginning writers: give me a link to your article in the comments and I promise I’ll read it and give you a follow. All I ask is that you’re patient. I’m not on Medium every day, so please don’t expect an instant response.
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