BECOMING A WRITER
I Gained 79 Followers on Medium in July
What I did differently and 13 things I learned about writing on Medium last month
Let’s be honest, there are way too many articles about how to gain followers on Medium. So that’s not what this article is about. (Sorry for the clickbait article title).
Instead, I’m going to share how I changed my mindset and writing habits in July and what I learned from doing so.
Let’s jump in!
What I did differently
I tried to write every day. If you’ve read some of my other articles you’ve heard me talk about my 30-day writing challenge. While I did not succeed in writing for 30-days in a row (yet), I did write x# of days in July.
I focused more on habit building, rather than output. By shifting my mindset to creating a writing habit, I allowed myself to write about whatever was on my mind that day. I did not care if I published an article or not. I did not care if the article was distributed. I only cared about getting words down, and that set me free.
My final stats:
- Total articles published on Medium: 17
- Total words written: 13,580
- Total followers gained: 79
I’m not going to share views and other Medium stats, because there are so many factors that contribute to views.
I shared some articles on LinkedIn, I wrote about a variety of topics, and I tried different tags and post days/times. Because of all this, I don’t know precisely what led to an increase in views.
Moral of the story: don’t be afraid to try something new this month.
What I learned by changing my writing strategy
- Just. Keep. Writing. It seems like overkill but I published [insert number here] articles in July, the most I’ve ever done in a month. Some were good, some were not so good. But the point is: I kept writing.
- Vary the content. Don’t feel pigeonholed by one niche. Maybe you’re a compelling writer on a topic you haven’t written about yet. Holding yourself to one topic or thread only limits your growth.
- Join and publish multiple publications. Submit your work to big publications. If it’s not accepted, submit it somewhere else and try again with a new article. Varying your audience will easily extend your reach.
- Try not to obsess about metrics. Easier said than done, I know. But if you can break the habit of constantly checking your metrics then it becomes less about article performance and more about just writing.
- When the serotonin spike from gaining followers or views slows, don’t get discouraged. It’s easy to feel defeated when you see a spike in metrics, but that’s when you should power forward.
- Create many drafts and have them all in various stages of readiness. Have an idea? Start writing. Get all your thoughts out and then close the window. Come back when you’re ready to tidy it up and add to it. It’s how I started this article in mid-July.
- Have a running list of topic ideas. Thinking writing articles about running would be fun? Jot that down! It doesn’t have to be a full-fledged idea (or even a draft) but forgetting an idea sucks.
- Set a goal that doesn’t center on followers. Sure, I wanted to join the Medium Partner Program (because who doesn’t want to get paid for their work?). But only trying to get followers will lead to disappointment. Instead, try focusing on creating the content people want to follow.
- Don’t get sucked into the “Gain 100 followers in one day!” headlines. The follow-for-follow method may get you an audience, but it won’t necessarily be people who actually read your writing. Plus, if you read those articles, Medium’s algorithm will just keep showing them to you (and it’s annoying).
- Don’t stress about publishing one article per day. Writing every day doesn’t mean publishing every day. It could mean publishing multiple articles in one day, or scheduling others to go live. Or it could mean just getting the words out and not doing anything with them at all.
- Engage with other writers and content on Medium. This is a common recommendation but it really does help. I believe in karma, and clapping or commenting on others’ articles is positive Medium karma you put out in the world.
- Keep track of your work! I use Notion to track my daily word count for my personal 30-day writing challenge, ideas for future articles or topics, publications I want to be published on, inspiration articles, and links to my own articles. Phew. It’s a lot to document but it’s nice to see the progress I’m making toward becoming a writer.
- Celebrate the little things. Be grateful for every interaction on an article or follow. Respond to comments and show your appreciation. Try keeping a running list of awesome things that happen during the month, it helps when you need a little something to smile about.
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