Member-only story

I Gained 15,000 Followers With These 3 Dead Simple Steps

How I get 1000 a day to read my words

Derek Hughes
Practice in Public
5 min readOct 17, 2024

--

Photo by Apostolos Vamvouras :

If you want a massive online audience. It’s not complicated.

I started last year. Age 51 with no experience. And have had a wild ride.

Screenshot of author’s stats, including: 14,600 Medium followers in 18 months, 3,700 email subscribers in 12 months, 2,400 course sign-ups, 288 Substack subscribers in 4 weeks, $9600 product sales in 6 months, $1000+ monthly earnings
author’s screenshot

The route to success is simple but not easy. I’ve got no fake promises of instant success. But I can give you my 3 steps. These are proven to work.

Follow these for a long time and I promise you’ll end up somewhere good.

1. Become a compelling writer

It takes time to get good.

But unless you giftwrap your ideas in an entertaining way. You may as well go home. It’s tough keeping a reader’s attention. So commit to learning how.

Here’s how to get good. Work on one micro skill each month. Don’t try to do everything at once. Learn from the best. Get feedback from someone you respect. And in 6 months you’ll be an incredible writer.

Here are the first 6 micro-skills you need to learn:

Month 1: Keep it concise

--

--

Practice in Public
Practice in Public

Published in Practice in Public

If you want to become a better writer, you have to hit the publish button. Notes and drafts don’t count. Practice in public helps writers get off the sidelines and turn pro.

Derek Hughes
Derek Hughes

Written by Derek Hughes

I'm an old bloke with zero writing experience. In 18 months, I built a $35k writing business. Get my free 5-step system: https://www.derekhughes.biz/

Responses (578)