5 Quality Tips For Growing Your Medium Page.
Before you click away and discount someone with less than 200 followers as a solid source of advice. Understand that getting even 100 followers on this platform is not the easiest task.
Medium is not like Instagram or Twitter. I could easily get 150+ followers in a matter of hours on Instagram.
To grow a Medium page it takes effort, quality, and persistence.
This is what I learned from only 5 months using the platform. I’m barely breaking ice on this platform, although I have learned a few techniques that might be helpful to you.
These tips are going to be a mixture of common sense with some practical methods you can start using today. Some of these tips may be common and others may be something you weren’t aware of. I hope you learn at least one thing that will help you grow your Medium page.
1. Publish often and stay active. Spend time on the platform every day.
I mixed these 3 things into one tip because they are all based on spending time on the platform. You will not get any results on this site if you’re here for 2 minutes to check your notifications and leave.
Find a love for the platform. Believe me, it’s an incredible tool that EVERY writer should be using to publish their work. I try and publish at least once every week. Be willing to write at least one article per week if you’re truly looking to grow on here.
The one thing that helped me in the very beginning was constantly going through other people’s articles and giving feedback. I cover this method briefly in my article “Why You Should Be Everywhere On Medium”.
The method is essentially going through hashtags of topics you are passionate about, finding some articles and reading them. Actually reading them too, none of that skimming bullsh*t and “nice article” on an article you didn’t read. Remember, this isn’t Instagram.
Every other day I spend at least 30 minutes on Medium. No questions asked.
Find what works with your daily schedule and make some time every day or every other day interacting with the community. This is a wonderful way to grab a little bit of attention when first getting started.
2. Publish quality content and attempt to get featured in publications.
Publications are huge. If you get featured in a publication with over 100k members following it, that’s your article potentially in the eyes of 40k people or more.
You should always be trying to make each article better than your last. You should be seeing what type of articles you like writing about and focus on those more. Cover a lot of topics when first getting started and see which one of those topics is your strong suit.
Personally, I write about all around life improvement. That is what I’m passionate about and what I enjoy writing about. My two most popular articles are about Medium and networking. Don’t be afraid to diversify your writing.
Start by following publications that seem interesting. See what type of material they post and if something you are writing about could fit within that publication.
I’ve heard of people emailing or messaging the publication owner. Personally, I haven’t done that and I just kept working on publishing quality content. I don’t think I got added to a single publication until my 6th or 7th article.
Focus on making over the top articles that are a must read. Use the proper hashtags as well. The publications will find you.
The excellent thing about publications is the owner is trying to grow their publication by posting quality work, and you’re trying to grow your page by doing the same thing. It’s almost an equal trade-off. Sharing is caring, Right?
I didn’t see more than 50 claps on my articles until I finally got a publish in one of the biggest publications, The Startup. It not only got me a little bit of attention but also encouraged me to keep writing. Additionally, it made me feel like these words I am putting on the page are actually not that bad! #cheers.
There are PLENTY of publications where the owners are constantly looking for less popular writers with gems that are worth publishing. Don’t assume that you won’t get published because you’re not boasting 1k+ followers.
It all starts with writing wonderful content. focus on that before ANYTHING on this list.
3. Comment on more popular articles.
I didn’t know the power of this until very recently. I once saw this tip in another article on Medium growth, but didn’t really know it was an actual good tip until the other day when this happened.
My comment on John Mashni’s article “You Can Be Anything You Want, If You Do this” has received more reads than most of my articles. I got 8 followers just from that comment alone. I believe when you go to the responses of that article, I am the top of the list.
I had absolutely no idea this would happen when posting my comment. This highlights the reason why you should be frequently interacting with other people and giving feedback on their work.
My term is “Be Everywhere”.
I had no expectations that my comment would get over 200 reads. Seeing this happen made me realize that I should absolutely be doing this more often.
Follow some top writers that get around 3k+ claps usual. Read their post and comment something meaningful on it.
This is by far one of the most underutilized tools for growing a Medium page.
4. Tag other writers.
Just do it. Don’t be a coward.
Honestly, though, I can’t stress this enough. You should start bookmarking articles that you’d like to reference right NOW. If you feel there’s something about your article that can be related to someone else's, tag them. It won’t hurt.
Possibly, you liked a quote or sentence they used. Maybe, you want to back up one of your statements with something they said. Don’t be afraid to tag other writers. Even popular ones. The worst that can happen is nothing (Ooo big deal).
If you’re lucky, they might stop by and see why you tagged them. Tag all kinds of writers. Tag all of Medium if you have to. Jk, don’t do that!
Example:
In my article “Why You Should Be Everywhere On Medium” I tagged the man himself, Tom Kuegler. Not only did Tom clap up my article, he shared it on one of his new articles. That potentially put my piece in front of 10k Medium members. *This article has since become my most read article* Thank you, Tom.
Funny thing is, I actually planned to tag Tom on this article anyway because he has so many wonderful tips on growing your Medium blog. If you’re looking to grow your followers on here, you should absolutely be following Tom Kuegler. This man went from 0 to 17k followers in a relatively quick time.
5. Patience
While this is a less practical tip, patience is going to make or break your success on here.
Your first articles will be unseen. I repeat, your first 10 articles may not get more than 5 claps. There is no such thing as publishing something and the little birdies flock in by the millions. Unless your Gary Vaynerchuk, of course. *Love you, Gary*
Anything worth doing takes time and massive patience.
You will eventually build an audience if you publish frequently, interact with other writers, tag other writers, comment on popular pieces, and most importantly just put in the work.
Putting in the work is what most people can’t do.
If you want to separate yourself from 90% of other writers on here, put in the damn work.
There is no overnight Medium success.
Having followers is not very important. It does help and you should absolutely focus on getting more followers every day. I think what matters most is how many claps and responses you get on your articles.
In a non-rude way, I’ve seen people with 20x more followers than me get less attention on their articles. This is purely an example of why followers don’t mean a whole lot.
Another thing to note, while this article has been mostly about growing on Medium, I’d like to remind you that pure passion for being a part of this community is where it all begins.
Provide value, put in the work, write a little every day, be on Medium a little every day and be patient and consistent.