From 0 to 4,999 followers: 5 practical lessons I learned on my Medium journey
Taipei, 2:17AM.
It has been raining the entire day, yet I’m only taking a moment to write this blogpost now. I spent my time eating, working and walking around the city with a friend.
And here I am, laying down on my bed, in the hostel who will be my home for the next (and last) 2 nights in Taiwan.
I am sleepy, it’s late, and I know I still have to write a blogpost before closing my eyes.
Before going to the bathroom to take off my contact lenses, I quickly checked my Medium profile, and noticed the number of followers: 4,999.
Well, I wanted to wait to reach 5,000 before writing this post. But for 1 more follower, let’s assume the lessons I learnt from the beginning will ne the same ones.
And the title will be more catchy anyway. I mean, who is seriously celebrating 4,999 followers?
Alright, let’s do this.
In this article, I will share with you the 5 most important things I learned on the Medium journey that led me here today.
1. Keep writing even when no one is reading
Starting your journey on Medium can be quiet discouraging.
On one hand, you see people having thousands of «claps» on their posts, and on the other hand you don’t even manage to get 100 views on this story you spent hours writing.
It doesn’t matter. Keep writing.
You never know which article will go viral or when it will.
I had posts suddenly getting hundreds of views, even though they went totally unnoticed when I published them.
As long as you keep writing, you will:
- Improve your skills
- Understand better how the platform works
- Have another chance to impact positively at least one person
2. Use the publications
A publication is a place where several writers share articles following a theme.
There is already a publication for almost any topic that you might have in mind. If there’s none, then just create it.
Publications have been one of the most efficient way I gained followers so far.
Once you get published there, a different audience than yours has access to your content for the first time.
It will give you a chance to capture those new readers into followers.
3. Ask
I saw just so many people writing a viral post with dozens of comments and thousands of claps. And when I looked at their profile, they still had less than 100 followers.
Why? Because they don’t ask.
People are afraid to be pushy or to sound spammy by asking their readers to «clap» or follow them.
Just ask them exactly what you want them to do (this doesn’t apply for the articles published under the partner program as Medium specify that the article shouldn’t have this kind of CTA in the end).
Following your account? Following your publication? Clapping the story? Commenting?
If you want to see what and how I ask it, just scroll to the end of this post.
Explain to them why you need them to do it, and you will be surprised how many will actually do it.
4. Know why you are writing
It doesn’t have to be a fixed answer. Your why will eventually evolve as you get more experience and results.
However, when you sit in front of your laptop to start writing, you have to know why you will write.
It will help answering so many important questions:
- Which tone and type of writing you will use
- How long you will spend writing
- Where you will share the article and how you will promote it
For example, I write every single day because I want to challenge myself to be more disciplined, documenting my business journey, and get compound results in my publishing practice.
Therefore, I won’t spend more than 2h per post, will write with my own voice and share the posts on my social medias and some publications only.
5. Respect your basics
I put it in the end so you read it last and do it first.
There are some basics about writing on Medium that you simply have to follow. They have to be part of what you do by default.
Some of those basics are almost universal, and some others are related to your own best practices only.
Universal:
- Use a main cover picture
- Use 5 hashtags when you publish
- Make your post readable (use titles, subtitles and write short paragraphs)
Personal (those are mines, feel free to find yours):
- Publish at least once a day before sleeping
- Test different CTA in the end of the post to get more claps
- Ask to myself: does this content provides value to anyone?
How about you?
Share with in the comment where you are at in your Medium journey, and what are some of your personal best practice so far.
