10 Easy And Quick Ways To Grow Your Audience On Medium

When I started writing online back in 2013 no one had ever heard my name.

I was a complete nobody.

And I hadn’t achieved anything.

I didnt build a multimillion dollar business.

Or was famous for something.

I didnt have an audience.

Nothing.

I was a totally random guy.

And back then there were no such platforms with a built in audience such as Medium.

And I can still remember the days when I was struggling to get even 30 pageviews on my blog.

On the weekends I tried to hit 50 pageviews.

Needless to say I barely ever hit those numbers.

So I had to find other ways to build an audience.

I had to find other ways to get my ideas out there.

To get my ideas to spread.

I had to hustle hard to get to those numbers.

And today my stuff was read by more than 3million people across multiple platforms.

And this stuff right here is the stuff I’ve done when I was just getting started.

I still do most of this stuff today.

Will it work for you?

I don’t know.

But it worked for me….

# FOLLOW PEOPLE WHO LIKE YOUR STUFF

It’s easy to miss this one. And it’s probably one of the easiest things to do. That’s why no one does it.

Whenever someone likes your post, claps for it or upvotes it, follow them.

It’s very likely that they’re going to follow you back.

After all, they’ve just spent a few minutes of their lives reading your stuff.

And then they even went the extra mile of liking, upvoting or clapping for your stuff.

So it’s very likely they might also be interested in your future stuff.

The problem is that just a few people will hit the follow button after they’ve read and liked your stuff.

So instead of letting your readers, listeners or viewers do all the hard work why don’t you do some of the work?

Why don’t you do the first step and follow them?

It’s likely that some of them are going to follow back.

Not all of them but some of them.

Maybe that’s also how you found out about me.

And that’s how you win a new follower and maybe even a new fan for life.

By going the extra mile while everybody else already went home…

That’s exactly how I’ve built my audience on pretty much every platform.

And occasionally I also wrote one or two good posts.

So that probably also helped a bit…

# FOLLOW PEOPLE WHO LIKE SIMILAR STUFF TO YOURS

This is another no brainer.

Take a look around, see who else writes similar stuff to yours and then check out their posts.

And then just follow the people who liked, upvoted or clapped for their most recent stuff.

And again, some people might check out your stuff after you’ve followed them. Most people won’t. But some people will. And some of them will follow back.

People will follow back because they’ll get a notification that you followed them.

And people are generally curious and want to figure out who followed them. And if it’s someone with good stuff it’s likely they’re going to follow back.

Sure, the more crowded a platform gets, the less it works. But it still works…

So is this a lot of work?

Hell yeah, it’s a lot of work.

But the thing is that not everybody can publish their stuff in some of the world’s biggest publications.

Not everybody will have a huge following over night.

I clearly didn’t.

Doing something every single day compounds.

ALWAYS.

In my case it added up to almost 50,000 followers and close to 70,000 followers for my publication Thought Pills…

# FOLLOW PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW PEOPLE SIMILAR TO YOU

And yes, a ton of people have followed this advice and followed my followers. Feel free to do the same. But it’s pretty much useless if you don’t do the next thing. And that’s probably the hardest part of it all…

# CREATE GOOD STUFF

It should be obvious that all of this stuff only works if you put out good stuff. If your stuff sucks then all of this is a waste of time. And it won’t work.

If your stuff sucks, then no one is going to read it, like it or whatnot.

So how do you create and put out quality stuff?

Good question.

Here’s how…

# PUBLISH ONE PIECE A DAY

I’ve said this many times in the past already…

Quantity leads to quality.

Quantity is the only way to quality. The more often you do something the better you’ll get. And the easier it’ll get to do it. This applies to pretty much everything in life.

If you do something over and over again you’ll automatically get better at it. Some people might need a little bit more time than others. But it still applies to pretty much everything and everyone.

Here’s the thing…

A lot of people believe in talent. I don’t think something like talent exists. I think the only way to get good at something is to do it over and over again. In front of an audience of people so you can get immediate feedback. And see what works and what doesn’t. And then adjust…

To me talent is an excuse. It’s an excuse for not putting in the work. For not trying. For hiding from failure.

To me talent is an excuse so people won’t see that you suck at it. And you’ll always suck at it when you’re just getting started.

Your first 30 YouTube videos will suck.

Your first 100 blog posts will suck.

Just like your first 60 paintings will suck.

And the only way to suck less is to keep doing it.

Over and over again.

But here’s the problem…

If all you do is to create your stuff for yourself you’ll never get better at it.

Because you won’t get any feedback. And you’ll never see what works and what doesn’t.

You’ll never see people’s reactions.

That’s why writing or creating one piece of content just isn’t enough.

You also gotta publish it for the entire world to see. For the entire world to judge.

Of course only if you want to get better at it. There’s nothing wrong about creating stuff just for yourself and for no one else to see…

The good news is that people only remember the good stuff and not the mediocre or bad stuff. So when you get started and no one listens, take that time to get better at your craft.

Here’s the thing…

Most of my stuff is mediocre. At best. And I hit a homerun maybe once every few months. And yet you’ve already spent a few minutes of your precious time reading this. Thank you!

# IGNORANCE

At the same time you also gotta be ignorant. You’ve gotta be able to ignore the likes, the comments and the shares you get. That’s the only way you’ll ever be able to keep experimenting. To keep the boat floating. To keep the show going. To keep putting stuff out there.

This is especially important when you’re just getting started. When you’re just getting a few views with each piece you publish. As long as you keep experimenting and putting stuff out there and one person gets something out of it you’ve done a good job.

Because that one person might tell her friends about it. And they might tell their friends about it. And on and on and on.

Sure, it’s not very likely. But when you do what I’ve said so far, then you increase the odds that it’s going to happen. Over and over again.

And then at one point, maybe a year or so from now or maybe two, you might have turned this one view into a million views. It’s not very likely. But it’s possible. If you keep working on increasing the odds by doing all of the above. And all the other stuff that’s about to follow…

#SHOW UP

Show up before you have to show up.

Put your work out before you have to show your work.

But even more importantly try to always show up.

Even, no especially when you don’t feel like showing up.

Because you’ll never feel like showing up…

# BE A MARKETER

You might think you’re a writer. Or an artist. Or a designer. Or a freelancer. Or a musician. Or a blogger. Or a creator of any other kind. But what you really are is a marketer. Whether you like it or not.

If you don’t know how to get your work to out there, if you don’t know how to make it spread, and if you don’t know how to make people find out about you then it’s like you don’t even exist for the rest of the world.

No one will magically find out about you. No matter how good you are. It’s just gotten way too crowded out there.

So act accordingly.

And learn the craft.

The craft of getting your ideas and work to spread…

# BE EVERYWHERE

Is it important to be everywhere?

I don’t know.

Is your message important?

Should it spread?

Should more people know about it?

You tell me…

Thanks for spending ten minutes of your time reading this!

In case you want to know more about how to grow your audience on Medium I’ve put together a free PDF with 10 more secrets to growing your audience here on Medium.

Get 10 More Secrets To Growing Your Audience On Medium For Free Here