After many annoying failures, here’s an exact blueprint of my Medium success (finally). When I started doing this, I saw immediate results. And dropped everything else…
Look, I get it…
You are putting blood and sweat into your writing and then nothing… Reactions and followers are lacking and everyone appears ignorant of your (hard) work month after month…
You then try to “fix” things by reading even more and browsing Medium for related articles but again nothing… Crickets…
Most preach the same thing again and again… “Post consistently and eventually you will see the light at the end of the tunnel” (if you are still alive by then).
But does it have to be this way?
Well…
It can be even worse…
After some time, you may start thinking that you are a failure or that “this was not your cup of tea in the first place anyway”…
You should do some “proper” work and stop wasting your time here…
Things are actually that simple… Bring decent traffic to your articles and Poof — things will start moving (the snowball effect)…
You’ll see your followers grow steadily (together with your earnings — provided you have quality articles).
But wait, how can you do this?
Since I was in your shoes just a few months ago (been there, done that)…
I want to teach you “how to fish” for yourself finally…
This is what you have to do to see immediate & concrete results.
(Try it and see if it works.)
But before that, just a short note here.
I am not trying to devalue anyone’s advice. And you SHOULD have a well-written & engaging article, to begin with… Also, you SHOULD post consistently when possible.
But don’t focus on that entirely thinking “this is it”… It’s just one part of the puzzle you are looking to solve.
(It’s easy to fool yourself by thinking that what’s most advised is actually what you should do the most…)
Split your efforts 50/50 between writing (including getting educated on how to write) and GETTING traffic. (Good starting point on how to write is my free newsletter.)
Only then you will be hitting the problem on its head (with the right tool).
With that out of the table, let’s dive in!
#1 Join Facebook Groups
You thought that Facebook was dead, right?
Well, for the purpose you need, it has never been more alive actually…
There are several Facebook groups where Medium authors support each other (some groups count up to 100k members).
Once you join the group you can post your Medium articles there and ask other people to read and comment if they liked the topic.
Most of the groups are based on reciprocity — the more you read other people’s articles the more they will read yours.
Put together two and two and you will see that only this method can bring you 5–10 new followers daily.
Each of the publications will have a page called “Write for us” or “Write with us” or simply an email or a link where you can request to be added to the publication.
Once added, you will be able to submit both your existing posts as well as the new posts you write to a selected publication.
Your existing posts will have this dialogue
One important note here… The first step is to have you accepted to a publication… The second is to submit an article and to wait for feedback (so, articles are not immediately accepted and published).
Despite some “pain” due to this lengthy process, spending time on this is well worth it.
(Sometimes, the editors will ask you in private comments to make small changes to the story before they can publish it so watch for your notifications.)
Depending on publication size (and engagement), you can get easily 10–20 new followers once your work gets published (on small-to-medium publications)…
These are die-hard lovers of a topic… There you have it, tons of engaged subscribers coming your way…
You can submit one article to exactly one publication and this is what dialogue looks like
Just a small spoiler… Sometimes, you will not hear back from the editors for a long time (or not at all).
This is either because of them having too many articles to review or your article doesn’t fit the guidelines (make sure to review these for every publication).
Your job is to find people who are interested in the topics you write about & connect with them.
It’s simple as that…
Medium lets you follow about 150 people a day (plenty of space to practice this every day).
And it is also very easy to find those folks…
Here are the options you have.
Explore profiles of authorities on the subject and see who follows them
Read popular posts within your niche by other authors and follow people who clapped (or commented on the article)
Comment on popular posts of other authors yourself (e.g., find a typo or suggest an improvement)
Visit a publication and just add /followers at the end of the URL of that publication to see a list of people following it [this a hack]
Many Medium members include their email on the profile page — you can send an intro email saying you are a new author and that you would like to connect
Note that I am not advocating any dodgy techniques here as these will have adverse effects on your account.
Still, let’s be real…
Medium has grown tremendously and the opportunity for new writers to surface is actually very small…
Sit and wait doesn’t work here whatever the quality of your writing is…
You have to use all at your disposal to get discovered…
You need to signal to others that you are here and that you have common interests.
Let them decide further if they want to follow you back or not…
(You can easily get 5 new engaged followers daily if you do this right.)
Final thoughts
It’s hard to find the right way in the abundance of information. You can get easily confused and paralyzed not knowing what the right path is (hearing different advice)…
Still, your goal of becoming an author (with the audience) remains.
In this article, I gave you 3 possible ways (which work) to bring you tons of readers in a relatively short period of time.
(Provided you have quality content and that you repeat these action items every day.)
For me, the strategy worked like a charm — I am approaching 1,000 followers and haven’t been happier with how this is developing (finally, after countless failures).
(I wanted to wait with this post until I hit 1,000 followers but decided to post it a bit earlier since I think it’s useful to others and shouldn’t wait.)
Go ahead, try it yourself, and comment here if it worked for you (or if you have some other strategy that works better).
Experienced tech professional with a strong track record in web services and fintech. Collaborating with Silicon Valley's multi-billion tech giants and offering a range of services committed to excellence. Check the Services page for how I can help you too.
