How I Reached 100 Followers in Less than a Month

A big challenge new Medium writers face is acquiring 100 Followers to meet the requirements to join the Medium Partner Program.

If you are writing just for fun, you needn’t fret. This article is for those who are serious about earning income on Medium.

This article explains the rationale behind “100 Followers: How I Identified a Breakthrough Goal,” and contains a step-by-step Plan to reach 100 followers effectively and efficiently.

BACKGROUND

There are seven ways from Sunday to do things; it’s the same with acquiring 100 followers.

You must meet these prerequisites before you can acquire 100 followers (as of Q1 2023):

1. One article — you must publish at least one article in the last 30 days
2. Profile — describe who you are and what you are writing about
3. About page — provide more detail on who you are and the topics you write about

Once you have met those prerequisites, you can assess which option to use.

The options are:

1. Letting the algorithm take care of it
2. Following and engaging with other writers in the community
3. Participating in a follow-for-follow scheme
4. A combination of any of the previous methods

ANALYSIS

Each of the options above has Pros and Cons associated with them.

1. Let the Medium Algorithm Work

This is the default option — you don’t need to do anything but publish your writing.

PRO:

The Medium algorithm will show your articles to readers based on their interests and the tags (AKA topics) you have used in your story.

CON:

This method will be the slowest. It will primarily depend on how often you publish new articles.

ANALYSIS:

If you are writing for fun, then this is the approach for you. You can publish and let your words flood the universe.

2. Engage With the Community

PRO:

Medium (and the community) recommends this approach. If you enjoy social media engagement, this approach is for you.

As a geek, I can see that the algorithm can detect and reward your engagement within the community.

CON:

This method will also be slow. Like the first option, it depends on how often you publish new articles and how you engage with the community.

It takes time to perform engagement which interferes with writing.

ANALYSIS:

You should engage with the community for purely selfish reasons. First, you will encounter writers that you will want to follow. Second, you have the opportunity to learn. Third, the Medium algorithm rewards writers who engage with the community.

3. Follow-For-Follow Strategy

PRO:

On the surface, it seems like the most effective strategy. All you need to do is find 100 other people using this strategy.

CON:

The challenge is finding 100 people. There may be groups in social media, or even Medium, that you could tap into. However, this approach is frowned on by Medium - they want genuine engagement.

ANALYSIS:

Do not do this! My IT (Information Technology) knowledge says it is too risky. You want to get into the MPP fast, but getting banned by Medium at this stage is a huge setback.

4. Combination

PRO:

You can utilize the best of the strategies to accelerate your follower growth.

CON:

There aren’t any!

ANALYSIS:

You always use a combination of strategies unless you use the platform only to write (option 1).

DECISION

Medium will find and deliver readers to you. But it will take some time unless you are one of those writers who hit the goldmine and go viral. (If your article goes viral, you will smash your follower count!!!)

Engaging with other writers in the community is always beneficial. There’s lots of advice out there on how to get more followers. There is no downside.

I based my decision on marketing and sales. The guiding principle is the sales funnel.

The sales funnel concept is that for every x prospect put into the top of the funnel, a smaller amount (x -  y) comes out the bottom. For every writer that you interact with on Medium (read, clap, comment, follow), a small fraction of them will follow you.

MY PLAN

I completed the prerequisites, then focused on this:

Step 1: Engage the Community

Read, clap, comment, and follow. This article explains how to be a good community member. Read it; do it!

As always, when dealing with a community: be nice! Your writing persists in Medium and the internet, be supportive and leave good vibes in your wake.

Step 2: Follow 150 Medium Writers

There’s a subtle difference between following writers and participating in a follow-for-follow scheme. The former is acceptable practice on Medium, while the latter is frowned upon (and possibly penalized by Medium).

Medium allows you to follow 150 writers per day (Q1 2023). I created a sales funnel by doing this every day.

HOW:

1. Find a Publication with topics similar to what you will write.
2. In the browser, append “/about” to the publications URL, and hit enter. The browser should refresh with the publication’s About page. The page will show the publication’s editors and followers (see image below).
3. You can follow each of the writers in that list (maximum of 150 per day). Optionally, you can review each writer’s profile summary and decide whether to follow them (see image below). As a bonus, you can hover over the writer’s name and see their follower count. (I didn’t follow anyone with over 10,000 followers — if they are that big, I don’t think they waste their time following random writers.)
4. If the publication has more than 150 writers, return the next day and continue where you left off. If the publication has less than 150 writers in the list, find another publication and repeat.
5. BONUS Tip: If you are anal like me, when you look at each writer you follow, you can record each follow into groups based on the writer’s follower count. I used these groups: 0–50, 51–100, 101–200, 201–400, 401–600, 601–1.5K, 1.5K-3K, 3K-5K, >5K. The groupings are arbitrary; use whatever makes sense to you. (I captured the stats to analyze this methodology; I will be publishing the stats in a subsequent article.)

This strategy is subtly different from a follow-for-follow scheme. You are marketing yourself and have no expectations of a follow in return. This article was the inspiration for this technique.

My experience is that the 150-follow limit resets at midnight every day.

Step 3: Write

Get busy writing! That’s what you joined Medium to do. Put out your best stuff — don’t hold back.

You may think, “What if my article goes viral and I’m not in the MPP? I won’t earn any money.”

I wish I had that problem, but I haven’t.

If an article goes viral, you will quickly have more than 100 followers. Then you will be able to apply to the MPP.

What about lost earnings before acceptance into the MPP? I am not an authority, but this article indicates that Medium will allocate previous read time to your account for new subscribers. If the algorithm can do that, I presume it can also allocate earnings after you are accepted. (Again, I do not know if this is true; if someone has experienced this, share your experience in the comments.)

SUMMARY

I acquired 100 followers in less than a month and was accepted into the MPP by following this plan.

You may get pushback from other writers who ask, “Why are you following me? Why are you doing follow for follow?”. For me, there were two writers (less than 1% that went into my marketing funnel).

I understand they don’t know my motivations when they posted.

I responded, “I’m not doing a follow-for-follow. I can unfollow you if you desire.”

Remember, be polite.

It should rarely happen as the psychology is that most writers will rarely question why you follow them. They will see the follow, check out who you are and what you write about, and determine if they want to follow you back. If you have less than 100 followers, it’s more likely that they will follow you.

It’s a marketing funnel, so don’t be offended that a small percentage of writers follow you. You should expect that from the beginning.

When I reached 100 followers, I stopped following 150 writers per day. Now I only follow those I’m interested in, or if they follow me. You could continue the practice to boost your follower numbers, but followers don’t equate with readers.

This practice generates a long tail. I am still getting follows from writers I followed several weeks ago.

The Medium algorithm works to put your articles in front of new readers. A reader that follows you of their own choice is more beneficial to you.

You can rely on the Medium algorithm to reach 100 followers or market yourself to reach the milestone quicker.

Be Cynical,

GB

BONUS

If you are inclined to capture stats, you can analyze the efficacy of your efforts. If you record the counts (by groups) of writers you follow, you should also capture the same data/groups for the follows you receive.

You should also add two new groups for the follows you receive:

• Readers - subscribers that have not filled out their profile or have 0 followers. They are on Medium to read, not write. The Medium algorithm brought those to you.
• Unfollows  - there will be a reduction in your follower count because of unfollows, deleted accounts, or other things.

If you record the daily stats in a spreadsheet, you can determine your response rate. The followers recorded by Medium and shown in your Profile and Audience pages will lag your stats because of timing (even Medium’s numbers between those two pages don’t always match).

I add one more category to the other groups I’ve identified. I track what I call “unsolicited” follows. If you’ve followed my plan, you will have already followed the writers that follow you back. If you receive a follow, but you haven’t followed them, their follow is “unsolicited.” If you didn’t follow them first, Medium’s algorithm made the connection. I track their follower count as usual and record them in the “unsolicited” count. When you track this category, you can see exactly what Medium is doing to promote you.

Another bonus is you have captured statistics for an additional article you can write. You can pay it forward to other new writers facing the same challenge.

This is Part 1 of a three-part series:

• Part 2: 100 Followers: How I Evolved an Effective Plan  -  How I created and executed a plan to acquire 100 followers for the Medium Partner Program (MPP) in less than a month with sales and marketing techniques.
• Part 3: 100 Followers: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics  -  I reveal how to analyze and leverage my Follower Plan to acquire 100 followers, reach your follower goal, and join the Medium Partner Program (MPP).