My Journey to 2K Medium Followers

Just keeping it real here, folks. The real riches might not be in the earnings, but in the person who writing turns you into.

Screenshot by Author

Ok, writers. There are a bunch of posts on growing a following here on Medium. Here’s one that's transparent, and minus any hype.

Getting started

I started writing on the platform back in 2018. I was freelancing and wanted a place to express my creative thoughts. I was visiting family in Colorado when I joined Medium.

I had no big plans for where my writing was taking me at the time.

I just started. The journey of a thousand miles, right?

And at first, I only posted every couple of months. I wrote when I felt like it and kept my expectations low. I joined as a paid member and signed up for the Partner Program at the same time. My goal was to make five bucks a month to cover my membership fee.

Then I had my first “viral” post

Despite the fact that I’m mostly writing about culture change and deep, geeky academic stuff, my most popular article to date was one about wanting to get a pixie cut, but not wanting to look like a soccer mom.