Dear Beginner Medium Writer, Please Don’t Make This Silliest Mistake, Ever
The sooner you know it, the better
To be clear, there are no rules to writing on Medium.
You can do, create, write “The way you want.” But I think there is only good and bad work. And the type of work decides your progress. So if your work is good or great, the progress will be, for sure, great. If your work is bad, on the other hand, the progress will be, for sure, worse.
Today, in this story, I want to point out a mistake most writers, especially beginner writers make on Medium. This is the mistake you should avoid making at all costs. Why? Because it’s a bad work.
So what’s the mistake?
Surpassing Your Followers’ Count.
Confused? See, there are two Audience metrics you have in your Medium profile: Followers and Following. Followers means, how many people follow you, and Following means how many people YOU follow.
So when I say “Surpassing your followers’ count” Means you shouldn’t follow more people than the followers you have. This means, if you have 150 followers, you shouldn’t be following 200 people or more.
Said differently, if you have 100 followers, you’re better off following only less than 100 people. Meaning, that the following number should always be less than the followers’ number.
I know you might be wondering “Har, what’s the point of doing it?”
To understand it, you need to think from the third person perspective, especially from the writers who’ve got a decent or massive following on Medium. I’ll explain the reason behind it in a few minutes, but first, let me tell you something important.
If you’re doing or have been following more people than the followers you have, you’re doing nothing but trying to trick the game and the platform.
There are two reasons why you might be doing it. First, you follow a lot of people to get follow-back from them, as a result, to drive more followers. Second, you follow a lot of people to get engagement on your stories.
People who do this, do it intentionally, they know what they’re doing and what they want to get doing it. It’s on purpose.
Now here’s the point you might be missing: So say I come across your Medium profile (via one of your stories?), But I see that you’re following 700 people despite having 150 followers.
What do you think, will I give you a follow-back or not? Of course, I won’t.
Here’s why: First of all, I’ve been writing on Medium for quite a while, so I know why people do this kind of thing (who do this), so I’d assume that you’re doing nothing but spamming on the platform through following and unfollowing or mass following.
Second, I’d think that, because you’re following more people than your followers, you’ve no seriousness and value to provide because you’re spending most of your time hacking the algorithm.
This not only kills your authority and credibility but also positions you as a “Low-value account.”
And that’s how you get ignored by big creators on Medium, the creators who might want to follow you but wouldn’t because you’re making this one silliest mistake.
And let’s be clear, doing so, isn’t a good thing. So first things first, you should never do it at all costs. Because that’s not how you thrive and make progress on Medium, especially in 2024.
Want me to give you some examples of accounts that are doing this?
Here you go:
Do you see? And these are just only a few accounts, there are countless people who do the same. What’s wrong with these people on Medium?
God knows!
But yes, as I said, there are no rules, so if you want to do the same, go do it. (good for you) But I’ll never, never, ever recommend doing this cheap way of growing your followers. There are much better ways to grow on Medium.
Hope this makes sense, and you’ll never make this mistake on Medium.
So yeah…this was the mistake I wanted to point out, and hopefully, people who’ve been doing this or want to do this kind of work, read this story and take a lesson from this story. And hopefully, hopefully, avoid making the mistake they are making or about to make.
Aaand…that’s a wrap. Found this story helpful? If you’re interested in growing and making money on Medium in 2024 by doing good work (there is a better way to grow) check out and read the below story, hope it helps!
Thank you so much for reading!
