And what it all but demands that you do
A Medium writer with 10,000 followers or more didn't start there.
When they signed up for Medium, they had no followers, no reads, no subscribers, no income, no nothing.
It didn't stay that way, of course.
Let's look at what happens when I publish an article.
Let's say I publish an article on Medium.
The article hits people's feeds in several ways:
- They may follow the topics I added to the article.
- They may follow me already.
- They may have subscribed to receive my articles by email.
- They may receive the article from someone else who follows me.
Some of the people exposed to my article will engage with it:
- They may view or read it.
- They may clap for it.
- They may leave a comment.
- They may link to it, share it, or save it in a reading list.
Some of them will think: “Hey, I get value out of John's articles.”
Or: “I want to be front and center when he crashes and burns.”
They'll then follow me, subscribe to me on Medium, or subscribe to my newsletter. This increases the likelihood that they'll engage with my next articles.
Some of them may even tell others about my stuff, which would be awesome.
In any case, my audience grew if any of these things happened.
Or how about when I interact with another author?
If I clap for someone's article, they can see that I clapped. They may check my profile out because there's a link to it in their notification that I clapped.
If I comment on their article, they'll see that I commented. They may respond, and they may also check out my profile.
If I respond to someone's comment on one of my articles, they'll see that I responded.
If I tag another author in one of my articles or link to one of their articles, they'll likely see it.
When they arrive at my profile, they may follow me, subscribe to me on Medium, or subscribe to my newsletter.
My audience just grew if any of these things happened.
OK, that was way more detail than I ever wanted.
Here's the point.
Posting an article or interacting with an author are discrete actions. (Let's call these input actions.)
Receiving a follow or a subscription are also discrete actions. (Let's call these growth actions.)
Growth happens discretely (one follower at a time) as the result of growth actions, which follow from the preceding input actions.
We as writers can make the input actions more effective (write great, engaging articles and interact selflessly and generously with other writers).
We still have to do the input things before the growth happens, though.
We may be able to point to a handful of articles that have outsized responses, or a mention by an A-lister that boosts our growth.
But it doesn't change the fact: Someone with 10,000 followers started from zero and received them one at a time as the fruit of their input.
We have no choice but to do the same.
Thanks for reading!
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