A FOLLOW FOR A FELLOW FOLLOWER
Or: How I learned to swallow my pride and ask for followers
I was so excited when I first heard about Medium (about two weeks ago).
A place where you can publish pretty much whatever you want and, based purely on the content and how good your writing is, you can earn money. It sounded too good to be true. Funny that it almost was.
In the past two weeks, I’ve developed a love hate relationship with Medium. On the one hand, I love the approach. I love that it’s up to me (and you) to create content, to drive it forward, to be the master my own fate. I’ve read numerous posts about how to earn $X amount from a single post, how much I should be posting, the importance of engagement and, most of all, the benefits of earning a ‘passive’ income. What a dream.
On the other hand though… those pesky followers.
100 followers shouldn’t be too much of a hassle to curate. And I completely understand the reason for this prerequisite (and when I get to that coveted 100, I’m sure I’ll be pro-choice too!). But for someone who is just starting out, who wants to hit the ground running, it can be slightly frustrating. Posting good content isn’t enough, especially if no one is going to read it. I’m learning this the hard way.
But I’m also resilient. I’ve written for well over 10,000 hours. I’ve written in excess of 100 novels, a dozen feature length screenplays, too many short films to count, and more shopping lists than I can even fathom. I’m here. I’m ready. I just need those followers.
So I’m swallowing my pride. I’m telling myself that everyone does it at one point. And, most of all, I’m asking for a follow.
I will follow you back. Don’t worry about that. I don’t care about ratios, or messing with my own algorithm. If you follow me, be sure that the next time you log on you’ll see that little green icon above the bell. You’ll click on it. And then, unsurprisingly, you’ll see my smiling face beside your ‘follow’ list. I know you’re excited.
So please, this is me on my knees (metaphorically, as I have bad knees) asking for a follow. I’ll follow you back and then, together, we can start using Medium the way it was supposed to be used.
See you on the other side.
