How to Attract Medium Followers: The System I’m Building After 6 Months of Trial and Error

I have 23 followers after 31 published essays. Here’s a protocol I’ve developed by studying successful writers.

I’m a retired radiologist with 40 years in medicine. I know how to explain complex concepts. I’ve published four books on healthcare navigation and medical transparency. I joined Medium six months ago thinking, ‘I know how to write, what could be easier than explaining complex medical topics to a lay audience? Wrong.

Since joining Medium, I have written 31 essays. Eight were published in Illumination, one of Medium’s largest publications with over 44,000 followers. My acceptance rate improved — editors now approve my work within one to two days, sometimes the same day.

My follower count? Twenty-three.

Not 230. Not 2,300. Twenty-three people thought my work was worth following.

I asked for help. The advice I received? “Build a dashboard to track your follower count in real-time.”

But tracking follower count doesn’t grow followers any more than stepping on a scale makes you lose weight. A dashboard shows you the symptom. It doesn’t diagnose the underlying condition.