How an 18 Year Old Girl Gained 175K Followers on Medium in 3 Months
I offer Insights as a scientist, content strategist, book author, online writer, editor, curator, and owner of ILLUMINATION publications on Medium supporting 31K writers and 111K readers for 5 years
I first published this story on Medium to give a valuable perspective to innocent writers who are confused and misled. Non-members of Medium can read this story for free via my friendlink. Thank you for sharing and commenting.
Dear reader, the title of my story is not clickbait. It stems from an authoritative source — a boosted story by a highly regarded Medium employee and top writer who’s been a fixture on this platform for years. But as a seasoned writer, editor, curator, and content strategist, I felt the need to expand on the original source’s meaning.
Many readers and writers in my circles misunderstood it, asking me why they failed despite following the so-called “formula” I shared during my five years of mentoring them. Some even suspected I was withholding the real secrets. So, here we are. I’ve decided to lay it all out — generously and transparently.
Let’s clear the air first. Followers on Medium mean nothing. Zilch. Nada. I said this in 2020, and I’m saying it again in 2024, but this time with more conviction and undeniable evidence. Why?
Because when I had just 10K followers, my stories’ views, reads, engagement, and earnings were ten times higher than they are now, with 101K followers. That’s right — more followers have led to fewer reads, less engagement, and even less income. Sure, those big numbers might inflate your ego, but if that’s your priority, you’re in the wrong game.
And let’s talk about what happens when you hit that 100K mark on Medium.com from my experience and systematic observations. The platform essentially stops distributing, curating, and boosting your content. Worse yet, they lock your account, making sure you don’t gain a single new follower unless they stumble upon your profile through a direct link.
This isn’t some hypothetical scenario; it happened to me and countless other writers I mentor or interact with. While I can’t share all the details publicly, I’m more than willing to discuss the facts privately — just reach out via Substack Notes. I will provide screen captures and names of the authors that you can verify yourself.
As a seasoned scientist and retired executive, I rely on reliable data, empirical evidence, and a healthy dose of intuition. Misleading people serve no purpose in my life or within the collective consciousness. I operate with integrity, truth, an open mind, respect, tolerance, and an abundance mentality.
Now, let’s get to the meat of the story.
According to the popular interview by Zulie, which was brought to my attention by countless writers and readers on Substack Notes and my Slack workspace, an 18-year-old writer, Remi, who joined Medium just three months ago, managed to snag 168K followers with only about 30 stories. Impressive, right?
Now, you might be wondering why you, a dedicated, active writer, editor, publication owner, curator, and content strategist with a substantial social media following, have barely scraped together 101K followers in five years, with over 2,500 stories — some of which were boosted or even went viral through social media.
It’s a fair question. The interview with this young writer revealed the so-called secret: TikTok. Yes, that platform I’ve consciously avoided, both as a creator and a consumer, despite being fully capable of leveraging it. You may ask why.
Well, as a cognitive scientist, I’ve studied TikTok’s impact on the human brain since its inception. I’ve shared my findings with reputable organizations as part of their strategic media approach.
Sure, TikTok can be a goldmine for some talented individuals and startups, but it’s a far cry from the strategic tool that serious businesses need.
For example, over the past 42 years, I’ve consulted for over 500 large corporations — none of which showed any interest in TikTok. They were more inclined toward platforms like LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter (now X), Quora, Reddit, Slack, or Substack. Therefore, I am active on these platforms and will use them as our growth strategy.
Thanks to my global connections, I even made friends with Mark Zuckerberg lately, after his staff apologized for the accidental suspension of my account. they brought me 500+ old friends whom I lost track of over the last 60 years. I am very grateful to Mark and his team, so I will feature Facebook soon in my vast network as an excellent business tool, which I was unaware of.
Meanwhile, this 18-year-old, who churns out content that even generative AI could whip up with a few prompts, somehow hit the jackpot on TikTok. And no, you don’t need a massive TikTok following to pull this off.
According to a comment I read from Ariel Meadow Stallings on Zulie’s interview, this young writer has just 47K followers on TikTok. Yet, those 47K followers miraculously helped her amass 168K followers on Medium, leaving the community in shock, positively or negatively. However, I am not shocked, as I have been studying social media since its inception and guiding business leaders in its proper and strategic use.
Some of my proteges, armed with postdoctoral degrees and even a few boosted stories, have barely managed to scrape together 5K followers in the past five years — likely because they didn’t jump on the TikTok bandwagon.
Last year, a dedicated editor and media coordinator of my pubs,
(Owner of Illumination Gaming) offered to promote my stories — and those from my publications — on TikTok for free. I politely declined.For example, he created a TikTok video to inspire our writers to caption images, a massive time-saver as 99% of new writers don’t know how to handle images, wasting editors’ time. Senior editors loved it, but Medium curators failed to notice this innovative solution, which could inspire and educate thousands of writers. Unlike Remi’s stories, which had thousands of views, comments, and claps, Aiden’s story got only 17 read from editors with direct links and earned $3. Aiden can prove this upon request.
Yet, Medium curators and Zulie somehow noticed the romantic musings of a three-month-old writer, featured her, and even boosted her story so prominently that it showed up multiple times in everyone’s feed. Writers are left wondering why Medium’s algorithm keeps pushing this interview while censoring my interviews with influential writers, a practice that’s been happening since 2019.
Some writers found this dilemma and dichotomy soul-crushing; therefore, I left a caring comment on Zulie’s story. Many other readers left very concerning comments. I am surprised that my comment a day ago got more claps than my boosted stories, indicating that it resonated with the community. I look forward to Zulie’s or Coach Tony’s response to this comment, whether positive, negative, or neutral. I love transparency in communication and am used to negative criticism and embrace it for my personal and professional growth.
Among many concerning comments, another interesting comment that caught my attention was by
(a caring friend of Medium and chief editor of Health and Science) with a bit of humor:
Now, let’s dissect the second part of my title.
How did this new writer gain an extra 6K followers after that famous interview? The answer is simple: Medium effectively distributed Zulie’s interview Clickbait titled story, so thousands of curious readers followed the new writer after it was published.
How was this sensation created?
As a tech professional and pub owner, I have been investigating the Boost program since its inception with the support of seasoned data scientists who can analyze massive datasets in minutes with their tools. One of them is an MIT graduate. I documented my analysis of boost guidelines in 2023 and shared them in a comprehensive story to guide new writers. I also answered frequently asked questions about the boost program.
In a nutshell, when Medium boosts a story, it doesn’t just stop at the writer’s followers; it first tests the waters there. In the case of Zulie, it showed her story to her 2.1K followers — a pretty tiny number. I believe Zulie has many more followers from her writer account, but she posted this one from her employee account with fewer followers. I assume she wanted to sound more authoritative as this interview was strategic for the future of Medium, according to many brilliant strategists who told me.
Boosted stories on Medium are then strategically spread to a broader audience, reaching beyond just the writer’s followers to publication followers. Zulie, being the savvy operator she is, published her story on a Medium Blog with a whopping 2.7 million followers.
Naturally, who would pay attention to smaller publications like ILLUMINATION with its modest 109K followers when they could tap into the massive distribution power that reaches millions? Only naive writers like myself, Tim Denning, Sinem Günel, Sean Kernan, or David Gerken would bother submitting stories to these tiny publications.
But Zulie did not stop there. If the engagement is good, boosted stories can be extended to topics tagged in the story. Zulie, being the smart and seasoned writer she is, tagged her boosted story to Writing, Creativity, Medium, TikTok, and Social Media, collectively reaching over one million (real or fake) followers.
The result? Zulie’s interview, despite her modest 2.1K followers, racked up 10.5K claps and 171 comments. Meanwhile, my censored 20-minute interview with the accomplished writer Ruby Noir 😈 managed just 275 claps and 4 comments. Even in my interview with the legendary Tim Denning, despite my 101K followers and my publication’s 109K followers, I only got 987 claps and 19 comments.
This situation clearly shows that Zulie’s narrative about network distribution is not just wrong but misleading, as I mentioned in a previous story — tagging her but with no response from Zulie or the head of distribution — who surely knows how network distribution actually works if there is such a thing in reality because I never benefitted from it but gratefully I benefitted from previous further distribution or recent boosted stories in a negligible amount.
They’ve remained silent because Medium’s algorithm has been blocking all my interviews since 2019. At first, I thought people just didn’t like interviews, but when I experimented with two interviews, especially the one with Wendi Gordon, making her a co-author, and one with Tim Denning — each interview got over 100K views on Substack despite my mere 29K subscribers.
This delighted me, so I will continue interviewing many writers to build their audience on Substack. I cannot help on Medium as its algorithm chooses to censor my interviews. I will still publish them to create serendipity.
So this special interview by Zulie helped Remi to go from 0 to 175K followers in three months, thanks to Medium’s biased distribution system, despite her mere 47K TikTok followers. Yes, TikTok played a role, but the real magic was orchestrated by Scott Lamb’s department and Zulie’s savvy storytelling and strategic publishing efforts publicly evident.
I believe Terrie Schweitzer, as the head of curation, might have played a role in this strategic initiative, but I am not sure as I don’t converse with Terrie much, and I don’t know her background. During my boost nomination role, when I needed to chat with Terrie, she was very kind, humble, and approachable to me. So, I have huge respect for Terrie.
And that brings me to the bigger picture.
While the 77 new countries Medium has added to its MPP roster may bring fresh voices to the platform, established writers are increasingly finding their place — and their income — on Substack.
For example, Nick Wignal, with his 330K followers, deleted all his stories and left Medium entirely after finding greener pastures elsewhere. Ayodeji Awosika is building a multi-million dollar business. Tim Denning is spending more time on Substack, and as for me?
Yesterday, I closed my best publication, ILLUMINATION-Curated with teary eyes 😢 — a platform that served accomplished writers since 2020 for four years and birthed over a thousand boosted stories since 2022, thanks to the tireless contributions of my 30 volunteer editors.
On 1 August 2024, I had to resign from my privileged boost nominator role. Most of these editors have since resigned, and some even deleted their Medium accounts entirely, having lost trust in the platform’s boost program. The final straw?
Medium’s termination of the boost nominator contract for Aiden, our most hardworking editor, managed to birth 113 boosted stories in just four months. And where is Aiden now? In distribution jail, right alongside me. Like mine, his once-shining account now only gets views from direct links, with a grand total of zero new followers.
The latest Medium algorithm didn’t just change the follower's game. It annihilated my beloved EUPHORIA. Once a source of blissful moments for both me and my readers, this cherished experience has been snuffed out, leaving behind only echoes of what once was. The algorithm’s cold precision replaced the euphoric highs with a stark reality that’s hard to swallow.
It did the same to Aiden’s magical gaming publication, which now gets ZERO views, and the gaming topic page followed by 1.7 million readers only promotes spam like this.
Dr Broadly found the same disgusting results in health and science topics and tagged Medium Staff 8 months ago! What did they do to his story n the last 8 months? Yes, you guessed. They ignored and censored it instead of acknowledging the issues and taking action. In the last 8 months the spam even grew more as shown in the gaming screen capture above.
Talking of the gaming topic, moreover, Aiden's warm face, once the #1 top writer in the gaming topic with over 700 captivating, educating, entertaining, and inspiring stories, has been replaced with these figures, and we have no idea who they are and why Medium curators chose these characters in the most important part of the platform.
Following in my footsteps, Aiden has shifted 90% of his focus to Substack, where he’s a founding member of the Substack Mastery community where he curates leading newsletters and distributing them to our thousands of subscribers. Now, Aiden’s earnings tripled while he lost 90% of his income from Medium after his unfair termination.
But he’s no longer interested in that charade. Aiden is much more cheerful and far less stressed now that he no longer needs to jump through hoops to please the fussy, ever-subjective curators of Medium. “When one door closes, another one opens,” he told me. And you know what? He was absolutely right.
In the last two months, while Medium was busy shutting its doors on me, I gained 29K subscribers and watched my income skyrocket fivefold. My wife was so thrilled that she made a special payment to our mortgage account.
So, in a twist of fate, Medium did me a favor by closing that door after my years of unwavering dedication. The platform’s loss became my gain, and for that, I’m grateful. But I can’t help feeling sorry for the community left behind, as every writer in my circle is unhappy and contemplating an exit.
To lower suffering, I’ve been doing my best to inspire them to stay by opening new publications like Substack Mastery and Curated Newsletters to give them a voice and empowering. I am trying to build a bridge between Medium and Substack. This way, they can grow their audience, boost their income, and avoid the dreaded distribution jail that Aiden, I, and so many other established writers have found ourselves in.
For example, following my strategy, Aiden, as a founding member of ILLUMINATION-Connect, is now channeling his outstanding media skills — including YouTube and TikTok, with a prowess that surpasses even Remi’s acclaimed one as a filmmaker and media consultant in Australia — toward supporting my vision of bringing one million subscribers to Substack in the next 12 months.
Our time on Medium might soon dwindle to a mere 1% or even zero if Medium continues censoring our content and treating my publications like orphans.
From my vision, what about the future of Medium for writers?
Let me give some brief insights using Zulie’s interview within this context based on recent feedback I obtained from many writers and readers, triangulating them with my experience and observations.
This interview explains why thousands of TikTokers, even ones like Sinem Günel — who introduced TikTok in 2020 in established publications and created fantastic TikTok videos — only gained 80K followers in the last six years. Sinem, one of the most active writers on Medium, wrote hundreds of curated and boosted stories and probably put 1000% more effort into the platform than Remi, which was spotlighted on the Medium blog by a talented storytelling Medium employee.
So, you may wonder, who earns more?
Knowing Sinem for many years, I can tell you she’s earned over $500K from the platform and more from other platforms despite having half the followers of Remi. For those unfamiliar with Medium, you might wonder how much Remi, with her 175K followers, earned.
The answer is ZERO dollars. Why?
Because Remi isn’t a paid member of Medium and doesn’t qualify for the Medium Partner Program (MPP) — though her country, the Philippines, was gratefully added to the MPP a few days ago, as I reported in a previous story.
But this doesn’t mean Remi can’t earn as much as Sinem. She could, as long as Medium keeps promoting her and boosting her stories once she becomes eligible for the MPP. Besides writing or engaging on Medium is not just about money. For example, I spent 6 hours of my time daily for the last 5 years, earning only 1% of my income from writing and ZERO dollars from my community-building activities. I am happy about it as it gives me the utmost pleasure to help others.
So I encourage Remi and all new writers coming from these 77 new countries to pour their hearts and souls into writing to inspire and illuminate society with their authentic stories, not AI-written crap.
However, interestingly, within the context of Zulie’s clickbait story, some visionary readers on a private Substack chat suggested that Medium might be grooming Remi to be the next CEO. It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds.
After all, we know good writers can become CEOs — just look at Coach Tony. Like the entire writing community, I was proud to see him take charge of this wonderful platform, increasing paid memberships to one million in a year. Hats off to Coach Tony 🙌
However, I’m not as impressed by his team, who seem to be in constant firefighting mode and can’t even handle the scammers ruining the platform’s reputation. Meanwhile, the ridiculous and concerning tactics the head of distribution and curation is pushing established writers to Substack, depriving Friends of Medium from reading their insights.
As a futurist and content strategist, I know that exciting times are in the offing when I look at my crystal ball made of data and intuition. So, I’m embracing the future of Medium, where budding writers from around the globe will shine. But make no mistake — established writers like us will find our millions on Substack or our own platforms with guaranteed subscribers who will pay our bills.
How about readers?
At this point, I haven’t figured out how paid memberships will impact content consumption. Thus, the future of paid memberships and content preferences remains uncertain.
Will members continue to favor the boosted content and the voices of emerging writers, or will they gravitate toward the meticulously curated newsletters from platforms like Substack, Beehiiv, or even customized websites like I do? In the last 2 months must monetizing only 10% of my content on my website brought multiple times more income than my four years of stories extracted from my books, papers, and manuscripts.
As Substack’s growth surged, outpacing Medium by multiple folds, it became clear that discerning readers were gravitating toward established writers. Substack, recognizing this, fiercely champions these voices, while Medium seems to push them aside, forcing them into the shadows.
This stark contrast in strategy speaks volumes. Substack, with its warm embrace, captured my heart — but Medium, once a place of promise, shattered it into pieces.
Right now, my heart is drawn to Substack. Unlike Medium, where creators often face silent judgment, Substack welcomes us with open arms and unconditional support.
Substack is a place where creativity is cherished without scrutiny, where we are free to be who we are. In this nurturing environment, it’s no wonder that Substack feels like home, while Medium feels more distant with each passing day.
Only time will reveal the real answer. I will explore this enigma further once my crystal ball, crafted from a blend of data and intuition, offers more clarity.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
With this opportunity, I also invite you to our Quora Space to grow your Substack and Medium audience, which is already followed by 17,000+ readers. I will write a detailed article on how to grow your audience using our new Quora space.
If you are a writer on Medium and Substack, we have a new publication called Substack Mastery for writers at all levels. You are welcome to join and share your Substack experience with your fellow writers and discerning readers. You are also welcome to join our
Here is how ILLUMINATION-Curators senior editors of former ILLUMINATION-Curated now known as Curated Newsleters bridge Medium and Substack and create more visibility for the work of our writers to delight our readers with more options.
Substack Mastery Episode 4: Introduction to Leading Substack Newsletters
Featuring the Substack newsletters of writers contributing to the Substack Mastery publication on Medium for…
Substack Mastery of ILLUMINATION Community | ILLUMINATION Curators | Substack
This newsletter is to empower freelance writers and entrepreneurs of the ILLUMINATION community both on Substack and Medium…illuminationcurators.substack.com
I will also teach contributors of Curated Newsletters and Substack Mastery publications how to use canonical names to drive traffic to your newsletters rather than to my publications because the goal is to empower you; publications are only tools.
I wrote this story as a way to give back to the writing community, as I owe my success to my mentors. Mentorship and collaboration can enhance our knowledge, make awareness and skill-building easy, and make the journey enjoyable on different platforms. I wrote several stories like this for writers and readers and linked them to a list titled Writing, Content Development & Marketing Strategies. I will distill them in my newsletter Content Strategy, Development, & Marketing Insights on Substak.
If you are a new reader, you may check out some of my topics, including the brain, mental health, cognitive function, significant health conditions, longevity, nutrition/food, valuable nutrients, ketogenic lifestyle, self-healing, weight management, writing/reading, including 100+ Insightful Life Lessons from My Circles for the Last 50+ Years.
I publish my health and wellness stories on EUPHORIA and share distilled versions on SUBSTACK. My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experiences, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness.
If you are a writer, you are welcome to join my publications by sending a request via this link. I support 31K writers who contribute to my publications on this platform. You can contact me via my website. I also have another profile to write and curate tech stories. Friend Links to My Sample Boosted Stories for Non-Members of Medium. You can read this story on Substack for free.
Get an email whenever Dr Mehmet Yildiz publishes. He is a top writer and editor on Medium. dr-mehmet-yildiz.medium.com
You are welcome to join the ILLUMINATION Community on Medium and Substack. Here is the Importance and Value of Medium Friendship for Writers and Readers
Join me on Substack too, where I offer experience-based content on health, content strategy, and technology topics to inform and inspire my readers.
Health and Wellness by Dr Mehmet Yildiz
As you pointed out, followers mean nothing. I have never gotten any benefits so far. I like subscribers who at least read our stories occasionally. It looks like the author has changed the title of that clickbait story.
Team, thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings on this issue. I am pleased that our discussion made a valuable impact. I noticed that Zulie changed the title of the story we discussed. It sounds better now. It was my major concern.