I Got 50,000 Followers Writing Online. Here’s What I Wish I Knew Sooner

The other day, I jumped on a Zoom call with another writer I’d known for a couple of years. A notebook sat open beside his keyboard, and every few minutes he’d glance down to write something before looking back at the screen. Then, about halfway through the conversation, he asked me a question I’d heard plenty of times before.

“If you could start over, what would you do to rebuild an audience and become successful?”

After building an audience of more than 50,000 followers, there were plenty of lessons I wish I’d learned before publishing my first article. So, I told him everything I wish someone had told me before I spent years chasing followers, publishing hundreds of articles, and learning lessons the hard way.

I’ve been writing on the internet for around seven years now. Every now and then, another writer sends me one of their first articles and asks what I think. I don’t even need to open my old drafts anymore because I already know what I’m going to find. Long introductions, awkward transitions, and sentences that sounded brilliant right up until I clicked “publish.”