How I Went From 18 To 855 Followers In 60 Days

For the first 2 months.

Nobody give a fuck about my articles.

I was writing into the void.

I would check my stats multiple times a day just to feel disappointed and demotivated.

Some days, when I sit down to write, I think, “Anyways, no one is gonna read, why should I waste my time and effort on writing?”

So, I didn’t write consistently.

But in the 3rd month, I decided to try something different.

I took a 30-day writing challenge.

The goal is to do a machine learning project and write an article about it every day.

This challenge completely shifted my focus.

Initially, I was focused too much on growing my follower count and getting engagement.

That was the metric I was using to measure my progress.

But this challenge shifted my focus to publishing 30 articles.

My metric became: Write 30 articles.

That’s it.

Even if I get 0 engagement on all my 30 articles, I’ll not feel bad because that’s not what I’m aiming for.

My goal is to write 1 article a day for 30 days.

Which means, if I simply hit the publish button every day, I’m making progress.

I successfully completed the challenge. I felt a sense of accomplishment after publishing 30 articles, even though I only gained 18 followers after 30 days.

I didn’t feel bad. I didn’t feel like I wasted my time and effort for nothing. In fact, I felt proud of myself. Because I said I’ll write consistently for 30 days and I fucking did it.

The story is not over yet…

The 30 articles I wrote started to attract eyeballs in the 4th and 5th months.

Within 60 days, I went from 18 followers to 855 followers.

That’s when it hit me…

The reasons I didn’t grow during the first 2 months were:

1. I was focusing on the vanity metrics.
2. I didn’t stay consistent.

But when I took the challenge.

I changed my focus to what I can control (writing) instead of focusing on what I can’t control (follower count and engagement).

And I was consistent.

That’s what made the difference.

If you are a beginner, you might be making the same mistake that I was making.

If yes, stop it.

Shift your focus.

You don’t have control over the algorithm, you don’t have control over your follower count, you don’t have control over your stats, and earnings.

All you have control over is opening your laptop and writing.

Just do that consistently, and you’ll grow.

---

P.S. The first 60 articles you write are for yourself.