I joined Medium in September 2020, on the cusp of the latest set of changes. It was the best time to join. I had nothing to compare to or to complain about. I've never earned anything with writing, so the one penny for my 1st month was a thrill. I see the dollar amount as a reflection of how much I'm participating on the platform, how many new publications I'm accepted in, and how many articles I submit or self-publish.

By the end of September I had 35 followers and by the end of December, I had 105. My guess is that came about by my comments on other articles. It helped that I wrote articles of my own in response to those I've seen where I tagged and quoted the author. I'm not sure this is all that Ev wanted us to do in his new "relational" Medium. If there is more I could or should be doing to be more relational, I want to know.

During my first few weeks on Medium, I had over 1,200 articles in my reading list because I was drawn by the title. After a while, I started noticing the author's names and began to follow a few people and subscribe to their newsletters. I wish I had more time to read them!

I even started noticing the dominant theme that some authors have. For example, August Birch usually mentions the importance of creating an email list. He makes a good case for this practice. I've not done it yet because I find it hard enough to come up with something to write on Medium each week. I don't have any idea what I could consistently say to my subscribers each week, especially since my topics are all over the place.

I'm already following some of the writers on your list and look forward to exploring some of the others. When I joined Medium, I indicated my areas of interest, but not necessarily the topics I expected to write about. I'm not sure how or where to specify these.