A mature and beneficial perspective. I have newbies ask me to follow them just to help them get to that 100 followers mark. I don't follow for follow. I look at a body of work and, if I like the stories and/or essays, poetry, etc, then I will follow someone. Unfortunately, newbies don't often have a body of work upon which I can assess my own interest.

I was on Medium for a couple of years as a free profile before deciding to join as a paying member. I already had over 1500 followers before getting my membership. In fact, I only got my membership the second week of this past March 2022.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not recommending you wait for that many followers. That was my choice. However, by the time I joined, I already had a good sized body of work on Medium for people to assess their own interest in following or subscribing to my writing. What I do recommend is that you put up your own body of work – I would say 25 or more posts – for which you are proud and which will demonstrate to likely followers why they should like to follow your work.

Good luck.