I started on Medium in 2019, accumulated 50k+ subscribers and over 10M views. I wouldn’t be here without it.
That said, I now use it only for reposting Substack content.
Why?
- I can’t export my subscriber list. Just why?
- Medium started to give more attention to rushed, clickbaity content than well-researched work
- They reduced earnings drastically. My best month was just north of $5k. That was in December 2023. It’s nowhere near now.
- They discontinued the referral program. I had a nice cushion of $700/month just from paid subscription referrals. They shut down this program recently.
Substack feels different.
I’m just starting out here - 3 weeks in the game - but I hope for it to be everything Medium was and more.
I'd love to be a fly on the wall at the Medium HQ meetings.
What are they thinking over there?
Their algorithm needs a lot of work.
They seem to either promote a post to get 10s of thousands of views (easy to tell when someone's article has thousands of claps) OR they bury it immediately and make it a dud.
I often click on the viral articles, and a lot of them are pure trash.
Don’t know what they’re thinking. Maybe the platform is just at the end of its lifecycle and they’re trying to squeeze every penny for themselves.
Which is fine by me - but I can’t stand it being presented as “an experiment that did’t work as expected,” as it was the case for referred memberships.
If it didn't work, why not retool it? I'm sure part of that was because they wanted to keep that revenue for themselves-and I get it- but ending the program felt like a real misstep to me.
I can definitely relate to that :D For sure we have to maintain freedom and independence from any platform. Still, I love Substack more, for the community, for the quality and for all the collaboration opportunities.
I thought that Medium won’t push your article to other’s if it has affiliate links. Congrats on making money with affiliate marketing! I’ve always wanted to get a slice of that pie.
I think a lot of the views on my articles with affiliates came from Google.
But honestly, I've had some with affiliate links that got promoted on Medium. I find there is a difference between what they say they are doing and what they are really doing.
Lol! Tell me about it 😄But yeah, you can’t complain about their domain strength when it comes to SEO. I still have posts from 2020 that are on the first page of Google until now.
I’ve been on Medium as well, but not as consistently as you have been. However, I agree that we don’t own the audience, and the engagement there is quite low.
Absolutely right. I only lasted two weeks on Medium. Got exhausted chasing publications and begging for views. Funny thing is, the one piece I self-published and promoted myself did better than the one that made it into a publication.
Substack isn’t perfect either, but honestly? I feel way happier here. It’s slower, but it feels more real. Like I’m writing for people — not just fighting an algorithm.
I feel like this is the risk of doing business on the internet these days. It makes the scammy course path to quickly earn a bunch of money hot and fast so attractive instead of supporting long term stable growth in income.
Yep spot on. Though when I reference a Medium article in conversation with my friends, I always tell them it's an online platform that Barak Obama writes on!
Great comparison that really digs into the different purposes/audiences of each. Medium is definitely way more about the "article" vs Substack about the author. I was enjoying my time on Medium even so, until earnings completely tanked and they essentially shadow banned writers who had other writers in their audience. Still figuring it out here on Substack.
"I even read an article that was promoted on the Medium blog — and I am 99.9% sure that most of it was AI-written."
This has happened in a couple of different cases. At one point, they even interviewed a writer, and I'm almost positive their work was AI-generated.
I edit a publication there, and can tell you that the percentage of submissions that are AI has skyrocketed. I'm not talking about someone using Grammarly to clean their work up- I mean pieces that read like the response to a 2-line prompt. It's dispiriting.
Medium gave me a lot, and I'm still pulling for 'em, but I'm not sure they'll be able to turn things around. Seems like every day I see either a pub closing down or writers moving over here.
Andrew, you mention Medium’s follower engagement is broken, but isn’t that true of all social platforms now? Even Substack’s ‘Notes’ feels like a Twitter clone where most posts get ignored. If Medium’s real value is SEO, should writers treat it purely as a traffic funnel (like a blog) rather than a community?
Excellent piece, couldn’t agree more.
I started on Medium in 2019, accumulated 50k+ subscribers and over 10M views. I wouldn’t be here without it.
That said, I now use it only for reposting Substack content.
Why?
- I can’t export my subscriber list. Just why?
- Medium started to give more attention to rushed, clickbaity content than well-researched work
- They reduced earnings drastically. My best month was just north of $5k. That was in December 2023. It’s nowhere near now.
- They discontinued the referral program. I had a nice cushion of $700/month just from paid subscription referrals. They shut down this program recently.
Substack feels different.
I’m just starting out here - 3 weeks in the game - but I hope for it to be everything Medium was and more.
Great comment Dario!
I'd love to be a fly on the wall at the Medium HQ meetings.
What are they thinking over there?
Their algorithm needs a lot of work.
They seem to either promote a post to get 10s of thousands of views (easy to tell when someone's article has thousands of claps) OR they bury it immediately and make it a dud.
I often click on the viral articles, and a lot of them are pure trash.
Don’t know what they’re thinking. Maybe the platform is just at the end of its lifecycle and they’re trying to squeeze every penny for themselves.
Which is fine by me - but I can’t stand it being presented as “an experiment that did’t work as expected,” as it was the case for referred memberships.
100%
If it didn't work, why not retool it? I'm sure part of that was because they wanted to keep that revenue for themselves-and I get it- but ending the program felt like a real misstep to me.
I’m with you. Just started paying attention to Substack after investing a bunch of time in Medium.
Cheers! How did Medium turn out for you?
Same as you. Good follower growth but really difficult to build relationships
That sucks. I hope Substack works for you.
I can definitely relate to that :D For sure we have to maintain freedom and independence from any platform. Still, I love Substack more, for the community, for the quality and for all the collaboration opportunities.
You are right. The community on here is way better
much much better yes
Substack is just enjoyable and fresh to use. It has a good vibe.
Thank you for your honest review, Andrew. I've been on Medium for over 2 years and on Substack for 3 months and agree with the points you make.
I thought that Medium won’t push your article to other’s if it has affiliate links. Congrats on making money with affiliate marketing! I’ve always wanted to get a slice of that pie.
I think a lot of the views on my articles with affiliates came from Google.
But honestly, I've had some with affiliate links that got promoted on Medium. I find there is a difference between what they say they are doing and what they are really doing.
Lol! Tell me about it 😄But yeah, you can’t complain about their domain strength when it comes to SEO. I still have posts from 2020 that are on the first page of Google until now.
Nice job very informative I learned a lot. I have also been on medium they banned my account the reason was not very clear.
I’ve been on Medium as well, but not as consistently as you have been. However, I agree that we don’t own the audience, and the engagement there is quite low.
Dead on!!!!!
Absolutely right. I only lasted two weeks on Medium. Got exhausted chasing publications and begging for views. Funny thing is, the one piece I self-published and promoted myself did better than the one that made it into a publication.
Substack isn’t perfect either, but honestly? I feel way happier here. It’s slower, but it feels more real. Like I’m writing for people — not just fighting an algorithm.
I think it makes you want to write better too. Writing for an algorithm makes us rush to produce trash. Then everyone loses.
Excellent work Andrews. This cleared many doubts as I am new to both the platforms.
Well this just changed my strategy for good. I thought this'd be some sugarcoating for the benefit of this platform, yet it isn't! :D
Thank you for the nuanced take.
Neither are loyal to me either
I feel like this is the risk of doing business on the internet these days. It makes the scammy course path to quickly earn a bunch of money hot and fast so attractive instead of supporting long term stable growth in income.
Yep spot on. Though when I reference a Medium article in conversation with my friends, I always tell them it's an online platform that Barak Obama writes on!
Great comparison that really digs into the different purposes/audiences of each. Medium is definitely way more about the "article" vs Substack about the author. I was enjoying my time on Medium even so, until earnings completely tanked and they essentially shadow banned writers who had other writers in their audience. Still figuring it out here on Substack.
"I even read an article that was promoted on the Medium blog — and I am 99.9% sure that most of it was AI-written."
This has happened in a couple of different cases. At one point, they even interviewed a writer, and I'm almost positive their work was AI-generated.
I edit a publication there, and can tell you that the percentage of submissions that are AI has skyrocketed. I'm not talking about someone using Grammarly to clean their work up- I mean pieces that read like the response to a 2-line prompt. It's dispiriting.
Medium gave me a lot, and I'm still pulling for 'em, but I'm not sure they'll be able to turn things around. Seems like every day I see either a pub closing down or writers moving over here.
Great comment Kevin. I wonder what they are thinking behind the scenes. They must be noticing something is not right. I am pulling for them too.
Andrew, you mention Medium’s follower engagement is broken, but isn’t that true of all social platforms now? Even Substack’s ‘Notes’ feels like a Twitter clone where most posts get ignored. If Medium’s real value is SEO, should writers treat it purely as a traffic funnel (like a blog) rather than a community?
Good point. I think people are using it as a traffic funnel. And it is making the quality even worse.