The truth is, that I’m asking myself the question: Do you belong on Medium? You see, I’m an avid blogger. I’ve been blogging since AOL said “You’ve Got Mail”. I earn 6 figures as a content creator and am always looking for more ways to generate traffic.
I started on free platforms like Blogger, and Medium, and eventually built on WordPress so I could have all of the growth and customization limits removed.
I wanted “My Space”. (No, not Myspace: My Space).
Who Belongs On Medium?
I haven’t quite figured that out yet. I’m researching. I’m reading writers that teach how they made $X on Medium, and many say, quite honestly, “I’m not that good”.
Most of these authors explain that their claim to fame is consistency, rather than quality.
So, who belongs on medium?
Is it the gifted writer who wakes up every day yearning to create the perfect story? Or is it the disciplined business person who gets by without the gift of gab, because they show up, early and often?
Clearly, the answer is both.
I also think that Medium is an open door for dabblers, learners, teachers, coaches, and entrepreneurs.
One of the reasons that I’m here, is to gain brand awareness for my main website. This website is my pandemic project. I share my best practices in digital marketing and appreciate the extra clicks I generate from Medium.
And so yes, I belong on medium.
How long I’ll stay has yet to be determined. It’s an honor to be here, growing, learning, stretching, and vibing with all of you that are also on Medium. ❤️
Others have read: The Top 100 Medium Blogs: Earning Traffic From Google [Case Study]
The Advantages of Writing on Medium
I started on Medium years ago, as I said before, and left. Now, I’m back for the sake of exploring. I’m looking at what’s changed, what’s improved, what’s declined.
I’m researching how bloggers make money, how it helps them grow their brand, and who actually reads their writing.
I’m an analytical type of person that cares about strategy, so I’m keen to review case studies on best practices.
Here’s what I like about Medium so far:
Medium is incredibly is easy to use. In fact, I advised my sister to forgo WordPress for now, and dive into Medium. A true, passionate, and skilled writer, I didn’t want her to get slowed down by the nuts and bolts of WordPress.
It’s a build, I’m don’t going to lie.
It’s not fancy. I actually love fancy. I’m a ‘bells and whistles, push it to the limit, make it shiny’ kind of girl. I’m the one that almost always upgrades her software to the highest level because I’m going to poke the box and touch it all. And then, I break things. Medium stops us from breaking things.
There’s a strong community. Unlike building your own WordPress website, where you are pretty much on an island all by yourself, Medium is a community. It appears to be writers supporting writers, and groups of talented people coming together to share best practices.
I could be wrong, but it certainly has more of a community feel than my cold WordPress dashboard does.
Publications push out content. I’ve only been back on Medium for a short time. And already, I find myself scrolling the feed reading the articles of the PUBLICATIONS that I follow more than the authors that I follow.
If I didn’t find follow those publications, I wouldn’t be seeing the work of these authors, some of which, I have found great value in, already.
It pays.
While many writers say it’s not about the money, I’m motivated by money. While I do publish passion pieces from time to time that is therapeutic, and on the level of self-serving, my goal in any activity I’d call “work”, to make money. How much money, however, seems to be highly debatable and earnings about $1000 K per month, overall reserved for a select few. I’m still digging, testing, and playing. I’m curious to see how it develops.
Medium has a strong place on Google. I’ve always focused on ranking on Google as a primary source of traffic. I spend very little in the way of paid traffic, and instead, invest time on SEO. I’m clear on the benefits of a strong presence on search engines. While Medium was hit by an algorithm that brought down much of its search traffic, I continue to find Medium at the top of Google when researching particular topics. For me, this has value.
Everyone is on the same playing field. Because Medium, itself, is an authoritative site, authors don’t have to be. Don’t get me wrong, writing in the niches, and building authority is key for anyone. But, in the case of Medium, we are borrowing its authority to rank on Google rather than spending all day building backlinks to grow our own.
There’s no financial investment. Because you don’t have to build a website to blog, you don’t have expenses. There’s no hosting, or WordPress developers, or designers, or plugins, or themes, or SEO companies, etc.
— The low barrier of entry makes it an exciting place to play.
You might also like: Make $2500 Per Month writing on Medium: Here’s How
The advantages of WordPress
WordPress is yours. I’ll start with the most obvious. When you build a WordPress website, it’s yours. Yes, you have to pay for managed WordPress hosting, but you can move your WordPress database anywhere. The database is yours. It’s less risky.
WordPress doesn’t have “rules”. You create what you want when you want, and how you want. While I would highly suggest that you don’t copy someone else’s content, and always give photo attribution when you are using a free pic, and quote your sources, I also believe in: “Hey, you do you!”.
WordPress is customizable. You can build a brand identity with colors, logos, styles. You can play with design, and change up themes when you feel like it. While there is a learning curve, I love changing my website designs as I grow a blog.
WordPress is growable. WordPress has massive growth capabilities. Depending on your host, you can grow an infinite amount of traffic, visits, media files, blog posts, pages, and so on. Of course, making sure your website still loads fast, is ultimately on you. And that’s a pain point for many WordPress users. Still, I don’t like ceilings. WordPress has no ceilings.
WordPress is marketable. There’s nothing like having your own website, and domain name to create a content publishing empire. With the right social strategy, and content calendar, your website is you, and yours, and is ripe for generating traffic, leads, and sales.
WordPress is monetizable. From what I’ve seen so far on Medium, the platform is great for building a “following” and gaining subscribers. It’s less about direct sales and more about gaining interest. This is not a bad thing. However, WordPress offers a lot more in the way of making money with a blog.
From e-commerce products to Amazon links (not that they pay well), to affiliate income, to online courses, to sponsors, and ad publishing, I believe WordPress would be a better platform to monetize. (Although I’m excited for someone to prove me wrong on that). While Medium permits affiliate links with disclosure, it seems to frown on them as a general practice.
At least, that’s what I’ve read from other authors on the platform.
WordPress is fun. While it may not be fun for others, I personally enjoy the build. I love putting the widgets, and headers, and footers, and sidebars, and CTA’s, and landing pages, all together to create something wonderful.
WordPress is unique. While “everyone is equal” is an attractive game, it’s hard to differentiate yourself when building a brand. Of course, Medium is about WRITING. It’s a place to write. It doesn’t have to be more than that. But for those of us that want our blog to grow into a business, it’s nice to have the ability to stand out.
