Medium’s New Email Subscription Feature Is Great But Has One Major Flaw
“Subscribe to my email list”, is the way to go now
You’ve read the email. For a while now, at the top of your profile, you’ve seen an email button. With a click, your readers could sign up for your Medium-based newsletter. Now, this has been taken to the next level.
Email subscription page
Connect off Medium. Direct readers to a dedicated and optional landing page where they can sign up.
That’s a quote from Medium’s email I received this morning.
A new way to build a newsletter. Great!
That was my first reaction. And it is great. With a dedicated landing page that you’ll find under your usual Medium domain plus the addition of /subscribe in the URL, this creates a basic landing page you can link to for growing your newsletter, mailing list, or whatever you want to call it.
In theory, that would make other basic email list platforms for Medium writers obsolete. You could do it all within Medium. No Substack needed unless you wanted to monetize your newsletter specifically. ConvertKit would only make sense for its advanced stats features, automation, forms, and more.
In theory. Because in reality, this new Medium landing page has one major flaw. Anyone who wants to sign up for your Medium-based newsletter needs to sign up for a Medium account.
That might not seem like a flaw, but it is. For two reasons:
- It creates one additional step to sign up for your newsletter. Many people (off Medium) won’t take that step.
- It will make people question what platform that is that they’re signing up for. In many cases, they won’t.
More updates
Let’s not get carried away though. Medium have just rolled out this feature. It will get updated. In their own words:
More updates are on the way. We’re working on additional features to make connecting to devoted and new readers even simpler, like importing email lists and more. And for our Partner Program members, rest assured email won’t impact your earnings. Learn more here.
Another feature I love
An additional feature that rolled out with this new subscription lading page is the audience stats. This is a nice touch.
On your stats page, right at the top, you’ll find a new button called “Audience stats”. This will lead you to a new page with your followers count as well as your email subscriber numbers. I like this.
You can, of course, still export your subscribers if you wanted to import those into another tool. In the near future, Medium will also offer an import feature. Form their mail:
We’re working on additional features to make connecting to devoted and new readers even simpler, like importing email lists and more.
Closing
I like this new focus on email lists. They’re everywhere and they won’t go away anytime soon. A direct way to connect with your reader — on Medium and off — is welcomed. That flaw I was talking about prevents this from being a perfectly seamless experience though.
I am not sure that Medium can or wants to change this.
If they do, I would really consider switching my newsletter to this Medium-based system.
What do you think?
P.S.: First of all, you should get my posts in your inbox. Do that here! Secondly, if you like to experience Medium yourself, consider supporting me and thousands of other writers by signing up for a membership. It only costs $5 per month, it supports us, writers, greatly, and you have the chance to make money with your writing as well. When I started, I made $3000 in 6 months. By signing up with this link, you’ll support me directly with a portion of your fee, it won’t cost you more. If you do so, thank you a million times!