Writing on Medium Versus Starting Your Own Blog

Which is better?

When it comes to writing online, many people start out with their own blogs. They either use Wordpress, which is preferred by most bloggers, or they use Blogger. When I first started blogging online 13 years ago, I created a few blogs on different topics that I enjoyed talking about and knew a little about. However, I had no idea about Wordpress at the time, so I created my first blog with Blogger. It was pretty straightforward to use, and I thought I would make a lot of money with my blogs. When everything was said and done with, I ended up with 7 blogs on the different topics that I knew some stuff about

Of course, I never really made much money with these blogs. I quit posting in them, eventually. After a while I created a new blog about writing once I knew more about what I was doing, but I still didn’t make any money.

I often hear that Wordpress is better than Blogger. I created one blog with the free Wordpress, but it didn’t go anywhere either. I also heard Wordpress was more technical and harder to learn than Blogger, but it really isn’t. Many of the clients I have worked with over the years have had me use the blogging platform and it is easy to use.

But, do you know what is even easier to use than Wordpress and Blogger both? Medium. Just write your post either in their editor on the site or use the smartphone app, or write it in your preferred editor and copy and paste into the editor on the site after clicking on “new story.” Add relevant links, add your images, and hit publish and that’s it. Well, not really because then you should promote your new blog post on social media and send it to your friends and family so you can get the most views. But what I am saying is, in my opinion, Medium is a lot easier to use than both Wordpress and Blogger.

Why is Medium better than starting your own blog from scratch?

There are plenty of reasons Medium is better than starting your own blog from scratch using either Wordpress or Blogger.

Medium is already made for you

Just create a free account and start writing and publishing your own content with nothing to build in the back-end. No coding or any technical knowledge required.

No need to add ads of any kind

There is no need for ads for you to add to make money with. Do you know how with Blogger you have to add your own Adsense to the blog and create an account with Adsense hoping to make a little money every month by hoping people will click on the ads that Adsense places all over your blog? Well, with Medium, there is no need for ads or Adsense to make that bit of money every month. Medium doesn’t need ads or Adsense or any other ad platform for us to make money.

With Medium, you already have an audience

Yes, you should still promote your blog posts on Medium and no, you don’t get followers already there for you when first starting on the site. That’s not what I mean. What I mean is, Medium already has many, many subscribers meaning there is a good chance these many subscribers will see your blog post.

Of course, promoting on social media doesn’t hurt at all. It helps a lot. Once your friends and followers on social media see your blog post, and if they are interested and want to support you, they will click on your link and read it, hopefully. Don’t forget about the many groups on Facebook where you can share your blog post link. You can find groups in the niche you wrote on and request to join them. Just don’t spam the groups by posting your link as soon as you join. It is better to contribute your part by asking and answering questions and getting to know the other members and the admins of the groups first. Then, once you and the other members and admins gain each other’s trust, you can start promoting your blog posts in them as long as they allow you to. Just read the rules of the groups you plan to join beforehand.

You have a chance of curation

Each blog post you publish on Medium has a chance to be promoted even more through their email newsletters and on Medium’s social media accounts through curation. There are curators on Medium who will decide whether your blog post is good enough to be curated and promoted heavier. If you go by these guidelines and make sure your images, headline, sub-headline, introduction, body of the post, and conclusion are all the way they should be, free of errors and typos and as perfectly written as you can get it, then you may get curated.

Medium is a community of the most supportive people you will ever meet

You can meet new people and become friends with the other writers on Medium. This is one of the best reasons to write on Medium instead of creating your own blog and posting in it. Yes, with your own blog, you can definitely meet like-minded bloggers but most of the time, if not every time, you have to go on social media or to their blog to meet them. Of course, if they come to your blog, and leave a nice comment on your post, you can meet them this way. This is a good way too, don’t get me wrong. However, I have never met anyone more supportive of their fellow writers except for other Medium writers. They are loyal and really nice people to get to know.

Medium is the best place I have ever been a member of to meet new people who are writers like me. I have met several people on Medium who are out to help other writers either through supporting their fellow writers by reading, clapping, highlighting, and commenting on their posts or by writing their own posts to teach them how to get the most out of making money on Medium. These new friends will also most likely follow you and keep reading your posts to keep supporting you.

Create your own publications

You can create your own publications and apply to join big publications. Publications on Medium are places to add a draft of a new blog post to or a post already self-published on Medium to. They are places where you can submit certain topics that you have written about and they can help get you more readers and followers. They are also nice to submit and add posts to because they can keep your blog posts in a nice and neat collection sort of. There are many publications already on Medium. Some are Medium owned, which you will eventually want to apply to so you can become a writer for, and some are started by the members. The Medium owned publications are the big ones that will get your post seen by a lot of people.

However, starting your own and gaining new followers to it will eventually help you too. You can also add other writers and even add editors to your publication to help it become even more popular.

I own three publications; Any Writers, Writing Hacks, and Pets Galore. Any Writers is by far my most popular publication with about 300 to 400 writers now and 296 followers, as of today, and I get new followers every day. Any Writers is just like the name implies, anyone can join and can write about anything they want to. They can also submit drafts or posts they already self-published on Medium. I am very easy to work with and this publication is growing daily.

Although it isn’t as popular as many other ones on Medium, it will get there one day and is slowly gaining some popularity now. This is why I have two editors working with me to edit and publish the submissions I get every day.I work a full-time writing job online and don’t have time to go through these submissions myself. I have a morning editor and an afternoon editor. Yes, they both have their own full-time jobs, but they still have a little bit of time before and maybe after their primary work is done.

My second publication and the next one slowly gaining a bit more traffic and a few followers, although it is not nearly as popular as Any Writers, is called Writing Hacks. Writing Hacks is about tips and tricks for writing success. For this reason, those who wish to join as writers need to have at least one year of writing experience so they can write about and submit their own tips and tricks for success as a writer.

Pets Galore is my third and least popular publication. It is all about pets of any kind, of course, and you must have had or have pets in your life to join it as a writer.

I think if I started writing in the other two publications more and promoting them a little, they would become a little more popular. I didn’t have to promote Any Writers that much though. People just seem to find it and email me about joining or request through the Smedian website. I have my other two publications on Smedian too but they still aren’t as popular.

The Takeaway

These are my reasons I prefer to write and publish my blog posts on Medium instead of a blog on Wordpress or Blogger anymore. I have been with Medium for a little over one year, as a paid subscriber and writing as consistently as I can. I could write more if I just took the time.

However, I have actually been with Medium since December 2013 when I wrote one post. This was before the Medium Partner Program that pays you to write here started. I wrote one post that year when I found Medium online and got intrigued by it.

I didn’t write here again until October 2018 when I wrote another post. I then quit writing on Medium again and didn’t post again until May 2019 when I first heard about the Medium Partner Program and learned about them paying their writers. The thought of writing on whatever topics I wanted to write about and getting paid was what made me come back and start writing again. I know money shouldn’t be the driving force for anything, but everyone needs and wants to make money. Especially to make money while doing what they love to do for a living. We all need money to live on so why not earn money doing our favorite thing to do, right?

So, yes, although my profile says I have only been a member since this month, June 2020 it only says that because I wasn’t able to afford the measly $5 last month for the monthly subscription fee. Yes, we ran into some major financial difficulties last month but we are on our way to being back on track.

Ok. this post is long enough. I hope this article about why I choose Medium over any other blogging platform will convince you to sign up and start writing here too. I know you will enjoy it just as much as I do!