I started writing on Medium in July 2021 and then started also writing regularly on Substack in October 2021. I'm so glad I did because today on Substack I have over 1,200 subscribers and get over 1,000 views every single day. Those same articles get me 3,000 to 4,000 views a month republished on Medium. Building your own audience is the much better idea - and Substack helps us do that.
Jameson if I could go back in time I would've created a Substack newsletter in 2020. I started this one in 2022 way after everybody else already got on board.
I haven’t posted in months though I used to make decent money there and have 10K followers. My big turnoff was the blue check marks too. It’s supposed to be a platform for finding new writers and yet now we’re divided between “published” and “unpublished” checks. Worst of all, it doesn’t matter what the published work is...self published is fine enough to get the check mark. For a platform built on the idea of quality content and discovery, it’s simply not that anymore. Plus, it’s full of bully based self help and marketers pretending to be writers. Yuck.
Couldn't agree more Leah. Medium, right now, seems to be poking around in the dark trying to find their way. It's a shell of its former self and I don't have faith that this leadership can turn it around.
I've all but left Medium months ago when it became clear that it was financially idiotic to keep handing them money, while they advertised OTHER writers on the side of MY pieces. I mean, if they were rewarding us with more recommendations for read-throughs (like your YouTube example), okay. But they weren't. As you've pointed out, they didn't care. At least here, Substack has a vested interest in sending potential subscribers my way via their features. And as far as I understand it, they don't make money from me until I have paying subscribers. Fair enough.
So while I still have a "presence" on Medium, I don't visit there, don't post and have left the "club". I'll spend that money to support a writer I enjoy here.
Good to see I'm not the only one who thinks Medium is a waste of time these days.
I stopped posting on Medium, too. And for many of the same reasons. My main complaint was the publication process. Without a publication, your article gets no views. But the process of getting into publications is cumbersome, time-consuming, and gives someone else control of my content.
I’m a YouTuber with 98k subs and 40k views per video in a small niche so I know how to create legitbait, clickable titles. The publications changed them to boring, bland, unclickable titles that killed my views.
I stopped following Tim Denning because he uses clickbait, which doesn’t deliver on the promise. Legitbait is clickable but delivers on the promise. Even major news outlets like the AP and Reuters use legitbait. Medium needs to embrace it or become irrelevant.
I haven’t noticed the liberal bias you mentioned (isn’t Arnold conservative?), but I don’t belong to either tribe so from my perspective, everything is biased.
I like this term "legitbait." Medium would 100% lump legitbait in with clickbait, which shows their incompetence. Your comment speaks volumes JP. A guy finding wild success on the hardest platform to grow on comes to Medium and gets told to change his headlines. LOL. Tells you everything.
Their philosophy is really silly. Medium isn't a science journal designed for intellectuals who appreciate boring, specific headlines. Medium is a text-based version of YouTube. With thousands of options, readers look for reasons NOT to click an article. If a headline creates a little mystery, curiosity, intrigue, etc., more people will click it. If it states exactly what the article is about in dry science journal terms, only a very small number of people who are interested in that specific topic will click. That limits the reach and exposure for the creator while robbing the reader of the excitement of solving a mystery by learning something new.
Plus, having some unknown editor who's probably half my age change my carefully crafted headlines is really insulting.
I’ve just returned to Medium. Posted some incredible, thorough and actionable articles in The Startup. One posted 24 hours ago literally has no views. That never used to happen. Seems like I might be wasting my time. Might take my 100+ ideas and use them to build my Substack. Seems to be the way to go.
Tara Medium is basically a grave yard right now. They say that views and subscribers are increasing but I simply do not see it AT ALL and a lot of other people feel the same way.
It certainly feels that way. In my feed I'm literally seeing Tim Denning and like 3 other larger creators and that's it. Some of the best posts I've written aren't even being seen. Not worth the time or the effort when I can get better traction on my own website. Medium used to be good.
You're not alone, Tom. I was writing quality on a quantity platform, and the one article that went viral was when I reported the bad practices of some pubs. The fact that our quality is decided by entitled kids ("editors") or invisible boosters tells everything about their lack of transparency. Such a pity!
When you think about it Carmen, Medium's basically saying that they don't trust their users to know what good content is or isn't, so they'll choose it for us. They think we're idiots.
However, I have a lot of questions about quitting well. Hope I find the answers so I can make a good show of it. I almost quit one time but made some changes that pacified my "quit" brain. Now, I feel there is no going back. I'm spinning my wheels. I hope I can find less frustration soon!!!
Thanks Mark! These ideas have been marinating in my brain for a while. Such incompetence being shown over there, and what's even more alarming is that all their "update" articles get comments from people praising the new direction. It's headed for the iceberg.
You may have had enough talking about it, but if you fancy coming on my Solo Club podcast to talk about this, Substack and all things writing - I'd love to have you on. What do you think?
Let's do it Mark. You can email me next steps and we'll get going on them right away. (thomaskueglerllc@gmail.com). I'm gonna recommend your publication as well.
NO, Tom. They got negative comments and deleted them, is what happened. They got two from me, and one person clapped on one of them and I got that notification, went back to see if there was a response and my comment was not there. I had highlighted a few words, to add to the comment and my highlight also was gone. I went back to the notification, and from there to the person who clapped, and thanked him. Ha! He's also quit but had kept his subscription, I guess, and we had a tiny chat. He's had his comments removed a lot.
But they do NOT get only positive comments. Ha!
PS: I wrote, in Spanish, that I'd miss ya', but Substack auto-translated it. to English! Ha!
I post on Medium a lot. I have been working hard to post more often. But reads and followers are not happening the way I want them to. I have decided that I will never make money there. I'm concentrating on my youtube channel, Linkedin and Twitter. I'm looking for a writing job. Getting my work in front of people will make that happen. Medium isn't helping as much as they could.
It's AMAZING how much Medium talks out both sides of its mouth. I recently saw an email from them talking about how much they love fiction. Um, maybe they love fiction from Stephen King that is exclusive to Medium.
Otherwise, Medium only likes anything that is 100% in alignment with them politically or is regurgitated self-help.
I had the crazy idea it was a free speech platform too. Glad you recognize the lack of inclusion and diversity when it comes to conservative ideas. I had the crazy idea of getting back on to start writing on a new topic but this reassured me to stay away.
I started writing on Medium in July 2021 and then started also writing regularly on Substack in October 2021. I'm so glad I did because today on Substack I have over 1,200 subscribers and get over 1,000 views every single day. Those same articles get me 3,000 to 4,000 views a month republished on Medium. Building your own audience is the much better idea - and Substack helps us do that.
Jameson if I could go back in time I would've created a Substack newsletter in 2020. I started this one in 2022 way after everybody else already got on board.
I haven’t posted in months though I used to make decent money there and have 10K followers. My big turnoff was the blue check marks too. It’s supposed to be a platform for finding new writers and yet now we’re divided between “published” and “unpublished” checks. Worst of all, it doesn’t matter what the published work is...self published is fine enough to get the check mark. For a platform built on the idea of quality content and discovery, it’s simply not that anymore. Plus, it’s full of bully based self help and marketers pretending to be writers. Yuck.
Too much Medium hack porn. It's all regurgitated nonsense. I work hard to write good and original content, and I get drowned out by the garbage
Couldn't agree more Leah. Medium, right now, seems to be poking around in the dark trying to find their way. It's a shell of its former self and I don't have faith that this leadership can turn it around.
I've all but left Medium months ago when it became clear that it was financially idiotic to keep handing them money, while they advertised OTHER writers on the side of MY pieces. I mean, if they were rewarding us with more recommendations for read-throughs (like your YouTube example), okay. But they weren't. As you've pointed out, they didn't care. At least here, Substack has a vested interest in sending potential subscribers my way via their features. And as far as I understand it, they don't make money from me until I have paying subscribers. Fair enough.
So while I still have a "presence" on Medium, I don't visit there, don't post and have left the "club". I'll spend that money to support a writer I enjoy here.
Good to see I'm not the only one who thinks Medium is a waste of time these days.
I stopped paying them $5 per month back in June for a lot of the same reasons you mentioned here Carolyn.
I stopped posting on Medium, too. And for many of the same reasons. My main complaint was the publication process. Without a publication, your article gets no views. But the process of getting into publications is cumbersome, time-consuming, and gives someone else control of my content.
I’m a YouTuber with 98k subs and 40k views per video in a small niche so I know how to create legitbait, clickable titles. The publications changed them to boring, bland, unclickable titles that killed my views.
I stopped following Tim Denning because he uses clickbait, which doesn’t deliver on the promise. Legitbait is clickable but delivers on the promise. Even major news outlets like the AP and Reuters use legitbait. Medium needs to embrace it or become irrelevant.
I haven’t noticed the liberal bias you mentioned (isn’t Arnold conservative?), but I don’t belong to either tribe so from my perspective, everything is biased.
I like this term "legitbait." Medium would 100% lump legitbait in with clickbait, which shows their incompetence. Your comment speaks volumes JP. A guy finding wild success on the hardest platform to grow on comes to Medium and gets told to change his headlines. LOL. Tells you everything.
Their philosophy is really silly. Medium isn't a science journal designed for intellectuals who appreciate boring, specific headlines. Medium is a text-based version of YouTube. With thousands of options, readers look for reasons NOT to click an article. If a headline creates a little mystery, curiosity, intrigue, etc., more people will click it. If it states exactly what the article is about in dry science journal terms, only a very small number of people who are interested in that specific topic will click. That limits the reach and exposure for the creator while robbing the reader of the excitement of solving a mystery by learning something new.
Plus, having some unknown editor who's probably half my age change my carefully crafted headlines is really insulting.
Totally agree. Their changes often altered my writing "voice" and it lost the punch.
I’ve just returned to Medium. Posted some incredible, thorough and actionable articles in The Startup. One posted 24 hours ago literally has no views. That never used to happen. Seems like I might be wasting my time. Might take my 100+ ideas and use them to build my Substack. Seems to be the way to go.
Tara Medium is basically a grave yard right now. They say that views and subscribers are increasing but I simply do not see it AT ALL and a lot of other people feel the same way.
It certainly feels that way. In my feed I'm literally seeing Tim Denning and like 3 other larger creators and that's it. Some of the best posts I've written aren't even being seen. Not worth the time or the effort when I can get better traction on my own website. Medium used to be good.
You're not alone, Tom. I was writing quality on a quantity platform, and the one article that went viral was when I reported the bad practices of some pubs. The fact that our quality is decided by entitled kids ("editors") or invisible boosters tells everything about their lack of transparency. Such a pity!
When you think about it Carmen, Medium's basically saying that they don't trust their users to know what good content is or isn't, so they'll choose it for us. They think we're idiots.
That's sad, I love Medium, I don't know why they keep disappointing writers and ignoring us
I think many more will quit Medium.
I honestly hope so Roland. That's the only way they will learn their lesson.
Tom, I plan to quit once I've used up my $50. ;)
However, I have a lot of questions about quitting well. Hope I find the answers so I can make a good show of it. I almost quit one time but made some changes that pacified my "quit" brain. Now, I feel there is no going back. I'm spinning my wheels. I hope I can find less frustration soon!!!
Same!!
Tom you make some valid points. Medium should hire you.
Thanks man. That would be too smart of a move for them to make.
This is such a good take, mate. Thank you for writing it. Bang on eight the cliquey nature of Medium.
Thanks Mark! These ideas have been marinating in my brain for a while. Such incompetence being shown over there, and what's even more alarming is that all their "update" articles get comments from people praising the new direction. It's headed for the iceberg.
You may have had enough talking about it, but if you fancy coming on my Solo Club podcast to talk about this, Substack and all things writing - I'd love to have you on. What do you think?
Let's do it Mark. You can email me next steps and we'll get going on them right away. (thomaskueglerllc@gmail.com). I'm gonna recommend your publication as well.
Thank you! Email incoming…
NO, Tom. They got negative comments and deleted them, is what happened. They got two from me, and one person clapped on one of them and I got that notification, went back to see if there was a response and my comment was not there. I had highlighted a few words, to add to the comment and my highlight also was gone. I went back to the notification, and from there to the person who clapped, and thanked him. Ha! He's also quit but had kept his subscription, I guess, and we had a tiny chat. He's had his comments removed a lot.
But they do NOT get only positive comments. Ha!
PS: I wrote, in Spanish, that I'd miss ya', but Substack auto-translated it. to English! Ha!
I post on Medium a lot. I have been working hard to post more often. But reads and followers are not happening the way I want them to. I have decided that I will never make money there. I'm concentrating on my youtube channel, Linkedin and Twitter. I'm looking for a writing job. Getting my work in front of people will make that happen. Medium isn't helping as much as they could.
Wise choice. Welcome!
I love the "AHEM..." part 😅😅😅 What a gold nugget! Chapeau!
It's AMAZING how much Medium talks out both sides of its mouth. I recently saw an email from them talking about how much they love fiction. Um, maybe they love fiction from Stephen King that is exclusive to Medium.
Otherwise, Medium only likes anything that is 100% in alignment with them politically or is regurgitated self-help.
Preach Jim, preach.
I had the crazy idea it was a free speech platform too. Glad you recognize the lack of inclusion and diversity when it comes to conservative ideas. I had the crazy idea of getting back on to start writing on a new topic but this reassured me to stay away.
Greg they've been horrible in this regard for as long as I've been on the platform, which really sucks.
I hear ya Tom and SS seems to be the next horizon for you and many.
The best intentions of these platforms seems to end up as their worse result.
Yeah I have no doubt Medium has the best intentions possible, but their ideas/execution are ridiculous.