Why You Should Be Writing On Medium

Also known as the platform where you are most likely reading this right now.

Just Write

Unlike with other platforms, here on Medium, all you need to do is write. No messing with updates, no worrying about security, no more worrying about website uptime or speed. Medium lets you focus 100% of your time on actually creating written content, and not managing any platform.

While I do use WordPress myself, that’s in part because I like tinkering with things. Medium is all about content, which for 99% of writers is exactly what you want to focus on. But, as a programmer, I just have to use a platform that lets me have full control of how the content is displayed. Unlike some other managed platforms, your content is yours on Medium, and you can always take your content somewhere else if you decide to. Despite having multiple WordPress sites, it’s always fun to write on Medium. I mean, just write one article in the Medium editor, and it’ll be hard to use anything else for the rest of your life.

By the way, if you think you might want a platform other than Medium, you might be interested in another post of mine where I talk about some other platforms:

What's The Best Platform to Start a Blog With, in 2019?

Distribution

Think of the internet as the world, and each website as a land mass. If you start your own website, you create your own tiny little island in the middle of nowhere. Sure, there’s a chance you’ll get lucky and have your island discovered, but the chances of that are pretty small. On the other hand, you can opt to write on Medium. While you won’t be able to create your own land mass(i.e. a custom domain), you essentially get a plot of land in the United States. Here, you just need to spend a bit of time creating billboard ads to get noticed, instead of hoping someone will crash on your island.

If you write good content, you’ll theoretically get noticed and have your story actually read by a lot of people. While I personally haven’t noticed a consistent pattern yet, I can definitely say your chances are better here. Some of my stories have gotten something like two thousand views, which is probably more than my own websites ever got combined. I’ve also gotten much more comments and engagement on my Medium posts than I get on my own sites.

Followers and Claps

I’m willing to bet no matter what WordPress theme you get, and what plugins you use, you can’t get anywhere near these features. Sure, there are email lists and like buttons you can add to your site, but nothing truly compares to Medium followers or claps. Yes, you can have social media followers, but those are followers on a platform separate from your website. On Medium, followers follow your actual stories, not just your profile where you put links and hope your followers will click through. Email lists are still powerful, but it’s much easier to get a follower. It takes one button with no forms inputs to follow someone on Medium, which is much easier than filling out your name and email, then clicking a button. Oh, and if you’re doing it right, people will also need to verify their email before they receive your newsletters. It’s much easier for people to spend three seconds of their time to follow a writer they like, then it is to click on a link, fill out a form, etc.

Claps are an amazing idea that I surprisingly haven’t seen anywhere else. Some other platforms and websites have like buttons, or a thumbs up icon, but nothing near the clapping system. Instead of just being able to like or dislike, you get more control on how much you like a post. For example, if you see a decent story, you can clap 15 times. When you come across a really inspiring 10,000 word piece of content, you can clap 50 times. Also, for posts behind the Medium paywall, claps let you decide which authors your membership funds are used to support. Speaking of the partner program…

Medium Partner Program

As far as I can tell, this is also unique to Medium, and it’s amazing. You don’t need to worry about ads, costs per click, cost per thousand impressions, or really even traffic. If you write great content, and Medium members clap on a locked story, you make some money, easy as that. And it costs you literally nothing to sign up. Compare that to having your own website, in which instead of simply not earning any money, you’ll be losing it because you have to pay for hosting. Medium doesn’t bog down their site with a hundred ads per page, and yet you’ll probably make more money than if you did put a hundred ads per page.

There also isn’t much of an application process, you just sign up. Many advertising systems require you to apply, and some even require a certain level of traffic. Which isn’t really helpful, because what happens if you write a good post now that gets a surge of traffic, before you get approved for some ad program? You won’t get any money. On Medium, just sign up, lock your good stories, and if they do well, you get paid for your work.

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Why You Should Be Writing On Medium was originally published in The Writing Cooperative on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.