I got suspended last month on Medium, even if it was just for 2 days the impact is still lasting.
I soon realized that on Medium, what you truly own is only your content, as you can even download an email list after getting suspended (I have to manually copy/paste every email on my notepad).
I have no personal grudge against Medium, but a serious thought came to my mind after this incident: one should not put eggs on such a platform. Where it takes only a few clicks to ruin someone years worth of hard work.
And I know I am not the only one with this thought. So I started doing research. I soon realized there are not many good platforms out there.
If one looks at most of the great platforms for content writers, one can easily categorize all of them into 3 groups.
The top players of each group are those I will be discussing here. So, let’s break down each platform and find out which choice is best for us (creators).
1. Medium
It’s been more than a year since I started writing on Medium. Many things have changed since then. Below are some factors that may help you decide, if this platform suits you or not.
Social advantage → Suppose you have a good following on a popular social platform like X, Pinterest, IG, LinkedIn, etc. It’s very unlikely that you can take advantage of your social following to boost your earnings or read ratio on Medium.
As your Medium stories are mostly only members’ read stories Medium doesn’t pay for non-members read ratio. There is very little effect even if you promote your article online.
So, if you ask me Medium is very unsocial in this way. Therefore growing on Medium takes time and solely depends on Medium traffic itself.
Experience advantage → On Medium as a beginner with 300 to 1000 followers, one can easily earn more than $150 a month with proper engagement and consistent writing.
On the other side, as your following grows and reaches 5000 to 20,000, one earning becomes stagnant.
A point came when you realized on Medium it’s very hard to cross the $5000/month target. That is why many writers with years of experience and a big following (above 15k) start to find alternatives. Because they realize this fact that they are not getting what they deserve.
POV: This stagnant growth start happening when Medium, changes its way of calculating earnings. Which highly affected the writers’ journey.
Money advantage → As a writer or content creator, one spends a minimum of $5 to $15 on Medium to earn hundreds of dollars. If you look in this sense it’s pretty great, right? But if you are thinking that Medium is your blog where your earnings with time increase, that’s a myth.
As explained above the more you grow, the more you realize on Medium one can’t earn $100k/year even with more than 100k+ followers. The reason is their system. Where they calculate earnings based on many such factors that don’t favor creators in many ways.
2. Substack
It’s a platform for writers and creators. In many ways, Substack is familiar and different from Medium. As it’s an emerging platform many creators are rushing towards substack.
Social advantage → Substack unlike Medium has a completely different vibe. Substack has its own social engaging platform integrated inside Substack, where creators engage and post stuff. Now this platform completely works on a subscription system.
And if you have a social presence on other platforms, you can encourage people to subscribe to your newsletter but ultimately to earn they need to become your paid subscribers.
POV: I believe Substack’s social platform (Notes) is a lot better and provides great results than your other social platform. But the choice is yours.
Experience advantage → Growing as a beginner with no email list on Substack is hard, very hard. On the other side, things become a lot easier, if you have a big email list (your loyal subscribers) and a good online presence to promote.
But unlike Medium, where growth becomes stagnant it’s opposite on Substack. With the increase in your following, your earnings increase too. There are many writers and creators on Substack with a large following who are earning more than $20k/month there.
Money advantage → As a writer one needs to spend $0 to start their journey on Substack. But when they start earning on Substack takes a big part of their earnings which is 10%.
So if you are a beginner earning $100 monthly Substack will take $10 from you. The same goes for those who are earning in thousands.
3. Beehiiv
Beehiiv is a platform where creators grow, launch, and monetize their newsletters. There are many other platforms similar to Beehiiv out there like Ghost, Webflow, etc.
Social advantage → Yes, unlike the other two categories on Beehiiv you can promote your content using their referral programs, boosts, embed forms, and social media.
So Beehiiv is one the best choice for you if you have large online social presence. You can also integrate email lists just like on Medium and Substack.
Experience advantage → This platform pays off so well to elite and master-level content creators.
Many are making 7 figures from their Beehiiv newsletter. But they have a large following of thousands on social media. If you are someone with a thousand followers on social media and are very active, Beehiiv is one of the best choices one can make.
For beginners, there is a free version to launch their newsletter on Beehiiv. You can give it a try if it suits you.
Money advantage → To start as a professional one needs to buy a subscription of 39 dollars with a maximum of 1000 subscribers. With a subscriber increase count your payment increases.
1000 subscribers = $39
5000 subscribers = $79
10,000 subscribers = $99 and more.
On Beehiiv one can earn in different ways. You can earn through a paid subscription just like Substack. Where your subscriber pays you to read your content, the only difference is there is no 10% commission for Beehiiv. You can also earn through Ads (the free version doesn’t include it).
Other than that, you can earn through their boosts and partnerships programs, where you earn by promoting other people’s content.
Conclusion
Every platform has its strengths and loopholes.
The purpose of making categories is to divide and understand different aspects, it was not to compare and belittle. The end decision solely depends upon the creators.
Do share your thoughts, on which platform suits you👇.
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