Writers Are Massively Leaving Medium For Substack. Here’s Why

It hurts me to write this

Image by the author

The exodus is happening right now.

All writers I know are switching over to Substack. Even the top Medium dogs.

Let’s understand why.

Medium saved my journey

In 2020/21 I felt stuck growing my audience on YouTube.

I’d always been attracted to writing.

I don’t know where the idea came from, but I looked at Medium. I thought it would be worth a try to repurpose some of my videos into articles and see how it would go.

So that’s what I did. I took a few videos on note-taking and turned them into articles.

I was surprised at how well it did. I got 3,000 email signups from my note-taking articles in 4 months. On the back of that, I launched a note-taking course that made 5 figures.

The email list has led to all sorts of things:

• Email swaps

• Online course sales

• Affiliate commission deals

• One-on-one coaching clients

The email list has become my best asset. How did I build it? By writing on Medium.

Medium readers are superstars

Most creators have no clue where their clients (or subscribers) come from. They make decisions based on guesses and don’t know what’s really working for them.

I know what’s working for me — because I track every single one of my email subscribers. So I have the cold data that backs up what I’m going to say.

Medium readers have been some of my most profitable subscribers.

If you think about it, it makes total sense.

First, they’ve proven to read.
Second, they’re also paying to read because they spend $5 a month on the Medium subscription.

That makes all the difference when building a list.

The partner program is a crazy damn s*xy thing

92% of writers struggle to make money.

They don’t know how to sell themselves and have zero marketing skills.

Medium’s partner program is the best way I’ve found to earn a living from writing. It’s simple, straightforward, and works. You write, readers read your work, and Medium pays you based on how much people read. Simple.

You don’t have to:

• Sell products

• Use affiliate links

• Or convince people to buy a subscription.

You just write.

Crazy.

It doesn’t mean that you’ll never sell your own stuff. Don’t get lazy. But it gives you some nice money you can start playing with and see that your writing makes money so that you can start transitioning to something else.

Okay, now comes the ugly.

But… The boost program is flawed

In July 2022, coach Tony Stubblebine became Medium’s CEO.

The first interviews were promising. But the next months would prove the contrary. Perhaps not for Medium as a company — since it became profitable.

But for people like me.

Only the future will tell if Medium shot itself in the foot doing this. But I think it did.

Here’s what happened in detail…

Somewhere in 2023 Medium decided to change their algorithm. They rolled out the “Boost program.”

So far, so normal. That’s always the case with platforms.

Instead of algorithms deciding what gets shown to more people based on the readers, Medium decided that humans were going to cherry-pick what deserves to get seen and what doesn’t.

You can hate algorithms. But they look at data. There’s no flaw possible. Your content gets attention = you get pushed to more eyeballs.

Humans instead are biased. If they don’t agree with you or don’t like your pretty face… You’re screwed. On the other hand, if you have good relationships with boosters, as long as your story is decent, it’ll get nominated more often.

My writing friend

Alberto Cabas Vidani

even talked about that in this great article.

Go where you’re treated best

Platforms are dangerous.

They don’t care about you. They can cancel you anytime. And that’s why I’ve never been married (nor plan to marry) a platform.

I’m platform agnostic and try to be as fluid as water. That’s why I don’t care about the Medium or Substack brand. That indifference goes both ways. They don’t give a damn about me either.

I care about getting people onto my list and selling products and services. That’s my business model.

If a platform punishes me with crappy reach, I move.

The read ratio is a stupid lie

When Medium started making these changes, they also announced the overhaul of the read ratio.

It’s a tiny indicator that shows how many people actually read your article for 30 seconds or more.

In that announcement, an article with a read ratio above 70% was supposed to be shown to more people…

High read ratio = good article = more reach.

Makes sense.

But that’s not how it played out.

I published several articles on the topics of:

• Writing with AI

• Email marketing

• Or online course creation…

Some of them got read ratios of 72%. Sometimes even 75%. So it means readers liked them (else, they wouldn’t be reading!)

But guess what? They ALL got throttled.

Medium has a radical opinion about specific topics like making money online or writing with AI-generated content.

And that’s my niche.

So if you’ve been following me, you know that the way I use AI is 180 degrees different from how most people use it…

And that my ‘making money’ stories are nothing but plain garbage.

These days, most of my articles don’t get more than 800 reads. That sucks.

But that’s the way it is.

My followers don’t see my stuff

When I pivoted to Substack in August, one of my Medium subscribers told me she wasn’t seeing my posts on Medium anymore.

Turns out, she’s not the only one.

I totally get the fact that followers are getting less important than algorithm recommendations, but at this point, it just doesn’t make any more sense.

Some writers have more than tens of thousands of followers on Medium. These writers are getting 1,000 views too.

Substack is the opposite. Your followers get notified about your new posts. They see your content. And that’s why subscriber count matters over there.

The folks at Substack got it right

One thing that makes Substack different than any other platform out there?

You finally own your audience.

Medium did a great move to allow you to export your email subs. Problem? Only 0.01% subscribe to get your new stories via email.

On Substack, it’s different. You get the email of anyone who subs to your stuff. So you can export a CSV file with all your subscribers and take it to any other email platform you want.

Substack feels like Medium in 2015

If you can’t get boosted on Medium, your reach takes a nosedive.

You won’t get more than 1,000 views.

Substack is different.

The reach is wide open. It’s a wild west.

This has been the case with every new platform when they want to lure more creators into their ecosystem.

When Facebook first rolled out their business pages, they lured everyone in and then a few years later, throttled the reach and asked you to buy ads.

Same when Instagram rolled out Reels to compete against TikTok.

Same with YouTube shorts.

You see it all the time.

And that’s what’s happening with Substack right now.

It’s the place to be right now to build an audience.

It’s easier to grow on Substack than anywhere else. Because Substack wants to suck creators in. That won’t last.

But we have a good 12-month window in front of us.

Let’s finish here

I won’t sh*t on Medium.

It helped me build a profitable email list. It helped me make a few thousand bucks with the partner program.

I met some phenomenal writers there. Some of whom I still talk to and collaborate with.

If this platform works as well as in the past for you, by all means, don’t change anything.

But if you feel like me, that you could be treated better, it’s time for a change.

Excited to be here!