Should I Write on Medium or Start a Blog?
I’ll now start publishing specific questions I know some readers have, to make sure I cover important pain points.
Medium or Blog, for instance, is something many people try to guess. And because it’s a question I have an answer I believe 100% in, I decided to share it with you this week, together with the reasons why.
So, let’s start from the beginning.
Why You Want to Write Stuff Online in The First Place
All the lifestyle advice and freedom and independence I talk about here on the blog, won’t be possible without laying the foundation by doing some meaningful work.
This always includes sharing your journey online, building your expertise, writing on a subject and building content on a platform, having an audience, grabbing attention by exposing your opinion, making a difference with your words, being noticed, and more.
And this includes writing.
Now if you haven’t done it before, a few things might concern you, or even stop you from ever giving this a try. Such as what to write about, how to come up with ideas for new blog posts all the time, how to distribute that content afterwards, what platform to use, how long it will take to build some traffic, what should the goal be, and more.
These are all things that deserve attention. Although, truth is, you can simply write something now, hit ‘publish’, and thus start your online journey.
Easier said than done, though. And that’s why so many people still haven’t started their own blogs or shared their written work anywhere.
So now, I wanna talk about the platform you’ll use.
Where to Publish Our Work?
Let’s say you’ve finally found the courage to start sharing your writing. Maybe you even have a few articles prepared and plan on publishing the first one over the next few days.
The only challenge now is whether it should be writing on Medium (or a platform similar to it), or your very own blog.
Let’s talk about these separately.
Medium.com is an online publishing platform, where people from all over the world create profiles and make their words live.
What separates it from the many others like it is that it’s gained way more attention, and millions of eyeballs are looking for new, smart pieces of content to check out.
So there’s a chance that whatever you write, it can go viral, or get shared, even if you don’t have an audience. Still not big chances, though.
There are more good things about Medium.
Read also: How Tom Went from $10/hour as a Freelancer to Making a Full-Time Living Writing on Medium & Vlogging
The design of the platform is minimalist and powerful, it’s all about the content there.
In fact, Let’s Reach Success follows the same philosophy.
Many readers and writers are there, and you can form connections if you produce content on a consistent basis and like, comment on and share other people’s work. But it takes time, as with anything else.
Also influencers are there. Some have their own profiles, that are separate from their blogs. But they already have the brand and audience, so just cover some of their most important topics on a different platform sometimes.
In fact, the best summary of what the site is about can be found on Wiki:
‘The platform is an example of social journalism, having a hybrid collection of amateur and professional people and publications, or exclusive blogs or publishers on Medium and is regularly regarded as a blog host.’
Still, I think you shouldn’t waste your time there.
If you just feel like writing a few posts and put them somewhere online, knowing they will look professional (then maybe link to them to people who wanna see your work), that’s one way to do it. And an easy way, actually.
But if you want to become an expert in a niche, turn writing into your thing, to start an online business, build an audience on your own platform, and own a site that will showcase all that you’ll be doing over the next few years, then you need to start your very own blog.
For web hosting, I always recommend WPX Hosting.
Why Medium is a No?
It’s a third-party platform.
You can never know if tomorrow a bigger company would buy it, the founder will decide to change direction (and start charging, or put annoying ads), there will be a server issue, or if your content will just disappear.
In a nutshell, you have no control over this platform (unlike with a blog you own, as we’ll see below).
You most probably won’t be discovered.
Even if you sit down and invest 8 hours in a how-to guide covering the ins and outs of a topic you know a lot about, Medium will still place it in a certain Collection, together with other similar topics. So next to you might appear 100-word blog posts with no real value.
Whether or not the piece gets any traffic also depends on how many likes and recommendations you’ll receive from others. And if you don’t already have some connections, or are found by people who have no interest whatsoever in that exact field, you won’t get in front of the right folks either.
When posting on your own blog, however, over time search engines will bring natural traffic to each article, if you really put in the effort and make it extensive and engaging.
Medium is great for readers, though.
It could definitely be a good addition to your free-time activities related to your online business, as there’s a lot of good stuff there.
But for bloggers, it’s not worth the investment of time.
Read also: How to Make Money on Medium: 5 Ways to Get Paid
Now, let’s move onto talking about why you should have a platform of your own, such as a self-hosted site with a blog:
Here’s Exactly Why You Need a Blog
- it will be the only platform online you can control;
- each thing posted can bring you traffic years from now, or be the reason a potential client finds you when you least expect it;
- all your work and online creations will be in one place;
- you’ll be a site owner;
- you’ll start selling your future products there too;
- your site will be the home of your personal brand;
- and you’ll be growing together with it.
In fact, I think you should write it down on your to-do list for the next few days to get a domain name and hosting and install WordPress on it. The rest will happen in small steps.
You can enroll in my free course and start your blog today (even if you know nothing about blogging). Check out The Passive Income Blog Boss
More responsibility goes together with it, of course. In this case, you just contact the support team of your hosting provider (WPX Hosting, in my case), and let them do their job. If having your site down, for instance, (which may happen for a number of reasons), they’ll get it back up in minutes.
Having a blog is applicable to every possible thing you’ll want to achieve online in the future.
Want to be a freelancer?
Well, it’s much more professional and attention-grabbing to showcase your work by linking to relevant works on you own website.
There you’ll also have a Contact, About and Portfolio page. With WordPress, the free beautiful themes it offers, and the easy to set up and smart plugins and widgets (such as testimonials), you can make a potential employer take you very seriously once they land on your website.
What’s more, if you are updating your blog frequently, are on all social media channels, have published a short guide on a topic, or something like that, you’ll gain trust and credibility in less than a minute.
If you want to be an entrepreneur and start a real business after some time, begin building your brand and an audience today by having a blog and publishing content around the niche you’ll be in and the problems you’ll try to solve with your products or services.
Your name can serve as the name of the site, and if you really set out on a mission to say all that you can about all aspects of the topic, you will become an expert in the field.
If you aren’t sure what you want to do yet, but know you’ll want to be making money online after some time and break free from the 9 to 5, start building your digital empire today by having your own website with a blog.
It’s a therapy to share all that you’re going through and know that your words might inspire someone in the same situation if they end up reading your post.
Expect to form connections too. And not just with anyone, but with like-minded people who have similar goals, attitude towards life or current lifestyle.
Who knows, you might meet up with them, travel with them, start something together. The possibilities are endless.
So if you ask me, start a blog!
What do you think?
