Medium Vs Personal Website for Writers

Which one should you go for?

This is my first article on Medium for my email subscribers. I write mainly about the writing business but now I am thinking to write about various platforms like Vocal Media and Mediums that writers can use to promote their work.

Why is it necessary to expand your horizon?

1) More Money

2) Not depending on any one platform.

3) Reaching more audience

This question didn’t arise in my mind when I was starting out as a complete newbie. A personal website (WordPress) is not often cheap. It involves many stages to make a complete website on WordPress. While Medium doesn’t require you to pay anything (monthly membership is optional) and still you can publish any length of article and reach a wide audience that Medium already has.

So seeing all this, it’s very much clear which you should go for, right?

This was what I used to think when I started as a writer. I wrote mostly for self-publishing platforms. Ebooks have been my only thing, but yes we always feel like something is lacking.

And that brought me to Medium.

Before comparing which one you should go for let’s see the pros and cons of both. Choosing any one will be easy for you once you see both advantages and disadvantages related to both options.

Why new writers should go for Medium?

Let’s jump to the pros and cons directly.

Pros of being on Medium -

1. Free to use

2. Easy to use

3. Already has many loyal audiences for almost all niches

4. Publications to boost your reads

5. Medium pays you for views (If you are in an eligible country)

Cons of being on Medium

1. You don’t actually own it. You have to follow certain rules and … wait for more unknown (mostly unwanted) changes in the future.

2. Keep pumping out articles and still face low views. We expect a little help from Medium in case you are publishing continuously, but in reality, you still have to do SEO research for it.

3. Sometimes, account deletion is possible. I have seen this in a few cases and they were really good authors.

4. Many articles now are AI-generated.

5. Medium won’t promote your author’s brand much.

Now, why you should go for a WordPress website?

Pros of having your personal Website

1. You are in control. You pay for it so you have full control over it.

2. Your audience will stay on your website for a longer time if they like your work. On Medium, they will jump to another similar topic like yours and will forget about you.

3. You will appear to be more expert in your subject.

4. Many themes and plugins for customization.

5. You can monetize it any way you want.

Cons of having a personal website

1. You have to promote your website

2. You need to have little coding skills to make a website or just pay for it.

3. You have to still do SEO and drive traffic to your website

So which one should you go for?

I always suggest a newbie start from Medium because in reality, it’s free, and you have an audience there.

If you can get into Medium Partner’s Program then continue writing on Medium and later use the money to start a blog. That won’t be difficult for you.

If you are not into Medium Partner’s Program then don’t give yourself much heartache and just start collecting emails from your readers. Use it just like you use any other social media platform. Collect emails.

I use Beehiiv in case you want to start email marketing for your readers. We don’t know what will happen to the platforms after some time. Start collecting emails and stay in contact with your readers.

Whatever the end case is, one thing is sure you shouldn’t put all your eggs in someone else’s basket, right?