I recently found out that I had made one of the biggest mistakes of my career. This mistake has caused me lots of problems and created a lot of heartache for me as a blogger. It has also caused me to lose about one year of income. You see, using Medium and being a beginner has caused me to fall in the SEO rankings not once, but twice. The first time it happened was when I made my domain name. The second time was when I migrated my site to WordPress. I thought it would be a simple process, but it wasn’t. Alas, I’m basically starting my website from square one once again. That’s all good. I have a lot of content, and I can now warn any aspiring young online writers as to what not to do.
Do not start writing on Medium
Medium is an awesome, very enticing platform. It’s also a total trap for new bloggers. They don’t have great customer service, they promote articles which are just designed to shock and outrage people. They claim to care about quality but affiliate and AI content stay up while honest writers get banned. Even if you don’t get banned, they still leave AI content up. This means that you’re competing with content-mill slop while operating under the same restrictions as a regular writer. This is a nonstarter.
In addition to the issues with moderation, the Medium algorithm is a bit weird. It rewards a certain type of article. I’ve been a top writer on Medium multiple times in multiple subjects. There’s a strange “vibe” that you have to hit in order to go viral on Medium. Not worth it just to make money. It’s hard work considering how poorly it pays.
The Medium Partner program limits your audience
Articles written for the Medium Partner Program can be found using Google, but they’re behind a paywall. Non-members can only read a certain number of premium articles before they get blocked from Medium. Fewer readers mean fewer backlinks, which in turn means lower search engine results. Publishing free articles on Medium is great but going premium without a plan for what type of content you’re going to create is a good way to create a negative audience growth spiral, from what I can tell.
The Medium Partner Program is competitive
Most people are not signed up for Medium, don’t care about the writers on Medium, and will never sign up for Medium. When it comes to paid users, Medium is a niche product with a global reach. Your content needs to be universally appealing in order to make a living in an efficient manner. Otherwise, you’re going to have to mix together multiple revenue sources, or write like you’re a typist from the 1950s.
Worst of all, Medium ruins your ranking
If you make the mistake of writing on Medium without selecting a domain name, you’re in for a world of hurt. If you don’t buy a domain name from the beginning, you’ll be starting from square one from an SEO point of view. I’ve already seen a slight drop-off in my traffic since I quit Medium. I’m almost certain that it will get worse, but hopefully it won’t be too bad. Oh well. It made for a good lesson, to be honest. Just start your own business. Get on search console. Start another business. Own your own stuff, and don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. It’s simple, but not that easy. It’ll take discipline. I know this because I haven’t even completed the process yet, and I’ve been working for a few months now. It’ll likely take me years to reach my full potential.
On Medium, you’re competing with publications
Medium publications basically render it such that it’s quite difficult for the little guy to make money. You’re competing against groups of writers, that are submitting to profiles that already have a ton of followers. Unless you start a publication, you’re behind the 8-ball.
You can’t advertise on Medium
The global display ad industry is huge. Taking advantage of this industry is something that every aspiring blogger should do, in my opinion. If you’re in it for the long haul, I would suggest going with Google AdSense until you get enough traffic to apply for premium ad networks. This will cause you to focus on getting lots of traffic, creating a good user experience, and having a backup plan in case you don’t get accepted to the networks you want to. I think when it comes to online business, it’s best to own your own platform, but work with the big boys as much as possible. Stand alone but be cooperative. This will open you up to a variety of ways of making money online.
There you have it. Don’t write for Medium. I know it’s tempting. The partner program looks cool. But don’t do it. If you feel like working for a big company, write a novel and publish it on Amazon. Or try and submit a piece of writing to the Hallmark Channel. Those are actually good ways of making money from your writing, in conjunction with a big company.
