I have a self hosted blog currently, and I’m considering posting it on medium.com
I blog mostly for fun and I have not tried to monetize it. Are there any reasons to not use medium?
What about alternatives like substack?
As someone once said:
“It’s called medium, as the articles are neither rare nor well-done”
I got curious and looked it up, that saying dates back 75 years.
Please continue running your own blog. Don’t give some other company “free” content.
I hate that the entire modern internet is controlled by a few corporates.
The downsides to running your own blog are lack of technical knowledge/interest, and reduced monetization. Since you’ve already overcome the problem of technical knowledge, and you aren’t looking for monetization, please continue running your own blog.
As for visibility, maybe your could start sharing links on lemmy? Perhaps you could start a dedicated community of your own if you’re hesitant to post it on other existing communities.
I used to really like medium, cool articles written by interesting people, looked nice enough and i had fun giving like 20 thumbs up lol.
But then it went super walled, paywall for everything and its like they tried super hard to monetize. And truth is, ive never visited it since. Maybe the ocasional article, but even with an account im like urgh ill just lool elsewhere
I just skip Medium due to the walled garden. Even worse than Reddit. I have never come across a link to substack… are they an even higher wall that search engines are stymied by?
I fail to get why you think putting your stuff on Medium is a good idea.
The appeal I see in medium is more visibility for my content. I write for fun anyways, would be cool for more people to see it.
If I was one of your readers, I’d much rather read on your self-hosted blog (bonus points if there’s RSS)… But I’m not. Since I’m neither a reader, nor the one who defines what fun means to you, I’m not sure my—and other commenters’—words should have too much bearing in your decision.
I say, do what makes you (and your readers) happiest. Even if medium is by some measure bad, I’d guess it’s “only” about as bad as every other closed-up commercial option—I think they all suck. Look into what you actually care about, though, e.g. privacy, then make your own call.
For what it’s worth, I agree with people saying medium is almost inexplicably annoying. I consider myself a patient person most of the time, yet nothing kills my interest in an article faster than seeing websites like medium full of dark-patterned cookie banners and popups and newsletters and signups on the other side of a link.
But maybe we’re simply the wrong crowd to ask.
When you highlight text on Medium, it pops up a little bubble thing.
I HATE that.
I can’t read online without casually highlighting random bits as I go. Not sure why I do, but I do.
Me too, thought I was the only one
While I understand the content on medium is different per author, I associate it with poor quality content. It may pop up in search results, but I actively avoid the results because of the association. Point being, the exposure you get may not be the type you want.
Also don’t forget your content will be subject to the user experience medium decides to provide. I think it’s already subpar with it being full of popups and prompts to register and pay for an account, but consider how companies constantly enshittfy. You are giving away the control of how you are represented.
I have been trying to get into Medium for a while now. It seems okay but lacks a lot quality content and their website somehow do not give me recent blogs. The site always gives me blogs from 2017-2020, never from 2024.
The site is immensely paywalled, almost all articles are paid. Now if the articles/ content was actually decent, I might’ve paid. However, sadly it is not and there’s a way to read the premium articles for free. So there’s that.
Been trying to find other places to read blogs but can’t seem to find a good place.
I am on medium to follow one person, ecause I hate using the Reddit app, which is the other way to read them. I have tried reading other stories, but always hit a paywall. So I think it’s pointless, just my two bits.
The cool thing about substack is that it’s part of a community of writers. Especially with the “notes” aspect.
How’s that different from medium?
Does Medium have a platform where writers and readers can all talk to each other? Substack has “notes”, their twitter clone.
Ahh, I thought you meant like literal notes at first. I understand now. Thanks! :)
I made an paid account with medium to see posts related to my work, and I really enjoy it. I get an email every day with a handful of articles based on what I said my interests are/followed authors and I can read them with none of the issues other people are talking about (obviously because I’ve already caved to their business model, just pointing out the annoyances do actually stop, unlike some premium services).
If you think your readers will follow you to a paid platform, I don’t see anything wrong with it. But if they don’t want to pay, it sounds like it will be a bad experience. I would be skeptical of having a broader reach, also, since there is a lot of competition, not all of it human.
You can make your medium articles free though
I’m guessing your readers still encounter the hard sales pitch of the Medium membership regardless of your own monetization, that’s all.
I liked Medium for a while, but now I avoid it like the plague. Too much junk and too many paywalls it’s not worth bothering. I’m more likely clicking on anything else when it shows up in my search results.
Pop-up riddled shit that annoys anyone who tries to read it. Substack is apparently riddled with Nazis, but then that was a characteristic I heard here, so take that with a pinch of salt.
Maybe github pages?
Substack seems way more in vogue, but I don’t know why.
