I love Medium, and I have no plans to leave, but I’m focusing more on my own blog. Don’t worry, dear reader. If you’re seeing this post on Medium, you’ll still be able to read much of what I have to say on Medium. But if you’re reading this on Side Hustle Road, then congratulations! You’ve found Ye Olde Blog.
June of 2022 was my first full month in the Medium Partner Program, and I have no regrets. I earned enough to fill up my gas tank a couple of times (which is awesome in this economy). And I hope to increase that going forward.
But as someone who firmly believes in the necessity of creating value and owning the platforms used in the creation of that value where possible, I’ve decided to focus more effort on my own blog for a few reasons.
Medium isn’t mine.
Yes, I love Medium, but it isn’t mine. I don’t control Medium’s finances, policies, traffic, etc. All of that is outside of my reach. And as much as I love the platform (and have absolutely no plans to leave it), I’m at the mercy of Medium’s staff and ownership to host my content and pay me according to their partner program terms.
Now, I don’t doubt Medium’s staff one bit. I think they’re great men and women who want to do the right thing, and I don’t have any desire to violate any of Medium’s terms and conditions now or in the future.
But what’s stopping my account from being mistakenly flagged or terminated?
Who is to say that the partner program terms won’t change to require qualifications I don’t have?
There are plenty of unknowns.
The bottom line is this: if I relied entirely on Medium, I would be relying entirely on someone else’s property, web server space, traffic, etc. I don’t like that. Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful to have access to sites like Medium, and I am grateful to the many staff who support it and its writers, but building something of my own is important to me too.
My blog is my home on the web.
There’s no harm (obviously) in writing for other websites that I don’t own. But they aren’t home. Medium is a great place to visit, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to make some side income with his or her writing.
But my blog? That’s more personal.
I think of it like this:
Medium is like your cubicle in an office. You can decorate it… kinda. You can put up a picture or put post-it notes everywhere, but it’s not really yours.
Your blog is like your home office. Paint it. Color it. Draw all over the walls. Rearrange the furniture. Buy new furniture if you want. It’s yours. You can do whatever you want with it, and it becomes a representation of you.
As great as Medium and other sites are, you can’t paint or rearrange the furniture. While there is a lot of customization you can make happen on Medium, you don’t have the ability to set up pages, host web apps, integrate with other services, etc.
Put another way, Medium is like an apartment. You can customize and personalize a little bit, but you’re basically renting the space. Your blog is like a house. You can do whatever you want with it. (Within reason, of course.)
I control my blog’s future.
Years ago, I loved using a 3D design tool called LightWave 3D. Since then, it’s been sold to another company and now hasn’t seen a major update for nearly two years.
Will it ever? Who knows. But for all intents and purposes in my mind, it’s defunct. I would hate to be one of the many people who have relied or still rely on LightWave 3D as an integral part of their creative pipeline.
In the same way, do I know that Medium won’t be bought out or shut down at some point? No. I don’t. No one outside of Medium HQ does. Now, do I have any indication that that’s even a possibility? No. Of course not. And I hope that Medium is around for another decade or fifty. But the fact is, none of us knows for sure.
We can’t control that. But what we can control is our own sites and content. I have no control over Medium. I can post what I hope are helpful, thoughtful articles and interact with other writers on the site, but I can’t really affect Medium’s bottom line. I can’t make sure it’s sustainable enough to be able to keep paying me and other writers.
What I can control is what happens with my blog. No one is going to come along and buy out my blog. Even if WordPress, the software that powers my blog, were to be bought out or shut down, that wouldn’t be the end of my site. I could easily jump ship to another platform. If my web host were to be bought out or if they decided to close up shop, I’d still be in good shape because I could go elsewhere. I own my site and its content. I control its future. I can’t say the same about Medium.
Now, to be clear, I’m 100% supportive of Medium, and I want them to be around forever. I think it’s a great site to write on, for, and about. The Medium Partner Program is great, and I hope to continue to grow my earnings. But I have to do so knowing that I control very little about what happens on Medium.
Medium isn’t my brand. My blog is.
Medium has many, many writers. And that’s a great thing. I love getting to know other writers and reading what they have to say. But the fact is, being a “Medium writer” isn’t exactly a brand. Side Hustle Road is. And with that name, I can create all kinds of content all around the web. Sure, I can post some of that content here, but the home of SHR isn’t Medium. It’s the domain name with that name.
If I want to build the Side Hustle Road brand (and I do), I need to focus on building up that website with helpful, thoughtful content that will make people want to come back to read more. I need to focus on creating some resources that will save people time or money, and I need to make sure that I’m providing value.
When people think of Side Hustle Road, I don’t want them to think about “that one guy who writes on Medium.” I want them to think about the brand itself, ideally. And I can’t very well build that brand if I’m writing exclusively on Medium.
I certainly want to continue to build my Medium audience, but I need to make sure that first I’m building my brand. Otherwise, I’m missing a huge piece of the content creation puzzle.
Medium is part of a larger content strategy.
Here’s what I’m hoping you’ll take away from this post, dear reader. Medium is a great site. I highly recommend it. But at the end of the day, it shouldn’t be the totality of your content strategy. It’s a good piece, and a wonderful tool, but it cannot and should not take the place of having your own home on the web where you provide value and build your own brand.
I hope to continue writing on Medium for a good long time, and I have no plans for that to change. After all, I am grateful to be a member of the partner program, and I’ve loved reading content from a variety of authors. But I know that by itself, Medium cannot encompass all that I’d like to accomplish.
For that, my own site is probably best.