New and veteran writers will benefit from writing on both Substack and Medium at the same time. Instead of choosing between Medium and Substack, writers will see better outcomes from using both.
The best way to write on both Substack and Medium is by sticking with a similar writing niche. Having a similar niche allows writers to post similar content between the two platforms and quickly increase their Substack following.
Let’s dig deeper into how both Substack and Medium can help you as a writer.
Table of Contents
Should I write on Substack or Medium?
I’ve found the most success using both Substack and Medium. Medium is great at generating traffic to my Substack page. I chose a niche topic that applies to both accounts so my content can be replicated between them.
For me, I was first a successful Medium writer before moving over to Substack. Nowadays, I run a Medium publication associated with my Substack publication and publish news to my subscribers.
If I had to do it all over again, I would still start both a Substack account and Medium account. New writers can find a lot of early success on Medium and convert it into clicks and subscribers on their Substack newsletter. Plus, Medium’s newsletter function is a lot to be desired.
Is Substack like a blog?
Substack posts content online like a blog, but is primarily an email newsletter provider. The main benefit of Substack is it’s like both a blog and newsletter.
Meaning, search engines can find your past Substack posts online, but the main target is your newsletter subscribers.
Is Substack safe?
Yes, Substack is legitimate and safe to use.
It’s a company based out of San Francisco, California. The company reports that writers have earned millions of dollars over the years using the Substack platform.
Substack even recently opened the opportunity for writers to become investors in the platform. This gives creators a chance to actually own a piece of the platform they’re using to make money.
How much does it cost to write on Substack and Medium?
As of publishing this article, it’s free for writers to sign up for a Substack account. You can begin writing, posting and sending content from your Substack account for free.
Medium memberships for writers cost $5 a month, but there are also free memberships as well. However, free Medium memberships offer limited features.
Does Medium offer a newsletter?
Writers do have the opportunity to send out recent posts to subscribers via email, but it’s not necessarily a newsletter feature. Medium allows readers to subscribe to their favorite writers but doesn’t specialize in newsletters.
Can you earn money writing on Substack and Medium?
Yes, after growing an audience writers can earn money on both Substack and Medium.
However, typically Substack is easier for writers to scale and earn more than Medium. This is because writers actually matter on Substack, unlike Medium where followers don’t matter as much.
Medium is more focused on getting your content out to paying-Medium members. Substack readers, free and paid, can be monetized in several different ways.
Should you choose Substack or ConvertKit?
Writers will benefit more from using Substack over ConvertKit. Substack offers more for writers than ConvertKit mainly because of its ability to appear on search engines and the Substack Network. Both help convert online traffic into new subscribers.
Writers can optimize posts, slugs and headlines to be better search on Google. This feature is similar to blogs and can enhance traffic drastically depending on how posts are optimized.
Substack also recently launched Substack Notes, which appears to be similar to Twitter and could be popular among previous Twitter users. Posting on the Substack app can be done via Notes.
As of writing this article, I’m unaware of any similar features ConvertKit offers.
How to grow your Substack subscribers?
There are many ways to grow your Substack audience of subscribers. The most common methods are by crost-posting content to other sites, joining the Substack Network, and promoting your newsletter wherever possible.
More advanced ways to grow your Substack subscribers can be done through SEO optimization and recommending other newsletters. Recommendations are great because it allows subscribers of other newsletters to easily find your newsletter. Optimizing your blog for SEO is more difficult but can still be done on Substack.
Where to promote your Substack newsletter?
One great place to promote your Substack newsletter is on Medium. Medium generates traffic extremely well and can convert that traffic to new subscribers. Think of Medium as like, well, a Medium for your traffic.
Other great places to promote your Substack newsletter are LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora, Pinterest and your personal blog.
Substack vs. Medium takeaways
The most important takeaway between Substack and Medium is that writers should utilize both. By leveraging both platforms, writers can boost their audiences and will see better results.
Substack excels at offering a newsletter feature that also doubles as a blog and podcast provider. Newsletters provide writers with a 1-on-1 relationship between them and their readers. Also, email marketing has the highest conversion rate of any kind of marketing.
Medium works great at generating online traffic for writers. It ranks high on Google, guides new readers to your content and is easy to use. However, the newsletter/email feature on Medium isn’t nearly as great as Substack.
As a bonus, both Medium and Substack offer mobile apps for writers to better connect with audiences. This is another feature that is rarely found for other content platforms.
Frequently asked questions about Substack
Is Substack new?
Founded in 2017, Substack is relatively new.
Is Substack part of Twitter?
No. Twitter attempted to acquire Substack and failed.
How can you sign up for Substack?
Use this link to sign up for Substack and create an account.
How to log in to your Substack account?
Use this link to log in to your Substack account, if you have one.
Where to download the Substack app?
The Substack app can be downloaded here on Apple and here on Google Play. Note: Here’s what users can and can’t do on the Substack app.
