Tips For Building a Sustainable Writing Ecosystem Between Substack & Medium

How to create a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

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By

Walter Rhein

Hello Everyone!

Thank you to ‘How to Write for a Living’ for offering me the opportunity to write a guest post. My name is Walter Rhein. I’m a Boost nominator on Medium, and over the last few months I’ve been getting established here on Substack as well.

Recently I’ve noticed that there’s some misplaced tension between the two platforms. To me, that’s as ridiculous as arguing whether Star Wars is better than Star Trek. There’s no reason for it. Why not sit back, relax and enjoy the fact that neither of them feature the Kardashians (except... doesn’t Star Trek have Cardassians? I guess I just inadvertently provided the last word on that debate).

When it comes to Medium versus Substack, both platforms have strengths that you can maximize to your benefit (and neither one of them is Vocal... which I guess is like Dr. Who in the metaphor I’ve been building).

Here’s a convenient oversimplification that you can argue with me about in the comments:

• Medium gives you a small piece of a HUGE subscriber base

• Substack gives you a HUGE piece of a smaller subscriber base.

You could almost think of Medium as a Substack newsletter with 1 million subscribers that gives you the chance of getting your name featured in one of their emails. For $60 a year, that’s hard to pass up.

The benefit of editors

Unlike most writers, I actually appreciate having an extra set of eyes on my work. For that reason, I gravitated over to Medium once I got smart and left Vocal. Some of my other writer friends have been working on Substack and waving at me from afar.

The big advantage of Medium is that it has internal publications. These are particularly advantageous for new writers who have not yet developed a following. Some of these publications are run by very accomplished editors who are willing to work with you on your submission and offer a professional opinion.

For example, The Writing Cooperative has 250k followers. I write a column for them which you can read here. Medium has a feature that allows publication editors to send out an email to everyone who follows their publication. I have seen huge traffic surges when my columns have been featured in such newsletters, but it seems as if publications haven’t been using that lately. About 6 months ago I received a survey about how Medium intends to update this feature, so maybe it will start working better soon.

Why Medium?

Today, the biggest advantage of working with publications on Medium like The Writing Cooperative is that they have editors who are Boost nominators.

If you’ve been exclusively on Substack over the last few years, it’s likely that  you’ve read a lot of articles by frustrated writers who have left Medium specifically because of Boost. It’s true that the program has changed the type of article that performs well on the platform, it’s also true that Medium has only recently become profitable. They recently hit 1 million members and that upward trajectory lines up pretty well with the Boost program.

I applied and was selected to become a Boost nominator early on, and it has transformed the way I use Medium. I feel that for a writer without any following at all, Medium’s Boost is likely the best way to generate immediate attention for your articles.

However, getting a Boost isn’t easy, even when you know what you’re doing.

Why Substack?

I appreciate Substack because here I feel like I’m afforded a little more control. I can write in a way that, as one reader put it, is “a little less formal.” I’ve also seen that some of the dialogue heavy stories that I like to write perform a lot better on Substack than on Medium. I also like the convenient voice over feature.

The good news about Substack is that you can publish without having to meet the expectations of an editor. The bad news about Substack is that you can publish without having to meet the expectations of an editor.

There are days when I wake up with enough energy to really challenge myself. On those days, I’ll select a publication and write the kind of article that I know the editors are looking for.

On other days, I feel like writing from the heart. On those days I turn to Substack. I think writers need to flex both of these muscles from time to time. It’s like cross-training. When you do both, you get better at both. For now, I make more on Medium, but I’ve been on that platform for 4 years as opposed to only 1 on Substack.

Notes and the difference in payment models

Substack also has the benefit of Notes which I’ve really been enjoying. I had one post on Notes get almost 5k likes. Between that, a guest post, and an interview I did with

Kristina God

, I’ve seen my subscriber list grow from 100 to 999 in just two months.

I’ve also just recently enabled paid subscriptions. I’ve been told that the best practice is to go paid from day one, and looking back I see how that would be true. But, like most writers, I’ve always got to be stubborn and verify why my way is the wrong way through the experience of failure.

Substack uses a subscriber model, and Medium uses a membership model. That means that Medium handles the money side of things. One benefit of that is you don’t have to worry charge disputes. One disadvantage is that it can be unclear how your compensation is calculated. Both of these models have advantages and disadvantages.

Meta content

One of the things that I also like about Medium is that they’re very clear in saying writers should be on a variety of platforms. I got started on Substack because Medium said stories about Medium would not be eligible for Boost. The result has been that my work on Substack has the potential to drive more members to Medium.

I still like writing stories about Medium, so I decided there might be value in establishing a Substack newsletter. In the process of doing this, I’ve found plenty of things to be delighted about with Substack.

Today, I’m using Substack to recruit writers with interesting stories that I can nominate for a Boost on Medium. My topic area is racism/diversity/basic human decency. This means if you have a story about starting a business, I probably can’t offer you very useful advice.

Both of these platforms are exciting

I’m 50, and I’ve been writing all of my adult life. One thing I know to be true is that opportunities tend to appear out of nowhere, pay well for a while, and then disappear without warning. Writers have to be on their toes, and always have at least 2 or 3 back-up plans even when things are going well.

Medium has been great to me. I have 45k followers there and I have a regular income from my work as a Boost nominator. What I see in Substack is an opportunity to establish more of a consistent revenue stream. However, I’ve been able to do well on Substack largely because of the audience I grew on Medium.

For me, the process worked to go from Medium to Substack. However, other writers might have equal success going from Substack to Medium. Who knows, maybe even Vocal will get its act together at some point. Come to think of it, Vocal paid based on views, so if my subscriber list got big enough on Substack I could drive traffic to my Vocal posts...

Leverage these platforms to your advantage

Writers have to be flexible. There’s no point feeling any resentment because the things that worked on Medium or on Substack 5 years ago don’t work anymore. Writers always have to keep their fingers on the pulse of the trends and adapt.

Medium offers opportunities for visibility through the Boost program and their publications.

Substack offers you greater control of your revenue through their direct subscriber model, and visibility through notes.

Successful writers use both of these tools for their benefit. Think of it like using the Enterprise to attack the Death Star, or being able to force choke the K...  Cardassians. Isn’t it beautiful how I tied that all together?

Follow that example and do the same thing for Medium and Substack. Macgyver these platforms together, use a sonic screwdriver if you have to.

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