Medium is a superb running a blog platform, but it surely has its flaws.
For those who’re a author, know that there are numerous Medium options that may aid you broaden your reader base, attain a unique consumer base, or improve your revenue.
However not all platforms are created equal. Some could prohibit your incomes potential, whereas others could not have the viewers attain you’re trying for.
That can assist you make a sound alternative, we’ve analyzed 9 of the very best Medium options the place you may flip your ardour right into a viable revenue supply.
9 Best Medium Alternatives
Medium has lots going for it — a clear design, an lively neighborhood, and the potential to generate profits out of your content material by way of its Partner Program.
Nonetheless, given the stiff competitors from its over 100 million monthly contributors and geographic limits to monetization, some writers could need to discover an alternate.
Fortuitously, there are numerous options accessible. Every excels in at the least one space that different platforms – together with Medium – are missing in. For instance, if you wish to create a paid e-newsletter, Substack is your greatest wager. Likewise, Hubpages is a more sensible choice if you wish to rank your content material in the search outcomes.
That can assist you discover the fitting running a blog platform for your wants, we’ve crafted a complete information to the prime Medium options. We’ll clarify what every platform is greatest at, and examine them on necessary components like usability, monetization, incomes potential, and extra.
1 HubPages
Best For: Larger management over web optimization (Search Engine Optimization) and regular revenue alternatives.
Ease of Use: Has a modular interface for creating your weblog posts. Can take a while to get used to.
Monetization Potential: Restricted advert and affiliate fee potential. You’ll want a ton of visitors to earn significant revenue.
Month-to-month Site visitors: 1.9 M
🤩 PROS:
Constant monetization choices corresponding to show advertisements and Amazon affiliate hyperlinks.
Larger guide management over web optimization for your content material.
A modular writing interface for advanced content material layouts when obligatory.
😐 CONS:
A significantly smaller built-in viewers.
A significantly smaller built-in viewers.
Show advertisements can have an effect on consumer engagement.
HubPages is a direct Medium various with many similarities. You'll be able to earn cash by displaying show advertisements and recommending Amazon merchandise by way of the HubPages Ad Program and Amazon Program.
Whereas it could’t compete with Medium’s giant built-in viewers, it does supply extra web optimization management. You received’t get as many guests from the Hubpages platform, however you may optimize your content material to succeed in extra folks by way of search engines like google and yahoo.
And since your monetized content material isn’t restricted to paying subscribers (which is how Medium works), you’re incentivized to make use of web optimization or social media promotions to drive exterior visitors to your content material. Extra readers imply extra advert impressions ensuing in higher earnings.
HubPages claims you earn around $50-$100 a month as passive revenue out of your writing. Nonetheless, you will want to publish a ton of articles to succeed in this mark.
2 Vocal.Media
Best For: Money-prize writing challenges and fast publicity to a broad viewers.
Ease of Use: Easy, intuitive, and simply navigable.
Monetization Potential: Respectable potential by way of viral posts that pay primarily based on view rely, writing challenges, and suggestions.
Month-to-month Site visitors: 3.0 M
🤩 PROS:
Predictable revenue with $3.80/1000 reads and an in-built tipping characteristic.
Writing challenges to earn massive and attain a large viewers shortly.
A clear, ad-free consumer expertise.
😐 CONS:
Restricted built-in viewers.
To earn extra — $6.00 per 1000 reads — you should develop into a paid Vocal+ member for $9.99/month.
Greater payout threshold at $35 (or $20 for Vocal+).
In case your writing expertise deserve recognition, take into account Vocal Media. This running a blog platform frequently holds writing challenges with money prizes ranging between $500-$1000. Generally, the prize pool may be as excessive as $10,000 or much more.
Even should you don’t win, Vocal.Media pays a flat $3.8 per 1000 reads your items obtain or $6 per 1000 reads by changing into a Vocal+ member for $9.99/month.
To maximise earnings, give attention to reeling in extra readers. You are able to do this by crafting catchy headlines and selling your items on social channels. For those who make a very robust reference to somebody, they might even go away a tip.
3 NewsBreak
Best For: Information-style articles and subjects on a neighborhood or nationwide scale.
Ease of Use: Easy, intuitive, and simply navigable. Advert presence could make the UI really feel cluttered.
Monetization Potential: Good potential by way of viral information content material that pays primarily based on view rely.
Month-to-month Site visitors: 18.6 M
🤩 PROS:
One of many prime information apps in Google Play Retailer, providing entry to 50 million month-to-month readers.
Payout is predicated on the variety of views, making earnings predictable.
Information content material is extra more likely to go viral, which may enhance your earnings.
😐 CONS:
You need to meet set necessities earlier than you may apply for monetization.
Restricted content material selection.
Advert presence in the UI.
NewsBreak is a prime on-line information journal. Their specialty is native and nationwide information in the US. If you wish to cowl massive native occasions or evaluation the brand new donut store in city, that is the platform for you
To monetize your content material, you should publish at least 10 articles and have 100 registered followers. Accepted contributors will begin making a living primarily based on advert impressions every bit will get. The precise pay fee can fluctuate from article to article.
NewsBreak’s greatest benefit is that information can shortly go viral, resulting in excessive incomes potential. Simply do not forget that information has a brief half-life, and any viral successes will probably be short-lived.
4 Steemit
Best For: Transparency and freedom.
Ease of Use: It's essential get aware of blockchain and crypto to know how the platform features.
Monetization Potential: Excessive incomes potential primarily based on consumer engagement together with your publish. All funds are made in cryptocurrency.
Month-to-month Site visitors: 4.2 M
🤩 PROS:
Nice for crypto fans. Rewards contributors in STEEM cryptocurrency.
Excessive engagement as a consequence of incentivized commenting and upvoting.
Full transparency with public details about rewards, upvotes, feedback, and transactions.
😐 CONS:
Makes use of markdown formatting. Doubtlessly difficult for some writers.
A steep studying curve for these new to blockchain and cryptocurrency.
Your earnings will lower if the STEEM coin loses worth.
At first look, Steemit would possibly appear to be a Reddit clone, however the content material studying expertise is extra akin to Medium.
What units this platform aside is its distinctive infrastructure and monetization technique; Steemit makes use of blockchain technology and has its personal cryptocurrency, STEEM, which customers can earn by participating with and creating content material. For those who can persistently join with customers, incomes potential is sort of excessive, as a viral publish can earn upwards of $100.
For those who’re new to the crypto world, transferring your STEEM to a crypto wallet will involve some learning. I like to recommend trying out the Steemit FAQ page for extra info.
5 Substack
Best For: Constructing a direct relationship with readers by way of newsletters and monetizing it utilizing paid subscriptions.
Ease of Use: Clear, easy, straightforward to navigate. Managing subscriber lists and understanding analytics would require some studying.
Monetization Potential: Big potential by way of extremely monetizable newsletters.
Month-to-month Site visitors: 44.5 M
🤩 PROS:
Join immediately with readers by way of newsletters.
Monetize your content material utilizing paid e-newsletter subscriptions.
Easy, targeted writing expertise for newsletters.
😐 CONS:
The platform has a poor suggestion engine.
10% platform charge on earnings from paid subscriptions.
One of the crucial widespread Medium options, Substack delivers a clear UI for creating content material and connects you with a big readership. However not like Medium, Substack doesn’t pay you for the content material you write or the engagement it generates.
As an alternative, you may construct a e-newsletter utilizing an intuitive interface. Customers studying your content material can subscribe to your e-newsletter, which can present direct entry to their inboxes. That is actually highly effective, because it’s simpler to succeed in somebody by way of e-mail than a third-party platform.
You'll be able to monetize your content material with affiliate hyperlinks in your newsletters or promote your individual services or products. Substack additionally enables you to arrange paid subscriptions for a ten% charge, the place you may set your individual charges for subscribers to entry your e-newsletter.
6 Ghost
Best For: Creating a customized weblog to market, curate, and distribute content material.
Ease of Use: The general UI is clear and easy. Nonetheless, you’ll have to host the CMS platform, which requires a sure degree of technical data.
Monetization Potential: Big potential by promoting paid subscriptions.
Month-to-month Site visitors: N/A
🤩 PROS:
Full management over your weblog’s look, content material curation, and distribution.
Entry to in-depth analytics to judge content material efficiency.
No one can take away your content material.
😐 CONS:
No built-in viewers.
Preliminary value in shopping for a website and renting servers to host your Ghost-powered weblog.
The next diploma of technical data is critical.
Ghost is an open-source running a blog platform – technically generally known as a Content material Administration System (CMS) – that means that you can construct your individual self-hosted weblog. You don’t want to fret about platform pointers; you make the foundations.
The principle advantage of a self-hosted weblog is that you would be able to monetize your content material by way of a number of avenues, together with show advertisements, affiliate commissions, newsletters, and even promoting paid subscriptions.
However with nice energy comes nice accountability.
On this case, you’ll want to purchase and arrange a customized area, buy hosting, bear in mind to replace the Ghost software program, handle the content material curation, and so forth. You don’t have to know this proper out of the gate, however you do must be comfy with studying.
If you need assist setting issues up, take a look at this wonderful Ghost tutorial.
You’re additionally in cost of driving visitors to your weblog. Fortunately, Ghost affords a sturdy web optimization system to optimize your content material for natural visitors. You can too entry enhanced analytics to see how your content material is performing and optimize it accordingly.
For those who’re questioning if “owning” a weblog and taking over these extra obligations are value it, I’d suggest trying out these causes to start out a weblog.
7 Write.as
Best For: Privateness and nameless or pseudonymous content material publishing.
Ease of Use: A brilliant clear, minimal, and intuitive platform with a laser give attention to writing content material.
Monetization Potential: Very restricted potential. Solely in a position to get microtips from readers.
Month-to-month Site visitors: 2.3 M
🤩 PROS:
Publish articles beneath pseudonyms.
Monetize your content material by accepting microtransactions.
No account wanted to publish content material (although this prevents monetization).
😐 CONS:
Lacks content material group options like tags or collections.
Solely paid accounts beginning at $6/month.
Write.as affords a clear, ultra-minimalistic, and ad-free consumer expertise the place the content material takes middle stage. Even the writer can take a backseat, as one of many foremost options of the platform is nameless posting with out creating an account. That stated, account-less posts solely keep stay for 1 hour.
For those who resolve to create an account, you’ll have to subscribe to their paid membership plan beginning at $6/month. It will assist you to publish anonymously or beneath a pseudonym. You can too create non-public and password-protected blogs.
You'll be able to even arrange microtransactions and settle for suggestions from readers who actually like your work. Nonetheless, if incomes cash is your foremost purpose, Write.as is probably not your best option. It’s greatest used as a distraction-free writing house to shortly (and typically anonymously) share your ideas.
8 Tumblr
Best For: Viewers engagement and multimedia content material.
Ease of Use: Features like a social media community and straightforward to make use of.
Monetization Potential: No built-in monetization strategies, however you may add your individual advertisements and affiliate hyperlinks. Arduous to construct significant revenue.
Month-to-month Site visitors: 215.6 M
🤩 PROS:
A bigger consumer base than Medium.
Highly effective content material suggestion algorithm that can assist you get found.
Tons of social community options to assist improve consumer engagement with posts.
Helps a variety of multimedia content material, together with photos, GIFs, video, and audio.
😐 CONS:
There’s no built-in monetization possibility.
The platform lacks guide web optimization options.
Each Tumblr and Medium supply a cross between a weblog and a social media community. The principle distinction is that Medium focuses on being a running a blog platform, whereas Tumblr prioritizes social sharing of many forms of media.
It’s additionally value mentioning that Tumblr skews to a youthful viewers, and the content material is extra geared in the direction of video video games, popular culture, and artistic visuals.
Tumblr doesn’t supply any built-in monetization choices. Nonetheless, you may add third-party advert networks like Google AdSense to monetize your weblog. You can too promote affiliate merchandise and make sponsored posts in case your weblog will get large enough.
9 WordPress
Best For: Establishing a weblog or web site with intensive management over its seems and performance.
Ease of Use: Tons of options that you simply’ll have to be taught earlier than you may get essentially the most out of it. You’ll have to host the CMS platform which requires a sure degree of technical know-how.
Monetization Potential: Big potential by way of internet online affiliate marketing, advertisements, and ecommerce.
Month-to-month Site visitors: N/A
🤩 PROS:
Use themes to tweak the seems and plugins to increase functionalities.
Use themes to tweak the seems and plugins to increase functionalities.
Add any monetization characteristic you want – from advertisements to e-commerce.
Highly effective web optimization options to reel in natural visitors.
😐 CONS:
Technically extra advanced with a substantial studying curve.
A whole lot of administration obligations, together with platform upkeep, content material advertising and marketing, content material creation, and curation.
WordPress is our #1 beneficial running a blog platform, particularly if you wish to construct a enterprise round your writing. WordPress powers 43% of all websites, in giant half as a consequence of its user-friendliness and unimaginable ecosystem of plugins and themes.
What makes WordPress so nice is its unimaginable customizability. You may make the web site look and act nevertheless you need. And the bottom WordPress software program is totally free; you solely want to purchase add-ons for superior performance.
To launch a WordPress weblog, you’ll have to be taught to subscribe to a hosting service and join it to a website identify. What’s extra, you’re in full management of your weblog, so you have to discover ways to publish and curate posts, design menu techniques, create internet pages, deal with feedback, and handle all of the themes and plugins you put in.
WordPress does current a steep studying curve, however the fruits of your labor may be immensely rewarding. To provide you an thought of the potential, right here’s a case research of an 18-month-old WordPress weblog we bought for 6 figures.
This brings us to one of the crucial useful features of a WordPress weblog – you’re constructing an asset you may promote. We’ve bought a number of blogs 6 figures as a result of we owned the blogs and the entire rights related to them. You'll be able to’t construct an analogous asset by running a blog on someone else’s platform.
Conclusion
There are a lot of viable Medium options, every of which has distinctive strengths.
Nonetheless, should you’re trying to earn substantial cash out of your writing, WordPress stands head and shoulders above the others. We don’t suggest you employ any of the opposite platforms listed since you’re constructing another person’s platform – not your individual.
If you wish to be taught extra about how one can construct a WordPress weblog that may promote for lots of of hundreds of {dollars}, take a look at our free coaching.
We’ve spent over 10 years constructing and promoting WordPress blogs, and we’ve distilled all of that have into this free webinar. In it, you’ll be taught the 7 secrets and techniques that make new web sites 83% extra profitable.
Get the free coaching now.
FAQs
Medium continues to be widespread in 2024. The truth is, it’s by no means been extra widespread. As of December 2022, Medium had over 100 million lively customers – its highest rely ever. It stays top-of-the-line running a blog platforms to jot down on due to its huge attain and skill to monetize content material with its Associate program.
Substack and Medium differ primarily in their monetization strategies. Medium pays creators primarily based on reader engagement, whereas Substack permits writers to monetize immediately by way of paid subscriptions to their newsletters.
This enterprise mannequin permits Substack customers to construct a direct relationship with their readers by way of their e-mail inboxes, whereas Medium interactions primarily occur on their running a blog platform.
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