5 Reasons to Write on Medium Even If You Have Your Personal Blog
Here’s what I learned.
I got a random message on Twitter today, this guy(X) asked me a question about writing on Medium.
It was an intriguing question, so I took a while to think it through before replying.
This is what he asked,
“I was just wondering if you had any thoughts on using medium vs personal blog? Currently, I use my own blog and I am unsure as to whether I should post on both medium and my own blog, just my own blog or what?”
Followed by another question, later,
“So I should create separate blog posts for both Medium and my personal blog instead of just duplicating them on both?”
This is a common dilemma amongst new writers, I faced it, too, when I began writing in 2018.
I created my own blog using online tools instead of leveraging well-established platforms like Medium because I wanted to follow the hottest trend. However, I quit writing just after 3 blogs because I realized, writing was not my passion, it was merely an attempt at following another trend.
Most of the new writers come from this mindset of having their personal blog, building a brand, and creating their own version of Medium within weeks.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with it, but, most of them overlook some key aspects of the process.
Therefore, I decided to share my answer to this guy’s questions, with everybody facing a similar dilemma.
My answer was,
“Yes, you must write on both the platforms, Medium, and your personal blog, separately.”
Here’s why:
- Provides motivation and confidence
Starting a personal blog is an ethereal feeling but also a big challenge. The desire for appreciation is higher at the beginning of any work, especially amongst new writers. They could get easily demotivated if their work is not appreciated. Since nobody would know about your blog yet, chances are high that your first few articles would flunk and this could go on for longer than you might have anticipated. This would lead to a rapid decline of motivation to write any further blogs.
Whereas, writing on Medium would give you a better chance to reach people through your blog. You would feel motivated to see many more like you who are willing to support each other in beginning their writing journey. Moreover, writing on the same platform as seasoned writers would make you feel on par with them, leading to increased motivation, for a longer time.
2. Saves you from distractions
The focus should remain solely on writing in the beginning, having a personal blog could lead to distractions, such as —
constantly changing the website’s layout,
trying to make it SEO-friendly,
worrying about the page visits,
sifting through tons of random websites for writing tips and ideas, etc.
Medium would spare you of all of the above-mentioned distractions. You won’t need to change a thing in your Medium account after setting it up once because Medium takes care of the basics. Also, you would have a library to search about all your writing questions right here at medium, sparing you all that time of sifting through other websites. Hence, you could stay devoted solely to writing.
3. Increase your reach
- Medium gives you an in-built audience, eager to reads well-written content.
- Provides you with the options to, engage with others’ content to increase your visibility.
- You could create your own e-mail list to send your articles to subscribers
- Gives you a chance to connect with fellow writers on social media and build credibility for your content
These points would help you create an audience for yourself that would be willing to follow your personal blog for reading your content.
4. Exposure to publications
There are endless publications active on Medium that don’t look for years of work experience to publish your work rather focuses on the quality of your content.
Whilst getting your articles published could be a strenuous task elsewhere, on Medium you could choose from distinct publications, for every type of blog you write.
5. Get paid
You could start making money on medium right from the first month. Simply, join the Medium Partner Program and write brilliant content. The money would serve as a booster to continue writing during those low-feeling times.
So, where to begin?
Follow a simple 2-step procedure as a starter:
- Write separate, yet, inter-linked blogs for both the websites, for e.g., break your topic into two sub-topics and write two blogs, one for each platform.
- Then embed links in your Medium blog leading to your personal blog (and vice-versa)
And Voila!
There could be endless ways to leverage Medium for establishing your personal blog, it’s on you, how to utilize the resources provided.
P.S. FYI, Charles Calzia, is the guy(X) who led me into writing this article. Comment below if you guys found this article useful, need some motivation :)
