Medium vs Blogs

We're heading into 2024 and the digital publishing landscape continues to shift and change. If you're a writer looking to grow your audience and generate traffic to your content, you’re probably wondering - should you be writing on Medium or having your own blog?

The choice between Medium and blogs has been a hot topic of debate for years now. But with new developments at both platforms, 2024 promises to shake things up even more. So which one is really the better option for writers right now?

The answer is - write on BOTH platforms for maximum impact!

In this post I’m going to break down the key pros and cons of writing on Medium vs having your own blog in 2024 from a writer's perspective. By the end, you'll know exactly where you should be focusing your publishing efforts in the new year!

MEDIUM'S GROWING PAINS

Medium has long been one of the top publishing platforms for writers, providing a huge built-in audience that blogs simply can't compete with. But 2024 could be a make-or-break year as the platform faces some big challenges.

A few things have writers concerned about Medium's future prospects:

• Membership changes. Medium's controversial membership program has been a disaster so far. Many writers were turned off by the paywall and the number of paying users remains very low.

• Monetization confusion. It's still not entirely clear how writers can consistently monetize their work on Medium. Between memberships, partner programs, and sponsored posts, the revenue streams are fragmented and unreliable.

• Over-publishing concerns. With so many articles being published every day, it's getting harder for any one piece to stand out and be discovered. Quality is suffering as writers focus on quantity.

Unless Medium can reverse these trends in 2024, their dominance as a publishing platform may be threatened. For the first time, blogs are starting to look more appealing than Medium for writers focused on growth and monetization.

CAN BLOGS COMPETE IN 2024?

For a long time, blogs were seen as inferior to Medium. Lower traffic, less professional designs, and greater technical skills required to set one up and optimize it put many writers off the blog model.

But blogs have come a long way in recent years and 2024 could see them surpass Medium for motivated writers:

• More control and ownership. With a blog, you fully own and control the content, design, and direction. No worrying about a platform's changing algorithms or policies.

• Better monetization options. Blogs provide more flexibility to generate revenue through ads, affiliates, subscriptions, and info products. You keep 100% of the earnings instead of sharing with a platform.

• Easier to build an audience. By focusing on a specific topic or niche, blogs make it simpler to attract and engage the right readership over time through SEO, email lists, social media, etc.

• More prestigious and professional. Well-designed, optimized blogs with regular publishing come across as higher quality and more authoritative than jumping around on Medium.

• Technical barriers lower. With editor-focused platforms like WordPress, Ghost, and Blogger, anyone can set up a good-looking blog without advanced technical skills. Easy plug-ins and themes make customization simpler.

So if you're serious about growing a sustainable writing business, having your own blog may end up being a smarter investment than staking it all on Medium in this changing landscape. Let's explore this debate in more depth.

MEDIUM VS BLOGS: TRAFFIC AND REACH

Without a doubt, the biggest advantage Medium has had over blogs is the massive built-in audience and viral sharing potential. But the traffic numbers tell an intriguing story for 2024:

• Medium now gets around 200 million visits per month on average across its platforms. Significant, but down from over 300 million in 2020.

• The top blogs in popular niches regularly achieve traffic numbers competitive to Medium. Some niche blogs get over 1 million monthly visits focusing on a specific topic or industry.

• According to SimilarWeb, the average blog gets 10,000 monthly visits within the first year with focused SEO and content efforts. This is more targeted traffic than Medium usually provides starting out.

• By year 3, the average optimized blog driving regular organic search traffic can achieve 50,000+ monthly visits, surpassing Medium's reach potential for new writers.

So while Medium still offers big numbers overall, individual blogs are catching up quickly if you put in the work. And your content is more likely to get noticed and live on long-term as an independent blog versus Medium's ephemeral feed.

MEDIUM VS BLOGS: MONETIZATION AND PROFITS

Staying afloat financially as a writer today requires serious monetization strategies beyond just donations and one-off sponsorships. Let's compare how Medium and blogs stack up for generating sustainable income:

• On Medium, you share at least 50% of all ad revenues, subscription fees, tipping percentages. You can't integrate any external payment systems or products yourself.

• With your own blog, you keep 100% of all monetization revenue. You have full control over your own advertising space plus can add affiliate links, subscriptions, courses, eBooks, consultations, and more.

• Medium partner programs only pay $50+ per 1,000 reads for qualifying articles, and you still share over half of that with Medium. Effective CPM rates are mostly under $1. Blogs typically pay $3-5+ CPM through major ad networks.

• Top blogs monetizing well through multiple integrated revenue streams can make over $10,000/month passively with the right systems and evergreen content. Medium earnings potential maxes out drastically lower for most.

• Starting and optimizing a subscription-based membership community and online courses is much simpler on your own blog/website versus dealing with Medium's limitations and revenue cuts.

So while Medium might seem like the lazy monetization option, blogs will allow you to vastly grow your income through more personalized monetization efforts tailored to your ideal readers in 2024 and beyond.

SHOULD YOU ABANDON MEDIUM FOR A BLOG IN 2024?

By now it's pretty clear that for serious, professional writers looking to maximize their reach, income, and ownership, having your own blog or website is the far smarter move compared to solely depending on Medium long-term.

However, abandoning Medium completely may not be necessary or wise either. Here are a few strategies to consider combining the platforms:

• Cross-post your most important long-form pieces to Medium for the potential extra exposure, but feature your blog as the primary hosting location.

• Use Medium as another publication you can pitch sponsored content pieces and one-off articles to under their partner programs for supplemental income.

• Guest post on other authority blogs and publications in your niche to build relationships and drive new readers back to your content hub on your own site.

• Repurpose your best blog content into eye-catching newsletters and social updates to push subscribers to your blog and bring extra eyes to your articles over time.

• Potentially still have a Medium account simply to stay in the conversation, but commit 90%+ of your publishing efforts to crafting an attractive, highly-optimized blog with your own unique voice as your main content destination.

So in summary - own the relationship with your readers, control your content and monetization fully by starting a blog, while still supplementally using Medium's platform and partnerships to your advantage without relying on it as your primary content home. A balanced, multi-pronged approach will serve you best in 2024 and beyond.

THE BOTTOM LINE ON MEDIUM VS BLOGS

There's no disputing Medium's reach still outperforms individual blogs for new writers just getting started in 2023. But blogs are quickly catching up if optimized properly for search and social signals over time.

More importantly, blogs provide far better long-term potential for monetization, ownership of your work, building a sustainable independent writing business, and full creative control without platform constraints down the road.

So while you may dabble with Medium still, especially if you can qualify for partner program opportunities, your focus for 2024 should be investing serious time and effort into crafting the perfect blog centered around your personal writing brand, voice, and chosen niche topic.

Start to finish, blogs just make the most strategic sense if you want to succeed professionally as a writer in this evolving digital landscape over the next few years and onward. Medium’s best days may sadly be behind it.

So gear up to launch or improve your blog now - the time is right to shift your publishing strategy and see real results from having your content fully housed on your personally-owned website domain. Let me know if you have any other blog-related questions!