Where To Blog? Medium, Substack, WordPress, Ghost, or Roll your own?

Writing online is a privilege. I started writing online years ago and now I am happy that I started creating content. Creating content is now my full-time job. As digital publishing is changing, more and more writing platforms are emerging and new ways to monetize your content are also on the rise like membership business. Some notable writing platforms among them is Medium, Substack, WordPress, and Ghost blogging platform.

If you are serious about starting a writing online business then there are many writing platforms that you should consider publishing content on. If you are just publishing content on a single platform then you are missing opportunities to reach your potential readers or fans who could be your followers or invest money into buying your stuff. As of writing this article I am writing on all these platforms so let me compared all these writing platforms and give you an insightful answer.

Writing on Medium compared to Substack, WordPress, Ghost:

Medium.com is one of the best sites for writing online. It is free and if you join the Medium partner program, you can make a lot of money through getting reads from Medium members. If you want to be a Medium-member you have to pay $5/month which will help you to read unlimited articles on Medium for a month. Some portion of this earning goes to Medium writers you read the content. You can read the article about; Is Medium membership worth it?

Following are some of the features of Medium that make it a different website from Substack, WordPress, or Ghost Blogging platform:

1. It has built-in traffic. On Substack, WordPress, or Ghost, neither of them has this benefit. Writers and readers like me return to the site every day to read articles on Medium. This is why writing on Medium is way better than any other writing platform.
2. Medium has a high domain-authority which makes it one of the best writing platforms for writing articles that ranked on Google and other search engines. Some of my articles are doing best on Google search because of the high domain authority of Medium.
3. Medium.com is more of a liberal platform. They allow you to add affiliate links and add a paywall through the Medium metered system. They also allow you to write about almost any topic. Medium also allows sponsored posts and you can make a lot of money writing on Medium.

Writing on Substack compared to Medium, WordPress, and Ghost blogging platform:

Writing on Substack has some unique benefits; Substack gives you the opportunity to monetize your email list by introducing a paywall into your articles and letting getting access to read those articles to only those who pay you a fixed monthly fee. Substack whole business model revolves around paying subscribers. For every transaction that happened between you and the reader, Substack takes 10% of the total transaction.

Substack give you the infrastructure to capture email leads. When you have enough readership, you introduce a paywall to some of your future articles that help you generate an MRR. Substack is one of the best writing platforms out there. One disadvantage of writing on Substack is that you wouldn't have more opportunities to monetize your traffic other then getting paid readers and affiliate marketing.

If you compare Substack With Medium, your Substack writing will be more profitable in the long-term compared to Medium but Medium is also a good writing platform. If you are writing on Medium or Substack, you should write on both as they could be helpful to grow your other writing platform. I am a consistent Medium writer and have over 110 subscribers on Substack. So, that's the power of writing on Medium as well as using Substack email list to send my stories to my Medium readers who choose to subscribe to my newsletter.

You can also read:

Medium Vs Substack: Which writing platform is best to make money?

WordPress and Ghost Vs Medium and Subtsack:

Both, WordPress and Ghost are powerful content management systems as well as in some cases provide hosting too. If you want to build an independent blog on the Internet, you can choose between WordPress and Ghost. When you bought a custom domain and hosting, the hosting company gives you the option to Install WordPress into the server.

While Ghost is a powerful Substack alternative but costs you money.

You can check out this Tweet that explains everything in a few lines.

I hope this helps.