Moving My Primary Blogging Platform from Medium to Substack: Part 1 — Why I’m Writing Less on Medium?
I’ll be publishing new articles on Medium less frequently, with more content appearing on Substack instead. Rest assured, nearly all my Medium articles are already on my Substack.
Part 2: Why Substack?
I started blogging on Medium in January 2021 and loved the experience. However, since the changes introduced by the New Partner Program in August 2023, I’ve found it increasingly unfriendly to tech authors.
Table of Contents
· What is Wrong with the new Medium?
∘ 1. Restricted public access to behind-paywall articles
∘ 2. No more referral bonus for Authors
∘ 3. Unfair and confusing “member reads” calculation change
∘ 4 Plagiarism
∘ 5. I noticed more and more incorrect and poor quality articles in Medium feed or recommendation.
∘ 6. I believe that highly technical articles are being valued less on the Medium Platform.
· Why? AI-Writing.
· I Will Continue to Publish Articles on Medium, but less frequently
What is Wrong with the new Medium?
1. Restricted public access to behind-paywall articles
There used to be a loophole (accessing content via Incognito mode). It may not seem like something a technical blogger would normally advocate, but I actually thought it was clever (by Medium). Over time, I realized that people who aren’t willing to pay for quality services won’t do so, regardless. However, this loophole could still help attract engaged, quality readers.
Since August 2023, the curators of software testing newsletters ceased featuring my articles, due to the closing of this loophole.
As one curator told me, “It is a pity that behind-paywall articles are generally much higher quality articles …”
2. No more referral bonus for Authors
I’m not sure why Medium made this decision, as it’s a common practice. For a software platform, adding an extra paying user comes at no/minimal cost.
If Medium’s executives want to adjust distribution to support new marketing strategies, like the Medium Friend program, reducing the referral bonus from 50% to 25% would be reasonable. But completely eliminating the existing referral bonus, IMO, is not a wise move.
I believe many Medium bloggers, like myself, have removed the banner from their articles that encouraged readers to sign up as members.
3. Unfair and confusing “member reads” calculation change
The previous algorithm was straightforward and fair, based on reading time. Now, I’m not sure how it works. I’ve heard people say things like:
- Avoid adding links in your articles, because if a reader clicks on one within 30 seconds, it doesn’t count as a read.
- Break long articles into shorter ones.
- The weight of old articles is greatly reduced.
- …
I don’t want to change the way I write or publish my articles, as I believe it’s the best approach for my readers. As a result, my earnings from Medium have significantly dropped.
As you can see, this month (October 2024), my earnings are likely to be under $100 (for the first time since 2022), with only six days remaining.
Please note that, since then, I have published 150+ new high-quality articles, including four Medium-boosted ones. Those hard numbers proved that the diminishing value (in terms of financial reward for authors) of
- Old high-quality articles.
(I had 154 featured in software testing newsletters before 2023–08) . - New technical (at least for E2E test automation) articles for my style.
For people who think “Zhimin, your old articles might be out-dated”, NO, most of them are not. Why? There has been really little change to the two core topics of my articles: E2E Test Automation and Continuous Testing. My first book, “Practical Web Test Automation”, published in 2009, is still relevant, aside from a change in the framework from Watir to Selenium WebDriver.
4 Plagiarism
As a reputable author with over 500 high-quality articles, it’s no surprise to see my work being plagiarized. Here, I share two interesting examples.
One software testing newsletter curator informed me of this.
This person not only plagiarized my article on the same platform but also chose a title that includes the word ‘fake’?!
Also, from a recent LinkedIn feed (2024–09), I noticed one popular post used my heading image, without permission.
When I showed it to my daughter, who did the actual drawing based on my instructions, she was quite surprised. She asked, “Why didn’t he just give credit?” I replied, ‘If he had, there would be no need for his post, as it is the header image of my article, ‘regression testing clarified’.’’
5. I noticed more and more incorrect and poor quality articles in Medium feed or recommendation.
A few weeks ago, one of my mentees forwarded an article that began by reflecting my views on E2E test automation. However, the latter part promoted a commercial testing tool that completely contradicted those principles.
I’m sure you’ve also encountered this type of content, including useless AI-generated articles, on Medium. This trend could hurt Medium as a platform, leading to decreased readership.
The reading statistics for my Medium articles serve as evidence of this trend. Despite publishing over 150 new articles since last year (with a few receiving boosts), I’ve seen a significant drop in reading count. It’s important to note that most of my past technical articles are still relevant.
6. I believe that highly technical articles are being valued less on the Medium Platform.
Items 1–4 are facts. This one is my opinion, and I can support it with one example. My most popular article, titled “What Happened to ThoughtWorks?”, published on 2024–05–06, generated around $600 in revenue for me.
This article was a history lesson I shared with my daughter, and I didn’t expect it to gain such popularity. While I’m happy about this, I also feel a bit sad because I’ve written dozens of higher-quality, technically-focused articles that haven’t come close to this level of success.
It leads me to think that Medium might no longer be an excellent platform for technical articles.
Why? AI-Writing.
I believe that AI writing is a significant factor in the decline of Medium, at least for tech bloggers. Given the nature of Medium, readers aren’t directly connected to the writers, unlike on Substack. There are cunning individuals — I’ve heard of more than a few — who use AI tools (like ChatGPT) to generate content similar to the example below.
Given the abundance of AI-generated articles, often featuring clickbait titles competing for the attention of Medium members, the current outcome is hardly surprising.
Creating genuine and insightful articles is no easy task. I’ve been waking up at 5 AM every morning to write, for nearly four years, sharing my practices and experiences. Now witnessing such a significant decline in readership — despite having over 5,000 subscribers — is disheartening.
As a result, I’ve decided to make a change unless the situation on Medium improves.
I Will Continue to Publish Articles on Medium, but less frequently
As of today, I have 5,656 followers and 185 email subscribers on Medium. Only a small percentage of them are likely to subscribe to my Substack newsletter. For those Medium members who don’t follow me on Substack, I plan to continue publishing articles on Medium, but less frequently — perhaps once a week — and focusing on less technical topics.
I invite you to subscribe to my Substack newsletter, starting with the free plan.
More details (including FAQ) will be provided in Part 2: Why Substack?
