Why I am pivoting away from Medium and Substack

Medium is in decline (I think)
I started writing on Medium in October 2021. From zero followers to five and a half thousand in three years. I wrote close to a thousand stories. From a few hundred bucks already in the first month of writing to... almost nothing. Yes, I made more money in my first month of writing on Medium when I started with zero followers than I will this month, with thousands.

I never chased earnings on Medium, but there is no doubt that Medium has mistreated its writers. I have no motivation to create on a platform that constantly moves the goalpost while gaslighting and virtue signaling.

I’ll go as far as to say that if you’re just starting out as a writer, don’t bother with Medium. Even for audience building, it’s no longer an appealing platform.

Substack
I've enjoyed Substack. My publication is niche (dedicated to running), and my followers count in hundreds, not thousands, but the experience has felt cozy and intimate.

In the end, however, it's just another big platform that I have no control over. On the one hand, it's good that there are many writers on Substack — I'm more likely to get discovered. On the other hand, it's like I'm just another product in a grocery store, one of thousands. They say you should post more notes on Substack. Notes are short posts. Well, I don't want to post notes. I am not a fan of scrolling through Substack's feed either. Enough of that on other social media.

I'm not a control freak, and even in my new endeavor, I'm dependent on someone else's tech infrastructure. But I want to be more independent than before, especially considering the ease of building things these days.

So I'm resetting. I hope to build something that feels permanent and, with time, versatile.