Jenny at the top of the medium article include a link that says read for free on Substack and link to the Substack article. I am seeing traction from this on my stories.
This is Gold. I am glad you decided to create your own pub on medium. I was going to suggest it. You will be able to feature one story per week which will be perfect for this series.
Very helpful! Now I’m thinking of cross-posting my own stuff and checking out Hacker News, since my current tool may be more useful for technical users vs a general audience.
You appeared on my feed like a Light in a dark forest! This initiative is absolutely brilliant and amazing. I started my newsletter just 2 days ago. I would definetly like to bea featured on Build To Launch Friday. DM, yes ?
Hey Jenny, I joined your Reddit! I tried Medium, but I got zero traction there (not low - zero 😂). With Reddit, I have mixed results - some threads bring me new members, one went viral, and one banned me for posting a link 😂
Awww Karo, it's such an honor to have you there on Reddit :D
And yes it's pretty unpredictable on Reddit, I got told off many many times 😂
Medium really is a hit or miss, I got zero traction there when I started, then learnt to submit to publications for some initial traction. But have to admit that growth on Medium is a lot harder than on Substack!
I’m not entirely sure, since I’ve always been on a paid subscription. Even with minimal publishing, the Partner Program has consistently paid back more than enough to cover the cost.
That said, I assume it’s still fine if you don’t go paid, cause Medium needs content either way.
Yup, you can just republish what you have in Substack, but if you want to emphasize on your own substack, then it’s best to edit the canonical url to have it point to Substack. That way, search engines know which one should be used by default.
If it’s still unclear, maybe we can chat about that in the next build to launch office hour :)
I thoroughly enjoyed this analysis, Jenny! I've wondered if I should pop my head outside of Substack and also look at Medium but what I've read on Reddit about it didn't sound great to me so I decided no (apparently lots of AI generated comments?!) but I think it might depend on your target audience too. Super curious to follow how this pans out for you!
I totally understand your mixed feelings about Medium. If I had started on Substack first, I probably would’ve felt discouraged by the slower growth on Medium and might have given up. And yes, I’ve been getting a lot of AI-generated comments there as well.
I’ve now learned this lesson three times, from you, @Anfernee, and @Kim Doyal: where we show up really depends on where our audience is.
... kind of blew me away. I'm definitely going back to Medium. I'll probably repurpose most of what I write here on Medium with some original content. We'll see how the repurposed stuff on Medium does (assume this way I don't need to worry about the canoncial URL, we shall see).
(Followed by FB, THEN Substack, then IG. I know the Meta platforms are probably just because I've been there so long, lol).
I'm also sharing on the Meta platforms simply because I'm going to get back into paid ads early next year.
I don't have the bandwidth for Reddit, lol, so I'll focus on what I'm doing and just see if I can do it better and more of it (it's all about the right workflow).
I’ve been at this a long time, which is probably where a lot of that stems from (deleted Twitter with 19k followers this year, which I also attribute to length of time on the platform since Twitter was never really my thing).
After you posted about Medium I used Gemini to create the best workflow for me with: my site, Substack & Medium. We had a long chat about SEO, canonical URLs, etc.
I LOVE your procedure, talking to Gemini to really figure out what’s your focus and then create the best workflow dedicated for you.
But what? Deleting the Twitter with 19k followers? I’ve never heard of anyone bold enough to let go something that big. You are really committed to change!
This is a very interesting discussion, Jenny! When it comes to SEO, in my experience the problem is this: What gets views on Substack isn't what does well in Google search results.
For instance, I have written about conversion rates many times, none of them got me any search traffic. Then I wrote a post about Spotify's conversion rate, and it went crazy. I've written about open rates repeatedly, none of those got me any search traffic. Last week I wrote about Morning Brew's open rate, I am already getting search traffic from that post.
Writing about companies and media such as music artists or movies seems to get me search traffic, but of course you can't always write about such topics. It's a bit of a struggle to find overlap between what resonates in search results while also being valuable to the readers here on Substack.
I got a live app.
Awesome! I’d love to know more. Do you have a builder’s page on vibecoding.builders?
I created one, yeah.
Great! I will send you questions next week :)
Jenny at the top of the medium article include a link that says read for free on Substack and link to the Substack article. I am seeing traction from this on my stories.
Wow, great tip! I’m doing this now for every Substack article that’s published on Medium.
Perfect!
This is Gold. I am glad you decided to create your own pub on medium. I was going to suggest it. You will be able to feature one story per week which will be perfect for this series.
Thanks for this wonderful analysis.
Thanks CLAG!!!
It’s huge validation to hear your thoughts about it! I will follow your suggestion and keep track of how things develop.
I hope it goes well!
Thank you!
Very helpful! Now I’m thinking of cross-posting my own stuff and checking out Hacker News, since my current tool may be more useful for technical users vs a general audience.
I know right? Feel that here is a place for us to know about people and use like a home base, and other platforms are for exploration and growth :)
Hello Jenny,
You appeared on my feed like a Light in a dark forest! This initiative is absolutely brilliant and amazing. I started my newsletter just 2 days ago. I would definetly like to bea featured on Build To Launch Friday. DM, yes ?
Hey Gamal, so glad to connect! Would love to hear more, feel free to DM me anytime :)
Awesome
Hey Jenny, I joined your Reddit! I tried Medium, but I got zero traction there (not low - zero 😂). With Reddit, I have mixed results - some threads bring me new members, one went viral, and one banned me for posting a link 😂
Awww Karo, it's such an honor to have you there on Reddit :D
And yes it's pretty unpredictable on Reddit, I got told off many many times 😂
Medium really is a hit or miss, I got zero traction there when I started, then learnt to submit to publications for some initial traction. But have to admit that growth on Medium is a lot harder than on Substack!
I think I’ll open a
medium publication.
Is it needed to pay the subscription to get the SEO benefits?
I’m not entirely sure, since I’ve always been on a paid subscription. Even with minimal publishing, the Partner Program has consistently paid back more than enough to cover the cost.
That said, I assume it’s still fine if you don’t go paid, cause Medium needs content either way.
In your experience is okay just to republish what I have in Substack? Or do you believe some transformation needs to happen?
Yup, you can just republish what you have in Substack, but if you want to emphasize on your own substack, then it’s best to edit the canonical url to have it point to Substack. That way, search engines know which one should be used by default.
If it’s still unclear, maybe we can chat about that in the next build to launch office hour :)
I thoroughly enjoyed this analysis, Jenny! I've wondered if I should pop my head outside of Substack and also look at Medium but what I've read on Reddit about it didn't sound great to me so I decided no (apparently lots of AI generated comments?!) but I think it might depend on your target audience too. Super curious to follow how this pans out for you!
Thank you so much, Dallas!
I totally understand your mixed feelings about Medium. If I had started on Substack first, I probably would’ve felt discouraged by the slower growth on Medium and might have given up. And yes, I’ve been getting a lot of AI-generated comments there as well.
I’ve now learned this lesson three times, from you, @Anfernee, and @Kim Doyal: where we show up really depends on where our audience is.
I’ll definitely report back on how things go!
Such a great reminder, Jenny.
I hadn't Googled myself in a while, so to see:
1. My site
2. YouTube
3. LinkedIn
4. Medium
... kind of blew me away. I'm definitely going back to Medium. I'll probably repurpose most of what I write here on Medium with some original content. We'll see how the repurposed stuff on Medium does (assume this way I don't need to worry about the canoncial URL, we shall see).
(Followed by FB, THEN Substack, then IG. I know the Meta platforms are probably just because I've been there so long, lol).
I'm also sharing on the Meta platforms simply because I'm going to get back into paid ads early next year.
I don't have the bandwidth for Reddit, lol, so I'll focus on what I'm doing and just see if I can do it better and more of it (it's all about the right workflow).
Wow, reading this made me immediately want to Google you!
Kim, you’re on fire! 🔥
I really think what platform works best is totally case-by-case. It depends so much on the person and the audience.
I’m also not exactly sure what I’m betting against, but doing something always feels better than standing still. We’ll see how it all plays out 🙂
Haha, thanks, Jenny,
I’ve been at this a long time, which is probably where a lot of that stems from (deleted Twitter with 19k followers this year, which I also attribute to length of time on the platform since Twitter was never really my thing).
After you posted about Medium I used Gemini to create the best workflow for me with: my site, Substack & Medium. We had a long chat about SEO, canonical URLs, etc.
It’s nice to feel clear about the process.
I LOVE your procedure, talking to Gemini to really figure out what’s your focus and then create the best workflow dedicated for you.
But what? Deleting the Twitter with 19k followers? I’ve never heard of anyone bold enough to let go something that big. You are really committed to change!
Thanks, Jenny,
Well, deleting Twitter was because of who owns it. 😉
Lol, such a good reason!
Amazing and so thoughtful. Thanks Jenny for this breakdown. I had no idea re: medium and reddit’a domain authority.
Thank you so much Jing! Me neither before this post :)
Now I know I’d definitely distribute content multiple channels.
So much useful info.
I need to read this a few times more :)
Thank you Jose!
There’s a lot of decisions to make :)
For the outreach, my stand is, and will always be the same.
Go where all your target audience are at.
Thanks for the mention Jenny
Your stand is gold! I’m probably going to keep iterating on that :)
🙏🏻🙏🏻
Impressive how you’re amplifying builders’ work across platforms. This is exactly the kind of visibility that turns effort into real impact.
This is a very interesting discussion, Jenny! When it comes to SEO, in my experience the problem is this: What gets views on Substack isn't what does well in Google search results.
For instance, I have written about conversion rates many times, none of them got me any search traffic. Then I wrote a post about Spotify's conversion rate, and it went crazy. I've written about open rates repeatedly, none of those got me any search traffic. Last week I wrote about Morning Brew's open rate, I am already getting search traffic from that post.
Writing about companies and media such as music artists or movies seems to get me search traffic, but of course you can't always write about such topics. It's a bit of a struggle to find overlap between what resonates in search results while also being valuable to the readers here on Substack.
Yes i guess this could help me lets connect