1 MAJOR weakness Medium has versus Substack in 2025
This week, one of the most prominent voices over at Medium published a very lengthy article arguing that her preferred platform was actually way better than Substack for most writers.
Zulie Rane used to be the big-name writer over there prior to joining the company as an employee, and she now frequently posts info and how-tos for writers there.
In her latest, she ticked off 10 ways Medium is superior to the site you’re currently on and the very best place for writers in 2025.
You can read the whole post here, but the Coles Notes version is summed up in this graphic that accompanied her story:
This generated some negative comments from erstwhile Medium writing stars who’ve seen their earnings drop significantly over the past year.
As one of Medium’s most successful and highly paid writers, you can probably guess which side of the fence I land on.
I still believe Medium is the best starter platform for a budding content creator because:
It has a low bar for entry - you just need a Chromebook and a Medium Partner Program account to get started
As Zulie mentioned, Medium has a massive, built-in audience that can theoretically be directed to your work
You can start getting paid right away
The latter point is perhaps the most crucial.
Whereas it could take years to build a significant audience on Substack and just as long to get monetized on YouTube (it took me 11 months), you can start earning on Medium on Day 1.
This is really important because it has the potential to motivate you to keep working during the early-stage grind of building a business.
Now, having said all that, there is one major, major problem with Medium (it could actually be a deal-breaker for some people), and it’s one you should carefully consider before going all-in on the platform.
The 1 MAJOR problem with Medium
Have you ever heard the term “markets hate uncertainty”?
Well, the reason markets hate uncertainty is that people hate uncertainty.
One of the major benefits of Substack is this: You know how many subscribers you have, you know how much you charge for a subscription, and you know what Substack takes as a cut.
Ergo, you know your income will be smooth and steady as long as you stay consistent.
Contrast that with Medium, which has now developed something of a reputation for sudden, catastrophic pay cuts for writers.
Although Medium always says it hasn’t changed the proportion of money it pays out to writers each time this happens, they are constantly tinkering with their pay algo - and that can have devastating consequences.
The first time it happened since I’ve been there was when they flipped over to the new Medium Partner Program in August of 2023.
The site suddenly decided to start paying mostly for the number of comments a story would generate - as opposed to more fair measures like read time and retention - and this devastated many of the site’s top writers (I saw a 70% pay cut overnight, for example).
The second time it happened was this past December/January, when I saw my RPM (revenue per 1,000 views), fall from over $30 down to $15, and, on one crushing day in particular, $8.
I explained all of that in this video in the winter:
I almost quit Medium that day.
Fortunately, the powers that be realized the main problems in each case and slowly but surely rectified them.
Why am I writing this now?
Well, earlier this week, I got an email saying Medium was making a massive upgrade to the publications you can create on the site.
And while I do think some of the new features are great (being able to create topic pages and links offsite on your navigation bar) and some are clearly aimed at Substack users (publication-specific newsletters), I shudder every time I get an email from Medium saying they’re making some great, big new changes.
That’s because emails like that preceded the first, second, and now third big earnings rug pull there in the past 3 years.
I’m hopeful that the latest one is just a glitch, but I’ll give you an example of what I’ve seen over the past few days.
Similarly to the January earnings fiasco, the change only seems to affect newly published stories.
Back then, it was that new stories were not being distributed at all.
Now, newly published stories are still being distributed but paid at a much lower rate than older ones.
I write stories in the 1,300-1,500 word range, and I have outstanding reader retention - we’re talking 85%+ usually.
As such, my RPM has been quite high over the past few months (about $70) after Medium kicked out a bunch of AI scammers and started paying way less for get-rich-quick content.
Here’s what I’ve been used to earning over the past four months or so for a 2,000-view story…
And here’s what my new stories have been earned last week…
Identical numbers, and another 70% drop.
Eep!
The good news is that my most recent story seems to be earning at the normal level and the rest are starting to catch up again, so this may in fact just be a temporary hurdle.
But it does serve as a warning: your pay can change drastically on Medium - up or down - overnight.
So while I do still love Medium and think it remains the best choice for online writers, I think it’s important to be up front about its biggest flaw when suggesting people try it out.
Why I’m sticking with Medium
So Substack’s main advantage over Medium (imo) is earnings stability.
But in 2025, it’s still not enough to get me to switch over.
Even when Medium made those huge pay cuts and tweaked its pay and distribution algo again and again to shed the scammers (and, at times, caught legit writers in the widely-cast net), I figured the pendulum would swing back at some point.
And I’ve been proven right.
If there’s one constant with Medium, it’s change.
Back when I started out in 2022, the name of the game was (as the CEO put in a post this week) make-money-online “broetry”).
Nowadays, that’s a complete dead end.
I started out writing almost solely about my mission to quit alcohol.
Then I started getting a lot of traction on general health stuff.
Then I had to move to business/economy stuff when health started dying off.
What will I be writing about next week?
Tech? Reviews? Relationships?
Who knows!
Part of the fun of it for me is figuring out how audience and platform preferences change … and getting to try (and get better at) writing about a bunch of different things.
As they say in the start-up world, if you aren’t growing, you’re dying.
The thing about Medium is: You need to be not only consistent, but you need to be extremely nimble and versatile … what works today may not work tomorrow (literally).
If you’re willing to stick it out and continue trying new things as you build a significant audience over time (I now have 35,000 followers), you have the potential to make thousands of dollars per month.
If not, you’ll join the legions of people who’ve left for Substack, only to find it’s not as easy as all the “Make Money on Substack” junk you have to wade through here makes it sound.
Just don’t be sad if the grass isn’t greener on the other side.
(Editor’s note: I’ve decided to start doing regular updates to my Publish Every Day project again. You can see the latest one below this YouTube video, which has some more things you should know before you write on Medium in 2025).
Publish Every Day project update: Day 635
I’m trying to see if I can make enough money to quit commuter life within a year by publishing every day on various platforms and putting my earnings into passive income investments.
How much I need to retire: $250 CAD per day
What I earned on Day 119: $134.63 (writing) + $0.05 (YouTube) = $134.68 total
What I’ve published in the last few days:
This post about the most pesticide-drenched foods in America
Another one looking at 1 shocking price target JP Morgan just slapped on Tesla stock
A look at the 2 worst ways alcohol makes you deeply unattractive to women
My top trending content right now:
Absolutely do not move to America’s 1 new foreclosure capital
Iconic travel brand founder: 4 countries I’ll NEVER visit again
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