My Domain Hosted on Medium Performed 200X Better Compared to WordPress

MEDIUM VS WORDPRESS

This is what I learned…

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I first created my blog using mazlanabbas.com to capture my journey as a Startup founder, Thought Leader, and Social Media Influencer.

Little did I realize how hard it was to make this website known to others. I found it very difficult to get traffic to my blog.

I struggled for nearly two years until I decided to do something drastic.

When I moved my domain from WordPress to Medium, I wanted to reduce the time and effort I spent managing multiple blogs. I have been active on Medium, and the topics I posted there are almost the same as those on my old blog on WordPress.

It was a bold move, but since hosting a domain on Medium is considered “free” because I already subscribe to the Medium Partner Program, I don’t have to pay for a separate host subscription.

Let me share why it’s good to host on WordPress:

There are many themes, plugins, and widgets that you can customize.
There are great tools to manage and view our traffic stats.
We can customize our website to our liking.
We can generate income via Google Ads (only if you have tons of traffic)

And let me share why Medium is a great host for personal domains:

If we are writers, it’s easy for us to write our stories. The UI/UX is meant for writers.
The community of writers is very supportive and engaging.
The possibility of earning with every article that we published.

But why do I say Medium is 200X better than WordPress?

I earned zero cents from all the articles I published, but I earned more than $200 for the last six months on Medium. That’s compared to the last two years hosted on WordPress, which didn’t earn me anything.

On WordPress, I only managed to get less than 200 followers, compared to 1.93K followers on Medium. WordPress has a community on the Jetpack mobile app, but the people are diverse and have different interests.

In Medium, we engaged much more in conversations and support with claps, highlights, and comments.

From my experience transitioning my domain hosting from WordPress to Medium, I’ve learned several key lessons and insights:

Platform Ease-of-Use Matters: Medium’s user-friendly UI/UX, explicitly designed for writers, made creating and publishing content simpler for me. This starkly contrasts WordPress, which, although flexible, requires more time and effort to manage.
Community Engagement is Crucial: Medium’s built-in community of writers and readers fostered more interaction through features like claps, highlights, and comments. This level of engagement significantly increased my visibility and follower count compared to platforms where the community is less integrated.
Cost-Effectiveness: Hosting my domain on Medium was more cost-effective, especially since I was already subscribed to the Medium Partner Program. Conversely, maintaining a site on WordPress would have incurred additional costs for hosting, themes, and plugins.
Monetization Opportunities: I found Medium’s monetization opportunities far more favorable. While I didn’t earn anything from my articles on WordPress, I managed to earn a significant amount on Medium, demonstrating its potential for revenue generation for dedicated content creators.
Platform-Specific Audience: Medium’s audience is more aligned with content creators, particularly writers and thought leaders, resulting in a more engaged and supportive follower base. WordPress caters to a more diverse audience, which might resonate less strongly with specific content types.
Focus on Core Competencies: By shifting to Medium, I could concentrate more on my writing and thought leader strengths instead of getting bogged down with website management and technical issues on WordPress.
Strategic Platform Choice: Medium and WordPress depended heavily on my goals and preferences. Medium’s alignment with my content creation style and objectives made it the better choice, highlighting the importance of selecting a platform that supports one’s goals and workflow.