The #1 Reason You Won’t Like Writing on Medium + Why It’s Better to Have Your Own Blog

Writing on Medium has made me grateful that I have my own blog.

I’ll give a brief overview of the popular website before I get into the reason why you may not like writing on Medium over writing on your own blog.

Medium is an online publishing platform where anyone – regardless of your writing experience and whether you’re a paying member or not – can write and publish articles. You can also read articles on an array of topics, but if you’re not a paying member, you’re limited to reading three articles per month. 

The website has been around since 2012 and has a large following. Per Wikipedia, the blogging platform attracts “60 million unique monthly readers.” So, if you don’t have your own blog and would like to start blogging, writing on Medium is a good option since the platform already has a loyal community of writers and readers. There are no ads on the website and they provide an attractive minimalistic interface that makes blogging on their platform a pleasant experience. 

Plus, if you join the Medium Partner Program once you’ve met their eligibility requirements (must have a minimum of 100 followers and published at least one article), you can potentially earn some coffee money off of your writing. Some writers earn thousands from writing on Medium, but they are the exceptions to the status quo. 

I haven’t been writing on Medium for very long (under a month), and while I don’t regret becoming a paying member, joining their partner program, and publishing my stories there, I’m glad that I still have my own blog.

Why?

The #1 Reason You May Not Like Writing on Medium

In a word: Rules.

If you don’t like following someone else’s rules when it comes to your creativity, you probably won’t like writing on Medium. They have lots of rules – or guidelines – that you’re required to adhere to as a writer on the platform. 

This is understandable. Medium is a business, after all. As a business, they have a certain vision for their brand, so of course, they will expect users of their service to meet certain standards. They have a reputation for being a well-trusted brand – a brand that prioritizes producing and disseminating “quality content” to their community of writers and readers. Plus, Medium has strong domain authority. Try Googling a topic and you’ll often find a Medium article on the first page of your search results.

So, if you don’t like rules being imposed on you and don’t want to think about whether you’re doing things “properly”, then having your own blog is a better alternative for you to express your creativity.

Why It’s Better to Have Your Own Blog

You can write about anything you want

With your own blog, you’re not limited on the topics you can write about. To be fair, there are a variety of topics you can write about on Medium; however, there are some topics and perspectives that are a no-no. For example, explicit adult content is not allowed on Medium, which I totally get. But what if you want to write a NSFW story? Well, you can get as racy as you want if you have your own blog.

You can use any images you want (copyright-free images, of course)

As long as you give credit to the source of the non-copyrighted images in your blog posts, you can use any image of your choosing. On Medium, there are certain images that are prohibited. You can probably guess what kinds of imagery wouldn’t be acceptable. 

You can format your blog posts as you desire

On Medium, there are formatting guidelines they want writers to follow to achieve a certain look and to maintain their brand aesthetic. There’s a certain way they want writers to format article titles, subtitles, headers, and subheaders. And they recommend you provide white space in your articles. I understand that spacing out your paragraphs gives the reader a break and that some people find seeing a “wall of words” a turn-off. 

But what if writing in essay format is how you wish to express yourself? What if that is your aesthetic and preference? What if you feel like using only lowercase letters in your title? Didn’t e.e. cummings do that? 

With your own blog, you won’t feel so constricted by following other people’s formatting preferences. You get to create how your blog posts look and are presented, no one else. 

Closing Thoughts

As I said earlier, I don’t regret joining Medium as a member. Their blogging interface truly is visually attractive and makes writing a pleasant experience. I think it’s great that there is a platform that welcomes writers of all levels to write and share their stories to an established community that enjoys writing and reading.

I will continue to post stories on Medium, but Ripped Jeans Journey is mine, it’s my space. It feels good to know that I own a small piece of property on the world wide web.

Funny how it took my writing on a different platform to make me appreciate having my own blog. I love that I get to create and express myself however I choose. I don’t have to check submission guidelines and feel stifled by other people’s rules and preferences.

Why put a cap on creativity?

If you want complete creative freedom, having your own blog is the way to go.