Why I Like The Substack Algorithm Over Medium in Different Ways
Two different platforms, but the goal is the same: to reach more of the right audience
So, how does each of them run, and why is your work not being seen?
Nobody knows, but you can always use your stats to adjust for better performance.
Recently, I’ve been writing about my stock trading experience, and I thought it would get the usual 20–30 reads-per-article performance, but one of them kinda gave me a little more hope of writing more of them.
Writing about writing, I can do that any day, but I’d also need my writing to be able to write anything else that I do.
Since writing for me is mainly to express my thoughts, and the other stuff, like growth and earnings, can come later or elsewhere.
Of course, we all believe that if our words bring value, then the byproduct of progress we’re aiming for will eventually come.
The Medium Algorithm
This is one of the hardest things to figure out, even when you have your monthly and individual article’s stats page in front of you.
It doesn’t tell you too much about why, but it does tell you right away if readers are liking it with claps and comments.
Even then, it’s still unclear for most people what is going to work for them more than once.
Yes, some writers are blessed by the Medium algorithm, yet most of us are not. That’s just how it works around here.
This article actually got a bit more Presentations than a normal one.
Something was different about this one is it is still moving after days it had published. It always feels fresh when that happens.
It rarely happens.
The earnings weren’t that great, but there’s something else that I discovered.
Made $0.48 in total, but that’s not the point; it was where people can actually see my article through the algorithm, and its distribution again.
Having a consistent non-member reading your work feels like the article is at least being spread out on the platform.
Is generally distribution finally stepping to my doorstep?
It would be interesting to see as I write more of them and share my take on the overall idea of something that I was once interested in, but didn’t have the time to pair with actual experience, and definitely never thought of writing about it.
This is where my writing daily comes into play in helping me deliver stories without me even trying to think about what to write about.
I like how both Medium and Substack are very different.
The Substack Algorithm
It has something called notes (tweets) and posts (articles), they distribute also very differently from each other.
Some random notes can get a decent amount of traffic and engaegmnts and some do not do much at all.
Take this one:
I’ve been scrolling a bit on X/Twitter, and I found that some or a lot of accounts are just pumping out content without even reading what they post.
Anyways, it was a good laugh for many who saw this note.
One thing about my subscribers on Substak is that they’re not into stock trading or any related topic, I assume, and the algorithm does not really help me discover new readers on those topics because it has to match back to the main audience of your most relevant account’s performance.
Yes, I didn’t need to give it a few more tries, but I know the one that always does better is the article about Substack itself.
While the article about Medium still does very well, even when I’m not trying that hard.
But I’d like to deliver something that is worth reading, instead of taking up your time just to read what I wrote.
The engagement difference between articles about Substack is just off the charts when you put them together with the articles’ stats in the screenshot above and the one below.
These two articles actually took a lot less time to write, and one of them I actually never published on Medium.
Reader over on Substack right now, just want to see more of that content from me, which is why my February focus will really shift to this area.
My January Medium article focus will be less, and you’ll see me write more about Substack, which I may not feel the need to publish here, but I’ll try to repost here since I have a publication just for Substack-related content.
One thing I like most about Substack is the 2-in-1 of notes working with an article that gives the reader the maximum experience of a person’s thoughts or how they share their ideas.
However, different people use each feature differently, on both platforms, so it’s really about how you want to explore and use your time around them.
I’m still on both for now, a lot of time will be moved to Substack, and stock trading still.
I do prefer Substack a little more unless the Medium algorithm can show me that my article can still travel.
Thanks for Reading
This story was originally published on [Medium] and is cross-posted here for a wider audience.
I've only recently created an account on Medium and it seems like a lot of trouble to double post everything, plus migrate all Substack posts in there. Medium will only let you publish 2x a day so there's a lot of time for me to migrate 90 posts. Plus their partner program is closed so you're just there for fun.
Thanks for reminding me to check on my Etoro account ahaha.
I think posts are quite predictable on Substack and depending on the length and quality, plus your obvious following size, you can estimate the amount of views on one. What's more variable is the number of new subscribers, and that is a large part where notes is the main lever and not your post. Being active, engaging your bubble and nailing one note can bring the biggest amount of new subscribers, whereas simply posting can only take you so far.
👏good article