This is Why I Don't Start My Stories with a Friend Link on Medium
And what do I do instead…
I see many Friends of Medium start their stories with a Frind so that non-members can read freely on Medium.
It’s a good way to maintain a decent read ratio.
But it’s also clear these reads are not monetized. Especially if you use your own Friend link.
Still, since the total read ratio increases, theoretically, it should positively impact your earnings.
Even so, I still don’t add those links to my stories.
Why?
Because I don’t gain direct benefit. Medium earnings calculation logic is not transparent to writers. And I don’t trust theories I can’t prove.
Yet, I’d love to monetize those non-member’s reads.
Now I found a way!
What do I do instead?
Post all my Medium stories on Substack.
Add a note they were originally published on Medium.
On Medium, I add a link to the Substack post instead of a Friend link.
This way I have better chances to get more subscribers on my Substack. This is a real asset!
So that’s why I won’t start my stories with a Friend’s link.
Thanks for reading!
👉 DOWNLOAD my FREE Writing Tools I use to make consistent money online.
[This story was initially published on Medium.]
Hi Yana, thanks a lot for all your tips. I think everything you publish is very helpful but without a good way of self manage it, it might end up in failures and abandonment of our publications.
How do you manage to publish daily newsletters and to be responsive in the notes and comments in substack? Right now I am trying to figure out the time that I should be using in commenting, writing notes, of which kind.. when to share links.. I feel bad using time to other things different than writing in my publications.
In regards self management tools, I have that piece covered, in fact in my publication I shared the self management framework or protocol I use for self managing myself. If you have the time I would like to hear your feedback about it too in case you see something missing.
Hi, Yana, thank you for the above answers! All were things I was wondering as well. I have one more to add. Just so I am clear.
So you start on Medium with an article and you take the exact same article and you published it here? Do you do that with all of them? So that your medium and substack accounts basically match?
If yes then that means that in Substack most are behind a monthly subscription paywall? But in Medium they’re available for the $5 monthly subscription paid to Medium where subscribers can read from the entire platform?
I am so grateful I am reading this article from you, referenced btw from Christina Piccoli, just to give her that plug, because these are questions I have been having. I am about to begin a newsletter and I’ve gone back and forth on who to go with. It seemed to make sense to go with both Medium and Substacks. But lord, that’s a boatload of writing this for one and that for another. Like really. That would become a lot fast and confusing to keep straight over time about what I talked about in one and then the other. When the topic would be the same.
So, thank you so much for being willing, kind, and truly helpful to bring clarity to this whole topic.