Medium looks really interesting as a content platform. There are reasons that the content seems to be higher quality (and read the comments) than on personally run blogs. At the same time there are reasons you may not want to write on Medium

The design card

Medium demolishes and destroys Blogger and WordPress.com in design…
Javier Sandovial

Yes the design of Medium is pretty but design can easily be changed. Heck when SVTBLE came out everyone raved about how awesome it looked. When you search for ‘WordPress SVTBLE theme’ you get plenty of options that mimic the design easily.

Now that doesn’t speak to the publishing tools that Medium has and I don’t think it would be hard to create a great blogging platform with a beautiful admin that blows away what WordPress has now. WordPress does need an admin design overhaul but that is not new news.

If all Medium has is a design advantage that’s a pretty weak leg to stand on. Building a WordPress theme to match Medium isn’t hard. Yes the admin work is harder, but certainly not impossible.

Content Ownership

My biggest issue with Medium is content ownership as in I’m selfish and want my content. I don’t think that enough people think really hard about where the put their content.

I’ve looked and don’t see a way to pull your content out of Medium outside of copy/paste. That would get the words but not the search engine traffic. By spending time crafting content for Medium you may be putting some of your best content in the hands of others where you don’t control it.

Here’s another example. I put ONE post in the circled category, but when visitors click on that section, they don’t see the post I wrote for it, only the newest content for the group.
Javier Sandovial

I’m all for guest blogging on popular sites to gain traffic to your own properties but Medium doesn’t seem to put much in to promoting the single author.

Not inspired

So no I’m not inspired at all to even see about an invite on Medium. I have no account and have read nothing that leads me to believe I ever will get an account.

Update July 11, 2013: John brought this article up in the comments and I think that it only puts Medium further down on my list of places I’d ever want to put my content.

4 responses to “Looking a Medium”

  1. John Parris Avatar
    John Parris

    I’ve largely ignored Medium, except for when I happen to run across something linked there from somewhere else. I have read some interesting things there, and I wonder why people don’t write such things on their own sites.

    When I received an invitation to try Medium, I checked it out a few days later – mostly to check out the writing/admin interface. It’s simple, and that’s nice for people who write and don’t want any distractions.

    Content ownership is a major deal for me, and when I first checked out the site I didn’t see an export option, but there is an export option now. It may have been there all along, I don’t know. I literally spent 45 seconds there the first time I logged in. The export option says “Export all content created on Medium – text and media – to a zip file. I don’t know how well it works or what format things are in, because I haven’t written anything there.

    I’m not inspired to write there. I struggled to write at all. Most of what I write is on a private WP install, done more for a way for me to explore my thoughts on various things.

    I guess we’ll see how well things go for them. There are a lot of people who don’t care about content ownership, or design, or doing any interesting or advanced functionality – so there’s a market for it. I guess curation is their game.

    I won’t say never, but I don’t expect I’ll do anything there other than occasionally read.

    1. Curtis McHale Avatar
      Curtis McHale

      Yes there does seem to be a market for Medium, I’m just not it I guess.

      I’d strongly encourage you to share a bit of what you write with the world. There is something that helps you refine the idea just a bit more when it’s going public.

      I also keep a person writing habit in Dayone. It gets random thoughts on books and pictures of the kid, and times I want to vent a bit about the wife (just as I’m sure she wants to about me from time to time). Personal writing is important I believe.

  2. John Parris Avatar
    John Parris

    Saw this and thought about this discussion. Very good points made.
    The Problem with Medium

    1. Curtis McHale Avatar
      Curtis McHale

      I had not read that article and it brings up some very valid points that put Medium even further down on my list of places I’m going to put my content.