Hadn't noticed any of this discourse taking place, but your breakdown of the cultures that have built up around each platform is fascinating. And tallies with my general experience.
Two related thoughts come to mind:
1. The 'Desert' approach is at particularly high risk of being usurped by generative AI. The rapidity of Deserts' output ceases to be a USP. The formula/trend-chasing style is easily replicable: by definition, a trend has a lot of data that can be used with an AI to constantly rechurn variants of that trend.
2. Writing for platforms with models like Medium (or indeed anything from Meta, X etc) has increasingly felt to me like you're a badly treated employee of theirs: you're beholden to their business decisions, have no control over your fate (other than to leave, which in itself is a huge risk) and (this is the worst bit, obviously) you might not even get paid.
The unpredictability of Medium is what pushed me out of it several years ago (before I knew about Substack). Subtack, on the other hand, gives me a predictable foundation I can build on. Any success or failure that comes is much more of my own doing.
I have an article about this coming out soon. I just put the finishing touches on it. So, yes. I absolutely agree. The Desert model is under serious threat.
I haven't seen the (bad) Medium pitches yet and I have a lot to say on this, but I'll keep it short here because I'm on my phone right now 🤣: The biggest problem/danger is that writers/creators attach themselves too much to platforms. If you want to make a living by sharing your message online, you have to eventually think beyond a single platform. Doesn't mean you have to publish content on several platforms, but it means you have to think of your work as a *business* and ensure you can keep doing what you do even if a platform doesn't exist anymore.
Most people ask the wrong questions when trying to decide where to start or what platform to use. It's not a matter of finding a goldmine but a matter of building a business that allows you to do what you want to do in a sustainable and reliable way.
What I've seen in the past year after coming out with our framework is that different platforms are ideally suited for different ecosystems, and while you should not get too hung up on platforms, it is important to know where your natural tendencies will resonate most.
I am big on Dream 100 and networking and collecting lots of awesome humans, so Facebook always made sense to me, while it makes no sense to a Desert who is just trying to go viral and collect attention.
Aside from Medium, Deserts should also be on Tiktok, b/c it's about optimizing and getting attention. Deserts are great at that. They also love the fact that they start from zero every time.
That is death to a Forest, though. So, they would be more comfortable somewhere like Substack. What's interesting about Substack is people landed here often because nothing else worked for them, so while you would assume that lots of thought leaders would be here, it turns out they would rather be on Linkedin where they can capture the biggest market. As Grasslands, they are good at aggregating attention, and substack just doesn't have very much attention to give them.
And we can talk about how Quora is a Grasslands platform, and what that means for how their algorithm works, but I tend to think you should think about you career in a way that uses the platforms and strategies that work with your natural tendencies, and also market to people on platforms in a way that will capture how their natural tendencies work.
On a platform like Facebook, it's so broad that you have all the tendencies. It doesn't matter b/c you'll find your people. Substack is so small, though, I really do think it's heavily dominated by one type who are naturally adverse to the way Medium works, and definitely to the way that people market Medium working.
If you don't know our methodology, then we have a whole Substack devoted to it, but I think it does a very good job of capturing how different types of people use platforms.
So, yes, we should all be good at all the things, but most people are at the stage where they need to embrace their natural rhythms, and should look for platforms and strategies that amplify them. Maybe Medium can do that, but I'm unconvinced based on the marketing I've seen from people on Substack.
A lot to digest in that, but I'm on Substack because of you :P I have only been using it for a month now to post my writings to build an audience. I'm pretty comfortable with how its going.
This article is invaluable. It is very well written, and from several years of writing on Medium, I can attest to its validity. Had I known this when I started on Medium, I probably would have never gone there. I am very much looking forward to contributing articles on Substack.
I'm on both platforms, and Medium does not work for me. I originally started writing on Hubpages about 13 years ago, but that website is just about dead. So I attempted moving some articles to Medium to see what happened. But like you said, it's almost like a content mill. You have to keep publishing to get any traction.
I much prefer Substack. Yes, growth is super slow, but I don't have to worry about publishing something every other day just to get views.
I have never felt so seen as a writer, LOL! I am an ancient Sequoia Grove in the Gobi! 😅🤣😂 I've been sitting back looking at all these coaching offers like...bro...I know which plr[dot]me package you bought to sell us this course. Thanks for this!
Wow, I'll set aside time to read in detail. But what I have always wanted to know is why it has been so easy for me on Quora to get 850,000 viewers and I spend at this point no more than 1 hr every few months at most to write? What are their algorithms doing to spread a writers work? There are writers with far more viewers, too, into the millions. (But some of my individual views might even have > 28,000 views and people read them year after year since 2017. Guess the subject matter matters.)
Just last month I finally signed up to monetize: Quora had been asking for years and also asked me to moderate a "Space" early on. I did not because Quora is more boring with little interaction or engagement after the initial answer to a question even when I asked for more facts or invited engagement. So overall, there is much less "enjoyable community feel" feel on Quora and I love that about Substack.
Glad you like it. I think Quora is a platform with a lot of Grasslands, who are really good at giving information and building a following, but they are not super warm and cuddly, and they often spend so much time deep in research that they just don't think about community.
They are very good at attracting, but less so at engaging, so if I had to guess, it's a bunch of grasslands that connect through answering their questions, and then ghost, and people who are like "thanks for answering my questions. Bye" and then go off to do their own thing.
I've stuck only on Substack because the time sink to figure out two different platforms seemed not worth the effort so far. Sounds like I made a good choice with Substack, and I will likely fit my style better. Thanks for the breakdown, Russell!
Probably half a year. I did all of my graphics, taught myself AI, set up a bunch of social media accounts which I'm not sure I'm even going to use now. Plus figuring out how Substack works since it is changing constantly.
I wrote twice a week which was pretty hard in the beginning because I had no process for writing or coming up with ideas. It took awhile basically. All the things I did were probably a little overboard. You don't necessarily need to make your own graphics especially like I did. I didn't necessarily need to make social media accounts and you don't need to learn how to make AI art on your computer.
I seriously started writing 4 months ago so as far as writing is concerned that's how long it took if you ignore the education and branding. I also don't have a job currently so I could dedicate more time than someone else would.
Set yourself up for the long haul! I'm sure your results will vary!
Thanks so much for your insights! Looking back, even so far, I know I've spent a lot of time doing unnecessary things I won't use. But it's part of the learning process of figuring out what does or doesn't work. I'm hoping by the end of the year, I've settled more into a flow of what does and doesn't work, and what kinds of things I really want to write about. Plus how to make them interesting! Thanks again, I really appreciate it.
I started on Medium and quickly switched to Substack when I saw the algorithmic writing on the wall. I hate the platform and haven't used it since I left.
Substack has problems, mostly with management decisions, but the core tool is much more effective and gives the creator much more control.
I wrote about this same topic in my Substack launch post from May 2022. Perhaps worth a bookmark.
I have noticed a big difference in writing styles between people who came from Medium and people who started on Substack. You articulated the differences perfectly.
There are many interesting insights in this article. I guess I'm a forest (which explains all the pine needles I keep finding).
Of course, the situation is different for fiction writers, which is mostly what I am. I suppose in theory someone could churn out short stories based on current trends, but I've never met anyone who actually did that. I have met some people whose write-to-market approach for fiction is similar to that. It doesn't appeal to me personally, though.
The history of pulp writers, and lots of thriller/romance writers, are littered with deserts.
They aren’t hijacking current events (though they sometimes are like Chuck Tingle), but they know the audience trends and write to them.
Lots of short story writers are deserts bc they write to the submission. When they see somebody doing a cool anthology, they just always write the perfect story for it.
It’s not the same as a reporter writing about current trends, but they have the ability to find the most eyeballs for their work always. Forests have to turn attention to themselves or wait for it to land on them. Deserts go where the attention already is and hijack it, whatever that means to them.
And again even though I have not yet read your newsletter here Mr.Nohelty, I started skimming and am super impressed at what you've so passionately and expertly given. And I am sure it took a bundle of time. So for now just based on first impressions, I am eager to read more.😎
I mentioned Quora also for the implication of "more exposure" in any site can lead, I assume, to more chances to get subscriptions in a site such as Substack.
This is so helpful, thank you! I've seen so many posts about Medium that I've been wondering if I should do it, and this was a very good way to understand the differences between the platforms.
So every time I read an article that breaks down the ecosystem, I learn something new. I'm learning that I'm very much more so a forest, which kinda sucks because I also like to buck trends and bet on me. One thing I took away from this is to create lower barriers to entry. This is something I'm going to work on
'...I’m not interested in dancing for random people and having to be “approved” by nominators to eat my dinner.'
A number of your points resonated with me, Russell. I have blogs on both Medium and Substack and up till recently I was more active on Medium.
Then I realized that Medium's algorithm only properly distributes as well as pays stories that have a particular writing style. All other types of stories, even if they're objectively good, deliberately aren't given the coverage that they deserve.
Hence, I decided to focus my efforts solely on Substack, where I could see that my writing was appreciated much more than on Medium.
Hadn't noticed any of this discourse taking place, but your breakdown of the cultures that have built up around each platform is fascinating. And tallies with my general experience.
Two related thoughts come to mind:
1. The 'Desert' approach is at particularly high risk of being usurped by generative AI. The rapidity of Deserts' output ceases to be a USP. The formula/trend-chasing style is easily replicable: by definition, a trend has a lot of data that can be used with an AI to constantly rechurn variants of that trend.
2. Writing for platforms with models like Medium (or indeed anything from Meta, X etc) has increasingly felt to me like you're a badly treated employee of theirs: you're beholden to their business decisions, have no control over your fate (other than to leave, which in itself is a huge risk) and (this is the worst bit, obviously) you might not even get paid.
The unpredictability of Medium is what pushed me out of it several years ago (before I knew about Substack). Subtack, on the other hand, gives me a predictable foundation I can build on. Any success or failure that comes is much more of my own doing.
I have an article about this coming out soon. I just put the finishing touches on it. So, yes. I absolutely agree. The Desert model is under serious threat.
I haven't seen the (bad) Medium pitches yet and I have a lot to say on this, but I'll keep it short here because I'm on my phone right now 🤣: The biggest problem/danger is that writers/creators attach themselves too much to platforms. If you want to make a living by sharing your message online, you have to eventually think beyond a single platform. Doesn't mean you have to publish content on several platforms, but it means you have to think of your work as a *business* and ensure you can keep doing what you do even if a platform doesn't exist anymore.
Most people ask the wrong questions when trying to decide where to start or what platform to use. It's not a matter of finding a goldmine but a matter of building a business that allows you to do what you want to do in a sustainable and reliable way.
PS: Thanks for such a thoughtful piece! Loved it & I hope many more people will come across it.
You're welcome:).
What I've seen in the past year after coming out with our framework is that different platforms are ideally suited for different ecosystems, and while you should not get too hung up on platforms, it is important to know where your natural tendencies will resonate most.
I am big on Dream 100 and networking and collecting lots of awesome humans, so Facebook always made sense to me, while it makes no sense to a Desert who is just trying to go viral and collect attention.
Aside from Medium, Deserts should also be on Tiktok, b/c it's about optimizing and getting attention. Deserts are great at that. They also love the fact that they start from zero every time.
That is death to a Forest, though. So, they would be more comfortable somewhere like Substack. What's interesting about Substack is people landed here often because nothing else worked for them, so while you would assume that lots of thought leaders would be here, it turns out they would rather be on Linkedin where they can capture the biggest market. As Grasslands, they are good at aggregating attention, and substack just doesn't have very much attention to give them.
And we can talk about how Quora is a Grasslands platform, and what that means for how their algorithm works, but I tend to think you should think about you career in a way that uses the platforms and strategies that work with your natural tendencies, and also market to people on platforms in a way that will capture how their natural tendencies work.
On a platform like Facebook, it's so broad that you have all the tendencies. It doesn't matter b/c you'll find your people. Substack is so small, though, I really do think it's heavily dominated by one type who are naturally adverse to the way Medium works, and definitely to the way that people market Medium working.
If you don't know our methodology, then we have a whole Substack devoted to it, but I think it does a very good job of capturing how different types of people use platforms.
https://authorecosystems.substack.com
So, yes, we should all be good at all the things, but most people are at the stage where they need to embrace their natural rhythms, and should look for platforms and strategies that amplify them. Maybe Medium can do that, but I'm unconvinced based on the marketing I've seen from people on Substack.
A lot to digest in that, but I'm on Substack because of you :P I have only been using it for a month now to post my writings to build an audience. I'm pretty comfortable with how its going.
That's awesome. I'm glad to hear that :)
This article is invaluable. It is very well written, and from several years of writing on Medium, I can attest to its validity. Had I known this when I started on Medium, I probably would have never gone there. I am very much looking forward to contributing articles on Substack.
Awesome! Glad you liked it
I'm on both platforms, and Medium does not work for me. I originally started writing on Hubpages about 13 years ago, but that website is just about dead. So I attempted moving some articles to Medium to see what happened. But like you said, it's almost like a content mill. You have to keep publishing to get any traction.
I much prefer Substack. Yes, growth is super slow, but I don't have to worry about publishing something every other day just to get views.
Well written.
Yay! Glad you liked it
I have never felt so seen as a writer, LOL! I am an ancient Sequoia Grove in the Gobi! 😅🤣😂 I've been sitting back looking at all these coaching offers like...bro...I know which plr[dot]me package you bought to sell us this course. Thanks for this!
Yay! Yes, this is a very common reaction to Forests finding our work. :) You're welcome
Wow, I'll set aside time to read in detail. But what I have always wanted to know is why it has been so easy for me on Quora to get 850,000 viewers and I spend at this point no more than 1 hr every few months at most to write? What are their algorithms doing to spread a writers work? There are writers with far more viewers, too, into the millions. (But some of my individual views might even have > 28,000 views and people read them year after year since 2017. Guess the subject matter matters.)
Just last month I finally signed up to monetize: Quora had been asking for years and also asked me to moderate a "Space" early on. I did not because Quora is more boring with little interaction or engagement after the initial answer to a question even when I asked for more facts or invited engagement. So overall, there is much less "enjoyable community feel" feel on Quora and I love that about Substack.
Glad you like it. I think Quora is a platform with a lot of Grasslands, who are really good at giving information and building a following, but they are not super warm and cuddly, and they often spend so much time deep in research that they just don't think about community.
I talk about it a lot in this article. https://authorecosystems.substack.com/p/how-to-build-a-sales-funnel-and-flywheel
They are very good at attracting, but less so at engaging, so if I had to guess, it's a bunch of grasslands that connect through answering their questions, and then ghost, and people who are like "thanks for answering my questions. Bye" and then go off to do their own thing.
I've stuck only on Substack because the time sink to figure out two different platforms seemed not worth the effort so far. Sounds like I made a good choice with Substack, and I will likely fit my style better. Thanks for the breakdown, Russell!
You're welcome!
That was me at the beginning. I feel like I am getting into a flow with Substack and I am currently looking at different options.
How long did it take you to get used to it all?
Probably half a year. I did all of my graphics, taught myself AI, set up a bunch of social media accounts which I'm not sure I'm even going to use now. Plus figuring out how Substack works since it is changing constantly.
I wrote twice a week which was pretty hard in the beginning because I had no process for writing or coming up with ideas. It took awhile basically. All the things I did were probably a little overboard. You don't necessarily need to make your own graphics especially like I did. I didn't necessarily need to make social media accounts and you don't need to learn how to make AI art on your computer.
I seriously started writing 4 months ago so as far as writing is concerned that's how long it took if you ignore the education and branding. I also don't have a job currently so I could dedicate more time than someone else would.
Set yourself up for the long haul! I'm sure your results will vary!
Thanks so much for your insights! Looking back, even so far, I know I've spent a lot of time doing unnecessary things I won't use. But it's part of the learning process of figuring out what does or doesn't work. I'm hoping by the end of the year, I've settled more into a flow of what does and doesn't work, and what kinds of things I really want to write about. Plus how to make them interesting! Thanks again, I really appreciate it.
No worries. Yeah if some things aren’t failing at some point then you aren’t experimenting enough. Good luck!
Great analysis, Russell.
I started on Medium and quickly switched to Substack when I saw the algorithmic writing on the wall. I hate the platform and haven't used it since I left.
Substack has problems, mostly with management decisions, but the core tool is much more effective and gives the creator much more control.
I wrote about this same topic in my Substack launch post from May 2022. Perhaps worth a bookmark.
https://open.substack.com/pub/agowani/p/welcome-to-the-party-pal
awesome! I'll check it out. Glad you found somewhere that works for you.
I have noticed a big difference in writing styles between people who came from Medium and people who started on Substack. You articulated the differences perfectly.
Awesome. Yeah, there is definitely a style. Honestly, even Monica has commented on how much different it is and what resonates here.
I guess I’m on the right platform because your description of a Desert makes my skin crawl!
But at the same time, I can see the value of borrowing from that mentality to approach “the thing” you write about in a more approachable manner.
Most people seem to end up here bc they hate the other platforms, which are much more geared to that kind of thing, so I am not surprised
There are many interesting insights in this article. I guess I'm a forest (which explains all the pine needles I keep finding).
Of course, the situation is different for fiction writers, which is mostly what I am. I suppose in theory someone could churn out short stories based on current trends, but I've never met anyone who actually did that. I have met some people whose write-to-market approach for fiction is similar to that. It doesn't appeal to me personally, though.
The history of pulp writers, and lots of thriller/romance writers, are littered with deserts.
They aren’t hijacking current events (though they sometimes are like Chuck Tingle), but they know the audience trends and write to them.
Lots of short story writers are deserts bc they write to the submission. When they see somebody doing a cool anthology, they just always write the perfect story for it.
It’s not the same as a reporter writing about current trends, but they have the ability to find the most eyeballs for their work always. Forests have to turn attention to themselves or wait for it to land on them. Deserts go where the attention already is and hijack it, whatever that means to them.
And again even though I have not yet read your newsletter here Mr.Nohelty, I started skimming and am super impressed at what you've so passionately and expertly given. And I am sure it took a bundle of time. So for now just based on first impressions, I am eager to read more.😎
I mentioned Quora also for the implication of "more exposure" in any site can lead, I assume, to more chances to get subscriptions in a site such as Substack.
This is so helpful, thank you! I've seen so many posts about Medium that I've been wondering if I should do it, and this was a very good way to understand the differences between the platforms.
Yay! Glad it could be helpful.
So every time I read an article that breaks down the ecosystem, I learn something new. I'm learning that I'm very much more so a forest, which kinda sucks because I also like to buck trends and bet on me. One thing I took away from this is to create lower barriers to entry. This is something I'm going to work on
Forests are all about bucking trends.
Maybe I am a forest by nature then
Most people are dominant in one of them. So that makes sense
'...I’m not interested in dancing for random people and having to be “approved” by nominators to eat my dinner.'
A number of your points resonated with me, Russell. I have blogs on both Medium and Substack and up till recently I was more active on Medium.
Then I realized that Medium's algorithm only properly distributes as well as pays stories that have a particular writing style. All other types of stories, even if they're objectively good, deliberately aren't given the coverage that they deserve.
Hence, I decided to focus my efforts solely on Substack, where I could see that my writing was appreciated much more than on Medium.
makes sense to me