Should I Have Used WordPress, Medium, Substack Or Beehiiv? I'm Not Sure...

Should I make the switch? It's hard to tell and I'll be honest.

Sep 01, 2024

woman in black sweater using macbook pro — Photo by WebFactory Ltd on Unsplash

So, as many of you know, I’m looking for writers who want to write for my new publication, Ragged Riches. It will have its own URL, its own SEO plan, its own advertising, the works. I want it to be the next big thing in personal finance—a rebel with a cause.

I started my soft launch two months ago. I have a spot for it on Medium, a spot for it here, and a spot for it on its official home on WordPress. So far, I’m starting to reach out to talent who wants to join in the plan and I’ve started to (slowly) get subscribers and visitors.

I’ve been rethinking my decision to put my magazine’s home on WordPress.

As entrepreneurs, we all have moments we second-guess. For me, I spent about a week mulling over which platform to use to be the official “home” of Ragged Riches while it grows.

I don’t like how scary this decision has become. It used to be so easy to do. For years, the obvious choice was WordPress. WordPress had all the plugins, all the widgets, and all the different fonts imaginable.

The truth is that WordPress has been the backbone of the net for a very long time—until now, anyway. It was the gold standard of website building. WordPress sites were fairly legit.

That started to change with the rise of new blogging media.

New blog platforms, including Medium, Ghost, and Beehiiv, are now increasingly popular for magazines.

It’s easy to see why so many bloggers are switching to the new vanguard of publishing platforms. They make monetization a cinch, often have their own built-in networks with people who want to read about your niche, and they are amazingly simple.

Medium was the first platform that really opened my eyes to new media platforms in a positive light. While I worked for Vocal and had Hubspots earlier, the truth is that Medium was the first platform that really worked for me as a writer.

Once I got into Medium, it was hard for me to go back to WordPress. It was like a whole new world of publishing—and it made me hungry to learn about others. Eventually, I started to notice that each one has its own merits…

I made some charts featuring my thoughts on each platform.

Basically, each platform I’ve been obsessed with lately has its own perks for indie authors like me (and you, dear reader). I noticed that certain sites tend to be better picks for various stages in a writer’s career.

Here’s the scoop on what I found for each platform and its purpose…

I really should have put more thought into the main site for Ragged.

There. I said the thing. I regret putting Ragged’s main website on WordPress. It’s been a pain to update the site, a pain to post, and also a fairly expensive site to run, considering that it only has six subscribers as of the time of this writing.

Ragged Riches is a brand new publication project I’m working on—literally working from Ground Zero in a lot of ways. WordPress has very little to offer in terms of promoting, starting a community around your site, or similar.

Unfortunately, if I stick with WordPress, I’d have to pay for promotions or make a sales funnel from all my other platforms to WordPress. WordPress would have been a great pick if I had books, products I wanted to sell, or had monetized widgets for credit referrals put up.

I don’t have any of those as of the time of this writing. WordPress, therefore, might be a bit of an uphill battle.

Here’s what I should have chosen as my primary place of business—at least for now.

I chose WordPress because of a plugin that would have allowed me to directly post my posts to MSN’s Partner Program. However, that doesn’t make sense right now because I would rather work on getting it more followers first.

Knowing that, I would have chosen one of two platforms for my official domain name-branded hosting: Substack or Beehiiv.

Why Substack or Beehiiv?

I was very deeply swayed to work on Medium’s platform for a bit, but I think that it’s better that I don’t migrate my domain to Medium. I want to keep my earnings uncapped for this project—and I also want to have a regular newsletter and ads.

Here’s why I’d choose either Substack or Beehiiv for Ragged Riches’s main site:

Substack has a massive community where I can grow organically. The Notes app is a massive blessing to anyone who wants to make a living writing. I love Substack’s ability to work with a social media platform that actually works like it should.
Beehiiv’s unique ad marketplace, Boost referral program, and paid subscription models make the earnings massive. They also have a referral program like Medium used to have. (Like what you hear about this platform for your own project? Go for it. You can sign up here with a 20% discount on me!)
Substack has a podcast feature. I think Beehiiv is rolling out with one, but I’m not entirely certain. The basic gist is that you have more options on how to deliver content on Substack and Beehiiv than you might on Medium.
Beehiiv has almost as much control over branding as WordPress, minus the headache. WordPress is painfully complex and requires you to add all these stupid plugins that make you want to tear your hair out. You even have to pay for some of those plugins. Beehiiv gives you similar power minus the plugin pain and template pains.
Beehiiv has a great paid referral program that I really want to try out. I think Beehiiv might be the best choice for people who have a hefty bank account, if only because it can add rocket fuel to your growth with a little money.
I already know that it will be a very long time before I do widgets for lending and the like. So the ad revenue definitely would make more sense, a la Beehiiv. Paid subscribers can also make more sense, a la Substack.

Here’s what I’m doing for Ragged Riches—and why it’s a different take than most.

I’m not sticking to one platform for this magazine. To maximize my readership, I’m posting it on all platforms, with my email newsletters coming from Beehiiv from now on. That’s a lot of reposting, isn’t it?

Well yes, but that’s what I do.

I spread my net wide to get as many followers and email subscribers as I can for a publication. Beehiiv just happens to be the platform that sends out emails as nicely as possible. WordPress has the cutest designs and most profitable widgets, and Substack and Medium are community gold mines.

I’m tapping Medium and Substack for writers, giving them a platform publication on their platforms, and expanding their reach to other sites. It’s a win-win. Meanwhile, Beehiiv has some of the most elite newsletter options I’ve seen. So, I also get the upgraded newsletters while my main site grows from backlinks.

It’s my way of getting the best of everything and minimizing the risk of losing my content. Relying on one platform is a bad idea. It kneecaps your earnings, and if the platform doesn’t like you, you can be banned from your livelihood overnight.

The majority of people will be just fine with Substack or Beehiiv alone. Me? I have seen a lot of people get burned by relying on one platform, myself included. With that said, my method will take more effort, but it absolutely will pay off.

Feel free to use it for your own publications, too. I’m a believer that it’s a matter of “the more, the merrier,” and that goes for great reading, too.