How to Use Substack & Medium in Harmony

With tips & tricks to do it right

Burk

Jun 10, 2025

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My Medium friends can read this story over there as well.

Medium and Substack are both awesome platforms for online writers and blogger. But they’re not the same!

Medium is a sleek blogging platform with built-in readers, human curation and boost, and a paywall.

Substack is a powerful publishing+email combo that offers you control and ownership.

Many creators pick one platform, or try to convince themselves they should.

I disagree.

You can — and should — use both.

Why Both?

Medium gives you a built-in ecosystem with millions of readers, editors, publications, and algorithms to get traction.

It pays you for member reading time. And it has traffic. Lots of it. You can show up in people’s recommended feeds and get curated by human editors. That’s both unusual and great for discoverability. It’s also pretty unpredictable.

Substack, on the other hand, gives you control.

You get your subscribers’ email addresses. You can send newsletters directly, build a community, engage with them in multiple ways, and monetize via paid subscriptions (and more). You also have Substack Notes as a vital social media option.

So the smart move?

Use Substack to build and grow your audience. Use Medium to get discovered and distributed.

Then connect the two with some light redirect magic.

Let’s break this harmony down into practical tactics.

1. Redirecting from Medium to Substack

The “If you’re not a Medium member…” CTA trick.

You may have seen this one before if you read my stuff. I gave this tip about 4 years ago, and I see it all over Medium now.

Here’s how it works:

At the beginning of your Medium post, insert a friendly CTA like this:

Not a Medium member? Read this story for free on Substack.

Link the text “on Substack” to the full version of the story hosted there. Done. Redirect accomplished.

This does 3 main things:

Saves external readers from hitting the paywall on Medium.
Brings people to your Substack where they might subscribe.
Lets you maintain your Medium earnings from internal members who stay and read.

Tip:

Use this for stories that get many external views on Medium, specifically. Those won’t earn much on Medium, but may result in more subscribers on Substack.

2. Redirecting from Substack to Medium

The “My Medium friends can read this there, too” hack

Now let’s flip it.

Substack doesn’t have a paywall (unless you choose to have one), but it also doesn’t have an algorithm pushing your work to new readers. And getting paid from that traffic.

So, I often add this to your Substack post:

My Medium friends can read this over there as well.

Link it to your Medium version of the same post.

This again does 3 things:

Medium members who are on Substack might decide to read on Medium instead, and you’ll get paid for their reading time there
People may find Medium interesting and sign up
People start reading more of your Medium content

Bonus: The Medium version may get curated and go semi-viral. Which rarely happens on Substack.

3. Using Medium’s Canonical URL Feature

“Give the source”

Here’s the powerful part: setting the canonical URL.

When you repost a story from Substack to Medium, Google may get confused about which version is the “original source.” You don’t want that. I believe, your Substack should rank in search — because that’s where your free content lives and where people subscribe.

Medium helps with this.

Here’s how:

Paste your Substack story into a new Medium draft.
Go to “More Settings” on the Medium post editor.
Scroll to the “Advanced Settings” section.
Find the field called “Customize Canonical Link”.
Paste the full URL of your original Substack post there.

You just told Google, “Hey, Substack is the source. Medium is the republish.”

Why this matters:

Avoids duplicate content penalties.
Protects your Substack SEO.
Still lets you earn on Medium from internal traffic.

This is essential if you’re playing the long game with Google traffic. It’s also respectful to your own domain authority if you happen to have a custom domain connected to Substack (which I do). Google rewards clarity, and this is you being clear. I get much of my Substack traffic from search engines now.

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4. When to Use Which Platform

Easy. Always both.

Substack is your home base. Your email list.
Medium is your network. Your discovery engine.

So when you:

Write a story, post it on Substack and cross-publish it to Medium with a canonical URL.

The only time, I would NOT publish on both platforms is if you write curated newsletters that don’t contain much original content, but rather links to stuff you found or read or want to share. That’s not good stuff for Medium. I’d keep that to Substack.

5. Pro Tips for Making It Work Seamlessly

Keep the formatting similar

Copy-paste Substack to Medium and re-style lightly. Avoid weird line breaks or broken images. But keep it similar.

Check your links

Make sure your CTAs don’t end up as dead ends. “Read here for free” should actually lead to the same article. And make sure your internal links go to the correct platform. When you write on Substack, use internal links to other Substack articles and vice versa.

Track performance

Use Substack’s built-in analytics to see where signups are coming from. Use Medium’s stats to track member reading time.

Capture readers everywhere

Have an email capture form on your Substack post. Mention your newsletter at the end of every Medium story.

Be platform-agnostic.

Some people love reading email. Others never open newsletters. Some prefer scrolling Medium on the couch. Meet them where they are.

The Bottom Line

“Substack vs. Medium” isn’t what’s important. You should use both. They’re different. That makes them perfect partners.

Medium gives you traffic. Substack gives you control (& social media).

You don’t have to or should go all-in on one platform. Instead, think like a smart creator: build where you own, grow where you’re visible.

Your audience is scattered. Show up wherever they are.

So, next time you hit publish on Substack or Medium, ask yourself:

➡️ Did I link to the other version?

➡️ Did I set a canonical URL (if needed)?

➡️ Am I helping readers find the content in the format they prefer?

Do that — and both platforms will work in harmony.