01 · Strategy: is Medium worth it for your product?
Short answer: yes as a support channel, rarely as the main one. Medium is good at three things for a small
product: long, searchable how-to articles that keep being read; a ready-made reading audience of developers,
product people and founders; and a little side income from the Partner Program. It's weak at sending clicks:
outbound links are nofollow, many readers hit a paywall, and Medium suspends accounts whose stories exist mainly
to push traffic to a product (facts).
Fit check
| Your product |
Fit |
Why |
| Dev tool, API, CLI, VS Code / JetBrains plugin |
Good |
Readers search "how to do X in Y"; a tutorial that uses your tool is the natural product mention |
| AI tool, automation, productivity SaaS, B2B |
Good |
Big reading topics on Medium (AI, productivity, startups); case studies and "how I automated…" work |
| Mac app, browser extension, Notion template |
Medium |
Works with "how to fix X on Mac / in Chrome" tutorials; the buyers are mostly on Reddit, X and the stores |
| Mobile app for consumers, casual game |
Weak |
Players don't read Medium; use TikTok or Instagram |
| You already have a blog with traffic |
Good as a mirror |
Republish there with a canonical link: more readers, no SEO cost (04) |
| You want Medium to earn money by itself |
Weak |
Earnings come only from paying members' reading time; plan for side income, not a salary |
What Medium does for you, and what it doesn't
| Medium gives you |
Medium doesn't give you |
| Readers who follow topics and publications, before you have an audience |
Search ranking for your own site (links are nofollow) |
| Articles that Google can find, on a strong domain |
Many clicks: a story with 5,000 reads may send a few dozen visits |
| Credibility: a good tutorial is something you can link in sales emails, READMEs and X posts |
A place to post ads or launch announcements (they get no distribution) |
| Partner Program income (Vietnam is a supported country) |
Control: Medium changes distribution and pay rules often |
The plan: three phases
| Phase |
Weeks |
Do |
Don't |
Done when |
| 1 · Set up and mirror |
1 |
Profile (02); import 2–3 of your best existing posts with canonical links (04) |
Copy-paste without a canonical link |
Your profile has 3 real articles and a link to your site |
| 2 · Publish weekly |
2–8 |
One useful article a week (05), written for the reader; product only where it is the honest answer, at the end |
Write about your product; publish AI drafts unedited |
6–8 articles, 1–3 accepted by publications (06) |
| 3 · Keep what works |
9+ |
Read the numbers: keep the article types that bring followers and site visits; drop the rest |
Chase views that send no one to your site |
A repeatable article type, or a clear "stop" |
How Medium fits the other channels
Medium is the long version of a fact you already posted short. One true fact → an X post or Reddit answer this week
→ a Medium tutorial that explains it fully → that tutorial linked from your README, landing FAQ and emails.
Hub: Marketing & Social.
Medium article (useful by itself) → last paragraph + bio → your site / free trial (utm_source=medium)
↘ followers + publication readers → next article