The Medium + Substack Strategy Every Creator Should Be Running in 2026

I grew to 500 Substack subscribers in 5 months alongside a full-time job.

Here’s why Substack beats every other platform and how pairing it with Medium is the smartest move you can make right now.

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I have a question for you.

You post on social media. Maybe you’ve been doing it for a year, two years. You’ve picked up followers, maybe a few hundred, maybe a few thousand.

Now tell me — how many of those people can you reach directly? Not “if the algorithm feels like showing them your post.” Directly. An email that lands in their inbox, no middleman, no boost button required.

If the answer is zero, you’re building on rented land. And the landlord can change the rent at any time.

That’s the problem Substack solves. And right now — in 2026 — it’s the single most important platform a creator can add to their stack.

What Social Media Followers Actually Are

Instagram gives you followers. TikTok gives you views. LinkedIn gives you connections.

None of them give you email addresses.

That distinction matters more than most people realise. An email list is yours. Nobody can take it from you. No algorithm decides whether your subscribers see what you send — you write the email, it lands in the inbox, done.

Substack gives you that. Every subscriber on your list is an email address you own, and Substack lets you export that list at any time. You could leave the platform tomorrow and take your entire audience with you.

That’s not something Instagram or TikTok would ever let you do.

Why Substack Specifically

There are other email platforms. Kit (formerly ConvertKit), Beehive, Mailchimp — they all do email well.

Substack does something none of them can match: it’s also a social network with built-in discovery.

The Notes feed works like Twitter. Writers restack each other’s content. New readers browse topics they’re interested in and stumble onto newsletters they’ve never heard of. The recommendations system automatically suggests your newsletter to subscribers of similar writers.

That combination — email ownership plus social discovery — is why you can grow on Substack from zero. Without an existing audience. Without paid ads.

I started The Sustainable Solopreneur in January 2026 with zero subscribers and no existing audience. Five months later: 500+ subscribers, 30+ published posts, and a daily Notes streak I haven’t broken once. All of this alongside a full-time job, salsa classes, and a golf habit I refuse to give up.

Want the full breakdown of exactly how I did it — including the AI prompts I used for positioning, Notes content, and setup? I wrote a detailed guide here: Stop Collecting Followers. Start Building an Audience You Actually Own.

The Medium + Substack Strategy

Here’s the play most people miss: Medium and Substack are not competitors. They’re a funnel.

Medium is your top of funnel. It’s where new readers discover you — through search, the algorithm, and the publications that amplify your work. Medium’s recommendation engine surfaces your posts to people who’ve never heard of your name.

Substack is your middle funnel. It’s where the readers who actually want more from you go deeper. They subscribe. They get your newsletter in their inbox every week. Over time, they become the audience that trusts you enough to buy something (your digital products which is the bottom of funnel).

The two platforms feed each other in a way nothing else does:

• Every Medium post ends with a CTA to your Substack. Some of your readers want more — give them somewhere to go.
• Your Substack Notes drive traffic back to your Medium posts. When a Note lands well, curious readers click through to the full article.
• The more Substack subscribers you build, the more people read, engage, and clap on Medium — which signals quality to the algorithm.

It compounds. Slowly at first, then noticeably.

The biggest mistake I see Medium writers make is building an audience here and then letting them evaporate. A reader who loved your post today will forget your name in three days if there’s nowhere to follow you. Give them the option.

Why Right Now Matters

Substack went from 30 million to 35 million users in the span of a few months. It has over 5 million paying subscribers across its newsletters. The platform is at the stage YouTube was around 2010 — early enough that consistent creators still get outsized visibility, late enough that it’s clearly not going anywhere.

Early movers on every platform have always built the most durable audiences. That’s true for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and it will be true for Substack. The people who show up now, while organic reach is still accessible, are building something that will be much harder to replicate in two years.

The window is open. It won’t stay open forever.

How to Actually Get Started

You don’t need a plan. You need a Substack account and one Note posted today.

The biggest barrier isn’t complexity — it’s starting without overthinking it. Pick a topic you already know. Write your first short-form Note. See what happens.

For the full setup system — including the exact prompts I used to nail my positioning before writing a single post, the welcome email template, and the weekly Notes strategy — everything is in my detailed guide: Stop Collecting Followers. Start Building an Audience You Actually Own.

And if you want to skip the blank-screen problem entirely: the Substack Notes Starter Pack ($1) gives you 30 fill-in-the-blank Notes templates across 6 categories. Pick one, fill in your details, post in under five minutes.

For the full launch toolkit — positioning prompts, welcome email, bio copy, re-engagement emails, a complete weekly Notes system — the Substack Growth Engine ($9) has 23 prompts built specifically for busy people who don’t have four hours to stare at a blank screen.

The One Thing I’d Tell My Day-One Self

Don’t wait until you feel ready.

I published my first Note before I had a logo, a brand colour, or even a clear sense of who I was writing for. I figured it out by doing it — by posting every day and seeing what landed, who responded, what questions people asked.

The platform rewards consistency over perfection. Show up every day. Improve as you go. The compounding happens quietly — until one day you look up and realise you’ve built something that’s actually yours.

That’s the thing no social media platform will ever give you.

If you found value in this, I’d love for you to join The Sustainable Solopreneur — my free weekly newsletter on solopreneurship, AI tools, and building income streams alongside a 9–5. Real experiments, honest results.

For those who want to go further, I share practical templates, prompt packs, and resources on my Gumroad page — built from my own experience so you can skip the trial and error.

And if this piece saved you some time or money, some readers **buy me a coffee**. I do all of this alongside a full-time job, salsa classes, and a golf habit — running almost entirely on coffee, tea, and Red Bull. It goes to exactly the right place. 🙏