Do I need Medium or Substack to get early traffic for niche editorial content?

Not necessarily. You don’t need Medium or Substack to get early traffic for niche editorial content—but they can help in different ways.

Short answer

• Medium: better if you want built-in discovery and hope to get some initial reads from the platform.
• Substack: better if you want to build an audience you own via email, but it’s usually weaker for organic discovery than Medium.
• Neither is required if you’re willing to rely on:
  • SEO
  • social distribution
  • communities/forums
  • partnerships/newsletters
  • direct outreach

When to use Medium

Use Medium if:

• your content is discoverability-focused
• you want a chance of being picked up by Medium’s internal network
• you can write in a style that performs well there

Downside: you’re building on rented land, and the traffic can be inconsistent.

When to use Substack

Use Substack if:

• your goal is newsletter growth
• your niche content is recurring and opinionated
• you want a simple publishing + email setup

Downside: it’s not the best place for broad top-of-funnel traffic unless you already have an audience or strong distribution channels.

Best approach for early traffic

For niche editorial content, the strongest early strategy is usually:

1. Publish on your own site
2. Repurpose/excerpt on Medium
3. Use Substack as a newsletter capture layer
4. Distribute through niche communities
5. Target SEO-friendly topics and long-tail queries

Practical recommendation

• If you want fast initial visibility: start with Medium
• If you want audience ownership: start with Substack
• If you want the best of both:
  • publish the full piece on your site
  • syndicate a version on Medium
  • use Substack for email signups and follow-ups

If you want, I can also give you a decision framework based on your niche, posting frequency, and monetization goal.