What's the best content platform FOR YOU?

The criteria to avoid wasting your content creation efforts and grow faster.

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I am a creator. It’s my calling. I’d love to spend all day, every day, publishing articles and videos and enjoying the love of my audience.

But there's a problem: no creative in history has had this privilege.

There's always been some gatekeeper: patrons, critics, gallery owners, investors, publishers... Sure, there have always been word of mouth and live events, too. But they won’t ever be enough if you want to scale.

The web flipped the script. We can now reach millions from our home office (or a bedroom, a cafe, a beach…).

Twenty years ago, this was a revolution, a liberation. But hedonic adaptation quickly normalized it. Now we expect to reach millions. And just doing what we want, without following the rules of the platforms.

Being a creator is exciting, even when it’s tough. I’ve been doing it since 2010, left academia for it, and despite the struggles, wouldn’t trade it for anything. Throughout the years, I achieved success only when I picked the right platform and played by its rules.

So, let me save you some pain and tell you how I’d choose a channel for my content if I started from scratch. Because I’m actually starting from scratch in my second language.

Same effort, opposite results

My first site was a huge hit right away. In 2010, I started a blog teaching photography and published SEO-optimized tutorials twice a week. (I sold it in 2023)

I ranked high on Google for many keywords. At its peak, the blog got 300,000 page views a month. It was one of the most visited sites in the niche (if not the most visited). Pop the champagne!

In 2022, I started publishing in English to build my personal brand in a much larger market. I chose Medium as the only channel, because it has its own algorithm and articles can earn passively. For a while, everything grew: views, earnings, email subscribers. But in 2023, they changed the rules. Now manual curation determined your success. It became a lottery.

One article got a thousand views, received dozens of excited comments and made hundreds of dollars. The next one didn’t even reach 100 views.

I increasingly felt like a failure. Had I been lucky with my Italian articles? Hundreds of times?

Was the English market so much more demanding? Were the English editors who approved my articles all foolish?

My mind knew these were silly, useless questions, with the sole purpose of self-destruction.

But my gut didn’t listen. I kept publishing, but felt discouraged.

I decided to hedge my bets and try another platform.

Twitter, now X, intrigued me, so I started posting there. Bad idea. The frenzy of 2020-2022 had disappeared. I saw some growth only when I frantically commented on other people’s posts. Organic reach was zero.

I’m a textbook introvert. Commenting for me is exhausting. I chose the creator path to fill my life with things I enjoy and excel at. If I have to spend most of my time fighting against my nature, I’d better just take any job.

A new hope

A month ago, I started publishing on Substack. It makes me remember my first year blogging. Growth is good. I’ll close my first month with at least 100 email subscribers and over 200 followers.

I get a disproportionate number of comments given my subscriber and follower count. Other authors compliment my writing.

My earlier success wasn’t luck. The market isn’t that more difficult. I chose the wrong platform.

So, how to choose the right channel for your content?

There are two main prerequisites to choose where to publish your content: organic reach and social features.

But first, a clarification. Platforms are sites you don’t own that host your content and provide many features, such as discovery algorithms and comments. Channels are all sources of traffic. All platforms are channels, not all channels are platforms. Google, for example, is a channel, not a platform. It makes your content searchable, but doesn’t host it. YouTube is a platform, instead.

Organic reach

Organic reach (someone calls it free distribution) is essential. It allows people to find your content organically, through search or a recommendation algorithm (”the feed”).

A platform with good organic reach is the dream. You publish following its rules and people find your content, if it’s good and useful.

Every time a new channel is born, organic reach is great. There’s low competition, and the owners want to show creators that platform is worth it.

But over time, saturation makes it harder to stand out. Moreover, platforms sooner or later change the rules. Standing out gets harder for smaller creators. For example, organic reach on Facebook was above 15% in 2012. This meant that 15 in 100 followers saw your posts on average. Today it’s below 5%.

What are the best channels in terms of organic reach today?

• Publishing on your own site and using SEO for traffic still works, but ranking is harder nowadays. You need good keyword research skills to succeed.

• YouTube still works very well. It combines search and recommendations. The algorithm rewards single videos, not follower count, so new and small creators always have a chance to shine.

• TikTok is a good opportunity for reasons similar to YouTube.

• LinkedIn has good organic reach, but it’s limited to some niches and you have to dodge constant sales outreach and humble bragging.

• Medium has a small user base and is in a transition period. To constantly get views, you need to please the curators and publish a lot. I can’t say where it will be in 12 months, but it’s worth a try if you have the skills and will to write the kind of content that works there.

• Substack is still in its honeymoon period. I’m growing fast thanks to Notes and Recommendations. But this period usually doesn’t last long. If you are just starting out, give it a try.

Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are basically dead for new creators. Podcasts aren’t a channel. There’s no single search engine or social network for podcasts.

Social features

Relationships accelerate growth on any platform. Even MrBeast had his group of YouTuber friends in the beginning. They provided accountability, ideas, engagement, and so on.

After organic reach, look for social features: comments and DMs. Use comments like this:

• find some authors you like, that talk to your audience or a similar one,

• set aside 10-30 minutes each day to comment on their content,

• to maximize the return, be among the first ones to comment.

You’ll attract the attention of other commenters, if your comments add something. You’ll also become friends with the authors. Engagement increases visibility and they could be interested in what you have to say.

Then, use DMs to cement the relationships. You can go much deeper there.

Your preference

You may find more than one platform with organic reach and social features. How do you choose?

Use these criteria:

• you like you spend your time on it,

• you like making the kind of content that works best on that platform,

• you have enough time to produce enough content to get noticed.

The third point is crucial. On short form platforms, like Twitter, daily posts are mandatory. And you also have to engage. On Substack one article every week may be enough.

Double-headed effort

I used to advise focusing on one channel. If you want to grow, you need to master it:

• learn the audience preferences,

• get to know and collaborate with like-minded creators,

• leverage the best features for you.

This takes time and practice. Beyond content creation.

But given my recent experiences and the experiences of many other creators I studied or talked to, I now suggest using two channels.

First, to hedge your bets. Rules change quickly. You never know when an update or the inevitable saturation will stump your growth.

Then, to leverage different formats, for example text and video, or long-form and short-form content. They also allow you to reach different audiences.

Email isn’t a channel

Some people say their channel is email. But this is wrong.

You need a distribution channel to get email subscribers. Substack blurred the lines. It started as a newsletter platform, but it essentially was a blog that sent emails to subscribers. Now it’s much more like a combination of Twitter and Medium, with a touch of Patreon and YouTube.

An email list software offers more, like sending automated sequences and segmenting your audience.

After choosing one or two distribution channels. You still need to build your email list. It’s an asset no one can take from you. It remains yours regardless of platform changes. And it’s still the most personal and highest converting channel.

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I hope this helped. Which platforms are you going to focus on?