Why we ditched Wordpress and moved to Medium
3 reasons to switch your blog cms
Yesterday, I posted my first article on our company blog. It took me 3 hours to get the ready content into Wordpress. I actually used Medium to write a post.
Why was Wordpress our first choice?
We needed a simple Content Management Systems for our blog. WordPress is the most popular blogging system, used by 60 million websites.We thought it can't be wrong.But it isn't right for me if it takes 3 hours to post an article.
What took me so long in Wordpress?
I struggled with images, text formatting and previewing the result in Wordpress.
I want to compare my Wordpress and Medium experience with:
- Starting a new post
- Editing and previewing your post
- Adding a picture with caption
1. Starting a new post
Wordpress asks a question: What would you like to post: text, photo, video, quote or link? I just want to write a post with some pictures, quotes and links in it.
Medium: starts with a blank page, mainly focusing on writing.
2. Editing and previewing your post
Wordpress has a cluttered interface, there are so many options to choose from, that I easily get distracted. There is also a ‘distraction free mode’ in Wordpress. It just took me few days to discover that it exists.
The abbreviation WSYIWYG (what you see is what you get) is very misleading if we talk about Wordpress. What you see in edit mode, looks nothing like the published post. The look is determined by the wordpress theme you use.So here I go, editing half blindly. And every time I push ‘preview’ button I am surprised by a result.
In Medium there is no difference between preview and edit mode. While writing I see an article exactly the way it will look when published. Easy!
3. Adding a picture with caption
When you want to add a picture to your post Wordpress takes you through the following windows:
On Medium there are no separate window, no media library, no advanced settings. You just add an image, adjust its size and alignment, add or leave blank the caption. Done!
If you don't need a branded channel and don't have to integrate your blog with the rest of your site, just go with Medium. It will save you time, get you more readers and help you focus on writing.
And I forgot the magic word: Medium is free.
