3rd Party Platforms: Blog Only When It Is A Win-Win Situation

I often talk about the importance of blogging on third party platforms: 1.) introduces you to a new audience 2.) gives you more authority across the web 3.) drives traffic to your home blog 4.) teaches you a new trick or two 5.) easier to connect with other writers to help both of you grow.

However, one thing I have failed to mention is this: Don’t Blog Where They Don’t Want You To Win.

YouTube: Great Example Of A Platform Aligned With Creators For A Win-Win

User generated content platforms are a pretty good business model: I build the platform, you create the content. It’s the answer to this next question that determines if you should spend any time building on borrowed land: Does the platform want its creators to win?

Fortunately, for video creators on YouTube, the answer is “YES.” (Yeah, I am fully aware there are horror stories of unjustified platform bans, that’s the risk with any 3rd party platform, be warned and be familiar with tos).

Why Does YouTube Work So Well For Creators?

YouTube has everything a creator could want from a 3rd party platform. 1.) ease of use 2.) huge audience 3.) monetization, anywhere from $1 to $1 million per month 4.) ability to promote yourself, including off-platform assets (AKA your blog).

In return, YouTube gets tons of creators upload videos, which attracts a massive audience, which attracts massive amounts of money from advertisers, which YouTube splits with creators. YouTube revenue was $60+ Billion in 2025.

What Is The YouTube Equivalent For Blogging?

There is no blogging equivalent to YouTube, unfortunately. Video has a significantly larger audience than the written word. Video accounts for 50% of all mobile traffic, generates 1,200% more shares than text, and, insanely enough, the average person spends between 17 – 19 hours per week watching online video, and a whopping grand total of 43.5 hours per week when including TV.

As you can see, video has a massively larger audience than the written word. I would also add this is average, which means video watchers watch way more than 43.5 hours per week because there are people like me (and probably you too) bringing down the average. I’d estimate my average video watching across all platforms and TV per week is 4 hours (more during football season because I usually watch the Bucs game each week). I’m not one of those anti-video, anti-TV people either, I love TV, it’s an incredibly interesting platform and is doing many interesting things, I just don’t have the damn time and certainly don’t have any idea how a person can possibly find 40+ hours of time for TV watching per week.

Regardless of how ridiculous those numbers are, they are the numbers (which, again, is why every blogger needs to be on YouTube). The audience for the written word is much smaller (yet still large–and lucrative!) but there is no blogging equivalent to YouTube because there is no audience to sustain such a platform (sad face).

With this established, though, there are still some good options for bloggers looking to expand to a third party platform, which will be explored toward the end of this article. Before that though, there is one more thing that must be established so you do not waste your precious time or words on a platform that is not aligned with you.

What Is A 3rd Party Platform Win-Win Situation For Bloggers?

The first question I would ask when evaluating a potential 3rd party platform to write on is this: “Does this platform want me to win?”

Surprisingly, the answer to that question for many platforms is “no.” Rather, the platform wants creators to work for free with no benefit. “It’s a privilege to create on our platform!” they say. “You do the work, you drive traffic, you build SEO, you expand the platform, we cash the checks. No, you cannot be paid. No, you cannot self-promote. No, you cannot take your audience with you. No! No! No!”

Unfortunately, most 3rd party writing platforms have this Win-Lose mentality. The possibility of both parties, the platform and the writers, winning is not part of the thought process but their greed is.

Never forget: you are the prize. Not the platform. Don’t blog where they don’t want you to win.

What Does Austin James Want In A 3rd Party Blogging Platform?

Here’s my list for what I’m looking for:

Must Have:

• An engaged, pre-existing audience

And Must Have At Least One Of The Following:

• Options for monetization (either payments directly from platform or ability to use affiliate links)
• Ability to self-promote off-platform assets (aka drive traffic to my blog)
• Ability to gain subscribers / followers (plus either monetization or self-promotion)

While some platforms hit these conditions, they are still not worth your time because they only pay lip service to the ideals of helping writers but in practice what writers to work for free. In my estimation, there are only two blogging platforms worth your time.

What 3rd Party Platforms Are Win-Win For Bloggers?

As I said, there are only two (at the moment) platforms worth your time.

• Substack The newsletter platform is on fire because readers are craving quality writing instead of slop, which is prevalent. Subscription services solves this: you write smart stuff, promote your newsletter, people subscribe with real money. This is a viable path to part time or full-time money, but I’m not gonna lie and say full-time money on Substack is a sure thing if you work really, really hard. I just know there are people doing it. The more likely outcome, after working really, really hard is making part-time money on it, which I’d be happy with.
• X While technically a social media platform, it was founded as a microblogging website and has ambitious plans to be “the everything app.” We’ll see. Currently, there is a heavy algorithm favor toward X articles on the platform, as Elon is pushing that right now to compete with Substack, news outlets, and to be inviting toward writers. I say go where you are wanted, but please don’t get caught up in the algorithm of doom, gloom, and rage bait! There are payouts, but I wouldn’t count on them being huge. But it is a solid platform for driving people to your blog. (The ability to post articles requires a paid plan.)

What About Medium?

Every article about third party blogging platforms will advise you that Medium is a great place for new writers to start and even get paid! All of those articles are wrong and bloggers writing this awful recommendation should be ignored.

Medium’s top writer’s left the platform because it is a bad place to write. Medium does not respect their writers and slashed writer payouts. I foolishly rushed in when all of this was occuring, thinking I would fill the gap and be the new top writer, but quickly found out they do not want a top writers! They want content creators that are willing to work for free. I deleted my profile. Don’t blog where they don’t want you to win.

Moving Forward With 3rd Party Platforms As Part Of Your Content Strategy

If you are new to blogging stick with your main blog until you find your rhythm. Once you are able to stick to a 3x post per week schedule, then it is time to branch out, especially because it’s disheartening to work very hard and not see traffic.

I recommend first branching out to a non-blogging 3rd party platform, go to a place where you can drive traffic to your blog in some fashion. As I said way above, YouTube is a must for blogging success. But if you are not ready for YouTube, any of these will do–Pinterest, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, Facebook.

Once you have 1.) a rhythm to your blog 2.) social media strategy on one platform, then it’s time to experiment with blogging on either Substack or X. No need for some grand plan, just get on the platform and experiment and write. You’ll figure it out as you proceed.

My theory of blogging is decentralized blogging, meaning you, as the blogger, want to be in multiple places creating content, building a network which will point more and more to you being the authority in that particular space. And the path to making a full-time income in the blogging game ($10,000 per month) is earning the income in pieces from here and there. That’s the plan anyway.

Never ever ever waste your time building content on a platform that does not benefit your mission! I want you to win in your blogging and one of my best pieces of advice to you is to only blog where they want you and where they want you to win.

Until next time, friend. Blog on, blog on.