[simonsarris]

We cannot know of course, there is no Twin Earth where Taylor Swift is president, nobody likes pizza, and I or Medium had done things differently. I can only ponder the odds of my personal blog becoming popular vs a story on Medium becoming popular. Both may be very small, but it should be clear that the odds are still greater in the Medium route.

Tags allow visibility to people perusing topics on Medium, or getting emails about those topics. The SEO boost is clearly greater, and Medium is unlikely to go down if a flood of traffic arrives. And the possibility of "editors pick/best of" etc is obviously greater, since it exists at all. And besides, since I am not famous, leveraging a famous domain lends enough credibility for more people at the margins to read what I wish to say.

So my particular outcome aside, I think it good advice for any internet rando, including myself, to leverage the power of such a platform while the benefits seem nonzero. Though I understand people's reservations (such as this article!), they seem overstated or else to ignore completely the clear advantages, even if they are only potential advantages.