Tips & Tricks

Beginner

6 min read 6 stepsMay 9, 2026Verified May 2026

Starting a Blog at 60+: Choosing Between WordPress.com, Substack, and Medium

A clear comparison of WordPress.com, Substack, and Medium for older bloggers, plus how to pick a topic and find your voice on the page.

At a Glance

Decide whether you want a newsletter, an open blog, or both

~28s

Ask one question: when someone reads my best post, do I want their email address, or am I okay with them just reading it and leaving? If you want email addresses (so you can build a list, send newsletters, and eventually sell something), choose Substack. If you want an open blog where strangers find you through Google search and read without signing up, choose WordPress.com or Medium. Many people start with Substack because the email list compounds over time.

If you choose Substack, sign up free and start writing

~28s

Go to substack.com and create a free account. Pick a publication name (this can be your name or your topic). Write your first post in the built-in editor. Click publish. The post becomes an email to your subscribers (you have zero at the start, which is normal) and a public page at yourname.substack.com. There are no themes or design choices. The simplicity is the point. Plan to publish weekly or biweekly for the first three months before you worry about anything else.

If you choose WordPress.com, start on the free plan first

~32s

Go to wordpress.com and create a free account. Pick a basic theme (Twenty Twenty-Five is fine). Write your first three posts before paying for anything. If after a month you are still committed, upgrade to the Personal plan (around 4 dollars a month) to remove the WordPress ads and connect a custom domain like yourname.com. The Premium plan at 8 dollars a month unlocks more design options and is overkill for most starters.

Quick Tip

Quick Tip: WordPress.com (with the .com) is the hosted version. WordPress.org is self-hosted software you install yourself. Most beginners want WordPress.com.

If you choose Medium, sign up and explore Partner Program rules

~25s

Go to medium.com and create an account. Posts default to public, where anyone can read them. If you want to earn money, apply to the Medium Partner Program (requires 100 followers and 1 post per 6 months minimum). Payments come from Medium members who read your posts, so earnings are small but real. Medium is best for writers who want a built-in audience and do not need to own the platform.

Pick a clear topic and a posting schedule you can hold

~33s

A blog without a topic dies fast. "Random thoughts" is not a topic. "Living with a hip replacement after 65" is. "What I learned organizing my mother's estate" is. "Birdwatching in the Carolinas" is. Pick one and commit for the first 20 posts. Posting once a week on the same day teaches readers when to expect you. Saturday mornings are popular for older blogs because retirees read more on weekends.

Warning

Do not write to chase trends. Older voices win when they sound like themselves. The reader who finds you in 2027 was looking for someone exactly like you.

Write your first post about why you started, not what you know

~28s

First posts are awkward because there is no audience yet. Write a 600-to-900-word post titled something like "Why I Started Writing About X" and tell the truth: who you are, what you want to share, and why. This post will not be your best. It will be your introduction. Future readers will sometimes circle back to it months later. Click publish before you talk yourself out of it. The second post is always more comfortable than the first.

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Blogging is the quiet older sibling of YouTube and podcasting. There are no cameras, no microphones, no editing software, no upload buttons. You write, you click publish, and the words sit there waiting for the right reader to find them. For many people over 60, writing fits energy and temperament better than video. You can write a 700-word post in a morning, drink a cup of coffee, and be done by 10:30.

The blogging tools landscape in 2026 has narrowed to three real choices for beginners: WordPress.com, Substack, and Medium. Each has a different shape, and picking the wrong one costs you time you do not want to lose.

WordPress.com is the oldest, most flexible, and most owned by you. You get a real website at a real address (yourname.wordpress.com on the free plan, or yourname.com if you pay around 48 dollars a year). You can change designs, add pages, and move your blog to a self-hosted WordPress installation later if it grows. The downside is the learning curve. The free WordPress.com plan shows ads on your posts and gives you limited storage. Most serious bloggers start on the Personal plan at 4 dollars a month or the Premium plan at 8 dollars a month.

Substack is the newest of the three and the most focused on writers building an email newsletter. Every post you write goes out as an email to subscribers and also lives on a free webpage. There is no design to fuss with, no plugins, no themes. You write, you publish, and Substack sends the email. It is free to start. And you can turn on paid subscriptions later (Substack takes 10 percent). The catch is that Substack is built around the email subscription model. If you want to write essays for the open web and not collect email addresses, Substack feels heavy.

Medium is the in-between option. Your posts live on medium.com, share an audience with thousands of other writers, and can earn small payments through the Medium Partner Program if you sign up. Medium handles all the design for you. It looks clean on any device. The downside is that you do not own the platform. If Medium changes its rules or shuts down, your work goes with it. Many writers use Medium as a second home for posts originally published elsewhere.

(Sources: WordPress.com documentation; Substack publisher help center; Medium support articles)

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