I don’t remember how I started using Substack, but I know it’s been the best tool for expressing myself and sharing my thoughts since the invention of Wordpress when I was in my 20s.
To be honest with you, I never liked Wordpress and I used to use a content management system called Textpattern that was far more zen to operate.
Here are ten things I know about Substack:
Let’s start with the elephant in the room: Substack has some sort of issue with Nazis, but the technology is so good that I have chosen to forget about that as long as I can. It’s not like X where you are more likely to be shown racist or hurtful content in order to fire you up and keep you on the site which is how traditional news outlets operate.
Expanding on the previous point, overall I understand the core values of the company as one that supports creative people and is working towards a win-win in terms of profit and offering a service.
I like to think of Substack as part of the Introvert OS, which are tools that I use to help me think and go deep. Instagram by contrast only gets to my surface because all the images are moving so fast. YouTube can be great for thinking and learning as long as you find a way to cut down the ads (Adblock on desktop or Brave browser on mobile can work).
The service allows you to have multiple publications, so you can try different ideas out. I started out with The Sunday Bagel which still goes out every weekend, and then I created the one that you’re reading because I wanted to focus on the world of artists and entrepreneurs and I didn’t seem to fit as well with my main newsletter.
Sending newsletters used to be a huge pain in the ass in terms of creative flow and getting ideas out the door. In the traditional Mailchimp model you had this whole work-up before the email went out and it didn’t feel nice. Substack changed that by giving you an interface to write, and then to publish it as quickly as possible. Shoutout to Tinyletter which was on the case before all this, but they got swallowed up by Mailchimp along the way.
If you are Substack-curious, try to start a new publication and post to no audience. Then, as you get more comfortable you can start inviting people over to your publication. Substack has all the tools needed to help convert a reader into a subscriber because it’s in their interest to grow your readership so that you will eventually turn on paid tiers.
Substack takes a lot of money from paid publications. 10% plus Stripe fees. It’s the profit you give up in exchange for having such a well-oiled machine at your fingertips. I really don’t think monetizing your newsletter is that important, but I am grateful to my small tribe of paid subscribers on The Sunday Bagel who do it to express gratitude to me and that’s a nice vibe to have all that love going around and getting a lot my coffee paid for. Just try to get people to cover your coffee when doing bohemian work and then take it from there.
I once read that paid readers of Substacks are less-engaged readers. The speculation is that since they’ve paid for the newsletter, they don’t feel as compelled to read. Sort of like a Bystander Effect. I don’t know if it’s true but this came up on a Substack writers group in Discord.
Don’t do anything because people are telling you do it. That’s the worst possible reason to do things like start a Substack or force yourself to read its newsfeeds. This probably applies to writers more than anyone else. Musicians are told to be on Spotify as an equivalent. Only do things when you are compelled from the inside and if it lines up with your values. When things are outside of your values they start to feel weird like when you have high blood pressure or you’re trying to date someone who’s a bad fit.
Do take a chance on something that scares you. If writing and sharing your thoughts is important to you, I can tell you that this site works a lot better than competitors such as Ghost which give you more control and revenue but also charge monthly fees and remind me of working in Wordpress. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what tool you use, just write out your thoughts and hit publish like I’m about to do.
Very helpful post. I like the pseudonym option (Mark Twain, George Orwell / 2 famous examples) because it opens up creative avenues, ideas and risks to explore that may not otherwise be as readily available, at least initially. It’s a good way to kick a few tires on a few cars — even before the test drive, and well before the purchase and drive off the lot.