Great to see you here Michael. Although I’ve been here for over a year (since October 2021, end of WoP 7) it is refreshing to read what a newcomer broadly thinks about the migration process in 2023. I found Substack, by a significant factor, calmed my designer brain (which seeks to forever want to tweak and improve on non-writing related things of the writing experience) and allowed me to just hit publish. I have great affinity for the clean and simple substack draft environment, it’s seems to put my mind in the right frame for writing, just like seeing delicious food can make one salivate in preparation of eating. The network effects on the platform are noticeable even for a small writer like myself. And the heart button... Just perfection. Oh and TIL one can customize the nav bar! Anyways, excellent breakdown and welcome.
For me, writing is social. The comments section on my newsletter has been on fire recently, and that helps with motivation for when I am in the dip. I'm opting out of the private chat function on Substack at this point.
Karena! I remember when I switched to Ghost, you told me the dealbreaker for you was the comment section. You were so right. Ghost actually added a comment module recently, but there's enough friction that it never gets any traction (the default reply was through email).
Why aren't you using the Substack chat? I was considering posting my logs in real-time on there, but not sure if it would annoy people with ~10 posts per day.
The first sticking point is that Substack chat requires the app. I think that restricts many of my audience from participating. (My Mom doesn't <3 my posts as she hasn't figured out how to logon to substack).
I also use LInkedIn, Twitter, Instagram to share my posts - and similar to the point above, I think the readers coming from those platforms should not be obliged to enter the substack eco-system to engage. If they have to, then I see a point where substack approaches monetizing the way Medium did in 2021, changing their algorithm, putting a cap on the number of reads available to free accounts.
It was quite a manual slog, and as soon as I finished I learned that they have an importer! It doesn't seem like it plays nice with Squarespace, but you could try it with an RSS feed.
I was explaining to Lyssa that your migration to Substack is momentous with your role as a trend setter for the indieweb folks, reflected in the comments. But it almost feels as though the world of indieweb has long past, with few remembering e.g. Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere (POSSE) https://indieweb.org/POSSE
I found myself forgetting too. My writing is now scattered across Substack and Medium instead of properly syndicated from my own website. The threat of being de-platformed (or even worse, becoming *undiscoverable*) meant a strong desire to get people onto mailing lists. Which meant promising "exclusive" content, which meant not syndicating...
But perhaps that is a trap I had willingly set myself into? There's technically nothing that prevents me from posting most Substack content onto my own website, barring those I wish to remain paywalled. Since RSS continues to lose to email inboxes still, the "benefit" of subscribing to a Substack can be email notification itself, rather than exclusivity.
The ideal imagery I have in mind is Japanese wood block-print--own the original and the wood block, make lots of reproductions everywhere. Without this ancient technology taking off at the time, the Great Wave off Kanagawa may not be as well-known.
Substack is outside the indieweb ethos, but I feel it's accomplishing POSSE in a way. You can publish all your work in a single place (custom domain, canonical URLs, categories, etc.), and then it auto-replicates in 3-4 other places (to the Substack reader, email inboxes, Twitter, and an RSS feed).
I almost considered hosting my essays on Substack and my logs on Ghost, but it adds complexity when work is scattered (both for writers and readers). I'm going to try to push the limits here to see what it's like to build out a full site (ie: I'll have log pages per month -- they won't be posts, but standalone pages with URLs, all hyperlinked from a 'log archive' page.)
Do you see any downsides to hosting all your work on Substack (essays, newsletters, notes, course info, etc.)?
In the past, all content had to work within a single structure: posts. Now, you have 4 ways to divide content. In addition to posts (1), you can put posts in categories (2). If you want to separate something from posts, you can make pages -- which can either be in the nav bar (3), or, standalone URLs (4).
🤔 does substack allow one to easily export everything? Not that what I’m doing right now is that “easy” (technically one can export with Notion but it’s not as clean as say a bunch of markdown files) but to me the indie part is being able to walk away with the data and replicate the setup elsewhere.
Good Q. I just tried their bulk export function at the bottom of settings. It gives you a CSV or your subscribers, a CSV of all your posts (date, title, subtitle, topic), and then a folder where each post is an HTML file.
Substack uses Stripe. The combination of both is pure brilliance. You are not locked in to Substack. You can take your Stripe to your own website if you so chose. What's there not to love about that!
Glad this helped, Rachel. The landscape of online writing is always shifting, and so are the strategies. While Substack isn't the perfect website tool, it gets writing & connecting right. The features around aesthetics will slowly get better with time.
Haha I avoided Substack for a while too, for the reason of getting to choose my own aesthetics.
Then I realized that was just feeding my ego, and as a writer my goal is to get my words in front of peoples eyes - and it didn’t matter if I was using Substack or anywhere else.
And Substack just makes everything a little easier! Editor, distribution, recognizable links. And with a Substack acc, you can engage with other writers more easily!
At the of the day, I realized it doesn’t matter if you’re writing on Substack or your personal website or both - both is probably better. You own the content and the list. Lastly, if you ever wanted to, it only takes a couple hours to switch platforms, but I promise you nobody would care.
re: aesthetics. That was an original blocker for me too. In the end, it's not the top priority, and also nice that Substack is slowing adding customization here.
The one thing to be careful about with multiple platforms is the time it takes to maintain them. In the last few weeks, I tried to draw the lines between what goes on my site, and what goes here. It got too complex, and I figured (with some sacrifices), I could just rebuild my site here.
Great deconstruction Michael. I can relate, as I've gone through a similar journey - starting with Medium, then switching to Ghost, and most recently moving to Substack. It will be interesting to see how things develop in the future.
I had my own website before Write of Passage 9, and from that point set up a Substack. Both my Convertkit email list and Substack list get my weekly newsletter, and - thanks to WOP - I've been publishing every Thursday without fail. Not bad considering I had a created an email list when I started my website, and then promptly failed to email them for about 2 years.
I love Karena's point about community - the ability to comment on people's ideas is great, particularly when other commenting spaces, like blog posts on websites, do have crickets inhabiting them!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the impact of Substack, and an insight into your reasons for switching
Hi, thank you for sharing your thoughts and breaking down for us your reason for coming into Substack. I didn't know about custom tabs and all that until you break it down for me. I love your public logs too. It's really nice to understand what's going on behind your brain.
I've been using Roam Research as an private entry journal because it's one that I find works for mindmapping and capture my thoughts but maybe it's about time I go public.
I could nerd out on nav bars all day. Funny thing is now that you can customize it, it can lead to that good old form of analysis paralysis. Almost had 10. Decided to keep it simple and start with 4.
I'm thoroughly enjoying my experience with Substack! Since beginning my writing journey on Growthstore.xyz, I've been impressed by the platform's robust email capabilities and the powerful network effect it offers. These features have played a significant role in helping me surpass the 1,000-subscriber milestone.
Great to see you here Michael. Although I’ve been here for over a year (since October 2021, end of WoP 7) it is refreshing to read what a newcomer broadly thinks about the migration process in 2023. I found Substack, by a significant factor, calmed my designer brain (which seeks to forever want to tweak and improve on non-writing related things of the writing experience) and allowed me to just hit publish. I have great affinity for the clean and simple substack draft environment, it’s seems to put my mind in the right frame for writing, just like seeing delicious food can make one salivate in preparation of eating. The network effects on the platform are noticeable even for a small writer like myself. And the heart button... Just perfection. Oh and TIL one can customize the nav bar! Anyways, excellent breakdown and welcome.
Hey Fei! +1 on 'calmed my designers brain.' It's amazing how a lack of features is a feature in itself.
Well said.
Y E S
For me, writing is social. The comments section on my newsletter has been on fire recently, and that helps with motivation for when I am in the dip. I'm opting out of the private chat function on Substack at this point.
Karena! I remember when I switched to Ghost, you told me the dealbreaker for you was the comment section. You were so right. Ghost actually added a comment module recently, but there's enough friction that it never gets any traction (the default reply was through email).
Why aren't you using the Substack chat? I was considering posting my logs in real-time on there, but not sure if it would annoy people with ~10 posts per day.
The first sticking point is that Substack chat requires the app. I think that restricts many of my audience from participating. (My Mom doesn't <3 my posts as she hasn't figured out how to logon to substack).
I also use LInkedIn, Twitter, Instagram to share my posts - and similar to the point above, I think the readers coming from those platforms should not be obliged to enter the substack eco-system to engage. If they have to, then I see a point where substack approaches monetizing the way Medium did in 2021, changing their algorithm, putting a cap on the number of reads available to free accounts.
Chat is now available on the web too--substack.com/chat!
True indeed. Comments can be such a pain. Substack got this right, too. Smooth sailing.
I’m so over Squarespace. But porting everything over sounds like a nightmare--I’d love to hear more about how you did it.
It was quite a manual slog, and as soon as I finished I learned that they have an importer! It doesn't seem like it plays nice with Squarespace, but you could try it with an RSS feed.
https://substack.com/signup/import
That said, I did find some value in going through each one. I got to re-read some old writing, put it in a new category, and generate art for it.
Thanks for the detailed breakdown. You put to words the vibe shift I was feeling.
Back again after mulling for a while :)
I was explaining to Lyssa that your migration to Substack is momentous with your role as a trend setter for the indieweb folks, reflected in the comments. But it almost feels as though the world of indieweb has long past, with few remembering e.g. Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere (POSSE) https://indieweb.org/POSSE
I found myself forgetting too. My writing is now scattered across Substack and Medium instead of properly syndicated from my own website. The threat of being de-platformed (or even worse, becoming *undiscoverable*) meant a strong desire to get people onto mailing lists. Which meant promising "exclusive" content, which meant not syndicating...
But perhaps that is a trap I had willingly set myself into? There's technically nothing that prevents me from posting most Substack content onto my own website, barring those I wish to remain paywalled. Since RSS continues to lose to email inboxes still, the "benefit" of subscribing to a Substack can be email notification itself, rather than exclusivity.
The ideal imagery I have in mind is Japanese wood block-print--own the original and the wood block, make lots of reproductions everywhere. Without this ancient technology taking off at the time, the Great Wave off Kanagawa may not be as well-known.
Thanks for sharing Christin.
Substack is outside the indieweb ethos, but I feel it's accomplishing POSSE in a way. You can publish all your work in a single place (custom domain, canonical URLs, categories, etc.), and then it auto-replicates in 3-4 other places (to the Substack reader, email inboxes, Twitter, and an RSS feed).
I almost considered hosting my essays on Substack and my logs on Ghost, but it adds complexity when work is scattered (both for writers and readers). I'm going to try to push the limits here to see what it's like to build out a full site (ie: I'll have log pages per month -- they won't be posts, but standalone pages with URLs, all hyperlinked from a 'log archive' page.)
Do you see any downsides to hosting all your work on Substack (essays, newsletters, notes, course info, etc.)?
In the past, all content had to work within a single structure: posts. Now, you have 4 ways to divide content. In addition to posts (1), you can put posts in categories (2). If you want to separate something from posts, you can make pages -- which can either be in the nav bar (3), or, standalone URLs (4).
🤔 does substack allow one to easily export everything? Not that what I’m doing right now is that “easy” (technically one can export with Notion but it’s not as clean as say a bunch of markdown files) but to me the indie part is being able to walk away with the data and replicate the setup elsewhere.
Good Q. I just tried their bulk export function at the bottom of settings. It gives you a CSV or your subscribers, a CSV of all your posts (date, title, subtitle, topic), and then a folder where each post is an HTML file.
Oh! Thank you for digging this up and saving me some legwork 🦵 Hrmm!! I shall consider following your path..
I suppose the other “worry” is that if substack changes their paywall stance 🤔 but that’s the price we pay as consumers I suppose!
Substack uses Stripe. The combination of both is pure brilliance. You are not locked in to Substack. You can take your Stripe to your own website if you so chose. What's there not to love about that!
Thanks for this, Michael. Your analysis helped me answer a question I’ve been asking since joining WOP - should I build my own website?
I dreaded the task because I knew I get bogged down by aesthetics. Substack allows me to focus on the two important things: Write & Connect.
Looking forward to reading your whale-scale essays this year.
Glad this helped, Rachel. The landscape of online writing is always shifting, and so are the strategies. While Substack isn't the perfect website tool, it gets writing & connecting right. The features around aesthetics will slowly get better with time.
Haha I avoided Substack for a while too, for the reason of getting to choose my own aesthetics.
Then I realized that was just feeding my ego, and as a writer my goal is to get my words in front of peoples eyes - and it didn’t matter if I was using Substack or anywhere else.
And Substack just makes everything a little easier! Editor, distribution, recognizable links. And with a Substack acc, you can engage with other writers more easily!
At the of the day, I realized it doesn’t matter if you’re writing on Substack or your personal website or both - both is probably better. You own the content and the list. Lastly, if you ever wanted to, it only takes a couple hours to switch platforms, but I promise you nobody would care.
Welcome to Substack! ✍️
Thanks Leo!
re: aesthetics. That was an original blocker for me too. In the end, it's not the top priority, and also nice that Substack is slowing adding customization here.
The one thing to be careful about with multiple platforms is the time it takes to maintain them. In the last few weeks, I tried to draw the lines between what goes on my site, and what goes here. It got too complex, and I figured (with some sacrifices), I could just rebuild my site here.
Yup, the overhead issue is real
Great deconstruction Michael. I can relate, as I've gone through a similar journey - starting with Medium, then switching to Ghost, and most recently moving to Substack. It will be interesting to see how things develop in the future.
I had my own website before Write of Passage 9, and from that point set up a Substack. Both my Convertkit email list and Substack list get my weekly newsletter, and - thanks to WOP - I've been publishing every Thursday without fail. Not bad considering I had a created an email list when I started my website, and then promptly failed to email them for about 2 years.
I love Karena's point about community - the ability to comment on people's ideas is great, particularly when other commenting spaces, like blog posts on websites, do have crickets inhabiting them!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the impact of Substack, and an insight into your reasons for switching
Hi, thank you for sharing your thoughts and breaking down for us your reason for coming into Substack. I didn't know about custom tabs and all that until you break it down for me. I love your public logs too. It's really nice to understand what's going on behind your brain.
I've been using Roam Research as an private entry journal because it's one that I find works for mindmapping and capture my thoughts but maybe it's about time I go public.
One of us, one of us . . .
Welcome! I am surprised at how many of these Substack features I did not know about. Need to start messing around with my format.
Poetry block allows you to do tab indents!
I did not know that. Wow, that's kind of cool.
Welcome to the dark side, or is the light?
Currently in dark mode, but feels like the light.
Haha I was gonna say...
But MAN that nav bar customization!!! I didn't know that you could do that, I'm saving today's post to copy
I could nerd out on nav bars all day. Funny thing is now that you can customize it, it can lead to that good old form of analysis paralysis. Almost had 10. Decided to keep it simple and start with 4.
Great piece, Michael. And nice move. I think you unpacked it well by citing Erik’s work to support your own thoughts. And good to see you here! :)
I'm thoroughly enjoying my experience with Substack! Since beginning my writing journey on Growthstore.xyz, I've been impressed by the platform's robust email capabilities and the powerful network effect it offers. These features have played a significant role in helping me surpass the 1,000-subscriber milestone.