9 reasons why I moved my blog from Substack
I started my Substack in 2023. I had things I wanted to write which didn’t fit with my business blog and I was hoping to follow in the footsteps of Emma Gannon. I possibly had unrealistic expectations.
Anyway, I liked Substack. I wrote my article most weeks, usually on a Thursday morning during an online coworking session, created a cover image, and pressed the schedule button. Job done.
When I started, I wrote an article explaining the difference between my business blog and my Substack and I set out my stall for why I was writing on Substack.
So why are you reading this on a website I own and not on Substack?
1. My personal blog is just that
People have opinion columns that attract subscribers. But they are usually topic focused or situational. Or the author is famous. My blog doesn’t tick any of those boxes. It’s just me and my thoughts and the subject matter is different from one week to the next. That doesn’t make it an appealing proposition to someone who doesn’t know me, who might read one thing they like, but the next week finds something in their inbox they’re not interested in at all.
The Substack blogs that grow an audience and make money have a clear focus so people have a reason to subscribe.
2. It’s a whole new platform to learn
Yes, you can build an audience on Substack but that takes time and attention. One of the things that attracted me to Substack was Notes, which are a kind of inbuilt Twitter. You can share text, images, and video. If you want to grow your audience on the platform, Notes is the way to go. However, the audience I want to grow is for my business and that’s where my time creating social media content needs to be spent. Having Substack as well was a distraction.
3. I felt like I was hiding
“I wrote about that on my Substack.” Was a comment I found myself making on various issues. I’ve definitely spoken out about that, it’s on my Substack. Yes, my Substack with not many subscribers that most people who know me don’t follow. It was more whispering than speaking out.
4. LinkedIn throttled reach on posts mentioning Substack
My main social media platform is LinkedIn. I’m going to be playing with some others this year but my LinkedIn is established and I’m active there most days. I found that whenever I posted about something I had written on Substack, my impressions would tank. Put an actual link to Substack in and LinkedIn wouldn’t show my post to anyone at all.
5. I don’t find the actual website intuitive
Putting a newsletter together on Substack is reasonably straightforward but I found it difficult to find my way around Substack itself. I didn’t know how to find other people whose work I wanted to read. It meant I rarely went on the site, only reading newsletters I had subscribed to. I found it frustrating.
6. I couldn’t get embeds to work
It might just be me but while embeds should work, they always came up as a messy mix of the thing I wanted to share with some code around it. And sometimes I want to embed a video, not have a clickable thumbnail and send readers off to watch elsewhere.
7. Followers increased but subscribers didn’t
I have a lovely graph of subscribers growing exponentially but here’s the thing: yes, followers see you pop up on the platform however a) they need to be browsing there to see you show up in the feed, and b) they don’t get your emails. The magic of Substack is in attracting subscribers. Those people definitely see your newsletter and can then choose whether to open it or not. Followers are nice but the chances of them seeing your work is a lottery.
8. Extremist newsletters
Free speech is a tricky balancing act. I believe in freedom of expression, I’m a blogger after all, but some views are harmful to others. Where do you draw the line? I’m not sure. But someone whose opinion I value won’t click Substack links because extremist newsletters are allowed on the platform. It’s difficult to find platforms that don’t have some kind of problem, whether ethical or to do with the user experience, and so I decided the best thing was to build my own. Here we are.
9. I wanted to show you don’t need to build on rented land
WordPress enables you to have all the benefits of Substack with more control. It is after all, a blogging site. Ironically, I’m a blogger and I’ve had a WordPress website for 8 years but this is the first time I’ve used it as a blog and not as a website.
Unsurprisingly, the posts look nice, I can create an archive with excerpts, whereas Substack only shared the title. I’ve signed up to ko-fi so if you enjoy what I write, you can buy me a ‘coffee’. It’s much better than expecting people to sign up to a regular paid for subscription and you can pay what you want. I’ve also created a sign up form to join my mailing list.
Will I fare any better building a list without Substack’s infrastructure? I don’t know. I just want to write.
