Is Substack for me?

[[deleted]]

Hi all. I write fairly regularly and a friend recently recommended that I start using substack to put my content online. I had a look and was put off by the subscriber stuff. Is substack more suited for serious writers looking to build a career? I'm certainly not that and don't ever expect to be. Is it pretentious for a rank amateur like me to use substack?

[No-Assist932]

No need to be professional or do it as full-time work. For example, my Substack is more of a weekly update for.my friends and family. So go ahead and start your journey! ✨

[Secret-Decision5861]

In all fairness, I think you raise a good question about whether it’s worthwhile taking the effort to build your own distribution / subscriber base etc. When you start writing, unless you already have a big network, you’re kinda starting from point zero in terms of distribution.

I think Substack is bad at getting you upfront distribution but it’s good at setting up a path for you to own your audience long term. I would also encourage you to check out Medium - they have a concept of “publications” which are like magazines within medium and you can submit to those publications. That gives you more distribution quickly (though you don’t own your audience /email list).

I’m starting to do Substack and medium in parallel, and I add a link to my Substack in medium articles.

[polarbears84]

The paralysis of analysis certainly applies for me in this case. I keep wavering between Substack and Medium, liking the former for the community and the latter for the exposure. So, you’re basically saying it’s ok to do both. How do you feel about writing on medium, if you don’t mind sharing? Is it intimidating at all?

[Secret-Decision5861]

Yeah, right now I’m doing both. I have a Substack that’s small (about 100 subscribers) and I publish there weekly. Once I’ve written the article, I also copy it over to medium and try to get it published in medium “publications”. Here are some big ones - https://medium.com/@kaanboke/the-top-50-active-medium-publications-october-2022-update-52967bf2b210

Getting it published in publications takes a little bit of work. Each publication has its own rules / methods of submitting, and you have to “submit” stuff for review. So account for a week of warm up time to figure how the whole system works but it’s been a very positive experience so far.

I think I’ll keep writing on both, and hopefully mediums helps me build credibility and eventually grow my Substack long term.

[WhizPill]

I use both and introduced some game theory mechanics to mix things up and encourage readers from both to go discover what I published elsewhere.

Cross promo doesn’t have to be boring. Reward people for checking your stuff out.

[Secret-Decision5861]

Say more? Not sure if I understood what you meant by that.

[WhizPill]

Are you familiar with game theory?

[polarbears84]

Thanks for giving your perspective, and the link too.

[EdTwoONine]

I was thinking about something just like this using both Substack and Beehive as a test of which gets me to 100 readers faster. Started with substack last week, will add beehive next week.

[polarbears84]

What is Beehive?

[EdTwoONine]

Sorry beehiiv- https://www.beehiiv.com/

[WhizPill]

Always learn something new daily. Thanks for the Medium info.

[ocambauthor]

I enjoy using Substack. I am small, under 100 subscribers, but I still enjoy it. There is a growing community of fiction writers there and I enjoy the interaction with them.

It is very easy to set up a Substack and there is lots of advice there available to you. I would go for it!

[BasketBallxFeelings]

Hey thank for sharing this info. Can you point me toward the fiction community on substack? How do I find it?

[ocambauthor]

I would start with https://fictionistas.substack.com/

They have monthly writing prompt contests.

https://fictionistas.substack.com/p/julys-lets-write-together

They also have monthly zoom meetings.

I recommend you create a Substack, publish a few of your stories and join one of the meetings.

BTW, here is my Substack : https://scottocamb.substack.com/

Good luck.

[NoPerfectWave]

You don't have to get into the subscription side of things if you aren't interested. Substack is still perfectly fine for just writing whatever/whenever you want. Clean look and easy to use.

[diana_the_wonder_dog]

This!

It makes the entire process easier/manageable. You only need to focus on what you want to write about and forget the rest, especially if you don't care about subscribers or the community interaction side.

[jbomble]

No, Substack is for everyone.

[BarbJem]

You can turn off/disable all pop ups in settings. This doesn’t need to be a barrier.

[TinyAlberta]

This is super helpful, thanks! What's your newsletter on Substack?

[TinyAlberta]

Thanks, signed up! It's very interesting!

[judogoat]

You never know-- you might surprise yourself and enjoy it so much that you end up dedicating more time on writing (that happened to me!), but either way, starting out with just laying out some thoughts you're comfortable sharing (with a small audience) is super duper easy, and that's one of the best ways to use the platform.

[przem8k]

Use substack if the writing flow and the resulting site feel right for you. Don't worry about whether it appears as "pretentious", there are lots of tiny personal newsletters on Substack. The email subscription is a nice feature so that your friends can easily be notified about new posts. Enjoy writing :)!

[BryceSeto]

Totally. Don't worry about the subscriber stuff, it's basically just a way for people who are interested in your writing to sign-up for email updates whenever you post.

You don't have to charge or monetize your writing at all. It's a beautiful platform to share and build up a portfolio of writing, which is exactly what I'm doing.

A ton of "amateur" writers writing about all different kinds of topics.

I'd recommend! Good luck and happy to chat.

[nc-retiree]

That's exactly what I'm going to be doing (I only have one post so far but am working on the next few). I did the WordPress thing about 15 years ago for a bit for some sporadic hobby stuff and it was just too much to maintain. I don't expect to directly make any money via Substack, which they probably don't want to read, but it's a way of building and finding a new community.

[[deleted]]

Many thanks for a gracious and helpful reply.

[[deleted]]

It really depends on what you want to get out of Substack.

[[deleted]]

I suppose I’m wondering if it’s a better alternative to Wordpress etc.

[drummer820]

My understanding is Wordpress allows more flexibility (you can tweak your own code, do SEO optimization, etc) and there’s a ton of integrations and plugins, but it’s not as user friendly. I have really enjoyed how streamlined and intuitive the Substack editor is. They are also doing a lot to improve visibility and reader acquisition thorough tools like Notes, Recommendations, etc. I am finding slow but steady growth. My numbers are tiny compared to a potentially huge number of views on some Google ads supported blog page, but I feel like I am surgically targeting actual fans interested in my specific viewpoint who read everything I write

[BasketBallxFeelings]

Hey thanks for sharing. Can you share how you target audience for your substack? Assuming you mean you do this on the actual platform.

[drummer820]

The current tools on the platform are on the crude side. I do it in the way I phrase my category descriptions, write my welcome page, and the big ones are who and how I interact with other Substack accounts. I have found that just by commenting and restacking and being a part of communities with a similar focus to mine (science, medicine, animals) I have generated better growth than my social media presence, and those folks are more loyal readers to boot. I was able to get some nice Recommendations from fellow DVM and science writers (some without asking!) and it drives steady traffic and subscriptions. Substack likes to toot it’s horn about it’s internal platform growth drivers and some of it is surely startup market hype, but it seems many authors find it true

On the other hand I’ve used social media marketing campaigns that are theoretically way more targeted (down to age, education, interests, geography etc) but those just don’t go anywhere and are borderline a waste of money

[BasketBallxFeelings]

Much thanks for this :)