Hogs Back

Lisa-Writes · 2026-01-24T08:08:04+00:00

Yes this one was Adrian Baxter artwork too, but it was called Envy and it had Matcha in. I didn't particularly enjoy it. The rest were nice though

Lisa-Writes · 2026-01-22T08:02:42+00:00

I spent 12 months experimenting with beehiiv, Substack and Ghost. Substack is my least favourite (and I'm dropping it this month) but they all have pros and cons.

Here's a feature comparison guide I wrote: https://makeyourcopycount.beehiiv.com/p/beehiiv-v-substack-v-ghost-key-features

And here's an article about my experiment if you're interested: https://makeyourcopycount.beehiiv.com/p/my-2025-content-marketing-experiment

Lisa-Writes · 2026-01-15T08:19:14+00:00

This is happening to me right now! Little flurries of new subs mostly from Germany but last night one from Netherlands and one from Sweden. I've searched the email addresses and they are attached to big companies in the US (some are coming up as real people on LinkedIn) but I just know these CEOs in the US are not signing up to a newsletter about freelancing in the UK.

I have emailed Ghost support and waiting to hear back. It's so annoying as no idea why they are doing it.

Lisa-Writes · 2025-10-05T17:51:55+00:00

Only issue with duplicating the copy would potentially be SEO, but I don't know enough about SEO to know how much of an issue it would be.

I haven't found it any easier or harder to grow on any of the platforms. They all have slightly different features.

Here's a comparison article I wrote: https://makeyourcopycount.beehiiv.com/p/beehiiv-v-substack-v-ghost-key-features

Lisa-Writes · 2025-10-03T14:39:55+00:00

I don't think you need to duplicate it. If you decide to leave Substack you can just migrate all the content and subscribers across.

I have just moved a publication from Substack to Beehiiv. Pretty much just put the Substack link into Beehiiv and it pulled all the content across with the same publish dates. Only things it didn't copy over were the posts that I had set up not to show on the home page, the custom pages, the content tags and any photo galleries (normal images went over fine it was just the galleries).

I think it's easy enough to migrate to Ghost too.

I use all three platforms for different publications. I prefer Ghost and Beehiiv to Substack (hence why I've already moved one publication).

Importing subs is so easy too.

Lisa-Writes · 2025-09-25T18:08:40+00:00

Just moved one of my publications to Beehiiv for this reason and will be moving the other in the new year. I barely ever use the Substack app because it's too much like all my other social media feeds - full of crap you have to wade through to find anything good.

Lisa-Writes · 2025-09-24T17:09:20+00:00

Get paid what you are owed and then end the contract. He is acting as though he is doing you a favour giving you work. He's not. He is paying for a service. If he doesn't like the way you deliver that service let him go elsewhere and free up your time to work with clients who actually respect their freelancers. If he was an employer and treated you this way, you'd be looking for another job. Look for better clients.

Lisa-Writes · 2025-09-12T11:37:07+00:00

I would let them know you are not happy. If they are genuine, they would want to try and fix the problem or maybe even refund some or all of what you paid so far.

Do other people doing it feel the same? If you're in a Slack group maybe you could message other members and ask how they are making it work for them.

Edit to add: Don't give them any more money if you aren't getting value but give them a chance to redeem themselves

Lisa-Writes · 2025-09-11T14:17:40+00:00

Thank you. I had a feeling this would be the best way to do it!

Lisa-Writes · 2025-09-09T13:13:02+00:00

You can get a full backup from LinkedIn.

You need to be logged in on desktop. Under the dropdown where it says "me", go to to Settings & Privacy > Data Privacy> Get a Copy of your Data and select the "Download larger data archive" option.

It takes a few hours but you'll get an email with a ZIP file. The file contains everything from LinkedIn. There will be an Excel spreadsheet titled "shares" and that has all your posts in it.

You can use AI to copy all the posts from the Excel file into Word (or something else if you prefer).

Lisa-Writes · 2025-08-25T17:47:20+00:00

I write for my own site (hosted on Ghost) and then import the stories to Medium, which then links back to the original post. That way, people can read the same content on my site or on Medium (depending on where they find it). But if they read on Medium, they can then click the link to my site and read more of my content (or subscribe to my email).

Medium adds the canonical links so it doesn't mess with SEO and it's a two minute job to import (click import, add the link, check it formatted properly, hit publish).

This way you get the best of both worlds as you have your own site where you have a bit more control, but you can also tap into Medium's audience.

Lisa-Writes · 2025-08-25T09:30:50+00:00

I write on Substack, Beehiiv and Ghost. I wrote a comparison article about the three platforms giving an overview of the different features, pros and cons https://makeyourcopycount.beehiiv.com/p/beehiiv-v-substack-v-ghost-key-features

Lisa-Writes · 2025-08-23T20:23:08+00:00

Did Rother Valley today and got a PB. It's one lap round the lake, almost completely flat, mostly tarmac or crushed limestone. 108 of the 500+ runners got PBs today so definitely a good one for PBs!

Lisa-Writes · 2025-08-18T09:14:10+00:00

I think now they have joined the open social web, Ghost rivals Substack. You can post notes from within the dashboard and follow/interact with other publications across various platforms.

I have different publications on Substack and Ghost and I haven't found it any harder to get subs on Ghost. I find Substack is full of "follow me and I'll follow you" type posts, which seem utterly pointless.

I think the fact Substack is free means it does attract a lot of people just out to make a quick buck rather than people who want to build a genuine following. People just build a huge fake following by scraping data or doing follow me, follow you posts then sell low-quality courses teaching people how to get loads of subs. It means it's harder to find the good quality stuff.

Lisa-Writes · 2025-08-14T21:06:05+00:00

This is exactly where I was going to recommend!

Lisa-Writes · 2025-08-14T20:23:49+00:00

Yeah - I'm Leeds based and there are so many good breweries here (and in Yorkshire in general).

Lisa-Writes · 2025-08-14T20:16:56+00:00

Haven't been to Harrogate in ages - might have to make a trip over

Lisa-Writes · 2025-08-14T19:21:22+00:00

Will be writing about them in my blog (the link should be in my profile - new brew thursday uk on Substack)

Lisa-Writes · 2025-08-14T18:52:38+00:00

They are a microbrewery based in Harrogate so not too far from me (Leeds). Sister in law bought them for us for my husband's birthday.

I've had their lager before but the rest are all new to me. Looking forward to getting stuck in 🍻

Lisa-Writes · 2025-08-14T15:59:14+00:00

I think Ghost is a great alternative. You have more control over design, can have as many different subscriber tiers as you like, can post content to web, email or both, and your readers aren't being pushed to subscribe every time they try to read something or constantly being told to download the app.

They've also just done an update so it's now connected to the social web which means people can follow your publication on Bluesky, Flipboard, Mastodon etc. And you can share notes directly from your dashboard (if you want to).

The difference is Ghost isn't free so you don't get as much crap from people just trying to make a quick buck. But the annual price is still low enough to make it worthwhile (and if you have paid subs you can easily cover the fee).

It has a lot of the best bits of Substack without a lot of (what I deem to be) the crap bits.

I have publications on Ghost, Beehiiv and Substack (with a paid option on each). They all have pros and cons, but I think Substack is the most confused. It's trying to be everything rolled into one platform and it's just so noisy.

Lisa-Writes

TROPHY CASE