Custom domains now available on Substack

#1

Post by tylerwince » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 6:23 PM UTC

Custom domains now available on Substack
blog.substack.com

Re: Custom domains now available on Substack

#2

Post by exolymph » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 6:45 PM UTC

This is great news since it decreases the lockin / leverage that Substack has over individual writers on the platform. It's a creator-friendly choice and I respect that Substack is putting their money where their mouth is in that respect!

Re: Custom domains now available on Substack

#3

Post by jtsiskin » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 7:05 PM UTC

exolymph wrote: post #2

This is great news since it decreases the lockin / leverage that Substack has over individual writers on the platform. It's a creator-friendly choice and I respect that Substack is putting their money where their mouth is in that respect!

Yes, it is refreshingly open compared to the walled gardens it seems like everyone else is trying to make.

Re: Custom domains now available on Substack

#4

Post by vptr » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 7:05 PM UTC

exolymph wrote: post #2

This is great news since it decreases the lockin / leverage that Substack has over individual writers on the platform. It's a creator-friendly choice and I respect that Substack is putting their money where their mouth is in that respect!

I say, give it a few years :)

Re: Custom domains now available on Substack

#5

Post by chrisweekly » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 7:06 PM UTC

exolymph wrote: post #2

This is great news since it decreases the lockin / leverage that Substack has over individual writers on the platform. It's a creator-friendly choice and I respect that Substack is putting their money where their mouth is in that respect!

+1. Custom domains are (less than) table stakes in my book.

Re: Custom domains now available on Substack

#6

Post by exolymph » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 7:07 PM UTC

vptr wrote: post #4

exolymph wrote: post #2

This is great news since it decreases the lockin / leverage that Substack has over individual writers on the platform. It's a creator-friendly choice and I respect that Substack is putting their money where their mouth is in that respect!

I say, give it a few years :)

If they take away the custom domain option, that's quite a canary. So useful in either case.

Re: Custom domains now available on Substack

#7

Post by Sebb767 » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 7:25 PM UTC

exolymph wrote: post #6

vptr wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I say, give it a few years :)

If they take away the custom domain option, that's quite a canary. So useful in either case.

Medium did it and it wasn't received well. I hope Substack learns from their Mistake.

Re: Custom domains now available on Substack

#8

Post by pier25 » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 7:30 PM UTC

> To use custom domains, you’ll be charged a one-time $50 fee per publication.

I wonder why they're doing this. Substack is already taking 10% of revenue which is huge.

I think a better model would have been to offer it for free to paid newsletters so it's considered a premium feature and it can't be abused by their users not generating any revenue.

Re: Custom domains now available on Substack

#9

Post by high_derivative » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 7:32 PM UTC

Does substack allow (paid) anonymous writing? I could not immediately find how this works from the faq. Will they protect their writers?

Re: Custom domains now available on Substack

#10

Post by subpixel » Thu, Oct 22, 2020, 7:37 PM UTC

chrisweekly wrote: post #5

exolymph wrote: post #2

This is great news since it decreases the lockin / leverage that Substack has over individual writers on the platform. It's a creator-friendly choice and I respect that Substack is putting their money where their mouth is in that respect!

+1. Custom domains are (less than) table stakes in my book.

I took this approach in the e-commerce space a decade ago, and assumed that no serious merchant would ever dream of paying for an e-commerce solution that required them to link to a subdomain on another company's domain to take orders.

I was wrong. In fact, a lot of merchants saw the third-party domain as a status thing. There were thousands of merchants in one tribe and thousands in another. They are still doing it today, including at levels of commerce that prove that I was not just off, but that I totally misread the market.