Substack writers, you need a website
elizabethtai.com
Substack writers, you need a website
1–10 of 373 posts
Re: Substack writers, you need a website
#2TLDR: POSSE: Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere.
Re: Substack writers, you need a website
#3TLDR: POSSE: Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere.
Is there a guide for how to do the “syndicate elsewhere” part?
For the HN audience, the first part is trivially easy (getting a domain, publishing on it) but the second probably isn’t obvious.
Re: Substack writers, you need a website
#4I recently started to write newsletters about Hamburg (https://alsterrunde.com). Before doing that I also considered Substack but seeing that I have to pay 50$ for just using my domain was a no-go. In the end, I ended up with my friend's hosted Ghost solution (https://www.synapsmedia.com).
If you already have a Substack, you can also easily migrate to Ghost. Since it is open source, you can also host it on Hetzner, if you want to manage it yourself.
Re: Substack writers, you need a website
#5For what it's worth, I have a markdown-based website with a domain I own, and I stubbornly link to that website only, treating substack as just a temporary distribution channel.[^1] And I am constantly, endlessly asking myself if all the extra friction I've added to my life is worth it.
[^1]: I can't stand how slow and tracking-heavy substack is, but the problem of "send email and not get filtered as spam" is non-trivial.
Re: Substack writers, you need a website
#6Counterpoint from someone who's been publishing on the internet for decades: no one will visit your website. It's as simple as that. You need a push mechanism to reach readers.
RSS could be it, but it's too niche. Social media is kinda it, but algorithmic feeds reward political clickbait and just because someone clicks "follow" or "subscribe" is not a guarantee that they will ever see your posts. Substack gives you a way to push content to your subscribers without an intermediary deciding what they get to read.
So no, there's no special value to having a website or syndicating across the web. There's a lot of value in backing up your Substack subscribers' emails so that you can move somewhere else down the line, and the nice thing about Substack is that they let you do that. If they stop, that's a trap.
Re: Substack writers, you need a website
#7TLDR: POSSE: Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere.
Is there a guide for how to do the “syndicate elsewhere” part? For the HN audience, the first part is trivially easy (getting a domain, publishing on it) but the second probably isn’t obvious.
There are guides but it amounts to "use popular services to link to your website". Post snippets on the bird apps, social media hellscapes, and aggregators like this one. Duplicate your content on the blogging services. Have an RSS feed and submit it to discovery engines and web directories/rings. And send me a link so I can index you.
Stickers are neat too.
Re: Substack writers, you need a website
#8Alternatively, use an open platform that doesn't lock you in:
* Leaflet
* Offprint
* PcktRe: Substack writers, you need a website
#9Counterpoint from someone who's been publishing on the internet for decades: no one will visit your website. It's as simple as that. You need a push mechanism to reach readers. RSS could be it, but it's too niche. Social media is kinda it, but algorithmic feeds reward political clickbait and just because someone clicks "follow" or "subscribe" is not a guarantee that they will ever see your posts. Substack gives you a…
I feel like the transition from substack to website + newsletter wouldn't be terrible, although I'm sure your traffic would decrease after making the switch.
Re: Substack writers, you need a website
#10I am quite sad that Kagi Smallweb excludes Substack. I understand that less technical writers have started moving to Substack both to build an audience and have access to effective publishing tools, but it feels like I'm missing out on some really interesting new perspectives, similar to early Medium.