What is Substack and why should you try it?
A more effective way to build an audience that's yours (not Big Tech's)
A lot of the creatives I find interesting are trying to figure out a way to make a living by having an online platform where they write about what they are doing and their journey as well as selling their other art, be it artworks, music downloads, books or merchandise.
My favourite Substack reads at the moment are;
These are all inspiring reads and personally and I’m always curious to see how creative people are developing their projects and in some cases making a living while doing what they love.
I pick up a lot of inspiration from these as well as pointers to what works and doesn’t and this in time helps me with my own creative projects.
It was Austin Kleon that first made me aware of Substack with his blog post from October 2021.
He was moving his newsletter, which he’d been writing weekly since 2013, over to the Substack platform. I didn’t think any more about it. I’d assumed that Substack cost something to set up and was like one of the other email services like Mailchimp.
Here’s what he said
My newsletter, which I’ve been mailing out since 2013, is now hosted on Substack.
Here’s the deal:
The Friday “10 things worth sharing” newsletter will not change and it will always remain free to anyone who wants to sign up.
On Tuesdays, I’ll send out a bonus email to paying subscribers. Sometimes it’ll be an illustrated essay, a tool I can’t live without, a technique I use, a favorite book from my collection, or another exclusive behind-the-scenes peek at my process. Paying subscribers will also get the ability to comment and join special discussion threads.
As I'm Scottish and as they say, “tight as‘’, the thought of another expense cancelled out any further interest.
However, unlike other email services, Substack is actually free to use and so becomes much more interesting.
Substack only get paid by you once you start to make money from your subscribers, who elect to move onto a paid plan.
It may read like a minor point but this is the opportunity that may creatives have been longing for.
Paid subscribers.
But, why pay for something that is already available for free?
Here is the pitch for that from Substack to creators to join up …
One of the interesting things here is that once you set up your Substack page the posts you create remain there as posts.
In other words you have a website to host all your posts, a bit like this.
At this point you have a website and also a built in mailing system to send posts directly to your email list.
You can also create posts without sending them to your mail list.
A post can contain images, videos and you can set up your own audio narration or record a podcast.
All for free.
That all sounds great but where’s the catch?
The catch will depend on what you want to get out of this?
Here are some thoughts on the pros and cons.
If you are an emerging writer, musician, band, artist or creator and you’d like a website where you can post your content, send email posts to your email list, set up and run a blog and connect with other people doing the same thing then Substack could well be a great choice.
You’ll save money on that other website you no longer need and on email marketing.
In other words you could remove the need for Squarespace and Mailchimp (or equivalents) in a single step . How much will that save you per year?
If you are already established with an email list of subscribers then the same advantages apply.
However, you may not want to reduce your online platform if it is already working for you, but the option is there is you need it. And it may well save you some money.
Yet another online service may be too much to take on but the benefits of Substack are impressive.
Crucially, there is an option to set up subscription payment plans where you subscribers can support you directly. Yes, they pay you for what your doing.
You may be uncomfortable asking subscribers to pay you this way however some subscribers will be prepared to do this in order to support your work.
Your mind may well start running the numbers at this point - if I have 100 subscribers and 10% or those sign up for a paid subscription at $1 per week then that would give me $10 dollars extra in my pocket which would help pay for my ‘pen-purchasing-habit’ - if I grow my list to 1000 and get 10% paid subscribers at $1 a week then that would help pay for my ‘pens and notebooks’ habits and leave enough for electricity too …
Which brings in one of the other differences in the current Substack eco-system and this is where Substack is different (at least at the time of writing) from other Big Tech platforms.
Algorithms and Discovery
Substack do not run ads within your own pages.
They don’t push your content in front of anyone else and you don’t have other Substack pages pushed to you.
There are leaderboards within main categories and a split between paid and free so you can see what other people are doing but there are no backdoor hacks like the kind that can be employed on other platforms to inflate your own numbers.
In fact, your own numbers are private to you and only on some accounts you see the statement ‘Hundreds of Paid Subscribers’ or similar.
This removes the numbers comparison friction (at least, mostly) between accounts which can lead to a less stressful experience overall.
Discovery can take place within categories and the handy recommendation system but unlike more algorithm driven businesses discovery and promotion are left to the individual.
For those looking for a viral spike in subscribers, this will only happen through individual efforts or if you are lucky enough to appear on Substack’s own Featured list.
This certainly levels the field but it can make it frustratingly slow to find new subscribers as you really need to discover them yourself either within Substack or elsewhere.
However, unlike Big Tech platforms such as Meta and Twitter, you own your subscribers list and in the event of those platforms disappearing overnight you won’t have to start all over again from scratch!
If you are looking to build up your online audience, share more of what you do and move away (even just a little bit) from the Big Tech social media platforms then Substack could well be worth trying.
All the best, E
Thank you for these great tips and recommendations, Ewan! 😊