Let's Talk About Substack

Because I don't think people realize what an amazing platform it is.

I first heard about Substack about 2 to 3 years ago.

“Oh, this is a blog that is also like an email marketing platform,” I thought.

Basically, everything you write gets sent to your list via email…and that is what went in my Back Burner file for a later date when I might have time to explore it.

About a year and a half ago, I created an account on Substack and began receiving emails from the platform about how everything worked. Each time they released a new feature, I’d get an informative email about it.

These were really just posts to their blog. That’s the way it works.

At the same time, the momentum was building and a lot of people were talking about Substack…mainly on YouTube.

The main thing that drew my interest was the emphasis on writers and written content.

There was inclusion of online marketing concepts like building an email list, but the attention was on the craft of writing. There weren’t 5 million people selling courses on how to make it big on Substack and outlining the steps you had to take to do it. There were 5 million people talking about writing.

That got my attention.

Before I even wrote the first word in Write Now, I’d convinced my main client to start a Substack.

He runs a prominent YouTube channel in the self-publishing space. With this much emphasis on writing, I felt that Substack was going to be a place that he and his audience needed to be.

To Replace Your Email Marketing Service with Substack or No?

With my client, I decided it was a good opportunity to expand into a new audience rather than just move an existing one around.

Substack does offer the capability to import your existing email list that you’ve built on other platforms like MailChimp, GetResponse, ConvertKit, etc.

We didn’t want to use Substack instead of those services, we wanted to use it in addition to them.

The Secret’s in the Features

The other thing that made Substack such a good fit for this client was the variety of content types.

As I said, he has a YouTube channel, but he also has a blog and a podcast, so he’s putting out 3 types of content on a regular basis and Substack can handle them all natively. (Video is currently in closed beta.)

Let’s unpack this more.

Let’s say you decide to do a podcast. Not only does Substack host your podcast completely free, but they also email it to your subscribers!

When you publish a podcast on any other podcast platform, you know want doesn’t happen?

It doesn’t email your subscribers. They get notified via whatever app they use to listen to podcasts if they have notifications enabled and your podcast is there among ALL the other podcasts that user consumes.

Let’s say you decide to do a YouTube channel. Substack will embed your video from a link automatically, or you can upload it directly to Substack.

When you publish a post, guess what happens!

An email is sent to your Substack subscribers letting them know about your video.

When you publish a video on YouTube, you know how your subscribers are notified? If they happen to see your video in their feed.

It’s not Earth-shattering that Substack sends your blog posts as an email. This has been possible with blogs since pretty much the beginning.

What it does clear up is what you should send to your list by saying, “Just blog to them.”

Substack In Lieu of a Website

One of the things I’ve been trying to pound home to people, particularly authors, is that you need a website. I’ve done this for myself as well as on the behalf of my client.

The problem is there is a big learning curve to owning and maintaining a website. It’s not cheap either.

Most people shrivel into the fetal position when you mention it.

The ones who have managed to get online have usually paid someone to do it for them and they have no idea how to work or maintain the website they now have.

Sure, website builders like Wix are intuitive and can get you online, but will they host your content free free? Will they email them to your subscribers every time you release new content?

The answers are No and No.

Substack solves all these problems and then some.

It doesn’t get easier than [click New Post and start typing].

Substack Solves Problems and Answers Questions

Another question authors and online marketers as a whole have is: “What do I send to my email list?”

With an email marketing platform, there are many options:

• Automations

• Autoresponders

• Broadcasts

• Blasts

• Welcome email

• Onboarding sequence

With Substack, click New Post and start typing.

The other question, and possibly the biggest one among self-publishers, is how to promote your books. Conveniently, Substack just sent out an entire post on that topic recently.

As If All That Weren’t Enough…

I haven’t even talked about everything like the chat feature where you can open a chat with your subscribers, or publications fueled by multiple writers, or the detailed analytics about each post and your Substack as a whole.

Substack describes itself as an “all-in-one personal publishing platform”.

They tie everything together with a nice bow entitled FREE. The entire shebang won’t cost you a dime.

Let’s run another scenario…

Let’s say you own and run your own WordPress website and you have a members only area where you publish exclusive content.

You charge however much using whatever plugin is popular this week for selling stuff on WordPress.

Suddenly, one of your members has an issue with their payment or the content is not being delivered the way it’s supposed to be.

Guess who has to run troubleshooting on that?

That’s right, YOU!

And, it can end up costing you money!

Let’s run this same scenario with Substack.

Substack support is going to handle any issues like this on your behalf.

That’s going to save you a lot of time, headache, and money.

So, it’s free, it solves problems, answers questions…there couldn’t possibly be anything else, right?

This is everything and a box of chocolates already.

I feel like one of those “but wait, there’s more” informercials, but there really is more and it’s good stuff!

The icing on the cake would be the many ways you can monetize your Substack.

With blogs, videos, podcasts, and email newsletters, the monetization is usually up to you and certainly not an integral part of the platform. It contains a lot of different moving parts you have to figure out and make them all work together.

Sound daunting?

It is!

But it’s not with Substack!

You either turn on monetization or your don’t.

When you do, there are options!

Subscribers can opt for a monthly subscription or a yearly one usually at a discount.

Your readers can pledge to support your content.

They can gift subscriptions of your content.

YOU can gift subscriptions of your content.

You can publish free and paid content at the same time without worrying with a complicated backend to make sure the free people don’t get the paid stuff.

And…you can still monetize via affiliate marketing too.

The Cherry on Top

In the heart of COVID cancel culture, there was Substack. Doctors were being removed from social media left and right for asking questions or voicing their concerns.

Many showed up on Substack and so did cancel culture demanding they be silenced.

Substack stood firm that it is a free speech platform. Not the type where you can come and spew your hatred as you please, but one where you are allowed to ask questions and voice your concerns and not get banned for talking about the hard topics.

See, they still believe in the power of us as people to make our own decisions about what truth is and that is important to me.

For the Lack of Brevity

This post is crazy long and I couldn’t even cover everything!

I didn’t get to how easy the editor and publishing tools are to use, or how clean the interface is, or the neat and clean little customizations you can make, or all the buttons you can include in your posts, or what a nice reading platform Substack is, or…….there’s SO MUCH.

I really can’t say enough good things about it, and after almost 20 years as a staunch WordPress fan, I am convinced that Substack is a viable solution for authors if they don’t want to mess with a website and all the headaches that come with it.

Man, and you just can’t beat the effect on your bottom line!

Ready to dive in and try it yourself?