The problem with Substack for this newsletter writer
I wonder whether I am being forced or encouraged to play the wrong game.
As a reader of these digital garden posts and snippets, it's highly probable for now (though this will change as this note evolves as per the whole ethos of digital gardening) that you have found my garden through my newsletter. My Substack newsletter.
I've been having some mixed feelings about Substack and I want to noodle them here to gain some clarity.
When I started this website, I added a newsletter. It was a simple way for me to email people who enjoyed what I wrote about, alerting them to new bits of writing here and also any useful links to things I'd found elsewhere. I used a number of services and all ticked along fine.
I then moved to Substack because it offered a couple of interesting additions. It gave good discovery to a group of people who liked reading what writers wrote. It was insightful. It was easy. And it allowed membership and paid subscriptions. As a person who wants to earn from my work to allow me to do more of it, this was a really interesting proposition. I had used Ko-Fi for one off donations and support, which was a gentle, no pressure way to ask for a modest tip if something I wrote or made was useful to somebody, but there was no way to allow people who wanted to support me regularly, the patronage model. This was where Substack shone.
So I moved my lists, set up my paid subscription plan, but kept nearly everything free for everyone. I wanted paid subscribers to know that they were actually helping me provide value for everyone.
All seemed good. Except.
As soon as I had some paid monthly subscribers, I felt pressure. Pressure to provide something more often. Pressure to provide something of additional value to them. Something to convince myself that I was giving them value, even though they had already decided that by hitting "paid subscription".
You see, my impostor syndrome kicked in massively. I felt I was not good enough or didn't deserve their monthly subs.
And whilst I thought long and hard about this, Substack itself seemed to keep changing, growing and morphing. Notes, chat, discoveries, an algorithm. As someone who gave up nearly all social media, who is trying to get away from algorithms and the machine and someone who looks to have decentralised, individually owned, people-created digital worlds, it all felt just a bit dirty to me.
It got more and more, spammy. I think the low point being how Substack kept pushing for me to use their app. It even offered a free view of pay-walled content if I installed and read it on their app.
I felt, and feel, that I've slowly been seduced and pulled in a direction I really don't like or feel comfortable with. I'd begun to approach what I wrote and how I wrote it from the perspective of "how will this do on Substack?" rather than simply "what do I want to write about?"
That may be a reason why I've been writing a bit less recently. OK, writing a bit less on this website or my newsletter. While I solidified my thoughts I've actually been scribbling down ideas and pieces in my paper notebook and journal.
TLDR: Since moving to Substack, I feel my writing, website and newsletter have lost their way. They don't align with my values or sense of self. So I'm going to change things back.
What's going to change then?
Well, I'm not completely sure yet. That's why you're reading an article on my digital garden, not on the main webpage. This is the start of this new journey. But here's how I'm thinking:
- Write all new pieces here, on my website. Permanently indexed on pages whose URL doesn't change.
- Move all longer pieces I wrote on Substack to this website, again linked and nicely indexed.
- Make all of my writing available to everyone. Any paid only Substack posts to move over here, unlocked.
- Use my digital garden as a place to write, blog, dick around much more freely, and thus more regularly. As ideas grow and mature, they'll finally move to permanent positions on the main website.
- Go back to using Substack as just being my newsletter. Email first, but archived onto the website. But I'm not going to create over there.
- Let people know that if they want to support my writing they can subscribe monthly via Substack, on an ad hoc basis via Ko-Fi, or not at all.
- Be grateful for those who choose support me with payment, and just graciously accept this.
- Refuse to hustle.
If you've got any thoughts or comments about this, please do get in touch. I'd love to know.
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