Why I'm All-In On Substack

I haven’t been this excited to write on the Internet since 2016.

That’s when my approach to writing longform blockbuster articles started to perfectly align with Medium’s algorithm, which was heavily weighted toward the time people spent reading a given article.

This match lasted for about five years and 15M+ views.

Alas, all things come to an end.

In 2022, Medium abandoned its algorithm and switched to human curation heavily weighted toward personal storytelling. Suddenly, rather than articles taking off, they struggled to reach even a fraction of my 72,000 followers.

That’s when I swallowed a bitter pill about writing on the Internet.

Simply writing high-quality content is NOT enough.

To succeed online, you also need to align with the right platforms for you and strike while the iron is hot. In other words, timing is crucial.

Fast forward to July 11, 2023—almost exactly a year ago.

I made the bet that Substack was the new place that I’d call home. You can see the logic of my decision-making in How To Pick The Best Paid Newsletter Platform / My Substack Review.

I couldn’t be happier with my decision. Here are the main reasons why:

1. Substack has a unique, vibrant, rapidly growing, and collaborative community

2. The timing is right

3. Substack provides paid features for free

4. Substack gives you long-term compounding growth

#1. Substack has a unique, vibrant, rapidly growing, and collaborative community

Substack has a unique mix of features that incentivize collaboration and make it easy to connect like no other writing platform:

• Co-author posts with other writers

• Co-create publications with other writers

• Engage with each other’s short notes or longer publication posts

• Cross-post content to each other’s newsletters

• DM other writers on the platform

• Share discounts to your paid newsletters with each other

• Recommend other writers

• Provide testimonials to other writers

• Interview each other and post it as a podcast/video post

• Find collaborators via a directory of creators on the platform

As a result of these features…

• I have talked with 10+ writers one-on-one in the last month.

• I am collaborating with a writer (now friend) that I met on the platform to launch a whole new program. See more below.

• Thousands of people have subscribed to my publication because it was recommended by other Substack writers.

#2. The timing is right

Substack is taking off on multiple levels:

• The newsletter platform is growing rapidly

• Its Notes feature just started taking off in the last few months

• Substack has attracted world-class creators (eg, Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Gilbert, James Patterson, Sam Harris, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Austen Kleon, Chris Guillebeau)

At the same time, the downsides of being a major platform haven’t arisen yet:

• It’s not crowded

• People’s DM inboxes aren’t filled with spam

• People are looking to connect with others on the platform

• There isn’t censorship

#3. It provides paid features for free

Managing a paid newsletter/podcast typically costs dozens of dollars per month to hundreds per month. With Substack, these features are 100% free.

I used to pay $700 per month for Keap. So the savings are real.

#4. It gives you long-term compounding growth

The problem with other social media platforms is that when the algorithm changes, you suddenly cannot reach your followers.

I love that Substack allows you to export the email addresses of your followers along with the paid subscriptions managed by Stripe. Patreon, for example, does not allow you to migrate your paid subscriptions to another platform.

Having long-term ownership over your subscriber emails and paid subscriber accounts is critical for building momentum over time rather than repeatedly starting and stopping.

I’ve been an online writer for 10+ years now, and the people with the most longevity are the ones who built their businesses on platforms that didn’t require them to start over.