Why I’m not on Substack

Substack has become a popular site among writers. It's a combination of a blogging engine mixed with a social media community. But it's because of the email list concept and monetization that the site has gained favor.

It's provided a way for newer writers to build a mailing list without laying out the expense of having a custom domain. And it's provided a way for writers to make money off their content as they write it.

I have to admit that I can see why it's gained popularity among both new and established writers. But despite its popularity, it's one site that I'm unlikely to adopt within my own platform.

Let's take a look at the functionality of the site and why I've chosen to use other systems for the same functionality.

Blogging and Monetization

Let's start with the most obvious component of the site: the blogging functionality.

Though Substack wasn't designed to be solely a blogging engine, that is the core of its design. You might have an account so you can follow other blogs, but you gain traction and a following by putting out content of your own. And that content is often of a blog-post nature. Yes, people have taken to using the system to craft their newsletters (and it's a use that I support), but even those newsletters will have a blog feel to them.

To gain traction on the site, you want to be posting something on a regular basis, being consistent with your content. And those posts are sent directly to your subscribers' inbox. You can even share your posts to social media.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is a blog.

But if you are reading this post, then you know I already have a blog. I don't need another one.

I've tried cross-posting blogs

I have tried numerous times over the years to monetize my blog in different ways. At one point, I used Medium, where you could cross-post a blog and have the canonical URLs point back to your main site. But by the time I got to a point where I was getting anywhere near ready to monetize Medium, they changed the rules. I was no longer eligible for this, and to become eligible, I had to pay to play. At that point, I asked myself why I was even bothering.

While there might still be the odd article on Medium from me, most of them have been taken down. Google kept overriding my canonical URLs in favor of the Medium site—which totally defeats the purpose of us using canonical URLs in the first place.

I've tried monetizing content

Years ago, I had a YouTube channel that was monetized. We'll ignore the stress associated with trying to produce quality content at the rate needed to gain any useful traction, because that was a lesson in itself. But I was never able to reach the thresholds before Google paid anything out.

By the time I was getting close, Google changed their rules, and my YouTube account was no longer eligible for monetization. Any and all funds that I had ever earned through that particular adventure were never paid out, and any proof that the funds had once existed vanished into thin air. Google just absorbed the funds.

I don't monetize my main blog for a reason

So, I could look at monetizing my personal blog instead, but that isn't why I write these posts. I write them because I like sharing my knowledge and experience with others.

I offer my blogs freely and am happy to do so.

BUT don't think that I'm getting nothing out of this.

My readers are still paying me by way of site clicks and page views. And this in turn is driving my SEO rankings up, which is resulting in more traffic to the site… driving my SEO rankings up even further.

As my SEO rankings continue to improve, my searchability on the internet also improves. And the chances of a random client finding me goes up.

This increases the chances that people will find my books and buy them. And it's increasing the chances that readers will consider hiring me for developmental editing or writing coaching services.

Each new blog that goes up on my website only helps to get more page views and site clicks, continuing to drive that SEO ranking upward.

If I was to shift my blogs to Substack, I would defeat the SEO ranking part of the equation. And monetizing my blog content would defeat the click-driver aspect, particularly when you consider that there are already a lot of blogs about writing and editing that are free to the world.

I could continue on this argument, but I won't. Let's just say that I won't use Substack for blogging.

Mailing List

When we consider the mailing list functionality associated with Substack, there are a variety of different factors that come into play.

Let's start with the anti-spam initiatives which will have a massive negative impact for anyone just starting out in this industry.

Because of rules that came out in early 2024, Google (and other free email providers) now insist that all emails to an email list come from a verified domain. This means that even your custom domain emails need that domain verification, or they too will be caught by the spam filters.

The domain verification process through main email management systems (like MailerLite, Kit, and MailChimp) all require that you have the ability to edit the DNS records on your hosting server. This ultimately means that you need to have a self-hosted domain, which is an expense that some people just can't afford at their early career stages.

So, knowing that Substack provides writers with the ability of having a newsletter without that custom domain expense does make it attractive.

However, I've had a self-hosted custom domain website since 2015. I have had an email list for nearly as long. I am already set up on an external email management system and have been so for years.

(FYI, Substack launched in 2017, two years AFTER I had all my systems already set up.)

Limited Mailing List Features

While Substack might be a good option for those who are either just starting out or wanting to cut costs, Substack also has its limitations.

Let's start with the formatting.

Because of the way the system works, being a standardized blogging engine that sends posts directly to subscribers' inboxes, the look and feel is also standardized. It's a format that regular users have come to recognize. It's what the Substack community has come to expect.

But I'm not a regular Substack user, so I'm not intimately familiar with what the expectations of the community are. As a consequence, my chosen content format for my newsletters might be outside the expectations. But they work for me!

That's the most important part in this equation. Me. My newsletters need to be a reflection of who I am, not what everyone else is or what everyone else says I should be.

Yes, there are always ways that you can change things up to incorporate elements of your branding, but… (le sigh)

There are also the limitations associated with email automations. In fact, the onboarding for Substack is near nonexistent. Whereas the automation sequences through traditional email management systems can be quite extensive.

Within my system, I have automations that trigger based on joining groups, downloading particular freebie giveaways, clicking particular buttons and visiting particular pages on my website… and triggered by a lack of subscriber activity. None of that is possible with Substack.

So, it's safe to say that I don't want to go backwards in my email systems just to use Substack. I'd rather stick to my current systems.

The Social Media Component

Substack has also grown into a social media site, where people are able to chat with one another much in the same way they do on Threads or Bluesky. And like all social media sites, one must be "present" on the site to forge meaningful connections.

Unfortunately, this requires time and mental capacity that I just don't have to spare.

My mental bandwidth is limited, and I can only do so much. Yes, it's important to be on social media in today's publishing market, but I can't be on every site on the planet. I have to pick and choose.

At the moment, I pick Facebook, Instagram, and BlueSky.

That might change in the future, but I'm unlikely to incorporate Substack into my active platform. I don't see the benefit to me. All I see is the anxiety and stress of trying to figure out how to be heard above the noise.

I'm on Facebook, because I actually like Facebook. Though I'm noticing that the writing community is slowly moving away from Facebook. Probably because of the way the algorithms seem to hide your posts unless you "pay for ads". Gone are the days when I could list a friend as "see first" on my feeds.

And I continue trying to figure out the magic of Instagram, because it's something that I can easily create content for... and schedule it. I have the tools at my fingertips.

And Bluesky is one of the "new kids on the block", meaning I'm part of the community that is defining how Bluesky will be used by writers. I'm enjoying exploring what works and what doesn't... without the pressures of paying for ads. And I am finding my tribe.

But I refuse to add more to my plate by adding on another social media site that I don't know the ins and outs of. I just don't have the mental bandwidth for it.

That said, I do have an account and am squatting on my favored handle. This means that no one else can pretend to be me on the platform (at least not with my favored handle). And it also means that if I change my mind in the future, I can incorporate the site into my active platform.

But for the moment, all you'll see is my smiling photo, my author bio, and links back to my website. Otherwise, it's no posts from me, because I don't use Substack.

Use Sites with Purpose

I'm not saying that Substack is not a good site. That is definitely not what I'm saying, because it serves a purpose for many writers out there. It wouldn't be gaining popularity if this wasn't the case. But Substack doesn't provide me with anything that I don't already get through other systems. It doesn't add value for me.

For every system you use, make sure that you have looked into the system and weighed the pros and cons. Consider what you would like to achieve on the platform and decide if the system adds unique value to your online presence that you can't get any other way.

Understanding how one might use a particular social media site, incorporating it into their online platform, is just one of the many topics in my book Hidden Traps of the Internet. In that book, I talk about building a sustainable platform, remembering your mental bandwidth and posting content with purpose.

"Staying safe online" is not just avoiding the scammers or the hackers. But it's also about understanding your own limits and working within those limits.

If you would like to take control over your online presence, then check out Hidden Traps of the Internet.