“Most beginner writers never build an audience because they overcomplicate things. Substack keeps it simple and powerful.” Here are 10 reasons to consider the platform!
- Substack is easy to jump into
- It’s free
- Own the audience
- Support other media
- Easy to get discovered
- Repurpose and reuse content
- Cross-promote your other social media
- Email for free
- Hungry readers on the platform
- Supports a writer’s culture
- Supports large or narrow niches
Keep reading and I’ll share the best ways to use the platform and 1 mistake most people make!
What is Substack, and how it’s great for writers
Substack is sort of like a blog, but through email. It thrives on written content, but you can post pictures, videos, audio files, and more.
What sets it apart from a normal autoresponder is that you can create paid subscriptions or even donations. You can also charge whatever you want or make it free (I recommend making it free). An autoresponder is the “old-school” method of automatically sending out emails.
Basically, it’s an autoresponder with a lot more bells, whistles, and light effects.
They even have a podcast feature. If you don’t want to write BIG posts, they have a notes feature that is similar to Twitter.
How Substack is easy to jump into
The power with Substack is that you don’t have to buy a domain, get hosting, get a theme, and do annoying tech stuff that not many people want to do.
You can jump in and JUST write!
It’s a wonderful jumping-off platform, sort of like riding a bike with training wheels or bowling with airbags, where the gutter is.
It’s a great idea, and I get why it’s gotten so popular.
Substack is great for new writers because it’s free to start
You don’t have to pay for a domain, hosting, software, or anything else.
It’s great regardless of whatever niche you’re into.
Maybe you like to write horror stories (I topic I would love to get into, have lots of ideas), you can create a Substack around it and put out some free and some paid content if you want.
This is MUCH better than Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), which takes a hefty sum from creators.
- For example, on KDP, creators keep around 30-70% of the profit after costs.
- Substack creators keep 90% of the profit after payment processing fees. Usually, the payment processing fees, which are charged by Stripe, include a credit card fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction and a billing fee for recurring subscriptions of 0.7%.
Also, email is SUPER powerful! You can contact someone WAY into the future, instead of relying on someone to come and find you on Amazon.
People are lazy, right? You have to go after them!
A large benefit to Substack is that you own your audience
What this means is you can export the list to another autoresponder if you want in the future. Maybe in the future, Substack changes for the worse, and you want to change.
You can take your list with you.
This is a GREAT feature, but take it with a grain of salt. I don’t mean to be a “Debbie Downer” but….
Substack reserves the right to delete or disable content that violates their terms of service or community guidelines, and they can also terminate accounts for repeated violations.
Violations can include infringing on intellectual property rights, promoting harmful or illegal activities, or engaging in spam and phishing.
So, you do own the list (when they want you to), but you also don’t own the list.
Substack is great because it supports multimedia
If you hate writing, I know a lot of people who do you can still use the platform. There is a way to post videos, pictures, podcasts, and even short notes, such as on X (formerly Twitter).
This is also great because you can mix and match media. Have some written words, some pictures, some videos, it’s really up to you.
This is the method I recommend because it helps keep people engaged, and what I try to do with this blog.
Plus, having some pictures, GIFs, videos, and bullet points makes the experience more fun. Some people prefer video, and some other prefer formats like the written word.
Or you could even stick to 1 media such as only post videos.
Easy to get discovered on the platform
Another amazing thing about Substack is that you can get traffic from the platform. This reason “alone” is why you should be on it.
There is a recommendation system that helps new writers get discovered by readers of similar newsletters.
Some people believe the recommendations feature drives 50% of all new subscriptions and 25% of new paid subscriptions on Substack.
To be fair, this is a super old school “powerful” method that got a facelist. Digital marketers could do the same thing with autoresponders.
Basically, you hit up writers in your niche and make a deal: I’ll promote your newsletter if you promote mine to your lists.
Both of you guys win.
You can do this 1 time or multiple times.
The great thing about Substack is it just makes it easier to connect due to groups, and more people are using the platform.
Heck, just look at this clunky piece of crap website everyone used to use. It even says “not secure due to not getting an SSL certificate.”
Solo ads are when you advertise on an email list.
Free solo ads mean you promote other people’s email lists, and they promote yours.
By the way, I stopped using it because it’s clunky and not user-friendly. Substack’s system is better, more convenient, and easier to jump into.
Repurpose and reuse your other social media
Another powerful reason to use Substack is to reuse your other content. This works for beginner writers or even bloggers, vloggers, podcasters or Tweeters.
The same stuff you post on TikTok, blog, or whatever can be posted to Substack.
Plus, it literally takes a short amount of time.
In fact, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend repurposing, and I do it as much as I can.
For example, this same blog post, I can post to LinkedIn, Medium, and even more places if I want to.
Just remember, if you don’t like using 1 platform, you can stop using it. I did this for a VERY popular website because they kept banning my accounts (4 of them), 1 account I never posted 1 link. I got too angry with them.
Just remember your mental health and sanity is the #1 priority.
I usually will take a blog post and read it to a camera to make a YouTube video. I can take the sound from that video to make a podcast.
Short videos are GREAT to repurpose, and this strategy works great with them.
This means the EXACT same video you post to TikTok, you can post to YouTube Shorts, Instagram, LinkedIn, and 20 other places.
You do NO work and can much more views! Cool, right?
I wrote a whole post on how to repurpose short videos HERE.
If you want your mind completely blown, I created a free eBook that goes into WAY more detail on a whole business plan on re-using content.
This way, you barely do any work and suck all the juice from the lemon before discarding it. The lemon is the content.
You can view this eBook HERE.
Cross-promote Social Media
When you create content on other platforms, it’s not a bad idea to promote your Substack newsletter. For example, HERE is my Substack newsletter.
If you have an audience on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, or the million other places, you can cross-promote the platforms if it makes sense.
I do this as much as I can, but remember, you have to keep your sanity.
I know it can get overwhelming with all the different platforms. There is nothing wrong with promoting your other channels at times because all these channels have their own independent audiences.
There is also nothing wrong with saying NO to a platform and taking time off work, too.
Substack has a free email
When I got started in trying to make money online 15 years ago, autoresponders were expensive. We are lucky because competition has driven the prices down to free or almost free for them.
Email is SO powerful. Bitcoin actually got its start with mining from the idea of email spam. The idea of a proof-of-work scheme developed by Adam in 1997 called Hashcash required a sender to perform a small computation before sending an email (sort of like the annoying prove you’re human puzzles called CAPTCHA).
Legitimate users, it was slightly annoying, but it deterred spammers from sending large volumes of email.
The fact that Substack is able to send whatever you want automatically to your reader using email is POWERFUL. You can send short notes, audio podcasts, long blog posts, heck, even videos.
The real question is why NOT use Substack? I don’t have the answer to that question.
There are Hungry readers already on the platform
If you’re a writer, you need readers, right? Substack has over 20 million monthly readers, all looking for something to read.
There is already an audience on the platform.
You don’t have to start something from scratch, such as a blog that takes longer to build and attract those readers.
Supports a writer’s culture
There are some cool features that help writers, such as a forum. This is where you can connect with other writers, get tips, and support each other.
This is a powerful feature because the challenge with writing is that it can be lonely. When I got started in blogging, I used a VERY expensive place for training, and we all supported each other.
Substack just makes that community easier to jump into, plus it’s free.
Substack supports small to large niches
Another large benefit is that you can experiment with small niches. When it comes to blogging or YouTube, it’s better to err on the side of a larger niche so you don’t get bored.
Plus, it takes more work to start those platforms and build them up.
With Substack, it’s easier to start, and if you experiment with a tiny niche, it’s easier to abandon it if you get bored or you don’t like it.
You could also do a larger niche, too.
The Cons of Substack
If you’re seen as “out of compliance,” your publication can get blocked. This is a big con, meaning you’re still at Substack’s mercy.
What does “out of compliance” even mean? If they don’t like what you’re sending, they can cancel you AT ANYTIME.
Take it from a guy who has lost a lot of accounts, it sucks! Big time.
It’s also NOT an autoresponder. An autoresponder has a welcome sequence. Someone opts in, they get 1 email, then the second, and so on.
It’s a wonderful sales tool because everything is in order and builds on the last email.
With Substack, you can ONLY send 1 welcome email, not a series.
So it’s NOT really a sales tool. Think of it more like a blog that gets sent to people.
Another negative is that you can’t segment people on your list and do more advanced features, such as trigger an email if someone does a specific action.
With an autoresponder, you can track who bought what, so you can target offers accordingly. With Substack, you can’t do that.
How to Use Substack?
I’m going to use Substack just like my LinkedIn weekly newsletter. Use it to repurpose my blog content and video content to grow my list.
Sort of like a giant Twitter thing.
Follow and recommend other Substacks; hopefully, others do the same. In the end, my home is my blog and my email for money.
You could even sync your Substack to your autoresponder, so new subscribers get your welcome sequence.
If you ONLY rely on Substack and someone joins, they are not getting that special treatment. Hope that makes sense.
If you put out a weekly Substack, someone may have to wait a week to get the newsletter, and it’s not in sequence.
Basically, you have much more freedom and flexibility with an autoresponder, but Substack makes up for all the weak areas of an autoresponder.
It’s like an autorsponder is a “guy” and a Substack is a “girl” when you combine them both, it’s LOVE. With just 1, it’s missing a piece.
Conclusion
I’m very impressed with Substack and a great tool to use. I still use and recommend a blog. The main reason is you OWN a blog.
You don’t own your Substack content.
It’s a nice feeling to own something online, maybe security or a place I know I can’t get banned, I know I can create my own rules.
If you’re a beginner writer, I still recommend starting with a blog. Yes, it’s slower, yes, there is more upfront work and some cost, but you want to build a home on a solid foundation.
Patience is key, grasshopper!
There is NO more solid foundation than owning a website. Plus, you get bragging rights!
I wrote many blog posts on how to start a blog step-by-step that you can view HERE.
Lastly, I’m bullish on blogging in the long run. AI’s biggest weakness is human connection and blogging, email, video, the phone, and face-to-face people crave and want due to the loneliness epidemic facing society.
Oh, and if you’re serious about making money online, an autoreponder is still a must-have, and I have free guides at this post HERE.