Why I Started Using Substack (and Still Share It with Caution)

Over the past few months, I’ve made the decision to start using Substack. There were two big reasons for this.

First, as I’ve noted in previous posts, I’ve lost a lot of the algorithmic visibility I had on virtually all social media platforms, with impressions often not reaching double digits.

I needed another way to connect with readers. I also felt constricted on other platforms because of the way they tend to punish users for including external links or writing in certain styles (e.g., longer paragraphs).

Substack provides a good opportunity to address both problems:

• Every time someone subscribes to you, your publication is shown to their followers as a recommendation.
• Readers also often restack posts, similar to sharing or retweeting.
• The Notes feature functions like microblogging, allowing readers to comment on the smaller ideas or media you share.
• You can show up in the Best of Substack feeds if your posts get good engagement.
• Because main posts get indexed like blogs and has its own permanent URL, you can show up and do well in Google results if you know what you’re doing with keywords.
• The platform integrates other useful features that make it easy to be creative across domains, such as supporting a podcast or videos.
• You can use options like the Custom Button to drive traffic to your author site or products you might have, such as an Amazon listing for a book.
• Posts go directly to subscribers’ email inboxes, and you own your email list.
• The platform was intentionally developed with a “human over algorithm” approach — there’s no secret ranking formula pushing viral or paid content.

In this way, it’s a unique hybrid that combines social functionality with a more open canvas for storytelling and marketing.

But Substack is still a third party platform.

Because Substack is an external company you don’t truly control, like any other social media or publication platform (e.g., LinkedIn, Medium), there’s no guarantee it’s going to stick around, maintain its present way of allowing writers to operate, or represent your values for the long haul. Additionally, the “hands off” content moderation philosophy, which in theory is supposed to protect expressivity, already has had controversies surrounding the distribution of material with anti-vax, Neo-Nazi, and similar concepts.

So, what’s a smart writer to do?

As I recommend in the video below, syndicate to yourself.

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This means that you create your own author website and cross-post to that site when you publish on Substack. You’ll create an archive of your work over time that’s safe no matter what happens to Substack.

To fine-tune this, note that Substack allows you to create paid tiers for your content. But if you’re going to have an author site, I recommend keep your Substack free and putting the tiers on your author site instead. This way, you can create pieces that are exclusive to the author site and use Substack’s free tools to drive traffic there.

For example, you can write a teaser style post on Substack that alerts readers to a new release on your website. Or, if you write a ton, you might include a couple of links in a Substack post that functions more like a digest.

Over time, if your author site does well enough, you might not need to continue to cross-post on Substack at all, especially if you’re able to integrate your own forum or chat-style functionalities to engage with the community you’ve grown. But because Substack is its own ecosystem, it still can be worth engaging there to meet new friends who might not otherwise find your site.

Lastly, remember that online engagement is only one part of the puzzle. Even if you have no plans to put anything into physical print, spend time connecting with others and sharing your work with them offline. The balance of digital and in-real-life interaction gives you a stronger base as a writer than targeting just digital or IRL alone.

[Transcript summary]

Hello, my peeps. I am Wanda Thibodeaux. I am the sole proprietor of takingdictation.com. I want to talk to you today about Substack.

Now this is one of the most popular writing platforms out there right now, and for good reason. It has a ton of great tools. But what I really love about it is the social aspect combined with the free-form writing. And Substack is different than other social media platforms in that it really allows you to write however you want. You can use video — like, you can combine all of these elements in your posts, and yet you’re not confined to a lot of the algorithmic things that you might find on, say, LinkedIn, or, you know, TikTok or whatever. So, it allows you to be more expressive in your true voice. That is my personal opinion.

Now, here’s the word of caution that I want to give you as even as I recommend that platform. Even as you use Substack to build your voice, build your email list, be careful, because even though Substack is strong right now, it’s still a third party platform.

My personal belief is that you are not protecting yourself and your writing unless you are archiving your own work. Do not put it in the hands of a third party unless you back it up. And I have learned that the hard way.

So, if you are going to build through Substack, that’s fine. Enjoy that. Meet people there. Build your voice, like I said. But really make sure that you have your own author website, and that you are archiving and you are basically syndicating whatever you publish on Substack onto that site as an archive, and then, when you are — when you’ve built up enough, maybe you decide, “Hey, I don’t need Substack anymore. My website on its own is doing fine.” And you can decide at that point what you want to do.

But just make sure that you are using Substack with the long game in mind, and just realize it might not be there tomorrow.

Take care. Bye.