Back in late 2023, I wrote a post on ZachsThoughts that described Substack, and whether or not I thought it was worthwhile. At the time, I did believe that, despite the flaws, it was a worthwhile platform for writers who may have wanted a public presence but not necessarily have wanted to deploy a full-scale website.
However, now that it’s been about two-and-a-quarter years and the markets and company have shifted, I have revised thoughts on the platform that are significant enough to release a post.
TLDR: If you are a new writer, don’t. It is not worth it.
You may be asking me, “why?”. “I thought this platform was designed for writers and long-form columnists and so on…”
I thought that as well. In fact, I originally went onto Substack because I found the idea of publishing long-form on a like-minded site to be good for promoting and just get myself out there. However, the company has not necessarily made it easier for writers to do what they love; whereas they are focusing much of their time and efforts on other aspects of the service.
More specifically, the mass inclusion and rushing of everyone to do audio and video posts.
Substack was designed to be for newsletters and writers to post to the world. Words, and images. Perhaps some video with the words. But it was implied that it would be for the past bloggers who just wanted to host their ideas with a third-party and not deal with the technical aspects.
But as time has gone on, Substack has found themselves to be catering to the masses. Which, in of itself, would be fine, if it did not give up its core user base and instead reposition itself to be the next social/mass media app. The microblogging feature Notes exemplified this, but I didn’t think much of it. It could have been used to help promote writers’ posts in a more centralized hub!
And then came the vertical video feed reminiscent of TikTok and Instagram Reels. Okay… we’re going a bit into the social media mode, but I guess they’re trying to get into that market and capture the 18-35 demographic. Can’t really do much about that.
Earlier today, the straw broke the camel’s back; as Substack announced the launch of a new app on… Apple TV and Google TV to allow video creators and livestreamers to be broadcast directly on viewers’ televisions.
That’s it. This comes after a series of other product announcements that focused on podcasts, videos, livestreams, but not written articles; the medium that the company was built on. Substack is no longer the platform that I signed up to be on. I wasn’t using it much for writing anyways, and used it to mostly read others. But why would I want to publish on a platform that doesn’t value my category? Videos and livestreams get more eyeballs, sure, yet it’s another thing to abandon the demographic group that built you up; writers. People who just wanted a place to write and share it. That’s what I focused my blog post in 2023 on, and it can no longer be used for that.
Even though I have backups of my Substack publication over the years, I’ll likely make another one, and then close up shop. I’ve already transferred my subscribers over to Beehiiv. Which, they’re not much better in terms of keeping to their core audience of newsletter writers, but the core product is still there and I can use my custom domain in peace; so there’s that. Alongside having a continuously-updating interface for writers and those who just want a simple newsletter/website.
So now what?
You may be asking to yourself: “Zach, where should I host my blog then for free if not for Substack?”
Now, my #1 recommendation is to use self-hosted WordPress. You can buy a domain for $12/year and get web hosting for $50/year. Of course, there are some people who don’t have the financial means and still want to blog. So I took the liberty of scanning the web and finding a few good options:
- Write.as
- Pika
- WordPress.com
- Beehiiv
We’ll continue the march onwards towards writing a better future.
-z.a.a.
p.s. This blog, in case you’re interested in using the styles present, is built with Anders Noren’s Beaumont on a self-hosted WordPress instance. A child theme with sandbox modifications is available on GitHub here.