Category: TechnologyCategory: Technology

“(Substack) is still another platform hosted elsewhere. It simplifies the process for writers, podcasters, video creators, and others to publish their work for money. But their stuff is still made available at the mercy of software they do not control — and I bet there will be a time when Substack decides to make a controversial platform-wide change some publishers will want to back away from. The pressure is already there.”

Substack was a great place to grow an audience, but I believe those days are coming to an end, and I think that’s okay. We don’t want to rely on any single platform or source to grow and build upon. We should use the tools available to us, yes, but when brands such as Substack become a bigger and bigger story, yes, like Nick Heer says above, the pressure is building and someday it will pop.

Here’s a new video drop I made for Sean King O’Grady from their Substack Note, but figured it might be helpful for other folks.

1. Double check all the links in your profiles

On your profile (Substack, socials, whatever), this person has a website URL listed. On desktop, you can click it and it works — but on mobile, it doesn’t. In this case edit your Substack profile and add that link as an external website so it works everywhere.

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2. Should You Start a Separate Newsletter?

If early on in the process, no, I wouldn’t. Put all your effort into your main newsletter and get as many people on that as possible. Tell people there about whatever else you’re doing and selling. Once you’ve made some sales, you’ll have email addresses of people who bought from you — that can become your second email list.

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3. Should Your Newsletter Have a “Name?”

You’re the artist — trust your gut. If your name works, your name works. The success you see from others doing it differently isn’t your path. You’ve done great work so far — keep doing it your way. People who care about what you’re doing will sign up and stick around, no matter what it’s called.

Technically I am violating Substack’s Publisher Agreement because my recurring membership system is done via Memberful.

You may not circumvent your payment obligations to us by soliciting payment from a Reader outside of Substack or by using any alternative method to collect subscription payments. This includes receiving payments for your publication through links to PayPal or a separate Patreon page.

This is why I’m exporting my email list every day.

When I signed up back in 2021 I knew (more or less) what I was signing up for: I’d be able to offer a “paid newsletter” via Substack, and that made total sense.

But I’ve realized I don’t really write a paid newsletter at all! I offer my community via weekly Escape Pod Zoom calls, and using Substack to manage that doesn’t work very well.

While places like Twitter and Instagram may “hide” your posts when you include a link to your Substack, Substack doesn’t just frown upon links to PayPal, Patreon, etc – they might shut down your account because of it.

Substack was great for growth (for a bit), but frowns upon you outgrowing their offering. Then they technically make it difficult to extract yourself from their system.

If we find yourself trying to fit your square membership into Substack’s round hole, tough luck – that’s what we signed up for, I guess. And it seems now that the safest best for Social Media Escape Club is to move my email list elsewhere at some point.

Apparently this is a regular occurrence in the music streaming space:

i got an email from one of my music distributors (for another project, not fog chaser) essentially accusing me of seeking out artificial streams. they then threaten to delete my account and take down all of my music (which is years of my work)

Whether you’re someone building buzz on social media and waking up to your account being suspended, to stories like this, someone else is in control. Someone else has the keys to the kingdom, and if they deem you’ve done something wrong, you’re done.

These tech bros made a game that we feel we all have to play, and that if we don’t then “we’re nothing without them,” which is a common line we hear in abusive and toxic relationships.

If you don’t put all your music into their music platform, then no one will discover you, and you’ll end up broke and alone.

BUT… even if you do put all your music on those services, you’ll still probably be broke, right? Sure, there’s opportunities to be “discovered,” but you’re still competing with the 100,000 other songs that are being uploaded everyday, too.

Maybe the computer in War Games was right, “the only winning move is not to play.”

According to YouTube CEO Neal Mohan at this years Cannes Lions International Festival, “YouTube Shorts is now averaging 200 billion daily views.”

On one hand, that 200 billion daily views is temping because we could start posting videos there and maybe get seen by some of those people.

On the other, we could skip it entirely and focus on the people already in our creative orbit. The people who read our posts and subscribe to our newsletter and listen to our music. Instead of chasing more, what happens when we chase impact and richness with the people right there in front of us?