Category: TechnologyCategory: Technology

On today’s Escape Pod Zoom Call we got talking about experiences with magazines when we were younger:

• One story was about a computer magazine with a program written by a young Bill Gates.
• Another was about buying magazines (plural) with a baggie full of change.

We don’t just talk about the XYZ’s of quitting social media, but about getting back to the core life experiences that made shit cool before techbro platforms flattened culture and gamified everything.

A question I got via my Email Guidance offering:

Q. I saw you’ve been posting casual stuff (on Substack Notes) and I’m curious how you… justify that against an anti-social media ethos? That sounds like an argumentative question but I mean it in earnest!

A. If I post on other social media platforms, I need to get people from those services over to Substack in order to subscribe to my newsletter. With the casual energy I expend on Substack Notes, I get maximum value in return – as in, it’s just one or two clicks from gaining an email subscribers.

Substack is a tool that I use for now. Someday that will change. But for now, today, I can swap my time and energy “engaging” there because I know I can replenish that energy by building my email list.

Am I playing the game? Absolutely. But I am guarding my energy. I don’t rely on Substack Notes to “get the word out.” I am writing the answer to this question on my own website first, before I put it on Substack Notes (if I even do at all).

I am playing the game on my terms.

“(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.