5 months in: My honest review of Substack

Hey folks! I've been running my newsletter Remotely Inclined on Substack since Feb 2020. A friend asked me what I honestly thought about it as she's thinking about moving over. Thought I'd share what I told her.

TLDR: I think Substack is worth using and good value.

A quick bit about my newsletter

• I write primarily longform content about running a business remotely
• I often share my own experiences or opinions within the content (or in some cases whole articles that are just about my personal story)
• I'm using their podcast beta feature for regular interviews
• The newsletter is free right now, with plans to monetize

My honest Substack review

How I found Substack

I found substack because I got connected to their founder, Hamish Mackenzie, on Twitter. I was running my indie blog PulseBlueprint on wordpress and he encouraged me to move it to SS. I decided to keep the blog on WP, but was curious about the newsletter format so I opted to try SS for my new idea, which would become Remotely Inclined.

Things I like about Substack

In general, these benefits have kept me there and are a net positive, even when you consider the negatives of the platform (which I talk about below):

• Unlimited free subscribers. It sounds dumb, but I was discouraged from starting a newsletter because I didn't want to ever have to pay for free subscribers.
• No backend work. SS does it all for you. You just have to write. As a writer and entrepreneur (but not a coder), I liked how much time this would save me.
• Easy podcasting features. I'm an amateur podcaster at best. This was good enough for me.
• Monetization features. I want to eventually monetize the newsletter, so I like that monetization is built into SS' mindset and product stack already - start as you mean to go on (plus no backend work 2.0).
• Easy to sign up. It makes growth easy for new people who land on your posts.

Negatives about Substack for me

As expected, the platform is not perfect. Here's what I think are genuine detractors for SS:

• Discovery is mediocre at best.
• You don't own your SEO. I get around this by guest posting and linking on PulseBlueprint, which I still run, but I can see this being a major hurdle for some folks.
• The platform is buggy. The company is young and so is the tech. I've had things not send, things publish weirdly, etc.
• Analytics are lacking. It's still a bit of a black box in terms of sendability, deliverability, etc.
• Limited customizability on design.
• You don't get a custom URL. I personally think they are doing this for viral loop building, but it kinda bugs me
• It's clear right now that they are focused on people with big audiences already who can come to substack and monetize (after all, they only make money when you do), so I don't feel overly supported by the platform as a small independent writer. Not that I expect it, per se, but this is how SS messages themselves in a lot of ways - independent writer platform that supports the smalltime writers.

Overall

Despite the negatives, I'd recommend SS to new newsletter folks, as I did to my friend. I caution to not expect much audience growth support from SS unless you're already kinda big or come from a big media outlet like the NYT (so they can brag about you for their own credibility), but the platform itself is good enough and the good things about it are good enough that I still recommend it.

And if you want to see a substack in action, here's mine: http://remotelyinclined.substack.com/