Post by @ErikUden@mastodon.de

I know Substack is a bad platform for self-publishing articles, but what alternatives do writers recommend? I know Ghost, it even has a theme I like, but whenever I look online I'm somewhat convinced by a bigger platform's influence.

Do you truly make money from Substack? Is other authors recommending your work truly changing things (more than a link to your article, which could potentially be off substack)? Are the E-Mail lists that helpful? Is it worth just mirroring my work to Substack?

I'm not looking for perfect answers, just any guidance or comment is greatly appreciated.

GitHub

GitHub - hutt/spectre: A free, open source theme for Ghost. Tailored for Die Linke websites and blogs.

A free, open source theme for Ghost. Tailored for Die Linke websites and blogs. - hutt/spectre

the Guardian

Revealed: How Substack makes money from hosting Nazi newsletters

Exclusive: Site takes a cut of subscriptions to content that promotes far-right ideology, white supremacy and antisemitism

9 Replies

3 Boosts

Joykill

@joykill@mastodon.social 24 min. ago

@ErikUden have you heard of noblogs.org?

Erik Uden 🚩

@ErikUden@mastodon.de 20 min. ago

@joykill I have heard of them, not sure if that fits my purpose. I think they are more privacy oriented!

Joykill

@joykill@mastodon.social 17 min. ago

@ErikUden seems like a good orientation to be in today's tech/political climate, tbh.

Erik Uden 🚩

@ErikUden@mastodon.de 11 min. ago

@joykill I mean like, they're meant for anonymous publishing. I think I'm too far gone to not have my name attached to things.

1 more reply

Ben Evans

@kittylyst@mastodon.social 1 hr. ago

@ErikUden I try to follow this principle: https://indieweb.org/POSSE

My site (https://kittylyst.com) gets 1k reads on a popular post, and I've had some interesting conversations, including 1 potential book project appear as a result of the posts. However, my use case may well be different as I have a full-time job in SWE and only a secondary career in writing & consulting - I'm not relying on this to pay the bills.

Happy to talk about the tech stack I use for the site if you're interested!

Ben Evans (kittylyst)

A simple static site showcasing my work & projects

IndieWeb

POSSE

POSSE is an abbreviation for Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere, the practice of posting content on your own site first, then publishing copies or sharing links to third parties (like social media silos) with original post links to provide viewers a path to directly interacting with your content.

Poloniousmonk

@Uair@autistics.life 1 hr. ago

@ErikUden

I read a lot of stacks and they have been throttling mid-level writers for a while now. People with no readers never get promoted. People like Paul Krugman get shoved at everyone. And people in the middle are being killed off because apparently substack doesn't want their business.

I really wouldn't bother if I were you. Honestly, I'd self-host. I really see no other way. Otherwise you're just giving your work to the worst people in the world.

Erik Uden 🚩

@ErikUden@mastodon.de 1 hr. ago

@Uair thank you, I will most likely do that!

Erik Uden 🚩

@ErikUden@mastodon.de 1 hr. ago

If I started publishing stuff, I'd really want it to be on a custom theme. That would be super easy if I'd self-host but costs $35 a month if I'd go through Ghost's website, hence: Are the features Ghost as a platform gives you truly that valuable (mainly E-mail, but probably also analytics, paid subscriptions and whatever integrations are)...

A screenshot from the monthly pricing options of Substack showing how the second tier option (allowing for a custom theme) to cost $35 a month.

Erik Uden 🚩

@ErikUden@mastodon.de 1 hr. ago

So, what I've gathered is that self-publishing and moving away from Substack is best, I'd just love to hear opinions on whether a Ghost subscription is worth it or to truly self-host, because E-Mail lists and paid articles do sound like nice features for someone who doesn't know anything about writing or publishing (me).