Why I’m Leaving Substack.

substack switcheroo??

I’m changing the way I host and publish Incremental.

Why I chose Substack:

I’m currently using Substack to publish, and I chose it for a few reasons:

1. Completely free hosting and email delivery:

   • Substack earns 10% on any paid subscription on its platform, and keeps all features available to creators for free.

   • This is a lot more economical than other hosting providers, initially I tried out Buttondown which charged me ~9 USD per month (low compared to other platforms). Those platforms make sense if you have a large and paying following.

   • For my personal blog (which will always remain free), Substack made the most sense.

2. Easy branding, customisability, and works out of the box:

   • Substack is extremely easy and intuitive to set up. You don’t have to worry about customising domains, configuring email sending etc.

   • Substack also has analytics built in!

3. Audience growth:

   • One of the appeals of a platform like Substack is the network effects generated by its size. It brings discoverability to niche blogs/newsletters and helps growing your audience.

The issues with Substack:

1. Decreased SEO:

   • SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) basically refers to how high you rank when searched on Google or DuckduckGo etc.

   • Substack intentionally doesn’t index posts correctly, their philosophy is to focus on subscriber engagement via email rather than acting as a content management system.

   • This is fine for most people but I personally want my posts to improve and help as many people as possible.

2. Only pushes paid newsletters to make money:

   • Substack’s features for growth (the “bestseller” and “rising” categories) only show paid newsletters.

   • I will probably continue to post on Substack, but enable payments for new subscribers. This way I get the benefits of the discoverability and those who want to support can (at the lowest price I can choose), while also still being completely free on my own website.

3. Other platforms derank Substack posts:

   • Platforms like X do not display Substack cover images when linked, leading to decreased views and engagement.

   • I’d rather self host to avoid this issue.

4. Substack’s editor is subpar:

   • If you’re a Substack creator, you might be wondering how I have bullet lists indented within an ordered list. There is currently no way to do this via the Substack editor, which frustrated me endlessly when I first began writing.

   • I write in Obsidian and use a custom plugin to copy my posts as HTML text which Substack accepts.

   • I want more control over how my writing and content is displayed, and using my own website allows me to create interactive components and features for better posts!

Overall this is why I’m switching to self-hosting my blog at dhruvgore.com/blog!

What will change for you guys:

Basically nothing!

• You’ll still continue to see my posts delivered to your emails, they’ll just link to my own website.

• You’ll still be able to like and comment, although it may take me a while to iron out some kinks with how everything works.

Let me know if there’s any features/things you want to see, the possibilities are endless!

Thanks and hope you enjoyed, don’t forget to like and subscribe :))