Coming Home — Splitting From Substack & Writing in My Space
Change is (almost) always a good idea. Heck, I wrote a book about change. Now, there's a balance to strike with change. Sometimes, we need to stick things out. I see lots of people in the online space jump ship early, potentially missing out on potential opportunities and giving their efforts a real solid go.
I recently deleted half the shit on my Q3 plan to start fresh. Removing all the things that I felt weighing on me and recentering my focus.
I gave Substack a year and now I’m back to blogging here.
A 12-month recap:
In the fall of 2023, I stopped blogging here at The Intuitive Writing School and started blogging on Substack. I saw what I thought was a massive uptick in views on my writing on Substack (sometimes 2-10x what I was seeing here)
I blogged on Substack consistently for a year — at least once a week for most weeks. Sometimes 2-3x a week.
I regularly updated posts on this site — adding links to Substack (which I'll eventually remove)
My newsletter used to live on Mailchimp, so moving to Substack eliminated my need for newsletter software
Email marketing I do through Podia since my writing community, courses, and digital products all live there (Substack isn't built for email marketing)
Looking at my KPIs (key performance indicators) at the beginning of July — I noticed Substack views were down 2-4x what they had been earlier in the year.
Hmmm.
I started to wonder if Substack was overreporting views. I think they took my entire email list and counted every post that gets emailed to subscribers as a "view." And my open rates are around 50% — so views should have been closer to half my audience.
All the reasons why I made the switch to Substack a year ago were legit. And that changed — as things do. This has been an excellent lesson in staying flexible.
My main reasons for coming BACK to my website blog:
I think Substack was overestimating views.
As a user, Substack has gotten noisy. It now feels like Facebook without censorship (for now). Since they released notes and videos, I see Substack as a distracting place for people who don't know how to get in, post, and get out (which I've mastered, so I didn't find it distracting, just like I don't get distracted by Instagram reels).
Tracking my KPIs, I also saw my blog here having increased traffic — 2-3x since January. I regularly update old blog posts with fresh and relevant content and add new offers and courses, so this website was getting some love, but not as much as I would give it with regular blog updates
I think Substack is best for writers with massive audiences looking to monetize their newsletters (Substack takes 10% of your revenue, and it's free to use) OR for writers who would be censored in other places. There are plenty of Substack publications I still subscribe to and enjoy. I'm just not writing there anymore.
Substack is also an excellent option for getting started with writing online — the barrier to entry is zero, it’s free, and it's super easy (although there are lots of choices to make now during setup). Substack is also great if you want to start a blog that has nothing to do with your business or want your blog to be your newsletter. For now, I prefer to direct eyeballs to my website to read blogs because that's where they can sign up for classes (and I'm building out a writing school in the fall).
I really love writing newsletters. Like LOVE writing newsletters so much. I’ve been writing a weekly one for my Intuitive Writing School students since 2018, and it’s my favorite space to connect. I missed this with Substack. Substack has the option to write emails, but it’s primarily a blogging platform (similar to Medium, which I tried for years and left). In 2019 when I paused on my blog for a few months, I was happy to continue writing newsletters. Emails are my JAM.
Sign up for Writing Vitamins — my free weekly newsletter that will help you write better and faster.
Will I return to Substack one day?
Maybe. For now, I plan to migrate some posts to this blog, delete others, and leave one post up that directs peeps to this website.
I share what I'm doing in case it's helpful. Most importantly — get your writing OUT THERE!
For now, I'm excited to write newsletters again. I just launched Writing Vitamins!
Keep reading with these reader favorites:
