Congratulations on your two years of consistently writing your newsletter! From my own experience, I know how much work that is. I have been noticing the same changes and I am not sure what to think of them. Less and less people subscribe and instead they follow you. Notes feels sometimes like IG just without the advertisement. Of course, it is my choice to use it or not. As you, I am grateful for all the people who decided to subscribe and support me and welcome everyone new to my newsletter. But I am not actively trying to gain more subscribers/followers by constantly being on Notes. My time is better spent behind my camera! 😉
Hey Susanne! Thank you very much! Actually you're totally right. The point is I don't want to waste precious time doing unnecessary things just because that's the only (somehow imposed) way to get more people read my posts. Time spent outside or in the studio is definitely more valuable 😊
You're right Matteo, Substack is changing. Indeed funny to see I kind of wrote the same today. I liked the idea that people subscribe and get the article in their mailbox. Now all these followers should be interacted with via Notes. This feels like IG. Bah.
Congratulations on your milestone. I used to try to keep up with the huge number of blogs I was subscribed to on Substack. Then I tried filtering Substack notifications, but that just relegated them to the get around to it sometime bin. Now I mostly keep up with creatives that leave comments on my posts. If I haven't heard from someone in a while, I'll go visit them specifically. The inbox has now become a secondary source of connection. I used to pay more attention to Notes than I do now. Trying to read everything from everyone I've connected with is crazy making. I came here to get away from that.
Thank you very much, John, appreciate the feedback. Actually what you describe is something that resonates also with me. I find it really hard to keep up with all the subscriptions, even if it's not a huge number, and I guess people feel the same with my own one. That's why I'm sort of reconsidering my being here. If Notes become more important, then the articles take a secondary aspect. And if my posts are not read via subscription, maybe my blog posts shared in Notes would. I believe all the ideas and comments coming to this post are a useful way to brainstorm for me and to decide what to do.
Well, I know I would miss you. I may not show that by reading or commenting on every post, but you are part of why I am here. Do we throw the baby out with the bath water? I do think it makes sense and is important to share your Substack posts in Notes, but I would prefer to read you on Substack to your blog. For one thing, I like the uniformity and quietness of the page design here which I think keeps the focus on content. And Notes is not and never will be what makes this platform great. It is connection. While I appreciate that you have your own blog, will I ever get there? And if I do, will I develop the habit of returning again and again? I rarely visit substack.com so Notes are not that important to me. I start from my own bookmarked substack page and then work out from there. My inbox is where I turn if I am looking for inspiration or want to visit with old friends. I refuse to let the platform determine what I read. Good luck with whatever you decide.
That’s a valid point and something I will definitely think about. I understand that having all the aricles in the same place makes the read consistent and “familiar”, way more than jumping from a blog to another, each with its own design. While I do need to keep my blog, I understand the importance of Substack and that’s the reason I wrote this post. To think out loud and have some perspectives I’m surely missing
That’s a good point, I need to explore deeper that part. The only concern is that on my website I have a slightly different formatting, due to my personal branding with specific fonts. Embedding the post would be inconsistent with the rest of the pages
I’m having the same quandary. I don’t want to write double content, I don’t want to be penalised for duplicate content, I don’t want to pay extra for personal website email functionality and I like the marketing element of Substack - but the second publication functionality is not really fit for purpose at present. So I need to think creatively.
Yes exactly. Also, if I have to manage the newsletter on my own website, I will have to setup a number of additional stuff to be gdpr compliant, which, with the current setup, is not needed because I don’t use cookies and I don’t profile anyone visiting the website.
Do you host on a commercial platform like Wix or Squarespace? I imagine they have GDPR functions baked in. It also depends on your site traffic and email volume in general, unsub rate on Substack. It might be enough to simply put a “Reply to this email with unsubscribe in the header” to be compliant (I’m not a compliance specialist but I know a bit about it). Obviously you’d then need to make sure that record WAS removed from your mailing list, which is why it depends on your scale.
In terms of the other rights, they are easy enough to do manually upon request for the most part. The most commonly invoked right is the right to erasure, and that’s easy enough to do by hashing characters in the email address/name in whichever seed file you store them in. I just had a quick look at your website and there’s nothing transactional on there so nothing to worry about in terms of erasing/obfuscating records for a payment service provider.
I host on an Italian provider called Aruba and maintain my website with Wordpress. Actually these are very interesting insights. As you noticed, I mainly use the website purely as a showcase, and the reason is I didn’t want to go crazy with all the regulations and didn’t want to pay extra to have someone manage it. And Substack came in handy to deal with all the newsletter stuff. On the other side, it means double work to also keep the blog. Need to think a lot more about the whole process/setup
Mateo, so appreciate you sharing your experience with writing on Substack. Your writing and creative spirit is a gift to all your readers and followers. I am so grateful!
Hey Marc! Thank you so much for your kindness! This definitely made my day and I'm so happy you like what I write and the images I share. That's a huge motivation to keep going, regardless of what platform or space I will decide to use in the future. Thanks again!
Here's something interesting... in the email subscription, at the bottom there's an invitation to go to your website, which I just did again. But here in Substack it's not there, the sentence that should appear below your upgrade button isn't visible. I don't know if you ever get people to want to work with you via these weekly newsletters, but if so, they should be able to get over to your site. Regarding whether to utilize Substack for posts, I know some people want all their newsletters/blogs etc. to be hosted on their website because they want control of the person's clicks. So there's that. I'm not following that approach, myself.
My own observation is that, as more and more people use the platform, it's harder to keep up. I have dozens of subscriptions, and I just don't have time to read everything. When I first arrived, a little after you did, it was much easier to keep up. And following doesn't clog the in box... although I definitely miss things by following, and so I don't do it very often.
That's just me though. One more data point for you!!!
Thanks a lot for the feedback, Donn! Actually I added the redirect to my website in the email footer, which is not being applied to the post living directly in Substack. When I did so I thought it was normal for people reading the post on Substack to search directly in the app for any previous post. I mean, if I'm a Substack user, I know the platform and I don't need to go to the website to find the other articles from the same author. Regarding the amount of subscriptions, I'm having the same problem. I'm now finding it hard to read all the posts from all the authors I subscribed to, and the result is they linger there for weeks before I can have a look. The list is pretty long, actually.
My reflection, starting from my article, is whether it's still worth keeping both Substack and the blog. Or if I'd better focus on the blog and, since people tend to follow more than subscribe, share the link to the blog post instead of the one to the Substack article.
Congratulations on your two years of consistently writing your newsletter! From my own experience, I know how much work that is. I have been noticing the same changes and I am not sure what to think of them. Less and less people subscribe and instead they follow you. Notes feels sometimes like IG just without the advertisement. Of course, it is my choice to use it or not. As you, I am grateful for all the people who decided to subscribe and support me and welcome everyone new to my newsletter. But I am not actively trying to gain more subscribers/followers by constantly being on Notes. My time is better spent behind my camera! 😉
Hey Susanne! Thank you very much! Actually you're totally right. The point is I don't want to waste precious time doing unnecessary things just because that's the only (somehow imposed) way to get more people read my posts. Time spent outside or in the studio is definitely more valuable 😊
Amen!
You're right Matteo, Substack is changing. Indeed funny to see I kind of wrote the same today. I liked the idea that people subscribe and get the article in their mailbox. Now all these followers should be interacted with via Notes. This feels like IG. Bah.
Exactly, that’s what I’m disliking and what I feared when Notes was launched back then.
Congratulations on your milestone. I used to try to keep up with the huge number of blogs I was subscribed to on Substack. Then I tried filtering Substack notifications, but that just relegated them to the get around to it sometime bin. Now I mostly keep up with creatives that leave comments on my posts. If I haven't heard from someone in a while, I'll go visit them specifically. The inbox has now become a secondary source of connection. I used to pay more attention to Notes than I do now. Trying to read everything from everyone I've connected with is crazy making. I came here to get away from that.
Thank you very much, John, appreciate the feedback. Actually what you describe is something that resonates also with me. I find it really hard to keep up with all the subscriptions, even if it's not a huge number, and I guess people feel the same with my own one. That's why I'm sort of reconsidering my being here. If Notes become more important, then the articles take a secondary aspect. And if my posts are not read via subscription, maybe my blog posts shared in Notes would. I believe all the ideas and comments coming to this post are a useful way to brainstorm for me and to decide what to do.
Well, I know I would miss you. I may not show that by reading or commenting on every post, but you are part of why I am here. Do we throw the baby out with the bath water? I do think it makes sense and is important to share your Substack posts in Notes, but I would prefer to read you on Substack to your blog. For one thing, I like the uniformity and quietness of the page design here which I think keeps the focus on content. And Notes is not and never will be what makes this platform great. It is connection. While I appreciate that you have your own blog, will I ever get there? And if I do, will I develop the habit of returning again and again? I rarely visit substack.com so Notes are not that important to me. I start from my own bookmarked substack page and then work out from there. My inbox is where I turn if I am looking for inspiration or want to visit with old friends. I refuse to let the platform determine what I read. Good luck with whatever you decide.
That’s a valid point and something I will definitely think about. I understand that having all the aricles in the same place makes the read consistent and “familiar”, way more than jumping from a blog to another, each with its own design. While I do need to keep my blog, I understand the importance of Substack and that’s the reason I wrote this post. To think out loud and have some perspectives I’m surely missing
Is it possible to embed your Substack posts in your own website (kind of like a white label) so you are killing two birds with one stone?
That’s a good point, I need to explore deeper that part. The only concern is that on my website I have a slightly different formatting, due to my personal branding with specific fonts. Embedding the post would be inconsistent with the rest of the pages
I’m having the same quandary. I don’t want to write double content, I don’t want to be penalised for duplicate content, I don’t want to pay extra for personal website email functionality and I like the marketing element of Substack - but the second publication functionality is not really fit for purpose at present. So I need to think creatively.
Yes exactly. Also, if I have to manage the newsletter on my own website, I will have to setup a number of additional stuff to be gdpr compliant, which, with the current setup, is not needed because I don’t use cookies and I don’t profile anyone visiting the website.
Do you host on a commercial platform like Wix or Squarespace? I imagine they have GDPR functions baked in. It also depends on your site traffic and email volume in general, unsub rate on Substack. It might be enough to simply put a “Reply to this email with unsubscribe in the header” to be compliant (I’m not a compliance specialist but I know a bit about it). Obviously you’d then need to make sure that record WAS removed from your mailing list, which is why it depends on your scale.
In terms of the other rights, they are easy enough to do manually upon request for the most part. The most commonly invoked right is the right to erasure, and that’s easy enough to do by hashing characters in the email address/name in whichever seed file you store them in. I just had a quick look at your website and there’s nothing transactional on there so nothing to worry about in terms of erasing/obfuscating records for a payment service provider.
I host on an Italian provider called Aruba and maintain my website with Wordpress. Actually these are very interesting insights. As you noticed, I mainly use the website purely as a showcase, and the reason is I didn’t want to go crazy with all the regulations and didn’t want to pay extra to have someone manage it. And Substack came in handy to deal with all the newsletter stuff. On the other side, it means double work to also keep the blog. Need to think a lot more about the whole process/setup
Yeah, me too. Anyway, if it helps I worked in ecommerce/web my whole career before now, so ping me if you want to bounce any ideas around etc
Yes and some white labels do look a bit ungainly, in general
Hey ,well done on the anniversary Matteo! Totally get your perspective I’ve unsubscribed from newsletters I like because it’s overwhelming.
Hey Nikki! Thank you so much! Yeah, I need to make some thoughts about the process and what’s convenient or not 😊
Mateo, so appreciate you sharing your experience with writing on Substack. Your writing and creative spirit is a gift to all your readers and followers. I am so grateful!
Hey Marc! Thank you so much for your kindness! This definitely made my day and I'm so happy you like what I write and the images I share. That's a huge motivation to keep going, regardless of what platform or space I will decide to use in the future. Thanks again!
Excellent post Matteo!
Here's something interesting... in the email subscription, at the bottom there's an invitation to go to your website, which I just did again. But here in Substack it's not there, the sentence that should appear below your upgrade button isn't visible. I don't know if you ever get people to want to work with you via these weekly newsletters, but if so, they should be able to get over to your site. Regarding whether to utilize Substack for posts, I know some people want all their newsletters/blogs etc. to be hosted on their website because they want control of the person's clicks. So there's that. I'm not following that approach, myself.
My own observation is that, as more and more people use the platform, it's harder to keep up. I have dozens of subscriptions, and I just don't have time to read everything. When I first arrived, a little after you did, it was much easier to keep up. And following doesn't clog the in box... although I definitely miss things by following, and so I don't do it very often.
That's just me though. One more data point for you!!!
Thanks a lot for the feedback, Donn! Actually I added the redirect to my website in the email footer, which is not being applied to the post living directly in Substack. When I did so I thought it was normal for people reading the post on Substack to search directly in the app for any previous post. I mean, if I'm a Substack user, I know the platform and I don't need to go to the website to find the other articles from the same author. Regarding the amount of subscriptions, I'm having the same problem. I'm now finding it hard to read all the posts from all the authors I subscribed to, and the result is they linger there for weeks before I can have a look. The list is pretty long, actually.
My reflection, starting from my article, is whether it's still worth keeping both Substack and the blog. Or if I'd better focus on the blog and, since people tend to follow more than subscribe, share the link to the blog post instead of the one to the Substack article.