Recently I got this great question from my reader Jill – should she move her newsletter to Substack or should she stick with Kit?
Lest you think I’m a Luddite, I think Substack is an awesome tool for easily sharing your thoughts. I’ve seen it work well for folks in the non-fiction, personal development, mom blog and recovery spaces – especially if they’ve got a pre-built audience or have high visibility friends who share their work.
But I’m also the kind of person who uses different tools for different purposes (and I rarely trust tools that say they can “do it all” because they rarely do everything great).
Probably comes with being raised with a grandma who lived through the depression and hid money in her mattress because she didn’t trust the banks.
When her sister, my great-aunt Lizzie, passed in 1990, we found silver dollars at the bottom of giant flour barrels in her cellar and cash hidden in her walls. We also found pickles she canned in 1945, but that’s a whole other conversation.
You won’t find me eating canned goods from WWII. And I’m also hesitant to move your systems to one bucket – especially when you don’t fully control it.
That said, I think you can use Substack for visibility and driving awareness – as long as you’re informed of the pros and cons.
Scroll to the bottom for the TL:DR verdict.
Here’s what I like about Substack:
- It’s a simple way for folks who identify as writers to share their work (and get paid).
- It’s super easy and free to use – with very minimal tech. You don’t even need a website. If you just want to get your journal or blog out there – and have been frustrated by all that goes into running a website – this may be a great option for you.
- It’s easy for other Substack authors to promote your writing.
- You can include audio and video files in your content and even get paid subscribers for your podcast (however, for traditional podcasts I recommend using a service like Libsyn for granular control – especially if you want to run dynamic ads or get advanced metrics.)
- There’s a great app that makes it easy to read content on the go.
- There’s an energy right now reminiscent of the early 2010s blogosphere – people are more likely to comment on a Substack thread than an insta post these days. With the low reach people are seeing on social media, it’s only natural to search for a place where folks can connect more deeply with your work.
Here’s what makes me hesitate:
- Substack’s terms of use states they can remove content at any time and without notice – and they can delete your account. This means you’d also lose access to your list. In the Substack subreddit, I saw several threads where folks had lost their account for arbitrary reasons. Yikes.
- Substack takes a hefty 10% plus Stripe fees of 2.9% plus .30 per transaction for paid subscriptions. By contrast, a paid Kit newsletter only takes 3.5% plus .30 per transaction (this includes the Stripe fees). Plus you can’t sell one-off products or events like you can with Kit Commerce.
- There’s no way to connect Substack to other services. Substack doesn’t have a public API – meaning you can’t use a tool like Zapier to auto-connect Substack to other tools (for example, to add paying subscribers to an online course or to add folks to your list via an DM automation flow using ManyChat). This fact alone means most of my techy friends won’t touch it.
- There’s minimal segmentation and automation options. Want to send a unique automated sequence to a special segment? Want to create different signup forms and lead magnets? Want to create link triggers to easily allow folks to opt-in (or out) of an offer? Nope, can’t do it. Not a big deal if you’re writing full length essays intended for the same audience all the time – but at some point, you may want these capabilities.
- Here’s the verdict from Substack itself: “Substack is intended for editorial content, not conventional email marketing.”
Also good to know if you’re using Substack:
- Per their content guidelines, Substack does not “permit publications whose primary purpose is to advertise external products or services, drive traffic to third party sites, distribute offers and promotions, enhance search engine optimization, or similar activities.”
While Substack does allow sponsored ads, you should be super mindful of their terms of use. And you’re doing any kind of affiliate marketing, this probably isn’t the place for you.
I’d also be wary of heavily promoting your own products and services as it could be a potential violation of their terms – that said: I’ve seen friends do it with no issues – yet. The Reddit subforum indicated certain accounts got banned when they linked to their storefront or products.
- If you do use Substack, I’d make sure to export your list AND your content on a regular basis (weekly or monthly depending on your output and sign up rate) – just in case you lose your account. That way you can always import your list into another service.
- If you want to includes someone else’s content (like artwork, photos or music), you MUST get explicit permission from the owner otherwise you could be in violation of Substack’s terms of use (that’s a good way to get booted off the system!)
- Finally, to improve your SEO, read this guide written by the Substack team.
For the TL:DR – while an awesome tool for discovery and connection, Substack does not replace a proper email marketing system like Kit And ask yourself before going all in – how will it support your other work?
This is a great article. Thanks so much. In one way I love the idea of Substack, but the vast majority of people I see using Substack directly violate the terms listed above. What are your thoughts on people in the fashion industry using Substack like this? Sharing affiliate links, using photos they don’t own. What’s the story there?
Thanks so much Brianna! I think as with anything, people will try to get away with what they can try to get away with until they get into trouble! I’m just super reluctant to go all in on a space where you don’t own everything 100%…and one should always be mindful of copyright concerns – especially in an litigious space.