It may surprise you to hear that for the past 7 months I’ve been working on solving what I’d identified as a huge problem. My over reliance on the Substack newsletter feature. It has been increasingly obvious that Substack is transitioning to becoming a long-form social media platform and I’m absolutely excited to be a part of that transition. However, for me, the newsletter feature was a huge area of focus when I initially started using the platform. I spent several months testing out different features on Beehiiv and finally said “Yes” to Beehiiv on Wednesday of this week. You may be surprised to hear that I cancelled my Beehiiv subscription one day later. There’s an important lesson that I learned in 2025 that I want to share with you.
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Listen To The Episode
What Didn’t Work
I was so excited to move ahead with Beehiiv. My intention was to shift over emails and newsletter sends sometime in January. I was a little behind schedule because I got sick again, but I found a discount code and said “Yes” to Beehiiv. I’d used the free tier but my list had grown to the point where I had to pay for the service which was totally fine. So, I decided to wait and test it out further. The cost for that paid tier was $109 dollars or $87.20 depending on if you met the criteria for that pricing. Either way I’d gotten really excited about all of the new features that Beehiiv had launched ranging from the ability to build and sell digital products on the platform, people could charge for coaching and the analytics. I have friends who absolutely LOVE Beehiiv. The additional components were compelling enough for me to say “yes” and pay up or shut up.
Initially I needed two very specific tools:
- The first was the ability to sell a subscription service. My Creator Income Collective Membership has a monthly subscription fee and I’m wanting to really get started on promoting, meeting more new members and selling that program.
- The second thing I was looking for was the ability to sell books direct to my audience.
What happened surprised me. For some reason the upgrade form on Beehiiv could not be removed on the website that I’d designed. The system wouldn’t let me do it. Also, setting up the upgrade form-which has always been an easy process on other platforms-nothing worked. I was unable to edit the forms. I would click on all of the components to the form and nothing would change.
It became clear that my flirtation with Beehiiv had come to an end. I’d spent hours trying to figure out what I was doing wrong and there came a point where I just felt silly. Not every tool is for every body. I still understand why people love Beehiiv-the ad network, the infectious energy of the team and all of the endless work that they’re putting into improving the product. The thing is, I don’t have the time and energy to use something that stresses me out on Day #1.
Here’s Where Flodesk Comes In
I’ve used Flodesk on and off for years and have always been a fan of the product. I love the design elements of the platform and I used it initially for my romance pen name’s email list. The team over at Flodesk have built an intuitive and straight forward email marketing tool. I’m not sure why I didn’t spend more time reevaluating it for my current needs but everything happens for a reason. I’d always been happy with Flodesk so I decided to use it as my email and newsletter tool moving forward because I already was paying for it.
Tools I Love
- You can already sell products via the platform. The pre-designed checkout forms are easy and intuitive to edit. Previously I’ve sold workshops, coaching and masterminds using Flodesk.
- I like the ability to tag and segment your audience. For example, if I run an ad to an opt-in form and people sign up-I can tag that group of people indicating where they came from and email that group separately depending on the marketing campaign.
- Subscriptions feature-In a previous podcast episode I shared that I’d STOPPED actively monetizing my Substack. I won’t get into the details in this episode but I really wanted to shift my subscription model off of Substack. Flodesk having this option is huge.
- Landing Page forms-Love the templates! I go in and tweak them for my brand.
- The Flodesk Affiliate Program-When people sign up with your link they get 25% off their subscription (check the details as things can change) the affiliate partner gets $15 per conversion.
When I was actively emailing using Flodesk, I really loved the design and the audience response was really positive. Moving forward all opt-ins to resources, events, products, services and anything else that I’m working on will be hosted on Flodesk. I’m so glad that I took a chance on Beehiiv. It didn’t work out, but it encouraged me to reevaluate a tool that I’ve had for awhile, pay attention and experience the new features and test things out.
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