Substack Series Episode #2
Welcome to Creators Getting Paid. I’m your host, Michelle Jackson. My mission is to help digital content creators to identify, grow and scale at least one recurring income stream to $500 a month within the back end of their business. I know that you’re busy with brand deals, freelance writing and partnerships, um waking up but waking up to money each morning is so freaking addictive. That $500 a month, that’s $6,000 a year.
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Show Notes
For the last two years, I’ve run a newsletter called Creators Getting Paid. I’m having a phenomenal time with this project, what serves who it serves and the role it plays in my business. I’m able to grow my expertise, influence and nurture my professional curiosity while building community. Currently, I host my newsletter on the Substack platform, a decision that I still am happy with.
In the first episode of my Substack series about building a newsletter on Substack, I talked about the platform and kind of what to expect. In today’s episode, I share why I still have a separate Creators Getting Paid website, how I use it, and some things to consider.
I would also like to mention that while I am specifically talking about Substack, you could include and you know in the comments Beehive and Ghost or any other newsletter platform similar to Substack in that it’s a third-party platform that’s hosting your content. Before I share why I have a website, I do want to talk about the features that make Substack as a platform so freaking appealing.
Feature number one, you can display your content in a way that strongly mimics a website experience or a beautiful portfolio. It’s a wonderful way to build a visually appealing portfolio of work.
Feature number two, your content is currently organically discoverable on the subset platform, which is amazing because if you’ve never been on the platform, then you’re completely new to these people. So it’s a great way to build a community outside of the space that you may have originally been in, which was the case for me. Feature number three, other creators can recommend your work to their audience.
The ability to get directly in front of other creators communities within the same platform, that mechanism is so huge. I have one creator who is a friend who’s referred hundreds of people to me. Feature number four, the ability to embed audio and video content. I will say though, I do wish there was a easier way to embed like a YouTube video, but that’s that’s like a small thing.
The final feature that I think is really important to talk about is the SEO and Google search that like search engine results that pop up in unexpected places. I do want to asterisk the fact that Google has been highly problematic, especially within the past couple of years. But I was personally very surprised to see that Substack results were being found outside of the Substack platform and ecosystem.
If Google is pulling these results, it’s likely that other search engines are as well, or if people are bookmarking that content or backlinking to it, that somehow um different search engines are pulling up what you’re designing and sharing with the world. And I think that’s really important to consider. So with all that in mind,
Why Do I Still Have My Own Website?
So reason number one -I like to publish complimentary content that is adjacent to what I share on the newsletter. um Basically expanding my brand ecosystem. I’ve said it before in other content that I kind of do a tiered content approach. It’s a lot of content to do, but I’m doing this on purpose. I want to be found in more than one place. And while I love the organic discoverability um that is happening right now on the Substack platform, it is my view that eventually that will change, that things will get harder. It will not be as easy to find me in the future. I’m preparing now.
Reason number two-By having a website, it helps to expand my organic search or expand organic search to my content. So I like that there’s more than one place where you can discover me that I’m not paying for ads. I’m not paying ads for. So again, I’m doubling the search possibilities to my content that I’ve designed and put out into the world. And this is actually important, this organic search outside of the substat platform because people who land on my website, they don’t have to be a Substack platform user because I find that when I talk about Substack with people who are unfamiliar with it, I have to educate them. If you just land on a website, you just land on a website. But there are some people there there is some friction with the Substack platform, and and I’ve observed it. It’s not huge, but it is some. And if the person isn’t already on the platform, that’s just something to consider. So having a website kind of circumvents that.
Reason number three, and this one is really, really huge. Are you familiar with Cody Sanchez of Contrarian Thinking? I think is the name of her project. It’s a massive, massive project. We are very different people, but I find some of her work very interesting. And there was a point where she grew, I think, up to 50,000 subscribers on Substack. And then I don’t know what happened, but something happened.
And she found herself, from what I understand, locked out of her Substack community and, you know, unable to access her list. And that was not good. That was bad. She is, as you could imagine, still probably to this day, very pissed off, even though she has got gone off the platform and is somewhere else. But can you imagine building a community of 50,000 people and waking up one day and the amount of money that that was and you couldn’t access them? Oh, hell no. However, Substack is a third party platform. They have every right to do that. You are building on rented land.
And if you do something that pisses off the platform, whether or not it’s Substack or Beehive or Ghost or whomever, they could shut you down. um Part of why I have my own website is because I am so tired of how third party platforms can negatively impact my business that I’ve worked really hard to build.
I’m working hard to build right now and nothing would be worse than to wake up one morning and not be able to communicate with my community. I will be recording another episode sooner or later about best practices around sub stack, but I think about this a lot, which is why I build off the platform in addition to having what I do on the platform. And it sucks that I side eyed the platform because I really enjoy it. But I’m also very aware that um things come up. It could be that it has nothing to do with me. It could be like that day when Instagram went down and Facebook went down and WhatsApp went down and Twitter went to shit, you know, like these things come up.
And so the reason why I have my own website is because I remain, I have the ability to be nimble within my business. I have the ability to expand search to the work that I’m doing. I have the ability to design and share complementary content to the work that I put on new on the newsletter and um It’s also actually the place where I put my show notes for my podcast I don’t I don’t Record directly into the substat platform. I just don’t want to have all my eggs in one basket That’s really what it is. I just don’t want to do that. I don’t want to wake up and be really upset that something went wrong.
It could just be a tech issue and I’m screwed. I want to make sure that I always have control over the work that I’m doing, the space that I’m building, the content that I’m sharing. um And that might be the last comment, which is you may have noticed that this series is actually, my Substack series is not being published on Substack. Why on earth would I do that? um There are a couple of reasons why I am not releasing this content specifically on Substack.
I feel that it would be difficult to be fully critical or or even um fully like and ah admirable, no, admiring admiring of the platform. like I can’t be as candid, I think, as i would want as I would like to be off the platform. If I’m on the platform, I’m gonna have to watch what I have to say.
And I don’t want to do that. I just don’t. um I’m not going to sit there and rip sub-stack or any of these platforms a new one. Like that’s insane. But I do feel like there’s space for thoughtful critique and observation. And I want to make sure that I i am able to facilitate that in such a way that is honest for the audience as well. Like I don’t want to be so enthusiastic about the platform. And then a year from now, something goes left and people are like, why didn’t you mention this? And and so I am telling you now that it is a fabulous platform. These third party platforms are are an amazing way to grow a body of work
They’re an amazing way to design a body of work. They’re an amazing way to meet other incredible creatives. And finally, they’re an incredible way to show what you’re doing, to show up regularly, to like really build a ah build a an awareness of who you are and what you do and who you serve, as well as professional um autonomy and and just for people to be aware of who you are. But it’s also arist building a 100% on a third party platform, whether it is a social media platform or even a newsletter platform, so on and so forth is always a risk. And I need people to think about that, to be thoughtful about that within the design of their brand. And I don’t want you to to be caught off guard.
That being said, I’m loving being on the platform. It’s been amazing. I’ve met some amazing people designing, building, and growing spaces and places and communities that I’m really so excited to support and be a part of and I’m hoping that they too are building in such a way that no matter what, they can sustain momentum. With that being said, that’s it for tonight. Let me know what you think. Do you have a website in addition to your newsletter? Curious to hear what you have to say.
