I’m Thinking About Quitting Substack
Or at least demoting it… again.
I publish on Substack. Almost daily. It’s a fantastic platform. It’s got a lot going for it. And mostly for free. But I like Medium more, and the gap is getting bigger.
Substack Notes ate the app
Notes has gotten huge. Good for Substack. Less good for me.
Every update pushes the app a little further toward social media and a little further from writing, I feel like. Many people enjoy this. I don’t really.
New feed tweaks. New video stuff. New ways to “engage.” Like another Twitter, just with longer captions.
I open the app to write. I close it because I scrolled.
That’s not Substack’s fault, really. They’re chasing growth, and Notes is where the growth is. But it changes what the platform feels like. And what it feels like to me right now is a social app with a newsletter and blog bolted on.
The email part isn’t enough for me
Substack’s email tools are fine for a free newsletter. They’re not enough for the way I work.
Most of my email workflows live in Gumroad. Product delivery, follow-ups, segmentation by what someone bought. That’s where list segmentation does the real work. Substack handles the public newsletter. But it’s basically just a sendout of a blog post. Said it before. Substack is more a blog with email attached than a “newsletter” tool.
So Substack’s email side has become the lighter half of my setup. The newsletter still goes out. But it’s not the engine. For anything.
My main driver of Substack growth is SEO. And that’s doing pretty well right now. It’s the reason I still have Substack.
Medium is my main thing
Medium pays me. Quite well most months.
Medium also ranks on Google. Medium has a custom domain that I own at stories.byburk.net. (Substack has that too, though). The reading experience is calm. There is no Notes feed pulling at me. Sure, it’s algorithmic. What isn’t? But it’s not social media, in my eyes. Or less than Substack, at least.
I do most of my writing for Medium first. Substack gets the same article, later. That’s the order, and it tells you what I treat as primary.
Substack has become a second-class citizen for me. And… I treat it like one.
The one thing that keeps me there
I said it. SEO.
The SEO bump on letters.byburk.net over the last months has been really nice. Search traffic is up. Old posts are getting found. The custom domain is doing its job.
I wrote a whole guide about how I do this in Substack SEO. And it’s starting to pay off.
So I’m not pulling the plug. The archive earns its keep, even if I’m not in love with the app (right now).
Will They?
Substack could pull me back in. Probably not by adding more social features. More like the opposite.
Better long-form tools. Better editor. Better post management. Less feed in my face when I open the app to draft.
Could happen. I doubt it.
This is me, not Substack
None of this means Substack isn’t great. It is.
For a beginner writer, Substack is probably the best place to start right now. One platform, free, easy, with a built-in audience graph through Notes and recommendations. For an established writer who wants a newsletter, a blog, and a social feed in one app, it’s basically perfect.
I’d encourage anyone to try Substack. And Medium. Both, ideally.
But if it’s not for you, there’s no shame in not doing it. Platforms are tools. Some fit, some don’t. Mine just fits a little less than it used to.
The Bottom Line
I’m not quitting Substack today. I’m just thinking about where it sits in my stack.
Medium first. Gumroad for email that does work. Substack for the SEO archive and the newsletter that goes out anyway.
Notes is the headline feature for Substack right now. It’s not mine.
After getting motivation from you to switch to Substack, and after reading your May 5th post, making all my settings and migrating to Substack, reading about you - almost - moving away from here has honestly spoiled my mood. Of course, do what's best for you.