Substack is THE Platform for Teens
Why Substack is the Best Fit for All Teen Bloggers
Hi, y’all!
This is a post I’ve been wanting to do for a while, since I started using Substack. Recently, I’ve discovered many teen writers who use platforms such as Wix, Blogger, or WordPress. Now, those are fine platforms. However, these blogs have not been getting the attention they deserve. The authors put so much effort and love into their posts, but readers have a hard time navigating their blogs, liking and commenting, creating accounts in order to offer feedback, and so much more. But that’s what this post is for: to show them that there is a way for their writing to be seen how it should be by more people than ever thought possible. Meet Substack.
First off, I’d like to list everything I like about but also my problems with each of these three platforms. But first, I’d like to mention that while some of you may be wondering about other blogging platforms—such as Squarespace and Bluehost—, Substack, Wix, and WordPress are the best out there. No need to use any other than these three because wherever you are financially or by knowledge, Wix, WordPress, or Substack will suffice. And about Blogger, Google’s blogging platform, it sucks. Never use Blogger.
So, onto my personal pros and cons of each of these platforms. Starting off we have…
Wix
Wix is a powerful, no code website builder that comes equipped with business tools that can help you build something as simple as a personal blog to something as complex as an enterprise-grade hub for your online business. It has built-in features for eCommerce, marketing, scheduling, branding and more. An incumbent in the website space, Wix has long been a leader in web design and an early adopter of new technologies, like AI website creation.
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT WIX
Their customization tools and templates — Wix offers some of the prettiest templates and most versatile customization tools I’ve ever seen and used. Blogs made with Wix are often very clean, organized, and easy to navigate. However, if you are inexperienced with these kinds of tools, it’s easy to mess up, as I’ve seen a few Wix users do before. Overall though, if you stick to a template or have an AI design a blog for you, I think Wix beats Substack in the beauty department.
The security — Wix doesn’t really have many SEO tools, which makes it great for bloggers who don’t want just anyone reading what they post. Wix offers a way to have a controlled audience and just develop your blog to specific people however you desire.
MY PROBLEMS WITH WIX
You don’t get much for free — If you’re not paying for Wix’s constantly advertised Premium plan, you miss out on a lot of their features. You get zero SEO tools, fewer templates, a super long URL, no custom favicon, and Wix gets to advertise itself all throughout your blog. Their paid plan is overly expensive and definitely not worth it, which is one of the reasons I don’t care for Wix as much. (To elaborate on the URL deal, free Wix URLs are set up terribly! They go like this: https://youraccountname.wixsite.com/blogname. It’s really bad.)
It’s harder to develop an audience — Hooked onto the second thing I like about Wix, the platform offers zero SEO tools, which is preferable for some people. However, if you want your writing to be seen and your blog to grow, Wix may not be for you. With the long URL and no SEO, people will not be able to find your blog except from the direct link. To me, that’s a pain because I want my writing to be seen by a certain audience. Wix can’t offer that which is another reason I don’t prefer it to Substack.
WordPress
WordPress is a web content management system. It was originally created as a tool to publish blogs but has evolved to support publishing other web content, including more traditional websites, mailing lists and Internet forum, media galleries, membership sites, learning management systems and online stores.
(Check out WordPress’s About page here!)
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT WORDPRESS
I really do appreciate the simplicity of the posting system setup. It’s really easy to use and navigate and is like a combination of Substack’s post editor and Blogger’s post navigation system. I also found myself particularly liking the WordPress reader view. I appreciate how user-friendly it is and the cleanliness of the overall appeal.
MY PROBLEMS WITH WORDPRESS
There are no good templates — Literally all of WordPress’s free blog templates suck, which forces users to try and create a blog with the clunky customization/building tools, which seldom goes well. WordPress blogs are often, to me, hard to navigate, the opposite of clean and minimalistic, and unappealing to look at. If you care about appearance, Wix or Substack are the way to go.
Again, barely any SEO or good free features — I can literally just copy and paste the cons for Wix because WordPress is exactly the same. Their URLs are a bit better (e.g., https://blogname.wordpress.com), however, there’s no free SEO so your blog won’t get very noticed. If you don’t care about appearance or audience, by all means, use WordPress. But I personally prefer clean, easily-accessible blogs which is why WordPress is not for me.
Finally, let’s discuss my personal favorite…
Substack
Substack is an American online platform that allows journalists, writers, and other content creators to publish newsletters and establish a subscription-based audience. It provides tools for authors to create and distribute their newsletters, manage subscriptions, and monetize content via subscriptions.
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT SUBSTACK
I adore basically everything about Substack—the platform, pricing, appearance, tools, SEO, community, accessibility, and so much more discussed later in this post. I’ve only been on Substack since February but I can tell you flat out that it is truly the best blogging/newsletter platform I’ve ever used. When I first created a Substack account, it was love at first site. Substack can truly bring your writing to great heights and give you the blogging experience to the fullest.
MY PROBLEMS WITH SUBSTACK
The limited customization tools — All Substack publications share roughly the same setup, which can be annoying to some. There are limited typefaces, featured post layouts, and overall appearance tools. However, the Substack chatbot explains why it is like this, saying:
Substack is designed to be incredibly user-friendly, focusing on simplicity and ease of use so that writers can concentrate on what they do best: writing. Here’s why Substack offers limited customization tools:
Focus on Content — Substack believes that the quality of the content should be the main attraction, not the design elements. This philosophy helps keep the reader's attention on your writing, not on flashy website features.
Ease of Use — By limiting customization options, Substack makes it easier for anyone to start a publication without needing technical skills. This democratizes the ability to publish online, making it accessible to writers of all tech skill levels.
Consistency and Professionalism — Limited customization ensures that all Substack publications maintain a clean, professional look. This consistency helps in building trust with readers, as they come to recognize the familiar layout and focus more on the content itself.
Speed and Performance: — With fewer custom elements to load, Substack publications load faster, providing a better reading experience, especially for those with slower internet connections.
Support and Maintenance — Fewer customization options mean there are fewer complications that could arise, making it easier for Substack to provide support and ensure everything runs smoothly.
While some may view the limited customization as a drawback, it's a deliberate choice by Substack to support its core mission: empowering writers to focus on writing while making the technical aspects as easy and non-intrusive as possible.
Substack is set up like social media — Look around and explore the Substack website or app. It is set up quite a lot like social media, which can be unnerving for some users. (However, I do explain how to stay safe on Substack in this post:
CONCLUSION:
I honestly believe Substack is best for teen writers. But what really makes it better? Many, many things. For starters…
Pricing
While Blogger is free, Wix and WordPress have free plans but constantly shove their paid plan in your face! They dangle features in front of you that you’ll only be able to access if you pay. Want SEO tools? Pay for it. Want a better URL? Pay for it. Want a cleaner look? Pay for it. It’s such a pain.
The benefit of Substack is that you don’t need to pay. You can design and launch a Substack blog in minutes for free and even set up paid subscriptions with zero cost! SEO tools? Automatic. Clean blog set-up? Easily customizable. A perfect URL just for you? Claim it for free!1 All this and more can all be yours without costing a penny.
Now, onto the next category . . .
Audience & Accessibility
What is the deal with these WordPress, Blogger, and Wix blogs not getting much attention? The answer: No one can find them! With the free plan (or any plan for Blogger), you get zero SEO accessibility features, meaning your blog can only be accessed with a direct link or very specific Google searches. Also, the URLs suck! WordPress and Blogger blogs are like Substack: each blog ends in WordPress.com or Blogger.com. Wix on the other hand is worse. It goes:
https://accountname.wixsite.com/blogname
Which is SUPER hard to find directly. Because of this, not many of the sites are getting the attention they deserve. Growth is slow and hard to improve.
As for Substack, growth is easier than ever! Take this blog for example. I officially launched this blog on May 1, 2024. Already we have over 60 subscribers and nearly 100 followers! In only a month! And it’s not only this blog. So many other Substack publications are seeing this kind of crazy growth more quickly than they ever would have expected. With SEO tools and short, easy URLs, Substack blogs are a million times easier to find on Google and social media. Teens can advertise their blogs like crazy and watch as their number of subscribers climbs higher and higher. I know blogging isn’t completely about attention, but you want people to see your work right? If so, Substack is for you.
Now it’s time to discuss…
Appearance
Something I’ve seen others dislike about Substack is the limited customization tools And I agree that it’s kind of difficult to make your blog look totally unique. However, is this really a bad thing? I mean, it makes it easier for non-tech-savvy people to create a publication in seconds and it means your blog automatically looks amazingly sleek and modern. And the customization tools aren’t completely limited. Look at The YA Section! With its different colors and set-up, it does look quite unique among other Substack blogs.
What about posts? How do the posts look? Well, look around! You’re reading one right now. As I’m writing this, the post editor shows me exactly how this post will look on my blog because it’s formatted exactly the same! Take a look. Here’s a sneak peek of what I’m looking at:
See that? The colors and fonts are exactly the same. This means I can look at it and decide whether I like how it appears or not without even posting it. The post editor, like everything else about Substack, is incredibly user-friendly and clean so readers will easily be able to read what you have to say. Having used the post-editors for Blogger, WordPress, and Wix, I find it safe to say Substack beats them all in this category.
Here’s an important subject…
Community
How is Substack with likes, comments, and interaction between writers and subscribers? It’s incredible! If you’re already subscribed to this blog, it means you likely have a Substack account and you’ve seen how easy it is to subscribe to blogs, follow other users, block or mute certain people (very good safety feature), and DM your friends! The community with Substack accounts is stronger than any other blogging platform.
As for comments and likes, you can see for yourself! It’s clean, it’s easy, it’s nice. Part of the reason I hated Blogger was because of the terrible comments section since our debate posts depend on it. When checking out Wix blogs, I’d say the likes and comments are pretty clean for Wix and there is sometimes the option to comment as a guest. As for WordPress . . . the likes look kind of tacky and the comments section is not as bad as Blogger, but it’s pretty . . . not good. But Substack on the other hand has a beautiful like system and comments section! It’s super easy to like a post or a comment, restack the post (meaning publishing it as a Note on your profile), share the post, and more!
Overall, the Substack community is clean, user-friendly, and just beautiful. It definitely beats the other well-known platforms by a wide margin.
Something to consider…
Collaboration
One thing you might find helpful is that collaboration is easier on Substack than on any other platform. Because all you have to do is that the person in the post editor byline. Here’s what that looks like:
Simply click the byline tool where it says “Choose author” and tag any Substack account that allows bylines. Also, adding admins or contributors to your blog is just as simple. This makes guest authoring or multiple-author posts extremely easy. Just ask
, our most recent guest writer (check out her post here!).Now, the final thing to explore . . .
Your Opinion
Now that you’ve seen how Substack compares to other blogging platforms, what do you think? Is Substack truly better? Do you want to start using it? If so, leave a comment with your thoughts and create your own Substack blog right now! If you want to check our more Substack features, take a look at this post:
A Fresh New Look
G’day, readers! For all those who followed Controversial Book Club, you know who I am. For anyone here with no knowledge of our old blog, my name is Jack Cuison, and in this post, I will explain why the Controversial Book Club rebranded as The Young Author Section. We’ll be discussing the pros and cons of changing our name and platform and how this blog will be the…
I hope you found this post helpful! If you did, please give it a like and consider subscribing if you haven’t already. One more thing…
Cast your vote in this very cool Substack poll feature and explain your reasoning in the comments! See y’all in my next post!
Have a blessed day! :)
Every free URL does end in “substack.com” unfortunately. However, you can easily set up a custom domain for a much better price than other platforms.
Well, Jack, you still haven't changed my mind. The fact that Substack is set up as social media is a con — a BIG CON. When I blog, I want to have my own website, and you don't get that with Substack. With a few clicks on my keyboard, I end up in Notes land or a completely different blog. Besides, I don't really want to be involved with social media at this point. It is too easy to have weird things come across a profile. (Not to mention I doubt my parents want me to be on social media.)
Second of all, you didn't mention one of the other big cons, in my opinion. You did quote Substack's about section, which states that it is a newsletter publishing site. See, when you send out your emails every week, I can decide to just read the post in my inbox! Unless I want to like, comment, or vote in a poll, I can read the whole thing without visiting this site. Now I always choose to participate by commenting, liking, and voting in polls, but a different person might prefer to stay in their private email. This feature could easily end up losing traffic on your blog.
That's part of why I like Wix. By using my email marketing profile with Email Octopus, I am able to let people know that a new post came out without actually showing them the whole post. If they want to read the post, they have to click the button and check the blog.
Thirdly, you only considered free versions. I am content to invest money in my writing. Once I earn enough money, I plan on upgrading my blog so that I can have a better, searchable, website. Sure, Wix might be an issue if you don't want to pay, but I believe that it is a good idea to invest in your writing if you want to get better at it. (Thinking about it now, that might be why Substack is free. Since it's set up like social media, all the blogs are somewhat connected to each other. Wouldn't that make it cheaper to set up a blog?)
Lastly, you pointed to generating audience as a con for Wix. However, a lot of generating audience when you first start out is simply sharing it with friends and family and having them share it with more friends and family. I've had my blog for around two months now, and I already have about 40 subscribers. Most of those people found my blog, well all of them actually, because some one shared it with them. And the same pretty much goes for Substack. People find your blog because it is shared on Substack Notes, or because someone hit the share button on a post. I don't find your blog by searching Google, I find it by using a link in an email or by finding it through my Substack profile. So I don't really see audience as a big con.
Well, that's why I choose Wix. Oh, and thanks for posting this. I've really wanted to write about why I prefer Wix over Substack for some time now, and this was a good opportunity.
I recently joined Substack as teen myself, in order to improve my writing and find a creative outlet! It's a great place to start and even though it shares a lot of aspects with social media, it seems a lot safer, and much more of a community.