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.
Those are good points!! I will say though that email views count as pageviews so it doesn't actually lessen any blog traffic. But I understand the social media relation concern. Thanks for sharing :D
Fellow WIX user here! I love WIX and I agree with you about it's pluses. But I will say that I don't think Substack being set up a social media is necessarily a con. It may be a con for you, and that's totally fine; but a lot of people love that fact that it's set up similar to social media because it really can be a simple way to help share your work (whether it's as effective as word-of-mouth is a whole other deal). In Jack's defense, I think that it being a con is more your personal opinion than an actual con for everyone else. (:
The whole social media thing is one thing I like about Blogger better than Substack. The dashboard for Blogger is the dashboard for your blog. On Substack, I have to navigate through the social media area to get to my blog.
On the dashboard side of Substack, it is a bit clunky feeling, but the actual website of Blogger is visually clunky.
Perhaps...but it could just be your opinion. And that's fine. I do appreciate the bulk actions in the Blogger dashboard that Substack doesn't have yet. But overall I think Substack is better.
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.
Okay, I haven't even read the whole article yet, but I totally concur with your statement on Blogger.
I have had a blog on Blogger for nearly ten years (I was 6 years old when I started it). As I grew older, I began to realise how absolutely no one looked at my blog. I simply assumed that the reason why my blog wasn't taking off was because this is no longer the 2000s (unfortunately). But, now that I have seen the success of The YA Section in comparison to The Controversial Book Club, it is astounding.
The problem isn't that blogs don't seem to be as popular anymore, it's Blogger, the archaic blogging website. (Another problem could have been that I didn't even have a theme for my blog, and all my posts were about whatever I felt like posting at the moment; I didn't take it very seriously).
As I said at the beginning, I have had a blog on Blogger for almost ten years (or 3,229 days). In total, it has achieved 1,566 views (including mine). That equals to about one view every other day.
But, I honestly don't care about that blog at all anymore, so it doesn't affect me that much. But if you were trying to seriously pursue making a blog.
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.
Those are good points!! I will say though that email views count as pageviews so it doesn't actually lessen any blog traffic. But I understand the social media relation concern. Thanks for sharing :D
Fellow WIX user here! I love WIX and I agree with you about it's pluses. But I will say that I don't think Substack being set up a social media is necessarily a con. It may be a con for you, and that's totally fine; but a lot of people love that fact that it's set up similar to social media because it really can be a simple way to help share your work (whether it's as effective as word-of-mouth is a whole other deal). In Jack's defense, I think that it being a con is more your personal opinion than an actual con for everyone else. (:
The whole social media thing is one thing I like about Blogger better than Substack. The dashboard for Blogger is the dashboard for your blog. On Substack, I have to navigate through the social media area to get to my blog.
On the dashboard side of Substack, it is a bit clunky feeling, but the actual website of Blogger is visually clunky.
I actually adore the Substack dashboard and love how the button is always within reach
I guess I'm just not used to it yet.
Perhaps...but it could just be your opinion. And that's fine. I do appreciate the bulk actions in the Blogger dashboard that Substack doesn't have yet. But overall I think Substack is better.
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.
Okay, I haven't even read the whole article yet, but I totally concur with your statement on Blogger.
I have had a blog on Blogger for nearly ten years (I was 6 years old when I started it). As I grew older, I began to realise how absolutely no one looked at my blog. I simply assumed that the reason why my blog wasn't taking off was because this is no longer the 2000s (unfortunately). But, now that I have seen the success of The YA Section in comparison to The Controversial Book Club, it is astounding.
The problem isn't that blogs don't seem to be as popular anymore, it's Blogger, the archaic blogging website. (Another problem could have been that I didn't even have a theme for my blog, and all my posts were about whatever I felt like posting at the moment; I didn't take it very seriously).
As I said at the beginning, I have had a blog on Blogger for almost ten years (or 3,229 days). In total, it has achieved 1,566 views (including mine). That equals to about one view every other day.
But, I honestly don't care about that blog at all anymore, so it doesn't affect me that much. But if you were trying to seriously pursue making a blog.
Never.
Use.
Blogger.
Jack it's interesting to read this because right now I'm working on the Crazy Blogger Week lesson about blogging platforms ;-)
The only blog sites I've ever used are Blogger and Substack.