The Bari Weiss/Substack news has caused a number of people to ask me about moving off of Substack, which I did about a year ago. I'm gonna do a quick thread to go over how that's gone and the pros/cons, etc.
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Cost: if you make real money on Substack you will save money by moving as Substack's 10% cut becomes significant as you make money. Prices/tiers vary, but basically, if you're making $15K or more a year on Substack you will save money on other platforms. A LOT more if you make a living on Substack.
Disruption: the major competitors -- I'm familiar with Beehiiv and Ghost -- make moving very simple. You will not lose subscribers. You will not lose your archives. The move takes a few days max, even if you use a concierge type service to do it for you (Ghost's was amazing).
Craig, thank you so much for writing this thread! It's very helpful. Two questions for you on the migration process. Was there much of a hiccough with bringing over subscribers with annual subscriptions? And while this may vary from person to person, how much did the concierge service on Ghost cost?
Missed this earlier. @atkinscolm.bsky.social basically answered it, but no issues. I had annuals, monthlies, many comps and gift subscriptions as well, at multiple price points due to sales and things and it all came over seamlessly. And yes, with a certain tier, you get free concierge migration.
I've been a subscriber from substack->beehiiv->ghost and have had no payment issues. As per the concierge cost, https://ghost.org/concierge/ free with a year committment to their business class plans seemingly.
Service: I moved twice, actually, first to Beehiiv and then to Ghost (long story, specific to me but I'm happy to discuss offline). I experienced no subscriber loss in either move. It was about as seamless as can be.
Publishing: I am a HEAVY user. I publish five times a week, minimum 3,000 words a post. Every platform has its quirks, but Beehiiv and Ghost handle it just fine. All platforms are insanely intuitive these days.
Referral network: I've seen many Substackers worry about other platforms not having one. I get it, but there are diminishing returns with Substack's, especially since they've attempted to pivot into a social media thing. Also: I suspect Substack's ain't as good as you think [cont'd in next skeet]
I still have my Substack live but it's inactive. Haven't posted in a year. Yet I still get new free subscribers all the time. I'm certain they are dead accounts or bots or something given that they're signing up to an obviously dead newsletter. Even if they're not, they're not adding value.
Why not own your own website and charge for access to your own website? .. why pay a fee to post your info on another person's website? What am I missing?
there is a LOT of technical stuff involved in keeping junk out of comments & esp. handling subscriptions. Paying pros to do all that at scale lets you concentrate on what you're actually good at, writing.
I understand. I am technical and assume everyone knows how to build a website. A website built properly should handle all of that for you once it's set up. I build websites. I've been looking for work building websites. If either of you want your own website send me a DM.
That's difficult from a technical perspective for a lot of people, myself included. I want to spend my time writing, not dealing with backend and payment things. Paying like $1500 a year for someone else to do all of that much better than I can is more than worth it.
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