In 2025, I’m going all in on Substack. Posting here and interacting with people of similar interests has been a joy.
Before I ran my blog on a platform called a hosting site called Ghost. While Ghost has some good features for running a newsletter and is easier than setting up a website than WordPress, managing all subscribers and posts on different platforms became tedious.
Sometimes you need to pick one thing and go all in.
Substack features for managing your site have improved over the last year. You can now manage different sections of your newsletter and site. This feature I have found critical for managing different types of content. I can now section off different types of content on the backend to make navigation easier for the audience.
Using this, I have now made a separate section for paid subscribers. The reason I have found this useful is it gives someone curious about becoming a paid subscriber to find out exactly what being a paid subscriber will give them.
Writing great copy is important in converting people from free to paid but giving them a better sneak preview is as important in my opinion.
Why Use A Custom Domain?
I had some traffic to my old domain that I didn’t want to lose. It was essentially a mirror of my Substack. There may have been some readers that would look for my domain that would have found the site gone and I wanted to guide them over here.
Beyond getting more email subscribers, I also want to share Substack with more people.
All writers on Substack need to talk about Substack offline to get it to grow in my opinion. Talk about your newsletter with friends and family. Get them “Substack curious.”
I believe people are looking for a social platform like this one. This platform is intended to be built by the creators on it. As someone writing on here, let’s grow this platform by sharing it with others. Show our enthusiasm about it in real life.
You make a ton of sense. I've run several websites over 20 years--some free and some subscription based. Various degrees of success from meh to holy cow! I'm slowly shifting to Substack after trying multiple other platforms--again with ok income and significant income. I enjoy the freedom on Substack--the lack of stringent rules and over-managing algorithms. I like that writers seem to be important in the grand scheme of things. I love that using a custom url gives almost the same advantages as a standalone website and almost none of the headaches. I'm with you---good luck with your new perspective.
Thank you for this.
Deciding recently to "Go All In" on this amazing platform myself.
This tidbit never occurred to me as I do not wish to copy my stuff everywhere I just want ONE central location for all.
Just moved my podcast feed back to the mighty Substack and will forward domain.
This is my home. Lets get the money flowing for our creators and money to support the platform going forward.
It needs both content worth paying for and people paying for it.
This channel is a perfect example of that.
Thank you for the advice and I don't even run!!