‘I’m going to be a travel blogger!’
I said that to myself in 2016 after reading the blog of travel blogger Adventurous Kate. But there was one massive problem..
To be a travel blogger, I needed to actually travel.
So I packed my stuff up into my Mazda 3 and went off on a 4-month road trip across the United States. I lived on $500 per week.
Simpler times, for sure.
I started a blog on Wordpress and guess what? It never got more than 500 views in a single month. I completely failed at building my first blog.
Then in late 2016 I wrote my first words on Medium.com. My goal was to write short articles about lessons I learned traveling, and what happened next changed my life.
I started actually getting traction! Within three months I had 1,000 followers, and after nine months I had 10,000 followers. How was I able to grow? Well, a big part of it was the fact that Medium was so darn young at that point and I was one of the first adopters.
I had so much fun on Medium in 2017, and over the years I grew my following to 60,000+ followers and made $50,000+ with their Partner Program.
But, alas, all good things come to an end.
In late 2020 something changed in Medium’s algorithm, and by mid 2021 my monthly views got cut in half. They got cut in half again by 2022, and my earnings plummeted along with it. It was a full-blown mess, and what’s worse is that I couldn’t export ANY of my 60,000 followers to take them elsewhere.
But at least I got 4-5 good years out of Medium while it lasted.
I then went to LinkedIn, where I published short-form content for three years. LinkedIn was really great for me at first. Their algorithm was favorable, and my content got in front of people.
But alas, all good things come to an end on LinkedIn, too.
They changed their algorithm in early 2022, and my content nosedived into oblivion there as well.
Are we seeing the pattern yet?
Platform is AMAZING
Platform stays amazing for a few years
Platform becomes crappy as more people join and algorithms change for no reason
Writer Cory Doctorow calls this “enshittification,” which is a tendency where platforms tend to get worse and worse over time.
Substack Is Different From Other Platforms
That brings me to Substack.
You see, Substack created their ‘Notes’ feature last year, and for the first 9 months or so I didn’t see much reason to use them.
Then I started using them more often this year.
Then some of my Notes started going viral.
Then my subscriber counts shot up from 2,000 to 10,000 in a matter of months.
With the power of Notes, I built a list to 10,000 subscribers for the first time in my life.
Now, I have a lot of experience in the blogging world and I’ve been burned multiple times by the platforms I wrote on.
And I know that an opportunity like THIS doesn’t come around that often. An opportunity where a platform is not just decent or good, but truly great. An opportunity where a platform is a land flowing with milk and honey.
It. doesn’t. happen. often.
Why Substack Is The Best Writing Platform On The Internet
I don’t know what will happen with Substack moving forward. I don’t know whether this platform will eventually become a wastebasket like the rest of them, but I do know two things..
Substack rewards quality content, not clickbait.
Substack allows you to export your subscribers.
I get the sentiment here that lots of Substackers are fed up with social media. You know, all the:
Clickbait
Gurus
Hustle culture
Just to name a few things..
We’re sick of the videos and writing designed for the attention span of a goldfish.
Substack just inherently feels different, doesn’t it? Why is that? I would argue it’s because of their incentives. You only get paid when you create quality writing. You don’t get paid for getting clicks.
You don’t get paid for keeping people watching your video for 10 minutes, either. You get paid when someone says “This person created something so good I have to pay to get it.”
Other platforms pay creators based on the amount of attention they attract. If people watch your video for longer on Youtube, you get more money. This leads to 10 minute videos that could’ve been 1 minute long.
THIS IS ANNOYING.
On other platforms like TikTok, you might get an endless scroll of scantily clad women dancing. Why? Because these videos attract attention like a giraffe with 4 heads. Is ‘quality’ a word we could use to describe any of these videos? Of course not!
These videos are the cheapest, lowest-common-denominator type crap that’s great at keeping your thumb flicking your glass screen for long periods of time.
That’s it.
Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s late and longtime business partner, once said, “Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome.”
Substack fundamentally changed the incentives for bloggers.
They’re moving us away from attention-grabbing content to soul-edifying content.
The outcome of Substack so far has been that it’s a platform of dignity, quality, and community. Why is that? Because you will only get paid subscribers if you create great sh*t. It’s that simple.
Take Advantage Of Substack Right Now
Like I said earlier, timing with social media platforms is everything. It’s why I was able to grow on Medium so easily!
Right now Substack is having its heyday. The opportunity for writers is enormous, and it’s a good idea to take advantage of it while you can.
That’s why
and I created the , a 4-week Note-Writing challenge starting on July 8th. To join us, become a paid subscriber to the46 people have already signed up!
We want to help you:
Write daily Notes for a month
Write Notes that get traction
Leverage the incredible power of this platform
Included are 10 live training sessions, 30 writing prompts, daily note sharing threads, an open chat, and a 40-minute Note Writing class you can get immediate access to.
We’re running an early bird special until June 28, too.
Annual membership: $595 $495
Monthly membership: $299 $249
Click here to get that discount.
Sign Up For Just One Cohort
You can sign up for just one cohort by signing up for the monthly option on the subscription page:
Once you sign up for the monthly option, you will receive access to the cohort until it ends on Monday, August 5. To prevent being charged again, you will need to cancel your monthly subscription before 30 days. Then, we will manually extend your subscription to August 5.
Sign Up For Three Cohorts A Year
We hope to see you inside!
I love this, Tom and it's very true, platforms are changing all the time and the great thing about Substack is that it will change eventually, BUT this time, if you don't like those changes, you take your community with you and THAT is the biggest win of Substack.
Keep shining!
I'm new to Substack and I also noticed there's a bigger sense of 'community' in here.
I've been using Medium since a year ago, and I think it's great. But I also think that the incentive there is to generate a lot of views/reads, so there is less connection between the reader and writer.
To me, Substack feels more personalized. You interact more with your people and less for the number of claps and views.