7 Reasons I like Substack
After making huge changes in my personal life in 2019 and then having huge changes forced upon my professional and social life in 2020, I needed a fresh start with my writing. Substack feels like a place where I’m free to experiment, play, and explore what I’m passionate about.
- Substack is an environment created for writers and people who enjoy reading good writing. It’s a refreshing parallel universe to the corporate shopping mall the worldwide web has devolved into over time. No ads. No corporate fact-checkers. No Facebook-style algorithms driving everything to the lowest common denominator.
- Long form. Short bursts. Essays. Never having to wade through six paragraphs of SEO garble to get to the point. No hashtags.
- There’s a cool social aspect to it. You can comment on posts and (at least with the writers I’ve followed thus far) people actually engage in civil discussion in the comment threads.*
- You get an email whenever a writer you subscribe to posts something new. BUT, each writer has a post archive on their Substack web page. Which means I can read the latest Matt Taibbi post in my email client. But if I don’t have time or I’m not interested, I can delete the email and know the article will be waiting for me on Matt’s Substack page if I decide I want to read it. Guilt free email deletion – what a concept!
- It’s a good way to discover and support independent journalists and people who write about what they love or what fascinates them because they’re so obsessed they can’t not write about it.
- For writers, it’s a great way to publish a free newsletter with archived content.
- It’s super easy to sign up for. Just type your email in the box and click the Subscribe button. It’s also super easy to unsubscribe.