R"eading a Substack’s archive is a pain, and most Substacks are poorly indexed by Google."
I get the first part, but I've enjoyed tremendous success on Google from the start (2020), even before Substack added basic SEO settings. I'm not the norm, perhaps, but Substacks are far more visible than, say, representative Beehiv or WordPress sites, in my experience (which includes a lot of years in news aggregation). Same with surfacing in AI tools, even if Substack is admittedly not as featured as news sites or Wikipedia.
Yeah, as a new substacker I'm usually in the first page of Google results for at least the explicit words in my url slug ("ted chiang review", "how stealth works", "on writing styles"), often at or near the top. Though it's not robust to small changes in wording, eg if you search "exhalation review" I'm not even in the first 3 pages.
How does 80k hours fit in, and why should people who strive to be altruistic or whatnot use the platform?
If the idea is reach, reach is organic, and not enough of a reason for me personally to be like "yeah, I can feel great about my content being here". The UX is just alright (meaning it was hyped, versus a dis on design). The people I love, but I love the people everywhere.
Where does the money go, how does the sorting hat work, etc.? Is that public info I'm missing? Origin lore I'm unaware of? Three is the magic number, but why is it the lowest value I can set? (Last I checked.)
Is there a Substack Substack Substack (meaning about the platform itself versus the content on it) that covers some of this? Data on how much Substack is making, versus the authors, etc. etc.?
I’ve been writing almost every day, building this one story at a time. The growth has been steady, even if it feels slower than I’d like, going from just one subscriber to 56 so far. Along with my regular posts, I often share some of my more recent stories to keep things fresh and give readers more to enjoy.
My writing is semi-biographical, inspired by life in a house where calm is more of a rumor than a reality. I write about my five pets, three dogs and two cats, and the chaos they create on a daily basis. The dogs range from a tiny Yorkshire Terrier to a towering European Great Dane, and each one has a completely different personality. The cats are just as entertaining, with temperaments that couldn’t be more opposite if they tried.
Writing has become part of my daily rhythm. I feel a little guilty if I skip a day, so I keep showing up and putting words on the page. Most days, that means writing stories that average around 2,000 words, which I share on Substack and Facebook.
We're currently also experimenting quite a bit with substack growth for https://euzoia.org. 100% agree on just writing consistently. Next to that what worked best for us so far is proactively sharing posts in adjacent communities that are genuinely interested in the topics.
R"eading a Substack’s archive is a pain, and most Substacks are poorly indexed by Google."
I get the first part, but I've enjoyed tremendous success on Google from the start (2020), even before Substack added basic SEO settings. I'm not the norm, perhaps, but Substacks are far more visible than, say, representative Beehiv or WordPress sites, in my experience (which includes a lot of years in news aggregation). Same with surfacing in AI tools, even if Substack is admittedly not as featured as news sites or Wikipedia.
Yeah, as a new substacker I'm usually in the first page of Google results for at least the explicit words in my url slug ("ted chiang review", "how stealth works", "on writing styles"), often at or near the top. Though it's not robust to small changes in wording, eg if you search "exhalation review" I'm not even in the first 3 pages.
And the good old: "writing is thinking". It helps to clarify our own thoughts too
There are "gatekeepers" on Substack.
How does 80k hours fit in, and why should people who strive to be altruistic or whatnot use the platform?
If the idea is reach, reach is organic, and not enough of a reason for me personally to be like "yeah, I can feel great about my content being here". The UX is just alright (meaning it was hyped, versus a dis on design). The people I love, but I love the people everywhere.
Where does the money go, how does the sorting hat work, etc.? Is that public info I'm missing? Origin lore I'm unaware of? Three is the magic number, but why is it the lowest value I can set? (Last I checked.)
Is there a Substack Substack Substack (meaning about the platform itself versus the content on it) that covers some of this? Data on how much Substack is making, versus the authors, etc. etc.?
This was such a helpful, actionable article. Thank you for writing!
I’ve been writing almost every day, building this one story at a time. The growth has been steady, even if it feels slower than I’d like, going from just one subscriber to 56 so far. Along with my regular posts, I often share some of my more recent stories to keep things fresh and give readers more to enjoy.
My writing is semi-biographical, inspired by life in a house where calm is more of a rumor than a reality. I write about my five pets, three dogs and two cats, and the chaos they create on a daily basis. The dogs range from a tiny Yorkshire Terrier to a towering European Great Dane, and each one has a completely different personality. The cats are just as entertaining, with temperaments that couldn’t be more opposite if they tried.
Writing has become part of my daily rhythm. I feel a little guilty if I skip a day, so I keep showing up and putting words on the page. Most days, that means writing stories that average around 2,000 words, which I share on Substack and Facebook.
Write a post in a subreddit, r/singularity for example is pretty active. Both Substack and your own website have terrible SEO
We're currently also experimenting quite a bit with substack growth for https://euzoia.org. 100% agree on just writing consistently. Next to that what worked best for us so far is proactively sharing posts in adjacent communities that are genuinely interested in the topics.