#Landing Pages for Substack Writers

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

Why Freelancers Need Many Landing Pages

Content Marketing Education What’s a Landing Page and Why Freelancers, Startups, & Book Authors Need Many A sample chapter from my upcoming book, Smart Email Marketing and Content Integration for Startups and Freelancers When I first started building my email list in the 1980s and promoting my services independently, the Internet as we know it today did not even exist. Websites were not around…

[inkedwingss]

I've never read anything quite like Fever Dream. I couldn't understand a lot of it as I read, although I do understand the characters and plot overall. In each moment, did you understand what was happening? What did you find profound? What did you like best artistically about it, and were there any big philosophical statements?

What a cool, exciting ask! I love this book, I wrote a 6-page essay about it for college at the time and I was never able to read it again because of how strong the experience was for me (I want to preserve the memory).

Latin America's magical realism is not about introducing some fantasy features into the ordinary, is more about the mystical experience of reality itself, the haunting mysteries or inexplicable events of life. They exaggerate the surreal, "magical" aspect to highlight the main issue. I will share more about that in the end.

What I like about Fever Dream the most is its originality. Once you start the book, you have to feel lost. That's the whole point. Schweblin is so bold, she actually doesn't want you to "understand what is going on", she invites you into the MC's feverish dream, and for that to happen you literally have to let go of any expectations and let the story unfold at its own pace. I honestly will recommend this book to any writer who is willing to take the (eco)horror path.

But it's not just about that. Personally, this book got to me because of the "rescue distance" concept — a better translation of the original title. As someone who lost a baby, the whole paranoia that comes from sensing danger, but being blind to it at the same time, drove me almost mad. I ate that book in one afternoon — and I'm a slow reader. Couldn't stop turning pages. It was too similar to my personal experience of foreseeing death, knowing that something was just about to happen, and not being able to avoid it at all. Very cathartic, per se.

But to talk more directly about the book, I will use my own words from a few years back, and if you don't want spoilers, don't read it:

"In the end, the loose thread remains. The feeling of loss is inevitable. All the danger and sense of paranoia culminated in a whirlwind of unstoppable events, engulfing the reader in a tachycardic, spiralling route; and he lands with the certainty that something very important was left behind: the essential and irreplaceable — perhaps, life itself. It's like returning from a trip without your luggage, empty-handed. Maybe this loose thread is the sensation of the entire humanity when confronted with its impotence in the face of a scenario of constant catastrophe, of destruction that disintegrates everything around: the web being woven as one lives, without being able to deviate from the tracks or turn back. The inevitability of evil — are we like Amanda, doing our best to protect those we love, and always losing what matters most? What similarity would we have with David, tying everything in his room (p.136), trying to connect the loose thread of this unreachable distance that can no longer be calculated? He may be trying to connect with what little remains, that which seems solid, in search of connecting then with something familiar; something that sustains a world that seems to be in free fall, heading nowhere. And this world — this same world of mutations, poisoned mist, dead ducks buried in the backyard, of silence that devoured all things, this world of Schweblin's magical realism — this is our own world."

I might upload my reviews and essays one day if I ever have enough energy and time to open a substack or something (they are too long). Latin American literature is fire! I'm glad you have this book a chance :) and thanks again for the ask!

[alexandermcrow]

Into The Woods

A Fall in Time, long ago.

Our lives are shaped by the paths we take, whether through choice, or by chance.

Sometimes, this takes the form of the path not taken, sometimes that we follow. Often, both. The idea of how our lives might be utterly different, hinging on just one little thing, is a popular theme, whether in the written word or romantic comedy dramas.

Back in 2010, I was working for the civil service in a northern English city. I had already made some major changes to my life, going through a divorce and trying very hard to rediscover who I was—or perhaps who I thought I should be. But I was not content, nor was I as happy as I felt I should be.

I felt there was something missing, something crucial, a path which lay beyond my reach every morning as I would walk to work, a trail tantalisingly out of sight. I knew it was there, however.

At some point in the summer of 2010, I made up my mind to make some very big changes.

On the 14th of September 2010, a Tuesday, I caught a train just after dawn, after walking the short distance to the railway station, heavily burdened by backpack and shoulder bag, a walking staff I had harvested previously in my hand.

I headed north, initially to Edinburgh, then across to Glasgow, before going still further north.

That evening, after a long day of travel which, in turn, had followed an almost sleepless night before, I walked out from a request stop into the damp of recently-fallen rain, asking the train conductor to drop me off in what on my map looked a suitable location to spend a night or two. I could not walk that far, the weight of my pack was too great, and I was simply too exhausted.

That night, as the sky was beginning to darken, I set up my hammock between two gnarled oak trees, strung my tarp above, ate a quick dinner and fell asleep.

I was to stay out in those woods, alone, until December.

During that time, I cooked over flames every day, had to source, carry, and purify all my water, supplement my rations and supplies with wild food, from the land and from the sea.

Initially, I had intended to follow the coast further north, eventually ending up at my family’s home in Caithness for Christmas, but life didn’t work out quite as planned.

Instead, I built a shelter in those woods, exploring the area around me and immersing myself in all things natural. I slowed down, I listened and scented the air frequently, eventually understanding the language of the local wildlife and surprising myself when I could smell a deer ahead on the trail.

As far as human company went, I was alone the whole time, rarely seeing others apart from on distant boats, or the few occasions I bought some more supplies.

During the months I was out there, I kept a journal in a succession of small Moleskine notebooks, imagining myself the guardian of a tradition embraced by writers such as Chatwin, Hemingway, Laurie Lee, Thoreau and earlier adventurers and explorers.

I also handcrafted blog posts in the notebooks, then photographed the pages on my pre-smart phone, which I charged through a small solar panel. Following this, when the weather agreed, I would hike to find a spot of signal and slowly send them on to my sister, who patiently transcribed my scrawl, before uploading them to her website for others to read. 

A few years later, I shared some of this adventure by way of a now-private and dusty tumblr, uploading some of the thousands of photographs I had taken on my camera, and sharing snippets from those journals.

This year, 2024, I am returning to this adventure and sharing a lot more. Over on my Substack, I will be posting daily Notes and weekly summaries, sharing hundreds of photos, a few videos, and a lot of words and thoughts.

I have created this tumblr to specifically share a few posts and images and to say, if you like these, then there will be a lot more at The Crow's Nest letter. A lot of it is free and, as well as this adventure, I also share nature and place writing, discussion of ancestral skills and bushcraft, thoughts and feelings about those liminal spaces in our world, and also a weekly dose of fiction. I illustrate all of these with original photography or designs. No AI to be seen in that space...

Click below to follow along, I'd love to see you there and, if you do venture from this space to that, please say hello!

[deanmarywinchester]

does anyone want a free month of the partially-free substack Culture Study? I have a few to give away, I guess it’s a promotion. it can be kind of unserious about some topics (the landing page of it makes me cringe at the moment I wish she’d put better articles there) but the writer is always doing/platforming interesting work about community-building, centering friendship in your life, and making the world better for parents and young kids, which have been of interest to me lately. and her interviews of smart but not-famous writers are really fabulous. I like her interview style and that’s how I’ve found some great reading (here’s a couple I like recently)

[mariellewritesalot]

It's my 9th anniversary on Tumblr 🥳 (since December 2014)

Almost a decade, wow! Excelsior by mariellewritesalot is a writing blog I started as a teenager to fully embrace the fact that I wanted to become a writer. I wanted my own "website" or at least a home for my words. "Excelsior" is my favorite word, and I was a bit obsessed with it back then, given that it meant going ever upward. "mariellewritesalot" was just something I thought of while watching cartoons where one of the characters had "a lot" attached to their name (I believe it was Sir Yipsalot). I could cringe, but honestly, I'm not too bothered enough to change it. Maybe it's part of its charm.

Suffice it to say, this has been my longest relationship so far, haha. We've had our ups and downs, terrible lulls of writer's block when I would be too busy with life or too paralyzed with fear that I'm not good enough to actually post something here.

I started writing early on because I was the kind of child who read everywhere and owned a Kindle since I was 12. I joined essay contests and wrote fan fiction until I was in the middle of my teenage years. I loved Total Girl Philippines, and eventually became a Jr. TG Staff Writer for one week in the summer of 2012. I won a Palanca when I was in senior high school. I dabbled, of course, in campus journalism for many years. Editor-in-Chief for some publications. I wrote news, features, opinions...even UAAP sports! I then created a Facebook page for my blog to expand my audience. I was fortunate enough to land a spot in UP Diliman where I took a certificate course on Malikhaing Pagsulat sa Filipino (loved working on my Filipino writing skills) and eventually, my Bachelor of Arts degree in Philippine Studies, where I also majored in History. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on Filipino food in Filipino-American restaurants based in the United States, guided by my love for Doreen Fernandez essays and curiosities about the diaspora; so I could also help these restaurants map out their histories. During the pandemic, I worked on a practice Young Adult novel called, Don't Write Me Off.

I started working freelance and interning for some publications like PhilStar Life and Esquire Philippines. I've been a part of college organizations in UP Diliman, where I honed my skills in leadership, writing, and research so that I may be able to do talks and workshops about writing in different schools and provinces in the Philippines. Last year, I became a Creative Nonfiction fellow for the 61st Silliman University National Writers Workshop, which has been a dream of mine since, well, I was in high school and deeply obsessed with 'the scene.' I got to belong with my chosen family in the fellows with whom I shared the once-in-a-lifetime experience in Dumaguete. We have since joined the Cebu Art Fair last year with our zine, Saudade: A Study on Longing, which features two of my works. As a collective, we're always collaborating on something. Watch this space!

Nowadays, I'm living somewhere in Spain, and I'm working on my first book. It's a collection. It's (too) vulnerable. I think you'll like it. I believe that I will probably be in pursuit of more knowledge and skills as a writer for the rest of my life, so despite my wanting to be a mysterious private person, I think you'll be hearing (reading?) a lot from me on various platforms. Hopefully.

While we're here, I have something new. Since we're losing Tinyletter next month, which was where I used to send out my newsletter of truly vulnerable, exclusive pieces, I have decided to "move houses" and finally join Substack. I'm going to talk about some facets of my life here in Spain, food, and the usual prose. Essentially, a lot of my stuff will be free to read there, but I would appreciate pledges if you can. I will still update my Tumblr from time to time, of course, seeing as this is my main site. No worries!

This year, I'm also going to work on creating an Instagram account for my writing. I have beautiful plans I can't wait to share with you. I'm hoping you'll come along for the ride.

Thank you, lovers, for this milestone.

Always,

Marielle

[jasomfjdkj]

The Ultimate Comparison: Yeet vs. Mailchimp vs. Substack – Which Newsletter Tool is Right for You?

If you're thinking about starting a newsletter, you've probably heard of a few popular tools out there—Mailchimp, Substack, and a newer option called Yeet. Each one has its own style and features, so choosing the one that fits you best can make a big difference in how easy (and fun) your newsletter experience is.

Yeet is a fresh face in the newsletter scene. It’s built for people who want something simple, clean, and easy to use. There aren’t a million buttons to click or complicated menus to figure out. You just write, hit send, and your message goes out. Yeet focuses on helping you grow your audience without getting in your way. If that sounds like your kind of tool, you can check it out here: https://yeetblog.com/sign-up/

Mailchimp has been around much longer and is known for its all-in-one features. It’s a great pick if you also want to send marketing emails, build landing pages, or manage multiple email lists. But it can feel a bit overwhelming for beginners. Some folks find the dashboard confusing, especially when starting out. Still, if you’re managing a business or already familiar with email tools, Mailchimp is strong and flexible.

Then there’s Substack. Substack has made a name for itself among writers, journalists, and independent content creators. If you want your newsletter to feel more like a blog or personal publication, Substack makes that easy. You can even charge people for your newsletter if you want to make money from it. On the downside, it doesn’t offer much beyond writing and sending – so if you like a lot of control over how emails look or want extra features, you might find it a bit basic.

So how do you choose?

It mostly depends on what you need. If you want to write quickly and focus on growing your list, Yeet is simple and gets the job done without unnecessary fuss. If you're running a business or need more marketing tools, Mailchimp might suit you better. And if you want to build a writing audience or share longform posts, Substack is a solid choice.

Try them out, see which one feels right, and remember—you can always switch later. Happy writing!

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

Tom Warren • The Verge

PS5 owners really want to play Xbox games, as Microsoft tops Sony’s preorder charts

From an outsiders perspective this makes sense given Microsoft’s move to purchase extremely popular game studios. They should absolutely make sure everything they create is playable on PlayStation. It’s kind of been Microsoft’s M.O. all along. Write software that runs anywhere. 👨🏻‍💻

JanerationX

The other day, I was reading an interesting article about moving away from social media siloes and getting back to basics with a domain and a web page. (Neocities is also a nice place to learn HTML markup and put up a home page.) I liked the article and was looking forward to leaving a comment, BUT when I got to the bottom of the post, I was confronted with a prompt to sign up for a membership. Really? To leave a comment? Especially on an article about the small web?

Of course this is about Substack. It is, along with X, an internet Nazi bar and it’s full of amazing writers supporting it.

Money talks, I guess. 😞

Alana Loftus • Irish Star

A major Tesla investor has called on Elon Musk to step down as head of the company as a nationwide boycott causes stock prices to plunge.

Ross Gerber, who owns an estimated $105 million in shares of Tesla stock, called on Elon Musk to step down as head of the company, saying that he “destroyed” the company’s reputation

Does anyone know what Tesla is up to anymore? It’s just sitting there, not making progress. It was once a bright shining star. Now it’s a losing afterthought. Wonder why?

Tesla board, fire Musk.🔥

Chris Medland • Racer

Red Bull only has itself to blame for its driver mess

It’s really incredible to see Red Bull panicking over two races with, in essence, a rookie driver. They fire Danny Ricardo and Sergio Perez in favor of Liam Lawson — over Yuki Tsunoda — and expect the man to be top 10, or better, on day one. Absurd.

Red Bull has competition, that’s it. McLaren has caught up and Mercedes is show some of their old spark. Not to mention Alex Albon keeping Williams in a good spot.

I’d expect Ferrari to show some teeth soon. It’s gonna get really interesting! 🏎️

Fiona Jackson • TechRepublic

Once upon a time, landing a job at the likes of Amazon, Google, or Microsoft was seen as the golden ticket — offering generous salaries, four-day work weeks, and nap pods. Over the last few years, though, that image has been transformed into one that is far less idyllic, marked with mass layoffs and employees sleeping on the office floor.

Basically the BigCo’s are returning to the way they used to be. When I was at Microsoft everyone worked long hours moving as fast as we could to meet deadlines. My nap pod was the floor under my desk where I’d grab some shuteye as I worked overnight. I’d imagine I worked an average of 60 hours a week for months on end.

It’s not a good way to live. It’s hard on you physically and mentally and if you have a family it punishes them.

I do not recommend doing it.

InfoQ

Rebuilding Prime Video UI with Rust and WebAssembly

This link is to a video and slides for the presentation. I didn’t watch it but I thought I’d share it because I do find this interesting.

The browser as operating system feels more than a bit odd. Folks like Apple, Mozilla, Google, and Microsoft really need to put way more effort into tooling to make it better for developers. As a developer I want a full IDE with real debugging support, no matter the language I choose. Perhaps they’re already there and I’m just naive?

I’m still a bit bitter WebAssembly was chosen over a CLI implementation — ECMA-335 — that runs in the browser. But, at least we have something common for browsers and languages to target.

It is strange to take this low level language and spit out WebAssembly. ⚒️

Noor Al-Sibai • Futurism

Researchers have found that ChatGPT “power users,” or those who use it the most and at the longest durations, are becoming dependent upon — or even addicted to — the chatbot.

It was inevitable, right?

The Eclectic Light Company

Each new version of macOS has increased the complexity of launching apps, from the basics of launchd, the addition of LaunchServices, to security checks on notarization and XProtect.

If you’d like to see a really nice overview of how macOS launches apps, this is for you! 🚀

It’s not crazy technical, an intentional choice by the author, and will give you an understanding of how things work when you start up your favorite application.

Steve Yegge • Sourcegraph

In this post, I assume that vibe coding will grow up and people will use it for real engineering, with the “turn your brain off” version of it sticking around just for prototyping and fun projects. For me, vibe coding just means letting the AI do the work. How closely you choose to pay attention to the AI’s work depends solely on the problem at hand. For production, you pay attention; for prototypes, you chill. Either way, it’s vibe coding if you didn’t write it by hand.

Vibe coding is the new way I guess.

As someone who has spent over 30-years struggling to become better each and every day I find this depressing. I know I’m an ok developer. Not the worst and certainly not the best, not even close. But to spend a lifetime at something only to see folks produce more output without even trying is extremely discouraging.

Craftsmanship goes out the window in favor of expediency. It is the new way and we’re all going to have to get used to it or be left behind.

I’ve finally become a dinosaur. 🦕

[missfitcoaching]

Resume Writer Near Me

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She specializes in more than just resume writing; she provides comprehensive career support, including LinkedIn profile optimization, interview and negotiation preparation, and guidance in career focus and direction. Her goal is to empower you to present your best self in every aspect of your professional journey. Get our skilled resume writing services to realize your full professional potential. Improve your chances of landing a new job by using a resume that makes connections. 

She understands the challenges of navigating the job market and is dedicated to helping you stand out from the crowd. She ensures that every step you take is strategically aligned with your career goals.

Whether you’re seeking local expertise or international guidance, MissFitCoaching is here to support you every step of the way. Your dream job is within reach, and Dee is ready to help you make it a reality.

Reach out at https://missfitcoaching.com/and take the next step toward your career aspirations.

Follow Us on: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daciaderidder/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miss_fit_chicago/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DeeMissFitChicago

Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/wegotyou1

Substack: https://substack.com/@missfitchicago?utm_source=about-page

For a deeper dive : Blog: https://missfitcoaching.com/blog/

Address: 11 North Northwest Highway, Suite 143, Park Ridge, IL 60068 United States.

[digitaltoolsblog]

#Buttondown is a small, elegant tool for producing newsletters. The minimalist interface makes it easy for you to write great emails.

#Substack lets independent writers and podcasters publish directly to their audience and get paid through subscriptions.

#aweber Looking for free email marketing software? Get started with AWeber for free today - no credit card required and no time limit.

#sendfox Grow your audience with email campaigns, automations, and landing pages that integrate your content.

#rasa Whether your email list has 100 or 100000 - everyone gets a set of articles in their newsletter chosen specifically for them.

[mollyyoung]

Why write zines?

Well, pretty simply: It’s a way for a writer to participate in written culture without subjecting herself to market forces. You don’t have to pitch a zine to an editor. A zine can’t be optimized for search engines. Advertisers aren’t competing for the attention of a zine reader. The space is unencumbered. 

They are drawbacks to being unencumbered. For example, the zines I’ve written don’t have editors. They are worse in many, many ways because of this. They’re also (I hope) better in some ways. Flawed writing can be pleasurable to read. I like seeing authors work out their ideas on the page, leaving space for the reader to complete or extend or rebut those ideas. 

A finished article on a website lands in the world as a sealed object, and maybe this is why so many of them are quickly skimmed and either approved or rejected within seconds, if not totally ignored. There’s no entry point. Or maybe there is, but then you clicked on a banner ad for boxer briefs or moisturizer and now you’ll never find your way back. 

A zine creates its own primitive social network. There are no advertising or algorithms, and no influencers stoking and then profiting off of your anxiety. The social network is almost entirely implicit rather than explicit. The social network is “other people who are reading the zine, or people who might want to read the zine if I give them my copy.”

Isn’t the same true of online newsletters, you might ask? Sort of. But a newsletter still starts from a format. It is subject to the decisions of people who work at companies like Substack and Mailchimp and Tinyletter. A newsletter also bears the weight of its delivery environment, which is your email inbox. It’s hard to switch from processing emails—delete, delete, reply, archive—to processing ideas. 

(I say this, by the way, as someone who has been writing a newsletter for two years and really enjoys doing it! But I still think the inbox context stinks.)

Which brings me to another “plus” in the zine column: you can’t multitask while reading one. It demands your attention—and then, maybe, loses it—but at least it gets a fair shot. And you get a fair shot, too. You get to decelerate and experience one thing without being dogged by a thousand other things. Your clicking finger rests.

And—

Not everyone feels the same way, but I prefer when the experience of reading is connected to a physical reality (lamp, chair, rain, subway, bus, bed, whatever) instead of a digital one. My memory captures information more readily when the information is absorbed within a context of weather and smells and sounds.

But ok, you might add, isn’t most of the above true of books? Aren’t books just better and more polished zines? I mean, yes, some of them. But man, you should hear how people in (major) publishing talk about books! Books are “properties.” The half-life of a book is about ten seconds long: if one doesn’t get traction the millisecond it hits (Amazon’s) shelves, a publisher abandons it and moves on to the next. Books are spaghetti thrown at a wall. Sometimes one sticks. No one in publishing knows why. 

When it happens, they double down on that author and scour the landscape for books like it—”comps”—that can be designed with similar covers and marketed to similar groups of people. This is why it can feel like you’re reading the same book over and over. It’s not sinister. It’s just a market.

A zine starts from nothing and is subject to no one except its creator. Again, this is not always a recipe for success. But it’s always a recipe for interesting. 

[grandhotelabyss]

One of Honor Levy’s new poems, which I shamelessly pinch from Crumplar’s SubStack. I had to swipe it because the speaker of this poem (I say it with affection) is literally the political persona of my podcast co-host. 

Crumps writes up his attendance at a Dimes Square scene literary reading. He also gets into Angelicism01, also discussed on the latest episode of Grand Podcast Abyss. His opening riff on Christian Lorentzen NFTs is really funny; elsewhere, he plays up his tedious shitlibbery that the equally tedious acerbity and opacity of “The New Conservatism” was invented to contest. Here he is on Levy:

Honor is an “angelicist” writer, and I think she does a much better job of it than the main Angelicism01 substack. (I’m not going to try to define the nascent angelicist movement just yet but will refer to a piece by Satya Paul, who gives a good insider explanation even though he’s somewhat uncritically intoxicated by its heady aesthetic promises). Part of what makes Honor’s angelicist writing good is that it lacks this shrill “male” anger you see in Angelicism01 or Barrett Avner’s writing where their “schizoposting” sometimes drifts into Nick Land pastiche and such banalities as complaining about Brandon beating Drumpf. Even at her most obviously political in poems like “Amerikin,” she manages to snipe at pronouns without getting cringe. Honor is still a crazy reactionary but she does so by adopting the character of the “Girl Joker,” a catty zoomer bitch that is also terrified of being abandoned by God. Riffing on the impossibility of living up to the reigning ideological constellation of femininity, she conjures these transcendent apocalyptic visions without needing to use the language of Heidegger or Deleuze as an obvious crutch. “E girl egregore so sweet so solemn sorbic acid sucralose sodium citrate I taste you through the screen… where are you going? follow for follow?” What a Poggerz tour through hell!

Agreed on the Heidegger/Deleuze for the most part, though I can throw that stuff around too when I’m in the mood. You have to read Portraits and Ashes, where the academics get poisoned to death by the art installation after they’ve spent 10 pages have an impromptu theory seminar on it. Probably the meanest, funniest thing I’ve ever written. Disagree on the anti-masculine countersignaling. The masculine has its place—anyone who doesn’t think so lives in too small an emotional world—as does the capital-P political, which in America means party politics and not whatever illusory commitments (“I want more politics in art, not less, because I want communism”) our scene tourist still harbors. 

(I’m a scene tourist at second hand, yes, but you have to keep an eye on these things. Even in the digital rhizome, literary/intellectual culture spreads west from the East Coast commanding heights, much as they’re tottering these days.)

It’s “cringe” when people “snipe at pronouns” because they’re being reactive; they don’t have real reasons, just recoil. In her poem, Levy shrewdly implies the way this identity fractionation and demand for legibility helps to shore up the nation-empire. That’s a reason, a good one. (The poem reads like a satiric reductio of Jennifer Egan’s awful written-for-the-textbook—I’ve taught it five times, once on YouTube—Twitter short story “Black Box,” apparently part of her new novel, which I plan to take tremendous pleasure in not reading.) I want to refuse this fascoid command to declare an identity before I speak, a command predictably spreading from gender to race in the spiritually vastated precincts of academe/NGO/DNC/CIA/etc. Just use my full name and make sure you spell it right. This is America: I’m trying to get famous here!

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

Substack Mastery Book: Chapter 14

How to Add Interactive Educational Programs Using One of the 6 Globally Recognized Tools to Inform, Educate, Inspire, and Retain Your Subscribers Dear Beta Readers, Thank you for your feedback so far. You honor my content on multiple platforms. I understand this chapter may seem quite technical to beginners, as I designed it to benefit advanced freelance writers and content entrepreneurs who…

[mathewingram]

Substack raises more money, but is that a good thing?

Note: This was originally published as part of the daily newsletter at the Columbia Journalism Review, where I’m the chief digital writer

Axios reported on Tuesday that Substack is raising another $65 million in venture financing, which will give the newsletter-publishing platform a theoretical market value of $650 million. That’s more than ten times what Substack was reportedly worth when it raised its first $15-million round of financing in 2019, which — like the latest round — was led by Silicon Valley investment firm Andreessen Horowitz. In a blog post, the company said that it is going to use the money to expand its program of giving writers and journalists advances (which have to be earned back from their subscription revenues) to allow them to quit their jobs and join the platform, as well as more fellowships, grants, mentorship programs, and other resources. The company said it also wants to invest in initiatives to support local news, in “an effort to kickstart the development of a news ecosystem that thrives on direct support from readers.” Ultimately, Substack says the goal of the new funding is the same as the original round it raised, which is to “build an alternative media economy that unlocks the full potential of the internet and gives more power to writers and readers.”

Although the company doesn’t mention it in its blog post, the extra cash might also come in handy as a war chest, given that both Facebook and Twitter have said they are getting into the newsletter business and would like to eat some of Substack’s lunch. Facebook recently said it will allow writers and journalists to create their own subscription newsletters with the platform’s help, as well as landing pages, and that it will be paying some of the writers in a pilot program — and it won’t charge them anything for its services, unlike Substack, which takes a 10-percent cut of any revenue its authors bring in. Twitter has also shown signs of wanting to move in on Substack’s turf: the company acquired a newsletter platform called Revue recently, and says it plans to help users sign up subscribers, and it only plans to charge a 5-percent fee. “At the end of the day, can Substack create a community or platform or tool which is far and away better than anything Facebook and Twitter can build… or copy?” one observer asked following the news.

Competing with Twitter and Facebook is just one challenge that Substack will have to meet with its newfound cash. The other is just as large, if not larger: namely, meeting the demands and expectations of its funders. Venture capitalists don’t just hand over tens of millions of dollars because they like you, or because they want to dismantle the traditional media — although there is some evidence that Andreessen Horowitz has aspirations towards the latter. Not only has the firm talked about creating its own media entity, but it has also invested in a number of services like the audio-chat platform Clubhouse, which the founders of Andreessen Horowitz have used as an alternative to traditional interviews. But apart from that, VC lenders tend to have very specific expectations about the financial returns they get from their investments, and they are not above pressuring the companies they fund to change the way they do business in order to produce these returns.

Those kinds of pressures have helped force venture-funded companies like BuzzFeed and Vice to close down regional offices and lay off large numbers of staff over the past year or two, and in some cases they have forced others — such as The Outline and Mic — to shut down completely. Will Substack be able to withstand the inevitable expectations that come with a $650-million valuation? That’s about half what BuzzFeed is estimated to be worth currently, and it has about $300 million in annual revenues, while Substack says it gets “tens of millions” from writers who use its platform. One fear is that in order to generate the revenue its investors require, Substack will have to either increase its fees or increase the amount of control it has over its authors, or both. For example, a writer on Substack currently has full control over their mailing list, and can take it with them if they leave. Will that change? One writer said: “congrats I guess, but as a regular user of Substack this fills me with dread. $65M of VC money means the company needs to succeed in a very specific way or it will be acquired and/or sunsetted at some point.”

Substack is also fighting another battle, one focused on the question of whether it is making explicitly editorial decisions when it pays certain writers — including Matt Yglesias, Scott Alexander, and Frederik de Boer — through its Pro program (which some have compared to the advances that book authors get from publishers), or when it decides whose content it chooses to host. The company responded to these criticisms recently in a blog post, saying it is just a platform, not a media entity, and that who it decides to give advances to is not an editorial choice. The company also said that its terms of service don’t allow harassment, abuse, or hate, and yet a number of critics note that one Substack writer’s page contains a number of posts targeting trans people, and several writers have left the platform as a result. “It’s not surprising, but it is illuminating to see Substack get $65 million from VCs while in the midst of losing all its queer & trans writers because it refuses to think about its editorial choices as such,” said journalist Rose Eveleth.

Here’s more on Substack:

Polarized: In the Financial Times, writer Jemima Kelly argues that “Substack’s success shows readers have had enough of polarized media” and says it “points to a demand for diversity of views” (although journalist Danny Gold says “this is literally the exact opposite of what Substack shows”). Kelly says that figures released by Substack show that once the platform has taken its standard 10 per cent cut, and after payment processing fees, “I calculate that Glenn Greenwald is left with between $80,000 and $160,000 a month, or about $1m to $2m a year. Not bad for a mere hack.”

Neutral: Ashley Feinberg launched her Substack newsletter by announcing that she took a deal as part of its Pro campaign, but then went on to criticize it: “There’s a lot I don’t love about how Substack has built its business,” she said. In building Substack Pro, she notes, “the company made the active decision to privilege certain voices that had won followings on other platforms, while remaining entirely agnostic about how those followings were won in the first place. The upshot is that Substack, in chasing high-follower media personalities, has essentially outsourced editorial considerations to the other platforms.”

Flawed: In a piece she wrote for CJR recently, Clio Chang asked: “In general, will Substack replicate the patterns of marginalization found across the media industry, or will it help people locked out of the dominant media sphere to flourish? To a large extent, the answer depends on whether or not Substack’s founders believe they’re in the publishing business. When we spoke, they were adamant that Substack is a platform, not a media company—a familiar refrain of Silicon Valley media ventures. 

Other notable stories:

Vice Media is in advanced talks to merge with 7GC & Co Holdings, a special purpose acquisition company led by tech investor Jack Leeney, according to a report from The Information, based on interviews with “people familiar with the situation.” Vice had previously talked with other SPACs, including one backed by Group Nine Media, a Discovery-backed media firm, and another one led by former Disney executives Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer. But neither set of talks advanced, The Information says.

Lyz Lenz writes about the harassment she has faced based on her writing, and also interviews writer and journalist Talia Lavin. “The reality is what gets you on the radar of the mob is nothing, a tweet, a joke, a comment, just existing as a woman, a person of color, a woman of color. Doing your job and doing it well. Sometimes all it takes is being successful,” Lenz writes. “People want to attribute the hate to one thing, one moment, one time I messed up, one story I filed. I think people do that because they want to feel safe. They want to think it will never happen to them.”

The New York Daily News on Friday “appeared to stiff its journalists out of a modest bonus it had promised them for their hard work during the pandemic,” says a report in the New York Post. The newspaper successfully delivered on its pledged bonuses to management before announcing that it would be holding back bonuses for everyone else — citing staffers’ efforts to unionize. It’s just the latest slight to the editorial employees who suffered a permanent closing of their newsroom last year, the Post says. The one-time bonuses were suggested in January by Tribune Publishing.

The BBC has moved its China correspondent from Beijing to Taiwan because of “increasing pressure over its reporting in the country,” according to a CNN report. BBC News announced John Sudworth’s relocation on Twitter on Wednesday, saying his work “has exposed the truths the Chinese authorities did not want the world to know.” Sudworth’s move to Taiwan comes as Beijing repeatedly expresses frustration with BBC reporting on the Chinese region of Xinjiang, where authorities are accused of carrying out human rights abuses on Uyghur and other ethnic Muslim minorities.

Nick Clegg, vice-president of global affairs at Facebook, wrote a lengthy post on Medium titled “You and the algorithm: It takes two to tango,” in which he argues that users of the social network are at least partly to blame for the disinformation, hate speech, and other content that people often complain about. “As generations of newspaper sub-editors can attest, emotive language and arresting imagery grab people’s attention and engage them. It’s human nature. But Facebook’s systems are not designed to reward provocative content,” Clegg writes. Craig Silverman of BuzzFeed says the essay is “part of a larger pushback campaign re: polarization underway at Facebook.”

Google will contribute $29.3 million to the new European Media and Information Fund to combat fake news, the company said on Wednesday. The European Media and Information Fund, launched by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute last week, aims to enlist researchers, fact-checkers, not-for-profits and other public interest-oriented bodies to help in the fight against fake news. “While navigating the uncertainty and challenges of the last year, it has proven more important than ever for people to access accurate information, and sort facts from fiction,” Matt Brittin, head of Google’s EMEA Business & Operations, said in a blog post.

On March 31 the journalists of The State newspaper moved to form South Carolina’s largest newspaper union, The State News Guild. “Our mission is to foster an environment in which The State’s journalists can continue producing works of truth, accountability, culture and compassion without constant worry of professional insecurity,” said the Guild. Reporters, photographers and newsroom producers at the newspaper have signed cards expressing a desire to be represented by the Washington-Baltimore News Guild Local 32035 of the Communications Workers of America.

States Newsroom, a large network of state-based nonprofit news outlets, announced the launch of its 21st outlet: The Idaho Capital Sun. Based in Boise, the Capital Sun will report on important state issues, which are often under-covered due to the decline in local news. All of the Capital Sun reporting is available to be republished online or in print by other organizations through Capital Connections, States Newsroom’s free syndication service. The editor in chief will be Cristina Lords, who was recently fired by the Idaho Statesman for tweeting her frustrations about how poorly resourced the newsroom is.

Substack raises more money, but is that a good thing? was originally published on mathewingram.com/work

[carolinemillerbooks]

New Post has been published on Books by Caroline Miller

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/is-there-gold-in-them-thar-blogs/

Is There Gold In Them Thar Blogs?

Would you pay to read these blogs?  Don’t gulp. I know the answer.  Recently, a friend interrupted when I started to quote myself.  “You know I don’t read your blogs regularly, don’t you?”   Her confession silenced me the way bird droppings landing on my head might do.  Nonetheless, I’ve never assumed she or any of my acquaintances were regular readers. Frankly, I don’t read my blogs, either.  I write them. Three days a week, my scribblings reach nearly 900 people.  Three to four hundred of them drop by in an ordinary month. Of that number, three to five readers leave a comment. A desert waiting for a rain cloud gets more traffic.  So no, my opening question wasn’t a serious one, though what passes for journalism today doesn’t fill me with awe. When I subject media articles to  Grammarly, the print flashes so with many errors, it looks like Times Square on New Year’s eve.  I don’t monetize my work because I want control. Money changes the game and I don’t want to play someone else’s. I’m too old to chase eyeballs. Nonetheless, I sympathize with writers who live via clicks per page. Most of them do their writing while standing in unemployment lines. For them, a new opportunity exists–though, by the time the information reaches the pages of Vanity Fair, as this one has, the big fish have already taken up most of the pond.  I’m talking about Substack. (“The Next Media Gold Rush,” by  Joe Pompeo, Vanity Fair, Dec. 2020, pgs. 40-41.)   The company, says Wikipedia, is “an online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters.”  It allows writers to become entrepreneurs who can sell their newsletters and articles directly to the public rather than beg for the attention of a media editor. A-listers get upfront payments from Substack. Other contributors keep 90% of what their subscribers pay. Rates vary from $4 a month or $60 a year. The arrangement strikes me as similar to  Amazon’s deal for self-published authors.   I have no idea where this new venture is headed.  According to writer Joe Pompeo, some contributors are making a killing. But I’m dubious.  Amazon’s deal for book writers hasn’t worked miracles. What’s more, if the past is prologue, should Substack become successful, Amazon will buy them out.  Still, while the game is afoot, freelancers, bloggers, and other journalists might try their wings on Substack. As for me, I choose to remain grounded, happy for backhanded compliments. After all, if my friend admits she doesn’t read my blog all of the time, it means she reads it some of the time.

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/substack-builds-multi-author-support-into-its-hybrid-publishing-newsletter-service/

Substack builds multi-author support into its hybrid publishing, newsletter service

Substack announced today that it has built support for multiple authors into its service. The company provides a publishing tool that blends blogs and email newsletters into a single entity, with a focus on subscription monetization.

The day’s updates also include a number of publisher-friendly tools, like shared access and homepage features closer to those of traditional websites than the linear timeline style that Substack has focused on so far.

The additions, which also include nice-to-haves like author pages for multi-person publications, mark a new level of maturity for Substack, a service that quickly attracted both authors and an audience after it launched. That early traction helped the company land an outsized — when compared to the size of its team — Series A that put $15.6 million into the business.

For users of the service, news of the funding was welcome. As was Substack’s disclosure at the time that the publications on its platform had attracted 50,000 paying subscribers. That figure was exciting, indicating that the company’s product might help writers of all sorts build a monetized audience, a holy grail for written creatives.

In light of today’s updates, TechCrunch asked Substack about the progress of its monetization, specifically curious about how many paid subscribers Substack publications had accreted. The company declined to share new numbers, with its co-founder and COO Hamish McKenzie instead saying that his team is “very happy with the growth [it has] seen over the past few months.”

In a company blog post accompanying today’s news, the firm noted “tens of thousands of paying subscribers,” implying that Substack has not yet doubled its former 50,000 person subscriber base. (Doing so would give Substack six-figures worth of subscribers. However, as it reached the 50,000 paid subscriber mark less than a year ago, it might be aggressive to expect such a rapid doubling.)

Newsletter, blog, website

Part of Substack’s initial success came from its intelligent blending of blogs and newsletters. Anyone who wanted to build one or the other got both, in a format that worked for each; bloggers could send email, and the email-focused also got a home on the internet. That the product came stapled to monetization tools made it all the more attractive.

Today’s updates help add a new form to the Substack mix: Websites. Here’s what a new Substack website can look like:

The ability to pin posts to the top of publications, the addition of photo bylines, and other tools mean that users can now do much more with the Substack publications. The company will now have to tread the line between the power of simplicity, and simply empowering its power users.

The company’s model appears to be working. Traffic to the larger Substack service has risen in recent months, according to analytics service Alexa. Substack was ranked among the 13,000th most visited global site in October of last year, according to the platform. It’s now in the 11,000s. With media companies like The Dispatch hatching on Substack, and with today’s updates, expect that number to continue to fall.

Substack is a bet that readers will pay for the written work that they care about. It’s a good wager. And better tools will tilt the odds more in its favor.

Now we can simply count down until Substack announces 100,000 paid subscribers.

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

Sample Landing Pages of ILLUMINATION Writers

Each Writer Needs a Contact Page Dear members, We started a new initiative to introduce our writers, their works, and resources on my website. This is one of the activities of the Substack Mastery boost pilot. However, this activity is not exclusive to Substack writers. We do it for writers contributing to any platform. I explained the importance of landing pages in a story on Medium. In this…