I believe another reason to have 2 sites - author site and 3rd party/Substack site - is that new readers to an app such as Substack do not "land" on your home page but are directed to the Substack landing page with a subscribe button and minimal text. We can invite them to read without subscribing, yet the the need to click another link to get to a home page with all the good stuff may be confusing and offputting. I believe this is true, so correct me if I'm wrong.
Thats definitely a factor, Cindy. Platforms themselves can be barriers to entry. For instance, my mom once wanted to comment on one of my posts but she was prompted to create an account first. She didn't want an account, she just wanted to leave a comment.
I wholly agree, and furthermore building and maintaining a site is easier than ever. I’ve used most every site builder from WordPress and Weebly to Webflow and agree with you about the elegance of Squarespace (especially in the hands of a design pro).
That said, I’ll put a plug in for the often overlooked capabilities of… Canva. Their new website tools combined with Tucows for domain management is next level for simplicity. It’s also a terrific pairing with Substack. I use it with redirects to make links to key Substack pages memorable.
Barbara, thank you so much for piping in here. I've always known that Canva offers website capabilities but have never tried it, mostly because it's a new think to learn lol. But I'm intrigued. Someday when I have a bit of time, I'll go take a closer look.
Can you show me one of your redirects? I'd love to look!
Yes need a website/blog as your foundation - or at least a website you are updating regularly - and then Substack, or anything else you add, Insta, Pinterest. Etc.
I have just built my own website and I also have a separate blog on WP. I love the archival quality of my blog and I have posts back to 2016 so I can go back to how I was writing and thinking almost a decade ago. I am looking forward to building a similar archival quality on my website where I don’t a different genre to anywhere else and also sell my books. I think even if you have almost no followers to begin with in your owned spaces you can still build quietly knowing you will have all of that history behind you.
Kate, you’re so right. Just having the archive living somewhere feels like a secure body of work. I had my travel blog for 10 years before I retired it and took it down. But I recently created a new, hidden WP space and re-uploaded all those blog posts just to have them somehwere I can access them at any point.
I’m so glad you did that Kristi. Our work is like pieces of us, who we were who we are and it tells the story of our becoming. When I flip back through my blog and all the poetry and posts I have written I get a feeling of depth, aliveness. That is why I began my website, to hold my poetry blog - linked at least as its own page, my books, my photography and projects and it has become my house with rooms I can go into and even if no one ever sees it, I can. The internet happened fast, faster than we could adapt to in many ways as artists and writers. It is only now that I am gathering all my parts and pieces and giving them a home. And it feels good and right.
You raise some great points Kristi, like you, I have bounced across multiple platforms, Twitter, BlueSky, LinkedIn and now here. Throughout the journey, my home base has always been my Wordpress blog page which still continues to grow way beyond my original expectations. A comfortable home base is a must in my opinion.
Thanks so much @Kristi Keller 🇨🇦 what started out as solely a blog about researching my family history, it has since grown into story writing and more reflective posts. It has helped me grow as a writer enormously. I still have to pinch myself that people actually read what I write. I also now write a bimonthly column for a family tree magazine here in the U.K.
That’s the best part, writing for the other magazine. Not to assume everyone’s trying to make money online, but I bet if you put together some kind of workshop for people wanting to start a family tree project, you’d probably find plenty of takers. That sort of project has legs!
That is a really good idea, but I am also conscious of over stretching myself. Always better to do a few things fully rather than attempt too many different things and only half finish them.
This makes me feel so much better about the time I spend prettying up my website. It sometimes felt like wasted effort that isn’t seen a lot. Thanks for this!
I think at minimum someone should be making use of the custom domain feature. If people are used to going to the domain, even if you leave Substack and publish a blog to your domain, you haven't lost your audience.
Yup, this is such a good point, and one that we covered a couple months ago in our post about that very topic. The comments and different opinions varied all over the map!
Thanks for this article, and many commiserations to all those who've lost a Substack. As for me, I've been writing online and had my own website since the mid-1990s but it was only when blogging became a thing that I started moving old stuff into new sites. My current website* contains archives back to 2007. I carry it around like a giant snail on my back! I'm new to Substack - I made the decision to suspend blogging for a while and write here instead, but it's good to know that everything else is stashed away on my website, which I do of course back up :) So I would say yes, definitely keep a separate site and protect it as much as you can. Meanwhile, I will start following your example and back up my nascent Substack every month. * In case you're interested it's suethomas.net
Your posts are always so practical and helpful thank you. Can I ask a question to clarify...So you don't loose your posts, how do you link your posts from here to your website? Is it just a link that gets them from your website to substack, or do you actually re-post your writing there too...so you don't loose your posts? Thanks
You would have to copy/paste your content over to another location. There's an export option here on Substack but I'm not sure how neatly they import to another location.
I have a blog on wordpress.com and was wondering if that would do what you have described with your site? It sounds reasonable that it would serve as a repository and a place to also promote products I have in Gumroad and KDP.
I have a defunct website I created years ago as home to my travel blog. It’s now in the back woods of the internet but the domain name, @threescoreandmore has been recast as home my Substack venture.
Excellent points and I appreciate your timing in reposting it because I’ve actually been trying to decide about creating a website for my writing. I even have my domain name and have had it for years. Your reasoning moves me to get it done!
Kristi you have no idea how happy I am reading this. Everything I write here on Substack in focused on why and how writers, coaches, consultants should own a website. I even designed a website template specifically for Substack writers so they can just edit and use:
I guess that depends on whether you think you'd like your business side to be married to your personal side. Both are about writing so it could probably work.
I believe another reason to have 2 sites - author site and 3rd party/Substack site - is that new readers to an app such as Substack do not "land" on your home page but are directed to the Substack landing page with a subscribe button and minimal text. We can invite them to read without subscribing, yet the the need to click another link to get to a home page with all the good stuff may be confusing and offputting. I believe this is true, so correct me if I'm wrong.
Thats definitely a factor, Cindy. Platforms themselves can be barriers to entry. For instance, my mom once wanted to comment on one of my posts but she was prompted to create an account first. She didn't want an account, she just wanted to leave a comment.
I’ve been there, too. I didn’t want to sign up for a newsletter, so I just left.
I wholly agree, and furthermore building and maintaining a site is easier than ever. I’ve used most every site builder from WordPress and Weebly to Webflow and agree with you about the elegance of Squarespace (especially in the hands of a design pro).
That said, I’ll put a plug in for the often overlooked capabilities of… Canva. Their new website tools combined with Tucows for domain management is next level for simplicity. It’s also a terrific pairing with Substack. I use it with redirects to make links to key Substack pages memorable.
Barbara, thank you so much for piping in here. I've always known that Canva offers website capabilities but have never tried it, mostly because it's a new think to learn lol. But I'm intrigued. Someday when I have a bit of time, I'll go take a closer look.
Can you show me one of your redirects? I'd love to look!
Beautiful site and yes to everything you said.
Thank you!
Yes need a website/blog as your foundation - or at least a website you are updating regularly - and then Substack, or anything else you add, Insta, Pinterest. Etc.
I have just built my own website and I also have a separate blog on WP. I love the archival quality of my blog and I have posts back to 2016 so I can go back to how I was writing and thinking almost a decade ago. I am looking forward to building a similar archival quality on my website where I don’t a different genre to anywhere else and also sell my books. I think even if you have almost no followers to begin with in your owned spaces you can still build quietly knowing you will have all of that history behind you.
Kate, you’re so right. Just having the archive living somewhere feels like a secure body of work. I had my travel blog for 10 years before I retired it and took it down. But I recently created a new, hidden WP space and re-uploaded all those blog posts just to have them somehwere I can access them at any point.
I’m so glad you did that Kristi. Our work is like pieces of us, who we were who we are and it tells the story of our becoming. When I flip back through my blog and all the poetry and posts I have written I get a feeling of depth, aliveness. That is why I began my website, to hold my poetry blog - linked at least as its own page, my books, my photography and projects and it has become my house with rooms I can go into and even if no one ever sees it, I can. The internet happened fast, faster than we could adapt to in many ways as artists and writers. It is only now that I am gathering all my parts and pieces and giving them a home. And it feels good and right.
You raise some great points Kristi, like you, I have bounced across multiple platforms, Twitter, BlueSky, LinkedIn and now here. Throughout the journey, my home base has always been my Wordpress blog page which still continues to grow way beyond my original expectations. A comfortable home base is a must in my opinion.
Paul, thats amazing your Wordpress blog is growing. Most people struggle with visibility on blogs. What's your URL? I'd love to take a look at it!
Thanks so much @Kristi Keller 🇨🇦 the link is here https://chiddicksfamilytree.com
The post below is by far the most viewed on my blog, it’s been viewed 30k times which is incredible.
https://chiddicksfamilytree.com/2024/02/15/adelaide-springett/
I love that, Paul! It’s so fresh and clean looking, and what an awesome idea. I bet you get lots of family traffic, right? Great project 💓
Thanks so much @Kristi Keller 🇨🇦 what started out as solely a blog about researching my family history, it has since grown into story writing and more reflective posts. It has helped me grow as a writer enormously. I still have to pinch myself that people actually read what I write. I also now write a bimonthly column for a family tree magazine here in the U.K.
That’s the best part, writing for the other magazine. Not to assume everyone’s trying to make money online, but I bet if you put together some kind of workshop for people wanting to start a family tree project, you’d probably find plenty of takers. That sort of project has legs!
That is a really good idea, but I am also conscious of over stretching myself. Always better to do a few things fully rather than attempt too many different things and only half finish them.
This makes me feel so much better about the time I spend prettying up my website. It sometimes felt like wasted effort that isn’t seen a lot. Thanks for this!
I think at minimum someone should be making use of the custom domain feature. If people are used to going to the domain, even if you leave Substack and publish a blog to your domain, you haven't lost your audience.
Yup, this is such a good point, and one that we covered a couple months ago in our post about that very topic. The comments and different opinions varied all over the map!
https://unstackit.substack.com/p/my-pusing-a-custom-domain-on-substack
Thanks for this article, and many commiserations to all those who've lost a Substack. As for me, I've been writing online and had my own website since the mid-1990s but it was only when blogging became a thing that I started moving old stuff into new sites. My current website* contains archives back to 2007. I carry it around like a giant snail on my back! I'm new to Substack - I made the decision to suspend blogging for a while and write here instead, but it's good to know that everything else is stashed away on my website, which I do of course back up :) So I would say yes, definitely keep a separate site and protect it as much as you can. Meanwhile, I will start following your example and back up my nascent Substack every month. * In case you're interested it's suethomas.net
I learnt the other day that if you have your essay in two places (ie website and substack) this confuses search engines. Does that even matter??
Your posts are always so practical and helpful thank you. Can I ask a question to clarify...So you don't loose your posts, how do you link your posts from here to your website? Is it just a link that gets them from your website to substack, or do you actually re-post your writing there too...so you don't loose your posts? Thanks
You would have to copy/paste your content over to another location. There's an export option here on Substack but I'm not sure how neatly they import to another location.
Thank you Kristi. Is this how do you keep you articles safe?
I export a backup of my posts every month.
Thank you...that's what I've started to do. In gratitude for sharing your wisdom with us all.
I have a blog on wordpress.com and was wondering if that would do what you have described with your site? It sounds reasonable that it would serve as a repository and a place to also promote products I have in Gumroad and KDP.
Yes of course it would do the same. A website is just the container, it's up to you what you add to it!
I have a defunct website I created years ago as home to my travel blog. It’s now in the back woods of the internet but the domain name, @threescoreandmore has been recast as home my Substack venture.
Excellent points and I appreciate your timing in reposting it because I’ve actually been trying to decide about creating a website for my writing. I even have my domain name and have had it for years. Your reasoning moves me to get it done!
Excellent! Happy to be the one to light that fire for you 😊
Kristi you have no idea how happy I am reading this. Everything I write here on Substack in focused on why and how writers, coaches, consultants should own a website. I even designed a website template specifically for Substack writers so they can just edit and use:
https://substack.com/@bechemayuk/note/c-117342608?r=1sutys
Thank you so much for adding your voice to this.
You're welcome! Do you subscribe to Seth Werkheiser? He often preaches about the benefits of having a website too.
Not yet. I'll check him out ASAP. Thank you so much!
Some great points. I totally agree its worth having your own ‘real eatate’
I have two.
An old blog site that I repurposed as my author site.
http://salgallaher.com/
Also my freelance business site
https://salsfreelance.com/
Considering combining them but not sure if that's the right way to go.
Any thoughts?
I guess that depends on whether you think you'd like your business side to be married to your personal side. Both are about writing so it could probably work.
Thanks, Kristy.
You make a valid point. I’ll give it some more thought.