Making the Switch to Substack
Where I will be regularly posting my blogs moving forward
Hey Everyone!
For those who were not in New Orleans for the past seven days, I hope you had a great week! For those who were in New Orleans (aka my fam, friends from high school, and friends from Tulane), I know you had a great week at the biggest party every year in the US: Mardi Gras.
This year brought a slightly different Mardi Gras for me as it was the first one in my entire life where I had to travel from somewhere outside of New Orleans to attend (my 22-year streak ended with my 12 Cities journey I guess). Although I ended this Mardi Gras week like the other ones before it - tired, exhausted, and ready for it to be over by Fat Tuesday (and that’s for someone who doesn’t drink) - this one made me more appreciative of the incredible city that I am from.
Being away from New Orleans made me realize how much I love the blaring horns from marching bands, purple green, and gold cake stuffed with a plastic baby, and the sheer amount of tomfoolery you see from people’s actions, outfits, and more. If you want to check out how my Mardi Gras has been the past few days, I posted some recap videos on Instagram and Tik Tok if you want to check them out. Here’s my favorite:
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Now…onto the much shorter-than-normal blog!
Given that I spent almost all of last week eating copious amounts of food, walking all over the city, and being overly excited about catching plastic beads, today’s blog will be slightly shorter. However, although shorter, this blog is probably more important to the people who consistently read my blog. I wanted to write this one to let people know that I am switching to Substack as my main publishing platform.
One of my mentors and friends Gil Hildebrand recommended that I start publishing on the platform a few months ago due to the benefits it provides over Medium in general, but especially for anyone who consistently writes weekly or bi-weekly posts. I also recently read a blog from an e-friend I met from Australia who is in a similar position as me (a recent college grad who is also writing blogs) and also made the transition to Substack (subscribe here).
Here are the main reasons why I am switching over:
Easier to find for those who want to read my blog
One takeaway from going back to NOLA that I was pleasantly surprised to see was how many people were following my journey who I never knew/expected. This ranges from high school friends I haven’t seen in years to middle-aged people who think they can beat me in pickleball…
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Although it was great to hear how many people were following along, many of them noted how they occasionally missed blogs. To be honest…I don’t blame them! For the majority of the time, people only see my blog through weekly LinkedIn posts.
With Substack, people can get my random writings straight to their email inboxes without having to find them on different websites or having to click through multiple hoops and hurdles just to get to the content they are looking for. Furthermore, if any blogs get lost in the email sauce, Substack has an archive of all previous posts as Medium does. I ever was able to export all my previous Medium blogs to this Substack, so I can fully transition over without missing a beat.
Better email product
I don’t know who would, but some Medium enthusiasts could say “Medium allows blogs to go straight to users’ inboxes too.” This is true, I receive all my Medium blogs in my inbox as well. However, I am always disappointed by the product that Medium spits out, especially when Youtube videos come out as random links instead of embedded videos.
With Substack, not only does all embedded content come out great, but it also offers better design and customization options for email than Medium. Customization can include everything from how the home page looks to the welcome email that is sent out to new subscribers.
Grow audience easier
Substack makes it easier for writers to grow their audience in a few ways. First, Substack provides writers with tools to manage their subscriber list and track engagement, which can help writers identify areas where they can improve and engage with their audience more effectively.
Second, Substack’s subscriber/follower onboarding only requires entering your email and clicking subscribe, while Medium forces users to create a whole Medium account just to follow and then opt-in to receive emails.
Finally, Substack allows writers to easily share their newsletters on social media and other platforms, which can help to attract new readers and expand their audience beyond the platform. They even send emails with posts ready to publish for social media (you’ll probably see one for this blog if you follow my socials, lol).
Conclusion
For these reasons and more, the switch to Substack simply made too much sense both from the reader's (you) and writer's (me) perspectives. If you are already keeping up like it seems so many people are, subscribe so you make sure you don’t miss any blogs!
Don’t know what I’m writing about next week yet, so stay tuned!
Here are my links if you feel inclined: