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[Guest post] How Substack Became Milquetoast
I said earlier that the biggest risk to Substack is archives, but that’s only true in the existential sense. With regards to future growth, the biggest risk is that the mainstream population continues to read mainstream journals, and Substack never crosses the chasm.
Applied Divinity Studies • [Guest post] How Substack Became Milquetoast
One argument for newsletters is that it allows senders to track metrics about who reads their work, how much they read, etc. In Nintil for example while I have some Google Analytics metrics, I have zero information if you read it via RSS and not open the page
Applied Divinity Studies • [Guest post] How Substack Became Milquetoast
The obvious objection is that Twitter also has public follower counts but still manages to host vibrant subcultures.
Applied Divinity Studies • [Guest post] How Substack Became Milquetoast
It’s better for authors to think persistently and write occasionally than the other way around.
But on Substack, you’re paid monthly, creating pressure to churn out regular updates. Since it’s impossible to have interesting novel thoughts twice a week every week, this also means writers skew heavily towards summarizing the news, pumping out quick ta... See more
But on Substack, you’re paid monthly, creating pressure to churn out regular updates. Since it’s impossible to have interesting novel thoughts twice a week every week, this also means writers skew heavily towards summarizing the news, pumping out quick ta... See more
nintil.com • [Guest post] How Substack Became Milquetoast
The problem is not merely homogeneity of topic, but homogeneity of substance. If you have to publish a newsletter every week, you don’t have the room or incentive to take risks.
Applied Divinity Studies • [Guest post] How Substack Became Milquetoast
In financial terms, blog posts have asymmetric returns with capped downside but unlimited upside. If you write a bad post it won’t get shared and no one will see it. If you write a great post and it goes viral, everyone on the internet thinks you’re a genius. Since content is shared organically, your best work gets way more exposure than your worst... See more
Applied Divinity Studies • [Guest post] How Substack Became Milquetoast
But on Substack, you’re paid monthly, creating pressure to churn out regular updates. Since it’s impossible to have interesting novel thoughts twice a week every week, this also means writers skew heavily towards summarizing the news, pumping out quick takes, or riffing on whatever they read on Twitter.
Applied Divinity Studies • [Guest post] How Substack Became Milquetoast
In contrast, every single edition of a newsletter is delivered to every single reader, and since a lot of it is paywalled, there’s little potential virality.
Applied Divinity Studies • [Guest post] How Substack Became Milquetoast
Organic sharing, growth and virality exposes readers to a wide variety of authors, serving up the best of each one’s writing. On Substack, instead of getting the best 1% of posts from 100 authors, you get 100% from each one.