Why I'm moving on from Substack.
It's been fun while it lasted - but it's time to turn pro.
Where to find me now
Go to www.dominiknitsch.com to read all my posts: past, present, & future. Subscribe here.
Why I’m moving on
If you’re reading this - welcome! This is my archive of my first 49 newsletters that I wrote on Substack.
Today, I’m moving to a different platform.
Don’t get me wrong: Substack is an awesome tool if you’re just getting started:
It’s super easy to set up
It doesn’t take a lot of maintenance
The platform tools are great for creators (eg. referrals, recommendations)
It’s the right tool if you’re just looking to run a newsletter on the side. There are also a few newsletters who have made their success on this platform (eg. Lenny’s Newsletter, Uncharted Territories, The Generalist).
But it also has its drawbacks:
SEO is abysmal: in 2023, I received a total of 62 views from Google directly (as comparison: my old blog on Medium received ~350 monthly views from Google, even though I haven’t posted there since 2022).
Customization is limited: I want to have my website and blog on the same site. The options in Substack are very limited to have a proper website.
No custom email sequences: Once I started working with lead magnets, welcome sequences etc., it became evident that Substack isn’t the right tool to do so. Your options are limited.
No API: I had to manually copy&paste subscriber emails from my lead magnets into Substack. Sure, if you only get one new subscriber per day, that’s possible - but highly unprofessional. I don’t want to deal with this down the line.
Substack was nice as amateur.
But now, I’m turning pro.
If you don’t know what this means, read this article:
My new tech stack & where to find me
After looking at different solutions, I came up with a tech stack that (hopefully) works for me.
CMS: Ghost
I had stumbled upon it a few times, and the more I looked into it, the better it seemed:
Best-in-class SEO
Easy to use with plenty of customization options
World-class text editor
Take a look at my new website hosted on Ghost: now I can finally have website and blog on the same website.
Newsletter: ConvertKit
ConvertKit is the Ferrari of content creation tools. It has everything: landing pages, signup popups, a huge referral network, paid recommendations, A/B testing for newsletter subject lines, custom sequences & automations, … .
And that’s probably just scratching the surface.
Check out my newsletter signup form here.
If you’re a part of the ConvertKit creator network and would like to connect, please reach out to me via LinkedIn.
Thank you, Substack, for enabling the start of my newsletter journey.
And thank you, dear readers, for following said journey.
Onto new shores.
LFG 🤝
Dominik
Only just discovered you and, as a fellow generalist with a generalist newsletter on Substack, I will follow along. My newsletter is small and I’ve not yet exhausted my options here on Substack.
Good luck with it.