3 ms·

Until a few months from now when Substack is also filled with lowest common denominator content. Then it’s a race to the bottom.

cwyers 6y ago
The incentives are different. Medium has it so that everybody pulls from the same pot of money; blogspam pays. Substack, everybody is running their own newsletter. If you want to make money, you need repeat customers. Blogspam doesn't pay.
- yepthatsreality 6y ago
  One person’s treasure is another person’s blog-spam. Substack will fall victim to this too regardless of how writers are paid. Eventually LCD blog-spammers will want a piece of the pie and will “scramble”, as they say in blog-speak, popular posts/information to generate a post of their own. This will devalue anything published solely on Substack and create a similar Medium/Google search effect when a user is seeking info. At some point the game isn’t about generating an image that you pay writers but proving your platform can support ANY writer.
  - cwyers 6y ago
    That's the thing about Substack. The stuff that's monetized isn't even on Google. There is no incentive to do SEO for monetizing Substack.
brown9-2 6y ago
So? I subscribe to individual authors who happen to be on Substack, not to Substack or all newsletters on its platform in general.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- yepthatsreality 6y ago
  So it goes.
bpodgursky 6y ago
I don't know anyone who goes to the substack.com homepage to surf for new content. I subscribe to authors I already follow via Twitter, or through other writers the people I sub to recommend. So I'm not sure how substack being full of low-quality SEO content hurts me.
Lazare 6y ago
Data point: I've never browsed Substack for content. I have no idea what may or may not be on the platform, and I don't really care. The quality of the median post - or author - could decline any amount, and I wouldn't even realise. I've subscribed to multiple Substack newsletters because content creators I already liked moved or launched new projects on Substack. Obviously everyone is different, but my impression is that Medium was trying to sell the "Medium brand", and struggled because a lot of people didn't find the "Medium brand" worth $5/month. Conversely, Substack is a platform for people to sell their own brands, and a lot of people find those brands to be worth $5 (or $8, or even $10 in some cases) per month. Will people now subscribed to slowboring.com suddenly stop in significant numbers because there's another blog/newsletter built on the same platform somewhere which is really low quality? How would they learn this, and having done so, why would they care? In another comment, you say: > [LCD blogspam] will devalue anything published solely on Substack I don't value anything now because it's published on Substack. How can you devalue zero? :)
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  I don’t use Substack, but what you say matches my understanding of the service. Substack isn’t a brand consumers look for or trust, it’s a brand authors look for and trust. If you are an author, it is a platform which you can build your brand atop. Substack is the platform where you can monetize that readership.

cwyers 6y ago

The incentives are different. Medium has it so that everybody pulls from the same pot of money; blogspam pays. Substack, everybody is running their own newsletter. If you want to make money, you need repeat customers. Blogspam doesn't pay.

yepthatsreality 6y ago
One person’s treasure is another person’s blog-spam. Substack will fall victim to this too regardless of how writers are paid. Eventually LCD blog-spammers will want a piece of the pie and will “scramble”, as they say in blog-speak, popular posts/information to generate a post of their own. This will devalue anything published solely on Substack and create a similar Medium/Google search effect when a user is seeking info. At some point the game isn’t about generating an image that you pay writers but proving your platform can support ANY writer.
- cwyers 6y ago
  That's the thing about Substack. The stuff that's monetized isn't even on Google. There is no incentive to do SEO for monetizing Substack.

brown9-2 6y ago

So? I subscribe to individual authors who happen to be on Substack, not to Substack or all newsletters on its platform in general.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
yepthatsreality 6y ago
So it goes.

bpodgursky 6y ago

I don't know anyone who goes to the substack.com homepage to surf for new content. I subscribe to authors I already follow via Twitter, or through other writers the people I sub to recommend. So I'm not sure how substack being full of low-quality SEO content hurts me.

Lazare 6y ago

Data point: I've never browsed Substack for content. I have no idea what may or may not be on the platform, and I don't really care. The quality of the median post - or author - could decline any amount, and I wouldn't even realise. I've subscribed to multiple Substack newsletters because content creators I already liked moved or launched new projects on Substack. Obviously everyone is different, but my impression is that Medium was trying to sell the "Medium brand", and struggled because a lot of people didn't find the "Medium brand" worth $5/month. Conversely, Substack is a platform for people to sell their own brands, and a lot of people find those brands to be worth $5 (or $8, or even $10 in some cases) per month. Will people now subscribed to slowboring.com suddenly stop in significant numbers because there's another blog/newsletter built on the same platform somewhere which is really low quality? How would they learn this, and having done so, why would they care? In another comment, you say: > [LCD blogspam] will devalue anything published solely on Substack I don't value anything now because it's published on Substack. How can you devalue zero? :)

ogre_codes 6y ago
I don’t use Substack, but what you say matches my understanding of the service. Substack isn’t a brand consumers look for or trust, it’s a brand authors look for and trust. If you are an author, it is a platform which you can build your brand atop. Substack is the platform where you can monetize that readership.