2,3,4 are the technical answers, and I agree with them. If you're a writer, you can try to build some kind of a mix of Facebook/Twitter clout for your self-host

2,3,4 are the technical answers, and I agree with them. If you're a writer, you can try to build some kind of a mix of Facebook/Twitter clout for your self-hosted blog (with all of the technical pains that entails), or you can try to get hired at lower-class wages by a print publication. Substack is a better solution for this, and it includes the mailing list building features that make it a superior solution to the social media treadmill. 1 is a marketing ploy, and while "astroturfing" sounds bad, it's fairly accurate and also a really good idea for what is a pretty niche market. All that said, I wish it wasn't this way. Siloing Internet content, even if the operation was an open, squeaky-clean, First Amendment-loving angel, is antithetical to the Internet ethos. And based on extensive experience, even the angelic operations eventually become not-so-angelic.