I started my first blog in 2004 as an add-on to my daughter’s WordPress account. WordPress was a baby, having started in 2003. It was fresh and new, and clunky, and the blogging phenomena was trending. My writing grew with it, and as I got comfortable with sharing my thoughts, I kept up with the changes, and adjusted to the costs. Today WordPress powers 40% of the internet’s website, not only blogs and magazines, but also business landing pages, e-commerce stores, and major media outlets.

Substack started in 2017, but became very popular in 2020 when we were all having our Covid-creativity. It is an email newsletter platform, so when an author publishes a blog, it goes directly into a subscriber’s email inbox. Key word there is subscriber. You have to subscribe, as in give the author your email. You are offered certain levels of subscriptions, from free, to $5-$10/month, or $100/year or whatever.

Nowadays, it’s rare that you can get all of the author’s writing without coughing up some paypal. And it’s frustrating as heck, because you go along reading and it suddenly stops you and says, want to read the rest? gimme $5. I don’t. Holding your reader hostage for the end-of-story seems unsporting to me, so I’m outta there.

The most striking change to Substack came in 2023 when they put in a thing called Notes. It turned the place into social media. There is a lot of engagement there, lots of engagement. If you want community, there’s your spot. I am an introvert, even online, so I don’t care for it. Everyone seemed calm, and my algorithm had matched me well with interests, but it is not pretty, and seemed cold.

I came back to my good ol’ WordPress Reader and felt at home again. I hit the discover button and subscribed to a few new, inspiring, pretty blogs. There are some really good wordsmiths out there, writing real good for free.

Why would I want to use Substack instead of WordPress? I thought perhaps I’d republish my ancestry blogs and make some new friends who enjoy genealogy. When I first checked out the site, I was amazed at how many well-known authors and pundits were using it. The elite clientele was attractive – what if one of my idols followed my blog??? I was reading some good writing and felt both inspired and intimidated.

However, the whole learning-a-new format seems like Work, and I’m retired…

As far as growing my audience, well, I’m happy with y’all.

Did you know that if you subscribe to my blog (see the above and to your right button) you can get my posts sent directly to your mailbox?

It’s free…

Peace