I get it. If you’ve come across Substack recently on your internet travels and dismissed it as something that’s not for you. I understand, I really do. Last year I was equally sceptical. In fact I rolled my eyes and declared that I had better things to do with my time and that I certainly didn’t need another internet place.
But then I was curious, I created an account to have a browse and slowly but surely I was hooked. It’s now, hands-down my favourite place to hang out on the web. It’s free of adverts, there are no promoted posts and you get to see posts from only those people that you are interested in - sounds good? Why not grab a coffee and let me try to convince you with a few basics.
Full disclosure: I enjoy Substack as both a creator and a consumer. The former takes the form of my Everyday Knitter Substack. Obviously I’d be thrilled if you took a look there and maybe even subscribed, but today I’m focusing on what Substack can do for you - the curious and creative reader
First of all, it’s not just a place for authors. In a brilliant analogy Sarah Raad of the Gather & Grow substack compared Substack to a library full of books and interesting things. Not everyone who uses a library is an author, or a writer. In fact most people who set foot in a library don’t want to write anything, they just want to read. They want to explore, they want to stay curious. Let’s face it, we all love a good mooch around the bookshelves. Substack is like that - a place to have a good mooch with no one bothering you.
Think of it less as a social media platform (it isn’t) and more of a blog aggregator. Remember the golden days of Blog Reader? When you could not only follow all your favourite blogs in one place, but you could also see via their blog roll all of the other blogs that they read. You could happily while away half an hour hopping from one blog to another. You could leave comments, have chats and make new blog friends. Substack is like that - a place to gather blogs you want to read in one place.
You can have real conversations, with real people - just like you. I mentioned that you can comment on blog posts, but as well as that other people can comment on your thoughts too. Real life conversations can happen, sparking connections that just don’t seem to happen anywhere else. If you’ve ever tried to carry on a conversation in the comments on an Instagram post you’ll know what I mean. Often you end up resorting to DM which is great but then no one else can join in with your juicy insights.
You are in control. You can have new blog posts emailed to you or you can read them on the app or website. Some people read everything in their inbox and rarely venture onto Substack. Some opt out of the emails and read everything on the app. The choice is yours to use it how you want it. Some people save them up and pop in once a week on a Sunday morning - the Substack equivalent of having a coffee in bed with the Sunday papers. Just much more enjoyable and inspirational.
Did I mention you can chat? As well as conversations that happen on blog posts there’s also a section called Notes. People can post anything here - snippets of their day, a view of their workspace, a favourite recipe or a book they’ve just finished. It’s a bit like the best bits of Twitter - with nicer photos and more words.
And best of all, it’s entirely free to use with no adverts or pop’s up. It’s a clean, simple interface that lets the words and images do the talking. Speaking if which, I’m going to stop waxing lyrical now and let the words (links) do the talking.
Why not pop across to Substack and have a little look around - just tap on the link below to explore. You’ll be taken to my Substack page. The first tab towards the bottom of the page will show you my recent posts or check out the third tab where you can see other blogs that I read and recommend.
You have nothing to lose and you might just see something that catches your eye.
