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Comment by shadowmore | Hacker News Reader

Bit of a meta question: is linking to Substack posts in this way equally as viable as linking to a standalone blog?

As in, the advantages of Substack are clear, but are there any distinct disadvantages to using it as both a blog (exposure, discoverability) and a newsletter (reader retention) at the same time?

Anything about it that limits it in ways in which a standalone blog wouldn't be limited, e.g. analytics?

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What exactly is Substack? I asked a few weeks ago if it was the new Medium, and that was apparently the wrong way to ask the question because it got downvoted through the floor.

It's a newsletter/blog platform that has an easily-dismissable splash screen prompting you to subscribe before you see any posts.

So it's the new Medium.

Yeah this is the first time I've read a Substack post as a website and wow that UI even looks almost exactly like Medium. "Medium but for email" seems to be a pretty accurate description.

I hadn't heard of it until I saw an interview Glenn Greenwald did after he quit The Intercept where he said he was already making some ok money there, as his readership was stronger than he thought might be the case, and they followed him there. I get the impression it's a place where bigger writing names can actually generate some revenue by having a subscription model, but with more opportunity for new names to get a foothold simply due to it being a newer space.

I would think they are paying early adopters an extra bonus, especially prominent ones (Pulitzer) like Greenwald.

One thing he noted was his number of readers went up too though (probably due to appearance on #1 nationwide talk show, that promotes the IDW/Dark Enlightenment Movement/"race realism"/ancient aliens Egypt hypothesis, just before he moved though).

They are similar.

I think medium catered to bloggers, and gave a space to post easily, and get some extra viewership through their community.

Substack caters to more prominent writers/bloggers who want to charge for their content, and build a following, and handles the logistics of that.

So maybe something like Patreon and Medium combined

So something similar to ghost.org ?

It is the new Medium, i.e. a VC-backed writing platform with a domain that people consider more legitimate than *.blogspot dot com.

And like Medium, one day Substack too will be filled with inane musings from nobodies and hustle/entreporn content.

The difference is that instead of being designed as a blog with a strong domain ranking and an RSS feed, it's a web page with a strong domain ranking and an email signup interstitial.

Using somebody else’s domain name as your incoming links and branding is obviously setting yourself up for future pain.

You can use your own domain with Substack, but it costs $50 to do so.

Is like medium, but as a writer you have more control. You have a list of your subscribers. You can charge and decide how much.

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