I Made A Substack Newsletter And Why You Should Too

A Little Backstory

I was reading stories on medium when I stumble upon Kristina God‘s article regarding her Substack Newsletter. I read her article, and it’s a great read, I highly recommend you reading her articles!

These are her articles that I’ve read about her Substack Newsletter:

• My Substack Newsletter Just Hit 1,000 Subs — Here’s What I’ve Learned
• Yeah! I Just Hit 1,500 Substack Subs
• I Just Don’t Know if Writing on Substack Will Work For Me

This has got me thinking: “Yeah, I think I should make my own Substack Newsletter.”

To be honest, I’ve read a lot of guides, even when I first started out back in college, that “if you have a blog’re a content creator, you must also have a newsletter, so that when you and your platform grows, your email list also grows with you.” or something along those lines.

The problem back then is, I don’t know where or how to start, but in truth I’m just afraid of doing so, so I got bored, and my content creation journey ended right away back then. But not anymore, I’m now committed to my content creation journey, and I’m not going to stop anytime soon.

But it’s still a matter of finding my footing in the vast void that is the internet. I’ve been reading and watching a lot of guides, and tips and tricks, so I can finally have this little raft of mine afloat, and maybe, just maybe, with time and dedication, this little raft will turn to a little boat, a sloop, a galleon, a ship of the line!

Trying To Find A Newsletter

In the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to find a newsletter platform that fits my needs. So, I’ve checked out HubSpot, Ghost, Drip, ConvertKit, and finally, Substack.

Ghost is the closest that resonates with me because I love FOSS (free and open-source software). The reason I didn’t picked Ghost is that it’s going to be a hassle setting it up if I wanted to do the self-hosting route. Another reason is the cost if I’m going to pay for all the back-end stuff. I’m trying to minimize my spending as much as possible while I don’t have a job and or a stable income, so Ghost is out.

I didn’t choose HubSpot, Drip, and ConvertKit because of the same reason, the pricing. And if ever my newsletter experienced the “boom” then I need to upscale it, which, of course, would cost money.

Call me a cheapskate all you want, but try and be in my shoes, if you’re living in a Third World country with a constant increase of inflation, the continuous rise of the cost of living, and to top it off, the salary rate remains stagnant for decades and for some areas, the salary rate of one province is lower compared to other provinces. So yeah, I’ll take that “cheapskate” term as a compliment and wear it like a badge of honor.

I Made A Substack Newsletter

Then came along Substack. Good lord, if only I’ve learned of this back in my college years and maintained my spark for content creation. Sadly, Substack was only released in 2017, while I started doing content creation in 2015, my freshman year.

It has (almost) all that I need for a newsletter platform. It’s free, it allows for unlimited subscribers, unlimited emails sent, and there’s an option for a paid subscription that I will not opt in because Stripe, again. But it’s alright, a healthy email list is worth its weight in gold.

So, I began the works. I’ve set up the newsletter, customized it to my branding, and voilà! I finally have my own Substack Newsletter. And this time, I’m going to take my content creation journey seriously. I then proceed to promote my newsletter to the different social media platforms that I am active; Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

As of the time of this writing, the number of subscribers for my newsletter is: a big fat zero, 0, nada. But, it’s alright, every last one of the big content creators started at zero, and nobody is an exception. This day marks the start of my content creation on a serious matter.

It’s going to be a long and arduous road, but I’ll see it through to the end.

Why You Should Too

If you’re looking for a newsletter platform, how about checking out Substack? As I’ve said earlier, it’s free no matter how many subscribers or email you sent, and they’ll only charge you when you turn on the paid subscription option to your newsletter. It’s a 10% charge per transaction, by the way.

Content creation is a long process, and just like investing, the right time to start is yesterday. So, I ask you, dear reader, if you’re thinking about picking the path of content creation, or already a content creator yourself, no matter what form, whether it’ll be on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or your own blog, start building up your email list and let it grow along with you.

This has been Andrei Jarell Vedad, your local writer, signing off. Until we meet again!

PS.

How about subscribing to my Substack Newsletter? It’s free, and you’ll get an email from yours truly.