Tag: Ghost

NEWSLETTER COMPANIES DISLIKE RSS

I’ve unsubscribed from lots of newsletters and follow via RSS, mainly Substack and Ghost based publications. This works for the most part, but recently I’ve been coming across more “subscriber walls.” The writing is free, but you have to put in your email address.

I get it. It’s a great way to “grow your audience.” To get buy in, sure. Build that email list.

I’m all for any creative person to do their thing, just as I’m all for anyone to walk away from those tactics as well.

I get it. Everything has been free and open for too long. It’s hard to make it these days. Give up your email address so you can see more of those “hey, become a paid supporter” messages. I know that’s the game.

There’s just some games I’m done playing.

RELY ON NOTHING YOU CAN’T TAKE WITH YOU

From One Thing’s ‘The new rules of media‘ from December:

“Rely on nothing you can’t take with you. For now, Substack email lists and Stripe charges are still portable. If they weren’t, I would move to Ghost, because Substack’s incentive is to get you as locked in as possible. (Patreon still keeps your Stripe info, therefore fuck Patreon.) The same goes for audiences: Direct traffic, through homepages or email inboxes, is the most reliable because no one can take it from you, but it’s the hardest to cultivate.”

Discoverability is a myth propped up on social media’s legion of bots and active users. Yes, some people won, but that had to happen, so other people could see the lottery winners and believe they could win, too.