Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Gergely Orosz's avatar

Great writeup, Simon! Recommendations has been a game changer both for Substack, and many newsletters on Substack. Mine is in this group: Recommendations increased growth several times.

Since recommendations launched, I'm observing publications which moved off of Substack - finding the 10% fee too high - now moving back, because of the added growth potential via recommendations that doesn't exist if you use a tool like Ghost, ConvertKit, Mailchimp or most newsletter tools.

As far as I know, beehiiv launched something similar the past few days: but that platform is much newer than Substack - aka more risky - and their network will be smaller.

It's impressive how Substack is able to pull off building a platform that has no lock-in, and making the growth tools the moat and lock-in.

Also worth noting how the company is experimenting with several other things of which any could turn into another unfair advantage. Substack acquiring Yem - and integrating messaging to reduce churn - could, for example, turn into an advantage which other platforms also don't have (reduced churn by X%).

Expand full comment
Frederick Woodruff's avatar

Simon

I just took out a paid subscription.

My conscience wouldn’t allow me to continue reading your SS without compensation.

Your informative round-ups, easygoing writing style, and overall good vibes are a winning combination.

(Now let’s talk about changing your SS profile avatar 😉 )

Expand full comment
5 more comments...

No posts