Blogging

Should WordPress bloggers move to Substack?

byGretchen Louise posted updated

When I chat with friends interested in blogging these days, I often suggest they give Substack a try. Substack is a great place to get started: flex your writing muscles and find your community without any financial investment.

But what about my friends and clients who have been blogging for decades? They are also wondering whether Substack would be a smart move. Should they keep their WordPress websites plus start writing on Substack? 

Who should consider moving from WordPress to Substack?

The retiring blogger. 

My advice to those who are ready to retire from blogging (and not selling their blog as a business) usually includes 1) back up your blog content via XML export, 2) save as PDF & Word documents using the Print My Blog Plugin, and 3) import your posts to a private WordPress.com site. But if you’d like some (or all) of your content to stay public without having to worry about any design or maintenance? Substack might work as well as a free WordPress.com blog (at least if you don’t care about the comments being archived).

The downsizing, occasional blogger. 

For the blogger who needs to cut their hosting expenses but would like to continue blogging on occasion, Substack might be just the thing. There’s no cost to you, no matter the number of blog posts or email addresses on your list.

The hobby blogger who can’t afford their email list. 

If your email list is over 1,000 subscribers, chances are you’re paying an email service each month for the privilege of curating that list—even if you don’t email your list that month. This is probably one of the biggest attractions of Substack: you can curate an email list of any size without paying per subscriber. 

The weary blogger. 

If you feel the need for a fresh start, maybe you should give Substack a try. Don’t take the time to move all your content to Substack if you’re not sure it will “stick.” But perhaps a fresh space will be the just the thing to bring your words back into focus. (Like it was for my friend Harmony.)

The blogger creating premium (paid) content. 

If your target audience is already on Substack, then it might be the perfect place to begin creating subscriber-only premium content. Substack is definitely a viable alternative to Patreon, though you’d want to compare the fees and consider where your audience is already spending time and money. 

Who should stay on WordPress?

Substack is attracting a wide variety of content creators—from authors to photographers to motivational speakers to business coaches. But most business owners still need an independent website to establish themselves online, especially for SEO. Here is a non-exhaustive list of those who should consider staying on WordPress:

Bloggers making money from ad networks or affiliate marketing.

If you’re making a substantial income from an ad network and/or affiliate marketing, you probably want to stay right where you are. That’s not to say you shouldn’t try out Substack for creating premium content, especially as laws surrounding cookies change the landscape of website monetization. But don’t jump ship yet.

Shop owners who need full control over their email list. 

If you already have a successful shop on your website, why split the traffic and start sending your visitors to Substack? Plus, if you need to automatically add your shop customers to specific email sequences, etc. you won’t find that kind of flexibility on Substack. If your shop is more than paying for the cost of maintaining your website, then don’t change what you’re doing without really researching your market. 

Authors who want custom landing pages for their books. 

Substack has definitely made authors a focus—there’s even a custom space to link to your books in your profile and sidebar. And if you are working with a publisher who has a page featuring your book, the links section Substack offers might be all you need. But if you want custom landing pages for each book or series, or if you’ve authored dozens of books and want a way to organize and promote your titles, you might need more than Substack offers.

Bloggers who like full control of their website format and layout.

If you want your website to be completely unique or entirely custom, you’re going to want something more customizable than Substack. Their focus is simplicity—so your words are what shines. But I can help you accomplish a similar look and feel on your own website—or something that’s entirely unique to you. Substack doesn’t allow for plugins or custom code: you’re limited to exactly the features they are providing at any given moment. And while there’s a lot you can do there, there’s a lot you can’t. 

“…creators focusing on Substack are also subject to ebbs and flows depending on what the company is prioritizing: first, it was newsletters, then it was tweet-like micro blogs, followed by full-on websites and livestreaming. For some, Substack’s initial stated mission of giving more freedom to independent writers is fading.”

(The Verge)

Bloggers who want to stick with a tried and true platform. 

Early adapters are admirable but there’s a lot to be said for continuing to show up where you’ve already put in the work. Not everyone has the bandwidth to learn a new platform, and that’s okay. If what you’re doing is working, then by all means, keep doing it.

The bigger question: Will Substack endure?

Many content management systems have launched and gained popularity since we got dial-up internet at our home in 1998. 

  • LiveJournal was created in 1999. (I created an account there in 2002.)
  • Blogger launched in 1999. (I wrote my first Blogspot post the month after Google bought it in 2003.) 
  • Diary-X launched in 2000. (Six years later, the server failed, and all our entries disappeared forever.) 
  • WordPress began in 2003. (I moved my first website to WordPress in 2009.) 
  • Tumblr launched in 2007. (I joined in 2013 and used it to repost quotes for about 2 years.)
  • Medium launched in 2012. (I never did jump on that bandwagon.)
  • Substack launched in 2017. (The first time I remember seeing Substack in my inbox was 2019.)

There have been many more in between, in addition to all the social media platforms that come and go. As far as features, Substack reminds me most of Tumblr. However, right now I am seeing Substack as the Blogspot of Gen Z—where everyone is getting started, trying out blogging for themselves. But only time will tell whether Substack endures for the next 20 years as Blogger and WordPress have for the last 20 years. 

Should you try Substack?

As a WordPress website developer, I’m always going to be a fan of building on your own land, as the analogy goes. But if you’re just looking to try out blogging? Substack is a budget-friendly way to get started. (Just take a hint from a former Diary-X user and back up your posts.)

If you’re thinking of offering paid content on Substack, my friend Kalyn’s input is this: “If you’ve ever thought about starting a Substack, here’s my advice: test out this space with a free subscription for all posts—at least for a few months while you find your footing.”

Here are some quick answers to FAQ about Substack, in terms WordPress users will understand.

Not necessarily. Here are the basic “levels” of Substack:

  1. Substack Account: When you first enter your email address to subscribe to a Substack publication, you’ll automatically begin getting emails from Substack, which creates a Substack account associated with that email address. 
  2. Substack Profile/Handle: Once you use that email address to login to Substack and claim your “handle” (your @username) your profile will look something like this: https://substack.com/@rachellereacobb. You can gather followers/subscribers + publish notes and long-form posts directly to that profile. 
  3. Substack Dashboard Access: Before you publish your first post, you’ll have to agree to the Substack’s publisher agreement and privacy policy. Without agreeing to these guidelines, you can still edit your profile and settings, as well as post notes, but you don’t have access to the Dashboard area or any podcast or post features. 
  4. Substack Publication/Website: If you’d like more control over your Substack—with color/layout options and advanced features such as pages, sidebar links, customizable emails, and sections/tags—you will want to create a publication “website”. It creates a Substack subdomain for you like: https://natalieglaser.substack.com/.

(Initially, Substack required everyone with a profile to create a publication in order to write long-form posts; now they are offering the ability to publish posts on your profile, without creating a separate publication address. Theoretically, this lends itself to simplicity.)

Yes! Even if you have absolutely no plans to move to Substack, I would still recommend claiming your handle there (see step 2 above) + adding a profile photo, bio, and a link to your website.

By default, anyone can click the “Likes” or “Reads” sections in your profile and see the posts you’ve liked and the publications you are subscribed to.

Yes, you can import your WordPress blog posts to Substack, but the comments don’t come along with the posts. And if you have more than a few posts, it’s a challenging process to generate a CSV file from WordPress (by default it’s XML) and find where to upload it in Substack. (Give Soflyy’s plugin a try for an easier-to-import CSV option.) 

Yes, for a one-time fee, Substack will let you use your domain for your Substack. Or, like Blogspot and WordPress.com have always offered, you can use a Substack address for free: https://gretlouise.substack.com/. If you already own a domain, you can always simply redirect that domain to your Substack URL, as well. 

Yes! This is probably the most common reason I see people moving to Substack: they don’t charge you based on the number of contacts that are subscribed to your emails. In fact, they don’t charge you at all. Is this sustainable? That remains to be seen. 

Will you be able to move your email list from Substack if you want to at some point in the future? Right now, you do have the ability to export your email list.

But please note: whether you are moving to or from Substack, you’ll want to make sure that you are following the applicable laws and privacy guidelines.

Yes! Follow the directions from Substack to navigate to your subscriber list, check the box to select all, and compose an email. 

Unlike MailChimp, Kit, and Mailerlite, you won’t be required to include your own mailing address in the footer of your Substack emails: Substack provides a mailing address for that space, but you can edit it to use your own if you want. 

Substack offers a unique service: Substack is free for everyone to use, but you have the option to charge for some or all of your content. Some Substacks are for paid subscribers only, but many Substacks simply offer additional premium content to members, usually at a monthly or yearly rate. Substack takes a percentage of this income, plus credit card fees, but passes the rest on to you. Could you make more money by putting up a paywall on your own site? Perhaps. But in my experience, it takes a large membership to recoup the costs of hosting + managing a membership site.

Yes! You can use Substack’s Tags to organize your content by topic. Or, you can use Sections to offer your subscribers the ability to subscribe to individual sections of your Substack (rather than receiving notifications of all your posts). 

I’ve long had concern about cross-posting your content so much that you end up being penalized by Google for duplicate content. When I reached out to Substack support in 2023 to ask if they offered Canonical URLs so that my clients could indicate that their own domains were the primary owners of the content, they replied: 

To maximize SEO, we recommend you publish and post your content to Substack only. If you publish to Substack and another site, it spreads the important signals (inbound links, social sharing, etc.) over two separate domains, when you’d rather have all those shares, mentions, and links pointing to one place. Additionally, Google may be confused about which site is the original version of the content and may reduce the rank of one or both domains because of this.

Examples and Resources

Sometimes it’s helpful to see what others are doing. Here are some ways I’ve seen Substack used well alongside a WordPress website, as well as excellent welcome emails, and more. 

Examples of those who have WordPress websites but feature future content on Substack:

Examples of those who are cross-posting to both WordPress and Substack:

Examples of posts explaining the move to Substack:

“I’m ready for a quieter space where we can enjoy more personal communication—away from the noise of the internet and the distraction of social media.”

(Lisa Jacobson)

Examples of well-done welcome emails (subscribe to see!):

Here are a few resources that might be helpful if you’re looking to get started at Substack:

Do you have more questions about WordPress vs. Substack? Share them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer!

Photo by JenniMarie Photography

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2 Comments

  1. Great post, Gretchen, and thanks for the shout-out! I agree with all the points you made here. Substack is the perfect fit for a certain segment of authors and writers, but for long-time bloggers, that’s a much harder choice to stay on WP or jump to the Substack platform.

    One of the things that originally drew me to Substack was the lack of pressure to write a post that was perfectly SEO-ed or that extensively covered a certain topic. I love that people share more personally over on Substack and think that *maybe* that trend might shift to WP websites at some point too—like it was in the early days of online journaling!

    Reply

  2. I’m SO glad you tackled this topic, Gretchen! Fantastic, well-researched points.

    I am one of the bloggers who is staying on WordPress, for now anyway. I’ll continue to watch Substack with interest as it evolves!

    Reply