DISCLAIMER: The opinions and comments expressed in this post/video and all posts/videos of the “Analyst Roundup” Substack are intended to be objective and nonpartisan. These opinions and comments only reflect those of the Author and do not reflect those of any other individual or party, especially the Author’s employer(s) or affiliations.
I started blogging about 25 years ago. Until I started using Substack a few years ago, I can honestly say my favorite site/platform was Blogger.
While today’s online content creation has seen many iterations of successful and failed concepts for publication and distribution, Substack has learned well from the past and is poised for continued growth and remaining a strong outlet for writers, seasoned analysts, and other knowledgeable individuals to share their thoughts to a broad, expanding audience.
And, in some cases, they can actually make money on it, too (that’s not my intent, for now).
According to a report shared yesterday by Chartr, Substack’s 73.9 million site visits in June exceeds visits to both WSJ.com (Wall Street Journal) and CBSnews.com, the first time it’s eclipsed both establishment media websites.
Now, this is nowhere close to making Substack the most frequented site and source on the web. For sake of comparison, YouTube averages 122 million unique users per day!
At the same time, I don’t think it was ever the point for Substack to compete with YouTube. Instead, Substack is providing what individuals like me (amateurs who just like writing and sharing) and more distinguished, professional, and business-minded creators have wanted, a publishing platform we can use easily, integrates well with social media and other channels, and provides self-directed monetization.
The world of “blogging” has always been about niche audiences, and Substack creators understand this. The real growth in this platform is seeing the long-established creators (like Bridget Phetasy) share how they’re moving their paid content creation to Substack.
It also helps that Substack continues to adapt and add features, including Podcast hosting, live streaming, a mobile content creation app, the ability to share post videos (like the one above) automatically to YouTube, and more.
I will also add that Substack’s content is more free of “junk” than other platforms, and its “Notes” feature (which works mostly as a feed) is the only scroll of comments that does not feel today like a doom loop.
In so many ways, Substack is what many of us were looking for as the Internet matured and social media blossomed 20 years ago: a place where we could dive into what knowledgeable individuals had to share about topics and issues we cared about (including news and commentary), and where we could contribute on our thoughts, research, and ideas.
Personally, and objectively, I think Substack’s strengths are it’s ease in setup and posting, and the simple professional look of its default format (especially how it looks when distributed).
All in all, it looks like things are going well here, and I really do hope the trend continues. If you want to blog (I mean, create content), this is as good of a place to be as any.
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