writing

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I recently learned about the existence of substack. Substack is a platform that allows anyone to share creative content, including: written articles, images, audio (such as podcasts) and videos with the world. It allows people to subscribe to content creators accounts, in a model that allows both free and paid subscriptions.

Substack’s unique selling point (I hate that phrase!) seems to be that it is easy for creators to grow an audience and to make money from the content they create. Substack boasts that it only takes 10% of creators earnings from paid subscribers, giving the content creators 90% of their earnings. As substack is currently free for content creators to use, it means that substack only make money when content creators do.

As a Writer, I can see the advantages of substack, which include:

• It is currently FREE, there is no monthly subscription cost, meaning that content creators won’t be left out of pocket. This means that content creators won’t have to pay for domain names, hosting, etc.
• It appears quick and easy for content creators to set up, use and maintain.
• No technical knowledge required by the content creators – no knowledge of website design and functionality.
• It has features that are designed to grow a content creator’s audience, such as notification of new content to subscribers.
• Substack claim tens of millions of content consumers every week, which in theory means a massive audience. However, they don’t state how many paid subscribers they have on the platform.
• It allows a variety of different types of content in one post.
• Substack allows quick reactions (love heart icon) to content, re-posting/sharing content on the platform and discussion via comments.

But substack also has a number of disadvantages, which include:

• Substack isn’t the only company to have this idea. Patreon is its direct competitor, who have been around longer (Patreon launched in 2013, substack launched in 2017). In some cases Patreon takes less of a percentage of subscription earnings from content creators than substack.
• The market for paid content through a subscription is uncertain. As is the amount of money that content creators could make. When I refer to content here, I refer to content that is not of an adult-only nature (by this I mean not pornographic). It is safe to say the market for adult-only content exists and that some content creators are currently making good money from this sort of content. However even with this sort of content, some content creators are saying that the market is saturated and that they are making less money than they used to.
• Substack is a business with costs and a pressure to make a profit. This could mean that at some point it stops being free and content creators get a monthly subscription fee, even if content creators aren’t making any money from the platform.
• Substack could may also decide to look for other ways to generate revenue, including but not limited to advertising.
• Substack could go out of business and creators could loose the platform and possibly some or all of the content they created.
• Substack allows any creator to post any content. This means that content posted on substack will have less credibility with the audience and may erode the content creators credibility and reputation.
• Substack doesn’t have any quality controls. This means that content could be factually incorrect, biased, misleading or completely inappropriate.
• Substack has a history (at least according to Wikipedia) of not taking enough steps to protect users data due to privacy breach in 2020 and then a security breach in late 2025.
• Substack lacks the ability for content creators to customise much of how their content is viewed. This might not be that important for written words, but could be incredibly important for other types of content.
• Substack appears to let AI generated content on its platform, which will significantly impact human content creators. AI content may also make a number of content consumers avoid the platform all together.

For both content creators and content consumers there are more disadvantages to using substack, than advantages. But in order for me to justify my opinion that substack won’t replace WordPress, I need to write about WordPress.

The choice WordPress developers and other non-official developers made to pivot towards businesses meant that they could earn money from their work, which you could liken to a content creator. This is great, they should be paid for their work.

But it means that the core WordPress platform, without any of the paid themes or plugins is limited for content creators. Content creators, especially those trying to build an audience that are willing to pay for their content (like myself) just don’t have the money to spend to get the functionality/features currently being offered for free by platforms like substack.

I am a Writer. I write this blog, books, articles and short stories. I write this blog because I enjoy writing. Writing this blog is a hobbie and I am happy to give away the content for free.

But my more substantial content like my books, articles and short stories, take me a considerable amount of time, energy and work to create. I believe that they have monetary value and that it is fair to ask for a small amount of money in return for them.

I am truly appreciative of everyone who reads something that I write, whether that be on my blog, or through one of my books, articles or short stories.

But the WordPress platform, without the paid plugins makes it difficult or in some cases impossible for content creators to:

• Help you to find your audience.
• Help you to grow your audience.
• Help you to keep in touch with your audience.
• Help you to take payments for products (whether that be physical or digital).
• Help you to offer subscription services.

WordPress has dominated the market when it comes to Writers, for a number of years. But one of my hopes, is that services like substack cause WordPress developers to add some functionality/features into the platform that address some of the difficulties faced by content creators who can’t afford to buy the paid plugins.

Conclusion

I use the WordPress platform through a self-hosting company and have a domain name to help people to find my website. This costs me £25 per month. But due to the lack of functionality/features in the WordPress platform (without paying more money for plugins), this website costs more to run than any money I’ve ever generated through it.

But despite WordPress’ limitations, I think it will be around long after substack is a distant memory. Substack appears very good at marketing to content creators. But to me its business model seems to have far too many flaws. Their business model is based on an idea that people are willing to pay for content. But there isn’t any good data on:

1. Whether people are willing to pay for content.
2. What sort of content people are willing to pay for.
3. The number of people who are willing to pay for content.
4. How much people are willing to pay (or can afford to pay given the global economy) for content.
5. If substack can generate enough income to not only meet the costs of operating, but also make a profit.
6. The impact AI will have on content creators and their audiences.

Blog soon,

Antony