I always feel a little lost on the technical side of things. Unfortunately, you can't trust good writing to distribute itself. Thanks for the IndieWeb link, I'll check that out!
As a published book author, I think a dedicated website is essential, not just as a place to repost blogs but also as a central information center for bios, blurbs, sales links, etc.
I also post on Medium @authoraimeeliu & Substack @aimeeliu
I treat Medium as an online magazine where I post more polished articles to reach a broader audience.
Substack serves me as a replacement for MailChimp, an easy way to reach core subscribers with more casual newsletters, event and publication updates, and thoughts on writing and legacy.
I have left Twitter, dwindled FaceBook, use Instagram almost entirely for art photography.
Mastodon is intriguing but seems to require way too much work and digital know-how for my old-school skill set.
Yes, I still have a website. In fact, I have several, but I don't blog anymore. I have two Substacks, and one of them I syndicate to several social media platforms. Because it's about crypto, I use Web3 social media platforms where cryptocurrencies are earned and discussed. However, I do agree with you that the platform era is coming to an end and the protocol era is on the rise.
This post does encourage me to set up my own Mastodon instance. I'm playing around on NOSTR and considering some of the crypto protocols. I'm looking forward to the day when every platform and protocol allows creators to port their personal data and fan data from one to another. This ability is already available at Substack, but not at Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. You can do it at Cent Pages, but not at Medium. And, as the legacy platforms move to a subscription model to replace lost advertising dollars, creators will want more ownership over their fan relationships. That's what Web3 offers that current social media platforms don't.
Thanks for your thoughts and insights Justin. But it seems there is more to the question. Like the fact that search engines can downgrade you for duplicating content. Medium has a provision for adding canonical links, but then there is an important strategic question to think about. Where to publish first? And if I publish first on my WordPress site, how does that affect my ability to be published under prominent Medium publications? Many publications want original content. I'm thinking there are many facets to this question.
Great points. I regularly edit articles for a popular digital marketer and he says the same, that it's important to have your own space in addition to wherever else you share content, because algorithms change and suddenly you're no longer getting the same attention.
I've created and written in various blogs for over a decade, just for fun, but finally created an author website a couple years back.
I’ve always had my own blog on my website, and the challenge has been more along the lines of where to “syndicate”. At the moment LinkedIn and Medium, and just started a substack.
How do you handle canonical links? From what I’ve seen, it’s important but not crucial if you don’t have it / or can’t do it?
This is quite timely, as I've been exploring the same thread. I'm trying to figure out exactly what my syndication model is / will be (e.g. newsletter subs should get something different / special for subbing), but the main thing is moving away from a Medium-first approach.
I have a WordPress.org blog that I've honestly "outgrown." I'm gradually moving over the pieces that make sense on my Substack and I'm getting ready to let it go when I have to renew my hosting contract in May. However, with a book launch, a Substack, and an old WordPress.com (free) website that I still want to have available to readers, should I suck it up and get an author website as a main hub for that old blog, my Substack, and book news?
And I have NO idea what to do about my social media.
100% My website is the bread and butter, whereas platforms are only for sharing and distribution. I would add that a website running on organic traffic (like mine) is still platform-dependent (Google).
Very important and timely discussion. I've been thinking the same myself over last several month and decided to take back content ownership for the content that I write personally and the content that I write for my business (https://www.dappros.com/).
The only thing to have in mind is to avoid search engines penalizing you for posting duplicate content. This is probably safer with platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin which Google doesn't index as far as I know, but not sure what happens if we consistently post similar content in our business blog and in Medium, Substack and/or Quora. Does anyone have experience with that?
Nobody ever came to my personal blog, no matter how hard I publicized it. When I first started writing on Medium, I suddenly had an audience and began making money. For a while, I posted on both my blog and on Medium, but eventually I stopped. I fail to see the advantage. It's a bit more trouble to do both, and I'd rather spend that extra time writing more good stuff.
Personally, I moved away from owning a website five years ago and I never looked back. I put all my chips on writing communities and the overall experience has been way more rewarding. Nevertheless, I agree that platforms need to move away from biased curation systems or they will die a slow death.
Interesting! I think Substack sits in a slightly different place to Medium, Twitter, Facebook and most others, simply because it's considerably easier to extract your data from Substack. It's (relatively) simple to take my audience and content somewhere else at any point, which makes it a very low-risk service to use.
The nature of Substack as 'a (publishing) platform' is quite a new thing, and sits on top of/adjacent to its function as a newsletter service. I think of it more as a Mailchimp alternative, but designed more elegantly and more appropriate for long-form writing. That it has the web presence and the recommendations system and broader community is a (big) bonus, but it's not vital. Meta and Twitter rely on their systems having exclusivity in some way, or in gatekeeping key data (ie your audience), making it difficult to control your own stuff.
I have a website still, but it basically points people directly to my Substack. If Substack dies or behaves in a way I can't tolerate, I'd go somewhere else and update where my website is pointing. So in that regard, 100% agree. I'm not convinced about needing to cross-post everywhere, though.
Ok so. I have my own website (Niccikadilak.com) but also follow a few rules that have guided my audience interaction — namely that newsletter recipients should get exclusive stuff and that you should stick with a general theme in your writing for your audience’s sake.
Right or wrong, these two make intuitive sense to me, so here’s the way I do things: my substack is the place for newsletter content, including weekly essays and entertainment recommendations. I then syndicate to my website once members have the chance to have first pass. And then I usually publish my writing tips to The Writing Cooperative, sometimes syndicating back and forth with Substack but they don’t reach my website usually.
Maybe not the best strategy but it’s what works for me for now. Honestly I should be shopping these essays out more to paid outlets instead of direct publishing to my NL. Maybe one day, with more time.
I’ve always had my own blog on my website, and the challenge has been more along the lines of where to “syndicate”. At the moment LinkedIn and Medium, and just started a substack.
How do you handle canonical links? From what I’ve seen, it’s important but not crucial if you don’t have it / or can’t do it?
I always feel a little lost on the technical side of things. Unfortunately, you can't trust good writing to distribute itself. Thanks for the IndieWeb link, I'll check that out!
Thanks for addressing this important issue!
As a published book author, I think a dedicated website is essential, not just as a place to repost blogs but also as a central information center for bios, blurbs, sales links, etc.
My site is https://aimeeliu.net/
I also post on Medium @authoraimeeliu & Substack @aimeeliu
I treat Medium as an online magazine where I post more polished articles to reach a broader audience.
Substack serves me as a replacement for MailChimp, an easy way to reach core subscribers with more casual newsletters, event and publication updates, and thoughts on writing and legacy.
I have left Twitter, dwindled FaceBook, use Instagram almost entirely for art photography.
Mastodon is intriguing but seems to require way too much work and digital know-how for my old-school skill set.
Yes, I still have a website. In fact, I have several, but I don't blog anymore. I have two Substacks, and one of them I syndicate to several social media platforms. Because it's about crypto, I use Web3 social media platforms where cryptocurrencies are earned and discussed. However, I do agree with you that the platform era is coming to an end and the protocol era is on the rise.
My author website is: https://authorallentaylor.com/
I'm beginning to create websites for the books I write too. For instance, http://www.web3forcreators.info/.
This post does encourage me to set up my own Mastodon instance. I'm playing around on NOSTR and considering some of the crypto protocols. I'm looking forward to the day when every platform and protocol allows creators to port their personal data and fan data from one to another. This ability is already available at Substack, but not at Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. You can do it at Cent Pages, but not at Medium. And, as the legacy platforms move to a subscription model to replace lost advertising dollars, creators will want more ownership over their fan relationships. That's what Web3 offers that current social media platforms don't.
Thanks for your thoughts and insights Justin. But it seems there is more to the question. Like the fact that search engines can downgrade you for duplicating content. Medium has a provision for adding canonical links, but then there is an important strategic question to think about. Where to publish first? And if I publish first on my WordPress site, how does that affect my ability to be published under prominent Medium publications? Many publications want original content. I'm thinking there are many facets to this question.
Great points. I regularly edit articles for a popular digital marketer and he says the same, that it's important to have your own space in addition to wherever else you share content, because algorithms change and suddenly you're no longer getting the same attention.
I've created and written in various blogs for over a decade, just for fun, but finally created an author website a couple years back.
This is me: bonitajewel.com
Great insights Justin thank you.
I’ve always had my own blog on my website, and the challenge has been more along the lines of where to “syndicate”. At the moment LinkedIn and Medium, and just started a substack.
How do you handle canonical links? From what I’ve seen, it’s important but not crucial if you don’t have it / or can’t do it?
My weekly newsletter is at https://www.britewrx.com/weekend-solopreneur/home and longer-form articles are at https://www.britewrx.com/articles
This is quite timely, as I've been exploring the same thread. I'm trying to figure out exactly what my syndication model is / will be (e.g. newsletter subs should get something different / special for subbing), but the main thing is moving away from a Medium-first approach.
I have a WordPress.org blog that I've honestly "outgrown." I'm gradually moving over the pieces that make sense on my Substack and I'm getting ready to let it go when I have to renew my hosting contract in May. However, with a book launch, a Substack, and an old WordPress.com (free) website that I still want to have available to readers, should I suck it up and get an author website as a main hub for that old blog, my Substack, and book news?
And I have NO idea what to do about my social media.
100% My website is the bread and butter, whereas platforms are only for sharing and distribution. I would add that a website running on organic traffic (like mine) is still platform-dependent (Google).
Very important and timely discussion. I've been thinking the same myself over last several month and decided to take back content ownership for the content that I write personally and the content that I write for my business (https://www.dappros.com/).
The only thing to have in mind is to avoid search engines penalizing you for posting duplicate content. This is probably safer with platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin which Google doesn't index as far as I know, but not sure what happens if we consistently post similar content in our business blog and in Medium, Substack and/or Quora. Does anyone have experience with that?
Nobody ever came to my personal blog, no matter how hard I publicized it. When I first started writing on Medium, I suddenly had an audience and began making money. For a while, I posted on both my blog and on Medium, but eventually I stopped. I fail to see the advantage. It's a bit more trouble to do both, and I'd rather spend that extra time writing more good stuff.
Personally, I moved away from owning a website five years ago and I never looked back. I put all my chips on writing communities and the overall experience has been way more rewarding. Nevertheless, I agree that platforms need to move away from biased curation systems or they will die a slow death.
Insightful read, Justin.
Interesting! I think Substack sits in a slightly different place to Medium, Twitter, Facebook and most others, simply because it's considerably easier to extract your data from Substack. It's (relatively) simple to take my audience and content somewhere else at any point, which makes it a very low-risk service to use.
The nature of Substack as 'a (publishing) platform' is quite a new thing, and sits on top of/adjacent to its function as a newsletter service. I think of it more as a Mailchimp alternative, but designed more elegantly and more appropriate for long-form writing. That it has the web presence and the recommendations system and broader community is a (big) bonus, but it's not vital. Meta and Twitter rely on their systems having exclusivity in some way, or in gatekeeping key data (ie your audience), making it difficult to control your own stuff.
I have a website still, but it basically points people directly to my Substack. If Substack dies or behaves in a way I can't tolerate, I'd go somewhere else and update where my website is pointing. So in that regard, 100% agree. I'm not convinced about needing to cross-post everywhere, though.
Ok so. I have my own website (Niccikadilak.com) but also follow a few rules that have guided my audience interaction — namely that newsletter recipients should get exclusive stuff and that you should stick with a general theme in your writing for your audience’s sake.
Right or wrong, these two make intuitive sense to me, so here’s the way I do things: my substack is the place for newsletter content, including weekly essays and entertainment recommendations. I then syndicate to my website once members have the chance to have first pass. And then I usually publish my writing tips to The Writing Cooperative, sometimes syndicating back and forth with Substack but they don’t reach my website usually.
Maybe not the best strategy but it’s what works for me for now. Honestly I should be shopping these essays out more to paid outlets instead of direct publishing to my NL. Maybe one day, with more time.
Great insights Justin thank you.
I’ve always had my own blog on my website, and the challenge has been more along the lines of where to “syndicate”. At the moment LinkedIn and Medium, and just started a substack.
How do you handle canonical links? From what I’ve seen, it’s important but not crucial if you don’t have it / or can’t do it?
My weekly newsletter is at https://www.britewrx.com/weekend-solopreneur/home and longer-form articles are at https://www.britewrx.com/articles