Big changes: this week I'm moving all my newsletters to Substack.
If you follow my side hustle, you may know that I run 2 newsletters:
1-Minute Creator (via MailerLite), where I share 2-3 links twice a week.
1-Minute Creator Weekly (on Substack), with 4 resources, 1 quick idea, 1 recommended tool and 1 resource from my sponsors.
With the move, I am changing the way I publish on Substack.
What’s changing?
1-Minute Creator Weekly becomes my writing publication
I continue writing on Medium regularly (3 articles a week). Then, every Monday I will publish my best story of the week on Substack.
Edit: Actually I decided to write stories under one publication together with my newsletter. But I will be not sending out emails with my writing.
In my content I focus on making money online, side hustle ideas and productivity.
1-Minute Creator gets a slightly new format
Twice a week I will share 3-4 resources (instead of 2) with useful tips, case studies, tools and everything that helps growing a one-person business.
I really liked the concept I introduced in my weekly newsletter on Substack. And I want to continue it, but b-weekly, instead of once a week.
Why the change?
I see that many creators are moving their newsletters to Substack. It’s a classic FOMO (Fear of missing out). I didn’t want to join too late.
However, running two newsletter hosted on two different platforms is too much of maintenance.
I’m a big fan of One Platform, One Product strategy. This is a great business model for digital creators, especially if you create alongside the 9-5.
That means I focus only on 1 platform from each category:
Blogging: Medium
Newsletter: Substack
Community: Skool
Social media: Threads or BlueSky (didn’t choose yet)
Products: Gumroad
At first I thought about changing my bi-weekly newsletter to a weekly one.
But I like the faster feedback when I send it twice a week. I don’t have to wait a whole week to see what my audience likes and not.
That's why I split my new format into two issues per week.
Would I lose my subscribers?
In my original b-weekly newsletter I promised my readers reading in less than 60 seconds. My new format will expand a bit and the reading time will be 1-2 minutes.
I will not be surprised if some of my current readers leave my newsletter because of this change. But in the long run, I believe that the new style will bring more benefits than the original concept.
Fear of quitting
I was afraid to give up fully on MailerLite. Both platforms, Substack and ML, have their pros and cons.
So I started comparing the two platforms. Here’s what I’ve found so far:
Substack
Connection with my audience: I like that my readers can comment, like or share my content.
Cross promotions: The community of writers is amazing. People help each other and recommend the other’s work.
Simplicity: Writing a newsletter looks similar to writing on Medium. But the content can be turned into a newsletter issue.
Easy layout: The editor on MailerLite is very annoying and sometimes it takes much longer to prepare everything.
It’s free.
MailerLite
Advanced automations: This can be very useful if you want to send dedicated, special emails to your recipients.
Cleanup feature: This feature is amazing. It can automatically remove subscribers who have not opened, clicked or engaged with the content.
Customizable layout: Typical email platforms, such as ML or Beehiiv, offer a wide range of choices for customizing email layouts. Substack doesn’t. And this is annoying. I like a clean, simple layout without too many elements or icons.
Customized landing page: I currently use Carrd for my subscriber page. I like it a lot and would like to keep it on Substack as well.
Will I give up on Medium too?
I know that many creators are leaving Medium. The recent algorithm changes are destroying their reach and earnings. I can see that too. But I don't want to give it up yet.
My strategy is to write on Medium as my main writing platform. I want to try different topics to reach new readers. I still have less than 1,000 followers, so I believe I still find some space to grow.
I plan to write frequently to get quick feedback. And I will share the best content on Substack in my weekly newsletter.
Thanks for reading!
-Robin
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