Think Week #40
Building on AND off "The Substack"
Measured Euphoria
Substack is reaching escape velocity.
The Substack v Twitter debates and discussions are heating up.
I have to admit, I'm shocked at some of the names popping up on my timeline.
If you haven't read it yet, Ted Gioa's recent analysis is a "stop what you're doing immediately and read it" kinda piece.
The people who hate us now love us—should we be worried?
I'm not worried, but we can't lose sight of the fundamentals (more on this in a sec).
You've probably seen countless posts about the X-Men and women flocking to the platform and dropping arrival posts.
To be clear, I'm here for it.
I'm bullish on Substack.
But you're not building a "Substack," you're building a newsletter and, more importantly, a community. At least I certainly hope you are, because that's all that matters now.
Subscribers alone won't be enough to survive.
The Fundamentals
It's risky to use only one platform exclusively.
In tech circles, we call this vendor lock-in.
If you use one platform to power everything, and it’s not open source, you're at the mercy of hurt, harm, and dangers both seen and unseen.
Yes, Justin Welsh is here now, but he still owns: justinwelsh.me
Same for:
Chenell Basilio: growthinreverse.com
Erica Scheider: ericaschneider.me
Jay Clouse: creatorscience.com
Seth Werkheiser: socialmediaescape.club
And now, Indie Thinkers: indiethinkers.com.
I moved the indiethinkers.com domain to a dedicated web application.
It's a fairly simple forum, but that's by design.
I've always been a fan of Hacker News. I check it at least once a day and always find something thought-provoking. But the content is predominantly focused on heavy technical topics.
This one is an incredible read: Using lots of little tools to aggressively reject the bots. But most people wouldn’t last more than a few paragraphs before their eyes start to glaze over.
I've thought a long time about a "Hacker News for Writers" and I've shipped different versions over the years. Nothing took off, and I shelved it.
I'm bringing it back now because my conviction remains. I want to be remembered as someone who created opportunities for writers who are often overlooked.
I hope Indie Thinkers can be a new discovery channel for non-fiction writers. An outlet to help the underdogs of the internet.
Content distribution and discovery are still complex problems. There aren’t enough sites online for writers to share their work.
Think about how many directories and “Product Hunt” style launchpads there are. What if the essay were the product? Where would you launch it?
One answer will be Indie Thinkers.
Forums and communities are very difficult to bootstrap, and I could use your help!
Sign up for a free account here: https://www.indiethinkers.com/login.
After you sign up, I have just one request.
Whenever you find something interesting on the internet, simply share it and write a comment about why it resonated.
You can see my stream of consciousness here: https://www.indiethinkers.com/comments
The Middle Class
I love the spirit of this note, but it's unwise to rely on one platform to build the middle class of the creator economy. I don't think he's suggesting that here, but when you see things like this, don't lose site of the fundamentals.
I know it's cliche, but don't put all your organic-cage-free-grass-fed-bubble-bath eggs in one basket.
Yes, we all have a chance to build this middle-class utopia. But it shouldn't be built exclusively on Substack.
The importance of digital real estate isn't discussed enough.
Of course, you should start a newsletter, and Substack is an amazing product. But you should have your own website or application that you have complete control over.
Substack offers instant-coffee convenience and built-in community, but with the rise of Notes, it's becoming a critical dependency that they have full control over.
When you build your own digital home, you maintain sovereignty over your work and can experiment with different monetization models.
A lot of people throw shade at Twitter, and rightfully so, but unless you’re building subscribers here, you’re just renting in a nicer neighborhood.
— Daniel