Welcome back to the constant debacle that is Substack...

I've been on and off the platform for the last five years or so, and man I can't tell you how much it sucks... and yet I keep coming back, why?

The simple answer is that they keep adding cool features, that other platforms (even ghost or beehiiv) have not. Even now that Beehiiv has podcasting, it is locked behind their high ticket paid tier, conversely Substack is one of the FEW free podcast hosting platforms.

Additionally, they now have Substack Livestreaming, which I think could be really interesting for a lot of people. If it worked well. Performance wise I didn't have too many issues during the stream, but man the stream would keep going even after I turned it off. Thus my video files would be extended by over 2 minutes, and one point it did 20 minutes extra for no apparent reason.

I could see independent journalists around the world using Substack as their all in one platform. Livestreaming a video, turning that into a podcast (automatically I might add), and then writing their piece under it.

Formerly a post on Substack called "My Fresh Experience with Substack":

My Fresh Experience with Substack
The IMPACT of what this platform could leave. The potential to be one of the strongest platforms on the market…
The Content PolymathDustin Miller - PolyInnovator

What happened?

I’ve been off and on the platform for many years now, and there is a reason for that. I consistently see the potential here, but get so frustrated by the lack of development on the team’s part.

There is literally NO communication with the team at all. I've tried reaching out on half a dozen platforms, and even their youtube videos have their comments turned off. I haven't seen a company so afraid to talk to their users in a long time. I've reached out using their sub-par contact bot, and was told someone would email me back. That was half a year ago for the first outreach.

The videos/livestreams would fail to post to YouTube, the livestreams would continue going after I ended stream (which is bad for watch time on YT and Spotify), the interface kept changing dramatically with no warning, the writing experience is still mildly frustrating even after half a decade of development (one of the major reasons I left so long ago), and I could go on.

It astounds me that a company that seemingly is doing well, and even I think getting plenty of VC funding; Can have such a poorly operated organization, no customer support, and a lack of direction.

This was a sequel post to:

That’s the reason I often rank Ghost CMS over Substack, as my top two platforms for creators building websites. I go into my history a bit in the video above, but if you want to dig more into each of my Substack endeavors I talk about them more in the link here.

My Experience with Substack
I’ve used Substack off and on for a very long time now. I have tried variety of endeavors to try and grow, but none of them have really paid off. Let’s talk about it!
Official Website for Dustin Miller PolyInnovator [LLC]Dustin Miller | PolyInnovator

Now its a sequel to the sequel?

A lack of communication?

Given that this company has been around for eight years, tons of funding, tons of 10% cuts from creators, etc. There is no reason why the customer service for it is so abysmal. Let alone a complete and utter lack of content from the company themselves. The youtube channel is filled with mostly product showcases, and all comments are turned off.

The social media platforms are barely active, and don’t respond to @ or comments.

I talked more about it in a livestream today. As you can tell I’m quite passionate about this project “The Content Polymath”, and I don’t want to stop using Substack.

In fact I even created a publication for both of my podcasts each, so that in the case I decide to move I can transfer my podcasts over to this hosting platform.

Why can’t I just use what it has?

Look the writing element is great, and besides some quirks here and there I like it. For example the heading for this section. I tried highlighting it, which in ghost would bring up a menu to let me make into a heading. Instead I either have to do ### or go to the top bar and select style.

My point is that writing and content managing is just superior in Ghost. The reason why I am here, and why I would like to stay here more is because of their other features.

Those being the livestreaming (I’m a bit iffy about), the video posting (very useful if it worked), and the podcast hosting (something I might take advantage of no matter what).

How can it improve?

The stability first and foremost on video posts, clipping, and most importantly IMO the substack video post to youtube automation.

The podcast hosting is pretty spot on, but the connections to other platforms i.e. spotify or apple, is a bit tedious. Compared to traditional podcast hosts, where you can just link them, and then get access on their end pretty easy. Here there are more steps. There also just isn’t many ways of embedding or sharing your podcast more either here.

Communication with creators, not just the big ones, is a must! Something a guest said to me on the PolyTools Creator Spotlight is that just because I don’t have a big audience, doesn’t mean that I am not a big creator.

There are a lot of people like me, who know what they are doing, but just haven’t hit a big subscriber number… YET. Substack needs to connecting with those people before they blow up. Else that 10% cost they charge might start looking far too much.

🥡 Takeaways

What to do from here?
Well this last week I had planned on making content every day going forward on here. At least livestreaming, then doing my posts like this 1-3x a week. However it seems like now I need to stop focusing on this platform for a bit.

Partially because my frustration, and partially because I have a lot of content planned for https://polyinnovator.space which in the long run is more important as a personal brand. If Substack reaches out, and we can figure out these user experience issues together. Then I’ll probably focus more on this publication, let alone bring over my other two podcasts as well.

Putting this out there, but probably wont do it: I have been considering bringing back my swimming newsletter to here. To give it a chance to thrive again, and perhaps make it into audio so you can listen while in the water.

Nope, both of these quotes from the original version of this post are not happening. I wanted to post every day on there, it wasn't worth it, I wanted to move my swimming newsletter back, not worth it.

Over the last 6-7 years Ghost has barely crapped out on me, and when it has it is usually due to some outside force. I.e. hosting, cloudflare, or domains, etc.

I've actively testing Substack, and all of its features. It is not where it needs to be, and I do not think you should be using it as a content creator. Beehiiv isn't much better, but at least their team listens to customers.

Go try out Ghost CMS, and maybe even Beehiiv (even though I don't personally like it). You need a working tool as a writer and content creator.