Why I Went Back to Substack

Yet this post is on Medium

Photo by 愚木混株 cdd20 on Unsplash

Back in May, I wrote what turned out to be a pretty popular Medium article explaining “Why No One is Reading Your New Substack.”

The TL/DR? Because it’s probably not being indexed by Google, making it difficult for new readers to find.

Then two things happened.

First, I made an impulsive and ill-fated decision to move my newsletter to Beehiiv. Then, Google decided to destroy the quality of its own search engine.

You're Not Imagining It: Google Search Results Are Getting Worse, Study Finds

Getting stung by Beehiiv

For me, the Beehiiv platform turned out to be something of a bait and switch.

They, like Substack, have a free tier (the Launch plan), so new and fledgling newsletters (< 2,500 subscribers) can get up and running without incurring fees. And, unlike Substack, those publications are able to be indexed by Google. I had no trouble getting to my sitemap and putting the newsletter on Google Search Console. (Not that any of it matters now, but I digress …).