Why I Moved This Newsletter To Substack
I’m excited to reboot this Newsletter, after nearly a 4 month hiatus. But, I’m done with the LinkedIn Newsletter platform.
Hopefully, Substack will be kinder.
Here’s why LinkedIn missed the mark:
1. I couldn’t share my Newsletter just to subscribers
When I published a Newsletter article, the only way to share it was to make a normal LinkedIn post that shared the link with my broader network.
The problem?
The majority of my network could care less about how I write my posts, edit them, or think about them. But, here I was spamming everybody anyways because I had no choice.
Ugh.
2. I couldn’t write posts on my phone
More than 50% of my posts get written on my phone. LinkedIn was forcing me to bust out my laptop when I didn’t want to.
Sigh.
3. A tech glitch deleted a post I spent 45 mins writing
Last night, I went nuts and wrote a pretty long post about lessons writing on LinkedIn in 2022. But, none of us will ever see it because LinkedIn decided to delete it. I tried and to recover it for another 30 minutes to no avail. I nearly threw my laptop out the window in frustration.
Rage.
4. The Newsletter doesn’t “live” anywhere on LinkedIn
Someone in my network recently DM’d me asking for one of my previous editions. Not only could he not find the archive, I couldn’t find it either!
I had to go into the dregs of posts from months ago to dig out the link. If someone in my network really wants to read my content and can’t find it, that’s a massive platform fail.
Frustration.
5. I couldn’t preview posts
The only way for me to see how my writing would render on a mobile phone was to publish and then open the post on my phone.
Half the time I was horrified with what I saw and had to edit post-publication.
Substack has this nice little “Preview” button in the top right corner. I click it, and it shows me the article rendered on a mobile phone.
Breath of fresh air.
6. I wasn’t building an email list
This one’s the least important to me, but LinkedIn didn’t have this feature.
Good riddance LinkedIn Newsletters. Hello Substack!
Looking forward to reading your content via Substack! Since embarking on a social media diet, I've been glad to find some writers whom I respect on Substack (Dan Meyer, Anne Helen Petersen, etc) instead of feeling like I'm missing out by not reading Twitter or Instagram.