I came here because I needed a new newsletter platform for THE PRACTICING WRITER when YahooGroups! went defunct. And I wanted that platform to be free (since I wasn't charging anything or taking advertising for it), and this one seemed pretty intuitive and user-friendly. But that was, I guess, about four years ago. It's interesting to learn about other people's reasons for coming here. Thanks for your post and questions!
That post gained you a new subscriber, though you already had me with your title. As to my Substack story, I started because I, too, was sick of Twitter, but also because I missed the days of personal blogging, which I did before Facebook knocked it out of me. I may just write all this on my own Substack. If I do, I'll let you know. Thanks for the inspiration!
I’ve been a blogger since 2006 (except for an eighteen-month hiatus writing bad poetry that I was mostly too ashamed to show to anyone). I’ve been on lots of platforms (Livejournal, Blogger, Wordpress) with lots of different topics. Nothing really took off in terms of readers, but I need the outlet of a personal journal. I’m an autistic with a history of mental illness; writing helps me process and understand my emotions, but, apparently, I can’t write without an audience, even if it’s just half a dozen people.
I had no interest in Substack when I first heard about it, mostly because I didn’t think I’d be able to monetise my writing. I have written some stuff that’s been published professionally, but I’m really bad at getting paid. I also self-published a non-fiction book that I totally failed to publicise and sell and I tried to sell a novel manuscript that went nowhere (in retrospect, it wasn’t that good, but I wonder if there was some antisemitism in the rejections). I’m trying to sell another non-fiction manuscript right now, but that’s not going well either.
Anyway, after 7 October, I switched my public emotion-processing blog to a password-protected blog and only gave a few trusted readers the password. I couldn’t face the hate and it was impossible not to write about what was happening to Israel and Jews globally.
Then I took a Times of Israel blog that I’d started to set up right be 7 October for divrei Torah and wrote some political posts. They seemed to go well, some being “Featured” by Times of Israel (i.e. promoted more aggressively).
At the same time, I found myself wanting to connect with more Jewish bloggers and I noticed that the Jewish/pro-Israel blogs all seemed to be on Substack. I decided to start there. My original idea was to post practical tips for people trying to be more Jewishly religious after 7 October, but, mostly due to stuff going on in real life, I ended up abandoning that idea (at least for now) in favour of reposts and off-cuts from my Times of Israel blog and my password-protected journal, mostly political, but some religious.
I’m not sure where I’m going with it now. I have eighteen followers after several months, so monetising is not going to happen any time soon, although I really would like to find a way to get paid for writing somehow, probably not as my main career, but as a subsidiary income stream (I currently only work part-time for mental health reasons). I put a lot of time, effort and passion into my writing and always have done and people tell me it’s good, but it is frustrating that I can’t get rewarded at least for the hours (literally) that I spend on each post. Oh well, I did at least meet my wife through blogging, so I can’t say I’m totally unrewarded!
I looked at Twitter a couple of times, found some interesting Tweeters, but never tweeted and found it toxic overall and bad for my mental health. I wish I could come of Facebook too (my only other non-blogging social media outlet), but there are three or four groups on there that I find really helpful. Social media isn’t terribly good for my mental health.
I think many of us writers have put in infinite hours that are never compensated with money. Unless you’re like JK Rowling or Stephen King, this is no way to get rich! Or even eat, unfortunately.
Freelance writers used to get paid a real income. This is sadly no longer the case.
Even my writer friends who had huge book deals with Big 5 publishing houses need to continue doing other things to earn income.
That you met your wife through blogging sounds like a great story. Maybe an essay for Modern Love!
Great post. I came here in Feb 2023 to write humor. I love my subscribers and the community I’ve built but understand I will not earn a living unless I offer a service, an unusual perspective, deliver news like a journalist or become a celebrity tomorrow. I will continue writing humor essays and have begun creating comedy videos on IG, YouTube and TikTok.
When I read the part about becoming a celebrity tomorrow, I thought of the Hawk Tuah girl! Overnight celebrity, but don’t know if she rode the wave or not.
Most of the services I see on here are writing related—craft subscriptions/classes.
I need to figure out more regarding platform features…
I’ve been a blogger since 2006 (except for an eighteen-month hiatus writing bad poetry that I was mostly too ashamed to show to anyone). I’ve been on lots of platforms (Livejournal, Blogger, Wordpress) with lots of different topics. Nothing really took off in terms of readers, but I need the outlet of a personal journal. I’m an autistic with a history of mental illness; writing helps me process and understand my emotions, but, apparently, I can’t write without an audience, even if it’s just half a dozen people.
I had no interest in Substack when I first heard about it, mostly because I didn’t think I’d be able to monetise my writing. I have written some stuff that’s been published professionally, but I’m really bad at getting paid. I also self-published a non-fiction book that I totally failed to publicise and sell and I tried to sell a novel manuscript that went nowhere (in retrospect, it wasn’t that good, but I wonder if there was some antisemitism in the rejections). I’m trying to sell another non-fiction manuscript right now, but that’s not going well either.
Anyway, after 7 October, I switched my public emotion-processing blog to a password-protected blog and only gave a few trusted readers the password. I couldn’t face the hate and it was impossible not to write about what was happening to Israel and Jews globally.
Then I took a Times of Israel blog that I’d started to set up right be 7 October for divrei Torah and wrote some political posts. They seemed to go well, some being “Featured” by Times of Israel (i.e. promoted more aggressively).
At the same time, I found myself wanting to connect with more Jewish bloggers and I noticed that the Jewish/pro-Israel blogs all seemed to be on Substack. I decided to start there. My original idea was to post practical tips for people trying to be more Jewishly religious after 7 October, but, mostly due to stuff going on in real life, I ended up abandoning that idea (at least for now) in favour of reposts and off-cuts from my Times of Israel blog and my password-protected journal, mostly political, but some religious.
I’m not sure where I’m going with it now. I have eighteen followers after several months, so monetising is not going to happen any time soon, although I really would like to find a way to get paid for writing somehow, probably not as my main career, but as a subsidiary income stream (I currently only work part-time for mental health reasons). I put a lot of time, effort and passion into my writing and always have done and people tell me it’s good, but it is frustrating that I can’t get rewarded at least for the hours (literally) that I spend on each post. Oh well, I did at least meet my wife through blogging, so I can’t say I’m totally unrewarded!
I looked at Twitter a couple of times, found some interesting Tweeters, but never tweeted and found it toxic overall and bad for my mental health. I wish I could come of Facebook too (my only other non-blogging social media outlet), but there are three or four groups on there that I find really helpful. Social media isn’t terribly good for my mental health.
I came here because I needed a new newsletter platform for THE PRACTICING WRITER when YahooGroups! went defunct. And I wanted that platform to be free (since I wasn't charging anything or taking advertising for it), and this one seemed pretty intuitive and user-friendly. But that was, I guess, about four years ago. It's interesting to learn about other people's reasons for coming here. Thanks for your post and questions!
I’m so grateful for your newsletter! (And all your hard work in so many ways.)
That post gained you a new subscriber, though you already had me with your title. As to my Substack story, I started because I, too, was sick of Twitter, but also because I missed the days of personal blogging, which I did before Facebook knocked it out of me. I may just write all this on my own Substack. If I do, I'll let you know. Thanks for the inspiration!
Yay to inspiration! Please do let me know if you write it!
My story is somewhat different.
I’ve been a blogger since 2006 (except for an eighteen-month hiatus writing bad poetry that I was mostly too ashamed to show to anyone). I’ve been on lots of platforms (Livejournal, Blogger, Wordpress) with lots of different topics. Nothing really took off in terms of readers, but I need the outlet of a personal journal. I’m an autistic with a history of mental illness; writing helps me process and understand my emotions, but, apparently, I can’t write without an audience, even if it’s just half a dozen people.
I had no interest in Substack when I first heard about it, mostly because I didn’t think I’d be able to monetise my writing. I have written some stuff that’s been published professionally, but I’m really bad at getting paid. I also self-published a non-fiction book that I totally failed to publicise and sell and I tried to sell a novel manuscript that went nowhere (in retrospect, it wasn’t that good, but I wonder if there was some antisemitism in the rejections). I’m trying to sell another non-fiction manuscript right now, but that’s not going well either.
Anyway, after 7 October, I switched my public emotion-processing blog to a password-protected blog and only gave a few trusted readers the password. I couldn’t face the hate and it was impossible not to write about what was happening to Israel and Jews globally.
Then I took a Times of Israel blog that I’d started to set up right be 7 October for divrei Torah and wrote some political posts. They seemed to go well, some being “Featured” by Times of Israel (i.e. promoted more aggressively).
At the same time, I found myself wanting to connect with more Jewish bloggers and I noticed that the Jewish/pro-Israel blogs all seemed to be on Substack. I decided to start there. My original idea was to post practical tips for people trying to be more Jewishly religious after 7 October, but, mostly due to stuff going on in real life, I ended up abandoning that idea (at least for now) in favour of reposts and off-cuts from my Times of Israel blog and my password-protected journal, mostly political, but some religious.
I’m not sure where I’m going with it now. I have eighteen followers after several months, so monetising is not going to happen any time soon, although I really would like to find a way to get paid for writing somehow, probably not as my main career, but as a subsidiary income stream (I currently only work part-time for mental health reasons). I put a lot of time, effort and passion into my writing and always have done and people tell me it’s good, but it is frustrating that I can’t get rewarded at least for the hours (literally) that I spend on each post. Oh well, I did at least meet my wife through blogging, so I can’t say I’m totally unrewarded!
I looked at Twitter a couple of times, found some interesting Tweeters, but never tweeted and found it toxic overall and bad for my mental health. I wish I could come of Facebook too (my only other non-blogging social media outlet), but there are three or four groups on there that I find really helpful. Social media isn’t terribly good for my mental health.
I think many of us writers have put in infinite hours that are never compensated with money. Unless you’re like JK Rowling or Stephen King, this is no way to get rich! Or even eat, unfortunately.
Freelance writers used to get paid a real income. This is sadly no longer the case.
Even my writer friends who had huge book deals with Big 5 publishing houses need to continue doing other things to earn income.
That you met your wife through blogging sounds like a great story. Maybe an essay for Modern Love!
Great post. I came here in Feb 2023 to write humor. I love my subscribers and the community I’ve built but understand I will not earn a living unless I offer a service, an unusual perspective, deliver news like a journalist or become a celebrity tomorrow. I will continue writing humor essays and have begun creating comedy videos on IG, YouTube and TikTok.
I’m no good with video features. I’d need my teenager to help with this. I really enjoy your funny woman interviews!
Thx, Jen. 🥰🙏
When I read the part about becoming a celebrity tomorrow, I thought of the Hawk Tuah girl! Overnight celebrity, but don’t know if she rode the wave or not.
Most of the services I see on here are writing related—craft subscriptions/classes.
I need to figure out more regarding platform features…
Who is Hawk Tuah?
This girl who went viral. Google it. So ridiculous what gets centered!
My story is somewhat different.
I’ve been a blogger since 2006 (except for an eighteen-month hiatus writing bad poetry that I was mostly too ashamed to show to anyone). I’ve been on lots of platforms (Livejournal, Blogger, Wordpress) with lots of different topics. Nothing really took off in terms of readers, but I need the outlet of a personal journal. I’m an autistic with a history of mental illness; writing helps me process and understand my emotions, but, apparently, I can’t write without an audience, even if it’s just half a dozen people.
I had no interest in Substack when I first heard about it, mostly because I didn’t think I’d be able to monetise my writing. I have written some stuff that’s been published professionally, but I’m really bad at getting paid. I also self-published a non-fiction book that I totally failed to publicise and sell and I tried to sell a novel manuscript that went nowhere (in retrospect, it wasn’t that good, but I wonder if there was some antisemitism in the rejections). I’m trying to sell another non-fiction manuscript right now, but that’s not going well either.
Anyway, after 7 October, I switched my public emotion-processing blog to a password-protected blog and only gave a few trusted readers the password. I couldn’t face the hate and it was impossible not to write about what was happening to Israel and Jews globally.
Then I took a Times of Israel blog that I’d started to set up right be 7 October for divrei Torah and wrote some political posts. They seemed to go well, some being “Featured” by Times of Israel (i.e. promoted more aggressively).
At the same time, I found myself wanting to connect with more Jewish bloggers and I noticed that the Jewish/pro-Israel blogs all seemed to be on Substack. I decided to start there. My original idea was to post practical tips for people trying to be more Jewishly religious after 7 October, but, mostly due to stuff going on in real life, I ended up abandoning that idea (at least for now) in favour of reposts and off-cuts from my Times of Israel blog and my password-protected journal, mostly political, but some religious.
I’m not sure where I’m going with it now. I have eighteen followers after several months, so monetising is not going to happen any time soon, although I really would like to find a way to get paid for writing somehow, probably not as my main career, but as a subsidiary income stream (I currently only work part-time for mental health reasons). I put a lot of time, effort and passion into my writing and always have done and people tell me it’s good, but it is frustrating that I can’t get rewarded at least for the hours (literally) that I spend on each post. Oh well, I did at least meet my wife through blogging, so I can’t say I’m totally unrewarded!
I looked at Twitter a couple of times, found some interesting Tweeters, but never tweeted and found it toxic overall and bad for my mental health. I wish I could come of Facebook too (my only other non-blogging social media outlet), but there are three or four groups on there that I find really helpful. Social media isn’t terribly good for my mental health.
I don't know why this posted twice, sorry! You can delete one.