222: Why I Migrated My Three Email Lists to Substack (BFF Bonus Replay)

Free Time with Jenny Blake

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222: Why I Migrated My Three Email Lists to Substack (BFF Bonus Replay)

;TLDR: I’m utterly delighted!

❤️ Jenny Blake

Sep 08, 2023

Now that I’m one month into Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h, I’m sharing my reflectionsOn Substackas a software platform for personal writing (and potentially moving my newsletters soon too). I recorded this bonus episode for the BFF Community at the end of July; since then, I decided to officially migrate my Pivot and Free Time mailing lists and go all-in.

;TLDR: I’m utterly delighted! The last time I felt this thrilled about software was when I first started tinkering in Notion four years ago, which became one of the best things I ever did for my business :)

✨ If you have the means and it feels joyful to support me and this new body of work, you can subscribe as a paid or Founding Member here 🙏 Huge thanks to those of you who have already joined and commented — I can't begin to tell you how much it means to me!

🌟 3 Key Takeaways

As a reader, Substack allows you to more easily reply and engage in the comments, “restack” snippets you like, browse the archives, bookmark favorite posts, see what percentage of each article you’ve read, and support fellow creators’ work if you feel called to.
As a writer, the composition interface is such an improvement! You can create richer newsletters with fancy content embeds—my husband calls it “upgrading the facilities,” host an archive page with previous issues, and for the first time—publish essays and podcast episodes to the same main feed.
One writer I follow, Kathryn Vercillo, practices artistic tithing: Ten percent of her income goes to supporting other writers on the platform. I now pay for fifteen fellow Substackers, and while at first I feared subscription fatigue (like so many of us!), this combined expense has become the happiest money that leaves my bank account every month. I love supporting the writers and thinkers whom I respect most, and who have given me so much.

📝 Permission

To make changes in your business operations even when it seems like no one solution is perfect, and you know you’ll break 100 things in the process. No risk, no reward! You also hereby have permission to charge for your work :) We’re all getting a raise in 2024!

✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next

Download the Substack app and see how joyful it is to browse newsletters again away from the chaos of your email inbox! You might be surprised at how many people you read and follow are already on there :)