"American voices are tiresome." OMG you actually said it 😂🤣😆
Tbh when a lot of these folks left Substack due to the "controversy", I thought, oh thank God, we can have some peace now. Their constant protesting over moral issues that most of us international folks can't relate to was getting EXHAUSTING. And the constant obsessing over left/right politics and bullying people who don't want to choose... Again, EXHAUSTING.
It is exhausting in the sense the issues they face can feel very foreign to us at times. It's as if they don't really empathize with the rest of the world very well and it's scary to witness that at times. Substack isn't really even a global phenomenon, it doesn't yet have a critical mass anywhere outside of the U.S. and the UK (after marketing). This means to make a living, I have to appeal to American paid subscribers, I'm completely dependent upon their particular concerns related to my niche.
Right??? There's this article I once read about all us internationals being trapped in an Internet shaped by their worldview. We are forced to speak and act like them. I actually was suspended at one point from a very American platform because I didn't know how to behave in one of their weird culture war situations, so I have decided to never talk about their stuff ever again.
I refuse to be dragged into concerns or worldviews that are alien to mine, and I honestly don't care if I lose subs anymore. But I know I can afford to do so, and for you it is risk, so all the more 👍 for you to write this. I really relate to it and I am glad you didn't soften your words.
Yes the American internet is also highly reductionistic. I actually believe Chinese and American BigTech companies should be banned by other countries so their local tech infrastructure can develop organically in a way that's more aligned with their collective.
A world with just American and Chinese BigTech is going to get more dangerous. Ironically TikTok Shop and Pinduoduo's Temu will now take on Amazon in America itself. I also don't believe American democracy is viable the way it is going. Just like many consider the American dream to be a long-gone reality.
This is a case of creators graduating for a platform as they begin to establish their own media companies. it's a catch 20/20 when you build a 'digital sandcastle'.
Likely Casey wants to have investors on board, if that's the case, why should he build on top of substack?
I don't know is Katz graduating to beehiiv who don't get Paid subs yet? What chance does Casey have to keep growing on Ghost when churn is so high in the subscription business these days? He'll have to go very much into advertising, just to break even in one year.
As you know it's gotten a lot more expensive to do lead generation on today's internet. Substack still gives away subscribers (untargeted) for free but on beehiiv you need to pay on boosts. ConvertKit's ecosystem has a similar feature. So it's a completely different game than it was even 18 months ago, the cost per acquisition of a real subscriber is just so much higher - making this one of the worst times in history to go it on your own in media.
A great article Michael! Really worth the read. Just curious about one thing, how many hours did it take to complete this piece? Seems like a lot of work and analysis.
"American voices are tiresome." OMG you actually said it 😂🤣😆
Tbh when a lot of these folks left Substack due to the "controversy", I thought, oh thank God, we can have some peace now. Their constant protesting over moral issues that most of us international folks can't relate to was getting EXHAUSTING. And the constant obsessing over left/right politics and bullying people who don't want to choose... Again, EXHAUSTING.
It is exhausting in the sense the issues they face can feel very foreign to us at times. It's as if they don't really empathize with the rest of the world very well and it's scary to witness that at times. Substack isn't really even a global phenomenon, it doesn't yet have a critical mass anywhere outside of the U.S. and the UK (after marketing). This means to make a living, I have to appeal to American paid subscribers, I'm completely dependent upon their particular concerns related to my niche.
Right??? There's this article I once read about all us internationals being trapped in an Internet shaped by their worldview. We are forced to speak and act like them. I actually was suspended at one point from a very American platform because I didn't know how to behave in one of their weird culture war situations, so I have decided to never talk about their stuff ever again.
I refuse to be dragged into concerns or worldviews that are alien to mine, and I honestly don't care if I lose subs anymore. But I know I can afford to do so, and for you it is risk, so all the more 👍 for you to write this. I really relate to it and I am glad you didn't soften your words.
Yes the American internet is also highly reductionistic. I actually believe Chinese and American BigTech companies should be banned by other countries so their local tech infrastructure can develop organically in a way that's more aligned with their collective.
A world with just American and Chinese BigTech is going to get more dangerous. Ironically TikTok Shop and Pinduoduo's Temu will now take on Amazon in America itself. I also don't believe American democracy is viable the way it is going. Just like many consider the American dream to be a long-gone reality.
This is a case of creators graduating for a platform as they begin to establish their own media companies. it's a catch 20/20 when you build a 'digital sandcastle'.
Likely Casey wants to have investors on board, if that's the case, why should he build on top of substack?
I don't know is Katz graduating to beehiiv who don't get Paid subs yet? What chance does Casey have to keep growing on Ghost when churn is so high in the subscription business these days? He'll have to go very much into advertising, just to break even in one year.
Hmm good point, even when he moves to ghost, or to a new platform, churn/retention is still the same prob
As you know it's gotten a lot more expensive to do lead generation on today's internet. Substack still gives away subscribers (untargeted) for free but on beehiiv you need to pay on boosts. ConvertKit's ecosystem has a similar feature. So it's a completely different game than it was even 18 months ago, the cost per acquisition of a real subscriber is just so much higher - making this one of the worst times in history to go it on your own in media.
That’s always going to be the case when everyone is eating from the same pie. Apparently, substack has 500,000 paid users. Thats the size of the pie.
A great article Michael! Really worth the read. Just curious about one thing, how many hours did it take to complete this piece? Seems like a lot of work and analysis.
I do not know Romio, given that I have over a dozen Newsletter, I'm writing several hours every day.