Overall I would consider myself a writer first, before that of a YouTuber or Podcaster, which surprises many people. I’ve tried out nearly every main tool on the market for blogging and newsletters, yet I keep coming back to a couple of them. Wanted to share with you as to why!

Firstly, just a quick note on Revue.

I really think it could have been a serious competitor to Substack when it came to the social blogging-newsletter space. Now that Ghost 6.0 has something like Substack Notes built in, then maybe we’ll see that again.

This is a “sequel” post to one I made a bit back:

https://polyinnovator.space/substack-vs-beehiiv-vs-ghost-vs/

Something I said in the last post that I wanted to bring back here. Yes I consider Linkedin Articles to be on the end of life for most people. If you get lucky or work with the company they can work. However I do not think it is wise to use it otherwise.

Note: I do not want to include more archaic solutions, or ones that don't really fit into this writing form niche. Those would include: Wordpress, Medium, Linkedin Articles, Quora, Airtext.xyz, or something that is similar in nature to these but does not fit the newsletter format.

Revue as a Comparison to Substack

What I find really interesting is the comparison to the late “Revue” platform that Twitter owned. It was a newsletter bridge, where people would find it via your twitter/x profile, and then be brought to the newsletter platform Revue to read. However it also helped you connect to your actual email marketing tools too.

What I find peculiar is why they dropped it in the first place, as to me it seemed to be going smoothly. Now we can see for a fact that Substack and Ghost 6.0 both do this, and it helps tremendously with growth.

Who knows, maybe it will come back, since there are rumors that Vine is coming back. Something that Twitter also acquired.

Quick Takes on the Various Platforms:

This post isn’t meant to be a full review of each newsletter tool, but I do have some strong feelings towards each that I felt I should share.

Some might be good, some might be bad, and in the end you should decide what you think is best. Although if you’re reading this I’m going to safely assume you are on Substack one way or another.

Substack

I both praised and jeered at the minimalism of Substack when I first wrote about it. It was nice for having a public journal, which is what a lot of people still treat it like today. However I found that the potential for real niche content (i.e. like the aforementioned Swimming), such as the content niche I am doing now. Those are the types that would THRIVE on the platform.

I tried many different iterations, and I may try more later on. Originally starting with my Fireside Codex, which was for me a public journal. Moving on to the Swimming Academy newsletter, then “PolyInnovator Social Blogs” which was an interesting concept on its own, I temporarily wanted to do Knowledge Management posts too, and then most recently my travel content. Prior to changing it to the current The Content Polymath series you are reading/watching/listening to.

Even back when I wrote about Substack as a platform I spoke of it highly, even as the 2nd best platform in my opinion. I’m really curious to see how this experiment continues to go.

I wrote more in this related post if you’re curious: https://polyinnovator.space/my-experience-with-substack/

The one thing that could be bad is the pricing model… ONCE you get to a certain level. Until then I think it is fine.

Paragraph

While I would include images, the platform changed on me in the last year drastically. I was having good and bad experiences with the new updates over the couple years I ran my gaming blog there.

One issue I had was with the way blog posts were listed, and how you interacted with each of them in the backend. Eventually things changed so much, and for the worse on the frontend (sort of breaking my site’s flow). That I ended up moving everything to my main Ghost site again.

This was one that I kept probably one of the longest, and maybe the UI has improved since then. Or you might not have issues with it.

Beehiiv

Fun fact THIS channel, this series or newsletter, whatever you want to call it; Started technically on Beehiiv. I was trying out all of the platforms, and wanted a blog on each of them. Swimming on Substack, Gaming on Paragraph, and Content on Beehiiv. Everything else was on Ghost combined together. Eventually I realized that I could not stand writing anything in Beehiiv because of the atrocious UI/UX.

Which still doesn’t seem to have improved to this day much. Even going as far as to note in the previous comparison post: UPDATE - I have continuously had usability issues on the user experience front. Having to click through multiple layers to do something simple, or even couldn't find what I was looking for at all.

As you may have guessed I’m not a fan. I quickly moved the newsletter to my Ghost instance, and eventually to a separate Ghost site. Then back. Now to here, but without moving the old posts.

Not much else to say on this platform, moving on.

Ghost CMS

Ironically probably the BEST one on this entire post, and I still stand by that despite quite loving Substack right now. This is sort of why I wanted to make this post next. In fact I’m writing it before making the video because my brain was thinking about all the comparisons.

There is a reason I kept taking my newsletters from all of these other platforms, and putting them all on one site. That was because I felt it was best to have a holistic place for all of my content. Links to the whole ecosystem, and multiple newsletters in one place.

The interface on both the backend and frontend is unparalleled, the speed of the site is fantastic, the selection of themes is only 2nd to wordpress, and they do keep adding more features too as time goes on.

Why am I on both Substack and Ghost?

Probably a good question to ask considering that I am here. There are a few lines of thinking, and I figured sharing them might help you on your journey too.

Firstly, I’ve gone on and on about all of the various features on Substack, and I think those are a great way to automate what I am doing. Especially with my written/audio/video combined strategy.

The second angle is that SEO is a finicky thing. I actually have one of the best SEO results for content repurposing to my knowledge. A lot of my posts, like my How to Go Omnichannel has garnered a lot of attention. It is only going to keep growing too because I plan on making more content creation related content on there, that isn’t going on this site. Just didn’t fit into my plans for the trajectory here.

Meaning I’ll probably keep up the Digest newsletter on Ghost at the same time as here. HOWEVER I did feel that I could build a semi-isolated brand more quickly, if I had it on its own little island.

Being on Substack allows for me to tap into the amazing people network on here, and to build out a new SEO history.

Alternative Platforms

Look I’m going to tell you that Substack and Ghost cms ARE the Best. However I always believe in choice. As a tools geek too I have a long list of links anyways, so I figured I’d share!

After the main platforms talked about above, these are my top three alternatives for those curious:

* https://kit.com/

* https://typeshare.co/home

* https://buttondown.com/

* Honorable mention: https://superblog.ai/ Similar to Ghost

Here are the web3 platforms, which sort of stand out in the case of futureproofing. However please note that now Ghost cms has joined the fediverse too. So it has access to the decentralized networks as well!

* https://www.sigle.io/ No experience with

* https://paragraph.com/ Mentioned before, but wanted to put with the blockchain ones

* https://svbtle.com/ too mysterious for how competitive the market is tbh.

* https://mirror.xyz/ One of the major players other than Paragraph.

Here are some additional links for your rabbit hole:

* https://mataroa.blog/

* https://bearblog.dev/

* https://hashnode.com/

* https://outpost.pub/

* https://bloggi.co/

* https://getpublii.com/ Similar to Ghost

* https://recuremail.com/ No opinion, very simple

* https://typehut.com/ Overtly simple, but fair pricing.

* https://letterpad.app/ too many ads, and bit bland.

* https://www.onepubli.sh/

* https://bloghunch.com/ putting at the end because for as much potential I think this one had. The interface is awful, and completely broken on the backend any time I tried it over the years.

Keep in mind that I am not talking about email marketing, with tools like Mailchimp or Kit (although I did include the latter). Simply newsletter creation, with a minor blog element.

Which should YOU decide on?

I can’t tell you to be honest. For some of you maybe buttondown is exactly what you were looking for, as it was one of the first platforms where you could have multiple newsletters in one. Now Ghost can too, and Substack has sections.

Whether you are a generalist or a specialist I think there are things you should consider prior to even if you are multi-faceted or not.

Pricing is probably number one, and then user interface. When you are staring at a screen for a long time, writing long enough to get a cramp in your wrist (me right now), or wanting to take advantage of the latest features. These are all things that will very quickly change how you feel about a platform.

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