Should New Content Creators Use Ghost Or Substack?

Heather Larson
2 min readApr 22, 2022

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Since someone asked why I use Ghost over Substack, here goes!

Lots of people have asked me on Twitter about Ghost, so I think more people are becoming interested in it.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably got a big tech stack already and want to know why ONE MORE THING is worth a look. When I first saw Ghost, I didn’t think much of it.

Here’s Why That Changed And I Now LOVE Ghost!

Open-source Ghost took every fragmented thing I was trying to do and put it all in one place:

  • Newsletter: Substack / ConvertKit / MailChimp / Revue
  • Patreon
  • Website
  • Blog
  • Integrations: Stripe, Zapier, and tons more.

It’s a lot faster and easier to create within its UI than in Squarespace or WordPress. Less friction makes me happy!

Sorry, But Substack is Sub-Par For New Creators

If you’re new to content creation, it’s going to take you longer to gain traction on Substack than on other content verticals like Twitter and Medium.

In the first 90 days of my #ContentStorm, my Substack had received about 35 views. Now, I’m at day #143 of daily online writing (I dropped the hashtag at day 91). I got back into my Substack and totaled up my views to date and I’m at a whopping 77.

77 total views in 143 days is sorrowful!

The Exposure Isn’t There on Substack

I don’t think you get exposure on Substack and Patreon unless you go in with an already huge audience.

I also think there were a lot of “influencers” touting Substack around the time I signed up in December 2021. I tried it in the spirit of experimentation, but it didn’t work for me.

Your mileage may vary!

Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog

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Heather Larson

Hi 👋 I’m Heather Larson! I’m data-driven content writer coming from traditional media. I’m a veteran broadcaster, radio personality, and journalist.