I love a good newsletter and I battle between Substack and Flodesk. I’ve tried both and will give my take later in this post but I want to give you my opinion on why you should start a newsletter, ways to make yours stand out, and what makes my newsletter stand out. Below I want to write about newsletters and the two top platforms Substack vs. Flodesk – The Newsletter Face-off.
Substack is more for the writer in you. I have substack for this blog. It’s called the Talk Tuesday newsletter. At first, I was against Substack because why would I get a Substack when I have a whole blog but here is the thing…people can find you better via Substack and you get new eyes on you. Also, you can have potential income from substack. Don’t forget substack is free to use (for now) so it’s a great way to start without putting in any real money just to see if your writing will take off. I still say to have a blog or platform that you own so that if for any reason substack or any other platform shuts down you can still have your own. God bless the child that has their own.
Flodesk is what I loved initially it was cute and it didn’t cap me at a certain number. I loved the designs and the ease of it but I didn’t want to pay the money which is why I went over to Substack but after a while, I said you know what Substack is for the writer in me and Flodesk is for the marketer in me. Flodesk is better for my t-shirt business because it’s not so much writing as selling.
Substack – writing and having a fun piece to your main blog for people to get to know you better
Flodesk – Marketing. You are selling and want people to know your deals and buy your product or service
What makes my newsletter stand out?
I like that my newsletter is a taste of me and it’s different from my blog. For example, Talk Tuesday started as a series on my blog for years. People came to my blog just for Talk Tuesday so I thought hmmm let me make it a newsletter. I had over 1k people on it but I weed out every 3 months because I give a lot of info in my newsletter and I don’t want people to just sign up to win something or just sign up to be nosy. Of course, on substack, you can read my newsletter for free (I will never charge) but in order to win things you have to subscribe. My newsletter stands out because it’s me giving you the tea in business and life with a side of sugar. The sugar is my links and advice to life things. The tea is my life and my thoughts on things going on in the world. We gossip and then get to business in a fun way.
Make your newsletter stand out by doing a series that people will love. If you love fashion put fashion tips in your newsletter you can call it the retail rundown of fab places you shopped for the week. If you love to decorate give people decorating tips in your newsletter.
- Make your subject line stand out
- Include your sign-up link everywhere (email signatures, on your business card, use a QR code too)
- Deliver what you promise don’t do the click and bait
- Name your newsletter something that plays off your blog. If your blog is called At home with Kita maybe name your newsletter…Welcome home or from the comfort of your home. If you write a blog post on business you can name it the 5 min meeting or the un-meeting minutes.
- create an Instagram story to attract visitors something that makes people want to sign up
Emails is a great way to make money because of affiliates and it’s a great way to get seen because it goes to folks emails vs social media which can be a hit or a miss. So what do you think about the newsletter faceoff between flodesk vs substack? Which one do you like the best?
What are some of your favorite newsletters? I shared mine in a previous newsletter but may share a few that I discovered in my next Talk Tuesday (see how I save some things just for my email list)
The Comments
Jennifer
This is great advice! I wasn’t sure what Flodesk was because I’ve never used it before. I’ve been thinking about getting Substack for my hobby blog. Maybe I should also do it for my GLD blog. Not sure yet. Lmk what you think next time we chat!