Yup, it’s that time of the year when life, the universe and whether to keeping blogging are weighing heavily on me.
When I started HouseGoesHome in 2011 blogging was all the rage.
Now, not so much.
Simon Reynolds wrote last year at The Guardian that “blogs have been shunted to the side” by podcasts and other social media innovations.
And yet, like me, he persists with blogging. He noted: “Even if nobody reads them, I’ll always be drawn to the freedom blogs offer. I can ramble about any subject I choose.
“One of the great things about blogging, for a professional journalist, is that you can write about topics that aren’t topical. You are unshackled from schedules.”
Simon is my tribe. He admits: “Blogging is compulsive: an itch I have to scratch.”
That’s me to a tee.
But is it an itch others still want to read about me scratching? And does that matter?
A former blogger friend Janine noted in a comment last month that she was missing blogging and thinking about getting into Substack. Simon said the same thing.
What the bloody hell is Substack?
I’m not alone in my ignorance, every month more than 8000 people Google the phrase “what is substack.”
Wikipedia tells me: “Substack is an American online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters.”
Ooooh, I like newsletters. They are one of my professional strengths. I am very focused on achieving +40% open rates, which I believe is regarded as a pretty good result. Does that mean there’s an opportunity to get paid for wittering in newsletter form?
That would be the dream.
But dreams are pretty much that, dreams.
They don’t often pay the bills.
That said, one of the most successful Substacks in the world – Letters from an American – appears to bring in at least $5m in annual subscription fees. It is written by Boston College history professor Heather Cox Richardson and is a newsletter about the history behind today’s politics. It has more than 1.4 million subscribers. Whoa!
Something to think about.
In the meantime, have a great weekend. I have an exciting adventure planned. Stay tuned … and keep your fingers crossed for me that the rain eases.
I see a very soggy dog walk in my immediate future.
Song of the day: The Clash “Should I stay or should I go” (they don’t make music like that any more)
housegoeshome 
my goal as a blogger? I don’t have one….lol.
You should check out what’s around on Substack. There is a lot going on, and some of it is quite innovative. Mary Trump and E Jean Carroll are writing a book together on there (travel romance with knitting patterns!), Mehdi Hasan has a substack that is news and news analysis, there’s all sorts of other things.
Yes I’ve been reading/hearing about Substack too. I do like the longer form content of a blog/newsletter as opposed to a social media caption. I like reading. Simon is correct that podcasts and social platforms with their shorter bites of content have pushed longer forms of content aside – and also podcast listening does accommodate multi-tasking. But I do hear more about this newsletter model. I think you can have tiers of content on offer – free and paid. I am looking into it myself. Wherever you write Alana, I will keep reading 😊.
Thanks so much for the support Alex, it’s lovely of you to say