What in the World, Substack?

Know why I love Blogger? Because I can just write and publish a post. That's it. I don't need to fiddle with various buttons and fill in fields and figure out where tags belong and where to place an image so it stays exactly where I put it. 

My Blogger posts go like this:

1. I find an image that fits the topic and insert it.

2. I change the font size to medium, because small is too...small.

3. I do add alt text to my image, although I have no idea whether that makes any difference.

4. I add labels to my post (again, who knows if that matters?)

5. I create a customized permalink, but I'm pretty sure I'm wasting my time.

6. I publish.

So, really, I could eliminate Steps 3 and 5, which makes posting a four-step process. (I like including an image with every post, because I'm a visual person, but that's just me. And labels are helpful, because my post titles are often cryptic. I've begun trying to do better with that.)

I don't need to search around for any of the above things. They're all right there in plain view on the compose screen. Posting should not involve a scavenger hunt. 

What got me thinking about Substack again was my post from yesterday about telling a story from my past. Yes, I can certainly tell it here on this blog, but my posts get little-to-no traction. I haven't yet figured out why Google isn't indexing this site---I've tried; I really have. I've followed all the advice and still nothing. A Google search for this website by name is fruitless. 

I created a Substack account a couple of years back, initially to utilize Substack as my newsletter provider. I had a subscriber list that I was able to import, but the distribution turned out to be a disaster. Sometimes my newsletters got sent to my subscribers; sometimes they didn't, even though I made sure to click the requisite buttons (I thought). And my messing around probably resulted in people receiving two copies, which made me look like a moron.

Then I tried adding an image, but it often landed at the bottom of my text, and I could neither move it to the top nor delete it and start over. 

I'm a writer. I just want to write, not take an IT course.  

I finally gave up and moved over to Mailerlite.

I've written....hang on---let me check---seven, count 'em, standalone posts since. Most have gotten zero views; the most recent one got two. More than two people should have seen them, even by accident. I don't know how Substack works.

Yesterday I remembered that one of the people I follow on Substack had written a couple of posts, detailing how to use the site (for morons like me). I'd deleted her emails, because damn! I wasn't going to wade into that quagmire again. Then I thought, why not try to find them in my deleted folder and at least read them? Maybe it's not so complicated after all.

Well, it is; complicated, that is. "Go here, then go here. Well, this option is hidden, but here's how to find it. No, you don't want to do 'that'; you want to do this. Now, when it comes to tagging and categorizing..."

Oh, my God!  

While I appreciate this woman's attempt to be helpful, she only proved my point that the site is a nightmare. Why does anyone use it? Maybe it's set up as an intelligence test, to weed out the unwanteds.  "If you're too dumb to figure this out, you don't belong here." 

I think I could follow the woman's directions to the letter and after an hour or so, end up with something that might actually work. I'm not confident of that, but it could happen. But by then I wouldn't care about posting anymore. I'd be too exhausted. 

Amidst her instructions was a line about publishing versus emailing. Obviously, emailing one's subscribers would get more eyes on an article, but after I abandoned Substack as my newsletter host and migrated to Mailerlite, I received plenty of "unsubscribes". So, while Mailerlite is up to date on my active subscribers, Substack isn't. If I was to email my list of Substack subscribers, I'd be sending articles to people who clearly said they don't want to hear from me. And I could never be certain that I only published and didn't send an email.  

I think this whole thing is a pipe dream. Worse, it's not even clear in my mind why I'd want to do it. Yes, number one, I'd like people to read what I write. That has been a struggle for...oh, about nine years. And since The Failed Author isn't indexed on Google, I'm grateful that a couple of people have magically found this site, but magic is rare. 

Admittedly, if I could get Substack to work for me, it would be nice to add a paid subscriber tier, even though I seriously doubt that anyone would choose to pay for my content. (There's that whole pipe dream again.) Even if somebody was foolhardy enough to pay, I'd be unable to produce enough content to keep the thing going. 

Sometimes one has to let things go. Every idea isn't wonderful. I research and I give things the old college try, but when they don't work, they're not worth fretting over. 

That said, since my Substack account is virtually dead, I have nothing to lose by messing around with the hidden and non-hidden components. What's the worst that can happen? That I won't get any more views? 😀

Shoot me a comment and let me know if you use Substack, and if you do, how's it going for you? Did you find it intuitive to set up your account? Or am I just a hopeless dolt? I'm eager to learn your secrets.