Moving to Substack

TL;DR—I’ve decided to move my blog to the Substack platform. You can find it at https://emilysmucker.substack.com/

If you want to know more details, along with the journey that led to the switch, keep reading!

Why Substack?

Sometimes I feel like I’ve given every website/social media platform a try at some point or another. Not just consuming content, but making content. If you dig deeply enough you can find little traces of me almost everywhere.

But blogging is my first and longest love. I’ve been doing this for twenty years, folks. Twenty years!

Yes, I’ve moved around somewhat. I started on Xanga, then moved here to WordPress a few years later—a good move, in hindsight, as Xanga eventually disappeared into the Great Void of the Internet.

Then, a little over six years ago, I added a “bonus blog” on Patreon. This allowed me to earn a little money from writing. It also gave me a platform to post more controversial content without worrying it would go viral and cause a firestorm in the comments.

(Yes, I have thin skin, but I’d rather be thin-skinned than be the sort of person who would rather have negative attention than no attention at all.)

When I started my Patreon, I’d never heard of Substack, as it was only two years old at the time. But as Substack gained popularity, I realized it might be a better fit than Patreon. In a nutshell, Patreon is a platform for paying content creators of all types, but it’s not really a blogging platform. Substack is designed as a blogging platform, and it’s much more intuitive for readers to use as well.

Additionally, if I used Substack, I wouldn’t have to blog on two platforms. I could put my free blogs and my bonus, paid blogs on the same platform.

..So I Though I Would Try It

Of course, I’ve spent many years building an audience here and on Patreon. The idea of moving it to a new platform was a bit daunting.

But at the same time…

I miss trying out new platforms. I miss the old days of the Internet when there were always new websites.

So I set up a Substack and had fun with it. I called it “Red Boots and Rabbit Trails,” playing on the Red Rubber Boots theme without having to call myself a “girl” at age 35, and set my profile pic of a female Mad Hatter drinking tea and wearing red rubber boots.

Then I re-posted my red rubber boots blogs, as well as my Patreon blogs, onto Substack as well.

Very quickly, I started having more fun blogging than I’d had in ages.

On Substack, folks are engaged. They like things. They comment. They somehow started to find me, even though I didn’t advertise my Substack at all.

Re-Branding as a Comedian?

I did run into a slight issue when I set up my Substack, which was that I had to say what category of blog I was writing, and the options were pretty limited. There was no “thoughtful discourse” option. There was no “stories about my life” option.

Was my blog more “Faith and Spirituality” or “Literature”? “Travel” or “Humor”?

I chose “humor,” assuming it didn’t matter that much. What I didn’t realize was that

A. Substack has lists of the 100 “top” blogs and 100 “rising blogs in each category

B. Apparently, not many people choose to be in the “humor” category

Because next thing you know, without advertising my blog at all, I was on the “rising” list.

Even weirder, I continued to rise. The day before yesterday, when I announced on my Patreon that I was moving to Substack, I got up to number 15 on the list.

Yep, there I am, only a few places behind Garrison Keillor and Dave Barry.

What the actual bunnyslipper.

Sorry, future readers, if I’m not quite as funny as you hoped I’d be.

How Substack Works

If you head over to my Substack at https://emilysmucker.substack.com/, you’ll be prompted to put in your email address and subscribe. If you don’t want to subscribe, just hit “no thanks,” and you’ll go right to my blog.

On my blog, you’ll be able to read my free posts and see previews of my paid-subscriber-only posts.

If you choose to subscribe, you can do the free option, where you’ll get my free blogs emailed to you. That’s essentially just like being subscribed to this blog.

If you pay, you’ll access the paid blogs too. Essentially, it will be like being subscribed to both my Patreon and this blog.

Fair warning—it does cost more than Patreon. On Patreon I was able to set the monthly rate at $1, whereas the lowest monthly rate on Substack is $5. However, I was able to make the yearly rate $30, essentially halving the base price.

But please don’t feel like you need to pay! I’ll still post just as much free content as I have been in the past.

What About the Girl in the Red Rubber Boots?

All my years of blog archive will live here for now, but emilysmucker.com will become more of a personal website, and a place to purchase my books, than a blog.

What are you waiting for? Subscribe to my Substack today!