> Is it still too hard for people to make their own website blog / newsletters? ...

theshrike79 · 2025-09-01T07:00:43 1756710043

I think you can get the first ones with any blog engine.

It's the payment bit that's the key here.

pixodaros · 2025-09-01T15:15:32 1756739732

You could do all of those on Typepad in 2008 except sending some posts only to paying subscribers https://everything.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/feedburner-typep... You had to wait until 2017 for that https://everything.typepad.com/blog/2017/07/making-money-wit...

rchaud · 2025-09-01T23:19:35 1756768775

People have made money on the Internet for decades before Substack. Ask your customers to mail you a cheque, or send them a Paypal/Venmo/Cashapp payment and manually process their subscription. People will understand that you're not Amazon and waiting a day or two to get access to your content won't be a dealbreaker for them. This way, you control the pricing and spare your customer the hassle of another monthly subscription.

If your newsletter is a side gig, sure, use Substack. But if it's your primary source of income, it's bad business to be subject to the whims of a platform you have no control over. Worse still when it's not a self-sustaining business whose primary obligations are to venture capitalist growthbros rather than paying customers.