From Wordpress to Substack

Why I jumped on the Substack bandwagon

I’ve been blogging since 2011. I jumped in the “mommy blogger” waters on the tail end of the blogging craze. Pioneer Woman didn’t have a cooking show yet but was already wildly popular, blogging conferences were a thing, and the community of women trying to make their mark on the internet was vast.

I started blogging on a free WordPress platform as an outlet for the frustrations many stay-at-home moms face; tiny tyrants ruling the schedule, adjusting to being at home with no one to talk to except snotty babies all day, and the mental and physical exhaustion that comes with keeping humans alive amidst first-world problems.

It wasn’t long before I thought: all these other women seem to have created successful blogs and are making an income from it, why not me too? I attended blogging and writing conferences, joined blogging communities, networked, collaborated with other bloggers, wrote sponsored content, started a YouTube channel, and attempted to hustle. Fast forward thirteen years and my dreams of becoming Ree Drummond’s best friend and millions of followers never came true. It never even came close.

It took several years for me to realize that I didn’t have what it takes to become a famous blogger. I didn’t have a staff, I wasn’t willing to hustle as hard as I needed to, the rules to “creating a following” felt slimy and gross, and I hated Twitter and Facebook. A recipe for mon-blog failure. But I kept blogging because I still loved the outlet and felt like I wasn’t a half-bad writer. All those years of blogging just for the fun of it created a ton of content; an online diary of our family’s travels, joys, and sorrows. However, this little hobby was costing me more than I would like. I should never have switched to a self-hosted WordPress site because the annual cost of a host, redirection fees, and keeping a URL were adding up.

As traditional blogging fell out of fashion I noticed a new trend amongst the writers and bloggers I followed; something called Substack. I’ve googled variations on the phrases what is substack and why should I switch to substack and have come to the conclusion that Substack is a traditional mom-blog’s sophisticated cousin. Substack is city-mouse, if you will, while my little Hugs, Kisses and Snot blog is country-mouse.

So, I’ve decided to make the switch from WordPress to Substack. While it does seem like the thing to do because all of the cool kids are making the switch, my main motivation is monetary. Substack is free. Most writers use Substack to grow an audience and in turn, monetize by providing content that the reader must pay for. I’m mostly interested in continuing to write for writing’s sake. I just want a place where I can continue to record family vacations, share spiritual lightbulbs, document personal victories, and lament the dumpster fire we all find ourselves in at any given time in this modern world.

Blogging has afforded me friendships and opportunities that I would never have discovered otherwise. My hope is that this new writing platform will allow the adventure to continue and florish.

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