Why We Shut Down Our Website and Moved to Substack

How ditching multiple platforms made writing easier and better for our readers

When I first started writing online, having a traditional website felt like a necessity. But over time, it turned into a mess—multiple platforms, scattered content, and too much time spent on upkeep instead of writing.

Recently, we made the decision to move everything to Substack—and it’s been one of the best choices for both us and our readers. Here’s why.

1. Everything Is in One Place

Before moving to Substack, our content was scattered across multiple platforms:

• Our blog lived on one website.

• Our courses and subscriber-only content were hosted on a separate subdomain.

• Our newsletter was managed through yet another platform.

We were too spread out, which made it harder for readers to find what they needed and for us to create a seamless experience. Substack changed that.

Now, everything—free articles, paid content, courses, and newsletters—lives in one place. If an article applies to only part of my audience, I don’t have to email everyone—I can simply link to it in my weekly newsletter. Everything stays connected.

For paid subscribers, what they get is clear, sitting right alongside free content—no hidden paywalls, no confusion. And if someone doesn’t want to pay? No problem. The value is still upfront.

It’s simply a better experience for readers and for us. No more worrying that people might miss out because they’re only subscribed to one part of our ecosystem. Now, if someone wants to see what we’re working on, it’s all right there.

2. We’re Not Web Designers—And Maintaining a Website Was a Waste of Time

For years, we kept a WordPress site because, well, you’re supposed to have a website if you run an online business. But maintaining it? A constant time suck.

We’d buy a new theme, then spend hours tweaking it—writing copy to fit the template, hunting for stock images, and formatting content. Meanwhile, that site wasn’t how people found us or reached out to work with us. We weren’t using it to grow—we were maintaining it because we thought we had to.

With Substack, we don’t have to worry about design choices, formatting quirks, or endless backend tweaks. Sure, there are features I wish it had, but the trade-off is worth it: I don’t have to manage it myself (which, let’s be honest, I probably wouldn’t do anyway—or if I did, it would look terrible).

3. The Price Is Right

"But Substack takes 10% of your subscriptions!"

Hell yeah, they do—and thank you for that.

By hosting on Substack, I avoid a laundry list of hidden costs and headaches:

• No third-party email vendor that up-charges me every time I hit a new subscriber tier.

• No WordPress theme that a developer will abandon in a couple of years, forcing me to buy a new one, and then re-build my site using.

• No endless cycle of downloading a “free” Wordpress plugin to get the functionality on the site I need, only to realize the feature I actually need is locked behind the “pro” tier.

• No GoDaddy hosting fees.

• No SSL certificate management.

Payments flow through Stripe and land in my account automatically. No extra hassle.

If you’re starting a business, here’s a hard-learned truth: paying for expenses as a portion of revenue is way better than paying out of pocket and hoping people eventually show up.

Will Substack’s cut eventually cost more than managing it all myself? Maybe. But until that happens, the priority is building our business—not micromanaging expenses and learning css.

Keep it simple. Keep moving forward.

4. Reader Behavior Has Changed

As Tim Denning points out in his article, when was the last time you told someone about a great website you visited? Are you starting your day by opening Chrome or Safari just to check if a site has new content?

Probably not.

Most people now consume content inside a handful of apps—email, social feeds, and platforms that surface new material for them. That’s where Substack stands out. It’s not just a publishing tool; it’s a discovery platform as well.

By writing on Substack, I’m not just posting content into the void of the internet—I’m reaching readers where they already are and making it easier for them to engage.

The Bottom Line

Switching to Substack wasn’t just about making things easier on our end—it was about creating a better experience for our readers and subscribers. Now, everything is in one place, we’re spending more time on writing and delivering value instead of maintaining a website, and we’re meeting readers where they already are.

Sure, we could have kept juggling platforms and optimizing every dollar spent. But growth happens when you focus on what actually matters—creating great content and, for us, helping people get left of bang..

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