What is “Substack?”
What are the Substack benefits for you?
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Issue #185 Education November 30, 2022
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“We Are Speaking” is our Substack publication. Of course, you know that by now.
Since we started “We Are Speaking” last February there have been many changes, additions, and upgrades to Substack.
In this issue, we want to educate you on the many benefits to you, our readers, for engaging with our Substack.
But first…
What is Substack?
Substack is a combination of an email newsletter and a blogging platform. With the new Chat Feature, Substack is also a way for writers to build an engaged community with their readers. The Chat Feature is presently only available on the iOS app. It is coming to the Android app soon.
There are thousands of Substack writers who publish on scores of different topics.
Substack writers can also host podcasts and videos on their Substack accounts, keeping everything in one place and making it easier for the writers and for the readers.
Many of the articles that writers publish on Substack are free to read, but many other writers charge for a subscription on a monthly or annual basis.
A great percentage of Substack publications use a hybrid model of free and paid articles, podcast episodes, chats, and videos.
How can you read Substack articles?
As a reader, you can subscribe to as many Substack publications as you like, and then you can decide which ones you’ll read for free and which ones you want to financially support.
Here are the ways you can read Substack articles:
As a free or paid subscriber, you will receive an email notification every time the writer publishes an article, podcast episode, or video. Many people consume their Substack articles wherever they read their emails, on their phones, tablets, or computers.
You can read the issues on the web at Substack.com. The new Substack Reader becomes your homepage. You will see all of the Substacks you subscribe to, you can use the “Discover” tab to find new writers, and you can even add the RSS for other pages, etc. that you subscribe to so everything is in the same place.
You can access your Substack account through the Substack app for iOS and Android. With the app, you can read articles, listen to podcast episodes, and view videos—everything that your writers have published, with no ads, no popups, and no spam. You can save and archive articles you want to read or reference later. You can also discover new writers on the app. Another great feature that is available only on the app: you can listen to an AI-created audio version of all of the articles your favorite writers have published by clicking the headset icon at the top of your page.
What are the benefits to you of becoming a paid subscriber?
We appreciate all of our subscribers, whether free or paid.
However, our “We Are Speaking” Substack is a major part of our overall TeamOwens313 company, and it is designed to be an income-producing product for us.
We write and publish six articles and two podcast episodes every week, a total of 32 per month. That is a lot of work! It is work we thoroughly enjoy, but it is work just the same. When you become a monthly paid subscriber, each issue will only cost 31.5¢ each, even less if you are an Annual Subscriber or Founding Member Subscriber.
Creative professionals like us should be paid for their work. This is what I teach to my clients through my company, the Global Creative Community.
Starting next week, the first full week of December, we will again have a hybrid free/paid model for our Substack:
Free subscribers will be able to read 3 of the 6 articles and W.A.S. podcast episodes per week. One week, the Monday/Wednesday/Friday posts will be free; the next week the Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday podcast will be free. Free subscribers will always receive a preview of the posts for paid subscribers only. Paid subscribers will have access to all of the weekly posts. The “Find Out In Fifteen” podcast for my Global Creative Community company will always be free.
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Free subscribers will have access to the archives for the current month only, while paid subscribers will always have access to the full archive.
Free subscribers will always be able to comment on posts, but only paid subscribers will be able to participate in the Chat and in the monthly AUA (“Ask Us Anything”) Zoom call with us on the 2nd Friday of the month starting in December.
I will be leaving Twitter very soon, so I am concentrating much more on my Instagram account. Please click the link to follow me on my ‘Gram.
We hope that this educational post about our “We Are Speaking” Substack and about Substack, in general, has been helpful to you.
You can always leave any questions in the comments, or you can email us.
Interesting article on To Swear or To Affirm. I want to add that there is a religious group, Quakers, that do not swear oaths for religious reasons. We are advised to affirm instead. Indeed this is what I did when applying for a marriage license, to the discomfort of my fiancé.
This is intended to reflect a witness to integrity and has a biblical basis. Excerpt from a Friends Journal article:
" Traditionally, Friends have witnessed to Truth by refusing to take such oaths. George Fox, for instance, was very clear on the matter. When he was asked to verify the truth of his statements by taking an oath, he refused. Jesus, in Matthew 23:16-22, said not to swear, so Fox wouldn’t, either. Later Friends likewise refused. They said oaths implied a double standard of truth, freeing one to lie when not under oath. So early Friends didn’t swear, either. Period.
That is our tradition. But what about now? My yearly meeting advises Friends, when asked to take an oath, "to advance the cause of truth by simple affirmations, thus emphasizing that their statement is only a part of their usual integrity of speech" (Faith and Practice, New York Yearly Meeting, Advice 13). Other yearly meetings have similar advices. "
https://www.friendsjournal.org/2009106/
Thanks for such good articles! Harriet Greenwood