No, it isn’t. As I thought would happen, new platforms are beginning to spring up and I found an article which goes into reasonably lengthy descriptions of the platforms.
Substack Review: Is This The Best Platform for Writers?
This linked article not only reviews Substack, but other platforms too. Most are paid subscriptions. How much exactly I don’t know. I will find out, but you should find out for yourself. If you can’t figure out how much the platform costs, you probably aren’t ready to deal with a new platform anyway, so however flawed WordPress is, at least you know how to use it.
Substack Alternatives
Medium
Medium is a well-known blogging platform where anyone can join and start writing. While Medium used to be free, it now requires a paid subscription.
NOTE: The original (linked) article contains more information.
Patreon
Do you have a large following and want to connect with your followers? Many creators are generating income through Patreon. Patreon is a paid subscription service where creators post premium content only for their Patreon subscribers.
Ghost
Ghost is a platform that helps content creators build a membership service for their content. Like Substack, they have the same clean and simple website aesthetic. However, they offer more publishing features than Substack.
The content of this post excluding my opening sentences and the summary were pulled from the linked article shown at the top of this post. Since this information is by no means “the whole story,” you should read that article and as many others as you can find through Chrome — or via any web browser.
SUMMARY
The answer to the question of whether there are any other options? Last year, the answer was “sort of,” but this year, the answer is yes. They aren’t the same. They can be used as blogs, but they are intended more as newsletters. For me, that is actually a plus because I’ve managed, organized, and written newsletters multiple times over my long and bumpy career. IF you aren’t sure, I’m pretty sure there’s something like a “test run” for at least some of these. Also, you can check out people who are already using these services.
Sean Munger https://seanmungerhistory.substack.com/ is a climate scientist and historian who works with substack. Ask him how it’s going. I know it was hard at first, but I think it is going better now. Also, he writes extremely interesting material, so you won’t be wasting your time, either.
I know that the comic author Bizarro (Don Piraro) was using Patreon, but was recently “picked up” by King Publishing, a much bigger organization. I’m glad. He deserved better distribution. He remains — after many years — one of my all-time favorite cartoonists. Also, he is a fine (if a bit weird) artist.
Don’t take my word for anything. Please do your OWN research. This is new for me, too. Medium has been on of my possibilities for a while. However, I want to look into everything I can before I make a decision. I don’t think I have another decade to build an audience, so I need to get this right the first time.
Also, see this article:
Substack vs Ghost: Which Is Better For Starting Newsletters and Blogs?
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Categories: #Blogging, Anecdote, Media, social media, Technology, WordPress
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
I couldnt start over. My blog is too important to me, my followers are too important to me. And I’d hate to lose all that hard work I put in to building up my blog. I’d hate to see you leave wp marilyn!
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Exactly my problem. BUT if they keep making the graphics harder to use, there’s going to be a lot less of me. I keep trying to find a way to make it work — and I think I’m running out of options. When it’s more work than fun, I start to think about REALLY retiring — or at least doing a lot less. I get tired of the battle to use software that doesn’t do what it is supposed to do. It’s exhausting.
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You’re right, it is exhausting, I don’t blame you getting tired, if it would just do what it was meant to do
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The problem is, the developers have NO idea what we do, so they have no idea what we need or want. They could try ASKING us, you know?
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I hadn’t heard of any of these, except Patreon and I thought that was mostly a way that You Tubers and others funded their blogs, vlogs or startups.
As much as WordPress can be annoying, I don’t know if I want to start over somewhere else. I think that it would be hard to do with the doll blog especially as it is such a niche thing and I have followers who have been around for years. I’ve been blogging nearly as long as you have and I think it would feel as bad as moving house to start again somewhere else.
On the other hand, WP may fall over one day through sheer stupidity so other options need to be investigated on a regular basis.
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This is the problem all we long-timers have. We got a huge investment in our blogs. Not in WordPress, but effectively WordPress since we can’t move our contents.
If we could move our contents, it would make a huge difference. Early on, you COULD move your data, but they changed it. This is called jailing your customers — they’ve done a great job of it.
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They have, we don’t want to start again. I don’t want to charge my long term followers for content that they have always received free either. Most sites seem to be about making money and while that would be nice it would make blogging more of a job where I had to think of content to provide every day. I feel quality would suffer.
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And honestly? I really don’t want to “work for a living” anymore.
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That’s pretty interesting. I’ve always heard about Substack but am not sure that I want to try it out just yet. Have tried Medium and earned some pocket money from it, so that’s cool, but I’ve since stopped. Wishing you the best in whatever you choose!
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I’m still in the pondering stage. I’ve been blogging for 11 years and I am not sure I have it in me to start over. I’m going to have to do a really hard think before I do anything. If I could take my material with me, that would be better, but I can’t. Also, this is a huge blog. Almost 13,000 posts and 29,000+ photographs and when I stop, it will be “out there” in the virtual whatever it is, but it will mostly vanish. I’m not sure how I feel about that.
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I am always happy to hear about other platforms, since WP is so unsatisfactory to me in many ways and yet I don’t want to lose track of the hundreds of blogs I follow now completely lose my own, even though mine is just for business contacts as opposed to a big personal chitchat blog. I wish someone would understand that providing all the good of WP withoput the jerky stuff would equal a winning thing and then make it!
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I completely understand. I have exactly the same issues. The problem is that you can’t move your WP site — and I certainly can’t move this one because it’s absolutely huge. I would love to be almost anywhere else — but it’s starting over and I’m not sure I’m ready for that. But I might be. I’m still in the “thinking about it” stage.
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I think about it, see who tries what, learn from their mistakes, and hope WP learns from its mistakes.
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WordPress has — in the 11 years I’ve been using it — NEVER learned from their mistakes. They refuse to even consider their mistakes AS mistakes. As far as they are concerned, the real problem are their customers who are so stubbornly unwilling to completely change the way the work because WP wants us too.
Blame it on the customers. Way to go WordPress!
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It seems that a fixing what ain’t broke ethic prevails in computer circles, because otherwise those who reinvent the wheel would not have jobs. It’s the emperor’s new block style–
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It’s also STUPID development. I don’t think they really know what they are trying to accomplish. They keep changing things because that’s how they stay employed. But it has nothing to do with customer satisfaction which just keeps dropping. Sooner or later, they will start to fade. The other platforms need to get better and stronger, but it will happen.
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I don’t like Medium. I was a paid subscriber for a few months and discovered that everyone tries to game the system to increase the pennies per month they pay you. There’s no conversation, and the “hit and run” likes are worse than here. That said, some people really like it, so…
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Ghost and Revue are also interesting. I actually liked Ghost — at least its description because it’s much more “blogger-like” than Medium. I didn’t like Medium during my test run, but that was a couple of years ago and maybe it has improved. It just didn’t feel like “my kind of place.” WAY too focused on making money. I’m retired. I’d love to make more money, but I don’t want to go back to work, not even if I’m running the business. Been there. Done that. So I’m still pondering and seeking.
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