As is my won't, it's here where I loudly recommend owning a website and distributing content via email and search, which right now means Google, but could potentially mean other distribution platforms in the future. The information-seeking search behavior — and not the quick-answer behavior — still draws a large majority of internet people to good websites, enabling slow, organic growth to all but the publishers who focused too much on social. Not as sexy or new as growth in the social era but, hey, you can always dunk in the dark.
I also recommend building link networks the old-fashioned way.
Google is testing getting rid of the news tab because most people don't use it. Most readers just search the normal way. And find web content. It is astonishing how not-dead search is. It is astonishing how curious audiences are when you meet them where they are at.
With the rise of new new and opinionated search engines, Google's dependency might get squeezed. It's probably not going to happen soon—but at least it might help small publishers/niche to find audience.
this all rings very true for me. ive also been taken with the verge’s website!
your notes on small, slow distro reminded me of how i recently nearly posted on instagram about a book i am thinking of reviewing but ended up deleting it. i think, as much as i like (most of) my corner of insta, it is not the context/conversation into which i want my work to live. i dont want it to dump it into the vortex of cute animal crossing art and also horrific photos of catastrophes around the world—i want it to arrive like a letter to people who want to read it, which is why my ~ content ~ lives almost exclusively on substack now.
thanks for sharing your thoughts here and for this newsletter in general. it excites me bc its doing something i personally havent seen before with care and attention. i love how it attends to the particular, and often beloved. again building the case for slow+intimate over big + for everyone :)
"What we might need is more blog rolls, web rings, directories, syndication — more ways to make sense of the landscape of newsletters." In other words, we need more of what we had. I grew my blog from nothing to 60k readers/subscribers when those tools were available (and people used them.) More people read via social when social it was networks, and not 'media.'
Dave Winer has written extensively about the RSS and its value. The demise of GoogleReader was likely the last drop. I use Feedly and work diligently at the list of blogs/sites I still syndicate. I do the same here on Substack, but I have not seen recommendations and links as being as effective, though I use them and tweak my reading diet consistently. Substack itself seems to want to share only newsletters that make money, are popular, by famous people - so no discovery there.
Webrings 🫶
As is my won't, it's here where I loudly recommend owning a website and distributing content via email and search, which right now means Google, but could potentially mean other distribution platforms in the future. The information-seeking search behavior — and not the quick-answer behavior — still draws a large majority of internet people to good websites, enabling slow, organic growth to all but the publishers who focused too much on social. Not as sexy or new as growth in the social era but, hey, you can always dunk in the dark.
I also recommend building link networks the old-fashioned way.
Google is testing getting rid of the news tab because most people don't use it. Most readers just search the normal way. And find web content. It is astonishing how not-dead search is. It is astonishing how curious audiences are when you meet them where they are at.
With the rise of new new and opinionated search engines, Google's dependency might get squeezed. It's probably not going to happen soon—but at least it might help small publishers/niche to find audience.
True, although when you look at the long-tail referrers, discovery is still massively dependent on Google. Sparktoro just published some new research on how long-tail (niche) content discovery breaks down, and it's 72% Google. Neither Substack nor Medium are considered top referrers. It's a curious mix!: https://sparktoro.com/blog/who-sends-traffic-on-the-web-and-how-much-new-research-from-datos-sparktoro/
this all rings very true for me. ive also been taken with the verge’s website!
your notes on small, slow distro reminded me of how i recently nearly posted on instagram about a book i am thinking of reviewing but ended up deleting it. i think, as much as i like (most of) my corner of insta, it is not the context/conversation into which i want my work to live. i dont want it to dump it into the vortex of cute animal crossing art and also horrific photos of catastrophes around the world—i want it to arrive like a letter to people who want to read it, which is why my ~ content ~ lives almost exclusively on substack now.
thanks for sharing your thoughts here and for this newsletter in general. it excites me bc its doing something i personally havent seen before with care and attention. i love how it attends to the particular, and often beloved. again building the case for slow+intimate over big + for everyone :)
This is awesome and reminds me of the "world building" idea (Danco, Kenning Zhu):
https://keningzhu.com/journal/guidenotes-29-why-build-a-world
"What we might need is more blog rolls, web rings, directories, syndication — more ways to make sense of the landscape of newsletters." In other words, we need more of what we had. I grew my blog from nothing to 60k readers/subscribers when those tools were available (and people used them.) More people read via social when social it was networks, and not 'media.'
Dave Winer has written extensively about the RSS and its value. The demise of GoogleReader was likely the last drop. I use Feedly and work diligently at the list of blogs/sites I still syndicate. I do the same here on Substack, but I have not seen recommendations and links as being as effective, though I use them and tweak my reading diet consistently. Substack itself seems to want to share only newsletters that make money, are popular, by famous people - so no discovery there.
So yes, Kyle we do have a problem.
Web rings! Yes!!! I’m so inspired hearing about these olds ideas come new. I’ve just started using RSS again and really enjoying it.