Week 7: Which Platform is Best?

It’s Valentine’s Day and the love theme is in full force on my social feeds, so it seems like the perfect time to talk about how much I am loving this experiment.

When I started it, I really had no idea what would happen. I didn’t know whether it would even work. But here I am, seven weeks in and I still haven’t burnt out or run out of content ideas.

However, I did think I’d have a clear favourite platform by now and I don’t. They all have things I love about them. And I haven’t even used half the features yet, so it’s impossible to pick a number one.

That said, I have been using them long enough to see where one might be a better fit over another. And earlier this week, I recommended Ghost to someone.

She wants to move her website to a new platform. She doesn’t need any fancy features or plug-ins, but she does have an email list and a paid membership.

So I recommend Ghost because I think it’s the right fit for what she needs right now.

The most basic plan is only $108 (about £90) for the year and it gives you a pretty decent website - you can choose from a few different themes and you can customise the menu and add different web pages.

I think the website design element is where Ghost has the edge over Substack for this person’s specific needs.

Although you can use Substack as a website, it’s so limited in the layout. You can add pages, change the background colour and choose from slightly different layouts for the home page, but it’s just not as customisable as the other two platforms.

Beehiiv, on the other hand, does allow customisation. There is currently a whole website builder in Beta mode.

The problem is it’s still being tested so it’s currently only available on the Max Plan which starts at $99 per month (or $1032 for the year). However, they have said it will be available on the Scale plan once it is fully rolled out.

Without the website builder, there are limited options to customise your site. On the free plan, you can change colours and fonts etc. but you can’t add pages to your menu. You’re limited to a single page unless you upgrade to the Scale plan which starts at $39 per month (or $408 for a year).

This is more expensive than Ghost and the customisation options aren’t as good. So if the website element is important to you, I’d opt for Ghost for now (you can always move platforms later).

The other reason, I suggested Ghost over Beehiiv in this particular scenario is the paid membership.

The $108 version of Ghost allows you to set up paid membership (and you can have tiered pricing if you need it). You can’t have paid subscribers on Beehiiv’s free plan.

That’s fine for me because I want to grow my list before I offer any paid options. But the lady I was speaking to this week already has paying members so she needs that option from day one.

And that’s why I think Ghost was the better option overall. It’s cheaper, with better website customisation, and she can have paid members straight away. From our brief conversation about it, Ghost offers everything she needs.

So is Ghost the best platform?

My short answer is no.

In the above scenario, it is.

But it depends on what you need.

Ghost is probably my least favourite platform at the minute. But that’s not because it isn’t a great product. It’s my least favourite because I made a mistake with how I used it.

I set up a whole new domain - The Freelance Fairytale. What I should have done was move my existing LS Mentoring site to Ghost. It would have involved a change of design, but I could have kept all the pages and blog posts.

The advantage Ghost would have offered over my existing WordPress site would be the ability to build a subscriber list, send email newsletters directly from my site, and offer paid memberships.

Unfortunately, what I now have is two sites that are essentially for the same business, but they aren’t quite working together.

Of course, I can move LS Mentoring over in the future (and I think I probably will) but I have other priorities right now so I’m trying to make it work as it is.

Mistake aside, I definitely made the right decision about which publications to put on which platforms.

Substack is perfect for New Brew Thursday. But again, perhaps I should have moved the whole site over rather than keeping it separate. I probably will do that later in the year, but it’s not a priority.

And, having a separate site isn’t too much of a problem right now because I can link to it easily enough from my Substack.

While we are on the subject of Substack, I mentioned last week that I am going to be launching another publication on there soon.

I’m currently preparing all the copy and content for the pages and first few posts. Then I am going to record a live set up of the publication which I’ll be sharing with you the first week in March.

The paid membership will go live in April and will include access to live monthly ‘write alongs’ and exclusive content (plus some other benefits). When I launch in March, I will be testing Substack’s Pledge feature so you can pre-register. Anyone who does pledge will get their membership at a discounted rate (more on that in the next couple of weeks).

I’m super excited about the new publication for many reasons. Firstly because it will involve me using pretty much every feature I know about on Substack so I’ll be able to create some in-depth guides and offer training. Secondly, because I’ll be bringing back my Content Club (renamed and improved) and other good stuff I’ve done in the past. And thirdly, because I might actually start making some money from this experiment. 🤞🤞🤞

What about Beehiiv?

It might sound like I’m favouring Substack and Ghost right now, but trust me, I have a lot of love for Beehiiv.

The founders are continually bringing in new features, the team are really active on Reddit, and the platform is so easy to use.

I keep saying it, but the free plan is so generous. It doesn’t allow as many customisation options as Ghost, but for email newsletters, it’s brilliant. You can have 2500 free subscribers, 3 publications, and unlimited email sends. And I absolutely love that they give you your own app for subscribers to download. While that feature might not be all that desirable for this publication, I can think of loads of industries and businesses that would benefit.

But I think I’ve gone as far as I can using the free version of Beehiiv, so in March I will be upgrading to the Scale plan so I can start testing the ad and boost features (as well as some of the other extra features).

And (don’t hold me to this because I need to make sure I’m not stretching myself too thin), I have plans to launch a second Beehiiv publication around April or May. If and when that launches, you’ll be the first to know.

So which platform is best for you?

All three platforms are great. I would recommend any of them. But the right one for you will depend on what you need from it. And I can’t tell you which is best without knowing what your goal is.

So, if you are considering any of these platforms and would like some advice and guidance, book 90 minutes with me (only £150).

We’ll talk through your ideas and I’ll show you behind the scenes on the different platforms so you can see how they all work. We’ll figure out which platform is best suited to what you want to do and I’ll show you how to use it so you can get up and running quickly.

Weekly Progress Report

I’m afraid I haven’t got loads of activity to report this week. Other than sending out my usual weekly newsletter and post on The Freelance Fairytale and sharing a few notes on New Brew Thursday, I haven’t done much extra.

I did comment on a few posts on Facebook where people were asking about Substack and about email platforms in general. This did get me a couple of new subscribers.

I also had my first unsubscribe after I sent last week’s email 😢.

I’m not too concerned about unsubscribes - it happens. Maybe they were hoping I’d have some secret tactic for getting thousands of subscribers every week and making six figures in my sleep. Or maybe they were just bored of my weekly ramblings. Who knows.

One thing I have been on the fence about is what time to send these emails.

I was originally sending them at 3pm on Fridays as I thought this was a good time. It’s the time of the week where I’m starting to wind down and would welcome a distraction that I can still claim as productive (learning is productive).

But I read a report that said open rates were highest at 11am and 12pm so I started sending the weekly updates at 12pm instead.

Since I did that, my open rates haven’t been as high. Thatt might be just because the initial interest in my experiment has worn off for some of you, or it might be because of the timing.

So my question to you this week is: what time would you prefer to receive/read these emails - 12pm, 3pm or other? Hit reply and let me know.

And finally…

My ‘buy me a beer’ experiment didn’t generate any results, but I’m not going to give up on it just yet. I actually spoke to someone earlier this week who said she has had some success with it so I’m going to try it again.

If you enjoy this content and would like to show a little love and appreciation for my efforts, you can buy me a beer here.

That’s all for this week. If you do have any questions or comments about anything I’ve covered in this week’s update or any of the content I’ve shared so far, please feel free to drop me an email. And if there is anything you would like me to cover in more detail, let me know. This content is for you so I want to know what you would find useful.

Thanks for reading.