We’re moving to Substack (here’s why)

Heads up: this newsletter is moving to another email platform [image] From Nathalie Hi {NAME}, Heads up: this newsletter is moving to another email platform, and next week the “from” email address will be different. If you use any email inbox filters, you’ll need to update them to make sure you keep getting these emails sorted the way you like them. If you’re curious about why we’re making the move to Substack, here’s the gist: - I’ve been writing an email newsletter regularly since 2009, and it has shifted from my personal views to an AccessAlly view… and I’m ready for it to be more personal again. - I have things to share with you beyond the topics of online courses and membership sites, like our farm adventures and the behind-the-scenes of running this business. - Substack is an email newsletter platform that also has what I’m calling “long-form social media” features that allow us to communicate through comments and re-stacks, and I miss the 2-way communication of old-school blogging. - Substack’s revenue model is not based on advertising like regular social platforms, which means I’m not supporting Zuckerberg or Musk each time I hit publish. - This move simplifies our current publishing setup because Substack handles podcast hosting, so the Off The Charts podcast will live in the same place, too. You might be wondering why someone who runs a business on WordPress would want to publish on a platform like Substack. Here’s my perspective on that: WordPress started off as a blogging platform. Sure, it still hosts blogs and but it is often used in much more powerful ways. Today WordPress is used by 45.8% of all websites on the internet, according to stats from W3Techs for 2023. The WordPress ecosystem has evolved a lot over the past two decades, and WordPress isn’t just for blogs anymore. It’s now a full-fledged Content Management System, with a lot of powerful plugins and themes to enhance that core functionality. To me, the benefit of a platform like Substack is the community. In the early days of blogging, people linked to each other’s posts and left comments. But these days most bloggers have moved to big social media networks, and blog posts have become highly optimized pages duking it out for top spots in search engines. It’s as if the heart of writing got squeezed out by corporate interests. Then there’s the email newsletter part. I’m a longtime advocate of building an email list because it’s the one thing that’s “yours”. That’s still the case on Substack because you can export and move your email list. WordPress isn’t an email newsletter-sending service, although there are some plugins that help you do that, too. The way I see it, WordPress and Substack are both platforms that make sense within the ecosystem of an online business. In fact, Russel Nohelty from “The Author Stack”, shares that he considers Substack to be a part of his business but he also uses Kickstarter, has a WordPress site, another course platform, and a shopping cart to take payments for products and services. We often use different tools for different needs, and I think that’s how it should be. I’ve learned a lot about publishing on Substack from friends like Tara McMullen and you’ll see me recommending their newsletters, using the built-in recommendation engine in Substack. (Another cool perk!) That’s it for now! Next week I’ll be sharing my take on what's possible when we build momentum, together. Stay tuned and thanks for coming on this journey with me! [image] Links we think you'll find helpful: [image](=) Conscious Launching: Making Authentic Decisions for Building Your Audience with Sage Polaris [Listen here ➜](=) [image](=) Gamification in eLearning: 4 Examples [Learn more ➜]( Customer Spotlight [image]( [Becca Tracey](, founder of [The Uncaged Life](, runs a launch-based business model for her program Uncage Your Business, which she runs twice a year. Without having ongoing clients all the time, she's able to take off 4-6 months a year and live up to her uncaged name. Some of her launches have brought in six figures… but it wasn’t always this way. Over the years, she evolved her course materials based on feedback from participants and continued to deliver results for each person who signed up… which allowed her to raise her prices. While she had been gaining traction with her marketing and program delivery, she realized that her technology hadn’t been keeping up. “I was running my program for the last 3 years in Dropbox (of all places!) and I knew that it was time to level up and make it easier to use for my students. I really wanted a system where I could customize the platform with my branding to match my shiny new website, and also one where I could track progress and be able to see how students were doing throughout the course. AccessAlly let me do both those things and was the obvious choice!” [Read the full case study ➜](=) Who is AccessAlly? We want to live in a world where access to knowledge lifts everyone up. That's why we're passionate about building this [powerful WordPress plugin](=) for scaling online businesses through courses, group coaching, and memberships. [Facebook]( [LinkedIn]( [YouTube](AccessAlly) You're receiving this email because you've subscribed to updates from AccessAlly. Thank you! We're so glad you're here. To update how often you receive emails from us, please use the [Preferences Center.]( To unsubscribe from all of our emails, click the unsubscribe link below. You'll be missed, and we wish you all the best! [Unsubscribe]( 1321 Upland Dr. #9015 Houston, Texas 77043 United States (347) 620-4501