Linkedin newsletter's unfair advantage over Substack and other blogs

So in a few more months it will be a year that I have been using Linkedin newsletter. I had started my blog on www.endgameken.com a few months before the newsletter, and have been using Wix.

So i've been publishing in both places to kind of compare and contrast.

But to be honest it's not even a comparison... Linkedin newsletter has blown my blog away by a mile. But why? That is what is interesting.

In a word... these days it is ALL ABOUT ENGAGEMENT

By engagement I mean comments, likes, etc by your readers. This is what as an author makes it all worthwhile for me.

Think about the motivations of a blogger... sure some do it to make money, but very very few actually make a decent enough income writing anymore.

And its far more profitable to become an influencer on a platform like Instagram, Youtube or Tiktok.

Do authors do it to get customers? Well perhaps some do. But it's often not an effective way to do this and I don't think many do it for this reason.

Rather most writers write because they want to build their personal brand and a community to engage with. If I wrote an article and there was no liking or commenting.. honestly i probably wouldn't write anymore. It's just not interesting as there is no feedback coming up.

People rarely engage on individual blogs anymore. It's just reality

The vast majority of us do all of our commenting and liking on social platforms... like Linkedin, Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube, etc.

Why? Because that is where everyone else is also liking and commenting. And because that is where I get feedback.

If I comment on Linkedin, than there is a good chance that someone else will respond quite quickly. Because we check our social platforms frequently. We do not check individual blogs that frequently.

And so its for this reason that blogs have moved to platforms like Substack and Medium. Because they centralize this engagement from many different blogs by mimicking what the social networks did with 'notifications'.

Let's look at an example from Tech in Asia

This article about Bondee was posted by TiA's Editor-in-chief, Terence Lee, not long ago. It had 61 likes and you can see who all these people are. Plus there were a few comments and a repost.

Now let's look at the engagement on the article itself on Tech in Asia's site. Literally zero likes and zero comments. Despite the fact that it most likely got thousands of views.

Why no engagement? Because the conversation happens on Linkedin... and not on the blog itself.

Enter Linkedin Newsletter

First let me explain a bit about what Linkedin newsletter is as some folks may not be familiar with it. Basically its a bit like having your own blog on Linkedin. And with an added benefit that everyone that subscribes will actually get your content emailed to them each time you publish.

In a way Linkedin newsletter is just ripping off Substack & Medium who have been in this game for years.

Linkedin Newsletter's unfair advantage vs. blogging platforms like Substack

Linkedin has designed their newsletter feature in a way that gives it a key unfair advantage. To explain let me take you through an example.

First I write the article on their platform and then when I post it, i add an additional blurb. Kind of like a teaser to get folks to click.

But when people comment on the social post it also appears as a comment on the article itself. This is very powerful as its a unique advantage.

To understand a bit deeper let's compare to how a Substack blogger promotes his content on Linkedin

First they write the article on Substack and then they write a social post on Linkedin and add a link to the article. But most of the commentson that post will happen on Linkedin itself and not on the blog article itself (in part because a lot of folks that comment on Linkedin probably don't even read the article haha).

Don't get me wrong... its not that nobody comments on Substack. But from what i have seen this generally only after you've gotten quite large subscriber bases. So new, upcoming writers on Substack will face the 'cold start' problem.

And its much easier to address that problem on Linkedin where you have a built network, rather than on Substack.

As an example I spent close to a year writing on Medium and wasn't happy with the organic audience. 136 followers whereas 8 months of posting on Linkedin newsletter and I have close to 1000 subscribers and average over 500 reads per article already.

And if you think about it.. it's just far easier to join the conversation when someone posts on Linkedin because I don't need to leave the platform. I can either comment directly from the newsfeed or I can clickthru to the article and comment there on Linkedin.

Where do i see Linkedin going longer term?

Well right now the newsletter doesn't have the features and prettiness of the blogging platforms like Substack. As you can see above my newsletter is just a simple list of articles and I don't have much control over anything.

But i think Linkedin will change that in time as they realize that they can take Substack on more head on.

And more and more I think Linkedin will woo new writers from the blogging platforms (Substack, Medium, Ghost, etc.). And those writers will move because the 'cold start' problem on Linkedin is just solved much easier.