Is Substack Worth It in 2026? Good for Blogging and Making Money?
I signed up for Substack in March 2026. Within days my site was driving traffic, generating subscribers, and on its way to making money.
But it wasn't Substack..
This article covers why I left and what you need to know before you decide where to build.
Hey, it's Brian G. Johnson. I've been an online marketer for over 25 years. I've written several books and driven millions of views on YouTube. In march I dove deep into all things Substack as well as alternative platforms. This is what I have to share.
Is Substack Growing in Popularity
Yes. Take a look at this Google Trends chart. The number of people researching Substack is growing at a fever pitch. The platform has real momentum right now. Momentum you can take advantage of.
But growing and being the right fit for you are two different things.
But, Is Substack Actually Worth It?
For writers? Yes. Content creators? Yes. People who want to blog?
Absolutely.
Gary Vaynerchuk says it's the platform he's focused on. Dan Koe is on it. Serious marketers are betting big on Substack and there's a reason. It works. Built-in audience. It's free. People actively looking for content to subscribe to.
Without question, Substack is worth your attention in 2026.
But worth your attention and worth building your entire business on? That's a different question. And the answer comes down to money.
Can You Make Money with Substack
Yes. And people aren't just making a little money. They're making life-changing, job-ending money.
But here's what's important.
The ones making that kind of money got really clear on the fundamentals of making money online before they started building. They were intentional with every decision. They had a plan.
Pros and cons you need to know:
- Pro: Substack has a built-in network that's growing fast. You get to tap into that for free.
- Con: In exchange, you give up control over how people discover you outside of Substack. You're limited on the traffic side. That's why I left.
- Pro: Substack is free to start. No upfront cost. No technical setup.
- Con: They take 10% of everything you earn on top of Stripe's processing fees. At $30,000 a year that's $3,000 going to Substack. At $60,000 that's $6,000. A platform like Ghost costs far less, saving you potentially thousands.
The biggest thing to consider if you're looking at Substack isn't whether you can make money. It's how you're going to do these three things that are critical to your success.
The Three Fundamentals of Making Money Online
To make money online you have to do three things well. The platform you choose will make them easy or hard.
Traffic
How are you actually going to get people to find your Substack?
- How are you going to get them to subscribe?
- What's your plan?
Nothing is more important than traffic. You can't convert what you don't have. You can't build a list. Can't make money. Can't grow a following.
None of it happens without traffic.
And yet most creators pick a platform without ever answering that question. The next fundamental is the one that makes traffic worth something.
Subscribers
You could have all the traffic in the world and still make nothing.
Here's why.
Today the algorithms reward the content, not the creator. Years ago a big following gave you a big advantage. Not anymore. Today it's about how your content performs. Do they stay? Do they read? How long are they on the page before they bounce?
That's why being able to reach your subscribers directly is so powerful. Platforms like Substack, Ghost, and Beehiiv give you that. You don't need an algorithm to reach your own list. If you're a TikTok creator, a YouTuber, or really any creator at all, that's a big deal.
But a list alone doesn't pay the bills. What you do with that list is what matters.
Conversions
Great creators don't just focus on getting traffic. They focus on converting it. Sometimes less traffic that converts at a higher rate is smarter than more traffic that doesn't.
- Converting a visitor into a subscriber
- Converting a subscriber into a paid member
- Converting a reader into a buyer through an affiliate link
- Converting a follower into a coaching client
It's always about traffic and conversions. Everything else is noise.
Substack will give you the tools to build a list and convert the traffic. But the traffic itself? That's where the choices you make will make or break you.
Is Substack Right for You
It depends on what you're trying to build.
- Substack is free
- Substack is simple
- Substack has a built-in audience
All good things. But when you sign up for Substack, you're also building a house that isn't structurally sound. Before you sign up anywhere, you need to answer a few questions.
Where Is Your Audience
This is the question that determines everything. Are they browsing Substack? Searching Google? Asking AI tools questions?
The creators you look up to aren't just writing and hoping. They know where their audience is and they meet them there. If you want what they have, you have to think like they think.
Once you know where they are, you need to understand how they'll find you.
Push vs Pull
There are two ways people find your content.
Push is social media. You publish something and hope the algorithm shows it to people.
Pull is completely different. Pull is when someone searches for exactly what you share and YOUR content is the answer. Those people already want what you have. And they convert at a much higher rate because of it.
So which kind of traffic do you want? The platform you choose determines which kind you get. And there's one decision that changes everything.
Your Site Is Your Hub
Your site isn't just a newsletter or a blog. It's your central hub.
The creators building real followings have a hub that's optimized, indexed, and structured. Everything points back to it. Google can find it. AI can recommend it. It works 24/7.
Substack gives you a newsletter. A real hub gives you a website. Fast. Discoverable. Built to grow.
I tried to build that hub on Substack. Here's what happened.
Why I Left Substack
If you build on Substack, your site will get indexed eventually. But it won't be as well optimized as Ghost. It's not as fast, not as well structured, and it's missing things that give you a direct advantage with discovery.
I love Substack for what it does. But here's what it doesn't do:
- No proper XML sitemap. Makes it harder to get pages indexed.
- No proper site structure. Google can't easily understand your content.
- No ability to add code snippets that give you a direct advantage with Google.
- No custom JavaScript or script injection.
- No control over page speed.
- No structured data or schema markup.
- No custom navigation or content organization.
I started reading about what gives you an immediate advantage when it comes to being discovered. Not just on Google. Not just keywords. But discovery in 2026 and beyond.
That's when everything changed.
Why I Chose Ghost
After leaving Substack I set up shop on Ghost. I'm not here to tell you Ghost is right for you. But I want to share why it was right for me.
What follows is what I discovered about the advantages you get just by signing up.
The Immediate Google Advantage
At the time of this writing, Google recently updated their algorithm to lean even heavier on experience. It's part of what they call E-E-A-T. Experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust. Not the only factor. But one of the easiest to take advantage of when you know how.
Here's what's interesting. You can add a simple file inside a Ghost website that tells Google this is your personal site with your original experiences and ideas. Not sure how to do it? AI can help you set it up in minutes.
That's exactly what I did. I also created a very specific bio page, and bio snippet that's added to each page and post. Making it easy for Google to understand this is my experience on this subject and it comes from a trust source.
It's working. My pages are indexed. I'm driving clicks. My site is days old.
And that's just the first advantage. The next one you get without doing anything at all.
Another Immediate Advantage
Most creators are worried about content. Strategy. Audience. But there's an advantage hiding in plain sight that has nothing to do with what you write.
Only 33% of websites pass all three of Google's Core Web Vitals. 80% of mobile sites are slower than recommended.
Source: https://www.debugbear.com/blog/website-speed-statistics
Most of the web is slow. If your site is fast, you're already ahead of the majority.
Ghost loads in under 2 seconds and is up to 20x faster than traditional platforms. Sitemaps, metadata, Schema.org data. All handled out of the box. You get it just by signing up.
Source: https://electronthemes.com/blog/why-ghost-cms-is-the-future-of-modern-publishing
Now stack these together. Experience signals. Site speed. Proper structure. You have a real opportunity to be discovered early. And that foundation keeps paying off as you gain authority over time.
But getting discovered is only half the battle. What happens after someone lands on your site?
How to Organize Your Content So People Keep Reading
When someone finds your article on Google, you want them to stick around. You do that by organizing related content together and linking between articles.
Ghost lets you build this with custom pages, categories, and navigation. On Substack your posts are listed in the order you published them. After a handful of articles, it's hard for readers and Google to find anything.
Close
Traffic. Subscribers. Conversions.
The fundamentals don't change. Make sure the platform you choose lets you play the full game.
I signed up for Substack. I saw what it could do. Then I saw what it couldn't.
Within days of launching on Ghost, my site was indexed, people were finding me through search, and subscribers were signing up.
Brian G Johnson
Check out this powerful strategy to drive more traffic today.
If you dig this, subscribe. More coming.
Content strategist, author of Trust Funnel and Tube Ritual, and YouTube Silver Play Button recipient with over 25 years of experience helping creators build audiences online. He writes at FutureCreators.tv.
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