Every now and then, a major newsletter sends me an update on how things are going behind the scenes. One of them is trying to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they’re not shy about asking for cash.
Another newsletter asks me for money every single time they send out an update. Other newsletters don’t even have to ask.
One of these major publications went solo last year, like I did. They cited their 35,000 new subscribers as a sign of steady growth, much slower than previous years, but full of more committed readers who stayed with them through all the hiccups and pitfalls of moving to a new site. 35,000 additional members would more than double my total readership. After six years, two of them running a newsletter, I have roughly 23,000 readers. Last month, I thought we finally turned a corner.
I was wrong.
Growth at Ghost has flatlined. Nobody is signing up anymore, free or otherwise. People are unsubscribing every time I send out updates. It’s been like that for a while. Am I not providing value? I don’t think that’s the problem, although I could be wrong. Over the last few weeks alone, I’ve put out several posts that people seem to consider well-written and well-researched.
Recently, a handful of readers finally started admitting that while they love the work I’m doing, they’re shy and even embarrassed to share posts from a newsletter with “doomer” in the title. So I changed the title and the domain.
I also started posting on Substack again.
Things have gone okay at Substack, with roughly 20-30 people signing up a day. It doesn’t bring in much income, but honestly it feels good just to be building an audience again given the recent stagnation.
The reboot has run into a few problems.
When I changed the Ghost domain, I thought it would go unnoticed. I didn’t think it would matter, since most people weren’t sharing or accessing a site they were embarrassed by. As it turns out, a lot more people were lurking than I thought. They started shooting me complaints over various platforms.
They were irritated about broken links.
They accused me of being disorganized.
Here’s the deal:
Unfortunately, Ghost only supports one custom domain. Otherwise, I could redirect two URLs here and it would work just fine.
But I can’t do that.
Theoretically, domain forwarding could solve my problems, but my domain provider has stopped offering domain forwarding for child pages. I can redirect the home page, but that doesn’t fix the broken links. I think my domain provider changed things so they could sell me a separate hosting package. But domain forwarding via the hosting package doesn’t work either. I’ve tried and tried.
Tech support hasn’t been too helpful.
So the old OK Doomer links remain broken.
Sorry…
The domain issues aren’t the only reason people are leaving.
Membership cancellations have given me a little window into the peculiar mindset of American culture, and western culture more generally. A lot of people who care about climate change or overshoot don’t care about the pandemic. A lot of people who care about the pandemic don’t want to talk about genocide, and a lot of people who care about genocide don’t want to hear about the pandemic. A lot of people who care about fascism don’t want to talk about any of it.
On top of that, a lot of people who sign up seem to enjoy correcting me, explaining things to me, and taking my words out of context. I’m not talking about pointing out typos. I’m talking about cussing me out because I criticized a Democrat, or because I suggested that there’s still, maybe, some small shred of a reason to vote, even though I completely accept why many people can’t bring themselves to do it.
Today, someone told me they loved a post I wrote about moral injury, but they made a point of telling me they didn’t like the comic book reference.
I get comments like this 3-5 times a day.
If you’re someone who supports this site, I think you probably understand that even when I try to focus on the good things, the constant pounding of critics, naysayers, nitpickers, mansplainers, trolls, and hatereaders is hard to shut out, especially when many of these people say things like, “I love your work, but…”
That phrase will go on my headstone.
Every single day, sometimes multiple times a day, someone who loves my work decides to turn on me. Suddenly, I’m an idiot or a horrible person. Ridicule and harassment generally don’t bother me when it comes from unhinged trolls. They’ve been hate-reading my work on videos and podcasts for nearly six years, calling me all kinds of nasty names. There have been periods when I received hate mail and death threats daily. Sometimes people emailed just to call me ugly.
What bothers me is that a large portion of the ridicule, harassment, and condescending judgment comes from those who have appreciated and benefited from my work in the past. So there’s a level of hurt and betrayal there that I can’t just shrug off. It’s not great for your mental health.
You know what sucks?
I live in a world where climate deniers, anti-vaxxers, warmongers, sociopaths, and disease minimizers build audiences in the millions and yet still find ways to complain about censorship and cancel culture.
Every day, I cast that aside and focus on doing the work I find important. I remind myself that many writers out there are struggling, and many of them deserve more support and credit than they’re getting. And we do it while taking care of our families during a pandemic. The little bit of support I get keeps me going. So if you’re providing that, thank you.
Every email I send out prompts a wave of cancellations. It’s getting to the point where I’m actually reluctant, even apprehensive, to update my own readers. I force myself to do it, because the ones who unsubscribe out of spite or petty retribution don’t belong here anyway, and that’s my uncomfortable truth.
If you’re irritated about the recent changes, I’m sorry. I’m doing the best I can. I’m not doing this because I want to, or because I’m fickle.
I didn’t wake up one morning and decide, “Let’s rearrange the furniture!” I’m doing this because many readers said they wanted it. I would’ve loved to stay on one site and one platform, but the tech overlords have broken the internet up into a bunch of tiny pieces, and it has hurt writers like me the most.
I would also like to remind everyone that this isn't a conventional product or service. This isn't a restaurant chain. You're not buying anything. You're supporting someone because you appreciate their writing. Despite all the bile, this site continues to have a small but meaningful impact on people's behavior. People are learning from these articles. It matters.
As I said in a previous post, it honestly doesn't matter to me whether you stay here on Ghost or rejoin me over at Substack. I'm trying to help people with specific requests and preferences, but the platforms themselves have limits and make it difficult or impossible for me to do exactly what you want.
I would love to send out an email in six months thanking everyone for their patience and support during yet another transition, one that readers themselves made a point of asking me to undertake.
