I have just recently discovered Substack.
No, I don’t live under a rock.
But for the past two years, I’ve been working almost exclusively in French and German (as a blogger and freelancer). And Substack? Well, it’s not exactly well known to french-speakers. At all.
And to German speakers too. But let’s stick with French-speaking European countries for today.
So how did I discover it?
I was looking for a newsletter tool for my French blog on minimalism, simplicity, slow life, and slow business. I originally planned to use Brevo, a classic newsletter tool. But the setup was super frustrating. It wasn’t working properly, and I would’ve had to upgrade my hosting plan just to integrate it properly.
Honestly, I didn’t feel like it.
Spending extra money, struggling with the integration, writing a whole welcome sequence, dealing with segmentation... it all felt like too much. I wanted something simpler.
I had planned to launch the newsletter back in January. After procrastinating for about five months (yes, five), I decided to search again. And that’s when I found Substack.
It was the tool I had been looking for.
But also so much more.
I found this cozy little corner of the internet that, surprisingly, still feels human. Where people write for people and not for Google. Where no one seems to obsess over SEO, word counts, algorithms, or meta descriptions.
Maybe you don’t realize how bad written content has become. But as someone who blogs and freelances for a living, I can tell you: it’s rough out there.
It’s so bad, I had to rethink my freelancing offers. Clients would rather use ChatGPT to create content than hire a human being. I get it. But it’s sad.
So to find this in-between space, part public website and part private newsletter, with real people and real communities? It’s been refreshing.
And I didn’t even realize I was missing community.
You see, I’m not really on social media. Neither as a “viewer” nor as a creator / user. Not even for my blog. Just the website and Pinterest (and now a french Substack account).
So you might be thinking what does this have to do with me?
Honestly, I’m not sure.
Maybe I just want to say that we should try to protect this platform and the idea behind it.
And maybe, I just feel a little sad for French readers.
The ones who don’t speak / read English, and who might not discover Substack until there is a lot more French content.
I’m grateful I found it and that I can now follow writers and topics I actually care about.
How did you find Substack? What was the first thing you read here?
Until next time,
Maude
