Technology doesn't matter as much as you think (Podcast ep002)
Summary
Creators often overthink the choice of technology for starting a blog or newsletter due to fear of making mistakes.
The fear stems from concerns about spending money on the wrong tools or platform setup
Technology matters less than creators believe, as content can be easily imported and exported between platforms.
Creators should focus on using tools they enjoy, as dislike for a tool can hinder the creative process and enjoyment of publishing.
Examples of successful creators using unconventional methods (using Notion for newsletters, using Gmail for newsletters) illustrate that content quality matters more than the platform.
Episode notes
👉 The Stack Junction podcast episode 002: https://www.thestackjunction.com/podcast002/
📌 Mentioned in the episode:
https://seonotebook.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetothjr/
https://www.notion.so/
📌 Show links
Website: https://www.thestackjunction.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TiagoSilvaHQ
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thestackjunction
Transcription
One of the biggest reasons creators struggle when publishing content online is that they worry too much about the technology they should use.
Hi, I'm Tiago and welcome to episode two of The Stack Junction podcast.
In this episode, I want to talk about something that I have seen countless times about creators, and it's they worry about what technology they should use to start a blog, or a newsletter, what is the right tool for them, the prices, what setup they should use.
And most of the times, tools don't matter as much as those creators think.
And I think the biggest reason behind this overthinking and creators being so stuck in this phase about deciding which tool is that they are afraid.
They're afraid of making a mistake. Making a mistake about money, spending money on the wrong tool, spending money setting up the newsletter or the blog in the wrong platform.
But the deep reason and the underlying reason, I've seen is always, always fear because with research and with a bit of experience as well, I can see now that technology don't matter as much as creators think in this stage.
I say this because importing and exporting the content from one platform to the other exists and is super easy. And I know this because I have changed platforms, sometimes, and I what I do in this channel is test platforms, so I know importing and exporting is not that hard, and most of the times it's trivial. Takes a few minutes.
So the reason I think paralyzes the creators is they are afraid, but I was also afraid to start when I was starting a blog.
I was afraid of making the same mistakes, but with experience and time, I now see that it was not worth it to be afraid. And you, you just have to do it.
You just have to publish. You just have to try. You just have to see what works for you. And that's the part I want to focus on, on this episode is that creators should focus more on using tools they like because if you don't like using a tool, doesn't matter if the tool is good or if it's bad.
If you don't like, you will find it harder and you will not enjoy the creative process and the publishing and all, all the things that is needed to keep going and keep going. And. Publish, until you find the success you want. So the focus should be more on using the tools you like and sharing good content no matter where you publish that content.
For example, I did not like using WordPress.
WordPress is a good tool, but it's complicated. It has lots of problems that I will not talk about today, but I did not enjoy it and I had to stop using WordPress.
I was fighting against WordPress for so many months, trying to make it pretty, setting up things in a way I liked.
And it was all a distracting, a distraction from the things that matter. What was mattering to me was I wanted to publish to reach a place that I was happy with what I was publishing, and I'm happy testing tools, so I was.
Setting up WordPress, configuring it, making it okay. And the process was a pain.
And it was until I decided, okay, enough is enough. And I was looking for another solution. And I found a tool that I liked.
I liked using that tool and I use it still today.
So that's when something changed for me and I overcome that fear, and I was keep going and publishing.
I went from publishing one article in three months to publishing one article every week for more than six months.
It was completely different when I changed to using a tool that I liked, and that's a big difference. Use tools you like. If you want to use Substack for your newsletter or for your blog, uh, it'll not be the best tool in the world.
I know it's not the best tool in the world for many creators, but it doesn't matter if it is the tool you like.
If you like using WordPress, use WordPress, that doesn't matter as much.
I like to use Ghost and I use Ghost, and I will defend Ghost and I will keep publishing on Ghost and I will keep showing people that Ghost is a great tool for bloggers.
So yeah, it's the fact that you have to use something you like.
If you like, you will publish and if you publish, you'll be happier because you started publishing online because you are a creative person and you want to share the things you know with other people.
And if you don't publish, you don't create something. And I know how frustrating it is to not publish when you are struggling with fear and being afraid to share.
Yeah. I also feel that way.
So you have to publish good content no matter where. And today, I also want to share some examples of, people that do this and to show that technology don't matter as much as you think.
For example, Steve Todd, not the politician, it's Steve Todd, the SEO consultant.
He has a newsletter called SEO Notebook. You can go to seonotebook.com. He has a website. He, I think he's using WordPress. The last time I checked it was WordPress, but how he sends the newsletter is something that I found incredible.
He says he has more than *15,000 subscribers and every week he sends an email.
With a note he calls notes from, from his SEO book, and it's like, a paragraph, an introduction. Then there's a link to the note. And the crazy thing about these notes is that these are links to Notion.
Yes, public links to Notion the note taking app. It has a WordPress website, but he still sends the newsletter with links to a Notion document.
This shows that no matter if you are one of the best SEOs in the world, you can still run a successful newsletter this way.
Below the first link to the Notion he has the sponsors for the newsletter of that week. Then at the end, he also has recommended tools with some affiliate links, and then it has again, another link with a button to the note.
In these notes I'm gonna check, but I don't think they are indexable, so they will not be ranking on Google, I think... Actually, they can be indexed by Google, but I don't think most of them are indexed by Google and appear on search results when you search for them.
So this is an SEO person that found lots of success doing SEO for other companies and as a consultant, but he shares valuable content...
It's so good, the notes he shares about SEO, but makes them... He shares them in a way that is not easy to find on Google.
So he's not super worried sharing the content in a way that people find on Google, he could share on WordPress, and it'll be so much easier to find these articles if it was publishing on WordPress, optimizing them, and so on and so on.
So it doesn't matter as much as you use something that you like. For, for example, he might enjoy writing, on Notion and using Notion for his everyday work. He's thought he might like, I don't know. But what he shares with us is great content with a simple newsletter and then a link to Notion and it could share to an article on a website and probably find more success with SEO and so on.
So this is a big example of someone not doing the things on the regular way and finding lots of success.
Another example was someone that once reached out to me and the email was something, like this.
Hey, my boss is using Gmail to send the newsletter, and now he wants to move on to use another tool that is more suited for sending newsletters.
So sending newsletters for from Gmail is not recommended. It's like he sends an email to a bunch of people at once, it's not a good practice for several reasons. But he was doing it has lots of subscribers and people that wanted to receive the newsletter. So what mattered there was the content, not the platform the person was using, because Gmail is not good for newsletters.
So, yeah, so I suggested the new tool and they were happy with my suggestion and they're probably using it now. We have not kept in touch too much, so it was just a question, a reply, and back and forth. And that's it.
So this shows that creators again should focus on publishing where they like and doing things they like.
Yeah, that's all for this episode and follow me on YouTube and, the podcast as well.
The podcast transcriptions are available on my website as well, thestackjunction.com. And that's all for today. See you next time. Bye-bye.