Let’s say you like to make your content easy for search engines to find (and you do!) and be discovered by new audiences (yes, please). Then you’ve already hit the limits of what that platform can do for you. In fact, there’s a long list of reasons why Substack might not be the right choice for you and why newsletter publishers are opting to migrate to Substack alternatives.
The most important aspect of migrating data from one platform to the next (from Substack to WordPress, in our case) is, of course, data integrity. With WordPress’s 2024 Data Liberation initiative, migrating without losing any of your data and content is easier than ever.
Decided to Migrate Yet?
Creating a Substack newsletter works just fine if you are only looking for a low-revenue email publication. WordPress, on the other hand, opens a lot of doors for publishers. It’s not just about emails anymore; you will have a full-on website with the opportunity of reaching new audiences.
So, naturally, you’re looking into Substack alternatives, and migrating to WordPress is one of the better solutions. In this article, I’ll dive deep into the transition from Substack to WordPress and how to do that successfully.
Now a Substack newsletter migration to WordPress is not exactly hard. There are just some important factors to consider and steps to take. In this article, I’ll walk you through the migration step by step.
Phase 1: Migrating from Substack
The most important aspect, and the very first step, of migrating data from your Substack website to WordPress is data integrity. You want to make sure nothing is lost or corrupted during the move. The following steps will help you.
Step 1. Picking the Right Email Service Provider (ESP)
The first step is to decide on a vital part of your new tech stack: your ESP. The right Email Service Provider will make handling your subscriptions and emailing your newsletter easier. That’s why choosing an ESP is so essential. There is no shortage of ESPs to choose from. Here, we’ll go through a brief introduction of the most popular ones:
- Mailchimp is a user-friendly email marketing platform with a wide range of features. It’s popular among small businesses and individuals.
- Constant Contact is an all-in-one marketing platform offering email marketing, social media, and event management.
- AWeber. A popular email marketing platform known for its user-friendly interface and excellent customer support.
- Campaign Monitor is a professional email marketing platform popular among enterprise-level businesses and digital agencies.
- Sendinblue, as a comprehensive marketing platform, offers email, SMS, and chat marketing.
- ConvertKit. An email marketing platform designed for professional bloggers and content creators.
- ActiveCampaign is a comprehensive marketing platform offering email marketing, CRM, and automation. It’s known for its flexible automation capabilities and integrations with different e-commerce platforms.
These providers all offer a range of features, such as email design templates, list management, automation, and analytics.
I recommend you put the time into doing your own research about the available options for your ESP. You could start with this expertly put-together guide on picking the right email platform by Dan Oshinsky, for example.
Step 2. Exporting Your Substack Subscribers List and Content
Your list of subscribers is the most important asset you have. To export this list from Substack, head over to your dashboard in your Substack account. Then, on the subscriber tab, click on the export link. The output would be a CSV file containing all your subscribers’ email addresses and the date they joined your email list.
After exporting your email list, you must also export the content from Substack. To export your Substack posts, head over to “Settings,” then, on the settings menu, click “Exports.” After exporting is complete, download it onto your computer.
Step 3. Importing the Email List to ESP
When you finally select your email service provider, it’s time to import the email list you exported from Substack to it. Every ESP has an import feature that lets you easily import the email list. Simply search for “how to import email list” to get the instructions for importing the list to your chosen ESP.
Of course, getting the subscribers list into your new provider is not enough. You’ll also want to create your email template in the new ESP. Now, this will go differently depending on the specific provider you’re using. Basically, you’ll be creating and customizing emailing templates for each of your segments using the tools you get.
At this stage, you have your content and email list exported from Substack. You have set things up with your favorite ESP. It’s time to start on WordPress.
Step 4. Setting Up WordPress
Most website hosting providers typically offer various hosting options, including WordPress hosting. This type of hosting is optimized to ensure optimal performance, security, and reliability for WordPress websites.
One of the features of this type of hosting is a one-click installation of WordPress. You can simply install WordPress on your website by just clicking on an installation link and customizing it from there.
The WordPress installation comes with a default theme. You can change the theme to one aligned with your website goals and add the features and design you need. Also, make sure to choose a theme that is optimized for speed and performance to provide the best user experience.
Themes come with some pre-installed plugins. Ones not dependent on too many plugins are usually faster to load. Also, you might want to remove some of the features or sections of the theme you won’t use. That makes it even lighter and more efficient. Keep things simple and consistent to guarantee an excellent experience for your users.
Last on the checklist is putting some content on WordPress – your content. The Substack Importer plugin makes it easy to import your content into WordPress. You can use the import feature to import all the content you exported from your old Substack account and into WordPress.
The importing process is smooth, but you might need to review some of your posts and revise the formatting.
Step 5. Optimizing Your Website for SEO
When you finish importing blog posts, you need to optimize your website for SEO. You can simplify this process using Yoast, Rank Math, or other SEO plugins. Basically, these plugins let you fill in some metadata fields to make your content more accessible to search engines. We’ll have more to say about this later on, so make sure to follow our articles.
Phase 2: Migrating to Your Website
Now that you’ve got everything ready, it’s time to launch your own website and bask in its glory. Make sure to take care of a few extra steps, though!
Step 1. Setting up Redirects
Now, you want users who still find you through Substack to be able to follow the link to your new site. For that, you must redirect your Substack posts to the newly added URLs on WordPress. Unfortunately, this is only possible if you have a custom domain with Substack. Otherwise, there’s no way you could redirect your posts on Substack to a new URL on your custom WordPress site.
With a custom domain on Substack, you can simply define the redirect rules on your server so that all of your old pages are redirected to your WordPress site’s new addresses.
Step 2. Letting Your Subscribers in on the Migration
So you’ve just changed your newsletter platform, and your readers will be in the dark. You should get your audience on board with the new changes. Start sending emails to your subscribers and share what has changed.
With a migration, there is always a risk of a sudden drop in subscribers, mostly because of miscommunication. I suggest informing your paid subscribers of your plans in advance. So, best get in front of the migration with a few well-written emails.
This way, they won’t get an unpleasant surprise when their paid Substack subscriptions are suddenly canceled. You’ll also have time to sort out refund requests as you switch platforms.
Step 3. Increasing Email Deliverability
While you’re on Substack, your sender reputation is handled by the platform. Once you transition to your WordPress website, you will have to select an Email Service Provider (ESP) to actually send your newsletter to your email list. Part of your email deliverability will now depend on your domain reputation, and since your website is brand new, that means you will have to warm it up. Domain warm-up is when you gradually increase email volume to establish a positive sending reputation with ESPs. This is done to prevent emails from being flagged as spam.
In addition to domain warm-up, email deliverability factors include email content, list quality, sender reputation, and authentication. Following the best practices for these factors can improve email deliverability and ensure that emails are delivered to subscribers’ inboxes.
Step 4. Setting up Analytics
To collect data for analysis, you should install analytics tools that help you understand your users. Google Analytics and Hotjar are great tools that give you insights into how your users behave on the website.
You might as well set up custom event tracking to track any meaningful event for your business, such as form submissions, purchases, etc.
Put this together with the data you get from your ESP, and you’ll be able to make data-driven decisions when thinking about growing your newsletter.
WordPress as an Ideal Substack Alternative
There are many steps involved in migrating from Substack to WordPress. But most of them should be more or less straightforward. Exporting your email list, your most precious asset, is the first step in the process. You’ll go on to export your content as well. Then you’ll carefully pick an ESP (Email Service Provider) which is the heart and soul of your business. The next steps will be importing your existing list to this new ESP, creating email templates, and finding your way around the new ESP.
Installing WordPress and a light theme on it is not going to be challenging either. Many host providers will install WordPress free of charge. After importing your content to WordPress, you can start optimizing your content for SEO. There are many plugins available for this that can help you in increasing traffic to your website.
Now that you’ve got everything set up, it’s time to launch your new spot on the web. But remember to redirect your old content to the new domain and warm up the domain to ensure your emails land in your readers’ inboxes. Also, taking advantage of free analytics tools can help you better understand your users.
Migrating Your Newsletter to WordPress Made Easy
We went through the main steps of migrating from Substack to WordPress, and the gist of it is simple enough. What it looks like in action, though, is a different thing. Unexpected errors and unoptimized resources can delay and sabotage any migration. So, a lot of creators find themselves pouring a lot of time and money into something that’s supposed to be easy. As a digital partner for creator-led media, Refact takes over those pesky tasks and give you a customized, efficient WordPress website for your newsletter. If you’re thinking of migrating for growth, get in touch with us, or see what we have done for some of our clients, including Trends.