I keep seeing this question everywhere lately – in my DMs, in my email, on Threads. People asking if they should start a Substack or build their own blog.

And I get it. The answer feels confusing because everyone online seems to have a different opinion about which one is better.

So I figured it was time to just sit down and talk about this properly.

Should You Start a Substack or Build Your Own Blog?

I understand why Substack feels appealing. It is already built, you just sign up and start writing, there is a discovery feature where people might stumble across you. For someone who wants the simplest possible way to begin, that sounds perfect right? 😅

And for some people it is.

But there is something that does not get talked about enough when people compare these two, and it is the one thing that actually matters if you want to build something bigger than just a newsletter.

What Substack Actually Is

Substack is a newsletter platformm a really good one. You write, you send emails, people read them.

Simple.

Some people make their Substack public so the posts show up on their profile page like a blog would. That works fine if all you want to do is write and send newsletters.

But here is what Substack cannot do… It cannot bring you traffic from Google or Pinterest. The posts you publish on Substack do not rank in search results the way a blog post on your own site does.

Which means the only way people find you on Substack is if you are already promoting yourself somewhere else or if someone discovers you through Substack’s internal discovery feed. You are building inside a closed ecosystem where the only real way to grow is through word of mouth or through your own promotion outside the platform.

What Your Own Blog Actually Is

Your own blog lives on your own domain, which means you control it completely. You own it.

And when you write a blog post on your own site, that post can rank on Google and show up on Pinterest. It can bring you free traffic from people searching for exactly what you wrote about, months or even YEARS after you published it.

I have blog posts from 6 months ago that still bring me email subscribers every single week because Pinterest keeps showing them to new people and Google keeps ranking them for certain searches.

That does not happen on Substack. 😏

Once you send a Substack newsletter, it lives in people’s inboxes and maybe on your public archive page, and that is it.

Your own blog is a traffic engine, Substack is a newsletter tool.

What My Own Blog Has Done For Me

My blog is how most people find me. They search something on Pinterest like “how to start a blog” or “laptop lifestyle without reels” and one of my posts shows up. They read it, they like it, they subscribe to my email list.

I have never paid for ads or done complicated SEO tactics. I just write blog posts about topics people are searching for, create Pinterest pins linking to those posts, and slowly traffic comes in. Some weeks my blog brings me 10 new subscribers, some weeks it brings me 50.

It depends on how much I have been posting and how well my pins are performing.

But the point is that my blog is working for me even when I am not actively promoting it. Even when I am taking a break or traveling and not thinking about content at all.

That is the power of owning your own site and using it to bring in search traffic.

But What About Writing and Community?

This is where people get confused. They think if they choose a blog they cannot have a newsletter, or if they choose Substack they cannot have a blog.

You can have both.

I have my own blog for SEO and Pinterest traffic, and I have my own email list where I send weekly diary entries to my subscribers. Same vibe as a Substack newsletter, just built on my own terms with my own email platform. Some people use Substack as their email platform and have their own blog.

That works too.

The question is not really Substack vs blog. The question is do you want to build something that brings you passive traffic from search engines or do you want to build something that only grows through active promotion?

The Bigger Picture

If your goal is just to write and send newsletters and you love the simplicity of Substack, start there. Done is better than perfect and getting words out into the world matters more than the platform they live on.

But if you are thinking about the bigger picture – creating multiple income streams, bringing in traffic while you sleep, building something that compounds over time – your own blog is where you want to be.

Think of Substack as a newsletter platform that you are renting space on. Your own blog is an asset you actually own. And when it comes to building something that actually lasts and brings you passive traffic for years, owning always wins.

You can always add a newsletter to your blog later. But you cannot add search traffic to Substack. 🤍