Substack’s getting more traction and moving beyond text and newsletters. 

https://www.semafor.com/article/10/06/2024/substack-wants-to-do-more-than-just-newsletters

What’s most interesting is why people are moving to or sticking with substack. It’s traffic generation. They’re taking a 10% cut of revenue but they are able to use the platform and network to drive 50% of new subscribers and 30% of new paid subscribers to each substack creator. Sure, creators also need to build traffic, but the power is in the network which grows an audience. 

If we are going to see Nostr as a protocol for creators who run a business, we need to make it easier for them to build an audience. That can be algorithims, but it could also be making it easier to recommend good content, share lists, etc… 

The other issue we face with creators is that subscriptions are much more valuable to a creator than one off payments. With NWC and wallets we CAN do subscriptions, but we haven’t made it easy and nostr connected the way zaps are.