Likelihood to Recommend The best examples I have of my experience with iStock, from Getty Images comes from times I am creating prototypes or design concepts to show off a new content type or provide visual examples of how a page could look with the addition of good photography. My only downside is sometimes it can be a struggle to find organic looking stock images which is a key part of the brand identity we have.
Read full review I think Substack is better for people who want to set up a personal-facing branded website vs people who just want to post random musings every so often. Monetization is better there than any other collective publishing platform as well as organic reach via email. Substack also allows you to build direct relationships with your readers via emails and own them 100% which is great long-term if you use it to pivot to another site or another form of writing/content creation. Substack would be less helpful for someone wanting to write as a part of a group, not individually, or someone who's unwilling to put their personal brand behind their content. It's less optimized for SEO (which other platforms allow you to do) and can be harder to curate content based on your interests (you really have to go in knowing what you want vs finding it on the fly).
Read full review Pros Variety Diversity Ease of use Read full review Because it has a very high Domain Authority ranking relevant backlinks in a published article will help make my store more searchable. Substack is very easy to work in. The toolset they provide may not be as extensive as other platforms but it is certainly enough to create a meaningful, interesting post. Substack is very focused on creating a community of writers that support each other. They run an ongoing email campaign that reinforces their focus on building a community of writers. Read full review Cons Specificity Lots of odd photos DEI Read full review editor is on the primitive side - it's wysiwyg, but missing some embed options integrate with google analytics percentage cut that Substack takes can become a burden as your revenue grows. Problems scaling. Read full review Alternatives Considered Compared to these others I feel that iStock has better variety and selection, better ease of use/interface/search features, fresher selection, and better pricing options. I don't like that
Adobe Stock only has subscription options (last I checked) and I do not use them for that reason. I don't like the interface of
Shutterstock as much and it's harder to download a test image to try out.
Read full review Medium is not so good for running newsletter. I find the mail that a user gets is very easily readable. Also as a creator it's very easy for me to track the analytics and monetise my blogs unlike Medium. Blogger is a very old technology. The kind of integrations and the support for Markdown / different media is very great in Substack.
Read full review Return on Investment Provided good stock imagery for really niche content areas, sometimes organic photography can be hard to replicate what stock does well Helped to quickly gain access to advertisement ready music tracks when the marketing team have been stuck for audio Allowed designers to provide high fidelity examples of brand styling or campaign ideas Read full review I haven’t made any money from it Can be disheartening when you realise you’re putting in maximum effort for minimum audience Read full review ScreenShots