I have a problem. I like trying shiny new things on the internet. That is not my problem. My problem is that when I start getting genuinely interested in one of these shiny new things, I want to use it, and when there are more than one, I can’t decide which one(s) to use and I become indecisive and I start procrastinating trying to make a choice and that is my problem.

It’s happening again!

See, when I first heard about Substack, I loved it instantly. It reminded me of the early days of blogging, when you’d just write what you had to say, hit the publish button and that was it.

Sure, I was not going to give up on my current blogs to move everything to Substack, but I think I’ve found a good use for it. Sharing my thoughts with you about various timely topics that don’t really need to be included in my blogs, while also informing you of my recent posts here and there on the web.

It’s such a better way to communicate with my readership than through certain social media and their infamous algorithms that may or may not show you what I shared with you.

So, all was well until I started paying attention to Revue.

What is Revue?

Revue is another newsletter platform, not too different from Substack but… it does have some key differences that make it quite attractive too!

Especially when you’re curating content, which is one of the uses I have for this current newsletter.

So, I created a Revue Newsletter to see what it looked like and how it worked.

You can go check it out with this link (but come back here afterward, I’m not finished): DavidB’s Newsletter on Revue.

I think you’re starting to see where I’m going, right?
Should I move this newsletter to Revue or not?

Yes, this is what I’ve been wondering since last week.

I’ve been pondering the pros for each and from my perspective.

I’m going to list them here.

Substack pros

Feels like a blog in many ways
Easy and fun to use
Allows for several sections (like the one devoted to Survivor here) or even several newsletters under the same account (like my French newsletter that you may not even be aware of)

Revue pros

It’s more visual: links appear with thumbnails and a short text like they do on social media.
I really like the integration with Twitter (Revue was bought by Twitter last year and both services integrate perfectly with each other).
Easier to monetize. By that, I mean that if you want to monetize your newsletter, you can set whatever monthly fee you want. I’ve been thinking about offering paid membership here, but the minimum I can charge is €5 a month or €30. I don’t think this newsletter and my blogs are worth that much (Would you be willing to pay such rates in order to support my work if I don’t offer exclusive content?) With Revue I can charge as low as €2 a month. I could charge even less, but Stripe, the service that manages payment takes a cut of a minimum of €0.3, Revue takes a 5% cut too, in other words, if I only charge €1 (which was my original idea) a large chunk of the money you’d pay wouldn’t reach me - I’d only make €0.65 - with €2 I’d make around €1.60, so you’d actually pay me.

So, in short. I feel that Substack is a better service to share text and talk about different topics. But I feel that Revue is a better service to curate content from the web (which is a big part of what this current newsletter is).

And here comes the indecision.

Right now, I see a few different options for me.

I change nothing. I continue posting here on Substack and that’s all. However, I really really like the Twitter integration over at Revue.
I stop this Substack and I move the entire Newsletter to Revue. One caveat: I’m not a huge fan of the text editor there.
I keep Substack for text-based communication with you, and I use Revue to curate my online content. A possible idea, but that would mean more work for me, and you, dear readers would have to subscribe twice.
I publish roughly the same content on both newsletters, and you all can decide which one you like best and which one you want to subscribe to. That would also mean more work for me.

What do you think? I’m interested to know what you think about this current newsletter in its current format, and whether I should move to Revue (this is what it would look like), or split it into two different kinds of newsletter.

Please tell me what you think in the comments.

liminal web

Another newsletter service? But why?