{"id":30538,"date":"2026-09-14T14:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T11:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.travelpayouts.com\/blog\/?p=30538"},"modified":"2026-09-14T14:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T11:48:11","slug":"what-is-substack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelpayouts.com\/blog\/what-is-substack\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Substack? An honest review for travel bloggers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you talk to travel bloggers at all, chances are you’ve already heard the word Substack. But we think we can still surprise you here: we didn’t just read the marketing, we ran our own little crash test. We dug into every detail of this newly popular platform, talked to the people who built it, asked working travel bloggers what they actually think, and posted on it ourselves to see what would happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if you haven’t heard of it yet, here’s why more than 100,000 publishers are now making money on it. Picture something a bit annoying. Imagine it happened to someone random, so it stings less. That person writes genuinely good content, posts it everywhere, and watches it disappear into a feed within six hours. Meanwhile, another writer (picture this as you) has 4,000 people paying $8 a month just to read their honest opinion on their own vacations. That writer is probably on Substack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if you feel like you already know the basics, keep reading. And just to be upfront: nobody asked us or paid us to write this, we’re just genuinely curious about the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Substack and how does it work?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Under the hood, Substack works like this: you write a post, record a podcast episode, or upload a video, and it goes out in two directions at once.. First, it lands as an email in the inbox of everyone who subscribed to you. Second, that same post automatically becomes a page on your own website, which Substack builds and hosts for you the moment you sign up. You don’t design or code anything; the website exists automatically, at a web address like yourname.substack.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of it as something like Twitter, but with a proper website and email newsletters built in, rather than just a feed that disappears. There’s also a built-in way to charge people money for access to some or all of what you post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The part a lot of people actually want to know is how Substack is set up for creators specifically. Here’s what that actually looks like once you start writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Substack works for writers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Getting started is fairly simple: name your account, set up the basic design, and then publish whenever it works for you. Readers find you through the Substack app’s Notes feed (a bit like a timeline, but for short posts and quotes), through recommendations from other writers, or through a link you shared somewhere. Whenever anyone subscribes with their email, Substack remembers them; they don’t re-enter it for every post, and new writing shows up directly in their inbox and app feed from then on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"What
Substack Notes feed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Subscriptions can be free or paid. A paid subscription usually unlocks a few things: the full archive instead of just previews, extra posts that never go to the free list, and Chat access. Sometimes there are Perks too, like discount codes or invites to live sessions. It’s really up to the writer what goes behind the paywall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, readers can like, comment, share, or “restack” posts. That interaction layer does more heavy lifting than you might expect: it’s how brand-new travel writers get discovered by people who’ve never heard of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of Substack’s main advantages is that you have more control over your content and audience than most alternatives. You get your own website and URL, and you can export your mailing list. This can be useful for travel creators who otherwise rely heavily on social platforms, where reach and algorithms can change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Substack also has a large existing audience. There are tens of millions of total active subscribers across the network, plus the 5 million+ paid subscriptions Substack itself confirmed. That doesn’t guarantee you readers, but it does mean people already use the platform to find and pay for independent content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What kind of content works on Substack<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Substack is often described as a newsletter platform, but “newsletter” undersells it. Text is only one of the formats built into the platform: podcasts and videos get their own native hosting, Notes work as a separate short-form feed, and Live\/Chat exist as real-time tools, not just something you’d link out to from an email. For travel creators, that means:<\/p>\n\n\n\n