[factorymoo]

I would argue that a core benefit of using Substack, beyond the easiness to write, publish, send emails, is trust for payments. I would be more reluctant at putting my credit card info in a random self hosted blog vs an established company's like Substack.

[chatmasta]

What about a blog that supports Apple Pay?

[Turing_Machine]

I think Stripe handles Apple Pay (edit: also Google Play, per another commenter). I'm sure there are others. I'd think that Stripe, Apple Pay, and PayPal (speaking of "dark patterns") would get you about 90% of the way there.

That may still be too high a bar for non-technical people, though.

[chatmasta]

If you wrap it into a “hosted blog” service, it could make a lot of money. You won’t get commissions on the payments without being a “platform,” but that’d be your differentiator. It wouldn’t be a VC style billion dollar business but it could make multiple $100k per year revenue. And you could scale price by number of subscribers (like newsletter providers already do) rather than percentage of payments.

[ketzo]

Okay, but how do you put that up as a writer?

Is it harder than the <5 minute Substack signup process?

Because if so, I think you’ve got your answer

[chatmasta]

That’s the case now. But a product could provide the hosting and setup for the writers. It might not attract the same VC-level returns as the platform play of Substack, but it could be profitable and steal writers from them (especially writers who already have their own form of distribution and discoverability).

[factorymoo]

Yeah good point - that would probably be ok for me actually.