Personal domain vs newsletter specific domain
I'm in the process of creating a newsletter hoping to launch in the next few days and considering where to host my newsletter. I would rather host it myself rather than going with Substack or Medium and make the long term investment with content and SEO. Since I can use canonical links with Medium (medium canonical links) it seems that I can get the best of both worlds. Should I start with another domain that will be a root domain specific to the newsletter or stay with the subdomain of my personal domain? I would rather launch now and stop thinking about it but SEO is punishing short term decisions.
How are you planning to create this landing page for your newsletter?
You can also consider a subdirectory. It's the same as a subdomain but instead of:
newsletter.andreas.com
it will be:
andreas.com/newsletter
This helps a bit with SEO. And you get the separation you're looking for.
Best to link up your newsletter and website content. If you're successful you've want to expand beyond just the newsletter. But even if you don't, the SEO benefits of publishing over time on your own root domain are indispensable.
Good advice.
I bet newsletter could also allow for social signals (mostly shares) that can benefit SEO in the long run for the root domain!
Since you say 'no code', perhaps substack might hold some value as some of your target readers might already be using it and thus aiding in discovery.
But that said, I personally like hosting on my platform for control and ownership. Substack might become one day become Medium and the reason for exodus from Medium would then be applicable to Substack as well.
Exactly this!
I was one of the unlucky few that moved their blog posts over to medium (from Wordpress) back in 2017 right before they announced they are deprecating their custom domain functionality.
It really depends on what will your newsletter will be about and how it is connected to you personally. But I do think in most cases, it would make sense to go with newsletter specific domain.
It's a newsletter for #nocode apps and first user leads. How to build a quick landing page, test your idea and get an MVP off the ground.
I'm thinking there always the chance to switch to my main page to something else that won't ressonate well with the newsletter. Also, having the page as a subdomain has all the restriction a subdomain has eg. inability to access CDN, longer website url etc.
Do you prefer newsletter specific domains for better branding that relates better to the subscribers or there are other aspects as well you can think of?
To be honest - for everything. Not only for branding and for better UX for users - everything on the page will be relevant to only this, but you also have more control over the whole website and this really helps SEO in the long run, when you are focused on one thing particularly.
I think I'm going into that direction. Thanks!
my newsletter is just a sub page of my website. I think it's best for me since I consider the emails I sent a form of a blog posts and they could help with SEO. Also it's easier for new visitors to check my newsletter before they sign up
Great to hear this side as well!
Are readers/subscribers coming through your personal website? Are they going to your personal website through your blog?
I'm wondering if you have any insights doing weekly issues and tech posts at the same time.
yes, most leads come from sharing links to my blog posts
I'm still testing the tech posts vs productivity posts vs newsletter issues.
they are "kind of" for different audiences. For example, my latest tech post got a lot of attention on Reddit but zero ppl signed up for my newsletter (has a sign up form at the bottom)
I notice a similar thing with Reddit. Not sure if it's the exact subthreads I was posting or the people from reddit are looking for short lived content. Will need to do more tests.