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18 Comments

I moved my newsletter from Substack to Revue

Last week, I noticed a change in Twitter's sidebar. A link which said "Newsletters (new)". I had heard that Twitter had bought Revue, but I wasn't aware they had already started to integrate the service.

Curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to create my first issue. I quickly registered with my Twitter account and was greeted with an (almost) blank slate and a few tweets to the right side with my most recent activity.

In a short space of time, I moved some tweets over into my newsletter, and it was already looking pretty dope, so I decided to send it out as a test. I had 0 subscribers, and Revue wouldn't let me send until I had at least 1 subscriber. I didn't want to import my Substack subs just yet in case I didn't like it. However, Revue suggested I add my email as the first subscriber, and that's exactly what I did.

The newsletter got sent to my inbox, and I had a little click around and liked how clean everything was. Much like Substack, it also gets published online as a past episode. I had a look, and I thought they have everything you need for a nice, clean newsletter.

Substack is great, but it's a little more involved and takes a bit more effort to create a beautiful newsletter. Revue has a lot set up out of the gate and requires minimal customisation. Some people may dislike that, but to me, it was a huge bonus.

Over the past week, I decided to export my subscriber list and import them into my Revue newsletter list. Today, they will receive my first official newsletter episode, and I can't wait to hear what they think of the change.

Recently, I tried to create a subdomain which was simple enough. However, I had an issue with the subdomain not being secured. I waited over 24 hours, and it still wasn't secure. For now, I have reverted it to Revue's domain, where it can stay secure, and hopefully, this will get fixed in the future.

I would love to know what you think of Revue compared to Substack. Are you thinking of using one over the other?

You can also look at what I have created, and I would love any feedback you may have. https://www.getrevue.co/profile/MichaelBrooks

  1. 2

    can't wait to see how this works! good luck!

  2. 1

    Does Revue let you host on your own domain like Substack or is only on theirs?

    1. 1

      They do but it’s not secured at the minute. However, I think they are looking into a fix.

      1. 1

        What do you mean exactly by, "it's not secured"?

        1. 1

          They’re not using an SSL on custom domains which means it’s not fully secured.

          1. 1

            Are the login creds going through plain text?

            That would be very surprising these days.

            1. 2

              No, the login credentials are all encrypted. However, SSL isn't just for encryption. It can also offer speed, SEO and many other benefits over plain HTTP. It also shows a layer of trust for your users as more and more people are used to seeing https over http, and browsers add warnings to non-secure websites now.

              1. 1

                SSL never increases speed. Encryption takes compute cycles and time and there's an increase in bandwidth used as well. This belief probably stems from HTTP2 requiring it. However, SSL itself will always be slower than an equivalent protocol without encryption.

                IMO, the situation you're describing would truly be a security issue if sensitive information weren't encrypted, but as it is, it's more of a UX issue if it's only public information being sent in plain text. Many very popular sites that get plenty of search engine love are still served via HTTP.

                To be clear, I agree it would be better if they were serving everything from HTTPS, but I don't think it's a critical issue and Twitter will almost certainly update everything to HTTPS long before it became one.

                I'm going to try reserving a custom domain before they start charging for them like Substack did!

                1. 2

                  I never said it was a critical issue but I'd much prefer it was secured (https) over HTTP. And yes, HTTP2 requires SSL which does increase speed which is exactly what I meant.

                  It's a personal preference thing, but I'd still rather wait. I don't think they're going to charge for it as Twitter will probably make enough from membership revenue anyway. Also, search engines do prefer https over http.

  3. 1

    Congrats, let us know how the switch goes once your current readers receive the first issue.

    I've been using Revue for over a year and I love it. But it has a few major issues, such as the lack of support for https as you've noticed. The only workaround is to switch your DNS to Cloudflare. Bummer.

    This is a know issue though and Revue plans to address it.

    1. 1

      I have been having this same problem with the ssl certificate, I tried to use Vercel's free ssl. I will have to try cloudflare

      1. 1

        Yea, it's a pain. But Revue confirmed they're working on it.

    2. 1

      Thank you Paolo,

      I released my first official newsletter yesterday, and it went well. Stats seem to take a while to update which isn’t a huge deal but it would be good if they mentioned that. I lost 1 subscriber, and my open rate was over 50% which is great.

      1. 1

        Thanks, it seems a smooth transition and a good start.

    3. 1

      How is that not a thing already? lol.

      1. 1

        I guess it could be the way their server handles SSL certificates, or some kind of automation which they haven’t implemented yet. It took Substack a while to implement, and a lot of people were requesting the feature.

        1. 1

          Interesting, maybe I assumed it was easier than it is but I feel like SSL penalties etc. are not that much of a new thing so you'd think people would have it on their radar. 🤔

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