So long, WordPress. It was (sorta) good while it lasted.

I finally moved my professional website to Substack (it was long overdue). Plus, a Women in Publishing Conference recap and ask me anything!

Hello Readers,

I had a fantastic time at the Women in Publishing Conference and loved talking about growing a Substack. (I briefly mentioned I would give this talk in my last newsletter—just in case you missed it).

It was a great opportunity to connect with fellow writers and share what I’ve learned from using the platform over the past few years. If you’re new to Memoir Junkie and from WIP, welcome, and thank you so much for subscribing!

A few of you even reached out and connected with me on LinkedIn and I was genuinely touched by all of your kind words and enthusiasm for Substack.

Right after giving my talk, I realized I didn’t have enough time to answer questions from the attendees, which was such a bummer!

So, I decided to open up today’s Substack to you. If you have any questions about growing your Substack or anything related to content marketing (or anything at all), drop them in the comments—I’d love to continue the conversation.

For those looking for more insights, here are a few posts that might be helpful in your Substack journey:

📌 Time-saving strategies to create great content on Substack
📌 New subscribers, likes, and a rush of dopamine
📌 I joined Substack 8 months ago—here’s the one thing that helped me grow my email list

Moving ClaireTak.com to Substack

I recently got an email from WordPress alerting me that my yearly subscription of $96 was coming up. I glanced over the email as I did every year, but this time, I thought, I should just move it to Substack and cancel.

I was paying over $100 a year for the hosting and domain of ClaireTak.com. While the decision to cancel was motivated by not wanting to pay the subscription fees, the bigger question was: What purpose did this website have?

I first started ClaireTak.com in 2017 when I quit my full-time job in tech and began freelancing. I filled it with blog posts and writing samples. I also used it to connect with potential clients through a form they could fill out if they needed my consulting services, but over the last few years, it’s turned into a spam attractor of sorts. I get emails asking me to share blog posts or link-build (do people still do that?!).

I mostly kept the site to use as a digital business card, but honestly, why keep paying when I can use Substack for free—and maybe even gain some subscribers along the way?

I wasn’t using it to attract new readers or clients, so it no longer made sense to keep it.

The move was a good reminder to always consider your "why" and to be more intentional with your choices. It also forced me to go through the whole exporting content from WordPress and importing it into Substack shenanigans. (Honestly, it’s pretty easy, I just hate doing stuff like that.)

The process is super simple, but heads up—images and media files don’t always transfer over perfectly. Many of my images and thumbnails didn’t move over to Substack, but for me, this isn’t a big deal. I can go back in and manually add them in later.

So if you’re curious about what it looks like, here it is. I’m calling it Claire’s Portfolio for now. (I can always change the name later.)

The last thing is, if you decide to move your website to Substack, remember to update the places where your website URL lives. For example, do you have business cards printed on your website? Is it on your LinkedIn? Remember to update accordingly.

Here are some links you may find helpful:

📌 How to move your website to Substack

📌 Doing nothing with your website? Me too. I moved my travel blog to Substack.

What is Women in Publishing?

The Women in Publishing Conference is an annual event where writers and industry professionals share insights on publishing, marketing, and writing.

I’ve attended virtually for the past few years, and this year, I had the chance to give a talk on using Substack to build an audience. It was an amazing experience, and I was so grateful for the opportunity. :)

I also recorded a podcast about Substack with Alexa last year, but oddly, it hasn’t aired yet. I emailed her about it, but since the conference just ended I haven’t heard from her (I’m sure she’s on a break from emails). Hopefully, it’ll air soon and when it does I’ll be sure to share it with you.

If you have any questions or thoughts, drop a comment—I’d love to hear from you.