We moved to Substack!
The why, how, and some details on the change
Latest update, September 21st
In theory our move to Substack is now complete… but I’m going to leave this article up for a while to help explain any changes you might notice. As always, please say the word with any questions! I’m available via email with a couple-day response time at most.
Thank you for being here 💛
Fun stuff: Discount subscriptions for all!
I spent a while deciding how I’d go about supporter accounts moving forward. I ended up giving all existing subscribers complimentary accounts here on Substack (full access to every post with no more monthly payments) and wanted to find a way to say thanks to everyone new coming in and bearing with me during this transition, too.
So I set up a 50 percent lifetime discount for anyone who becomes a supporter from now through October 30th. Click the button below for more details!
(The lowest monthly price Substack lets me set is $5… but I was able to get around that with this “special offer”. And as always, I respond to 100 percent of requests for free supporter accounts too!)
Original announcement, August 21st
I’ve decided to move the Paws and Reflect blog to Substack. WordPress maintenance—particularly handling our paid membership plugin on my own—distracts from what I love best: actually writing.
I am still flabbergasted anyone would pay to read my words. And I get so stressed whenever there’s a glitch (even though we’ve only had tiny ones) because the trust you have in me means the world. Working with a larger, established platform will enable me to relax about dev details and focus on content.
Here’s the plan:
✅ Automatically add old supporters (both paid and free memberships) to our Substack list here
If you had an active membership account on pawsandreflect.blog, you should be set up on Substack now too. (Let me know if you’re having any issues. I am here to troubleshoot!)
As a thank you for sticking with me and Scout, I have given all old membership accounts—even those that were previously paid—complimentary free status here in Substack. That means you’ll be able to see everything we post for the rest of eternity (the complimentary subscription never expires) even if I do turn on a future paywall for some content.
We appreciate you very much 💛
✅ Still give out free subscriptions, no questions asked
The only drawback of moving to Substack: They impose a minimum monthly subscription price. I previously allowed supporters to pay whatever they felt comfortable with ranging from $2-$15. Now the lowest I can set the cost is $5.
How I’m approaching this:
As mentioned above, all previous subscribers now have free status. If you paid $2 before? You’re free forever on Substack. Same if you paid $5, or $10, or $3. Thank you for being here!
I’ve always offered a free membership option—I never want finances to be a burden—and I’ll do the same here. All you have to do is email me, and I can manually give you a lifetime complimentary membership in my Substack back end. Please do not hesitate to ask for this!
✅ Import all existing posts from WordPress to Substack
We have nearly 400 published posts… so this might take some time. Substack does give us a default import option, but I have to make some formatting tweaks to each individual post.
Update Sept 15th: Reformatting done
I just finished reformatting the last post! Phew. Like, major phew. I’m taking the next few days to spot check before actually pointing our pawsandreflect.blog domain here to Substack.
✅ Check for broken links
Hopefully old links should redirect easily to the reformatted and backdated Substack articles—but I expect a few bumps in the road (as with any tech pursuit).
Update Sept 21st: Domain pointed
I successfully pointed our domain! This means pawsandreflect.blog, which used to go to our WordPress site, now leads users to Substack. Existing bookmarks to pawsandreflect.blog posts should automatically go to the appropriate articles here now 🙌🏼
❗️ There might still be an occasional broken link
I am still troubleshooting a few broken links to things like our old category pages that didn’t easily transfer over.
If you catch a broken link, I will be forever grateful if you let me know at haley@pawsandreflect.blog. Thank you times a million!!
✅ Publish new content on Substack
Our long-term future home.