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Namecheap, I Love You. But I’m Breaking Up With You.

 

Substack isn't new in my life, but what it's able to do now, is. Nothing personal. I have to go with the better 2025 technology.

 

As my favorite president, Joe Biden, used to say, "Here's the deal." Just over two years ago, I launched a website. It wasn't my first, but I decided I would go with all the bells and whistles. Of course, that meant going with Bluehost, SurveyMonkey, and a number of other accounts that cost me $5 to $10 a month. Pretty soon, I was spending $30 to $50 a month on my website. The budget alarm at 408 Lincoln St. went off, and I realized I needed to bag the whole escapade. Which I did. The whole waste of time cost me a few hundred. 

 

Color me disgusted.

 

It took me about six months to get over all that, but I did it. I decided I wanted a website, and I decided that I did not want to pay any more than $10 a month for it. Sure enough, such an option was out there. At first, I was leery about what Namecheap was offering me for my less than $10 a month. I was extremely suspicious—so suspicious that it took me over a month to realize that I didn't have to do things like SurveyMonkey and MailPoet. Namecheap included everything that I needed. Granted, my needs aren't many. So, for the last six months, Namecheap and I have gotten along famously.

 

Yeah. But, honey? It's all over now.

 

Substack has everything that I need. I am not sure if there is a storage component available. You can post text entries, like my Thursday diary entry which included AI pictures. But it also let me advertise my posts to Facebook, Instagram, and other options, including X (which I will not use). The advertisement Substack created took seconds and just a few more seconds to launch. Substack also included a way for me to put a paragraph out there into cyberspace, and above the paragraph was a recording of my voice reading it.

 

Add to this the fact that there are tens of thousands of Substackers out there looking at each other’s posts. This is called an audience: people who are like-minded and interested in all of us succeeding. Last but certainly not least is the fact that this service is provided free.

 

Please understand. There are a lot of people on Substack, and the dozens of other sites that mimic Substack, who/that are there to make a buck. Not me. I will never charge for my blog. Because, deep down in my heart, I believe that just throwing ideas onto the page, what my buddy, Tim, calls "Spitballing," is not worth any money. Some things, like novels that take years of shaping and reshaping, deserve payment. I don't have a problem with selling a product that I have fussed and worried over for years--I'm pointing my finger at you, Kelsey Webb--but I do have a problem with sharing brainfarts like this one that exist simply to help a fellow traveller.

 

So, even though Corporate Substack might not prefer what I am doing, I will keep my Substack free for as long as I keep my Substack.

 

I’m gonna miss you, Namecheap. You were a wonderful transition vehicle for me, but it’s time to move on.

 

Starting this week, I will be posting on Substack two and three times a week, including my usual Thursday night diary entry. The main topic? It remains my exploits and discoveries as I reshape my YA Thriller, RIVERS RISE.

 

If you are someone who used the 8 or 9 pages of writer resources i posted on the Namecheap website (its name, by the way, Diaryofanoptimisticwriter.com), I have those 8 or 9 pages for you in Word form, GoogleDoc form, or .pdf form. There is no reason for me to spend $10 a month maintaining those resources on a website when I can send you a copy, which I will be more than glad to do.

 

I will post what you're reading on Substack today as my Sunday check-in. I look forward to continuing our relationship as readers and writers working together to improve our writing.

 

P.S.: Just to clear all the air ... I'm also in relationship with AI. RN, it's just a, well, fling ...

 

Adieu, NameCheap.

  ;  (

End Transmission.