Why Substack?

Waving goodbye to being dictated by algorithms.

Hello and a very warm welcome to my Substack.

For over half of my life I have been making videos on YouTube, with a goal of building up an in-depth catalogue of quality information. 

The catalogue was snowballing, and many videos would have a strong lifespan for 5 years, getting continuous steady reach. 

Sadly, with the changing state of the YouTube algorithm, the organic lifespan of a typical video is much shorter - in some cases just a week or two, and therefore gets shown to less people. 

With a niche like gardening, much of the information is time sensitive - we do work with the seasons after all! YouTube, however, is not an expert gardener, and to be honest in many cases, I would be better off reuploading the same videos every 12 months, which is something I would not want to do.

Rather than getting caught in the YouTube trap of making more and more videos, and repeating topics more often, and risking burnout, I have decided to shift my focus to Substack when it comes to putting out my best seasonal tips and advice to help you grow productive and delicious food, and to also have a space to further explore permaculture.

It is amazing how quick the world goes by, and then months later I would rediscover a YouTube channel that I love - only to realise it hadn’t stopped uploading! YouTube just randomly stopped showing it in my feed. Very frustrating!

A newsletter requires no algorithm. Instead, the choice is down to you the reader if you wish to read it or not, which is what I miss most about YouTube and following my favourite creators.  

So what does this mean for my YouTube channel?

For the time being, not much. I will be continuing to create videos as per usual for the rest of this year.

However, next year there will be a shift in focus over the growing season where I will be following a quieter schedule. This is to allow me to focus on a complete relaunch of the YouTube channel, focusing on narrative/story type videos that are created over a period of months or even years, with a fresh start in late summer/early Autumn 2025. 

And so that is why I am now here on Substack, because I believe in quality rather than quantity, and the relaunch of my YouTube channel will also be very much taking that stance but down a more edutainment route.

Thanks for stopping by, and catch you soon!

Huw

PS - If you wish to join in on monthly live calls and trainings, my unfiltered monthly newsletter, additional writings, course discounts, and guest interviews I will be hosting, you can do so here.