When I chat with friends interested in blogging these days, I often suggest they give Substack a try. Substack is a great place to get started: flex your writing muscles and find your community without any financial investment.

But what about my friends and clients who have been blogging for decades? They are also wondering whether Substack would be a smart move. Should they keep their WordPress websites plus start writing on Substack? 

Who should consider moving from WordPress to Substack?

The retiring blogger. 

My advice to those who are ready to retire from blogging (and not selling their blog as a business) usually includes 1) back up your blog content via XML export, 2) save as PDF & Word documents using the Print My Blog Plugin, and 3) import your posts to a private WordPress.com site. But if you’d like some (or all) of your content to stay public without having to worry about any design or maintenance?

“Hi there! I’m Gretchen.”

It’s how I introduced myself at the first blogging conference I ever attended. But no one recognized my name.

Until they saw my blog address scrawled on my nametag.

“Oh, you’re the little pink house!”

Well, actually, I am not the little pink house. That’s what I called my blog, because that was the color of our house when we got married.

But I smiled and said yes. In the sea of vaguely familiar faces, I was just glad to find someone who knew me–even if it wasn’t by name.

It didn’t take long before my conference roomie Trina Holden started trying to convince me to rebrand as myself. And, despite several objections I had to the idea of rebranding, I began to consider the idea.

If you’ve wondered whether personal branding is right for you, perhaps you’ve asked these same questions, too.

I like to keep copies of the old theme’s version of the home page, blog page, single page, single post, and category archive page open in another tab while I’m activating a new theme. But there’s so much more than appearance to match when you’re switching between frameworks.

Create a Google Doc, Evernote Note, or whatever works for you to back up your custom code and store screenshots of your Genesis settings so that you can replicate them in Kadence.

Here are a few of the Genesis settings you’ll want to check and backup before switching to a Kadence theme.

Install the Code Snippets plugin, if you haven’t already, and try these snippets that use Kadence Theme hooks to recreate what you were doing in Genesis.

Add Before Entry Notice/Disclosure Based on Tag
add_action('kadence_single_before_entry_content', 'gl_before_entry_disclosure', 5);

function gl_before_entry_disclosure(){

if ( is_single($post) && has_tag( 'affiliate' ) ) {
echo '<center>(This post contains affiliate links. <a href="https://gretchenlouise.com/disclosure/">Read my full disclosure</a>.)</center>';
}
}

Add Before Entry Notice/Disclosure Based on Category
add_action('kadence_single_before_entry_content', 'gl_before_entry_disclosure', 5);

function gl_before_entry_disclosure(){

if ( is_single($post) && in_category( 'affiliate' ) ) {
echo '<center>(This post contains affiliate links. <a href="https://gretchenlouise.com/disclosure/">Read my full disclosure</a>.)</center>';
}
}

Add Before Entry Notice/Disclosure to All Single Posts
add_action('kadence_single_before_entry_content', 'gl_before_entry_disclosure', 5);

function gl_before_entry_disclosure(){

if ( is_single($post) ) {
echo '<center>(This post contains affiliate links.

If you’re an Amazon Associate using self-hosted WordPress, you have many options for displaying your disclosure automatically. You can include the disclosure on every post and page, selectively based on post tags, or insert it manually using a shortcode or reusable block.

Manual Disclosure

1. Disclosure Reusable Block

Create a text block with your disclosure statement/link, add it to your reusable blocks, and insert it before your first affiliate link in each post. The disadvantage to this method is that reusable blocks are still in their infancy and can be buggy as of WordPress 5.7.1.

2. Disclosure Shortcode

If you create a shortcode with your affiliate disclosure statement, you can manually place your disclosure within a post or page. The disclosure will show when the post or page is viewed, as well as within the RSS feed.