I am kind of in the same boat as you. I just started a blog on my personal website jut I am looking to monetize at some point in time. I don‘t lile substack because it harasses the reader too much. Hackernoon has a really nerdy vibe to it.

I think managing the newsletter yourself is really the best way to go and then talk about it on social media. My main problem is that once you want to make money with it everything becomes less enjoyable. Gotta start thinking about your funnel, your landing page, etc.