New! Homepage links, restore post drafts, and improved stats page
We’ve recently added some new features to improve the publishing experience on Substack.
Recommended links
First, you can now add links to your Substack homepage. Create as many sections as you’d like, and then add any number of links to each. You can use links as a blogroll, to direct readers to other places to find you on the web, or to highlight popular posts, among other uses. To add, edit, or delete links, go to Recommended Links on the Settings page in your publisher dashboard.
Restore post drafts
Next, we’ve added the ability to revert your draft to a previously saved version. As you write and edit your posts, we automatically save your drafts. Starting today, you can browse a post’s version history and restore your working draft to any previous save point. To get to your draft’s history page, click the “Draft History” link at the top of the post editor.
New stats page
Finally, we’ve updated the Stats page in your publisher dashboard. In addition to traffic sources, you can now see a table of email stats and, if you have paid subscriptions, a running list of unsubscribe notes from readers.
We are excited to share these changes with you. As always, you can leave feedback and questions in the comments below.
Thank you for adding the new "Recommended Links" feature. It would be nice if those links would open in a new tab instead of taking the user out of Substack.
I agree - it's been changed
No, they shouldn't do this *by default*. They should be normal hypertext links. To open a link in a new tab click the middle mouse button (works on Firefox on Linux; I think Windows uses something else). My point is there is already a way to get links to open in a new tab, so leave it to the user's choice whether they want to do that or not, don't force one way or the other on them.
Omg— restore drafts! I once accidentally wiped away content and had to re-create the wheel, shocked there wasn’t a simple undo button. Thank you!
Thank you. Will all these changes be available for absolutely everyone?
One of my biggest problems is that after doing the very hard work of promoting my newsletter on my social media channels (heavy lifting all by myself) then the new subscribers get lost and tell me things like: "Is this your blog?" "Why doesn't it look like your blog?" "How do I find your articles?" "Why can't I find any of your articles on Google Search like I do with your Medium articles?" My hard-earned suscribers feel that my newsletter is like my "MailChimp" (emails, not articles).
I suggest making our newsletter home page look like what it is, a blog.
Separately, hopefully you can implement that "undo" button when writing, much needed.
Lastly, please, do consider letting us add audio as audio clips anywhere on the article, without creating a podcast, not as a podcast. Audio is 2021, but we can't treat the current audio feature as a real podcast (no editing to start with), so is neither one thing nor the other one in reality right now. I made this request long ago in a comment, like this one, and got many likes. Hopefully you can fetch that comment and check it.
Thank you for all you do, guys. I left Medium and came here because I believe what you believe. Let me know how else I could help.
Jacob Gheller, MrGheller
Miami, FL.
I can't see how to visit other substack writers. Is there a catalogue of writers and subjects that would tell me who everybody else is?
Yep, this is also not very intuitive. They could just "emulate" what Medium does to see all the other writers in one place. That should be on Substack's home page. But not as "recommended ones" only but a catalog so people can select "language," "topic," and other filters, and we show up on different lists.
This way, Substack is actually helping us build the subscriber list without having to recommend everyone, which happens to be the absolute most difficult task: growing that list.
Yes, there is. But it is under another domain: https://reader.substack.com
Rob C.
Will there ever be a function that allows the type to wrap (left or right) around images? Is this not available because of rendering problems with email readers?
I'd REALLY like to be able to do this in my posts but am limited to gigantic horizontal-only images throughout my text.
OK, that is nice. But the draft history is last week. I need to fix an accidental deletion I did in the last minute. What is needed is an Undo button. It would also be nice if there was a place at Support where one could ask a question. I would like to know how I can make the background color of the email the same as my homepage background color
These three additions look good. I still would like the ability to have rich embeds for ALL links exactly like the Revue feature or at least the ability to add the embed code from a service like iframely.
Definitely more embeds. Surely many writers would embed content from TikTok, Pinterest, DeviantArt, etc, etc.
Yes, please.
Brilliant additions! Love the blog roll feature. Finally a way to sort of have categories to encourage readers to browse more of our content.
That's what I'm gonna do with mine.
Excellent! Appreciate how you folks keep innovating without drastically shifting the basic template, which I value (for its simplicity and spaciousness).
I so agree. Simplicity. I fear the day if it ever gets so clunky and featurified to the point that it hinders the writing work.
Any chance we could get the ability to add a drop cap?
These are FANTASTIC improvements. Thank you and keep 'em coming. This definitely is a HUGE incentive to focus on Substack as a writer vs other platforms.
Hi McKay and Kristy,
Somehow I’m drawn to your comment. It felt—gracious and kind. (Okay, granted, I was scrolling through the comments. It’s a Sunday, and I catch up with the newsletters, and also take the time to connect with other readers and writers.)
I went to your newsletter, Grace For The Weary (love the name), read the description, read the About, and I’m like, yes...I think, this resonates with me. Something I’ve been searching for too. That said, 👀 on Jesus.
Subscribed!
Fan-flipping-tastic. I genuinely appreciate the “recommended links” feature because those of us writing a “series” of articles ...this allows us to collate and/or create sub-categories. Again thank you for this nifty new feature.
Good news. Now could you please add the ability for poetry to be posted in single spaced verse with double spaces between verses. It is impossible to do whether by direct means or cut and paste. No matter how I format, once I hit “publish” the text is converted to straight double space with no added space between verses. Very frustrating and negatively affects the rhythm of the work. Thank you.
Hey Suzanne - can you try using shift+Enter when you make a newline instead of just the Enter key? That should make single line breaks.
Also - coming soon: we'll have a mode in the editor for entering pre-formatted text, which means it'll preserve things like leading and trailing whitespace in poetry
I usually post from my phone so no shift, but I’ll try that from my laptop. I anxiously await the new editor mode. That will make my life easier. Thank you.
If you have an Android, you can install "Hacker's Keyboard" from the Google Play Store and switch to it whenever you need a Shift + Enter. I just tried it with the Substack editor; it does produce a single-line break. I presume there's a third-party keyboard for iPhone that would allow a Shift + Enter when you want it. (I had a similar problem with spacing of poems on Patreon. It's nice to see that there's a workaround on Substack. I'd rather not have to switch keyboards – but it's better than nothing.)
Thank you for this info. I have an iPhone so I’ll check the Apple Store for an equivalent workaround. It would be very nice to have something that works until Substack updates its own editing capabilities to make them poetry-friendly. I appreciate your taking the time and effort to provide me with this assistance.
Rob, I wanted to let you know that your suggestion worked perfectly. As long as I prepare my post on my laptop, using the shift+enter creates single line breaks. Today, for the first time, my poem is formatted exactly like I want it. Thanks for the help. It’s a pain to have to type this way, but I can manage until you have the mode in editor that will preserve pre-formatted text.
Glad to hear it. You can try the pre-formatted block now if you go into the editor and click Style -> More -> preserve whitespace
This will create a block where you can enter any pre-formatted text, and should serve well for poetry
Terrific. I’ll try it with my post tomorrow. Sounds perfect. Thanks for your help.
Hi Rob, maybe have this hack documented in the Help section?
Ah! Will try!
If Substack allowed articles to be written in Markdown, that would solve this problem (and lots of other problems). I have suggested that, along with other suggestions, here: https://pontifex.substack.com/p/making-substack-better
Suzanne,
I have this same problem! 😖 Some poems have these lovely layout that is part of the art. Having them double-spaced just won’t do. :)
My workaround for now is to screenshot my document and upload it as an image! Here https://hopemail.substack.com/p/sometimestrustingingodlookslikethis . And I sometimes just write the poem out, snap a photo and post it. Old school way, yes. https://theporcupinelab.substack.com/p/abeautifullifepoem
That said, it’s my fourth issue on Substack after I switched from two platforms to do the same thing (web + newsletter) on just one platform. I’m thankful to Substack for making publishing, the easiest so far. So, I’m taking the “limitations” in that context. Just enough frills to not overwhelm me. And get on with the writing and connecting with people. ❤️ Substack
By the way, Suzanne, I laughed along with you at your poem of soft-boiled satire. 😬
https://skieraarts.substack.com/p/seriously-funny
Hi my. Thanks for the tips. I’ll take a closer look at your links tomorrow. It sounds like a good temporary “fix” until Substack catches up with remedying editing issues. Thanks, too, for sharing your reaction to my Eggistential pondering. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Fine improvements. This is slightly off-topic but very definitely Substack : the search page that greet new or interested readers. Maybe someone can explain to me how or why it works the way it does. To be honest, a third of the pages I visit have few or old or no entries. I don't mind the big stars getting theirs, but the page seems terrifically undeveloped from what it could be. Thanks.
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A round of applause for the updated Stats page. This is the the most crucial missing feature set compared to email delivery services. Please continue to build out the stats page (unsubscribes by subscriber, # of opens by subscriber, links by click) so I can better understand my audience. Thank you!
I think this post might include some things that you're looking for - https://blog.substack.com/p/new-better-analytics-for-your-subscribers
Awesome! Using the blogroll on all of my blogs but there is one problem––It's looking too cramped with the sidebar on the Desktop. Specifically, the width of the list of posts feels too short, I think the sidebar should be pushed a bit outward?
Substack, @Rob, any thoughts on this?
Thank you for the new features! Next, we would love to see the posts can be sorted out into categories.
Loving this. Good job Substack!! Hey, so when are you guys going to allow us to make new feature requests by using a tool such as this one: https://fb-dl.com
Loving this. Good job Substack!! Hey, so when are you guys going to allow us to make new feature requests by using a tool such as this one: https://nolt.io/ or this one: https://www.uservoice.com/ ; I have a ton of ideas to make Substack even better, but every time I send something through via email to your support team I rarely hear back. What you work on should be driven by us, your community and customers, not really by your Engineering team (although they should have input of course). This is definitely a big area of improvement for Substack: both support responsiveness & community engagement.
As an expert in Product Management, some things just jump at me when I look at or use a product such as Substack and given I have a vested interest in its growth and improvement, I would love to help. Please make it easier, not harder.
Here's some of our work in case you're wondering just how much we can bring to the table: Our Kanban Board: https://trello.com/b/ELfGM7YN/agile-kanban-board | Our Product Roadmap: https://trello.com/b/168mYikX/product-roadmap | Our Newsletter: https://www.joinmeforcoffee.com.au/
Leverage on your community. Trust me, it will help you. Here's a good example: https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/
p.s. I just noticed I can't edit a post here. New feature request: Allow post editing
p.s. #2 I also noticed a bug: when adding multiple links, when you try to add a new one, it pre-populates with the last one
Asked on your twitter post as well, but are there any updates on gif in comments?
Also, we would love an option to remove our large AUTHOR!! tags on our comments please.
In general, we are super satisfied, we had a thread with almost 800 comments yesterday that ran smooth all the way through - a significant change from our previous platform! So thank you!
Support for embeds in comments of GIFs or anything that can be embedded in the editor would be nice.
If i have a post with 10 email deliveries and 5 opens, how is that a 20% open rate? Either its being calculated wrong i I don't understand how it is being calculated. At the bottom of the stats page it should explain what exactly all these numbers mean and how they are calculated.
Open rates are calculated as the % of unique recipient who open at least once, so if there were 10 original recipients, and 2 of them opened it at total of 5 times, that would still be a 20% open rate.
Chris, that is very confusing. Consider adding something like: "2 Unique Opens 5 Total Opens" or "2 Unique of 5 Total Opens" under the percentage figure.
Can you put an explanation at the bottom of the stats page please? This is just adding static html so should be easy peasy to do.
Also i think if only 2 recipients opened it, that should count as 2 opens. Or maybe have both the 2 and 5 statistics, entitled "# users who opened" and "opens".
Are your stats accurate? I'm not sure they are. E.g I published a post yesterday (2021-Mar-https://pontifex.substack.com/p/google-blocks-infogalactic which according to your posts page has had 179 views.
Yet going onto your stats page, I've had 101 visitors yesterday and another 55 today. 101+55=156 which is less than 179.
Is this because one is measuring views and the other visitors, and some visitors looked at the URL multiple times?
The way it should work is the stats graph should measure visits, unique visitors for that day and pageviews. And the same data should be available for every individual post. Also it would be nice to know the source of view on a per-post level, not just the referring website but the URL. or if its from a search engine, what search terms.
Yes, an Integrated view would help us solve these doubts. I also encounter these doubts. It's not that clear at first sight so we tend to think the stats are not accurate....
Well, someone liked my ancient comment, which I appreciate. Since then one of my wishes have been granted. The e-mailed version does not use the background color. Thus, my custom graphic with matching web color go out in the e-mail with that color on a white background. How hard would it be to send the e-mail out with the same color as the web page?
Homepage links are now not visible because Substack has placed a 'Consider purchasing a gift certificate' banner where homepage links used to be. Homepage links are critical to my site. What gives?
thank you the most added a new "recommended linking website" feature.
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thank you for the most information. Thank you for adding the new "Recommended Links" feature. It would be nice if those links would open in a new tab instead of taking the user out of Sub stack.
Great
I'm having problems saving drafts...there are no three dots which I can open...awful!
Hello,
I have a great number of drafts that I wish to delete, but many do not have the hamburger menu on the right with the delete option in the dropdown.
Can someone adcise on this please?
It is a great idea to have drafts be save periodically and to have the ability to restore previous drafts. Unfortunately, the feature does not seem to work for me. I lost this morning's work because nothing was saved, and the "draft history" window has always been empty.
I am using the free version. My draft has disappeared and there is no dtaft history feature nor an edit feature. Nor is the + sign showing - it has gone. I wouldn’t pay for this.
Much obliged to you for adding the new "Suggested Connections" highlight. It would be great if those connections could open in another tab as opposed to removing the client from Substack.
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On the top of my page there are links that say "Home" "Archve" and "About" , somehow I added a link to one of my favorite off site publications and can't figure out how to add any more links up there. What do I do to add one? I'll take note!
I can't understand how to visit other substack essayists. Is there a list of essayists and subjects that could let me know who every other person is?
Question? I accidentally deleted a new substackdomian, can I use this method to restore it? thank you Geoffrey
Fix your versioning. The final draft is rarely the last one worked on. Can't be spending as much time troubleshooting substack as we do on writing.
These links are useless . They're rel="nofollow" :(
A round of applause for the updated Stats page. This is the the most crucial missing feature set compared to email delivery services. Please continue to build out the stats page (unsubscribes by subscriber, # of opens by subscriber, links by click) so I can better understand my audience. Thank you
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Thanks for this! Can you point me toward how to delete a post draft? I have a few kicking around that I am never going to send out, and I would love to be able to get rid of them entirely.
Version History option is fantastic. It saved my day. Brilliant.
I think its a nice move by adding new tabs to follow the more users to substaks
Please add images to the Support page for "Recommended links" feature. Kindly give more use cases to help Creators learn how to embed social proof in their audience journey through interactive prompts. This is important because it can impact a Creator's baseline conversion rates. Social proof with interactivity is one of the main reason's a Newsletter will survive of fail.
Therefore how to use Substack threads with Recommended links needs to be more careful explained. Only 46% find the current Support page on this topic helpful. It would not be difficult to amend this. Thank you.
How do I get a link to my about page on my substack homepage?
That's right, this is likewise not extremely instinctive. They could just "copy" how Medium sees the wide range of various essayists in a single spot. http://bincheckersearch.com/ That should be on Substack's landing page. Be that as it may, not as "suggested ones" just but rather an inventory so individuals can choose "language," "theme," and different channels, and we appear on changed records.
Thusly, Substack is really assisting us with building the supporter list without suggesting everybody, which turns out to be unquestionably the most troublesome assignment: developing that rundown.
Much obliged to you. Will this multitude of changes be accessible for without question, everybody?
Probably my most serious issue is that in the wake of doing the extremely difficult work of advancing my pamphlet on my web-based media channels (truly difficult work without help from anyone else) then, at that point, the new endorsers get lost and let me know things like: "Is this your blog?" "For what reason doesn't it seem as though your blog?" "How would I track down your articles?" "For what reason would I be able to observe any of your articles on Google Search as I do with your Medium articles?" My well deserved suscribers feel that my bulletin resembles my "MailChimp" (messages, not articles). https://deebrownceo.com/
.
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I've seen a Substack site with a menu near the top, right under the title. How can I add that?
What did I do? I went on to find all my posts and subscriber list have vanished. Upsetting as I worked hard at this
The additions to Substack's flexibility are excellent! One question: I began a serial on another substack address. I did this before I realized that there could be multiple newsletters under the one banner (I was new to Substack at the time). How do I bring those newsletters across into my main archive without publishing them again?
i have a home page? don't know how to do the recommended links feature, do not see anything in settings to do this
I just saw this thanks to the Substack Grow series.
I have a question: my email open rate is a reasonable percentage (like 40% or so)... but I see more email opens than deliveries! Huh? Is it that some people are opening the email more than once, or is it they're forwarding the email? It's weird.
How does one DELETE a link, though?
Hello! I got a question regarding my homepage - https://replaygr.substack.com/. I would like to have the posts appearing as a nice list with thumbs instead but I can't find the way to do it. I'm reading there's an 'edit homepage' option but honestly I can't find it anywhere.
Any suggestions?
Thank you for adding the new "Recommended Links" feature. It would be nice if those links would open in a new tab instead of taking the user out of Substack.
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Brilliant addition, Recommended features, Thanks for adding. I hope soon https://techynewx.com/rise-of-kingdoms-lost-crusade-mod-apk/ will functionally will be added.
Not sure if this is a good place for this but consider this a feature request: many writers I read will post part of a private subscribers-only post publically. In effect on your platform that is two posts, one private and one public. My feature request is to give writers the ability to have all that on a single post — it could be as simple as two text fields, one to show to subscribers and one to show to the general public. Alternately it could be a single text field as well as a slider/input of how many paragraphs the author wants displayed publicly. Whatever, just so I stop seeing multiple posts with the same title, click on one to read it and realize oh crap, I just clicked on the public facing one, now I have to go back click on the private one, then find out where I read to, etc. It’s annoying but I know why authors do this so the best solution would be to give them this ability to “tease” in your platform directly.
I have looked everywhere on the help guides and can't find an answer to this.... I am getting preview of subscriber only posts from writers who I have the free only subscription. On the settings, it says if you send one out like this to all your list, then it doesn't show on the website. However, I clicked through and can see the posts showing -- one locked and one unlocked -- can someone explain how people are doing this? I don't understand why this whole policy exists. It seems Substack would want us to send the paid posts to everyone to help get more paid subscriptions from the free sign up folks. Thanks!
Double-checking, but it seems like you can't have the "Recommended Links" feature if you want to have your layout be the "Classic (Feed of Posts)" version, and only if you switch over to the new design. Is that correct? I'd like to utilize the links, but want people to see content and immediately be able to start reading from the homepage vs. the new design where they have to choose a post to open it. Doesn't seem like having both is possible currently, but hoping I'm missing something. Thank you!
Thanks. Is there a way to tag posts to compare open rates and other engagements by category? And are there any plans to offer an analytics API so audience and newsletter data can be presented in custom dashboards?
I have had a problem with my page for a week. I have THREE copies of the same post showing and there is NO REASON FOR IT. I did not create the duplicates. I cannot delete the two superfluous ones and am afraid to publish the finished one because I know I cannot change it once it is posted. YOU PEOPLE HAVE TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is not something I did and not something I can fix. I have written three e-mails to support asking for help and gotten NO ANSWER. What I think would be a good idea is for everyone who is frustrated with the lack of service and poor communication to just cancel their substack accounts. How about we all organize and agree to pull the plug on substack on Sunday night???????????????????????????
There was an outing last night that crashed the post but I got it back up and fixed it and emailed. But then the site crashed again as I was editing (behind schedule) and I was afraid I had lost the whole thing, so I clicked yes to save as new draft. That created a new post that also got emailed out to my list. Now I don't know what to do with the two exact same posts since they went out on different emails, have different hyperlinks and are getting traffic back from both emails. Any suggestions? I will have to pay closer attention to the network in the future!
Excellent work, Substack! I look forward to exploring these new tools.
One problem, though: on the new stats page, only the stats for emails which are currently live as posts are displayed. I regularly email posts, then unpublish them, per a suggestion in your help section (https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037831531-Can-I-publish-to-email-only-so-it-doesn-t-appear-in-my-archives-). I know the stats are being collected, because I get them emailed each week - can they be listed on the stats page as well, please?
@Rob - Awesome stuff, thank you for the writeup & continue to push helpful features. Any insight into "signups after day 1"? Are these new subs signing up from that post's web page? Or is it just an aggregate measure of new subs the following day? Trying to get a sense of degree to which these signups are attributable to a particular post, or other efforts (i.e. posting on Twitter).
Thank you for these great new features. I've added a few links but I can't see them on my homepage yet. Do I need to clear my cache or wait until I publish a new post before I see them appear?
I setup the recommended links but I have not been able to see it on my homepage. I continue to find just the subscribe link.
I have the feeling that it is not possible to edit a link and its description... Am I right ? Do I have to cancel it and remake it ? Many thanks, Yves
I am very grateful for the recommended links. But is there an option to re-edit the link and/or group after I post it? Like, I want to sometimes experiment with different names or appearances for the link, rethink the categories, etc.
Looks like you have to delete and redo for now.
Nice. Immediately added my two favorite poets in my link list. Now I'm looking for others to add. Whose doing poetry here?
Thank you for the homepage links! It would be really nice if you could add the ability to add a small image to the links.
I am wondering if there is a way or will be a way to send emails to free AND paid subscribers, but not to "everyone"—just realized some of my paid subscribers have not been receiving any of the emails I've been sending to Free email subscribers, but that I don't want listed publicly... can you please advise?
Have you seen the email list in your newsletter's Dashboard under "Subscribers"? That should allow you to send an email to any set of subscribers you'd like.
Oh I had not seen that! Thank you Scott. That is VERY helpful, though I am disappointed I can't schedule the email if I send it that way.
The "Recommended Links" is a great new feature. I like the ability to use Groups - as I did with some of former magazine articles.
Excellent! Thank you.
Hi thanks for the cool updates! I’d also like to know how the podcast download numbers are calculated?
Is there any way to publish an article on a invite-only newsletter and not send it out to all subscribers automatically?
When you publish a post, there should be a checkbox that determines whether it will go out to subscribers via email or be posted just to the web
These are not the same functions as, for example, at dispatch.com. As far as I remember, similar functions were announced in January.
Stay tuned
Very good! Thanks.
Would be great if you could help writers grow by adding referrals
The updates are amazing! Thank you so much!
Good improvements. How can I tailor a special gift subscription offer? Also how can I offer a "browser version" of my newsletter for people to keep aside from their inbox and share?
Thank you for these. Is it possible to note on stats the source of a new email sign up? It would be helpful to know the source for future social media activity.
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