277 Comments

While I'm thinking about it... Can you please stop introducing us as "emerging" writers, as though we only just started writing? What we are is Not Celebrities. When British press Virago began reissuing 19th and early 20th books written by women, they didn't call them "emerging" authors. They told the truth, which is that most women authors had been ignored unless they were wealthy or pretended to be men. The difference today lies in the blue check, whose owners can write whatever pops into their heads and still get accolades. I'm not telling you guys anything you don't know, of course, but I look forward to seeing how (or if) you seriously address it without losing profitability. Seizing the bull by the horns might be the only way.

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Thank you for letting us know that word feels off! Noted.

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Thanks for all you guys are doing!

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I launched a Substack with some friends and colleagues in February. We write about the more unknown sides to Japanese culture and our model is totally free. Initially we gained followers from friends and family but have really struggled to attract subscribers outside of our network. We have dabbled with some social media ads but they haven't really worked. How do you promote and grow your community? Any tips of suggestions would be well received please.

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Good topic. I publish weekly, devoted to the practical side of kindness. Just started in April and got 100+ subscribers pretty quickly, but am now struggling to get a few each week. I believe in what I'm publishing and am in it for the long haul, but could sure use some ideas to grow subscribers.

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How about subscribing each other writers for the starters, to gain confidence and enthusiasm?

I joined just yesterday. Planning to subscribe a bunch of writers here tom. ☺️

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A big, and great topic!

Our team is always studying what successful writers have done. In our knowledge, social media ads haven't worked well. Consistently promoting your own writing, however, does. Meaning: tell everyone!

Other best practices to consider:

- Are you *engaging* your existing readers in any way? they can be your biggest advocates. Surveys, community spaces, threads, calls to action. Make explicit asks.

- Collaborations with other writers can help expand your audience.

- Make sure your newsletter a polished presence and a structured format. Land on a topic, style, and schedule that you’re able to maintain.

- Give your newsletter a sharp enough focus, and communicate that, so that a prospective reader will be able to say "this is for me"

Some additional writer advice is here:

https://on.substack.com/p/getting-your-first-100-signups

https://on.substack.com/p/how-delia-cai-grew-deez-links-from

https://on.substack.com/p/how-scott-hines-got-his-first-1000

https://on.substack.com/p/zero-to-

https://library.substack.com/p/what-writers-can-do-for-readers-casey-newton

https://library.substack.com/p/how-abigail-koffler-grew-her-email

https://library.substack.com/p/how-petition-grew-their-newsletter

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oh and we publish every week religiously.

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yup, I publish every week too and am really struggling with growth.

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I subscribed Melinda. Very useful for my fatherly duties!

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aww, thanks!!

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A very late reply but I think you might both enjoy my newsletter: www.thenewfatherhood.org

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It seems to me that newsletter promotion is about finding your niche audience and then just trying to use social media and personal connections to get it in front of people's faces. Are there any other secret tricks?

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I've had some luck with facebook groups and reaching out to similar newsletters.

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When reaching out, are you asking them to share you? How specifically do you interact with the FB groups/other newsletters?

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I've done guest Q&As with other newsletter writers, which they then feature in their newsletters. On FB, I try to keep it organic and not be annoyingly self-promoy if that makes sense. I write a book rec newsletter, so if I see someone looking for a book, I'll say "oh, you might like xyz, here's a post I wrote about it."

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You can only spread the word yourself so far! I would ask: how might other people be excited to help you?

Other writers perhaps who respect your work may be game to cross-promote/shout out.

And it's worth considering empowering your readers to help you spread the word and tell the story of why your newsletter is so remarkable. How do you make that easy, even exciting, for them? (e.g. Alison Roman provides links to PDFs of recipes).

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I second this completely.

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Hi @Eliz. I just posted a tip for using LinkedIn. Not sure what your niche is and if LinkedIn might work for you.

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I'm wondering what we can do to ensure that our newsletters pop up when people search Substack for our newsletter keywords. I have a parenting newsletter with 1600 subscribers and it still doesn't appear when people search Substack for "parenting." Is it just a matter of getting more subscribers? (I think some of the newsletters that do pop up are smaller, so I'm confused about how this is decided.) Thanks!

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Yes, this! I can't ever find my own newsletter (which is about children's books, so fairly specific and niche) and my stats show that almost no one is coming to me via Substack itself.

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I find the same.

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Hi Melinda! It's a great question. We don't show all the search hits per query, but order them by a ranking algorithm. This is likely why searching your tags on Substack doesn't show your publication. And, we don't disclose our ranking algorithm so that folks can't game it.

Sorry for the confusion. I know we want to expand the discoverability of search going forward, so hang tight!

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I understand that you can't disclose your algorithm, but can you give a few practical tips for writers who want to increase their chances of being discovered through the search function?

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(I'm speaking a bit more in depth to our engineers about this and learning myself. If I dig up some valuable tips, will share back!)

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Echoing Melinda’s comment. SEO seems to be terrible on substack posts. It’s the number one worry I have with the platform going forward. I search for things that absolutely should surface my own posts and it doesn’t.

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Hi @Bailey. Sorry, but I'm confused by your answer. What's the point of using tags if they aren't searchable? Thanks for helping me understand.

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It's hard to compete with name brands on Substack, so yes, do tell about promotion and targeting specific audiences! I have a good platform, but expanding beyond it is the next frontier, and it's not the cakewalk it sounds. Also, archive is a terrible word for my fast-growing and current collection of posts. Can we change that? Thanks, guys. It's obvious you're overwhelmed, so appreciate this chance to engage.

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Annette, love your idea of changing the name 'archive' to 'collection' or something similar.

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Thanks, Heather! I love Collections, which makes it sound all special and curated and not dusty and old. 😃

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I include a link in my weekly article to the archives. Thanks to you I am now calling the link my 'collection'. It sounds so much nicer (and less old!!). Hoping Substack makes the change on their end, too. Thanks again, @Annette Laing.

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You're welcome! Btw, Heather, can we add a post to more than one section? Just hoping you know before I get going with mine!

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I don't know. I'm not using multiple sections. Let me know how it goes for you!

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MS Edge has that Collection feature instead of bookmark

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Have shared this with our team! I can't make any promises, but let's see :)

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I'm a historian, a former academic, and a missionary for history. Therefore I remain a bit of a schmuck: My advice is free. Hoping it's compatible with your business plan. 😃

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You may want to rethink your use of the word “schmuck.” Like “putz,” it literally means “penis,” rather in the way “dick” is used in American English (not sure about elsewhere). And while both can be used to mean a dope/hapless/naive, etc., person, they’re pretty much the height of vulgarity in Yiddish. A schmuck is also nasty person, someone who is cruel to others in order to get ahead. As Leo Rosten wrote, “a son of a bitch.” I’ve heard “putz” used that way, too. From the context, it sounds as though you mean “shlemiel,” which doesn’t carry the same connotations as the other two words. Just a suggestion. PS I love the phrase “missionary for history.”

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Words change. Look up the Oxford English Dictionary before trolling. Unless, of course, you know exactly what you're doing, in which case do not, I warn, try to mansplain to me again.

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One reason I chose Substack is because of the ability to generate an email list and send out my newsletter at no cost. I've used Mailchimp and SendinBlue before and, while they are terrific, they are harder to use and get costly as your email list grows. So thanks to Substack, both for the simplicity of the format and the email capability.

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We're glad to hear that Subtack has offered simplicity to reach your readers. That's the goal. Thanks for being here, Heather!

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I'd love the ability to house pdf's on substack, so my readers can get a download from a newsletter, or perhaps when they sign up. Right now the pdf would have to be housed somewhere else, such as on another website. I have another website, but I'm trying to move everything to substack. Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

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Good news coming soon on this front

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Oh, the suspense..... 💜

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What @rob said :)

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This! I'm also uploading my PDFs onto Google Drive. I fear readers will share the PDFs with those who aren't paid-up subscribers.

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Also trying to move everything to Substack!

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Hi Charlotte. Know the thread is over for this week, but I just checked out your substack site and noticed that you are linking your articles to your website. (By the way, awesome topic. Wish I sailed - only claim to that is turtling a Hobie Cat) May I ask why you are moving everything? ⛵

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I am one of those people writing here to GROW an audience. Somewhere after 30 weekly publications of "The Conscious Politics Sunday Newsletter," which my tiny readership seems to appreciate far more than not, I searched my name and "conscious politics" and got ZERO results. Zero. No idea what to even do with that, not feeling like I'm in a place where I can be seen and grow. Nor would I encourage someone to come here as a reader and search topics because god only knows what they'd be shown/what they'd find. It's hard enough, people. This is demoralizing.

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Didn't mean to sound so cranky but saw the email about this and thought it was my only shot. Nice to see I'm not alone on this particular subject. I honestly thought that the BUSINESS of Substack included cultivating writers -- it makes money when we do. Substack owes me nothing, for sure, just expected more in the realm of that cultivation piece.

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Hey Steven! It's great to see your readership steadily growing. We're eager to continue improving on discoverability of awesome writers outside of the platform, and a lot of this stuff is out of our hands as well.

Here are some details on how Google indexes pages: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/intro-indexing

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Thanks for this, rrt. (As for my readership steadily growing...may that be true for all who desire it.)

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Hi @rrt. I read thru this info and am not sure that there is anything I can do on Substack to improve my discoverability. This recommends using site maps, which I could do on my own website, but not on Substack. I also see that it mentions using links in an article, but if I start providing links to other sites, I'm thinking that will only help them, and not me. I do have a question about using my own domain (instead of PracticalKindness.substack.com using PracticalKindness.com). Would this make a difference? I have the domain and could set it up (with your $50 payment). I'm hesitant because all of my current url's will be wrong and I have posted those in other places (twitter, LinkedIn). But if that would make a difference, then I should do it now, before I have a ton of articles to change. Can you please provide some advice on this? Thank you.

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Thank you everyone for these great questions! And for answering each other's questions.

We are wrapping this week's thread, but will be back next week with more.

In the meantime, we have lots of great resources for you here: https://substack.com/resources and in our own "Library" archive.

Happy writing all,

Bailey + Rishi + Katie + Nick + Jamil

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Thanks!

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Thank you for joining! And welcome to Substack

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Really enjoying it!

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Bailey, I contacted support, I posted last night, but none of my subscribers received. I tried to figure it out myself,waiting to hear back (I got a auto email already) from support. Is there any other place I should email? It’s actually kinda cute, some of my subscribers emailed me asked where the Friday newsletter it! 😊 thanks for any help. Best, Jolene

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Thanks Bailey, this was my first time on a thread, this was most helpful!

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Thank *you* for jumping in and helping so many fellow writers!

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Happy to help :-)

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Hi, just popping in to say hello. I’ve recently started a Substack about baking 100-year-old recipes in my tiny 1927 apartment galley kitchen. Really enjoying it and would love to learn more about building my readership. Thanks!

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Wow! This is fascinating. I've been mildly obsessed with food history for the past year. Subscribed!

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Thank you, I’m jumping over to your page right now!

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Reading now :)

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Hi and thanks! :)

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Yum. Just subscribed. Can't wait!

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Kindness! Love it! Subscribed!

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So fun! Subscribing now!

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Aww thank you! I’ll do the same!

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What a great topic! Just subscribed.

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Thank you! I’m going to your page now!

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To grow a publication you need to publish alot of content. This takes hardwork and dedication. What is Substack doing behind the scenes to help us get our content discovered?

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Hey MaraRey! This is a huge focus for our teams - the product folks and the community team. I hope you will see more valuable work from us on this front in the coming weeks and months. Stay tuned.

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Bailey, I will stay tuned! Thanks for the response. I truly appreciate it! I plan to make a top publication in the arts industry. And I plan to use Substack to make this happen! Just waiting for the right little nudge to make it happen! :)

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Well, let me take this opportunity to introduce myself, as Mick says... I have a publication about my life as a rock and roll photographer -- one of the first women, mind you! And would love any one of you interested to subscribe. To offset the mundane world of rock 'n roll, I also have a publication about life, death and everything in-between. I don't care how many people subscribe, how much money I might make but what I do care about is expressing myself and I'm loving expressing myself on substack. It just feels wonderful to having complete freedom to just write. People ask me to do a memoir - forget it. this is much easier! Best wishes to everyone for whatever reason you are using substack... and may all your longings come true.

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Rad! Reading now :)

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Thank you. In my day, we'd say bitchen! I see it and groovy are making a comeback!

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PS. If you liked my post, you'll enjoy the whole book about it all... www.cockerpowerbook.com

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Would it be possible to add a category called "Investing" or "Stocks" in the Discover tab in the Substack Reader? My Substack provides Asian stock ideas, and I find its value proposition to be a bit different from the Substacks listed in either the Business or Finance sections. Increasing the number of Substacks in the Discover tab from 25 to say 50 would also help us small guys get recognition.

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Yes. So agree. My publication doesn't really fit into any of the current categories. Thanks for bringing this up, Michael.

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Thank you for the feedback! We most likely won't add too many categories in the near future. We've taken a look at the data and are mindful of making any categories too slim. That said, please let me know @heather which category you'd like to see and I will note that down.

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My newsletter is devoted to exploring the practical benefits of kindness. The only options I see are 'religion' (doesn't fit) and 'philosophy' (doesn't fit). I'd love to see a category for 'Kindness' or 'Happiness'. There are a few other newsletters that flirt with kindness and they are also in categories that don't really make sense. Thank you @Bailey for being open to possibilities!

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My newsletter is what we used to call "hyper - local". I am covering business and construction in downtown Des Moines. Point taken about not wanted to make your categories too slim, but I think touting local news would be a lift for some of us.

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There needs to be a crypto category, though. It's taking over like 3 other categories (tech, finance, business), and there's a clear difference between people interesting in crypto and the rest of those categories.

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I was writing a weekly blog on Substack of primarily memoirs, that appeal to universal human experiences. After 19 weeks I grew exhausted of the time & energy that I was putting into the work, only to have nominal subscribers (despite diligent social media promotion). What’s the secret to increase subscribers?

Part 2 - When Substack curates your article, are they looking more at content or your following numbers?

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I just started a newsletter kind of like this where I write about my direct experiences with different big picture aspects of life, and like publishing memoirs, I think the challenge with growing a newsletter like this is that you are covering a wide range of topics, and each topic might have a completely different audience.

I have been doing generic social media promotion without much success, but next I'm going to try to find conversations or groups online that are talking about topics related to each of my Substack posts, then join the conversation and find a way to link to the post that I think is relevant.

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Our approach is very similar. On the first part, I like to believe if they pop on and like your style, they should want to subscribe, to see what’s next. Ahh, in a perfect literary world, not consumed with 7 second Vlogs.

On the latter approach, I share to 40 Facebook groups. HOWEVER, they are not topic specific & that might be an excellent suggestion! Social Media concentration (I’m 52) is, in and of itself, exhausting homework. Thank you and best of luck.

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I too am nervous about exhausting myself with the social media homework and 'hustle'. From what I've seen, this can be a finite task just to get a core following who, like you said, subscribe because they like your style and want to see what's next.

Once that following exists, then I think there's a choice to just put your energy into your readers, and make it easy for your readers to share your work with others from there on out.

Having not been successful with this myself, I'm just guessing based on my observations of others.

Thanks and best of luck to you too!

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Hey Joseph! I'm sorry to hear this. And I get it. It's important to feel that you're writing is being seen and having an impact.

When you say "curates" your article, what do you mean exactly?

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I write a weekly poetry newsletter and I am up to 6000+ subscribers. When you say approx 5-10% of readers will subscribe and pay for the content, what open rate should we be looking for to get in that range? I am considering putting up a paywall soon by offering two additional posts per week. Is it better to post more content up front, and then "take it away" with the paywall, or to do what I'm thinking which is to offer bonus along with a the paid option?

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The value of your writer-reader relationship can be measured along two major axes: your reach (the size of your audience) and your engagement (how much they’re paying attention).

In order to benchmark those, however, you’ll first need to figure out what your financial goals are for going paid. If you’re going full-time, your financial needs might be different from a writer who wants a part-time side project. Be honest with yourself! It’s okay to dream big, and it’s just as okay to say you don’t want to invest time in a full-time project.

Got a number in mind? Great. Now it’s time to do a bit of napkin math:

In the best of circumstances, we typically see conversion rates of 5-10% for writers who are going paid. You can use your email open rates to help approximate whether to use a high or low conversion rate. If your email open rates are typically less than 30%, use a 3% conversion rate. If your email open rates are typically 30-50%, use a 5% conversion rate. If your email open rates are greater than 50%, use a 10% conversion rate.

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Very helpful, thank you!

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My teammate @nadia has done *a lot* to get to these answers. I hope we can get this knowledge out to more and more writers so y'all can use it to your benefit!

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I wanna not worry about money. Which means not having a lot or having other people worry about it for me.

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As for your content questions.

Think about the additional value you’re going to provide your readers. Give them more of what they already love!

Think about your free content as the writing that draws new people into your orbit. While it seems counterintuitive, your free content should be your best work, effectively serving as an advertisement for your paid work.

Write free content that you hope others will share based on its quality and appeal to a broad audience. It should show off what you’re about and entice new readers to sign up for more.

By contrast, your paid content is for readers who already know who you are. This is your place to share your more unfiltered, experimental self.

Generally speaking, readers subscribe to paid newsletters because they want a closer connection. They’re hoping for more of your unique insights that they can’t get anywhere else. Perhaps it’s your analysis of and commentary on the news, personal stories about your daily life, or access to members-only discussions with other subscribers.

Here are a few examples of what Substack writers offer to paying subscribers:

1:X ratio of free-to-paid posts: Judd Legum of Popular Information publishes four days a week, Monday through Thursday: 1 free post and 3 paid posts.

Weekly paid posts with free previews: Richard Rushfield of The Ankler writes an insiders’ newsletter about the entertainment industry. He publishes paid posts 1-2x/week and occasional free posts (1x/month), as well as a free preview version of his paid posts.

Private member community: Nadia Bolz-Weber of The Corners publishes occasional free posts (1-2x/month). Paying subscribers get behind-the-scenes access to Q&As, community discussion threads, quarterly book clubs, and guest posts.

Serial books: Alex Danco publishes a serial book called Scarcity in the Software Century, released in segments exclusively through paid posts.

Exclusive bonus material: Flow State publishes free good-for-working-to music recommendations every weekday. Paying subscribers get access to curated Spotify playlists.

For more ideas, check out how Walt Hickey of Numlock News launched multiple newsletters, where he discusses different possible pricing strategies.

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This is an accurate description of the pricing structure for Popular Information until March 2020, when I removed the paywall and started sending all my content to everyone. There has not been a negative impact on my paid subscriber growth. YMMV.

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That's amazing. So you took down the paywall and people still paid? How do you rationalize that to them? I wish I could take down my paywall but I feel guilty for the people who pay.

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Thank you for updating us Judd!

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Love your poetry. Just signed up. Thank you!

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Thanks Heather!

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I shared it with my daughter. She lived in San Fran for 12 years before moving to Atlanta. She works for WebMD, so she'll be checking it out after work. She did tell me that she loves the photo!

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Well, that’s a start!

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In the Editor, I do not find 'undo' button which I suppose is essential for writers. Can you make the Line button a toggle option? While writing a post, accidentally I pressed it but couldn't undo it. Would appreciate that.

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Hi Ashok! The draft history feature allows you to revert your draft to a previously saved version. As you write and edit your posts, we automatically save your drafts. You can browse a post's version history and restore your working draft to any previous save point. (https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360059182852-How-do-I-restore-a-post-draft-)

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Thanks Katie!

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One more thing! To delete a "line" you can try these steps:

1. Click somewhere below the line

2. Type a little bit of text

3. Hit the "up" arrow, which should then select the line

4. Press delete

We can definitely make this easier!

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Would appreciate an easier thing!

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I went paid early, because I didn't want to deliver something for free and then ask people to convert. I wanted to give the option straight off the bat to sign up for free or sign up paid with different content options. How can I organically grow my paid subscribers?

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Hi Eliz, a tips I will offer you.

- Keep sharing your free posts. When you publish something new, tell your followers on social media, or encourage your subscribers to share your post with others. Don’t assume that just because you’ve shared your newsletter once, you don’t have to talk about it again. Create as many touchpoints as you can for new readers to discover your work.

- Find new audiences to break into – that are relevant to your ideal readership, of course. If you write about business, where else can you find business readers that you haven’t reached already? Keep promoting yourself and your publication on interviews and guest posts, find other writers to cross-promote your work, and get to know others with large followings that are relevant to your readership.

- Remind your free subscribers. It’s easy for free subscribers to forget that you have a paid offering if you don’t tell them about it. Include a call-to-subscribe in your free posts; share summaries of what they missed from your paid posts that week; and run occasional discounts, free trials, or special offers to encourage them to switch.

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These ideas are really helpful. Has substack ever looked into how often we should write for paid subscribers to keep them paying? There must be a drop off point when they see that the free content is all they want. I’m just not sure how much to do for each group.

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I dont have any issues with Substack. I am having a problem with posting content. I reread the Resources like Deez Links and others, I rewatch Masterclass and try to post in other communities but they are not active. I would love to join a group of amateur writers, check in, share and hold accountable each other, like Ycombinator.

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I just joined a Substack Community on Discord and its active. Its helped me a lot already! https://discord.gg/afa6vRuF

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I like the name of it. Just joined it. Thank you for sharing!

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Hey Meder! I host something called 'Writers' Hour' - free daily writing sessions 4x each weekday with writers around the world. It's a wonderful community, very active. We'd love for you to join us: http://writershour.com/

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I did and had the first session today! :) i liked it, wrote more than usual. Thanks for sharing!

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I saw, Meder! I'll look out for you again and would love to call on you next time you're with us

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Interesting thought. I started eight weeks ago without much of a plan and this is the very first time that I join (or even heard of) a thread. I think some kind of community to help each other to get started would have helped me when I started. And as I just admitted that I had never known about threads just proves how much I can still learn from others. And what is "Masterclass" that you referred to?

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Yeah, I knew about threads but did not know how to use them. Check out masterclass.com, they have a lot of great writers. Only like $15/month or something.

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