Have questions about publishing, growing, or going paid on Substack?
The Substack team, and your fellow writers, are here to help!
Today we’re gathering the writer community and members of our Community, Product, and Writer Development teams together in a thread to answer writer questions for an hour.
Looking for new ways to get to know your readers? Some inspiration: Stained Pages News hosts a book club and Walk It Off recently hosted a thoughtful discussion thread. Notice how active Isaac, the author of Walk It Off, was in the discussion.
Pro tip: approach other writers’ Substacks as a student. There is something to learn about format, promotion, and platform features from the way each writer uses Substack.
Are you planning to launch paid subscriptions? To get started, check out the launch guide we created as part of Substack Grow. Writers like Melinda Moyer follow the best practices of launch by writing a clear, thoughtful launch post on Substack and creating an abbreviated version to tease on social media.
Drop your questions in the thread and we’ll do our best to supercharge each other.
Our team will be in the thread today from 9 am - 10 am PDT / 12 pm - 1 pm EDT answering questions with you.
Next week we have two special guests: Tim and Mike from Substack’s legal team. We will open the thread early and host the live portion later in the day to accommodate more writers. Bring your legal questions.
Thanks for coming to this week's Office Hours! The Substack team is signing off for today.
Next week we have two special guests for Office Hours: Tim and Mike from Substack’s legal team. We will open the thread early and host the live portion later in the day to accommodate more writers. Bring your legal questions!
And, we're sharing new resources on the Blog regularly. We have a new post coming out later today. Keep your eyes out: https://on.substack.com/s/resources
Happy Writing!
Katie + Bailey + Mike + Lisa + Damesha + Kerianne + Sergey
Hey all - we hope that everyone's having a great week! We wanted to share Citizen Scholar here with the group in case anyone's interested in subscribing or collaborating - we're a team of writers that launched ~2 weeks ago with a simple mission in mind: to bring together a community of readers who value the study & discussion of important ideas that shed light on the past, present and potentially, our future. More precisely, we’re interested in ideas that can enrich and improve our daily and civic lives (always with a positive & inclusive tone). We cover a book or a significant text/work every Friday morning (hits your inbox at 6am ET) discussing its key ideas and implications for our readers. Since launching on September 3rd, we've been amazed & humbled by the response thus far hitting 200 sign-ups in less than two weeks! We would love to have anyone join us that enjoys reading & lessons from history, classical literature, politics and psychology :) We hope to have you join us and we would welcome any collaboration opportunities with anyone that may have a similar/relevant focus on Substack - thank you!
Your Substack is great, and I am already a subscriber.
And I'd love to collaborate. I sent you a message (over on Discord) about a book I've been working through on US/St. Louis history, racism, and violence (The Broken Heart of America). I think it would be great to cover on Citizen Scholar, and I will also be writing about it on my own Substack.
Hey Jackie - thank you so much for your kind note and for your suggestion! We're so excited that you've decided to join us at Citizen Scholar - we'll get back to you on Discord :)
This is awesome and congrats! I write mostly about science and human health, but would love to see how we could collab since I’m a huge psychology and history nerd :) recently read Psychology of Money which I loved.
Hey Christina - thank you so much! We would love to have you join us and discuss collaboration opportunities - we're also huge science and human health nerds so we have a lot in common :)
Subscribed. I write Admiral's Log-mostly politics although I am most interested in history and classical literature. Lots of material to write about these days in politics--serious overload! I look forward to reading your material! Jim, jimgeorge.substack.com.
I'd love to join up! I love reading history, and even wrote a book about it. Right now I talk about the outdoors, but access to outdoor areas and trails has all-of-a-sudden become a big political issue where I live, and I'm currently working on a documentary about it. Maybe something here is worth a collab for you? I'd love to discuss further
There must be a great American novel about authenticity I could offer some comments on, right?! Gatsby. American Psycho. On The Road. Fear & Loathing...
I've signed up and will see if collaboration opportunities look possible. I write about science, society and the environment, from an evidence-based perspective, and I love reading on these topics too.
Thank you for joining us, Melanie! We're thrilled to have you join our community and welcome the collaboration opportunity discussion, feel free to reach out to us directly if you see it as a fit - thanks again :)
I'm on both Substack and Medium. While I love posting on Substack more than on Medium because of the interface and other features, I find that far more Medium members find my posts and subscribe internally than on Substack. My Medium posts are also more visible on search engines. How can Substack improve in this regard? I'd love to switch to Substack exclusively, but due to success elsewhere, I can't just yet.
Hi Jenny! Thanks for this feedback. You aren't alone in feeling this and this is something that we are actively working on improving. We hope to demonstrate some improvements on this front in the coming months...stay tuned!
Hello, Jenny. We are actively working on making Substack posts more visible on search engines, so, hopefully, there will be improvements on that front. As for discovery - we also have some things in the works, but we want to be careful there. We want writers to be in control of their newsletters, so we intentionally aren't adding promotional links to posts. There are a number of strategies writers succesfully use to grow their readership - social media, commenting on other writers' posts, including calls to action in your posts, reaching out to community leaders in your sphere, etc. We have some resources on that here - https://substack.com/resources
For SEO, it helps to have your newsletter featured on other newsletter sites as well as have a catchy name. Mine always comes up via Substack but also from socials as well as newsletter sites that share (which are free).
Hi Jenny! I share your frustrations. I published a short piece on my Substack for fellow writers about things you should be doing after you start your Substack. These tips include participating in these Office Hours (!) but also how to get listed on Google, how to track your analytics, and more. https://storycauldron.substack.com/p/so-you-have-a-substack-what-next
I haven't seen much improvement to the interface/UX when it comes to making it obvious to non-logged-in-Substack readers (either on a different device or browser) who come to the site to become paid members.
A lot of them get the screen that asks them for their email again, and they're confused because they're already subscribers to the list, and for those on the fence about signing up, this extra friction can be enough to make them give up.
I really wish it was made much clearer that to see the paid options you need to be logged in, and to have obvious "login" buttons rather than the super small, super low-contrast text hidden in the bottom/corner of the page.
I've also had a complaint from a paid subscriber that she "needs to sign in again" before commenting, and it;'s not clear to me, even after talking with her, what's going on. But this seems connected.
Agree. The whole interface is troubling and makes people not want to interact. I know that I personally get annoyed when I have to sign in to comment on another SS's newsletter. But that might just be me being in a crabby mood.
Agree about the need to make commenting more user-friendly. I suspect, without any immediate data at my fingertips, that interactivity is important in building a subscriber base. Comments help readers feel part of a family and , thus, feel more inclined to commit.
A friend just called me and told me she is a subscriber but couldn't comment. I thought maybe she was doing something wrong, but it looks like it's systematic. I'll have to tell her it's not her.
Hello Liberty, great to see you here! Thanks for the feedback, we definitely want to improve our login experience. I'll bring this up with the relevant team today, will try to prioritize this issue.
Thank you Sergey! I appreciate your help with this. I feel like it can only be beneficial to all substack writers AND the company, so seems like quite the high-leverage low-hanging fruit. Cheers.
Yes! I finally asked readers why they comment on Facebook instead of substack and they all said it's easier than going through a login page. I agree with them! So it's really hard to get a conversation/community on this site.
Eh. I have been saying this for months. Notice your readers also cant comment on iphone or ipad because the comments don't load on safari. I also get people commenting by replying to the email and then I have to ask if I can cut and paste into comments.
I look at the people who get gazillions of comments and wish Substack would explain why those readers seem to want to use laptops and stay in substack rather than going back to social media. Look at Matt Taibbi site. I would love to know how he's doing that massive engagement around the barriers here.
Hey guys! Are there any non-fiction writers who would like to write a guest post or make a cross promo? Here is my newsletter, see if it’s the right niche for you: https://thatsphilosophical.substack.com/
I write 10+1 Things where Insgare 11 interesting stories every week finely handpicked from the universe of information!
Loved you Substack and subbed already! Let's do a cross-promo? Would love to feature you in one of the future editions!
In the latest edition of my newsletter, I talk about the story of Cereal Entrepreneurs, a Decentralized country, Earth's Perfume and the Pale Blue Dot.
Who would I ask a question about why we aren't showing up on our main tag at all -- Travel -- while Substacks that have either gone dormant for months or never even published show up on the results page and we don't? We've been growing steadily on our own for five months but it feels like we're being held back because new readers can't find us on Substack. Thanks!
I've also had this issue. Commenting here to see if it gets noticed. I publish weekly like clockwork and still get out-ranked by dormant stacks, or ones with no posts at all that have said "Coming soon" for months.
Amen to that. And the choices of featured and promoted Substacks seems to lean toward the eccentric, obscure, and hipstery... which devalues a platform heavy in experienced journos.
Hello, Michael! I see you at #13 at https://substack.com/discover/category/travel - and we are only showing the top 6 on the front page at the moment. But keep up the good work and I'm sure you'll get there!
Hard to get higher from the top six without the exposure on that page. Suggest making page loner or including an index. After all, if we make money, you make money
This was awesome. Thank you Substack for always having our backs and hosting these forums. As always, feel free to connect with me if you want to cross promote or anything, happy to help your substack grow. https://youtopianjourney.substack.com/
Good morning and thank you for this opportunity to learn and hear about such great new ideas! I need all the help I can get! I write Admiral's Log at jimgeorge.substack.com, mostly about politics but occasionally about random other areas as well. Considering my age (87 years young this very day! If I would have known I would live this long, I would have taken better care of myself! Old joke but very apropos this day!) and fortunate retirement situation, I have no plans to try to go to a paid subscription basis and would sure welcome anyone who may appreciate some perhaps-too-pithy (at times) observations on the current state of the Greatest Nation ever created by the Mind of Man in the history of the world, please do join me and also please let me have your helpful observations as to what I should be doing better, etc. God Bless America! Sincerely, Jim George
Hey all, I recently started a Substack about authenticity in the USA and am looking to build a following. My big question is this: how is discovery on Substack compared with something like Medium or a traditional hosted blog? In other words, how much self-promotion is required here?
Would love to connect with some other writers, so please swing by and chat if you like.
Heyo! Bailey from Substack HQ here. What we know is that discovery within the Substack network is not insignificant, but it could be better [and we're working on changing it actively ;)]. There's a lot of exciting work on the way for writers but I am sworn to secrecy !
For now, I'll mention that the current power of the Substack network is that once someone subscribes to on Substack, that reader's payment information is on file with us. It takes just 1-2 clicks for readers who are already in our system to subscribe to another Substack. I know that these numbers are impactful for writers who have gone paid, though we don't share the data publicly on exactly what impact that has.
Sorry. I wrote this before I realized that you changed the Substack homepage to include links a few newsletters and a list of categories. The last time I looked it was just information about starting a Substack. That is an improvement. But realistically, it is not a "destination" page like Medium. And I don't expect it to be. And I was not thinking about discoverability via posts like these or comments. Another error on my part. Still, the bulk of promotion/discoverability falls on the writer. Don't get me wrong. I love Substack! I just don't love promotion. 🤣
Additionally, we won't become the TikTok of writing. The discovery tools we build will be aimed towards helping readers and writers continue to be in control of what they see and how their work is presented, respectively. You can see some of the directions we are exploring in our latest product features - https://on.substack.com/p/new-ways-recommend-discover
Unfortunately, "discoverability" on the Substack website is insignificant. I doubt anyone except writers ever visit the Substack home page. It doesn't have content like Medium or a blog. It is up to you to promote your newsletter. But there are many ways to do that. Social media, cross-promotions, advertising, FB groups, joining Substack Discord servers, etc. Promotion is not fun, but necessary until your newsletter gets well-known (I wish!)
Hello Mark. https://stairsteps.substack.com features a daily word expo along with solutions to our daily crossword puzzles. The expo features sentences from various works and notes the author and the title. We're interested in featuring present day writers but need permission to do so and equally importantly direction from writers on which work they would like promoted. Check it out and get in contact if you are interested. We'd love to feature your writing.
I should have said discoverability is "not great" instead of "insignificant." That was too harsh. There is discoverability via comments and a little on the home page. And Substack is addressing the discoverablilty issue. My apologies to Substack for my poor choice of words.
Did you join a Substack server like Substack Writers Unite, or did you just sign up on Discord.com? You can start your own Discord server, but that is far too much for anyone to explain here. But you can also join existing servers. That is what I did. I joined Substack Writers Unite (Elle Griffin's discord server.)
Yup, everything you've written pretty much backs up my suspicions and what I've read elsewhere, haha. It's a shame because I'd love to be able to just focus on the writing, but I guess that comes later...
Hey folks, writer of How to Talk to Yourself here. I'd love for my substack to be discovered more easily, but I'm not sure how many people are stumbling across it now. Are analytics available for how many hits/subscriptions a newsletter gets from https://substack.com/discover?
Appreciate the service. Question: my newsletter is always sent as a “Promotion” by gmail, maybe other service, and not “Primary.” Is this happening to anyone else?
THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM! I hate this because it is a daunting task and I have no idea if any of them are even moving it or not even after repetitive inquisition!
Hey, subscribers did not make it... I am saying It felt like I was making inquisitions.. asking them if it is in Promotions or the sub is in spam because some of them could not find it. Inquisitions also mean a period of prolonged and intensive questioning.
Hi! My parents both keep telling me that they haven't got my newsletters in their inbox recently, they end up being filtered into some kind of 'promotions' folder. They have moved them into the correct folder. My overall open rate is also down. Could this be to do with going paid a couple months ago? How can I make sure my emails are being received properly?
To add to this - Gmail is in control of what lands in the Promotions folder. If you want your Substack emails in you main inbox (like I do!), you should let the Gmail team know - https://twitter.com/gmail
Aparently this is a recurring problem with all gmail users. I've put information in the "about" section to remind people to move these emails into their primary inbox. At least yours aren't going to spam.
There has been some back-and-forth about whether the amount of links within a post convince google it is spam, but I have not heard anything concrete on this.
This might be a WILD idea (and I agree that it doesn't fix the underlying problem) but I turned off the Promotions tab in my Gmail settings 😱 ! If interested, can be done under Settings --> Inbox --> Categories and only keep Primary selected.
I turned promotions off as soon as they came out with it. The spam filter works really good at catching the spam and all other newsletters go to my inbox. What a novel concept. Some programmer had to go and mess up a good thing by fixing something that wasn’t broke.
If your list size went up quite a bit, your open rate may go down (the "denominator" got a lot larger!). I wonder if that may be the case here given your At Length feature? As for ensuring that your parents and readers see the emails, we take a lot of steps on our end to try to ensure Substack emails reach the reader's main inbox, but over time the reputation that your newsletter builds up with readers it the most important input.
Asking your readers to drag the emails back to the inbox helps. Also you can encourage them to write to you at your @substack.com address, which helps Gmail recognize your emails.
Hey Bailey! Many of my subscribers have moved my emails from promotion to primary, replied to the newsletter, but still seeing the newsletter in the promotions tab!
Also one of my subscriber do not recieve the email at all. I had her resubscribe, but the same issue persists.
I think a lot has to be done on the email delivery side considering other newsletter platforms are not facing the issue. Could you please let the product/engg team know about this?
Florence, I have an ongoing issue with this with a paid subscriber in the UK in Virgin's wildblueyonder platform, and they supply zero advice on fixing it, and have been reduced to begging her to get help from a techhy person! For Gmail, as you saw, it's a little easier. Emailing people I suspect have run into this is another thing I have resorted to . . .
Hey guys! I review nonfiction over at Ascending Bookstacks. I'm a historian, but I write this newsletter to see how topics from technology and climate change to immigration and capitalism can be understood through the lens of faith. Just reviewed a book on Trump-era border policies today. Great to see others here thinking through books too!
That is an amazing title and you are surely interesting! I am big time into books and reviewing books- i experiment with all genres and love NF - https://www.instagram.com/belladonnaoflavender/
Hello! I'm using substack to publish my YA novel in serial form. I'm super new here and have a tiny list of subscribers, but I wanted to share one tactic that I've found useful. I post on IG stories every time I publish a new chapter and offer to sign up anyone that drops me their email address (I use the "Ask Me a Question" sticker.) I've had way more people share their email addresses that way than click the link in my bio and go through the subscribe process.
I love this idea, Jenessa! I am an avid Instagrammer (more than any other platform) and rather not have to post on Twitter and FB and all of the social media things. I love IG stories and was thinking about easier ways to get them to sub. The link in bio is not the best practice and I don't have that swipe up feature just yet. This is awesome since it's less work for them to subscribe. Thank you!
It's a simple workaround that requires a bit of data entry, but my numbers are small enough that it's no big deal. Hopefully one day it will be an overwhelming task!
What do you post on IG? I am trying to figure out how to better utilize a visual platform for my writing, so I'd love some tips for content. Could you share your IG?
Hello Jackie! I post photos of myself as a carousel with screen shots of my recent story or a quote from the story. My IG is pretty cohesive and stand alone visual quotes don't work for me well regarding engagement and subs. Reels do really well for me as well! I am going live Thursdays to share a snippet of my latest. If they want to read the rest, they have to go to the link and sub. My IG is https://instagram.com/lovesujeiry if you want to take a peek! I am just ramping up the promo for my newsletter since I started writing again.
Hi there! New writer here. I just launched my newsletter last week and am trying to nail down my format and routine for weekly posts. I write mostly about food and family, with plans to throw in more about travel and wine later on. I'd love some advice from other food writers on Substack about what their readers are interested in most. Is it recipes? Essays? How-tos? To start, I've been sending out an essay per week, with a related recipe the following day.
Welcome! I'm kinda curious about this too in a broad sense... balancing some story narrative posts, with others containing hard factual information. Would love to hear how other writers handle this.
Hey y'all, I write Cole's Climb about outdoors and hiking. An upcoming piece of mine is a gear buying guide for brand new hikers. I love the way footnote links let you jump quickly around the page. Does substack have a feature that allows for other internal links (a la wikipedia?) It would be super helpful to have a master pack list at the top of the article, and let readers click to different sections.
I changed the name of my newsletter after about 28 weeks of publishing. It's essentially the same premise but with (I think) a more descriptive title. It went from The Notable Tribe to Curious Elder. I haven't noticed any reactions from readers.
The "why" is because I thought Curious Elder was more specific to the content than The Notable Tribe. I haven't noticed any surge in signups, but my open rate seems to be growing a little each time it's published. I should also note that I told my subscribers about the change in advance. I have seen no negative consequences yet. I'm happy I made the change, it just feels right.
Oh, sorry I realize now that was a bit vague. I'm trying to think of a way to couch my question as a metric you actually can track.
Maybe -- do viewers unsubscribe from substacks that regularly publish posts that take longer to read at a higher rate than they do posts with shorter read times?
I don't know if there is a way to see if viewers actually read all the way through and completely finish reading a post. I've tried to end with calls to action. But this experiment has been inconclusive so far for me.
My posts average around 750, but I'm adding a mix of more utility posts. Next week's is almost 3,000. And I'm working on a very long-form piece where I interview many different people, and I imagine that will be a monster too.
I publish a newsletter every two weeks about the Gray Areas in the world and ourselves called The Gray Area. Lately, I have been writing a lot about productivity and filmmaking. You can find it here: https://tscreativ.substack.com
I am hoping to grow my readership with the future goal of going paid. Any tips?
Hi, everyone! It's the folks behind Animation Obsessive again -- the weekly guide to animation from around the world.
Our question is a little odd this week. We love interacting with other writers in our field (animation). For example, the animator Coleen Baik runs an awesome newsletter called The Line Between that delves into her life and art: https://www.the-line-between.com/
Our problem is that we're all pretty lonely in the animation lane right now on Substack. Coleen is the only other active, regular animation writer we've found besides ourselves.
So, maybe the best way of phrasing this is -- how do you help to grow your category on Substack? Is there anything we can do to help animation writing become more of a thing here?
Comics are a great lane, too! It's just less where our headspace is. We've found that there's a strangely low amount of crossover between comics and animation in terms of audience, for some reason.
We cover animation of all kinds! 2D, 3D, stop-motion cutouts, claymation, puppets and everything else. If it interests us, we write about it -- no matter how it's made.
Hello! We are the team at https://foot.substack.com/. We currently have 2550 free subs and only 100 paid. Does this seem like a low number of paid to free?
We also applied last week for the Bitcoin payments trial. When should we expect to hear back about this?
Thanks Katie! Our open rate looks to be between 38% and 60%. Do you have suggestions on how we can increase our open rate? Or is your suggestion to just try to increase the number of free subscribers?
I would also like to know what a good ratio is - I have just over 2000 subscribers and only 50 paid, which I worry is a very small conversion percentage compared to the 5-10% I expected. Finding it very hard to get people to convert
Lol I was going to say the same. At the moment the money I make from Substack is better than nothing, but it's not equal to the time, effort and expertise I put into it
for real though, what are your open rates? Substack has an approximate formula based on what your open percentage is, to estimate how many subs will go paid
This is a great mindset. Really, I'm having fun telling exciting stories. Right now I'm actually editing a really cool interview I did last week; it's cool to be able to talk to great people and write what you love.
After a bit of research I am not at all clear on the best way to use threads. Should I only have one open at any given time? How long? Is it better than comments in terms of interaction? Should you strive to make it "real time" like this one? Can I only figure all that out after trial and error with my audience? Anyone in the same boat as me that's a bit hesitant to get started?
If anyone wants to include some original music with their newsletter, you can do that with the "Podcast" feature — I'd love to collaborate and provide you with something custom people can listen to while they read your emails! Let me know :)
That's a great idea! I actually share the music I'm listening to in every edition of my newsletter, 10+1 Things ( https://rishikesh.substack.com/ ) . Can you help me out?
Well, I don't know about including other people's music without permission, since you have to upload an Mp3. What I was trying to say was that, in the spirit of collaboration, I'd love to write music for other Substackers that they can use :) (Like I do on my own newsletter, fogchaser.substack.com)
Well, I don't know about including other people's music without permission, since you have to upload an Mp3. What I was trying to say was that, in the spirit of collaboration, I'd love to write music for other Substackers that they can use :) (Like I do on my own newsletter, fogchaser.substack.com)
Hi Substack community, first time here. My writing introduces paradigm shifts in business and capitalism, and Substack has been my incubation space.
I'm at 54 subscribers and marking the transition from a friends & family community to a wider one. There are some things about my Substack that make it feel unique from the current business model, which is the basis for my feedback.
I publish a crisp 1000-word essay just once a month, so it's a quality over quantity approach. My top goal is for people to find this work. And then just for subscribers, I expound on topics that are more inward-facing and community-oriented. The conventional wisdom here is to publish a lot, and I appreciate that, but I'd also like this platform to be home for less-is-more approaches.
I believe that the mission of this work requires it to always be free to access. Thus, I still aspire for a revenue model that is donation-based or a name-your-price subscription. I'd still be cool with Substack taking 10% for all the benefits it offers as a platform.
As you can tell from my icon, the work is more about developing the project's brand than my personal one. I like that the platform supports multiple authors now. My critique is in SEO results, which don't seem as good as they could be. A small, but meaningful leap for me would be the ability to remove "by Mike Rabin" in the SEO results, so that I can converge more about my essay titles and the Corporate Purpose Project brand.
Thanks for reading and hope a few of you are curious to check out this project. 🙏
First time visitor. Very new to SS. My focus is helping small business leaders get better results from their salespeople and sales organization. Currently publish on LinkedIn and my company website. Regarding syndication, what have others found most successful: post on SS, and link that to my site and other outlets or some other strategy? Appreciate your advice and guidance
We just did a deep dive session with writers on promotions and have a robust write up on it, if you care to check that out it's here: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-4
I've been noticing that the Total Views of my newsletter is almost always way bigger than the number of my subscribers, I can only imagine that people are sharing it more? Is there anything I should do considering this scenario? (more views than subscribers)
Thank you for mentioning this. People were telling me that they had subscribed, but I received no email about it, and I was wondering if they were just blowing smoke you know where. :D
Honestly I haven't found tags useful for anything. I find most of the great Substacks by following these threads and meeting people over in the Substack writers Discord group.
Hey, folks. I write Let Your Life Speak, about rediscovering the lost art of integrity. It's full of personal essays, interviews, and resources. I launched paid subscriptions on 9/6 and had a huge jump in subscribers over the first week. The second week has been slower, but free subscribers are still increasing steadily, so I'm happy about that.
Most things moving forward go behind the paywall starting 9/20. I'm really nervous, to be honest. I have a free list of over 330 folks, while my paid list sits currently at 36. It's going to feel SO WEIRD to only send things to 36 people. It's hard to have faith things will grow from there...but I'm taking the leap, anyway.
There were some great suggestions last night on Grow about using free trials to tempt free subscribers to finally subscribe, so I may do some of that moving forward. Perhaps it will work, or at least assuage my anxiety.
I love the idea of using free trials. Once I have more content, especially from other writers, I will start. And congrats on the 36 paid! I have 4 right now and am trying my best to boost that number.
I'm looking to start posting on substack my comics but I'm not sure where to start. I've looked up other accounts that are comic-based for reference but I was hoping for tips and guidance on how to make the most out of substack in this context.
Furthermore, as my content covers mainly parenthood, do you have references / relevant tags recommendations to leverage when reaching this audience?
There's a couple other writers who do that. I was going to shout out YouTopian, but he has already made himself known here lol. John Ward is a cover artist who does work for self-published authors, and writes about the artistic process. Sometimes he shares comics at the end of posts. I thought that was a cool way to supplement written content. But I don't follow too many artists on here. I'm looking for them though..
With tags, we’d encourage you to use the category you’d like to appear in on our homepage. Any additional tags that you feel are relevant to your publication can also be used to help readers find you in the search.
Thank you Kerianne, this is very helpful! Are there key tags to reference/revert to? you mentioned categories. are there popular ones linked to Families, Parenting, Parenthood, Child Development, Parental Stress/Wellbeing by any chance? These are the topics we touch on.
I'm just having a hard time getting my subscriber numbers where they need to be. I'm converting about 10% of my free sign-ups into paid subscribers, which is good, but I'm having a really tough time getting those free sign-ups. I know the answer is to probably promote on Twitter, to just keep churning out content, etc., but it's taking a lot out of me and I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
Hey Parker! Good to see you here. (I was in the demo with you recently). Jasmine from our team just put together a super comprehensive resource on growing the free lists here: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-4
I also found this insight from Judd Legum of Popular Info grounding: "Maybe for some people their newsletter just grows on its own without effort but that hasn't been my experience.
When I started, I emailed everyone in my contact list individually and asked them to try out my newsletter. I promote it on Twitter and other social media sites. I accept invitations to appear on podcasts and radio and TV."
I am a fan, and reader. I learned of you when Matt Taibbi switched to your site. I've had little luck finding an agent for my finished novel. A builder's Tale, I have been thinking of syndicating it on sub stack for free, one chapter a week. Do you know of anyone doing this on substack.
Elle Griffin! She (and several other fascinating people like Patti Smith) are writing fiction on Substack! https://ellegriffin.substack.com/ Good luck, Mr. Heininger!
A bit late to the party here, but . . . I love the new feature that allows me to embed links in a post. But sometimes it's offered as an option when I start linking, and sometimes it's not. I don't think it's me (of course, that's always a possibility) so maybe for the tech folks?
The Swipe File is meant to be a carefully crafted recommendations of interesting things on the Internet, delivered straight to your inbox every Sunday. My goal is to continue to provide you with a hand-picked selection of ideas, books, and thought-provoking stuff to read, watch, and listen, but also mix in other compelling, inspirational, and fun material. I'm excited to try out a few ideas and hope I can count on your continuous support!
Hi all, I write a weekly newsletter called Womaning in India. I highlight one gender bias every week through stories of real women of India who I interview during the week. (http://womaning.substack.com)
The response to my newsletter has been very encouraging. I have nearly 1500 subscribers and my top post has over 10000 views. I'm thinking of going paid now, but not sure what it is I can offer to paid subscribers that free subscribers don't get. I absolutely intend to keep the free version going every Friday as before.
I have posted about this before and got some great suggestions - looking for more of those. Also, open to any collaborations with like-minded writers here.
I am always looking for other authors who want to do shout outs and cross promotion. Happy to help one another grow. You can see how I have been doing it. https://youtopianjourney.substack.com/
Generally you want to copy RTF format and everything will work fairly well. Personally I use IA writer for everything no matter the platform as I have found it's features simple and very easy to go from IA writer to just about anything else.
I'm using Substack now, not Medium any longer (maybe I will crosspost there). Almost 100% of the "reads" I have there, I brought to the platform. I had call to remember what it was like moving from CA to FL in March 2020 - I took pictures and wrote as we drove cross country - San Antonio was unreal. It was one of the most surreal and amazing experiences ever. https://asterling.medium.com/see-the-usa-on-covid-19-moving-cross-country-during-the-pandemic-82f0b4df55c7
I tested many many things on Medium... Bottom line is it's only good for what Medium prefers "editorially". Anything else and you end up bringing ALL the traffic to them instead of the other way around. Looks like a crap-ton of other people figured this out and stopped writing for them as they recently started to pay affiliate type commissions for people you sign up to Medium but as I've found most of that is not transparent and the wording/practice is very dicey. Like their newly opened up "newsletter platform" which is the same thing as before except now you allegedly can get to your list's email addresses... except most people don't "opt in" to share email addresses on medium generally.
Just FYI... for over a year I tested content and found...
My account that was designed specifically for Medium's particular editorial preferences did great. Of course that was thoughtless effort, almost no research, etc. Anything outside of that you'd do better ANYWHERE else.
Editorial preference:
- Made up anecdotal rage-bait (similar to the news) AKA "This happened to me 'cause oppression", "X thing is destroying the planet, pick anything", etc.
- Any sort of made up spicy porn-ish story...
- Any sort of get rich quick hack
- Any sort of listicle that has plagued the internet clickbait for over a decade
It's sad. I went back to my old Mar 2020 article about moving from CA to FL during the pandemic because they pushed an article from a current CA resident who is considering moving due to fires & cost. This was a supposed "photojournalist" but the article's single photo was poor quality, the writer had .1% of my follower count, and it was poorly written and the type of rage-bait you mentioned. My top article there is - well - it's true and I'm not ashamed of it in any way but give me a break - https://asterling.medium.com/my-baby-died-in-my-arms-and-i-was-accused-of-killing-him-450f40a032ab
I met with them during COVID - I was really dismayed at how shallow and inexperienced the "editorial" staff seemed to be, it was horrible listening to them tell me how to write - if I search on exact article titles of mine in their search bar, they do not appear, articles that appear to have minimal reads or zero "claps" do instead.
Art - I just asked my followers on Twitter yesterday to see if they could help me achieve 5K followers. I have been at 4,546 for like 6 years (this exact number). So I got 5 new followers and I looked just now and it literally says "4,546". You tell me wtf is going on, I am just an honest writer who's made $ writing in every medium. Yes, I'm a leftist.
100% accurate. Medium used to be a place where you could find innovative content and creative writing on lots of topics. Now, because only certain formulaic content gets promoted at all (or even sent to followers) if you don't write what the Medium zeitgeist wants, your stuff is totally buried and will get no traffic. The exception to that is if you write something that gets you a lot of traffic from Google - but then your tens of thousands of views will earn you nothing because they aren't paid members. Anyway, that's why I gave up on Medium. They don't value or surface quality content any more (if they ever really did).
Meeting with the "content team" - just really a downer. As a former partner writer - it's just been bad for the whole time really. I don't know why I did stick with it. I guess it's the old "work like a dog" thing from oldschool publishing. Hard to understand how people think that any good work can occur if someone cannot pay rent, afford food, or pay bills - or that one is expected to work for free for years before receiving any compensation or readers. Ditto what you said abt Google traffic. Or sending one's own readers to the platform.
I know that there is a "custom button option," but it would be nice to have alt tech options included with other social media. Some people really don't like the big companies, and it'd be cool to reach everyone with our content.
I agree completely and am one of those who are more than just a little troubled by some of the antics of the big platforms and would simply like to have the option of sharing with others, like Parler, which was founded, as I understand it, in response to a lot of the censorship going on with FB and Twitter.
I wish the directories had a "Mix topics" "Personal blog" or a maverick category of Subs that don't belong to any one particular niche! Like my sub- https://belladonnaoflavender.substack.com/
While I do write (I am a professional writer by day), I am using my Substack newsletter as a vehicle for my musical pursuits — sharing instrumental compositions that I'm working on, along with a few words and other inspirations. Is anyone else here using Substack to share original music? Would love to connect.
Hello all, I'm thrilled to say that I sent out my first post on my newsletter yesterday! I do have a few questions, but one is exactly how to "tag" the groups. In my settings, I have politics and culture checked as my main areas. Does this mean that my posts will automatically be sent to those groups or do I have to add tags to each post before it is published? I didn't see a place to add tags as I am drafting the post. Thanks and please give my new post a read and let me know what you think when you have time:https://crimeandpunishment.substack.com/p/seeing-the-forest-and-the-trees?r=iu19o&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy
Hi Joan! We don't have post-level tags, just publication level ones. We encourage you to use at least one tag that bubbles up to a category on our homepage (substack.com) if you'd like to have the potential to make that featured list. And then include tags for your publication that will help folks who use search to find it come across your publication.
Thanks Bailey. I believe I understand the first sentence of your reply—yay for me! In my settings, I have checked both politics and culture. Are you suggesting I do something else?
Hey there! Resharing this from above --> We just did a deep dive session with writers on promotions and have a robust write up on it, if you care to check that out it's here: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-4. There are a lot of other great pieces of writing from other Substack writers to check out. You can navigate around from here - https://substack.com/resources or from the blog - https://on.substack.com/s/resources
The leaderboards are generated on a combination of list size, engagement and revenue. For the free publications, that means we rank according to active readership. For the top paid publications list, we focus on revenue, which serves two important purposes: 1) It shows what readers deeply value; and 2) it gives other publishers a clear idea of what’s possible on Substack and how to get there.
Hi Damian! I have a free newsletter (the main one, Story Cauldron) for all subscribers. My paid subscribers also get my novel (The Favor Faeries). I have them set up as separate sections, and have all of my novel chapters scheduled out in advance to only go to paid subscribers. I also set up the "sidebar" on my Substack page to help with navigation, and use a different image (in color) for my novels, vs my Story Cauldron images which are black and white.
Also, if you are considering publishing a book on Substack, I would strongly urge you to join Elle Griffin's Discord community as it has been super helpful for me with all kinds of technical and strategic questions. Plus if you're doing fiction, Elle has created a new group for that as well. https://discord.com/invite/q9S4feaDVz
My question is — anyone know of/love reading any substacks that focus on investing in biotech companies or health optimization?
This is what I'm passionate about given my background in clinical genetics, so I'd love to find fellow newsletter writers whose target audience overlaps with mine. Thanks!
Priya, I was paid from the beginning, because I have supporters for my work as a former professor turned missionary for history who wanted in. I don't think there's a formula, but I would strongly suggest that you consider who among your current readers is likely to jump in and pay, and how to balance providing exclusive paid content with having enough free content to showcase your wares.
Thanks for coming to this week's Office Hours! The Substack team is signing off for today.
Next week we have two special guests for Office Hours: Tim and Mike from Substack’s legal team. We will open the thread early and host the live portion later in the day to accommodate more writers. Bring your legal questions!
Save to your calendar: https://lu.ma/office-hours
In the meantime, our resources are here for you: https://substack.com/resources
And, we're sharing new resources on the Blog regularly. We have a new post coming out later today. Keep your eyes out: https://on.substack.com/s/resources
Happy Writing!
Katie + Bailey + Mike + Lisa + Damesha + Kerianne + Sergey
Thank you for doing this
Hey all - we hope that everyone's having a great week! We wanted to share Citizen Scholar here with the group in case anyone's interested in subscribing or collaborating - we're a team of writers that launched ~2 weeks ago with a simple mission in mind: to bring together a community of readers who value the study & discussion of important ideas that shed light on the past, present and potentially, our future. More precisely, we’re interested in ideas that can enrich and improve our daily and civic lives (always with a positive & inclusive tone). We cover a book or a significant text/work every Friday morning (hits your inbox at 6am ET) discussing its key ideas and implications for our readers. Since launching on September 3rd, we've been amazed & humbled by the response thus far hitting 200 sign-ups in less than two weeks! We would love to have anyone join us that enjoys reading & lessons from history, classical literature, politics and psychology :) We hope to have you join us and we would welcome any collaboration opportunities with anyone that may have a similar/relevant focus on Substack - thank you!
Your Substack is great, and I am already a subscriber.
And I'd love to collaborate. I sent you a message (over on Discord) about a book I've been working through on US/St. Louis history, racism, and violence (The Broken Heart of America). I think it would be great to cover on Citizen Scholar, and I will also be writing about it on my own Substack.
Hey Jackie - thank you so much for your kind note and for your suggestion! We're so excited that you've decided to join us at Citizen Scholar - we'll get back to you on Discord :)
This is awesome and congrats! I write mostly about science and human health, but would love to see how we could collab since I’m a huge psychology and history nerd :) recently read Psychology of Money which I loved.
Hey Christina - thank you so much! We would love to have you join us and discuss collaboration opportunities - we're also huge science and human health nerds so we have a lot in common :)
Subscribed. I write Admiral's Log-mostly politics although I am most interested in history and classical literature. Lots of material to write about these days in politics--serious overload! I look forward to reading your material! Jim, jimgeorge.substack.com.
Thanks so much for joining us, Jim! We'll be checking out your work as well and we're honored to have you as part of our community :)
I'd love to join up! I love reading history, and even wrote a book about it. Right now I talk about the outdoors, but access to outdoor areas and trails has all-of-a-sudden become a big political issue where I live, and I'm currently working on a documentary about it. Maybe something here is worth a collab for you? I'd love to discuss further
Hey Cole! That sounds great - we would love to talk about collaboration opportunities, we'll reach out to you directly, thanks again!
Of course. Loving what I've seen and heard so far
Subscribed! Would love to see if there's some overlap there :)
Thank you - we're thrilled to have you join us! Happy to see if there's overlap here as well :)
There must be a great American novel about authenticity I could offer some comments on, right?! Gatsby. American Psycho. On The Road. Fear & Loathing...
There will be! More to come :)
Dope, we can do some stuff, check me out.
Sounds great - we'll reach out shortly!
I've signed up and will see if collaboration opportunities look possible. I write about science, society and the environment, from an evidence-based perspective, and I love reading on these topics too.
Thank you for joining us, Melanie! We're thrilled to have you join our community and welcome the collaboration opportunity discussion, feel free to reach out to us directly if you see it as a fit - thanks again :)
I'll send you an email - I've got an idea although it's a little way away from being ready.
Thank you so much! We love that you're a part of our community and very much appreciate the kind note :)
I'm on both Substack and Medium. While I love posting on Substack more than on Medium because of the interface and other features, I find that far more Medium members find my posts and subscribe internally than on Substack. My Medium posts are also more visible on search engines. How can Substack improve in this regard? I'd love to switch to Substack exclusively, but due to success elsewhere, I can't just yet.
Hi Jenny! Thanks for this feedback. You aren't alone in feeling this and this is something that we are actively working on improving. We hope to demonstrate some improvements on this front in the coming months...stay tuned!
Hello, Jenny. We are actively working on making Substack posts more visible on search engines, so, hopefully, there will be improvements on that front. As for discovery - we also have some things in the works, but we want to be careful there. We want writers to be in control of their newsletters, so we intentionally aren't adding promotional links to posts. There are a number of strategies writers succesfully use to grow their readership - social media, commenting on other writers' posts, including calls to action in your posts, reaching out to community leaders in your sphere, etc. We have some resources on that here - https://substack.com/resources
For SEO, it helps to have your newsletter featured on other newsletter sites as well as have a catchy name. Mine always comes up via Substack but also from socials as well as newsletter sites that share (which are free).
Thanks for sharing
This is one of my frustrations.
Hi Jenny! I share your frustrations. I published a short piece on my Substack for fellow writers about things you should be doing after you start your Substack. These tips include participating in these Office Hours (!) but also how to get listed on Google, how to track your analytics, and more. https://storycauldron.substack.com/p/so-you-have-a-substack-what-next
Yeee gods, thank you, Jackie!!
This is a very helpful link - thanks!!!!
Thank you!!!!
Cent per cent right mate!
Hi Substack Team,
I haven't seen much improvement to the interface/UX when it comes to making it obvious to non-logged-in-Substack readers (either on a different device or browser) who come to the site to become paid members.
A lot of them get the screen that asks them for their email again, and they're confused because they're already subscribers to the list, and for those on the fence about signing up, this extra friction can be enough to make them give up.
I really wish it was made much clearer that to see the paid options you need to be logged in, and to have obvious "login" buttons rather than the super small, super low-contrast text hidden in the bottom/corner of the page.
Thank you.
I've also had a complaint from a paid subscriber that she "needs to sign in again" before commenting, and it;'s not clear to me, even after talking with her, what's going on. But this seems connected.
I too have readers who apparently have to jump through hoops just to comment.
Agree. The whole interface is troubling and makes people not want to interact. I know that I personally get annoyed when I have to sign in to comment on another SS's newsletter. But that might just be me being in a crabby mood.
Agree about the need to make commenting more user-friendly. I suspect, without any immediate data at my fingertips, that interactivity is important in building a subscriber base. Comments help readers feel part of a family and , thus, feel more inclined to commit.
A friend just called me and told me she is a subscriber but couldn't comment. I thought maybe she was doing something wrong, but it looks like it's systematic. I'll have to tell her it's not her.
Exactly! I felt I was alone in this but oh no!
Hello Liberty, great to see you here! Thanks for the feedback, we definitely want to improve our login experience. I'll bring this up with the relevant team today, will try to prioritize this issue.
Thank you Sergey! I appreciate your help with this. I feel like it can only be beneficial to all substack writers AND the company, so seems like quite the high-leverage low-hanging fruit. Cheers.
Yes! I finally asked readers why they comment on Facebook instead of substack and they all said it's easier than going through a login page. I agree with them! So it's really hard to get a conversation/community on this site.
Maybe the chorus of complaints will generate some follow up…let’s keep up the drmbeat!
Eh. I have been saying this for months. Notice your readers also cant comment on iphone or ipad because the comments don't load on safari. I also get people commenting by replying to the email and then I have to ask if I can cut and paste into comments.
I look at the people who get gazillions of comments and wish Substack would explain why those readers seem to want to use laptops and stay in substack rather than going back to social media. Look at Matt Taibbi site. I would love to know how he's doing that massive engagement around the barriers here.
Let's stay on this. And visit me https://constance96e.substack.com/p/from-the-california-recall-to-the and https://constance96e.substack.com/p/the-lone-tsar-state-not-a-typo and let me know what you think. Also would like a direct link to your space. -
Hey guys! Are there any non-fiction writers who would like to write a guest post or make a cross promo? Here is my newsletter, see if it’s the right niche for you: https://thatsphilosophical.substack.com/
You can reach out here rufat.rassulov@gmail.com
Yooooo Rufat! Love your work.
Thanks Shaun!
Hey Rufat!
I write 10+1 Things where Insgare 11 interesting stories every week finely handpicked from the universe of information!
Loved you Substack and subbed already! Let's do a cross-promo? Would love to feature you in one of the future editions!
In the latest edition of my newsletter, I talk about the story of Cereal Entrepreneurs, a Decentralized country, Earth's Perfume and the Pale Blue Dot.
Read More:
https://rishikesh.substack.com/p/cereal-entrepreneur-decentralized-country
We write about travel and coukd definitely write about how much being digital nomads had increased our happiness.
First off... love your logo!
Second, a good chunk of my writing is philosophical takes about human nature I come up with on hiking. Maybe we could be a good fit for a guest post?
This is an example that seemed to resonate with a lot of my readers.
https://colenoble.substack.com/p/the-crux-of-it-all
Hi Rufat, I like your newsletter. Would like to cross promote!
Ooh, I think there might be something I could write about travel and/or unfamiliarity that might work? Would love to connect :)
Will DM you via gmail, Rufat - would love to interview you / cross-promote...
Hey Rufat.
Really enjoyed reading your recent post.
I'm interested in doing a cross-promotion. Let's do this.
Hey Rufat! Would love to discuss collaboration opportunities - check us out at Citizen Scholar and let us know if it would be a fit :)
Who would I ask a question about why we aren't showing up on our main tag at all -- Travel -- while Substacks that have either gone dormant for months or never even published show up on the results page and we don't? We've been growing steadily on our own for five months but it feels like we're being held back because new readers can't find us on Substack. Thanks!
I've also had this issue. Commenting here to see if it gets noticed. I publish weekly like clockwork and still get out-ranked by dormant stacks, or ones with no posts at all that have said "Coming soon" for months.
I publish twice a week and have since mid-June and dormant Substacks are showing up ahead of me.
Solidarity!
Amen to that. And the choices of featured and promoted Substacks seems to lean toward the eccentric, obscure, and hipstery... which devalues a platform heavy in experienced journos.
Eccentric and obscure, eh? Sounds like I'm gonna flourish here, loll.
We can dream, Art! :)
Same issue here. My newsletter doesn't show up in search with any of the 3 tags I've put on it. Please tell us how this works!
This was the same question I was asking last week, Michael — thanks for bringing it up!
I've tried to get answers before and have been brushed off. So trying here!
I agree.
I second this as I'm having the same problem.
Have you tagged your newsletter with the travel tag in your settings?
Absolutely!
Hello, Michael! I see you at #13 at https://substack.com/discover/category/travel - and we are only showing the top 6 on the front page at the moment. But keep up the good work and I'm sure you'll get there!
Hard to get higher from the top six without the exposure on that page. Suggest making page loner or including an index. After all, if we make money, you make money
*longer —not loner
Something very odd is happening then. I looked yesterday, and have looked repeatedly, and we haven't shown up.
Now I'm curious... I looked up "education" and I don't show up at all. How does this work?
Sergey says in earlier part of thread they only post the top six…seems like we should strongly suggest they democratize those tag sites.
This was awesome. Thank you Substack for always having our backs and hosting these forums. As always, feel free to connect with me if you want to cross promote or anything, happy to help your substack grow. https://youtopianjourney.substack.com/
Good morning and thank you for this opportunity to learn and hear about such great new ideas! I need all the help I can get! I write Admiral's Log at jimgeorge.substack.com, mostly about politics but occasionally about random other areas as well. Considering my age (87 years young this very day! If I would have known I would live this long, I would have taken better care of myself! Old joke but very apropos this day!) and fortunate retirement situation, I have no plans to try to go to a paid subscription basis and would sure welcome anyone who may appreciate some perhaps-too-pithy (at times) observations on the current state of the Greatest Nation ever created by the Mind of Man in the history of the world, please do join me and also please let me have your helpful observations as to what I should be doing better, etc. God Bless America! Sincerely, Jim George
Happy Birthday, Jim!! And thank you for your service!
You rock!
Happy Birthday, Adm. Jim
I'll check it out!
Great! Let me know what you think-- after many decades as a Trial Lawyer, I must have had thick skin or I could not have survived this long! Jim
Thank you! And Fair Winds and Following Seas to you as well! Jim.
Hey all, I recently started a Substack about authenticity in the USA and am looking to build a following. My big question is this: how is discovery on Substack compared with something like Medium or a traditional hosted blog? In other words, how much self-promotion is required here?
Would love to connect with some other writers, so please swing by and chat if you like.
Heyo! Bailey from Substack HQ here. What we know is that discovery within the Substack network is not insignificant, but it could be better [and we're working on changing it actively ;)]. There's a lot of exciting work on the way for writers but I am sworn to secrecy !
For now, I'll mention that the current power of the Substack network is that once someone subscribes to on Substack, that reader's payment information is on file with us. It takes just 1-2 clicks for readers who are already in our system to subscribe to another Substack. I know that these numbers are impactful for writers who have gone paid, though we don't share the data publicly on exactly what impact that has.
Sorry. I wrote this before I realized that you changed the Substack homepage to include links a few newsletters and a list of categories. The last time I looked it was just information about starting a Substack. That is an improvement. But realistically, it is not a "destination" page like Medium. And I don't expect it to be. And I was not thinking about discoverability via posts like these or comments. Another error on my part. Still, the bulk of promotion/discoverability falls on the writer. Don't get me wrong. I love Substack! I just don't love promotion. 🤣
No I think what you're saying is accurate! Just figured I'd give a bit of the nuance from the inside :)
Additionally, we won't become the TikTok of writing. The discovery tools we build will be aimed towards helping readers and writers continue to be in control of what they see and how their work is presented, respectively. You can see some of the directions we are exploring in our latest product features - https://on.substack.com/p/new-ways-recommend-discover
That discoverabilty would be great. Both for Substack and those is us writing Substacks.
Unfortunately, "discoverability" on the Substack website is insignificant. I doubt anyone except writers ever visit the Substack home page. It doesn't have content like Medium or a blog. It is up to you to promote your newsletter. But there are many ways to do that. Social media, cross-promotions, advertising, FB groups, joining Substack Discord servers, etc. Promotion is not fun, but necessary until your newsletter gets well-known (I wish!)
Hello Mark. https://stairsteps.substack.com features a daily word expo along with solutions to our daily crossword puzzles. The expo features sentences from various works and notes the author and the title. We're interested in featuring present day writers but need permission to do so and equally importantly direction from writers on which work they would like promoted. Check it out and get in contact if you are interested. We'd love to feature your writing.
I should have said discoverability is "not great" instead of "insignificant." That was too harsh. There is discoverability via comments and a little on the home page. And Substack is addressing the discoverablilty issue. My apologies to Substack for my poor choice of words.
I have signed up for Discord, but have no idea how to use it...
The best way is to just poke around the channels (topics.) Make a comment or two. It will eventually start to make sense. It is like a chat room.
Thanks! Do I list my substack newsletter on Discord?
Did you join a Substack server like Substack Writers Unite, or did you just sign up on Discord.com? You can start your own Discord server, but that is far too much for anyone to explain here. But you can also join existing servers. That is what I did. I joined Substack Writers Unite (Elle Griffin's discord server.)
I just wanted to join, so thanks for the direction!
Yup, everything you've written pretty much backs up my suspicions and what I've read elsewhere, haha. It's a shame because I'd love to be able to just focus on the writing, but I guess that comes later...
So would we all. Believe me. Promotion is a chore. 🙂
Heh, onwards and upwards though, eh?
Right. Everything worthwhile takes effort.
After a year of experimenting, tweaking my newsletter, and deciding what it would be (and reaching over 100 subscribers), I figured, why not?
Hey, that sounds like a cool topic! I write about the outdoors. I'd love to check yours out and connect. Reading now..
Lots of self promotion needed!
Pretty much what I figured, haha. One reason for my appearance in this post; to connect with other writers (and readers)!
Yeahhhhh, do it!
Just finished reading your most recent post. Love the voice you write in. Subscribed!
Thank you man, I really appreciate that! Will check yours out soon. New posts coming monthly (hopefully...haha)
Thanks!
Thank you! Ditto to your 'stack :)
Hey folks, writer of How to Talk to Yourself here. I'd love for my substack to be discovered more easily, but I'm not sure how many people are stumbling across it now. Are analytics available for how many hits/subscriptions a newsletter gets from https://substack.com/discover?
Hey There,
This guide to your metrics will be helpful in answering your question. Specifically, scroll down to the traffic section. https://on.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-your-substack-metrics
Great. Thanks!
Appreciate the service. Question: my newsletter is always sent as a “Promotion” by gmail, maybe other service, and not “Primary.” Is this happening to anyone else?
Yes. I try to tell new readers to manually move it to the main inbox.
THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM! I hate this because it is a daunting task and I have no idea if any of them are even moving it or not even after repetitive inquisition!
Hi, and thanks. I think you may have meant inquiries instead of I inquisitions.
Hey, subscribers did not make it... I am saying It felt like I was making inquisitions.. asking them if it is in Promotions or the sub is in spam because some of them could not find it. Inquisitions also mean a period of prolonged and intensive questioning.
Got it! I understand now. My apologies.
Hi! My parents both keep telling me that they haven't got my newsletters in their inbox recently, they end up being filtered into some kind of 'promotions' folder. They have moved them into the correct folder. My overall open rate is also down. Could this be to do with going paid a couple months ago? How can I make sure my emails are being received properly?
To add to this - Gmail is in control of what lands in the Promotions folder. If you want your Substack emails in you main inbox (like I do!), you should let the Gmail team know - https://twitter.com/gmail
DONE!
Aparently this is a recurring problem with all gmail users. I've put information in the "about" section to remind people to move these emails into their primary inbox. At least yours aren't going to spam.
There has been some back-and-forth about whether the amount of links within a post convince google it is spam, but I have not heard anything concrete on this.
This might be a WILD idea (and I agree that it doesn't fix the underlying problem) but I turned off the Promotions tab in my Gmail settings 😱 ! If interested, can be done under Settings --> Inbox --> Categories and only keep Primary selected.
I turned promotions off as soon as they came out with it. The spam filter works really good at catching the spam and all other newsletters go to my inbox. What a novel concept. Some programmer had to go and mess up a good thing by fixing something that wasn’t broke.
If your list size went up quite a bit, your open rate may go down (the "denominator" got a lot larger!). I wonder if that may be the case here given your At Length feature? As for ensuring that your parents and readers see the emails, we take a lot of steps on our end to try to ensure Substack emails reach the reader's main inbox, but over time the reputation that your newsletter builds up with readers it the most important input.
Asking your readers to drag the emails back to the inbox helps. Also you can encourage them to write to you at your @substack.com address, which helps Gmail recognize your emails.
Hey Bailey! Many of my subscribers have moved my emails from promotion to primary, replied to the newsletter, but still seeing the newsletter in the promotions tab!
Also one of my subscriber do not recieve the email at all. I had her resubscribe, but the same issue persists.
I think a lot has to be done on the email delivery side considering other newsletter platforms are not facing the issue. Could you please let the product/engg team know about this?
Same problem!
Thanks Bailey!
Florence, I have an ongoing issue with this with a paid subscriber in the UK in Virgin's wildblueyonder platform, and they supply zero advice on fixing it, and have been reduced to begging her to get help from a techhy person! For Gmail, as you saw, it's a little easier. Emailing people I suspect have run into this is another thing I have resorted to . . .
my parents both use gmail, despite moving my emails to the right inbox, the next time they go right back into promotions :/
Oh, blimey. Okay, there's another job for Substack.
Shaun Gold here with YouTopian Journey, always looking to do shout outs and happy to help other writers grow.
HEY I know this guy! His drawings are cool. Are you going to bring your podcast episodes to your substack eventually as well?
Yooooo! Maybe. Usually I am just a guest on other podcasts so starting with that right now.
Good lookin' out!
Hey guys! I review nonfiction over at Ascending Bookstacks. I'm a historian, but I write this newsletter to see how topics from technology and climate change to immigration and capitalism can be understood through the lens of faith. Just reviewed a book on Trump-era border policies today. Great to see others here thinking through books too!
That is an amazing title and you are surely interesting! I am big time into books and reviewing books- i experiment with all genres and love NF - https://www.instagram.com/belladonnaoflavender/
Hello! I'm using substack to publish my YA novel in serial form. I'm super new here and have a tiny list of subscribers, but I wanted to share one tactic that I've found useful. I post on IG stories every time I publish a new chapter and offer to sign up anyone that drops me their email address (I use the "Ask Me a Question" sticker.) I've had way more people share their email addresses that way than click the link in my bio and go through the subscribe process.
I love this idea, Jenessa! I am an avid Instagrammer (more than any other platform) and rather not have to post on Twitter and FB and all of the social media things. I love IG stories and was thinking about easier ways to get them to sub. The link in bio is not the best practice and I don't have that swipe up feature just yet. This is awesome since it's less work for them to subscribe. Thank you!
It's a simple workaround that requires a bit of data entry, but my numbers are small enough that it's no big deal. Hopefully one day it will be an overwhelming task!
Update! I tried it and received 2 emails! It's a small feat but a win nonetheless.
Awesome! I have been using swipe up for more information to get some new subscribers. I will try your tactic. Thank you!
What a great idea! Will definitely try that!
What do you post on IG? I am trying to figure out how to better utilize a visual platform for my writing, so I'd love some tips for content. Could you share your IG?
Hello Jackie! I post photos of myself as a carousel with screen shots of my recent story or a quote from the story. My IG is pretty cohesive and stand alone visual quotes don't work for me well regarding engagement and subs. Reels do really well for me as well! I am going live Thursdays to share a snippet of my latest. If they want to read the rest, they have to go to the link and sub. My IG is https://instagram.com/lovesujeiry if you want to take a peek! I am just ramping up the promo for my newsletter since I started writing again.
I'll message you on Discord :)
Hi there! New writer here. I just launched my newsletter last week and am trying to nail down my format and routine for weekly posts. I write mostly about food and family, with plans to throw in more about travel and wine later on. I'd love some advice from other food writers on Substack about what their readers are interested in most. Is it recipes? Essays? How-tos? To start, I've been sending out an essay per week, with a related recipe the following day.
I mean, I just love the title of your Substack, haha.
Thank you! Can't pass up an opportunity for some word play, right?
100% agree!
...and now I've just read your 'stack and laughed more than once. The not-so-great airport experience is so relatable. Subscribed!
Oh thank you, haha. Ditto to yours – I hope you'll have some good recipes for me!
Loved this! Great content!
Welcome! I'm kinda curious about this too in a broad sense... balancing some story narrative posts, with others containing hard factual information. Would love to hear how other writers handle this.
Hey y'all, I write Cole's Climb about outdoors and hiking. An upcoming piece of mine is a gear buying guide for brand new hikers. I love the way footnote links let you jump quickly around the page. Does substack have a feature that allows for other internal links (a la wikipedia?) It would be super helpful to have a master pack list at the top of the article, and let readers click to different sections.
That's interesting! Even I have thought about it
I would like to know of Substack writers who reinvented their newsletter or reshuffled their work in an interesting way to push beyond a plateau.
Keeping in mind what Ali shared in Substack Grow 4, my Routine Efforts are on track, but I would like to learn about some useful Growth Experiments.
I changed the name of my newsletter after about 28 weeks of publishing. It's essentially the same premise but with (I think) a more descriptive title. It went from The Notable Tribe to Curious Elder. I haven't noticed any reactions from readers.
That's wonderful. Exactly the kind of situation I'm curious about. May I ask why you did this? And if it had a positive impact on signups etc?
The "why" is because I thought Curious Elder was more specific to the content than The Notable Tribe. I haven't noticed any surge in signups, but my open rate seems to be growing a little each time it's published. I should also note that I told my subscribers about the change in advance. I have seen no negative consequences yet. I'm happy I made the change, it just feels right.
This is very good to hear, thanks for sharing!
Love this Nishant. I wonder if Terrell Johnson may pop into this thread...
Good to hear that. Thanks!
Hey! I'm Cole - I write about exploring the outdoors safely, and the lessons from the mountains that apply to our daily lives.
Does substack have any info about whether posts of certain lengths do better than any others?
I'm asking our data team and they are curious - for you, what does "do better" mean?
Oh, sorry I realize now that was a bit vague. I'm trying to think of a way to couch my question as a metric you actually can track.
Maybe -- do viewers unsubscribe from substacks that regularly publish posts that take longer to read at a higher rate than they do posts with shorter read times?
I don't know if there is a way to see if viewers actually read all the way through and completely finish reading a post. I've tried to end with calls to action. But this experiment has been inconclusive so far for me.
My posts average around 750, but I'm adding a mix of more utility posts. Next week's is almost 3,000. And I'm working on a very long-form piece where I interview many different people, and I imagine that will be a monster too.
...words. Not viewers. Would be real cool if they averaged that many viewers...
Hello All 👋
I publish a newsletter every two weeks about the Gray Areas in the world and ourselves called The Gray Area. Lately, I have been writing a lot about productivity and filmmaking. You can find it here: https://tscreativ.substack.com
I am hoping to grow my readership with the future goal of going paid. Any tips?
We do have a few great guides on this topic! https://on.substack.com/p/grow-4
Thanks for that information. I have read over that article and have tried everything on it with little luck.
Hi, everyone! It's the folks behind Animation Obsessive again -- the weekly guide to animation from around the world.
Our question is a little odd this week. We love interacting with other writers in our field (animation). For example, the animator Coleen Baik runs an awesome newsletter called The Line Between that delves into her life and art: https://www.the-line-between.com/
Our problem is that we're all pretty lonely in the animation lane right now on Substack. Coleen is the only other active, regular animation writer we've found besides ourselves.
So, maybe the best way of phrasing this is -- how do you help to grow your category on Substack? Is there anything we can do to help animation writing become more of a thing here?
Thank you!
I do comics, that count?
Comics are a great lane, too! It's just less where our headspace is. We've found that there's a strangely low amount of crossover between comics and animation in terms of audience, for some reason.
We cover animation of all kinds! 2D, 3D, stop-motion cutouts, claymation, puppets and everything else. If it interests us, we write about it -- no matter how it's made.
Hello! We are the team at https://foot.substack.com/. We currently have 2550 free subs and only 100 paid. Does this seem like a low number of paid to free?
We also applied last week for the Bitcoin payments trial. When should we expect to hear back about this?
Hey there,
We tend to see 5-10% of free subscribers convert to paying subscriptions, with 10% being a good rate to aim for.
Your open rate of free content is a good signal of your conversion. More on the specifics here: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-1
Checking in on the answer to your second question!
Thanks Katie! Our open rate looks to be between 38% and 60%. Do you have suggestions on how we can increase our open rate? Or is your suggestion to just try to increase the number of free subscribers?
I would also like to know what a good ratio is - I have just over 2000 subscribers and only 50 paid, which I worry is a very small conversion percentage compared to the 5-10% I expected. Finding it very hard to get people to convert
insert *you guys are getting paid* meme
Insert *getting paid $1 per hour* meme
Lol I was going to say the same. At the moment the money I make from Substack is better than nothing, but it's not equal to the time, effort and expertise I put into it
Hmmm, that does seem low. We have 760 subscribed and 30+ are paid.
for real though, what are your open rates? Substack has an approximate formula based on what your open percentage is, to estimate how many subs will go paid
This is a great mindset. Really, I'm having fun telling exciting stories. Right now I'm actually editing a really cool interview I did last week; it's cool to be able to talk to great people and write what you love.
After a bit of research I am not at all clear on the best way to use threads. Should I only have one open at any given time? How long? Is it better than comments in terms of interaction? Should you strive to make it "real time" like this one? Can I only figure all that out after trial and error with my audience? Anyone in the same boat as me that's a bit hesitant to get started?
Yes, see my comment below. The idea of a real-time one sounds appealing, but that limits who can participate.
I would like to know more about this too :)
My newest comic blog is up! https://edgosney.substack.com/p/cool-comics-in-my-collection-976
If anyone wants to include some original music with their newsletter, you can do that with the "Podcast" feature — I'd love to collaborate and provide you with something custom people can listen to while they read your emails! Let me know :)
Hey, that's cool as hell! Will definitely bear this idea in mind.
That's a great idea! I actually share the music I'm listening to in every edition of my newsletter, 10+1 Things ( https://rishikesh.substack.com/ ) . Can you help me out?
Well, I don't know about including other people's music without permission, since you have to upload an Mp3. What I was trying to say was that, in the spirit of collaboration, I'd love to write music for other Substackers that they can use :) (Like I do on my own newsletter, fogchaser.substack.com)
Well, I don't know about including other people's music without permission, since you have to upload an Mp3. What I was trying to say was that, in the spirit of collaboration, I'd love to write music for other Substackers that they can use :) (Like I do on my own newsletter, fogchaser.substack.com)
Awesome idea!
Hi Substack community, first time here. My writing introduces paradigm shifts in business and capitalism, and Substack has been my incubation space.
I'm at 54 subscribers and marking the transition from a friends & family community to a wider one. There are some things about my Substack that make it feel unique from the current business model, which is the basis for my feedback.
I publish a crisp 1000-word essay just once a month, so it's a quality over quantity approach. My top goal is for people to find this work. And then just for subscribers, I expound on topics that are more inward-facing and community-oriented. The conventional wisdom here is to publish a lot, and I appreciate that, but I'd also like this platform to be home for less-is-more approaches.
I believe that the mission of this work requires it to always be free to access. Thus, I still aspire for a revenue model that is donation-based or a name-your-price subscription. I'd still be cool with Substack taking 10% for all the benefits it offers as a platform.
As you can tell from my icon, the work is more about developing the project's brand than my personal one. I like that the platform supports multiple authors now. My critique is in SEO results, which don't seem as good as they could be. A small, but meaningful leap for me would be the ability to remove "by Mike Rabin" in the SEO results, so that I can converge more about my essay titles and the Corporate Purpose Project brand.
Thanks for reading and hope a few of you are curious to check out this project. 🙏
Sounds dope
First time visitor. Very new to SS. My focus is helping small business leaders get better results from their salespeople and sales organization. Currently publish on LinkedIn and my company website. Regarding syndication, what have others found most successful: post on SS, and link that to my site and other outlets or some other strategy? Appreciate your advice and guidance
We just did a deep dive session with writers on promotions and have a robust write up on it, if you care to check that out it's here: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-4
Thank you!
Been doing shout outs, shares, cross promotion, social media, etc. The full gauntlet. Everything helps.
Thank you!
I've been noticing that the Total Views of my newsletter is almost always way bigger than the number of my subscribers, I can only imagine that people are sharing it more? Is there anything I should do considering this scenario? (more views than subscribers)
Loved this! Great content!
Yo Substack. I have noticed recently that I notification of new subscriber emails have been delayed/lagging. Any reason for this?
Flagging this!
I am actually just seeing our team has identified a minor bug that they are fixing.
I had the same problem and contacted support. I had a "founding member" lag for 5 days before showing on the database.
Thank you.
Thank you for mentioning this. People were telling me that they had subscribed, but I received no email about it, and I was wondering if they were just blowing smoke you know where. :D
Mine too (I assume. I'm sure the torrent of new subscriptions is coming any day now.) ;-)
Must be system wide, strange.
RE: discovering great writers on Substack, any tips for good newsletter tags?
For example: It would be great to see what tags my favorite newsletters are under, especially those similar to mine in content and tone.
Honestly I haven't found tags useful for anything. I find most of the great Substacks by following these threads and meeting people over in the Substack writers Discord group.
Thanks. That’s my experience too (with tags in general, frankly). I’ll have to give the Discord a shot sometime.
Hey, folks. I write Let Your Life Speak, about rediscovering the lost art of integrity. It's full of personal essays, interviews, and resources. I launched paid subscriptions on 9/6 and had a huge jump in subscribers over the first week. The second week has been slower, but free subscribers are still increasing steadily, so I'm happy about that.
Most things moving forward go behind the paywall starting 9/20. I'm really nervous, to be honest. I have a free list of over 330 folks, while my paid list sits currently at 36. It's going to feel SO WEIRD to only send things to 36 people. It's hard to have faith things will grow from there...but I'm taking the leap, anyway.
There were some great suggestions last night on Grow about using free trials to tempt free subscribers to finally subscribe, so I may do some of that moving forward. Perhaps it will work, or at least assuage my anxiety.
I love the idea of using free trials. Once I have more content, especially from other writers, I will start. And congrats on the 36 paid! I have 4 right now and am trying my best to boost that number.
That is amazing and super dope!
Hello -
I'm looking to start posting on substack my comics but I'm not sure where to start. I've looked up other accounts that are comic-based for reference but I was hoping for tips and guidance on how to make the most out of substack in this context.
Furthermore, as my content covers mainly parenthood, do you have references / relevant tags recommendations to leverage when reaching this audience?
thanks for your help!
There's a couple other writers who do that. I was going to shout out YouTopian, but he has already made himself known here lol. John Ward is a cover artist who does work for self-published authors, and writes about the artistic process. Sometimes he shares comics at the end of posts. I thought that was a cool way to supplement written content. But I don't follow too many artists on here. I'm looking for them though..
https://www.writtenward.com/about
Thank you Cole!
Yeahhhhh!
Check me out, I have been doing that since February.
Thank you! Will check it out! Any tips? learnings from your experience?
Thanks for your question. You might have already found this, but just in case- this is a good place to start: https://substack.com/comic-book-creators
Here is another resource to help you get started: https://substack.com/resources
With tags, we’d encourage you to use the category you’d like to appear in on our homepage. Any additional tags that you feel are relevant to your publication can also be used to help readers find you in the search.
Thank you Kerianne, this is very helpful! Are there key tags to reference/revert to? you mentioned categories. are there popular ones linked to Families, Parenting, Parenthood, Child Development, Parental Stress/Wellbeing by any chance? These are the topics we touch on.
I'm just having a hard time getting my subscriber numbers where they need to be. I'm converting about 10% of my free sign-ups into paid subscribers, which is good, but I'm having a really tough time getting those free sign-ups. I know the answer is to probably promote on Twitter, to just keep churning out content, etc., but it's taking a lot out of me and I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
Hey Parker! Good to see you here. (I was in the demo with you recently). Jasmine from our team just put together a super comprehensive resource on growing the free lists here: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-4
I also found this insight from Judd Legum of Popular Info grounding: "Maybe for some people their newsletter just grows on its own without effort but that hasn't been my experience.
When I started, I emailed everyone in my contact list individually and asked them to try out my newsletter. I promote it on Twitter and other social media sites. I accept invitations to appear on podcasts and radio and TV."
Thanks for this, Bailey. And good chatting with you during the demo!
That's a really great quote to keep in mind. Makes me feel validated by the slow growth. It's still growth...
It isn't you. This is the game. I churn out dope content, put it everywhere, have people share it, etc. It just is a long slog so keep your head up.
Just subscribed! Can't promise I'll convert to paid right off the bat, but we'll see how it goes :D haha
Thanks. I really appreciate it.
WAIT how did you get a color background on the welcome page?? Is there a setting I'm missing?
It's under Settings --> Style --> Edit Theme --> Welcome Page Background
Ah thanks that's super helpful
I am a fan, and reader. I learned of you when Matt Taibbi switched to your site. I've had little luck finding an agent for my finished novel. A builder's Tale, I have been thinking of syndicating it on sub stack for free, one chapter a week. Do you know of anyone doing this on substack.
Elle Griffin! She (and several other fascinating people like Patti Smith) are writing fiction on Substack! https://ellegriffin.substack.com/ Good luck, Mr. Heininger!
A bit late to the party here, but . . . I love the new feature that allows me to embed links in a post. But sometimes it's offered as an option when I start linking, and sometimes it's not. I don't think it's me (of course, that's always a possibility) so maybe for the tech folks?
I've noticed that, too. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I don't know the magic formula.
Hello all check out my substack. https://samyakr.substack.com/
The Swipe File is meant to be a carefully crafted recommendations of interesting things on the Internet, delivered straight to your inbox every Sunday. My goal is to continue to provide you with a hand-picked selection of ideas, books, and thought-provoking stuff to read, watch, and listen, but also mix in other compelling, inspirational, and fun material. I'm excited to try out a few ideas and hope I can count on your continuous support!
Dope. Check me out.
Hi all, I write a weekly newsletter called Womaning in India. I highlight one gender bias every week through stories of real women of India who I interview during the week. (http://womaning.substack.com)
The response to my newsletter has been very encouraging. I have nearly 1500 subscribers and my top post has over 10000 views. I'm thinking of going paid now, but not sure what it is I can offer to paid subscribers that free subscribers don't get. I absolutely intend to keep the free version going every Friday as before.
I have posted about this before and got some great suggestions - looking for more of those. Also, open to any collaborations with like-minded writers here.
Yoooo Mahima! Shot you an email from the last office hours.
Hi Mahima! This is a great question, and I'm curious what other writers have to say...
We also have some resources for you as well if you haven't seen them: https://on.substack.com/p/your-guide-to-going-paid & https://on.substack.com/p/grow-2
I am always looking for other authors who want to do shout outs and cross promotion. Happy to help one another grow. You can see how I have been doing it. https://youtopianjourney.substack.com/
I still don't understand how to copy and paste from a Google doc into my Sub Stack page. I wonder if there is a tutorial available somewhere?
This may be helpful I hope? https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037831771-How-do-I-publish-a-new-post-
Generally you want to copy RTF format and everything will work fairly well. Personally I use IA writer for everything no matter the platform as I have found it's features simple and very easy to go from IA writer to just about anything else.
I'm using Substack now, not Medium any longer (maybe I will crosspost there). Almost 100% of the "reads" I have there, I brought to the platform. I had call to remember what it was like moving from CA to FL in March 2020 - I took pictures and wrote as we drove cross country - San Antonio was unreal. It was one of the most surreal and amazing experiences ever. https://asterling.medium.com/see-the-usa-on-covid-19-moving-cross-country-during-the-pandemic-82f0b4df55c7
I tested many many things on Medium... Bottom line is it's only good for what Medium prefers "editorially". Anything else and you end up bringing ALL the traffic to them instead of the other way around. Looks like a crap-ton of other people figured this out and stopped writing for them as they recently started to pay affiliate type commissions for people you sign up to Medium but as I've found most of that is not transparent and the wording/practice is very dicey. Like their newly opened up "newsletter platform" which is the same thing as before except now you allegedly can get to your list's email addresses... except most people don't "opt in" to share email addresses on medium generally.
Just FYI... for over a year I tested content and found...
My account that was designed specifically for Medium's particular editorial preferences did great. Of course that was thoughtless effort, almost no research, etc. Anything outside of that you'd do better ANYWHERE else.
Editorial preference:
- Made up anecdotal rage-bait (similar to the news) AKA "This happened to me 'cause oppression", "X thing is destroying the planet, pick anything", etc.
- Any sort of made up spicy porn-ish story...
- Any sort of get rich quick hack
- Any sort of listicle that has plagued the internet clickbait for over a decade
It's sad. I went back to my old Mar 2020 article about moving from CA to FL during the pandemic because they pushed an article from a current CA resident who is considering moving due to fires & cost. This was a supposed "photojournalist" but the article's single photo was poor quality, the writer had .1% of my follower count, and it was poorly written and the type of rage-bait you mentioned. My top article there is - well - it's true and I'm not ashamed of it in any way but give me a break - https://asterling.medium.com/my-baby-died-in-my-arms-and-i-was-accused-of-killing-him-450f40a032ab
I met with them during COVID - I was really dismayed at how shallow and inexperienced the "editorial" staff seemed to be, it was horrible listening to them tell me how to write - if I search on exact article titles of mine in their search bar, they do not appear, articles that appear to have minimal reads or zero "claps" do instead.
That's appalling, and I am sorry you had this experience. But yes, it tracks with mine as well.
Wow, that's so depressing...haha.
Yeah this pretty much tracks for what I'd expect on most platforms.
Art - I just asked my followers on Twitter yesterday to see if they could help me achieve 5K followers. I have been at 4,546 for like 6 years (this exact number). So I got 5 new followers and I looked just now and it literally says "4,546". You tell me wtf is going on, I am just an honest writer who's made $ writing in every medium. Yes, I'm a leftist.
100% accurate. Medium used to be a place where you could find innovative content and creative writing on lots of topics. Now, because only certain formulaic content gets promoted at all (or even sent to followers) if you don't write what the Medium zeitgeist wants, your stuff is totally buried and will get no traffic. The exception to that is if you write something that gets you a lot of traffic from Google - but then your tens of thousands of views will earn you nothing because they aren't paid members. Anyway, that's why I gave up on Medium. They don't value or surface quality content any more (if they ever really did).
Meeting with the "content team" - just really a downer. As a former partner writer - it's just been bad for the whole time really. I don't know why I did stick with it. I guess it's the old "work like a dog" thing from oldschool publishing. Hard to understand how people think that any good work can occur if someone cannot pay rent, afford food, or pay bills - or that one is expected to work for free for years before receiving any compensation or readers. Ditto what you said abt Google traffic. Or sending one's own readers to the platform.
Awesome, this post looks right up my street!
Are there plans for a Parler "share" button?
I know that there is a "custom button option," but it would be nice to have alt tech options included with other social media. Some people really don't like the big companies, and it'd be cool to reach everyone with our content.
I agree completely and am one of those who are more than just a little troubled by some of the antics of the big platforms and would simply like to have the option of sharing with others, like Parler, which was founded, as I understand it, in response to a lot of the censorship going on with FB and Twitter.
is there a good video on how to get started??
We have a few videos that may help - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zneuro_NdVw&t=1s, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoEUu1XHL7U&t=3s. Check out all of the videos Substack has put out here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm1ilvByQlcDkuVq1VAxxBg
I wish the directories had a "Mix topics" "Personal blog" or a maverick category of Subs that don't belong to any one particular niche! Like my sub- https://belladonnaoflavender.substack.com/
While I do write (I am a professional writer by day), I am using my Substack newsletter as a vehicle for my musical pursuits — sharing instrumental compositions that I'm working on, along with a few words and other inspirations. Is anyone else here using Substack to share original music? Would love to connect.
Hey Fog,
Two I've come across:
https://flirtini.substack.com/
https://wufeimusic.substack.com/
Excited to check out yours!
Thank you Katie! I've been following Wu Fei, but I will check out Flirtini. Thanks again.
Hello all, I'm thrilled to say that I sent out my first post on my newsletter yesterday! I do have a few questions, but one is exactly how to "tag" the groups. In my settings, I have politics and culture checked as my main areas. Does this mean that my posts will automatically be sent to those groups or do I have to add tags to each post before it is published? I didn't see a place to add tags as I am drafting the post. Thanks and please give my new post a read and let me know what you think when you have time:https://crimeandpunishment.substack.com/p/seeing-the-forest-and-the-trees?r=iu19o&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy
Hi Joan! We don't have post-level tags, just publication level ones. We encourage you to use at least one tag that bubbles up to a category on our homepage (substack.com) if you'd like to have the potential to make that featured list. And then include tags for your publication that will help folks who use search to find it come across your publication.
Thanks Bailey. I believe I understand the first sentence of your reply—yay for me! In my settings, I have checked both politics and culture. Are you suggesting I do something else?
Your 'stack looks really interesting! Subscribed :)
Don't know the answer to your tags question but, in my experience, I'll add tags etc. e'ry chance I get, lol.
Thanks for the sign-up! Just signed up for yours, too.
I forgot to add that I love your writing style—very funny, too.
this question may be already asked but there is so much to read so I’ll ask again. I’m new to substack. how do I attract followers? any tips?
Hey there! Resharing this from above --> We just did a deep dive session with writers on promotions and have a robust write up on it, if you care to check that out it's here: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-4. There are a lot of other great pieces of writing from other Substack writers to check out. You can navigate around from here - https://substack.com/resources or from the blog - https://on.substack.com/s/resources
thank you. i found that link above. appreciate you posting it here for me as well!
Write good content, promote it like your life depended on it.
👍🏾
How do I get my column posted under the "politics" category?
The leaderboards are generated on a combination of list size, engagement and revenue. For the free publications, that means we rank according to active readership. For the top paid publications list, we focus on revenue, which serves two important purposes: 1) It shows what readers deeply value; and 2) it gives other publishers a clear idea of what’s possible on Substack and how to get there.
Read more: https://on.substack.com/p/why-we-have-a-leaderboard
Is it possible to edit previous free posts if an error is found? Also , how can I stay on free posts but also publish a book for paid subscribers?
Hi Damian,
Yes, you can edit a free post that has already been published by:
1. Navigate to the post you'd like to edit.
2. Click the three dots under its title.
3. Click "Edit post".
More info here: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360039017132-How-do-I-edit-a-post-that-I-ve-published-
Thanks for the answers Katie!
As for your second question, I am not sure I am totally clear.
But you can choose to send free posts just to free subscribers or just paid subscribers.
And, you can use pricing tiers to establish what's for free readers vs. paid (e.g. your book)
Hi Damian! I have a free newsletter (the main one, Story Cauldron) for all subscribers. My paid subscribers also get my novel (The Favor Faeries). I have them set up as separate sections, and have all of my novel chapters scheduled out in advance to only go to paid subscribers. I also set up the "sidebar" on my Substack page to help with navigation, and use a different image (in color) for my novels, vs my Story Cauldron images which are black and white.
Also, if you are considering publishing a book on Substack, I would strongly urge you to join Elle Griffin's Discord community as it has been super helpful for me with all kinds of technical and strategic questions. Plus if you're doing fiction, Elle has created a new group for that as well. https://discord.com/invite/q9S4feaDVz
👋Hi everyone!
I write Health & Wealth, a newly launched weekly newsletter focused on the latest health optimization research and biotech trends.
This week I dug deeper into what the widely talked about Bezos funded longevity startup, Altos Lab will actually be working on: https://healthandwealth.substack.com/p/altos-labs-epigenetic-reprogramming
My question is — anyone know of/love reading any substacks that focus on investing in biotech companies or health optimization?
This is what I'm passionate about given my background in clinical genetics, so I'd love to find fellow newsletter writers whose target audience overlaps with mine. Thanks!
How many free signups do you guys wait for before you start implementing paid options?
Priya, I was paid from the beginning, because I have supporters for my work as a former professor turned missionary for history who wanted in. I don't think there's a formula, but I would strongly suggest that you consider who among your current readers is likely to jump in and pay, and how to balance providing exclusive paid content with having enough free content to showcase your wares.
Thanks Annette!
I am also wondering this. Personally I want to be in the thousands of free subs before going paid.