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 this thread to answer writer questions for an hour.
Drop your questions in the thread and we’ll do our best to share knowledge and tips.
Looking for inspiration on how to grow your email list? Caroline Chambers turned a rejected cookbook proposal into a thriving reader-supported Substack, and Gergely Orosz brought his blog for engineers to Substack, growing it significantly in the first month.
Seeking creative ways to promote your Substack on social media? David Hundeyin created a video teasing an upcoming post on West Africa Weekly.
Want to discover great writing on Substack? Substack profiles just got a refresh! Profiles display the publications you write, as well as the Substacks you read and a feed of posts you’ve written. Readers and writers are in control: You can edit your profile information at any time to select which publications you want to appear on your profile.
Our team will be answering questions in the thread from 9 a.m.–10 a.m. PDT / noon–1 p.m. EDT today.
Next week, we’ll host our monthly Shoutout Thread, designed to help writers discover and share great writing on Substack. Stop by to share what you’ve been reading and inspired by recently.
Next week is my personal favorite Thursday of the month, Shoutout Thread. Come share what you're writing and discover more great writing on Substack. Don't miss it: https://lu.ma/shoutout
Talk soon,
Katie + Bailey + Jasmine + Rose + Kelsa + Kevin + Becca + Linda + Sergey + Alex + Ashley
A want to thank the Substack team for their efforts to make a great product. I have noticed with a delight that the post editor has improved, sharing popup is now much cooler, author's page is gorgeous. I'm leaving the thread and wish you a great day (although in Sofia is already a night). 👋
Hey all! Hope that everyone's having a great week and thank you to the Substack team for hosting these - they're incredibly helpful! We wanted to share Citizen Scholar here with the group in case anyone's interested in collaborating or subscribing. We're a team of writers that launched ~3 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. As we mentioned, we launched in early September and we've seen a great response with ~300 subscribers so far! We would love to have anyone join us that enjoys reading & lessons from history, politics, psychology, classical literature & business. We hope to have anyone join us from this amazing community and we would welcome any relevant collaboration opportunities - thank you!
I've recently started my newsletter and I'd love to connect with more bookish/reading newsletters. I'm also open to cross promoting with the same. I love your newsletter. :)
Hey Punit! Thanks so much - we're excited to have you join us :) We would love to explore collaboration / cross-promotional opportunities - send us an email with any ideas that come to mind and info about your audience. Thanks again!
Hey Linda! Thank you for the kind note :) - Yes, we do audio & text for every post! The audio is an exact replica of the text to accommodate listener preferences - our audience has really liked this aspect so they can listen on the go!
Hey Substack community, I write one fun, thought-provoking poem every week at hellouniverse.substack.com - do subscribe!
I recently did my first cross promotion post! It's an easy process, but do keep in mind, that if you're adding a co-author to your post, both of you should be in sync at the time of publication, as they have to approve their mention as co-author, and you are unable to press "publish" till they approve the request.
Really wish substack had made it possible to do this asynchronously - where you put their name in, and they get a request for it, but it doesn't stop you from publishing.
Thank you all for sharing your questions in Office Hours today! Bring your kudos to our Shoutout Thread next Thursday, and we'll have another Office Hours the following week.
My question is on deciding whether to switch away from anonymous writing. Currently I write with my first name only but am thinking about putting a name and face at some point. Anyone have any experience or guidance on this? Thanks!
In our experience, it can be more difficult to promote your Substack while anonymous. You're not able to utilize existing, personal communication channels. You have to start from scratch, but it's possible. (And you're doing it!)
I'd encourage you to ask, "Why remain anonymous?" Is it important to you for personal reasons? Does it add value to your publication and your readers? We support you whichever path you choose.
Thank you for your thoughtful response, Kevin! That’s very helpful. I originally started this as anon partially out of personal fear (the startup I worked at got a lot of heat on Twitter a few months ago) and also not wanting my professional clinical genetics network interacting with Health & Wealth just yet.
Of course, I want to aim for high quality writing regardless whether my name is attached to it or not, but lately I’ve been considering making the transition out of anon to help my work gain more traction / build a more personal connection with my readers.
In my opinion, I think a full name and a face make the newsletter more human. When you become the "brand" I think the words and stories behind Health & Wealth will have more import. I feel like advice coming from a tangible expert carries more weight than advice from a nameless entity. (Just my opinion ;)
I'd say go for it! But I understand the resistance. When I moved from anonymity to using my own full name I was a nervous wreck! But I decided I needed that consistency as a writer and I haven't been sorry. I often write controversial opinions, as well as general humor and creative nonfiction, so I'm all over the place but this is who I am and my name goes with me!
Nice, Christina! Personally, I'm planning on staying more or less anonymous. I know it puts some people off but, if the content is good, I don't think it's a big deal.
I'm interested in cross-promotions and would like to connect with other writers!
In the latest edition of my newsletter, I talk about The Creativity faucet for generating new ideas, A man surviving with Iron Lungs, A climate-induced Hungry Island and Landscapes created using a photocopier!
Hey! I think we may have spoken about this before. I write about safely enjoying the outdoors, and interview some cool figures who enjoy exploring the mountains. I'd love to cross promote if you'd like!
Hey Cole! Sure thing! I love your newsletter, in fact, I just finished reading about the copy-cat tattoo! Can you shoot me an email to rishikeshshari[at]gmail.com
Has anyone experimented with audio posts? Wondering if this would increase subs for those that rather be read to (ie. Audible). Also, would audio posts live better on a weekly podcast or as stand alone audio on a post? Thanks all!
I just set up podcasts on Substack. But I will use it to narrate short (fiction) stories, not as a podcast. I have one story completed, but not yet published.
I am still trying to decide whether to do so for free subs or paid. I want to build my subs to 1K before really pushing paid content. Give them a taste of what the will be missing.
I would agree with this strategy :) It's totally fine to decide that certain parts of your content will be paywalled once you do decide to go paid later on.
I've experimented with audio posts where I narrate short personal essays I've written. My experience was that my audience is about 50/50 split between readers and listeners. It didn't increase subs, but I don't think I promoted it enough. I should try again.
I do audio posts sometimes... but treat them like sit down interviews, not narrations. Not everyone seemed to get that at first... 🤷♂️ but it seems okay now!
I just added my first audio post today. But if you see my question below, I could not figure out how to add the audio into the print newsletter as I have seen others do. So I sent it out as two emails, not what I wanted
You should click "New episode" where the "New post" is in the dashboard. You can still include the full text of your normal newsletter below, and readers will get it in their email inbox just like a normal newsletter - but with audio embedded at the top.
Thanks. I didn't have a problem using the audio, but I have not yet published it with the post because I wasn't happy with what I produced, then didn't have time to re-do before I needed to publish... my bad with timing.
We currently don't distinguish audio posts from podcasts in the product, so you should use "New episode" regardless of what kind of audio it is! We're working on making this easier, though.
Hello Sujeiry! For the first time last night, I tried giving my readers an AUDIO version AND the written version of my newsletter, and everyone seemed THRILLED!!!
hmmm. that is an idea. might look at doing that. will it be announced somewhere if this multiple audio post option is available?
thanks for the response - also for giving me an option to do what i am wanting to do in the meantime and not just saying, thanks for the idea and we will look into it ;-)
I just delivered a presentation and as part of the presentation I mentioned that the presentation content would be included in a downloadable packet in the next issue of my newsletter and if they wanted it they had to subscribe. (I also projected a QR code leading to the subscription page on the screen). It resulted in a bunch of new subscriptions.
We wanted to do something like this. Do you have paid subscription turned on? If not, how do you do this? We don’t but we want to do discreet exclusives.
Would love to hear from other writers! Additionally - we have a lot of ideas in this post, and Ali's talk was lovely too: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-4
I am going to do a giveaway where the winner gets drawn into the custom comic story art and featured in my substack, I think that is the most creative thing out there.
I thought it would be a neat idea to interview lots of interesting people and see if they'd want to share the interviews with their friends. The problem is, most of the people I've spoken with so far love the outdoors and hate social media. So they're not much better at promoting than I am...
I'm struggling too, to be honest, and I've been writing nearly a year and a half. What's worked best lately has been twitter. I'd barely used it before, and only had about 20 followers, but I've been active following and commenting on topics related to what I've been writing. I've picked up new twitter followers and that has somewhat translated to subscribers.
Thanks again substack for hosting this. As always, I am down to cross promote and help other writers grow. Feel free to hit me up, you all rock! https://youtopianjourney.substack.com/
Just published my second post own Substack today, great to be here.
I have a question about the removal of the Google Site Verification section in Settings – does this mean that Substack is taking some action on their end to make 'stacks more discoverable to search engines? Be really interested to find out more about the SEO angle as Substack grows...
I'd love to connect with any animal welfare advocates on Substack. Anyone with a publication dedicated to education and welfare around animals, I'd love to shout out (and hope you'd do the same for me :)
I started a substack focusing on the negative stigmas surrounding pit bulls, but will be focusing on animal welfare more generally as well.
Hi Nick! This is wonderful work you do! Thank you so much! I'm interested in pug rescue organizations myself, and support Pug Nation of L.A.: https://www.pugnationla.org They are currently, for the month of October, running a pug costume contest to raise funds for the pugs and pug-mixes. I believe the have a pug-pitbull mix (50 lbs) looking for a home, "Jimbo": https://www.pugnationla.org/home/portfolio-item/jimbo/. If you could write something about the costume contest fundraiser, or mention it to your readers, that would be wonderful: https://my.360photocontest.com/pugnation
Thanks for sharing this. I will reach out to them. If you have any contacts there, please ask them to reach out to PBP.advocates@gmail.com; I'd love to interview them and learn more about the great work they're doing
This may not be right on point, but I was so distressed at the fact that in the process of the grotesque withdrawal from Kabul, a number of "War Dogs" were left behind to face a probably horrible fate-- I wrote about it on my blog and you can find the piece at https://jimgeorge.substack.com/p/this-is-my-hill-saving-the-war-dogs. I hope this may be of some interest to you; I have been seriously thinking of adopting a service dog at one of the great rescue missions around the country. Sincerely, Jim
Jim, that’s great. You definitely should adopt a service dog they’ll make a great companion. I have seen that petition, shouted it out, signed and contributed. It’s an important cause. I read your piece on it, well done!
Hey all! Anyone else have issues with embedding YouTube? The Substack instructions say that the embed should just appear after pasting in the link, but it never seems to happen...
Hello, I've usually not had a problem with links not showing as embeds, but if in case that happens, a simple fix is to paste the link first in notepad, and then copy paste it to your draft.
You can also try a link cleaner (like this one https://github.com/ClearURLs/Addon/ ) that removes trackers in your original link that could be confusing the substack editor
You sure got me at Tocqueville; will definitely check your blog out--I do Admiral's Log, primarily about politics and current affairs, at jimgeorge.substack.com. Jim
Vimeo is also spotty. It would be helpful to have a fuller discussion of the embedding issues with the recommended embedding settings for vimeo, which can be quite complicated.
My newsletter (https://swimpruf.substack.com/) recently became a year old and I started getting some unsubscribe notices, several of which said, "Billing Failed." I assume this is due to an expired credit card tied to the subscriber's account. How do others deal with this successfully? Do you reach out to the person and notify them, in case they didn't realize his/her card expired?
Absolutely love the experience on Substack so far (6 months and counting). Looking forward to the Substack Reader and poll functionality. The only longer-term question mark I have is the inability to raise prices (with inflation). But so far, I haven't been too concerned about that.
Hi Michael, yes, you can raise prices on your subscription, but (as you may know) it only applies to new subscribers, not to existing signups. We find this protects your relationship with the reader. We'd definitely encourage you to raise your prices for new subscribers if you think it's warranted
Oh, I'm definitely not suggesting that you should be able to automatically raise prices without subscribers knowing about it.
But there should be an option where you suggest to existing subscribers that they either 1) Accept to roll over the subscription at the new price or 2) Cancel the subscription at the expiry date.
What does it take to become listed in the relatively short list of publications related to your tag? If the bar is extremely high, at least Substack could consider listing as an addendum the like-minded columns alphabetically—increasing our profiles and letting readers decide.
Overall, discoverability for smaller writers is severely limited, thus creating the need for newsletter discovery services like The Sample https://thesample.ai/?ref=hu
Just scroll all the way to the bottom, you'll see a button labelled - "Submit a newsletter".
Click that, and add a link to your newsletter, along with the necessary info. You'll get a link to your publisher console on your email id, and you can track how often your newsletter has been sent and subbed to.
Hi all! I'm Sarah -- I write a weekly 'stack about children's books, raising readers, and how to build a culture of reading in your home: https://canweread.substack.com/about
I took the tip from Caroline Chambers about running a discount and did that this week to super disappointing results. Has anyone else experimented/had success with discounts? I'd love to hear about it.
Also, always up for collaboration with other bookish/reader-ly newsletters, or 'stacks about or adjacent to kid-related topics. I haven't yet found anyone writing about children's books or especially for people with little readers in their lives but have done collabs with other 'stacks about books and reading, which has been fun.
Hi Anna! We don't have someone who does exactly that. A lot of fiction writers are hanging out in the Substack Writers Unite Discord here https://discard.cc/guilds/809073184371638315
On Story Cauldron, I write a free nonfiction newsletter and then I’m serializing novels available to people who subscribe to my paid newsletter. I just completed the first novel and have it available as a free download, with a BookFunnel link that I shared with my subscribers. that way people who don’t like the serial format can read the whole thing all at once. (But only when I’m done with the serial.) I’ll be starting up book 2 in a couple of weeks and will be releasing it a chapter at a time, probably 2X a week.
I just read that it's #InternationalPodcastDay so anyone with a podcast as part of their newsletter has a good reason to tweet about it today using the hashtag, along with a link to your newsletter/podcast. Maybe you'll pick up a few new subscribers?
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.
Super exciting! Here's a post with tips on a free vs. paid strategy and types of posts you can do for paid subs (e.g. interviews, audio read alouds, etc.) https://on.substack.com/p/grow-2
Are there tutorials available to assist me in designing a pictorial banner for my blog, or maybe some kind of graphic? My blog is entitled "Admiral's Log", so some nautical theme, with a patriotic sub-theme, as I am very patriotic- would be what I am looking for. Any help would be so appreciated, and thank you for these most helpful and productive sessions, through which I have met new friends and been introduced to most interesting new blogs I would have never heard of had it not been for these sessions. My blog is: jimgeorge.substack.com; all welcome. Thanks, Jim
Thank you! Especially since I am also a Curious (very, very!) Elder! And I absolutely want to know more about getting better at getting older! Thanks, Jim
Ideal image dimensions are included in the post linked! For banners and headers: recommended 1100 x 220 px with a transparent background, but could be taller.
I am highly suspicious that the paid vs. unpaid subscription ratios provided by Substack aren't accurate. Anyone else get that idea? My open percentage is usually > 30%, yet my paid percentage is less than 1%.
Mine are from in the 40s to 60s, and higher for paid folks. I have 210 subscribers and 43 are paid. I went paid June 1, started mid-April. I've realized I need to post no less than every 4-5 days, and really focus on how useful the content is, and am learning to share more of my self and my writing process in the posts--this is becoming key--though the sharing more of self translates to the reader learning more of how THEY write.
This reminds me of the question I have: I have 27 subscribers and of those, three paying (my friends!) I set the posts to send to everyone, but my header that I've written for free email subscribers does not appear on the emails that are sent. I am also one of the subscribers, but it says I am a paid subscriber, which I am not.
This is an important request. I wish there was a different category for poetry newsletters like mine! The Substack team could help us out a lot by relooking at their category approach.
We create new categories when we see there's critical mass in that category based on data in the backend. So --> let's get more screenwriters on Substack who use that tag!
Hi! My substack is Life Mostly Full - http://www.lifemostlyfull.com/ - which focuses on philosophical and practical approaches to an overburdened and overstuffed modern life.
My biggest challenge is finding my audience. They're out there, as I have a nice core of loyal readers, but finding more seems to be hit and miss.
The most success I've found is finding communities that are related to specific articles I write and sharing them there in response to people asking similar questions to what I'm answering, For example, I recently wrote an article on what the scientific literature has to say about improving sleep habits - https://www.lifemostlyfull.com/p/what-to-do-when-sleep-fails-you - and I intentionally Googled for people who were struggling with a sudden, severe lack of sleep and shared it with them in the threads they created.
The catch is that this is a lot of labor per new reader. It seems to attract very loyal ones, but it's time-intensive.
Are there good ways to suggest to your current readers that they share your columns with others? Does that work well?
I have a weekly newsletter with links relevant to those in the industry (finance). A few months ago I linked to a finance blog. He found out and was so happy that he wrote a glowing review of my Substack, helping me gain 30-40 paid subscribers.
I tried to do the same with a biography of a famous investor in Thailand, which I then shared with him by sending a free subscription to his personal e-mail address.
"It’s normal for your Substack to primarily experience slow, steady growth most of the time. Devotion to consistent promotion will help ensure a continuous growth trajectory. Every once in a while you may also get big subscriber jumps from a post that goes viral, a shoutout from another publication, or celebration moments like a paid launch"
Yes - we do on the Tuesday following our post that goes out on Friday mornings! Our Friday (original post) open rate is 50%-60% and the Tuesday (following post) is typically in the 20%-25% range. Hope this helps!
I’ve been enjoying Substack and am talking to a group of established columnists, and authors, about a collaborative series. Chris Best’s comments about allowing disinformation from writers has caused them to revolt. Help! We do not need another source of disinformation. Supporting Substack was a way of leaving content off Facebook for that very reason.
I am in complete agreement. I was quite disappointed that Chris Best did not take a firm stand against the disinformation wave -- it would certainly set Substack apart and make it an antidote to the craziness all around us. Please Substack, amend this position. I personally will bolt if the disinformation crazies invade Substack.
Hey there! Because our model is letting writers offer direct subscriptions instead of pushing viral content for outrage and attention, that means that bad content doesn’t get rewarded on Substack the same way it does in social media. It doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed never to find things that are wrong or that you disagree with (in fact, we think the latter is generally healthy), and there’s probably no place on the internet to fully escape content you don’t like, but Substack’s model is built to encourage quality and trust over time rather than cheap hits of engagement.
I'm curious about what Substack would do about a newsletter that, say, pushed dangerous COVID alternatives to the vaccine? Or fomented another insurrection attempt, with details about how to accomplish it y violence, if necessary?Is there a line these newsletters can't cross?
Yes, the question of false claimed about medicine is a good one. There are laws about what you can claim about a medical treatment and what you can't in the USA and other developed economies (I haven't looked at emerging economies so can't speak for that). These laws apply to the individuals making the claim, but it would be interesting to see what Substack would make of the platform being used for a purpose that is expressly not legal.
I'm relatively new and thus would appreciate a link to whatever source the "Chris Best's comments" came from; would be much appreciated. As to the substance of your concern I ask, and not at all in a pejorative manner, I hope, who determines what is "disinformation"? Are we going to have some kind of Ministry of Truth on Substack which, if it happened, would seem to me to defeat the very reason some of us were attracted to this site and others as well, such as Bari Weiss and Glenn Greenwald. I suspect that some of my views, such as my strongly held views on the so-called "insurrection" of January 6, may well be considered by some, in all good faith, as "disinformation", although they are based on very extensive reading, research and study. Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts with me on this issue. Jim.
Hi Shobit, re: reminders, one option is to use your subscriber dashboard to filter on all subscribers who haven't opened a post in 7 days. We wouldn't suggest sending the exact same email, which isn't the best experience for the reader; what might work is to send them an "in case you missed it" different email recapping whatever you sent in the previous 7 days
Just click the checkbox at the top left to select everybody in your filtered list, and then an "Email" button appears. Check out Jasmine's video on using the subscriber dashboard, it explains is well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORhE-tmom50&ab_channel=Substack
1. No. But mailchimp has an option to resend the letter to non-openers only.
2. That's a referral program that is in partnership with a third party. If you want to launch a referral program or content with leaderboard natively in your newsletter, check out letterdrop.com.
Snipe rejected me saying I will have too many disgruntled subscribers asking for money back. I don’t know how they figured that, but is there another way to receive payments?
So how do I rectify this? How can they say, “Stripe can only support users with a low risk of customer disputes. After reviewing your submitted information and website, it does seem like your business presents a higher level of risk than we can currently support.”
I recently learned a weekly design newsletter I follow (not on substack, it's been running for a few years already) created an index of his archive for subscribers to browse within the categories he posts about weekly. Does substack have such an option, or can it be added? It would create a way for subscribers to discover very specific content. I would personally highly appreciate such a feature.
I write on the internet's effects on society and politics, both in Substack and as a professor. Another colleague of mine is an economist of higher education. We believe that Substack represents an innovation in the information market, especially as a way for people to fund their information creation.
We would like to do a study on Substack to see what the Substack information market looks like. We *could* just scrape the information from the website, but would much prefer to cooperate with Substack in the endeavor, since we believe it likely that we will discover things Substack would like to know. Whom should we speak to about such potential cooperation? You can email me directly at cyberprof@pm.me, if you prefer.
My substack, lazybones.substack.com is a month old. It's for people who know they should be more active but just can't get motivated to exercise. So far I only have 50 subscribers and, although the open rate is good, there are few shares. I like the title "lazybones" because it's short and easy to remember but I'm wondering if my subscribers would feel that they'd be insulting their friends by forwarding it to them. Would I get more shares with a title like, "Exercise for people who hate to exercise.substack.com"?
I am currently reading a great book titled "Write Useful Books." by Rob Fitzpatrick and in the section on titles, he stresses the importance of having a title reflect exactly what the book (content) is about so if you follow his advice, Lazybones might not be the best title.
Hi Ed -- you might try asking your readers what they think of the name! Growth tends to happen slowly over time, so it just be a matter of staying consistent and keeping at it.
Does substack have any plans to release an app? Do any other writers have any suggestions for keeping notes on the go? I often have ideas hit me at the most random times and places. I've used Notion for this because the mobile app syncs back to my desktop app, so I can fairly easily import into substack when needed....anyone else have any techniques that help them capture ideas when they're not somewhere they can sit down and write?
Nick - I use Notion too and love it! I have created different Pages w/in it so that I can send my idea to the right filter. For example, if I have an idea or see an article that relates to a concept I am thinking about writing about, I send it to my "My Story Links" page. If it is something that I will use for posting on social media, I send it to my "Social Media" page, etc. I feel like I could be doing so much more with Notion, but I love it! And do you use the web clipping feature? It's awesome!
I didn't get to ask my legal question last week due to a schedule conflict. May I ask it now? A large organization accused me of lying on Facebook group and told me to take down the "lie" in intimidating language. I started my Substack to discuss it, but I was afraid of repercussions. The "lie" was not even specified. Because I was afraid of what they might do, I told my readers to stop leaving comments attacking them. And that did solve the problem but I lost my engagement. So I'd like to know what an org with big lawyers could actually do to me.
Hi Loretta! Kevin from Substack here. Thanks for writing in. I believe a media lawyer would need more information/context to help you understand the risks in your case.
About Defender: We have a legal support program for independent writers on Substack. As part of this program, we work with first-rate media lawyers to provide free advice and direction to writers who are facing legal uncertainty or pressure because of their work. This support has included pre-publication legal review of individual stories and responses to cease-and-desist letters. As of today, we’re making this legal support program more widely available.
Applications are open to US-based writers who have paid subscribers and publish work that may attract unreasonable legal pressure, such as abuses of copyright laws, assaults on first amendment rights, and spurious defamation claims.
Thanks. Yes, "spurious defamation claims" is exactly the issue. I haven't pursued paid subscriptions yet, but I'll turn it on and give it a shot. Thank you. The two things go together. My paid subscribers will get the real scoop because I will have less fear of legal ramifications.
It seems that Mr Zuckerberg doesn't want people on FB to leave his platform and links to Substack writing aren't seen by most of the people who see other FB posts. Anyone know anything about this apparent policy and if there is any way around it?
We've heard from many writers that it can be strategic to screenshot part of your Substack and post it as a captioned image, then add the link to your Substack in the first comment!
There could be a hundred reasons why a fb post doesn't perform well. Make sure you don't include catchy words such as: *subscribe* *sign up* *click* *like* *comment* etc. Facebook doesn't like these.
I have a free newsletter that goes out once a week and a paid newsletter (where I post chapters from my serial novel) that also goes out once a week. On a few occasions I’ve sent out an additional newsletter in a given week. No one has complained and I haven’t seen any unsubscribes when I’ve sent out the third unscheduled one. So I think it is perfectly OK to send out at least once a week. It really depends on the kind of content you have, and your audience.
I do once a month. I surveyed my subscribers and asked if they would prefer to receive it more often and they said to keep it monthly. It might be worth asking your readers.
In our team's experience working with the top writers on Substack, posting more often creates better engagement and a closer relationship with your readers, so twice a week is what we'd recommend. You want reading your newsletter to become a habit. But it's your publication, and you can adopt whatever cadence works best for your life and goals
Once. Except during the first week when you launch or if there is another good reason. I have personally unsubscribed from newsletters because they come too often, not because they are bed.
I am trying to enable the subscription. It takes me to stripe, I've created the account, but when I sign in it takes back to substack and subscritions are not enabled. What am I doing wrong?
I have an email into them. Thanks for responding. In settings I click on the connect to Stripes and it takes to to stripe. I cannot figure out if I have some button clicked, but for the life of me I cannot see what. I have an account, but nothing enables? I am hoping they will get back to me. I'll try your email too, just in case it's not the one I sent to. Was hard to find. LOL.
I want to ensure email sign-ups that they can become subscribers without revealing their identity to me. Can I point them to a substack page? Several have clicked through to "subscribe" then paused. Help me close the deal. Thank you.
I haven't published yet, and I want to change the title and subject of my newsletter. I can't find a place to do that. Somebody please tell me. I won't write and post until I change the name. Help!
I missed last week's Office Hours (the usual juggle). A question re using the Google Search Console: one of you very wonderfully guided me through the whole process, and now I can see a great dashboard of analytic information - thank you! Google sent me a note about a "New Coverage Issue" basically "Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt". Is this a significant problem or can I ignore it? If significant, how do I fix it?
Fun (at least we didn't go down like all the FB properties yesterday....)
Thank you all for being here for this week's Office Hours!
Our resources are here for you: https://substack.com/resources
Next week is my personal favorite Thursday of the month, Shoutout Thread. Come share what you're writing and discover more great writing on Substack. Don't miss it: https://lu.ma/shoutout
Talk soon,
Katie + Bailey + Jasmine + Rose + Kelsa + Kevin + Becca + Linda + Sergey + Alex + Ashley
A want to thank the Substack team for their efforts to make a great product. I have noticed with a delight that the post editor has improved, sharing popup is now much cooler, author's page is gorgeous. I'm leaving the thread and wish you a great day (although in Sofia is already a night). 👋
Petor - Alex who is answering questions in this thread spent his own personal time ensuring cyrillic rendered well on Substack for you :)
No way! Thank you! I will send Alex a present.
I will send him the collection of three posters from my Etsy shop as digital files (https://www.etsy.com/shop/krepost). Just contact me.
We've been working real hard on these improvements! I'll share this with the team - they'll be delighted you noticed.
Thanks for your help. Have a good night!
Hey all! Hope that everyone's having a great week and thank you to the Substack team for hosting these - they're incredibly helpful! We wanted to share Citizen Scholar here with the group in case anyone's interested in collaborating or subscribing. We're a team of writers that launched ~3 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. As we mentioned, we launched in early September and we've seen a great response with ~300 subscribers so far! We would love to have anyone join us that enjoys reading & lessons from history, politics, psychology, classical literature & business. We hope to have anyone join us from this amazing community and we would welcome any relevant collaboration opportunities - thank you!
Yeahhhhh, I think we could collaborate and do something.
You're always one of the friendliest and most welcoming people in these chats.
Thanks! I know how hard the game is and we need to help one another out where we can.
That sounds great! Feel free to send us a note of what you're thinking and any audience overlap / info
What is your email?
citizenscholarbookclub@protonmail.com - thank you!
Love to see more bookish substacks! Welcome aboard!
Thank you, Elizabeth! We love your Substack - if it's of interest, would love to see if there's any cross-promotional opportunity / audience overlap!
Yes please! I often share guest book recommendations. Want to submit one?
We would love to! Send us an email with what you're looking for - citizenscholarbookclub@protonmail.com
I've recently started my newsletter and I'd love to connect with more bookish/reading newsletters. I'm also open to cross promoting with the same. I love your newsletter. :)
I’d love to potentially collaborate! I’ll send you all an email soon!
Sounds great - thanks, Valorie! citizenscholarbookclub@protonmail.com
Loved your content! Would love to do a cross-promotion!
Thank you, Rishikesh! Send us an email at citizenscholarbookclub@protonmail.com
This looks great, instant sub!
I would love to collaborate and cross-promote.
Please drop a line at hellouniversehowareyou at gmail , and let's chat!
Hey Punit! Thanks so much - we're excited to have you join us :) We would love to explore collaboration / cross-promotional opportunities - send us an email with any ideas that come to mind and info about your audience. Thanks again!
citizenscholarbookclub@protonmail.com
I just checked out your newsletter. (Looks great!) Do you do audio and text for every post?
Hey Linda! Thank you for the kind note :) - Yes, we do audio & text for every post! The audio is an exact replica of the text to accommodate listener preferences - our audience has really liked this aspect so they can listen on the go!
Love the idea of collaborating. I have a couple ideas already. I see you’ve shared your email below. I’ll be sure to reach out :)
Thank you! We're glad to have you :) We'll keep you posted on when we cover psychology topics - we appreciate you reaching out!
Hey Substack community, I write one fun, thought-provoking poem every week at hellouniverse.substack.com - do subscribe!
I recently did my first cross promotion post! It's an easy process, but do keep in mind, that if you're adding a co-author to your post, both of you should be in sync at the time of publication, as they have to approve their mention as co-author, and you are unable to press "publish" till they approve the request.
Really wish substack had made it possible to do this asynchronously - where you put their name in, and they get a request for it, but it doesn't stop you from publishing.
That's a good tip, thanks Punit.
Thanks James, do subscribe! I see we are fellow poets :)
Oh awesome! Will do.
Would love to see your guest post. Can you share the link?
Yes!
https://hellouniverse.substack.com/p/letter-from-the-future
Do subscribe for more poetry if you like it ☺️
Thank you all for sharing your questions in Office Hours today! Bring your kudos to our Shoutout Thread next Thursday, and we'll have another Office Hours the following week.
I’ve been writing a weekly newsletter for about a month now and have reached over 100 subscribers! 🎉
Built entirely from scratch - with my first name only and new Twitter account starting with 0 followers:
https://healthandwealth.substack.com/p/100subscribers
My question is on deciding whether to switch away from anonymous writing. Currently I write with my first name only but am thinking about putting a name and face at some point. Anyone have any experience or guidance on this? Thanks!
Hey Christina! First off, congrats on reaching 100 subscribers. That's a big milestone!
In case you haven't seen it, our team did this interview with Petition (https://petition.substack.com/), an anonymous Substack writer, that has developed a reader base of tens of thousands. It may be a case study worth checking out. https://on.substack.com/p/how-petition-grew-their-newsletter
In our experience, it can be more difficult to promote your Substack while anonymous. You're not able to utilize existing, personal communication channels. You have to start from scratch, but it's possible. (And you're doing it!)
I'd encourage you to ask, "Why remain anonymous?" Is it important to you for personal reasons? Does it add value to your publication and your readers? We support you whichever path you choose.
Thank you for your thoughtful response, Kevin! That’s very helpful. I originally started this as anon partially out of personal fear (the startup I worked at got a lot of heat on Twitter a few months ago) and also not wanting my professional clinical genetics network interacting with Health & Wealth just yet.
Of course, I want to aim for high quality writing regardless whether my name is attached to it or not, but lately I’ve been considering making the transition out of anon to help my work gain more traction / build a more personal connection with my readers.
In my opinion, I think a full name and a face make the newsletter more human. When you become the "brand" I think the words and stories behind Health & Wealth will have more import. I feel like advice coming from a tangible expert carries more weight than advice from a nameless entity. (Just my opinion ;)
I can definitely see that being the case! I will likely transition soon :)
I'd say go for it! But I understand the resistance. When I moved from anonymity to using my own full name I was a nervous wreck! But I decided I needed that consistency as a writer and I haven't been sorry. I often write controversial opinions, as well as general humor and creative nonfiction, so I'm all over the place but this is who I am and my name goes with me!
Nice, Christina! Personally, I'm planning on staying more or less anonymous. I know it puts some people off but, if the content is good, I don't think it's a big deal.
Yes I can see the reasoning for both ways! Agree that creating high quality content is paramount in either case
Hey folks!
I write 10+1 Things (https://rishikesh.substack.com/) where I share 11 interesting stories finely handpicked by me!
I'm interested in cross-promotions and would like to connect with other writers!
In the latest edition of my newsletter, I talk about The Creativity faucet for generating new ideas, A man surviving with Iron Lungs, A climate-induced Hungry Island and Landscapes created using a photocopier!
Read More: https://rishikesh.substack.com/p/creativity-hungry-island-xerox
Hey Rishikesh! This sounds so fun! I’d love to connect more and possibly cross-promote!
That would be amazing!
Yooooooo!
Hey! I think we may have spoken about this before. I write about safely enjoying the outdoors, and interview some cool figures who enjoy exploring the mountains. I'd love to cross promote if you'd like!
Hey Cole! Sure thing! I love your newsletter, in fact, I just finished reading about the copy-cat tattoo! Can you shoot me an email to rishikeshshari[at]gmail.com
Glad you liked it! I'll do that now!
Sure! Can you send me an email to rishikeshshari[at]gmail.com
Has anyone experimented with audio posts? Wondering if this would increase subs for those that rather be read to (ie. Audible). Also, would audio posts live better on a weekly podcast or as stand alone audio on a post? Thanks all!
I just set up podcasts on Substack. But I will use it to narrate short (fiction) stories, not as a podcast. I have one story completed, but not yet published.
Did you run into any trouble linking with apple?
I didn't try linking with Apple. I have no intention of releasing them as podcasts. They will just be narrated stories on my Substack newsletter.
ah, fair enough. There have been some bugs on my end, didn't know if anyone else was running into them!
How are you thinking about using audio? We definitely see some writers use narrated posts as a paid benefit, or just for everyone. See https://pressrun.media/ and https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/ for examples!
I too am using audio posts in my paid content, as a bonus commentary to my podcast.
I am still trying to decide whether to do so for free subs or paid. I want to build my subs to 1K before really pushing paid content. Give them a taste of what the will be missing.
I would agree with this strategy :) It's totally fine to decide that certain parts of your content will be paywalled once you do decide to go paid later on.
I've experimented with audio posts where I narrate short personal essays I've written. My experience was that my audience is about 50/50 split between readers and listeners. It didn't increase subs, but I don't think I promoted it enough. I should try again.
Two audio posts here: https://deepa.substack.com/p/letters-by-deepa-02-listen-to-gold and https://deepa.substack.com/p/letters-by-deepa-10-listen-to-summer
YOU are a brilliant reader, Deepa! BRILLIANT!
Thanks for listening, E. Jean!
I do audio posts sometimes... but treat them like sit down interviews, not narrations. Not everyone seemed to get that at first... 🤷♂️ but it seems okay now!
I just added my first audio post today. But if you see my question below, I could not figure out how to add the audio into the print newsletter as I have seen others do. So I sent it out as two emails, not what I wanted
You should click "New episode" where the "New post" is in the dashboard. You can still include the full text of your normal newsletter below, and readers will get it in their email inbox just like a normal newsletter - but with audio embedded at the top.
Okay, that makes sense. I was trying to do it in reverse. Duh. Thank you!
It works like a dream! Substack is marvelous platform!
Amazing!!
I'm going to try the audio today...
So cool! I'd love if you could comment with your post here once you post, would love to see what you do.
Thanks. I didn't have a problem using the audio, but I have not yet published it with the post because I wasn't happy with what I produced, then didn't have time to re-do before I needed to publish... my bad with timing.
So we would add "new episode" vs "new post." But this is only if the audio post is a podcast, correct?
We currently don't distinguish audio posts from podcasts in the product, so you should use "New episode" regardless of what kind of audio it is! We're working on making this easier, though.
Thank you for the clarification!
Hello Sujeiry! For the first time last night, I tried giving my readers an AUDIO version AND the written version of my newsletter, and everyone seemed THRILLED!!!
Give it a whirl! You won't regret it!
Here's the DOUBLE wallop:https://ejeancarroll.substack.com/p/cheating-vs-screwing
I would like to create an audio post with more than one audio file. Is that possible?
Hi David! Can you tell me more about this? How do you plan to use something like this?
I was hoping to do a couple of interviews and post the audios individually in the post
Soundcloud is the way to go, David!
short audios like 3-5 minutes but three or four of them. and to put them in separately. right now, i would have to combine them in one audio file
This sounds like a creative idea to me!
yeah, sounds like a great idea. really hope that substack can make this happen because i think a lot of people would really love to use it
Totally understand the need. We hear it and are working on things to make this easier. In the interim, another option is to upload to Soundcloud and do embeds, like here: https://thegoldenrod.substack.com/p/its-kentucky-bourbon-heritage-month
Heavens! What a marvelous idea.
hmmm. that is an idea. might look at doing that. will it be announced somewhere if this multiple audio post option is available?
thanks for the response - also for giving me an option to do what i am wanting to do in the meantime and not just saying, thanks for the idea and we will look into it ;-)
Yes, we'll announce any audio improvements on our blog and Twitter :)
does anyone have any creative ways to market your newsletter?
I just delivered a presentation and as part of the presentation I mentioned that the presentation content would be included in a downloadable packet in the next issue of my newsletter and if they wanted it they had to subscribe. (I also projected a QR code leading to the subscription page on the screen). It resulted in a bunch of new subscriptions.
Definitely going to try this!
We wanted to do something like this. Do you have paid subscription turned on? If not, how do you do this? We don’t but we want to do discreet exclusives.
Would love to hear from other writers! Additionally - we have a lot of ideas in this post, and Ali's talk was lovely too: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-4
I am going to do a giveaway where the winner gets drawn into the custom comic story art and featured in my substack, I think that is the most creative thing out there.
That sounds awesome! Do you have a time line for launching it?
Yo Thor! Working on this myself.
I thought it would be a neat idea to interview lots of interesting people and see if they'd want to share the interviews with their friends. The problem is, most of the people I've spoken with so far love the outdoors and hate social media. So they're not much better at promoting than I am...
I've also found that the people I interview didn't share much, and interview posts were quite hard work. But they did make good content.
Hmm. Anything else work for you particularly well? I feel like I'm writing interesting things. but not great at getting it in front of many new eyes.
I'm struggling too, to be honest, and I've been writing nearly a year and a half. What's worked best lately has been twitter. I'd barely used it before, and only had about 20 followers, but I've been active following and commenting on topics related to what I've been writing. I've picked up new twitter followers and that has somewhat translated to subscribers.
Maybe wheatpasting could be interesting if you've got a sick logo or something, haha
Thanks again substack for hosting this. As always, I am down to cross promote and help other writers grow. Feel free to hit me up, you all rock! https://youtopianjourney.substack.com/
Thanks for participating!
Hey all,
Just published my second post own Substack today, great to be here.
I have a question about the removal of the Google Site Verification section in Settings – does this mean that Substack is taking some action on their end to make 'stacks more discoverable to search engines? Be really interested to find out more about the SEO angle as Substack grows...
Thanks!
We are doing some work to improve SEO for writers.
We have a new resource on how you can improve SEO within Substack currently: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407702258836-How-can-I-optimize-my-Substack-publication-for-SEO-
Ooh, thanks, I'll dive in and check that out.
If you (or anyone you know) writes about aviation and/or music, I'd love to connect and talk about guest posting.
I'd like to meet more music folks too. A few that I do know:
https://harmonyholiday.substack.com/
https://toneglow.substack.com/
https://www.youroperadaily.com/
Come to the shoutout thread next week and we will hopefully discover more together: https://lu.ma/shoutout
Thank you for the links! I feel like there's a lot of us on here looking for one another.
I'd love to connect with any animal welfare advocates on Substack. Anyone with a publication dedicated to education and welfare around animals, I'd love to shout out (and hope you'd do the same for me :)
I started a substack focusing on the negative stigmas surrounding pit bulls, but will be focusing on animal welfare more generally as well.
Hi Nick! This is wonderful work you do! Thank you so much! I'm interested in pug rescue organizations myself, and support Pug Nation of L.A.: https://www.pugnationla.org They are currently, for the month of October, running a pug costume contest to raise funds for the pugs and pug-mixes. I believe the have a pug-pitbull mix (50 lbs) looking for a home, "Jimbo": https://www.pugnationla.org/home/portfolio-item/jimbo/. If you could write something about the costume contest fundraiser, or mention it to your readers, that would be wonderful: https://my.360photocontest.com/pugnation
Thanks for sharing this. I will reach out to them. If you have any contacts there, please ask them to reach out to PBP.advocates@gmail.com; I'd love to interview them and learn more about the great work they're doing
Pug Nation Rescue of Los Angeles has a YouTube channel, which is very informative about the work they do:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-OEYvSo8Mxd0orV1PM_UPQ
Additionally, they have a Facebook page where they share many stories:
https://www.facebook.com/PugNationRescueofLosAngeles/
Thanks for sharing, Nick!
This may not be right on point, but I was so distressed at the fact that in the process of the grotesque withdrawal from Kabul, a number of "War Dogs" were left behind to face a probably horrible fate-- I wrote about it on my blog and you can find the piece at https://jimgeorge.substack.com/p/this-is-my-hill-saving-the-war-dogs. I hope this may be of some interest to you; I have been seriously thinking of adopting a service dog at one of the great rescue missions around the country. Sincerely, Jim
Jim, that’s great. You definitely should adopt a service dog they’ll make a great companion. I have seen that petition, shouted it out, signed and contributed. It’s an important cause. I read your piece on it, well done!
is it possible to restrict images embedded in our newsletters from being downloaded?
That's a great question. I'll share this idea with the product team.
Good one…I’m concerned,too.
I'm here to also ask for this feature!
Could manually watermark 'em but...not the perfect solution by any means!
Hey all! Anyone else have issues with embedding YouTube? The Substack instructions say that the embed should just appear after pasting in the link, but it never seems to happen...
In any case, I write about books and news and things as a historian, and I just wrote about Amazon's new Astro robot if anyone is interested :) https://samuelklee.substack.com/p/hey-astro-meet-tocqueville-and-francis
Hello, I've usually not had a problem with links not showing as embeds, but if in case that happens, a simple fix is to paste the link first in notepad, and then copy paste it to your draft.
You can also try a link cleaner (like this one https://github.com/ClearURLs/Addon/ ) that removes trackers in your original link that could be confusing the substack editor
You sure got me at Tocqueville; will definitely check your blog out--I do Admiral's Log, primarily about politics and current affairs, at jimgeorge.substack.com. Jim
Thanks for taking a look!
Vimeo is also spotty. It would be helpful to have a fuller discussion of the embedding issues with the recommended embedding settings for vimeo, which can be quite complicated.
Yes, sometimes, and I have the same problem with URLs. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't, and I don't know why.
Hrm, this could be a bug. Would you mind sending this to our team here - https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/requests/new? Then they can log the bug with our engineers.
My newsletter (https://swimpruf.substack.com/) recently became a year old and I started getting some unsubscribe notices, several of which said, "Billing Failed." I assume this is due to an expired credit card tied to the subscriber's account. How do others deal with this successfully? Do you reach out to the person and notify them, in case they didn't realize his/her card expired?
From Substack's side, we send out reminders to readers when their credit cards expire, so they should know!
Absolutely love the experience on Substack so far (6 months and counting). Looking forward to the Substack Reader and poll functionality. The only longer-term question mark I have is the inability to raise prices (with inflation). But so far, I haven't been too concerned about that.
I love my experience with Substack so far, too! I feel so free when I write...
Hi Michael, yes, you can raise prices on your subscription, but (as you may know) it only applies to new subscribers, not to existing signups. We find this protects your relationship with the reader. We'd definitely encourage you to raise your prices for new subscribers if you think it's warranted
Oh, I'm definitely not suggesting that you should be able to automatically raise prices without subscribers knowing about it.
But there should be an option where you suggest to existing subscribers that they either 1) Accept to roll over the subscription at the new price or 2) Cancel the subscription at the expiry date.
Thank you, that's a terrific feature suggestion, I'll pass it on to our product team
What does it take to become listed in the relatively short list of publications related to your tag? If the bar is extremely high, at least Substack could consider listing as an addendum the like-minded columns alphabetically—increasing our profiles and letting readers decide.
Overall, discoverability for smaller writers is severely limited, thus creating the need for newsletter discovery services like The Sample https://thesample.ai/?ref=hu
I used the sample, only got six subscribers from it. Maybe it will be better for you.
Thanks for the info. I clicked on the link but am unclear as to how they know about one’s publication. If you know, could you elaborate?
Just scroll all the way to the bottom, you'll see a button labelled - "Submit a newsletter".
Click that, and add a link to your newsletter, along with the necessary info. You'll get a link to your publisher console on your email id, and you can track how often your newsletter has been sent and subbed to.
Hope this helps!
Here we go!
Oh heyyyyy!
Right…what?
Hi all! I'm Sarah -- I write a weekly 'stack about children's books, raising readers, and how to build a culture of reading in your home: https://canweread.substack.com/about
I took the tip from Caroline Chambers about running a discount and did that this week to super disappointing results. Has anyone else experimented/had success with discounts? I'd love to hear about it.
Also, always up for collaboration with other bookish/reader-ly newsletters, or 'stacks about or adjacent to kid-related topics. I haven't yet found anyone writing about children's books or especially for people with little readers in their lives but have done collabs with other 'stacks about books and reading, which has been fun.
Can attest that Sarah is super fun to collaborate with!
Aw, thanks Elizabeth! You made it easy since your newsletter is so good.
Hi there, who should we speak to about getting our novels published on sub stack?
Hi Anna! We don't have someone who does exactly that. A lot of fiction writers are hanging out in the Substack Writers Unite Discord here https://discard.cc/guilds/809073184371638315
On Story Cauldron, I write a free nonfiction newsletter and then I’m serializing novels available to people who subscribe to my paid newsletter. I just completed the first novel and have it available as a free download, with a BookFunnel link that I shared with my subscribers. that way people who don’t like the serial format can read the whole thing all at once. (But only when I’m done with the serial.) I’ll be starting up book 2 in a couple of weeks and will be releasing it a chapter at a time, probably 2X a week.
I would also recommend you join the Substack Writers Wnite discord group. I have a link to it in this post. https://storycauldron.substack.com/p/so-you-have-a-substack-what-next
I just read that it's #InternationalPodcastDay so anyone with a podcast as part of their newsletter has a good reason to tweet about it today using the hashtag, along with a link to your newsletter/podcast. Maybe you'll pick up a few new subscribers?
oh hey thanks for the heads up! I actually just launched mine and did my first episode tuesday!
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.
Super exciting! Here's a post with tips on a free vs. paid strategy and types of posts you can do for paid subs (e.g. interviews, audio read alouds, etc.) https://on.substack.com/p/grow-2
Yooooooooo, hit me back on email!
Are there tutorials available to assist me in designing a pictorial banner for my blog, or maybe some kind of graphic? My blog is entitled "Admiral's Log", so some nautical theme, with a patriotic sub-theme, as I am very patriotic- would be what I am looking for. Any help would be so appreciated, and thank you for these most helpful and productive sessions, through which I have met new friends and been introduced to most interesting new blogs I would have never heard of had it not been for these sessions. My blog is: jimgeorge.substack.com; all welcome. Thanks, Jim
Also remember wikimedia and unsplash for pictures. I love Canva for design. Must check out free one below.
Another simple-to-use design site is:https://www.online-image-editor.com/ Free too!
Thank you! Especially since I am also a Curious (very, very!) Elder! And I absolutely want to know more about getting better at getting older! Thanks, Jim
Hello Jim, I think the most user friendly tool for designing a picture graphic online is Canva, and it's free too!
This post shows in a step by step manner how to go from idea to finished design:
https://www.canva.com/learn/a-step-by-step-guide-to-designing-from-scratch/
Thanks for this tip; much appreciated! Jim
Hi! We have some tips for DIY design in this blog post: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-3
Hey Jasmine! What is the ideal size for the email header image?
Ideal image dimensions are included in the post linked! For banners and headers: recommended 1100 x 220 px with a transparent background, but could be taller.
Thank you very much! I will get into that helpful material soon and appreciate the help! Jim
I am highly suspicious that the paid vs. unpaid subscription ratios provided by Substack aren't accurate. Anyone else get that idea? My open percentage is usually > 30%, yet my paid percentage is less than 1%.
My open rate is between 30 and 40% most of the time and my paid rate is about 7%. Then again my free and paid newsletters have different content.
Hi David! We recently had our data teams take another look at the conversion rates. You can see those findings in this post - https://on.substack.com/p/grow-1. Specifically, this image has the ratios that we see as averages sitewide: https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe9e66168-4c61-43c1-a859-e86d5270fef7_960x540.jpeg
Mine are from in the 40s to 60s, and higher for paid folks. I have 210 subscribers and 43 are paid. I went paid June 1, started mid-April. I've realized I need to post no less than every 4-5 days, and really focus on how useful the content is, and am learning to share more of my self and my writing process in the posts--this is becoming key--though the sharing more of self translates to the reader learning more of how THEY write.
My open rate is 24% and my paid subscribers are 1.6%. I guess the Substack rates are accurate.
Those stats they provided are averages, presumably, so it won't be universal.
Then I am punching well below my weight class. It's disappointing.
It could simply mean you need to reevaluate what your audience wants from subscriptions. >30% opens is a good sign.
Good morning from NY! Is there any way to create an email and send it to my free subs without it showing up on the homepage of my newsletter?
When you send an email only to free subscribers, it shouldn't publish on the homepage. If you send it to "everyone," it will.
I just sent one today to "only fee subscribers", and it did not show up on my website (as Jasmine said.)
Just did it and it worked also!
This reminds me of the question I have: I have 27 subscribers and of those, three paying (my friends!) I set the posts to send to everyone, but my header that I've written for free email subscribers does not appear on the emails that are sent. I am also one of the subscribers, but it says I am a paid subscriber, which I am not.
Oh, interesting! I hadn't realised that was a thing. Thanks!
Thank you! That's what I thought but wanted to make sure it worked and that I understood the wording.
You can unpublish it after you've sent it out, that way it won't be visible on the website. Bit messy, but it works.
After you send it, unpublish it.
I would also like to know how to do that!
When you send an email only to free subscribers, it shouldn't publish on the homepage. If you send it to "everyone," it will.
We don't have an only to free subscribers setting it's either email everyone (and then it seems to get published too) or its a publish on the website.
Any ideas on how to start a category for screenwriters??
Since it's so difficult to get your work out there. I'm not sure what it could look like. Maybe an audience of others screenwriters.
This is an important request. I wish there was a different category for poetry newsletters like mine! The Substack team could help us out a lot by relooking at their category approach.
We create new categories when we see there's critical mass in that category based on data in the backend. So --> let's get more screenwriters on Substack who use that tag!
Hope "poetry" is also getting to critical mass! ☺️
I also screenwrite, this could be dope.
Hi! My substack is Life Mostly Full - http://www.lifemostlyfull.com/ - which focuses on philosophical and practical approaches to an overburdened and overstuffed modern life.
My biggest challenge is finding my audience. They're out there, as I have a nice core of loyal readers, but finding more seems to be hit and miss.
The most success I've found is finding communities that are related to specific articles I write and sharing them there in response to people asking similar questions to what I'm answering, For example, I recently wrote an article on what the scientific literature has to say about improving sleep habits - https://www.lifemostlyfull.com/p/what-to-do-when-sleep-fails-you - and I intentionally Googled for people who were struggling with a sudden, severe lack of sleep and shared it with them in the threads they created.
The catch is that this is a lot of labor per new reader. It seems to attract very loyal ones, but it's time-intensive.
Are there good ways to suggest to your current readers that they share your columns with others? Does that work well?
I have a weekly newsletter with links relevant to those in the industry (finance). A few months ago I linked to a finance blog. He found out and was so happy that he wrote a glowing review of my Substack, helping me gain 30-40 paid subscribers.
I tried to do the same with a biography of a famous investor in Thailand, which I then shared with him by sending a free subscription to his personal e-mail address.
https://www.asiancenturystocks.com/p/marcfaber
So I'd say, add value to those who might share your Substack with others, and they will reward you in a reciprocal fashion.
Awesome Michael thanks for sharing!
Hi Trent! You might find this useful — it's a summary of tactics for growing your readership: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-4
"It’s normal for your Substack to primarily experience slow, steady growth most of the time. Devotion to consistent promotion will help ensure a continuous growth trajectory. Every once in a while you may also get big subscriber jumps from a post that goes viral, a shoutout from another publication, or celebration moments like a paid launch"
Newsletter sounds dope! Keep promoting, that is all I can recommend to grow the audience.
Does anyone send out their substack to subs who don't open it? If so, how did it go?
Yes - we do on the Tuesday following our post that goes out on Friday mornings! Our Friday (original post) open rate is 50%-60% and the Tuesday (following post) is typically in the 20%-25% range. Hope this helps!
Thank you, have to experiment and try it.
I’ve been enjoying Substack and am talking to a group of established columnists, and authors, about a collaborative series. Chris Best’s comments about allowing disinformation from writers has caused them to revolt. Help! We do not need another source of disinformation. Supporting Substack was a way of leaving content off Facebook for that very reason.
I am in complete agreement. I was quite disappointed that Chris Best did not take a firm stand against the disinformation wave -- it would certainly set Substack apart and make it an antidote to the craziness all around us. Please Substack, amend this position. I personally will bolt if the disinformation crazies invade Substack.
Hey there! Because our model is letting writers offer direct subscriptions instead of pushing viral content for outrage and attention, that means that bad content doesn’t get rewarded on Substack the same way it does in social media. It doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed never to find things that are wrong or that you disagree with (in fact, we think the latter is generally healthy), and there’s probably no place on the internet to fully escape content you don’t like, but Substack’s model is built to encourage quality and trust over time rather than cheap hits of engagement.
I'm curious about what Substack would do about a newsletter that, say, pushed dangerous COVID alternatives to the vaccine? Or fomented another insurrection attempt, with details about how to accomplish it y violence, if necessary?Is there a line these newsletters can't cross?
Yes, the question of false claimed about medicine is a good one. There are laws about what you can claim about a medical treatment and what you can't in the USA and other developed economies (I haven't looked at emerging economies so can't speak for that). These laws apply to the individuals making the claim, but it would be interesting to see what Substack would make of the platform being used for a purpose that is expressly not legal.
I'm relatively new and thus would appreciate a link to whatever source the "Chris Best's comments" came from; would be much appreciated. As to the substance of your concern I ask, and not at all in a pejorative manner, I hope, who determines what is "disinformation"? Are we going to have some kind of Ministry of Truth on Substack which, if it happened, would seem to me to defeat the very reason some of us were attracted to this site and others as well, such as Bari Weiss and Glenn Greenwald. I suspect that some of my views, such as my strongly held views on the so-called "insurrection" of January 6, may well be considered by some, in all good faith, as "disinformation", although they are based on very extensive reading, research and study. Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts with me on this issue. Jim.
Hi Substack team,
I have couple questions:
1. Is there a way to send reminders to people who have not yet opened the newsletter?
2. I read a lot about how referral programs help grow a newsletter audience. Is there a way within Substack I can do this?
3. If I run Facebook / Google ads, can I create a landing page other than the welcome / about / post page?
I am also wondering on 1.
Hi Shobit, re: reminders, one option is to use your subscriber dashboard to filter on all subscribers who haven't opened a post in 7 days. We wouldn't suggest sending the exact same email, which isn't the best experience for the reader; what might work is to send them an "in case you missed it" different email recapping whatever you sent in the previous 7 days
Just click the checkbox at the top left to select everybody in your filtered list, and then an "Email" button appears. Check out Jasmine's video on using the subscriber dashboard, it explains is well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORhE-tmom50&ab_channel=Substack
1. No. But mailchimp has an option to resend the letter to non-openers only.
2. That's a referral program that is in partnership with a third party. If you want to launch a referral program or content with leaderboard natively in your newsletter, check out letterdrop.com.
3. No.
Snipe rejected me saying I will have too many disgruntled subscribers asking for money back. I don’t know how they figured that, but is there another way to receive payments?
Unfortunately right now Stripe is the only supported way to receive payments. We are testing Bitcoin payments and will be adding other payment options in the future. More details on https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037862551-I-can-t-use-Stripe-Do-you-accept-PayPal-crypto-clamshells-etc-
So how do I rectify this? How can they say, “Stripe can only support users with a low risk of customer disputes. After reviewing your submitted information and website, it does seem like your business presents a higher level of risk than we can currently support.”
Am I asking for a gay wedding cake? I’m confused.
Wow! This is confusing...
*Stripe
I recently learned a weekly design newsletter I follow (not on substack, it's been running for a few years already) created an index of his archive for subscribers to browse within the categories he posts about weekly. Does substack have such an option, or can it be added? It would create a way for subscribers to discover very specific content. I would personally highly appreciate such a feature.
I write on the internet's effects on society and politics, both in Substack and as a professor. Another colleague of mine is an economist of higher education. We believe that Substack represents an innovation in the information market, especially as a way for people to fund their information creation.
We would like to do a study on Substack to see what the Substack information market looks like. We *could* just scrape the information from the website, but would much prefer to cooperate with Substack in the endeavor, since we believe it likely that we will discover things Substack would like to know. Whom should we speak to about such potential cooperation? You can email me directly at cyberprof@pm.me, if you prefer.
Can't be here today. Would love a link to sending an invitation email. Is there a template? Many thanks.
My substack, lazybones.substack.com is a month old. It's for people who know they should be more active but just can't get motivated to exercise. So far I only have 50 subscribers and, although the open rate is good, there are few shares. I like the title "lazybones" because it's short and easy to remember but I'm wondering if my subscribers would feel that they'd be insulting their friends by forwarding it to them. Would I get more shares with a title like, "Exercise for people who hate to exercise.substack.com"?
I am currently reading a great book titled "Write Useful Books." by Rob Fitzpatrick and in the section on titles, he stresses the importance of having a title reflect exactly what the book (content) is about so if you follow his advice, Lazybones might not be the best title.
Hi Ed -- you might try asking your readers what they think of the name! Growth tends to happen slowly over time, so it just be a matter of staying consistent and keeping at it.
Here are some tips and strategies for growing your readership: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-4
Substack will you create a tool for giveaways/referrals to help our newsletters grow? I don't want to use a third party APP.
Hi YouTopian Journey! I totally hear you on the need for growing your subscriber list. I will share this with the team.
It would be better to have this internal than use another APP to integrate.
Does substack have any plans to release an app? Do any other writers have any suggestions for keeping notes on the go? I often have ideas hit me at the most random times and places. I've used Notion for this because the mobile app syncs back to my desktop app, so I can fairly easily import into substack when needed....anyone else have any techniques that help them capture ideas when they're not somewhere they can sit down and write?
I use Evernote, or just the Notes app on my phone. If I’m in my car, I’ll record a voice memo. It’s not perfect, but it works!
Another vote for Evernote!
Nick - I use Notion too and love it! I have created different Pages w/in it so that I can send my idea to the right filter. For example, if I have an idea or see an article that relates to a concept I am thinking about writing about, I send it to my "My Story Links" page. If it is something that I will use for posting on social media, I send it to my "Social Media" page, etc. I feel like I could be doing so much more with Notion, but I love it! And do you use the web clipping feature? It's awesome!
If you have an iPhone, you can use the free Notes app included with your iPhone. You can even dictate your note in using the microphone icon.
I use https://workflowy.com/
I didn't get to ask my legal question last week due to a schedule conflict. May I ask it now? A large organization accused me of lying on Facebook group and told me to take down the "lie" in intimidating language. I started my Substack to discuss it, but I was afraid of repercussions. The "lie" was not even specified. Because I was afraid of what they might do, I told my readers to stop leaving comments attacking them. And that did solve the problem but I lost my engagement. So I'd like to know what an org with big lawyers could actually do to me.
Hi Loretta! Kevin from Substack here. Thanks for writing in. I believe a media lawyer would need more information/context to help you understand the risks in your case.
Overall, this type of case does feel like a good fit for our Substack Defender program. I recommend checking it out. https://on.substack.com/p/legal-support-for-substack-writers
About Defender: We have a legal support program for independent writers on Substack. As part of this program, we work with first-rate media lawyers to provide free advice and direction to writers who are facing legal uncertainty or pressure because of their work. This support has included pre-publication legal review of individual stories and responses to cease-and-desist letters. As of today, we’re making this legal support program more widely available.
Applications are open to US-based writers who have paid subscribers and publish work that may attract unreasonable legal pressure, such as abuses of copyright laws, assaults on first amendment rights, and spurious defamation claims.
Thanks. Yes, "spurious defamation claims" is exactly the issue. I haven't pursued paid subscriptions yet, but I'll turn it on and give it a shot. Thank you. The two things go together. My paid subscribers will get the real scoop because I will have less fear of legal ramifications.
It seems that Mr Zuckerberg doesn't want people on FB to leave his platform and links to Substack writing aren't seen by most of the people who see other FB posts. Anyone know anything about this apparent policy and if there is any way around it?
We've heard from many writers that it can be strategic to screenshot part of your Substack and post it as a captioned image, then add the link to your Substack in the first comment!
That sounds like a good plan--thanks!
There could be a hundred reasons why a fb post doesn't perform well. Make sure you don't include catchy words such as: *subscribe* *sign up* *click* *like* *comment* etc. Facebook doesn't like these.
What do you guys think, is it better to send out issues twice or once a week?
I have a free newsletter that goes out once a week and a paid newsletter (where I post chapters from my serial novel) that also goes out once a week. On a few occasions I’ve sent out an additional newsletter in a given week. No one has complained and I haven’t seen any unsubscribes when I’ve sent out the third unscheduled one. So I think it is perfectly OK to send out at least once a week. It really depends on the kind of content you have, and your audience.
I do once a month. I surveyed my subscribers and asked if they would prefer to receive it more often and they said to keep it monthly. It might be worth asking your readers.
Gosh, everthing I've read from Substack team encourages at least twice per week. What say the Substack team?
In our team's experience working with the top writers on Substack, posting more often creates better engagement and a closer relationship with your readers, so twice a week is what we'd recommend. You want reading your newsletter to become a habit. But it's your publication, and you can adopt whatever cadence works best for your life and goals
Thanks for the comment and additional insight!
I've been doing once a week myself.
Once. Except during the first week when you launch or if there is another good reason. I have personally unsubscribed from newsletters because they come too often, not because they are bed.
I am trying to enable the subscription. It takes me to stripe, I've created the account, but when I sign in it takes back to substack and subscritions are not enabled. What am I doing wrong?
Hi, that seems strange! It could be a good idea to contact support@substackinc.com to see what's up.
I have an email into them. Thanks for responding. In settings I click on the connect to Stripes and it takes to to stripe. I cannot figure out if I have some button clicked, but for the life of me I cannot see what. I have an account, but nothing enables? I am hoping they will get back to me. I'll try your email too, just in case it's not the one I sent to. Was hard to find. LOL.
I am lost on howto publish anything on substack + how does substack work. U need email contacts to get started?
I want to ensure email sign-ups that they can become subscribers without revealing their identity to me. Can I point them to a substack page? Several have clicked through to "subscribe" then paused. Help me close the deal. Thank you.
I haven't published yet, and I want to change the title and subject of my newsletter. I can't find a place to do that. Somebody please tell me. I won't write and post until I change the name. Help!
So all my views disappeared. Where'd they go, any way to retrieve?
I missed last week's Office Hours (the usual juggle). A question re using the Google Search Console: one of you very wonderfully guided me through the whole process, and now I can see a great dashboard of analytic information - thank you! Google sent me a note about a "New Coverage Issue" basically "Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt". Is this a significant problem or can I ignore it? If significant, how do I fix it?
Fun (at least we didn't go down like all the FB properties yesterday....)
George
If we are moving a newsletter from another platform how do we import our email list?
where do I find information on how much Substack takes/charges writers on the platform?