566 Comments

Hi all!

I forgot to leave the closing message when our team signed off today.

We’ll be taking a break from Office Hours next week in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. We’ll be back the following week with our Shoutout Thread on Thursday, Dec. 2. We hope you will join us!

In the meantime, our resources and support are here for you.

https://substack.com/resources

https://support.substack.com/

Talk soon,

Katie + Bailey + Rose + Kelsa + Jasmine + Kelsa + Hannah + Aaron + Sergey + Kevin

Expand full comment

Not a question, but more of a tip for other writers as I've had success with it. I've noticed large jumps in my subscribers from running strategic paid ads but I honestly think a better strategy is doing guest posts, and having guests share article with their network. If you can find the right people to do this, you'll get highly relevant and engaged readers. I recently did this with a popular LinkedIn creator and the following 24 hours I got an additional 40+ subscribers!

Being a writer, it's easy to fall into the trap of writing AT people, not writing WITH them. Start conversations and connect with others consistently. Bonus if you can do that with influencers in your niche!

Expand full comment

Hello! 👋🏾👋🏾

I’ve been on Substack with my newsletter The FLARE https://theflare.substack.com/ since July. Two pieces of advice I’ve consistently gotten regarding growth: 1). Show up. I try to come here every opportunity and engage with others. 2). Put out quality work. Even if no one is watching, just keep going. 3). Be consistent. I have to keep this at the back of my mind. It’s a source of anxiety but you’ve got to dig down and produce the work.

Hope the newbies (like me) find this helpful. Feel free the contact me at theflare@substack.com for cross promotion guest posts!

Hope for the newbies out there, you find the same is helpful.

Expand full comment

Hi! I still haven’t launched my publication yet and am still soaking in all the resources you’ve provided, but I just wanted to drop in and sincerely thank y’all for launching and growing this platform.

For over a decade, I’ve struggled maintaining my sanity as the rat race kept sucking my soul out of me. I’ve always wanted to make a living writing about my passions, but the attention economy had so thoroughly devalued creative work by the time I entered the workforce (as the $0.04 that Medium occasionally sends me for one of my viral articles so painfully reminds me) that I’ve had no choice but to suck it up and earn my bread in the corporate world, and each day it ate me up inside, to the point I’d all but given up on my dream. But now, thanks to you, I at finally have hope again, which in turn is giving me the motivation, energy, and focus to actually take a feasible shot at my dream. I haven’t felt this excited about work in *years*.

I think it’s awesome that finally, here’s a tech company, with tech resources, that isn’t trying to take food off my table. And not only that, but is actively pushing back against the attention economy and the dystopia it has created. And I believe you’ll succeed—I look forward to the day I won’t need to wade through the cesspools of social media to fish for readers. And not only that, but health insurance stipends?? For writers?? That’s amazing, and incredible, and… just so awesome that I struggle to find words to describe such a great gesture.

So… yeah. I’m sure we’ll be talking plenty over the coming months and years. But for now, I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate y’all for fighting this good fight. Time will tell if I succeed at earning a living here, but either way, you’ve given me hope—not just for my own future, but *everyone’s* future. And that, in and of itself, is valuable beyond pricing.

Thank you, Substack team, from the bottom of my heart. You’ve made a humble writer and his family very, *very* happy, and just in time for the holidays.

Expand full comment

Hi Everyone. I like to leave something useful for my fellow writers. A few days ago I built a word counter tool for writers. It does a few things. Counts characters, words, sentences, paragraphs, reading time, and the top 4 keywords in your article:

https://pau1.substack.com/p/stackhacks-word-counter-for-all

There's instructions to save it on your desktop and use it while not being on the internet. Check it out, and feel free to use it. I'd love to have some comments and whether it's useful. Of course it's free. Have a good one!

Expand full comment

I'm currently on Medium and looking to move to Substack. How have others best navigated that switch? Also, from my previous blogging and reporting efforts, I have an email list that's small but loyal (and growing). Can I manually enter those emails? Finally, I'm looking for a community on Substack; how best to do that? I used to write regularly for Tribune Media's ChicagoNow, and we had a Community Manager who acted as sort of a behind-the-scenes cheerleader/question-answerer/connector/all-around helpful human on our digital platform. He was a lifesaver, especially when life as an independent writer felt sometimes lonely or overwhelming. I'd love to know how to connect with other humans, and to be the best literary citizen myself on this platform. Excited to get started!

Expand full comment

Hi friends! I'm hosting my first open thread tomorrow, where I'll help people chose books to gift to their friends and family.

If anyone has open thread tips/advice, let me know! I'll report back with anything I learn.

Expand full comment

How does the team go about deciding which Substacks get featured in the "What to Read" series, and are there any statics around how this feature drives up readership on average?

Expand full comment

Love these threads! I send music out 3x weekly. I'd love to hear everyone's suggestions on cross-promotion, guest posts, and more. What's worked for you, what hasn't, etc.

Expand full comment

It would be cool to have a poll here in office-hours. Such as what is the optimum length for an article? Best day for email? Besides a poll, what would be the most used feature we could add to the editor? If SubStack had it on top of this page each week, they could get a heck of a lot of info about what their customers want. Nome Sain?

Expand full comment

Just checking in to say hello. After a short stagnant patch, free subscriptions are multiplying again. I think I've found out what works for me and my readers and what doesn't. After writing at least 75,000 words since opening for business May 27, I'm getting ready to add pay option. It will stay free, but I'm counting on loyal readers to help support the effort. My financial requirements from this Substack are not grandiose. I just want to feel that some people are willing to pay for all the quality work.

Expand full comment

I need help increasing my open rate and making sure my substack does not go to the spam folder.

Expand full comment

What is the best way to gather followings when you are starting out?

Expand full comment

Anybody interested in doing a co-promotion? I write stories about leadership, growth and culture, helping readers to laugh and think. I’ve got some ~7000 subs, so looking for others who are around the same size in the same or related space

Expand full comment

I can't get my readers to engage and leave comments - even when asked. What can I do beyond asking questions and requesting feedback?

Expand full comment

Question regarding open rates: my open rate is only 69% - but I know everyone who signed up is interested in reading. Do they have to click through in order to be counted, or simply opening an email is enough? Thank you!

Expand full comment

Does anyone want to cross-promote? I write about culture, politics, economics, and entertainment from a left-wing perspective.

Expand full comment

Just a quick comment: I've noticed in the past couple weeks that porn bots / scammers have become more common. Both on my own substack but I've seen the same ones in the comments of others. I ban and delete but when it's in a number of comments across a bunch of different pieces it's difficult to do. Hopefully substack is working on making sure that these don't get out of hand.

Expand full comment

I almost missed Office Hours today! :)

I was wondering if anyone would be interested in swapping guest posts. I write about storytelling and the writing process (as well as publish my fiction looverve on the paid channel) and I'm really hoping to grow my newsletter a bit. If anyone with a decent subscriber base would be interested in taking a chance on me, I'd love to chat further!

Expand full comment

I am still new here, but am loving what you've built for us so far. Thank you for this.

Expand full comment

Can you expand more on your SEO capabilities after removing the Google Search Console verification?

Expand full comment

If you want to join our Twitter hype pod, follow @youtopianJ and I will add you. It could get you some new eyeballs.

Expand full comment

Congrats! on 1 million, and the new program! My question is about guest-posting. I've written a "holiday eggnog" post for Time Travel Kitchen. I wrote it as a draft on my own newsletter. I've read through the instructions, and I'm not certain if Jolene is to send me an invite, or if I can send her the draft as an email. It seems like the former, according to directions, but I am fuzzy about the mechanics of how to get the draft to her. Back when I started, I guested on Truth & Consequences, but had sent along a Word doc... Any help would be great! So looking forward to this! (Ah, it's all about the vintage nog bowl!)

Expand full comment

How many subscribers do you recommend having before you turn on paid?

Expand full comment

Oh, and one more thing about publishing:

I really like the new insert paywall feature—thank you!

And I wonder: would it be possible to also have something similar to insert a break where you might want your email to readers to break off, and they can then click a link to read the rest of the post on the web? That would help especially with letters going over the length for email clients, I think.

Expand full comment

Thanks again Substack. This was dope. Happy to help others grow. As always, you can find me here. Feel free to reach out and happy holidays! https://youtopianjourney.substack.com/

Expand full comment

I am working on some out of the box partnerships/marketing/collaborations for my substack, could be interesting. Keep you all posted on the results.

Expand full comment

gotta go Happy Thanksgiving to all and see you in two weeks.

Expand full comment

Don’t have a specific question today - just want to hear from you fellow writers!

🙋🏻‍♀️What is the strangest DM you've ever received? Who is the most famous or exciting person you've had DM you or respond to a DM?

I’ve found that writing publicly on Substack has led to some fascinating interactions - some heart-warming, some thought provoking, some… well, you know, not so great. It’s all been a fun ride!

What have your experiences been?

Expand full comment

The preview box for other posts is so big and it shows all the stuff I put at the beginning, like consider subscribing, share etc so people don’t click on it. Could the box be smaller and include what is in the settings for social media so people use it? Thank you!

Expand full comment

How many substack writers are bringing in more than $25k a year from this?

Expand full comment

Hi, I am still confused about sections and how to add audio or video to our newsletter. We want to add audio to all our posts, past and future.

And we want to especially create sign-language videos of our stories, past and future.

What is the best way to do all this?

Can I add audio to the older posts without having to repost everything? Say if I were to put in an mp3 file or a .wav file?

Can I do something similar for video?

Currently all our content is free. But we are considering going paid. We are toying with the idea of making the audio available only to paid subscribers (if we get any!). In that case, does it make more sense to create a new section for audio and maybe repost all our old posts anew with audio? If so, what is the most best way to include audio? I know Substack has a direct recording feature, but we have signature music we want to include in our audio, and if possible, we'd like to use the same audio for podcasts on other platforms.

I am terribly confused and will welcome ALL advice!

~ Rohini

Expand full comment

Two questions with regards to publishing:

1. It's still not possible to post an audio post into a sub-newsletter that is designated as a "newsletter" rather than a "podcast". Any workarounds for that? It's allowed with the main newsletter, and it would be great if it was the same for the sub-letters.

2. Would it be possible to also have the main Substack appear as a link in the top navigational menu? Right now it only lists the sub-newsletters.

Thanks!

Expand full comment

If anyone wants to cross promote, I am open. All I ask is that you have 100 minimum subscribers and you write something that fits with my own substack.

Expand full comment

Hi all,

A question about your experiences sharing content on the social platforms.

I launched my newsletter - covering the Australian media and marketing industry - about two months ago. It's been a great experience. However, I've noticed that I seem to get far less visibility when I share links on Twitter and LinkedIn, than I used to, to my previous website.

I've experimented with posts that do not include a link to my Substack at all, and they seem to do much better. I have a hunch that the platforms may be de-prioritising Substack newsletters because they have their own newsletter products. Has anybody else noticed similar?

Cheers,

Tim Burrowes

Expand full comment

Yeah, how about an update on your outage last night when your server crashed? That was a bit concerning. Thank you.

Expand full comment

Is there a manual on how to use Substack? No! Why Not?

Expand full comment

1: I love the updated version of Substack. I'm just writing a new piece and it has a different feel to it. It seems a lot better!

2: How do you delete pieces that you started but didn't finish and that just like a little bit of text in them (or maybe have no text at all and just have a title)? I have tons of these and want to delete them all to neaten things up.

3: Where can I see a video tutorial (or non-video) tutorial that explains these things?

--how best to use the new email header and footer

--how best to use the bigger subtitle that now exists (you can even scroll down within the subtitle)

--any other new things that I might've missed

4: Are you now able to embed YouTube videos? Including YouTube videos that start and stop at a time of your choosing?

5: What is the "code block" feature supposed to do?

Expand full comment

Heather Monahan my friend in my Linkedin network would be an interesting perspective on our writing climate through the course of false reality in the unvaxed.

Expand full comment

Hey folks! No idea if this will be helpful, but here goes:

Since I had some interest around my comment on making big, weird Twitter threads to hook new subscribers for newsletters (https://on.substack.com/p/office-hours-22/comment/3672196), I'd be happy to chat to anyone who is in search of a few specific ideas for theirs.

(For free, I mean. This isn't The Crappiest B2B Sales Pitch In History.)

Ping me an email at: hunter.sowden AT gmail.com

I'm no great expert on Twitter - I've been doing these threads for less than a year now, and a lot of what I'm doing is borrowed from much smarter people than I am. And I'd also recommend starting with Judd Legum's tips here: https://on.substack.com/p/a-growth-masterclass-with-judd-legum (thanks for the reminder of the link, Kelsa!)

But so far it's a strategy that's got me 200+ subscribers, and since I used to do storytelling consultancy, which involved hunting for the thread of a good shareable story, I might be able to help with yours?)

Cheers!

M

Expand full comment

Hy Guys, I'm new to Substack, only having published four articles over the last month or so, and I'm a very enthusiastic convert - love the whole concept. One issue that has been mentioned to me from two friends who have been trying to support my efforts. Several times they clicked on the 'like' button and nothing happened. Why is this the case, and how do we remedy it? I look forward to your reply. Have a great day, Meirion

Expand full comment

Hey everybody, I'm a bit late haha but thought I'd pop by and get to know some fellow writers on this amazing platform! Super excited to discover new writers and hopefully make some new friends! Launched my free newsletter earlier this month and would greatly appreciate it if you could have a read and let me know what you think! Thanks a ton x

Expand full comment

Hi! Thank you for organizing this.

Want to understand if there are any plans to add Indian based payment services like RazorPay (Indian version of Stripe) etc. to allow for easy payment options to local subscribers?

Currently the only payment option is Stripe for credit or debit card payments. Most of Indian consumers prefer the payment option of UPI or direct bank transfers which local payment providers have readily available but the same are not part of the current Stripe service (cards only).

Further these card payments are classified as 'international payments' which by default are blocked on Indian credit and debit cards. This leads to a large drop in potential subscribers. Credit card penetration in India is also low, with only low single digits of the population opting to use one.

There is a growing writer base on Indian writers and local payment options will go long way to help them (including me).

Expand full comment

The subject of open rates keeps coming up. A percentage of emails must be going to spam and what can you do about it? - Follow up emails will do the same. If you're getting good engagement with the emails that people do open, is it advisable to cull your list and delete those that don't seem to be getting through?

Expand full comment

Starting this past June, I've posted for free once a week about 1000 words/post, ergo: 4 times per month. Now I want to integrate subscription posts into them. These will be serialized stories, fiction and nonfiction. Any suggestions on how often I should include them?

Expand full comment

Hello. I'm Cory Goodwin. Writer of the Goodwin Reads Bookstack. As I write about and focus solely on books, I find myself longing to write on other topics. I'm not content to only write about one thing.

I am curious if the best practice is to create one Substack, with my name, and then use sections for my various topics? Or if it would be best to create completely separate Substacks with their own domains?

Expand full comment

How do I determine whether a specific person opened my newsletter? I see some of my closest friends may not have opened my newsletter - does this mean it's in their spam folder? What can I do to prevent this from happening> Thank you!

Expand full comment

Sergy thanks for the link

Expand full comment

Trying to navigate best way to cluster my newsletter and podcasts so that they appear more as separate sections. When substack gave the wonderful option to add podcasts, I did. But my newsletter and podcast have the same main identifier - Physician Interrupted - and the only thing that demarcates the podcasts is the headphones icon. And because some of my articles got rather long, I had to break up the podcast version into two or three shorter segments. But right now, it looks kinda messy and I don't know what to do to clean it up or what to tell my listeners / readers about the layout. Any suggestions? You of course can jump to my page via my pic to take a look (and, of course, subscribe! :)

Expand full comment

Fiction writers:

I have had the most success (new subscribers) doing a group book promotion on BookFunnel https://bookfunnel.com

I recently did a one-month group book promotion with 16 other writers and got 95 new subscribers to my Substack. I am doing another in December with 30 writers, so I am hoping it brings even more subscribers. It does cost $10 per month if you want to collect email addresses, but was is worth it for me. If you are a fiction writer and have a novel or novella you can give away in exchange for an email signup, it is worth a try.

I think joining a Discord server like Elle Griffin’s Substack Writers Unite has helped, not only by getting a few new subscribers there, but discussing all aspects of Substack writing. It's where I learned about BookFunnel.

https://twitter.com/novelleist/status/1376609692911337474

Social media has been fairly ineffective for me as far as promotion. But I don’t have a huge following and find it depressing to spend much time on it.

Expand full comment