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Drop your questions in the thread by leaving a comment, and we’ll do our best to share knowledge and tips. Our team will be answering questions and sharing insights with you in the thread today from 10 a.m.–11 a.m. PST / 1 p.m.–2 p.m. EST. We encourage writers to stick around after the hour and continue the conversation together.
Some recent updates from the Substack team:
We hit a bit milestone. As of this week, there are more than one million paid subscriptions to publications on Substack. Thinking of turning on paid for your publication? Check out our guide to going paid. And if you’re writing about a big milestone in the life of your publication, don’t forget to send us a link to your post at [milestone@substackinc.com].
We’ve announced a new writer insurance stipend. Yesterday, we launched Substack Health, a new program designed to help subsidize health care for writers and connect them to insurance plans. Read more about it here.
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. Save it to your calendar so you don’t miss it.
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.
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!
Using this feature will help make sure there's a nice byline linking back to your publication. Note: for now Guest writers can preview a draft post but are unable to make any edits. (i.e. you'll need to send your guest post separately to the writer whose publication you're guest writing for)
Great insight. I recently had an "aha" moment about this after struggling for so long trying to grow by myself. I think it's a great strategy for whatever format - writing/podcast/youtube. I just did my first "guest interview" podcast as a way to start building more of a community, rather than just trying to gain subscribers.
I love this for so many reasons. I've been thinking about this a lot- connecting with other creators and celebrating the things we make! In that spirit, can anyone recommend a Substack for kids/families? I create interactive reading guides to children's literature and pair it with creative writing exercises. Anyone I should be looking at to link with?
"moviewise: Life Lessons From Movies" is very family friendly. Discussing the meaning behind movies is a great way to engage children, and it allows the possibility of having deep conversations about morals and ideals. Here is an example:
Hi there! We don't support paid ads on Substack. We started the company as an alternative to digital ad-driven media, believing that writing and writers who are supported by readers - not advertisers - will make for a more trusting media ecosystem.
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.
Also just to add: the beauty of substack over other platforms like youtube is that no one aside from you can see subscriber count. No one knows if you're writing for 1000 people or 10. Write like you have the same size audience as NYT or WSJ!
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.
Wow, thank you for writing such a kind note. I shared it with our entire team. I hope we continue to be good stewards to you and your writing - we certainly aspire to!
I couldn't agree with this sentiment more. I just had a chat with a writer friend about hoe much I admire the values of Substack, encouraging her to consider it as an option. I'm very new here, but I, too, am excited about what's possible. Thanks Substack! And thanks @game&words for inspiring me to thank them : )
I agree with all of this and it's why I've gone all-in on Substack. I hope that over the next year I can really build on what I've started. It feels much better writing here than other places.
Welcome, Jay. Total agreement that Substack is fighting the good fight. Love the way you put it: 'pushing back against the attention economy.' Hadn't thought of it that way, but it makes sense. The more writers I check out on Substack, the more I see it lending itself to longer-form writing / reading. Great for me because I ramble on past 2000 words once a month about books and ideas. Happy writing!
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:
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!
Hi, Paul. I just wrote to the Substack product team last week to ask if they could include a word counter in draft mode, which would be so helpful. I've been drafting in MS word and then pasting into Substack. Thanks for creating an additional tool for everyone!
Paul, I just subscribed to your newsletter and you have perhaps the most welcoming sign up email of all time. It's so warm and lovely. Beautifully done.
Thank you for your thoughtfulness. I hope to check it out. Actually I am overwhelmed and intimidated by the avalanche of more and more digitalized detritus to unnecessarily complicate our lives, but if this will help me untangle the BS I will be immensely grateful to you
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!
Christine when I jumped ship from Medium to Substack I simply asked my friends who read me on Medium to drop their subscription and spend the money on me. Many were happy to. Then I asked ( begged ) them to bring a friend to Substack. Roulette Weal built early. I think there are naturally some plateaus, not steady growth, which can be frustrating, but I believe gift subscriptions are a much easier sell this time of year.
Christine there are a number of communities on substack and the team hosted the first live and zoom Meetups last month and we will be doing more of those. I hosted the Texas Substack Writers but there were a number of other groups that also met based on location, topic or genre. You will be hearing more about that I am sure.
I am currently posting both places. I’ve found community on a Discord channel, Twitter, and coming here whenever there’s office hours. You find your folks eventually.
I will say that posting on Substack is not like Medium. I started out trying to do that and did just a post with no email. The pieces were included in a newsletter as a wrap up of two weeks and didn’t get the attention I would have wanted had I reserved them for an email send out. I was also new so perhaps that was a factor.
Feel free to cross post. I have found that have me time to create original content for Substack which went back to Medium.
I have been reposting some of my Medium content (with revisions) on my Substack, where I have been getting better pageviews. (I tried reposting my Substack content there and it tanks badly, with views much lower than what I used to get a couple of years ago, so I stopped doing that).
Yes, you can manually enter emails, or import a spreadsheet under the subscribers tab on your dashboard. I'm also a former Medium writer who switched a few months ago, and building out an email list has been an interesting experience. Just start with finding communities that are interested in the topics you write about. I share on some subreddits with a blurb about why I'm sharing and invite people to share their experiences and respond to their comments--sort of like an AMA.
It's gonna be great, Elizabeth! (And I would love to hear your report afterwards. I've been kicking around the idea of threads but am just not there yet.)
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?
Hey there! Happy to jump in. We aim to feature undiscovered writers who are going deep into a clear topic and exemplify best practices, like posting regularly and engaging with readers. We are always searching for remarkable publications on Substack. If you know of any writers we should consider featuring, you can tell our team about them here: https://bitly.com/substackstowatch
This sounds awesome, I'll apply right now; I'm working on a multi-part series about trail access and solutions to overcrowding in open spaces, and have been posting consistently for about six months now. Fingers crossed it's a good fit!
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.
Hi Kevin, my best growth so far has come from being on high-profile podcasts and being consistent with quality posts on Facebook and Instagram. If you're into music, could you do a 'takeover' of a well-known podcast or radio show? Aim high - go for the ones you love and admire. If you ask twenty of them, five of them will say yes. Posting questions on social media has worked well for me. People love to share their opinions. Ask questions relevant to your latest substack piece and include the link. The more people comment the more exposure it will get. Both these strategies are free, all they cost is courage, patience and time.
I did that with a post I dropped this week (https://thatguyfromtheinternet.substack.com/p/i-dated-a-mirage-to-realize-my-life) and asked people if they had similar experiences with dating, relationships, etc. It was interesting to hear that my experience was relatable and resonate, and for people to share their stories. I was surprised at the positive feedback. Humanizing yourself goes a long way toward building and engaging with a community.
Let me know how you get on. I usually make a quote graphic with the juiciest tidbit from my article reformulated as a question. I get some beautiful, thoughtful, elaborate answers - plus lots of new subscribers!
I have been learning to cross-pollinate/cross-promotion by accident. Owning a few relevant hash tags and sitting back ⬅️ whils they bounce all over the world 🌎 retweeted. I interject catcher 🆒 words; emojis, and flags of the countries I want to target. My streams of influence in 2 months have grown exponentially. My 3 blogs are busy, myTicToks ore catching the attention of Keane Reeves and Kevin Bacon 🥓... I win them over to my cause/social issue, and they jump in supporting and sponsoring, insolidarity.👱♀️🇮🇹🇻🇳🇳🇴🌎💕🎄🐶♋🧑🎤👊🎿✊✊
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?
I honestly just write until I feel like I've hit a natural conclusion. I've run up the email limit twice. But I know people who do it all the time who have 10x the follows I do. So who knows?
That'd be interesting to see - but one problem with seeking optimal lengths and best timings is that part of our job as writers & self-promoters is finding a way to be a bit *different* to everyone else.
(But then, if you see that 90% of folk are doing Option A in a poll, it's a useful indicator that Option B might be a great way to stand out. A good way to see what people *aren't* doing...)
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.
Congrats on finding your scope and what resonates, Wayne! In general, we've seen it is harder for writers to convert free readers to paid readers with the donation model. The paywall is the most effective tool to do so. That doesn't mean it's the right philosophical approach for you or your work, however! Please keep us posted on how it goes and let us know if you have questions or ideas on how to improve the product to support you.
My writing partner and I haven't launched our publication yet. What's your advice in terms of the free:paid content ratio for newcomers without an established readership going in? Is it better to start free and add a paywall for other content later, or should we establish a paywall from the get-go?
When you’re writing a post, make sure to send out test emails often to random addresses in that list and see where they land (primary, promotions, etc).
Most writers only do test emails AFTER they finish a post, at which point it becomes difficult to figure out why the post is going to spam.
In other words, sending test emails often should become part of your writing process.
To add to this - Gmail controls where emails land, not Substack. They take into account how frequently the recipients of your emails mark them as spam.
Hey Daniel. My tactic from (almost) the start is building big Twitter threads out of some of my newsletters, using a bit of "what happens next" storytelling along with plenty of daft humour & science-based surprises. Eg.
And each thread has a few callbacks to my newsletter, inviting people to sign up - which many do.
I can't claim any originality here - for example, Judd Legum has talked about using Twitter in this way, and I've been copying a lot of my heroes as I've gone along. But it does allow for sharing to really blow things up, so you reach wayyyyy more people than you could otherwise (at least for me, with a relatively small presence online). And the size of your Twitter follower audience doesn't matter, if it goes viral and gets a life of its own.
If you haven't tried, maybe worth an experiment or two?
I have threads written out on the mobile app but I don’t think I can schedule. I do that on the web app. You can use Typefully to type out threads and schedule but it’s a paid service.
I try to write the threads out one tweet at a time tweet-storm style. I've heard this is better for boosting reach, because twitter sends out each tweet individually, but I'm honestly not sure.... have you had success with this?
Grand. I should add that I don't autogenerate anything and build them up by hand - which seems the best way of doing them (at least for me) , and also is a fair bit of work. But it's worth it, every time.
I don't do this nearly as often as I should, thanks for the reminder Mike! I find by the time I'm done writing my piece I'm already quite tired and need some rest before my next weekly post 😅
I see you've already built up a sizeable Twitter following - would you say that contributes to the virality of your threads, or does it actually go the other way around (threads helped you reach your current follower count)?
And regarding my Twitter following: hmmm. I'm not sure - but the bulk of people following me over there are still in the travel writing/blogging field, which is what I was doing until a few years ago. But my newsletter isn't about travel (not directly anyway). Any travel-related newsletter threads are shared by a lot of those folk - but the more sciencey ones are where I'm finding new followers, and where it's rippling outwards in directions completely new to me.
So I guess the answer is: a mixture. That said, I was very erratically (and I'd say really poorly) using Twitter from about 2014-early 2020, and I've only rediscovered it as a place to share my own work effectively because I had a reason (my newsletter) and a strategy that seemed to be working (having fun with big threads). Before the start of this year, I was a bit rubbish on there. It's all taken off since January. And I'm still experimenting!
Thanks for that! Yeah, finding out how to use Twitter well really is a skill. I just started a pseudoanon account this September starting w/ 0 followers which has been a challenging, but interesting journey.
Hi Daniel, what do you write about? Make a list of 10 places the people who are into your subject are hanging out (both in person and online) and start building relationships and adding value there. Don't be scared to share what you're writing about if it will help someone.
I've tried to build relationships but alas, cannot generate followings wherever I go. It's been a frustrating experience as a writer. I post on IG, Twitter, FB, Blogspot, etc. Been so for a while now. No one follows. It's kind of like I have a hit-and-run relationship style with people on social media.
Remember that only a small percentage of your followers on any social media outlet even SEE your posts, so don't get too down about it. The algorithms keep you from reaching your entire audience. It's frustrating, I know!
Daniel....I wrote about the Astros for 5 years (thru 3/20) on The Runner Sports all-sports blog site, WITHOUT EVER BEING ON ANY SOCIAL MEDIA! And, with 85 writers on staff, I routinely led the site in monthly page views, including every month for over a year! MY social media? Creating biz cards which allowed me to "hit the streets," and meeting new people usually wearing Astro caps and/or shirts, and easy entree to begin discussion.
Having begun my Substack in August, I only THEN joined Twitter and FB, and share my new article links there (and others). I've also made new biz cards (using the photo seen in my Substack ID photo, touting my new subject matter (behind the scenes and rockers met in '70s-era rock'n'punk after spending that decade in radio and the record biz). I enjoy meeting new people, and hand the cards out (and pin to Starbucks and Panera bulletin boards) after meeting new people!
I started by asking friends and family. Then, I'd share some posts on LinkedIn. I've been active in a few Reddit communities that are interested in the topics I write about so I share a link to my story and also invite people to share their comments and have a discussion with them, so it doesn't come across as spammy and self-promotional. I've been on Substack for a few months after a few years on Medium, and building out an email list as opposed to a following has been an interesting challenge.
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
Congrats! I write about health, biotech, and investing. Sprinkle of memes and gifs (mostly to entertain myself while writing) - poke around if that peaked your interest!
Your request for comments needs to be juicier. Make it funny, controversial, competitive, or encourage them to share their experiences with making the recipe. Also people like to feel like experts. Ask them something like Question: How would you make this vegan without turning it into rabbit food? Answers in a comment please!
This is the brightest and most poignant comment I've seen on here today !!!!!!!
For example, I have asked some of my friends questions about social media and promoting one's writings, and although I have been very courteous (prefacing my question with profuse apologies for imposing on their terribly valuable time; they're probably just jerking off but always profess to be oh so busy) and have asked limited and specific questions, they invariably tell me that there are too many people competing to get their 15 minutes of fame and they try, through a succession of smirks, snide comments, and sneering slaps in the face, to make me want to do myself in.
I have the same problem. Interestingly, they have responded in droves the few times I have run a survey (which I do through Google Forms). I have also reached out personally to my biggest readers (all of whom I know in person or well enough online to have their personal email addresses) to ask for feedback -- no one has turned me down.
I think sometimes people are just too busy/distracted/tired/living life to comment or ask questions. It's not necessarily a lack of engagement or a reflection of your work.
I can't tell you what I have done about the problem, but I can tell you what I would like to do about the problem:
I would like to kidnap them, tie them up and then proceed to read -- or more likely scream at the top of my lungs - the corpus of my creativity. I will read poems with the sarcasm and savagery of Alexander Pope, essays that will make Bertrand Russell and Christopher Hitchens appear middling, mediocre and middle American and excerpts from novels that will make Norman Mailer seem as peaceable as Little Orphan annie.
In all seriousness , it can be a real fucking pain. Most people are stupid. Ergo most people like stupid entertainment, books, movies, music. The masses are morons. The masses extol the Brady Bunch, Hee Haw and Sally Jesse Raphael. If you are good,, it will be, more difficult to get acclaim.
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!
69% is great! That's something to be proud of, not be worried about.
Anything above 50% is rocking it, and if you can *hold* 50%+ as you grow your list, you're doing it right.
One other thing that's important, I reckon: keep sending readers back to the best of your old posts. Look for ways to back-reference to the Web versions of old newsletters with a link, so you're giving new readers an easy way to discover your archives (I don't think it's really enough to say "check out my archives"). That's a great way to build engagement without doing any extra new work.
Thanks, I appreciate that! The reason I expect it to be higher, is I only have 220 subscribers right now, and they're all friends and chronic illness community peeps who I know want to read it. Therefore, if someone didn't read it -- means they didn't receive it!
I know as a reader/subscriber of a few newsletters myself that sometimes life just gets busy and I can't get around to it. Wouldn't take it personally! And yes, as Jackie said - 69% is really good!
One thing you could consider doing is every so often is writing a post compiling all your recent posts into a "here's what you missed" post. I recently did this — didn't generate many new subs, but it helps my current readers reference what they might not have gotten a chance to read: https://healthandwealth.substack.com/p/fall-2021-recap
We dont' have the exact average but you can reference the table in this blog post to see what's considered a good open rate: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-1
I would love to cross promote. My perspective, I must warn you, often gets me into trouble. On economic issues, I am a super duper lefty. However, on social issues I am aroused by the right.
I would love to see what you have to say and will examine your newsletter. My newsletter is Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Your work seems to encompass a broad swath of issues as you include such arguably disparate things as entertainment and economics. A lot of people tell me that I should just concentrate on one issue or field. I would like to know how you attract an audience given the wide ambit of issues you cover.
Sorry this is such a long message for an introductory note, but I must note that the most recent items in my newsletter are not essays on issues of the day; they are poems and literary shit. But go back and you will find hard-hitting, kick ass politics, or at least I like to think so.
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.
Hi Erik, thanks for the question. Unfortunately we're being increasingly targeted by spammers, but we have a dedicated team on this and we're working hard on improving the situation.
Alison - to Aaron's point above, we see it and we're on it! On your end, you can ban a specific user from comments to keep your community on-topic & safe.
Erik, thanks for bringing this unpleasant topic up. I never (never) had a scammer problem before, and used my best (most reliable) work email address for Substack. Within a month, I began to be flooded (flooded) by garbage emails, sometimes 100 a day. It drives me insane. The most disgusting stuff... I am about to delete my most useful email address as a result.
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!
Hey, I don't have a huge subscriber base but I'm willing to tinker around with cross promos or guest posts. Maybe we can work something out? Shoot me an email colenobleclimbs@gmail.com
I suppose there is a story to be told about mountain climbing. For my part, about all I could contribute would be how an overweight 44-year-old woman climbed Guadalupe Peak in Texas (the tallest mountain in the state, though that isn't saying much in mountain terms) with a full pack (including water for 2 days) without dying (though I came close a few times!) 🤣
Looking forward to a solid answer from the moderators after the Thanksgiving Break.
In particular, very keen on knowing whether we would need to be paid users to leverage SEO capabilities to the fullest. My latest posts do not appear on Google.
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!)
I recently traded guest posts with another Substack newsletter. We each emailed the other our post plus photos, and bio. Then it was a simple as cutting and pasting.
Hi, Alison! ‘It’s all about the vintage nog bowl!’ 😂 Thanks for asking about this, I’d been thinking via email until you wrote me about this more elegant option (befitting your eggnog ;) I’m looking forward to learning about it and what I need to do to get the ball rolling (invite?).
Thanks again and Congratulations 🎊 Substack One Million! 🎊
I went paid right out of the gate. My ratio is about 680 free to 219 paid. I don't think this is Substack's recommended model, but it's working for me. But I'm publishing fiction every day.
Yes, I think you need to do what you need to do. I started in mid-April, and went paid June 1. I'd left my job...so it wasn't a choice. I have about 235 free and 49 pd. I'm not convinced it's a numbers thing. It did take me awhile to figure out how to navigate what posts should be free and what paid, and I know I'll probably be tweaking yet for awhile. I have two free posts/month that will always be free. Then I post a umber of others...and after a month, they go behind the paywall. This is what is working for me, AT THE MOMENT :) It can change! Trying to develop intuition over this, is something I'm working at! Good luck! This really is a great platform!
Haven't gone paid and don't plan on it anytime soon yet - but lurking here anyways (for the future? 🤷🏻♀️) - Having some pieces be free for a month before going behind the paywall is a great idea!
I did it according to time spent. I assumed my newsletter would be a bit of a hard sell (science of curiosity) and I knew I wanted to work in seasons of 8-10 weeks, so I figured I'd prove myself with two seasons in the bag for free. That ended up taking 6 months, and when I went paid on a list of 600-ish folk, I got a 4-5% conversion rate to paid, which feels a solid start. I'm with Alison on this (re her comment below) - I think raw numbers matter less than engagement, and having proven yourself and built loyalty. Not always, but in my case, yes.
It matters how you make people feel *at least* as much as how big that crowd is. Often a lot more.
Hey Rebecca, I believe they have an article on this. They mentioned 5-10% conversion is really high, but also attainable for subscriptions. So if you want 1000 paying subscribers, you'd at least need around 10,000 subscribers as that'd be probably best case scenario
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.
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/
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!
No famous interactions, but writing about my cooking and how my grandparents influenced it has lead to new connections with people who knew them, and learning about how they left a mark on other people's hearts while they were still with us. I exchange regular emails with one of my subscribers because of it!
Wowww that's amazing. I love that so much. Writing is such a great way for serendipitous interactions. Way to carry on the torch from your grandparents!
I don't want to sound like an ornery son of a bitch, but since you are in such a cheery mood, unburdened with technical questions that require resolution, please survey my queries here. I have about 50 questions re substack, newsletters and the agony of anonymity.
I'm also very new here (started in September) so don't claim to have all the answers! Hard to scroll through these threads - but if you have specific questions, feel free to ask!
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!
Hey Jasmine, I don’t think multiple sizes is needed. The current one is just too big. It takes up so much space for mobile readers which makes it hard to get them to keep scrolling past it.
By social media settings, I meant the text inside the the box automatically captures the first para of the story. But since most of us have buttons and asks for subscriptions at the top, that’s what shows up in the box. As an alternative, I suggested inside the box auto fill to what’s in the social media box on settings. That way we can control what’s in the box.
I think — and Emily correct me if I'm wrong — it means she means what the social preview would look like (if you posted the link to Twitter for example)
What it shows is — title, subtitle, and cover photo. Rather than the intro sentences of the post itself.
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!
Hi, Rohini. Unfortunately, Substack doesn't allow you to embed audio or video files directly in your posts. What I have done is to upload my audio files to soundcloud and my videos to YouTube. I then paste the soundcloud or youtube link, where those pieces of media are being hosted, into my posts. You can do this for older posts, no problem.
Hi Rohini and Jennifer! We do support Soundcloud, Spotify, and YouTube embeds. For MP3s, you can also click "New episode" to create an audio post and then upload an MP3 that will display at the top of the post, above the text, with a little headphones icon. We've seen writers successfully use that feature to make audio posts a paid perk, or just jazz up their free content.
Unfortunately there is not currently a way to add audio natively to older posts, ie without a Soundcloud embed. We'd like to enable this in the future though!
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.
Yes, firmly agree that 1) would be great. I'm also archiving previously seasons of my newsletter under Sections, listed at the top of the newsletter's landing page, but they don't allow me to include anything labelled "podcast" alongside the normal newsletters. It'd be great to be able to put both these formats under the same Section heading - or, even better, allow audio in the "newsletter" format!
Hi! You're both right that it's confusing right now, and we're definitely hoping to redesign this system. For now, if you want *any* audio posts, you have to designate the section as a podcast. Unfortunately the best solution might be creating a new "Podcast" section to migrate everything into, default signing everyone up, then deleting the old "Newsletter" section once the migration is finished.
Thanks, Jasmine! Appreciate your thoughts here, and happy to be patient to see what you come up with (I'm deeply appreciative that the podcast option exists at all! Such a great feature...).
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.
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?
No, but it should be possible to do A/B tests to understand what the impact is.
This summer I tracked engagement metrics and found that without outside links, engagement would be at least 50% higher. I don't think it mattered whether the link was to Substack or other websites.
My Twitter engagement has dropped quite a bit since early August. It could be due to Twitter shutting down the "fleets" or potentially something more nefarious. I'm very keen to hear what you find about how social media platforms deprioritize Substack.
I agree with Michael: it's not that Twitter and LinkedIn are de-prioritizing Substack specifically, it's that they de-prioritizing all off-platform links because they want to keep users on their platforms. Tim, here are a couple of things to try. On Twitter, try posting a thread of three tweets and link your Substack post in the last tweet in the thread. On LinkedIn, make a post with no link to your Substack, just text plus a photo, and then "reply" to your own post right away with the link to your Substack, so it's the first reply. Social media algos are opaque and what works keeps changing, but these are a couple of things you can try
Bob there are a number of Guides on how to use substack. On the page where you write your drafts newsletters and more. I am sure someone on the substack team can or will address and post the direct links when they jump on.
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?
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.
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.)
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?)
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
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
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).
Yes, the payment system is even more complicated for us in India. We have to use Stripe Atlas which helps setting up a company and a US Bank account and only then a writer in India can accept payment, most of which will get dropped because of the reasons mentioned in my previous post.
My substack has almost 6500 readers and is rapidly growing. I want to transition to paid, once the reader base hits 30K but so far the major challenge I foresee is the payment stack on substack.
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?
Dope! (LOL) I try to write thank-you emails to each new subscriber, especially those with email addresses attached to a name I might recognize, so I can address them by name.
I'm still weighing it out - just started in the last couple of months. As long as I'm getting engagement with those who do open, I'm not sure how concerned I should be with those that don't.
It depends on what’s important to you. What do you want to measure and how do you measure if you are making progress in your work.
I was obsessively tempted to doing that. Cull or even write to those who don’t open my mails and ask if they want to unsubscribe. But, I think it’s creepy, hahaha.
I think, I’ve arrived at a place now where I’m training myself to take the open rate stats much lightly. Especially now that emails like Apple Mail block this kind of tracking.
I’ve shifted my focus on things other than measuring open rates. It could be people taking action to buy my drawings, new subscribers, etc. Once I’m clearer on what’s important to me as a writer and as a person, I find myself freer from these kind of stats.
Another sanity-saving tactic for me is to disable the unsubscribe notifications. So I don’t go unnecessarily sad with the one or two unsubscribes and I question my work.
Thank you Melinda for taking the time to respond so thoughtfully. I knew myself enough never to enable the unsubscribe notifications. It's definitely a tricky balance to write and share our work for what it is in itself and at the same time to track the stats of the newsletter - what do we measure when the most important element we're after is immeasurable?
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?
Congrats on the consistency! We usually recommend publishing at least once a week for free and paid subscribers (i.e. one free and one paid) to build a clear habit among your readers.
When you first 'go paid,' you may want to send your first few weeks of paid serial content to everyone — but let them know it will be put behind the paywall in the future. That way, it's like a free trial or teaser.
I would also recommend reminding your free readers in the weekly post that there is a paid version, perhaps including a short quote or one-line summary so they know what they're missing.
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?
I struggle with this as well. I have started writing about local history (and plan to do a bunch more articles after NaNoWriMo is over as the research is piled up right next to me!) and I'm not convinced my current audience will find it as compelling (or that people who do find it compelling will want to read my other content). But right now managing and promoting one Substack is about all I can manage, so I've created a new section for now. I think once I have a few articles done, I'll revisit things and see how I feel about it.
You might try something similar for now and see how it goes (and if you have the energy to keep writing that content). If it seems to be catching on, you can always create a new Substack and copy the content over.
Hi Cory! That's a good question, and it really depends on how related or unrelated your topics of interests are. If they are completely unrelated and you want each area to have its own identity, separate publication would be best. If they are related in some way, sections would work. It's really up to you.
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!
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! :)
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.
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.
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
Thank you all and have a wonderful break!
Thank you so much, everybody -- have a great Thanksgiving!!
Thank you and see you Dec. 2!
Have a great Thanksgiving! 🙌 What a year!
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!
Heya! It's worth mentioning Substack's guest post feature if any writers aren't aware of it yet. https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/4406178016148-How-can-I-add-a-guest-author-to-a-post-
Using this feature will help make sure there's a nice byline linking back to your publication. Note: for now Guest writers can preview a draft post but are unable to make any edits. (i.e. you'll need to send your guest post separately to the writer whose publication you're guest writing for)
Agree with you here. It’s easy to forget that it’s a people game not a numbers game. We all crave connection. Write on!!!
Great insight. I recently had an "aha" moment about this after struggling for so long trying to grow by myself. I think it's a great strategy for whatever format - writing/podcast/youtube. I just did my first "guest interview" podcast as a way to start building more of a community, rather than just trying to gain subscribers.
Just subscribed to ArtWalk - look forward to jumping in🤡
Thank you Karin, I will be checking out Wooza Wooza!
Have you been able to get your guest interview subjects to share the actual interviews about them? That's where I get stuck lol...
Time will tell, I've only done one so far. I have a feeling that they will, since it will be a self-promotional tool for them as well.
I love this for so many reasons. I've been thinking about this a lot- connecting with other creators and celebrating the things we make! In that spirit, can anyone recommend a Substack for kids/families? I create interactive reading guides to children's literature and pair it with creative writing exercises. Anyone I should be looking at to link with?
You need to check out Sarah Miller's Can We Read.
Already do!
Thank you both!
I should have guessed!
"moviewise: Life Lessons From Movies" is very family friendly. Discussing the meaning behind movies is a great way to engage children, and it allows the possibility of having deep conversations about morals and ideals. Here is an example:
Great Fantasy Movies Based On Books
https://moviewise.substack.com/p/great-fantasy-movies-based-on-books
Excellent advice, Paul.
Thanks Joan, it’s my pleasure!
Thanks for sharing and yes! Totally agree that modern writing is a process of connecting with others to amplify your ideas/voice.
Agreed
great idea!
new person here (I need a pic for example lol ) but how do you do paid ads
Hi there! We don't support paid ads on Substack. We started the company as an alternative to digital ad-driven media, believing that writing and writers who are supported by readers - not advertisers - will make for a more trusting media ecosystem.
many thanks, I definitely love that philosophy.
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.
Also just to add: the beauty of substack over other platforms like youtube is that no one aside from you can see subscriber count. No one knows if you're writing for 1000 people or 10. Write like you have the same size audience as NYT or WSJ!
I agree!
Excellent point! That’s very inspiring.
100%!
Great advice!
Thank you!
very helpful! thank you
Thanks for this! I am excited to get started.
Thanks for this great advice!
*Three
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.
Wow, thank you for writing such a kind note. I shared it with our entire team. I hope we continue to be good stewards to you and your writing - we certainly aspire to!
I couldn't agree with this sentiment more. I just had a chat with a writer friend about hoe much I admire the values of Substack, encouraging her to consider it as an option. I'm very new here, but I, too, am excited about what's possible. Thanks Substack! And thanks @game&words for inspiring me to thank them : )
This is just the nicest thing to read (and I think the rest of us feel similarly, although we couldn't have put it as well as you did there).
agreed!
I agree with all of this and it's why I've gone all-in on Substack. I hope that over the next year I can really build on what I've started. It feels much better writing here than other places.
Yeahhhhhhhhhhh!
Welcome, Jay. Total agreement that Substack is fighting the good fight. Love the way you put it: 'pushing back against the attention economy.' Hadn't thought of it that way, but it makes sense. The more writers I check out on Substack, the more I see it lending itself to longer-form writing / reading. Great for me because I ramble on past 2000 words once a month about books and ideas. Happy writing!
https://crocodileshelf.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=substack_profile
Congratulations and welcome to the big family! excited to read what you have to say!
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!
Thanks Paul! I had come here to ask the good people of Substack if we could have a word count display in the post editor.
Hi, Paul. I just wrote to the Substack product team last week to ask if they could include a word counter in draft mode, which would be so helpful. I've been drafting in MS word and then pasting into Substack. Thanks for creating an additional tool for everyone!
Yes, that was a wish I wrote about last week here. (https://pau1.substack.com/p/make-substack-better)
So I thought I'd solve it myself, and for you all. You're welcome!
Clicked through to check it out and your button, "Would it kill you to subscribe?" made me laugh (and...subscribe!)
Thanks for the subscribe!
Paul, I just subscribed to your newsletter and you have perhaps the most welcoming sign up email of all time. It's so warm and lovely. Beautifully done.
Thank you for those kind words! And the subscribe.
Oooh, yes! These suggestions are spot on.
Thank you for your thoughtfulness. I hope to check it out. Actually I am overwhelmed and intimidated by the avalanche of more and more digitalized detritus to unnecessarily complicate our lives, but if this will help me untangle the BS I will be immensely grateful to you
👍
Dope!
Very cool!
This is great. I can't wait to check it out!
Thank you Paul for this very useful tool.
This is awesome! I'll definitely try it out!
Yes! reading time is a feature I'd love to see, will definitely check it out.
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!
Christine when I jumped ship from Medium to Substack I simply asked my friends who read me on Medium to drop their subscription and spend the money on me. Many were happy to. Then I asked ( begged ) them to bring a friend to Substack. Roulette Weal built early. I think there are naturally some plateaus, not steady growth, which can be frustrating, but I believe gift subscriptions are a much easier sell this time of year.
Christine there are a number of communities on substack and the team hosted the first live and zoom Meetups last month and we will be doing more of those. I hosted the Texas Substack Writers but there were a number of other groups that also met based on location, topic or genre. You will be hearing more about that I am sure.
I am currently posting both places. I’ve found community on a Discord channel, Twitter, and coming here whenever there’s office hours. You find your folks eventually.
I will say that posting on Substack is not like Medium. I started out trying to do that and did just a post with no email. The pieces were included in a newsletter as a wrap up of two weeks and didn’t get the attention I would have wanted had I reserved them for an email send out. I was also new so perhaps that was a factor.
Feel free to cross post. I have found that have me time to create original content for Substack which went back to Medium.
I do some cross-posting between Substack and Medium but I don't get much activity on Medium. I guess it's exposure, but not sure of any real benefit.
I have been reposting some of my Medium content (with revisions) on my Substack, where I have been getting better pageviews. (I tried reposting my Substack content there and it tanks badly, with views much lower than what I used to get a couple of years ago, so I stopped doing that).
Yes, you can manually enter emails, or import a spreadsheet under the subscribers tab on your dashboard. I'm also a former Medium writer who switched a few months ago, and building out an email list has been an interesting experience. Just start with finding communities that are interested in the topics you write about. I share on some subreddits with a blurb about why I'm sharing and invite people to share their experiences and respond to their comments--sort of like an AMA.
AMA. Sam, would you mind defining that for all not aware of the acronym?
Ask me anything
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.
Oh nice! I love that idea.
Hi, Elizabeth! We have some tips here but will be excited to hear what you learn, as well: https://on.substack.com/p/how-to-use-discussion-threads-to
Thanks! I'm excited and nervous.
It's gonna be great, Elizabeth! (And I would love to hear your report afterwards. I've been kicking around the idea of threads but am just not there yet.)
You're the best Sarah.
Good luck! Would love to hear how it goes. I will try to "tune in"!
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?
Hey there! Happy to jump in. We aim to feature undiscovered writers who are going deep into a clear topic and exemplify best practices, like posting regularly and engaging with readers. We are always searching for remarkable publications on Substack. If you know of any writers we should consider featuring, you can tell our team about them here: https://bitly.com/substackstowatch
This sounds awesome, I'll apply right now; I'm working on a multi-part series about trail access and solutions to overcrowding in open spaces, and have been posting consistently for about six months now. Fingers crossed it's a good fit!
Perfect! Thanks for the link!
There is a link on which one can recommend a writer for this. Bailey from Substack has it - @Bailey, please help!
Yes! I think there are quit a lot of us wondering that!
Came here to ask the same thing!
Same
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.
Hi Kevin, my best growth so far has come from being on high-profile podcasts and being consistent with quality posts on Facebook and Instagram. If you're into music, could you do a 'takeover' of a well-known podcast or radio show? Aim high - go for the ones you love and admire. If you ask twenty of them, five of them will say yes. Posting questions on social media has worked well for me. People love to share their opinions. Ask questions relevant to your latest substack piece and include the link. The more people comment the more exposure it will get. Both these strategies are free, all they cost is courage, patience and time.
I did that with a post I dropped this week (https://thatguyfromtheinternet.substack.com/p/i-dated-a-mirage-to-realize-my-life) and asked people if they had similar experiences with dating, relationships, etc. It was interesting to hear that my experience was relatable and resonate, and for people to share their stories. I was surprised at the positive feedback. Humanizing yourself goes a long way toward building and engaging with a community.
Love that phrase "humanizing yourself"!
Love the idea of letting people know there's a real person behind the newsletter!
"Ask questions relevant to your latest substack piece and include the link." - LOVE THIS. Trying it now haha
Let me know how you get on. I usually make a quote graphic with the juiciest tidbit from my article reformulated as a question. I get some beautiful, thoughtful, elaborate answers - plus lots of new subscribers!
That's a great idea!
It hasn't been too long, but I got a super solid reply and engagement from it... still early, but I'm going to think about this moving forward!
Those are great suggestions. Thank you! I have the patience and time. Courage is a work in progress.
You can do this Kevin!
Those are great ideas. Thank you!
I have been learning to cross-pollinate/cross-promotion by accident. Owning a few relevant hash tags and sitting back ⬅️ whils they bounce all over the world 🌎 retweeted. I interject catcher 🆒 words; emojis, and flags of the countries I want to target. My streams of influence in 2 months have grown exponentially. My 3 blogs are busy, myTicToks ore catching the attention of Keane Reeves and Kevin Bacon 🥓... I win them over to my cause/social issue, and they jump in supporting and sponsoring, insolidarity.👱♀️🇮🇹🇻🇳🇳🇴🌎💕🎄🐶♋🧑🎤👊🎿✊✊
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?
I honestly just write until I feel like I've hit a natural conclusion. I've run up the email limit twice. But I know people who do it all the time who have 10x the follows I do. So who knows?
That'd be interesting to see - but one problem with seeking optimal lengths and best timings is that part of our job as writers & self-promoters is finding a way to be a bit *different* to everyone else.
(But then, if you see that 90% of folk are doing Option A in a poll, it's a useful indicator that Option B might be a great way to stand out. A good way to see what people *aren't* doing...)
Nice. These questions are more for a consensus thing. There is no correct answer.
Got it. (Apologies if I sounded a bit strident there....)
I like this idea!
Hello Miss Jackie!
Hello Mr Ms Mx LBA! 😃
Hahaha it's Miss, spinster for life!
I wrote "Miss" the first time but then realized I was making a huge assumption. I'll remember for the next time!
And yeah I'm right there with you with the Miss bit, though I am of an age where Ms is generally less weird.
I didn't see it until it was too late but I'm really not that picky. It fits the Victorian era and may I say that's a lovely picture of you.
Agreed
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.
Dope!
Congrats on finding your scope and what resonates, Wayne! In general, we've seen it is harder for writers to convert free readers to paid readers with the donation model. The paywall is the most effective tool to do so. That doesn't mean it's the right philosophical approach for you or your work, however! Please keep us posted on how it goes and let us know if you have questions or ideas on how to improve the product to support you.
Thanks Bailey. You could interview me for "What to Read." That would work!
My writing partner and I haven't launched our publication yet. What's your advice in terms of the free:paid content ratio for newcomers without an established readership going in? Is it better to start free and add a paywall for other content later, or should we establish a paywall from the get-go?
I need help increasing my open rate and making sure my substack does not go to the spam folder.
Here is a useful tool:
https://www.gmass.co/inbox
When you’re writing a post, make sure to send out test emails often to random addresses in that list and see where they land (primary, promotions, etc).
Most writers only do test emails AFTER they finish a post, at which point it becomes difficult to figure out why the post is going to spam.
In other words, sending test emails often should become part of your writing process.
Wow, this is great. Thanks for the resource.
You rock, thank you.
This is outstanding. Thank you!
To add to this - Gmail controls where emails land, not Substack. They take into account how frequently the recipients of your emails mark them as spam.
Anything you can recommend to bypass this? Also my own yahoo account has started to send my substack to spam just two weeks ago.
What is the best way to gather followings when you are starting out?
Hey Daniel. My tactic from (almost) the start is building big Twitter threads out of some of my newsletters, using a bit of "what happens next" storytelling along with plenty of daft humour & science-based surprises. Eg.
https://twitter.com/Mikeachim/status/1452271101095120897
https://twitter.com/Mikeachim/status/1392468208922337280
And each thread has a few callbacks to my newsletter, inviting people to sign up - which many do.
I can't claim any originality here - for example, Judd Legum has talked about using Twitter in this way, and I've been copying a lot of my heroes as I've gone along. But it does allow for sharing to really blow things up, so you reach wayyyyy more people than you could otherwise (at least for me, with a relatively small presence online). And the size of your Twitter follower audience doesn't matter, if it goes viral and gets a life of its own.
If you haven't tried, maybe worth an experiment or two?
I'll try that when I get back on Twitter. I'm kind of leaving it alone right now so I have no way to auto-generate threads.
I have threads written out on the mobile app but I don’t think I can schedule. I do that on the web app. You can use Typefully to type out threads and schedule but it’s a paid service.
I try to write the threads out one tweet at a time tweet-storm style. I've heard this is better for boosting reach, because twitter sends out each tweet individually, but I'm honestly not sure.... have you had success with this?
I’m going to try it as a draft and hopefully be able to post one at a time, though you can tweet all at once.
Grand. I should add that I don't autogenerate anything and build them up by hand - which seems the best way of doing them (at least for me) , and also is a fair bit of work. But it's worth it, every time.
Those tweet threads are amazing - thank you for sharing! (Still trying to un-see that Adele photo though! lol)
Thank you for the tip.
Yes--thank you for sharing this with us, Mike!
I don't do this nearly as often as I should, thanks for the reminder Mike! I find by the time I'm done writing my piece I'm already quite tired and need some rest before my next weekly post 😅
I see you've already built up a sizeable Twitter following - would you say that contributes to the virality of your threads, or does it actually go the other way around (threads helped you reach your current follower count)?
My pleasure, Christina. Glad I could help.
And regarding my Twitter following: hmmm. I'm not sure - but the bulk of people following me over there are still in the travel writing/blogging field, which is what I was doing until a few years ago. But my newsletter isn't about travel (not directly anyway). Any travel-related newsletter threads are shared by a lot of those folk - but the more sciencey ones are where I'm finding new followers, and where it's rippling outwards in directions completely new to me.
So I guess the answer is: a mixture. That said, I was very erratically (and I'd say really poorly) using Twitter from about 2014-early 2020, and I've only rediscovered it as a place to share my own work effectively because I had a reason (my newsletter) and a strategy that seemed to be working (having fun with big threads). Before the start of this year, I was a bit rubbish on there. It's all taken off since January. And I'm still experimenting!
Thanks for that! Yeah, finding out how to use Twitter well really is a skill. I just started a pseudoanon account this September starting w/ 0 followers which has been a challenging, but interesting journey.
I just checked out your writing (I read https://everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/heres-why-you-wont-read-this-newsletter) - you have a very unique voice!
Hi Daniel, what do you write about? Make a list of 10 places the people who are into your subject are hanging out (both in person and online) and start building relationships and adding value there. Don't be scared to share what you're writing about if it will help someone.
I've tried to build relationships but alas, cannot generate followings wherever I go. It's been a frustrating experience as a writer. I post on IG, Twitter, FB, Blogspot, etc. Been so for a while now. No one follows. It's kind of like I have a hit-and-run relationship style with people on social media.
Remember that only a small percentage of your followers on any social media outlet even SEE your posts, so don't get too down about it. The algorithms keep you from reaching your entire audience. It's frustrating, I know!
Daniel....I wrote about the Astros for 5 years (thru 3/20) on The Runner Sports all-sports blog site, WITHOUT EVER BEING ON ANY SOCIAL MEDIA! And, with 85 writers on staff, I routinely led the site in monthly page views, including every month for over a year! MY social media? Creating biz cards which allowed me to "hit the streets," and meeting new people usually wearing Astro caps and/or shirts, and easy entree to begin discussion.
Having begun my Substack in August, I only THEN joined Twitter and FB, and share my new article links there (and others). I've also made new biz cards (using the photo seen in my Substack ID photo, touting my new subject matter (behind the scenes and rockers met in '70s-era rock'n'punk after spending that decade in radio and the record biz). I enjoy meeting new people, and hand the cards out (and pin to Starbucks and Panera bulletin boards) after meeting new people!
Hope this helps, and good luck!
Grassroots! Love to see it, Brad.
I have heard a number of writers who cover local topics like sports teams finding success by promoting IRL or via locals-only outlets.
I started by asking friends and family. Then, I'd share some posts on LinkedIn. I've been active in a few Reddit communities that are interested in the topics I write about so I share a link to my story and also invite people to share their comments and have a discussion with them, so it doesn't come across as spammy and self-promotional. I've been on Substack for a few months after a few years on Medium, and building out an email list as opposed to a following has been an interesting challenge.
Love Mike's tips - you can check out what Judd shared here: https://substack.com/resources#growing-your-list
Came here to see the same thing!
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
You had me at leadership, around 4500 subs here, check me out.
Congrats! I write about health, biotech, and investing. Sprinkle of memes and gifs (mostly to entertain myself while writing) - poke around if that peaked your interest!
I'm down, though I don't have quite that many subscribers... I write about the mountains, hiking, and how those experiences impact our daily lives!
I can't get my readers to engage and leave comments - even when asked. What can I do beyond asking questions and requesting feedback?
Your request for comments needs to be juicier. Make it funny, controversial, competitive, or encourage them to share their experiences with making the recipe. Also people like to feel like experts. Ask them something like Question: How would you make this vegan without turning it into rabbit food? Answers in a comment please!
I've found that there is almost no correlation between asking people questions and getting comments.
This is the brightest and most poignant comment I've seen on here today !!!!!!!
For example, I have asked some of my friends questions about social media and promoting one's writings, and although I have been very courteous (prefacing my question with profuse apologies for imposing on their terribly valuable time; they're probably just jerking off but always profess to be oh so busy) and have asked limited and specific questions, they invariably tell me that there are too many people competing to get their 15 minutes of fame and they try, through a succession of smirks, snide comments, and sneering slaps in the face, to make me want to do myself in.
I have the same problem. Interestingly, they have responded in droves the few times I have run a survey (which I do through Google Forms). I have also reached out personally to my biggest readers (all of whom I know in person or well enough online to have their personal email addresses) to ask for feedback -- no one has turned me down.
I think sometimes people are just too busy/distracted/tired/living life to comment or ask questions. It's not necessarily a lack of engagement or a reflection of your work.
Makes sense :)
It depends on the topic. I have some which have 50 comments, others with 2.
Well, mine is always food, and that's what my readers expect to see! But no feedback...
Hmmm, keep at it. Took me months to start getting public feedback.
I have the same issue. I am running a discussion thread next Tuesday as an experiment and I fear the crickets. 😬
Enlist the help of your closest friends!!
I can't tell you what I have done about the problem, but I can tell you what I would like to do about the problem:
I would like to kidnap them, tie them up and then proceed to read -- or more likely scream at the top of my lungs - the corpus of my creativity. I will read poems with the sarcasm and savagery of Alexander Pope, essays that will make Bertrand Russell and Christopher Hitchens appear middling, mediocre and middle American and excerpts from novels that will make Norman Mailer seem as peaceable as Little Orphan annie.
In all seriousness , it can be a real fucking pain. Most people are stupid. Ergo most people like stupid entertainment, books, movies, music. The masses are morons. The masses extol the Brady Bunch, Hee Haw and Sally Jesse Raphael. If you are good,, it will be, more difficult to get acclaim.
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!
69% is great! That's something to be proud of, not be worried about.
Anything above 50% is rocking it, and if you can *hold* 50%+ as you grow your list, you're doing it right.
One other thing that's important, I reckon: keep sending readers back to the best of your old posts. Look for ways to back-reference to the Web versions of old newsletters with a link, so you're giving new readers an easy way to discover your archives (I don't think it's really enough to say "check out my archives"). That's a great way to build engagement without doing any extra new work.
Anything less than 100% will keep me up at night - hahha!
Hah - well, let's just say, I hope you like drinking coffee 24 hours a day. 😁
😂😂😂
As someone who hovers in the 35-45% range, you should be excited about 69%! That's great work!
Thanks, I appreciate that! The reason I expect it to be higher, is I only have 220 subscribers right now, and they're all friends and chronic illness community peeps who I know want to read it. Therefore, if someone didn't read it -- means they didn't receive it!
I know as a reader/subscriber of a few newsletters myself that sometimes life just gets busy and I can't get around to it. Wouldn't take it personally! And yes, as Jackie said - 69% is really good!
One thing you could consider doing is every so often is writing a post compiling all your recent posts into a "here's what you missed" post. I recently did this — didn't generate many new subs, but it helps my current readers reference what they might not have gotten a chance to read: https://healthandwealth.substack.com/p/fall-2021-recap
that's a great idea!
Opening an email is enough, and we display clickthroughs separately in the stats. But 69% is a great open rate & well above average!
Thanks! So the other 31% must have landed in their spam folder?
They might have just chosen not to open the email, even if it landed in their inbox.
Does Substack have those stats? What is the average? Thanks
We dont' have the exact average but you can reference the table in this blog post to see what's considered a good open rate: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-1
Thanks Jasmine
Does anyone want to cross-promote? I write about culture, politics, economics, and entertainment from a left-wing perspective.
I would love to cross promote. My perspective, I must warn you, often gets me into trouble. On economic issues, I am a super duper lefty. However, on social issues I am aroused by the right.
I would love to see what you have to say and will examine your newsletter. My newsletter is Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Your work seems to encompass a broad swath of issues as you include such arguably disparate things as entertainment and economics. A lot of people tell me that I should just concentrate on one issue or field. I would like to know how you attract an audience given the wide ambit of issues you cover.
Sorry this is such a long message for an introductory note, but I must note that the most recent items in my newsletter are not essays on issues of the day; they are poems and literary shit. But go back and you will find hard-hitting, kick ass politics, or at least I like to think so.
Me too! I'll email you.
Is this directed at me? If so, joemayall@email.com
Or is this directed at me
I'd love to
Awesome! Email me at joemayall@gmail.com and we'll set it up!
I’m up to cross promote. Newer here too but that’s part of growth. 🙂
of course! Email me at joemayall@gmail.com and we'll set something up
Emailed!
I would but I am very new to this so I don't have many subscribers to offer.
No worries! We were all new once. Do you want to email me at joemayall@gmail.com and we can talk through it?
yes let me email
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.
Hi Erik, thanks for the question. Unfortunately we're being increasingly targeted by spammers, but we have a dedicated team on this and we're working hard on improving the situation.
Yes that has happened just once to me, and it was this week... some "model" thing, yikes. Is there a mechanism to quickly report this?
Alison - to Aaron's point above, we see it and we're on it! On your end, you can ban a specific user from comments to keep your community on-topic & safe.
https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041688471-How-do-I-ban-or-un-ban-someone-from-commenting-on-my-publication-#:~:text=Navigate%20to%20the%20person's%20comment,%2C%20a%20month%2C%20or%20indefinitely.
So good--thank you! It's like dealing with party-crashers... good to know there's a bouncer around :)
Erik, thanks for bringing this unpleasant topic up. I never (never) had a scammer problem before, and used my best (most reliable) work email address for Substack. Within a month, I began to be flooded (flooded) by garbage emails, sometimes 100 a day. It drives me insane. The most disgusting stuff... I am about to delete my most useful email address as a result.
George
Saw that on one of my favorite newsletters earlier this week. 1st time seeing it, but sounds like it's a growing issue?
I saw one of those on another writer's newsletter also. What is going on?
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!
Hey Jackie! Feel free to send me a guest book recommendation (3-4 sentences on the bok you're pushing into everyone's hands. Whattoreadif@substack.com
I think my guest recommenders have seen a handful of new subscribers.
I like that idea. I'm always excited to talk about Walter Johnson's The Broken Heart of America.
Also, you really liked Addie LaRue? I wanted to, but I just couldn't get into it (and usually I like Schwab).
It was my first Schwab and I loved it! It took a bit but I got caught up in the story.
Send me a few sentences on why you love The Broken Heart of America and I'll include it with a link to Story Cauldron!
Thanks!
Hi Jackie, I really like your newsletter. Hello from a Missouri Substack sister!
Oh cool! I just subscribed. 🙂
Thanks so much! Looking forward to connecting through our newsletters and books-worlds!
Hey, I don't have a huge subscriber base but I'm willing to tinker around with cross promos or guest posts. Maybe we can work something out? Shoot me an email colenobleclimbs@gmail.com
I suppose there is a story to be told about mountain climbing. For my part, about all I could contribute would be how an overweight 44-year-old woman climbed Guadalupe Peak in Texas (the tallest mountain in the state, though that isn't saying much in mountain terms) with a full pack (including water for 2 days) without dying (though I came close a few times!) 🤣
I am still new here, but am loving what you've built for us so far. Thank you for this.
Great to hear, thanks for being here!
Can you expand more on your SEO capabilities after removing the Google Search Console verification?
Following
Thank you for the 4 likes thus far!
Looking forward to a solid answer from the moderators after the Thanksgiving Break.
In particular, very keen on knowing whether we would need to be paid users to leverage SEO capabilities to the fullest. My latest posts do not appear on Google.
cc: https://substack.com/profile/34072171-katie-substack, https://substack.com/profile/44566588-rose-substack, https://substack.com/profile/34072165-bailey-substack
If you want to join our Twitter hype pod, follow @youtopianJ and I will add you. It could get you some new eyeballs.
can confirm. 👍
same I will be there
will do!
Its a good hype pod. Very much enjoyment to be had!
Yeahhhhhhh
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!)
I recently traded guest posts with another Substack newsletter. We each emailed the other our post plus photos, and bio. Then it was a simple as cutting and pasting.
We did not use Substack's feature below of adding a guest author to a post. Both of us picked up 50+ new subscribers (some paid), too! https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/4406178016148-How-can-I-add-a-guest-author-to-a-post-
Very good to know! I'm sending a "test email"... and will do this, too. Thank you, Kate! Love this community!
Great, I’ll look for your email, Alison, I can easily cut and paste everything! :)
Hi, Kate!
Hi Dear Jolene!
Kate, we are going the cut and paste route! Thanks for your advice!
Hi, Alison! ‘It’s all about the vintage nog bowl!’ 😂 Thanks for asking about this, I’d been thinking via email until you wrote me about this more elegant option (befitting your eggnog ;) I’m looking forward to learning about it and what I need to do to get the ball rolling (invite?).
Thanks again and Congratulations 🎊 Substack One Million! 🎊
OOh! I'm excited to read this! I'm also guesting w/ Jolene this holiday baking season.
I look forward to yours! Very good!
Hi, Elizabeth!
Hey friend!
This might be helpful for all three of us ; )
https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/4406178016148-How-can-I-add-a-guest-author-to-a-post-
Thanks for sharing this Elizabeth! Jolene and Alison, this is the best way to do guest posts that link readers directly to your Substacks
Thanks, Katie!
How many subscribers do you recommend having before you turn on paid?
I went paid right out of the gate. My ratio is about 680 free to 219 paid. I don't think this is Substack's recommended model, but it's working for me. But I'm publishing fiction every day.
Yes, I think you need to do what you need to do. I started in mid-April, and went paid June 1. I'd left my job...so it wasn't a choice. I have about 235 free and 49 pd. I'm not convinced it's a numbers thing. It did take me awhile to figure out how to navigate what posts should be free and what paid, and I know I'll probably be tweaking yet for awhile. I have two free posts/month that will always be free. Then I post a umber of others...and after a month, they go behind the paywall. This is what is working for me, AT THE MOMENT :) It can change! Trying to develop intuition over this, is something I'm working at! Good luck! This really is a great platform!
Haven't gone paid and don't plan on it anytime soon yet - but lurking here anyways (for the future? 🤷🏻♀️) - Having some pieces be free for a month before going behind the paywall is a great idea!
Love the boldness. I hear a lot of hesitation about going paid. I my content is free for now but I’m gearing up for paid only content soon.
That's an incredible ratio. Have never heard of a conversion rate that high.
Nice!
I did it according to time spent. I assumed my newsletter would be a bit of a hard sell (science of curiosity) and I knew I wanted to work in seasons of 8-10 weeks, so I figured I'd prove myself with two seasons in the bag for free. That ended up taking 6 months, and when I went paid on a list of 600-ish folk, I got a 4-5% conversion rate to paid, which feels a solid start. I'm with Alison on this (re her comment below) - I think raw numbers matter less than engagement, and having proven yourself and built loyalty. Not always, but in my case, yes.
It matters how you make people feel *at least* as much as how big that crowd is. Often a lot more.
I agree 100% Numbers can give us a rough idea, but the importance is how engaged our readers are.
I went paid from the beginning and got subscribers right away. Why not go for it!
Very good :)
Hey Rebecca, I believe they have an article on this. They mentioned 5-10% conversion is really high, but also attainable for subscriptions. So if you want 1000 paying subscribers, you'd at least need around 10,000 subscribers as that'd be probably best case scenario
ah - thanks.
Here it is! https://on.substack.com/p/your-guide-to-going-paid
I am waiting until the 15-20k mark or so.
I came here to learn the same thing.
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.
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/
Same here. Always happy to help out fellow writers. You can find me at StoryCauldron.substack.com or use my fancy storycauldron@substack.com email!
YESSS
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.
I am intrigued! Please do report back.
gotta go Happy Thanksgiving to all and see you in two weeks.
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?
No famous interactions, but writing about my cooking and how my grandparents influenced it has lead to new connections with people who knew them, and learning about how they left a mark on other people's hearts while they were still with us. I exchange regular emails with one of my subscribers because of it!
Wowww that's amazing. I love that so much. Writing is such a great way for serendipitous interactions. Way to carry on the torch from your grandparents!
I don't want to sound like an ornery son of a bitch, but since you are in such a cheery mood, unburdened with technical questions that require resolution, please survey my queries here. I have about 50 questions re substack, newsletters and the agony of anonymity.
I'm also very new here (started in September) so don't claim to have all the answers! Hard to scroll through these threads - but if you have specific questions, feel free to ask!
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!
Thanks for being here Emily!
Thank you for the feedback here! Multiple size options makes a lot of sense.
Could you clarify what you mean by "include what is in the settings for social media"?
Hey Jasmine, I don’t think multiple sizes is needed. The current one is just too big. It takes up so much space for mobile readers which makes it hard to get them to keep scrolling past it.
By social media settings, I meant the text inside the the box automatically captures the first para of the story. But since most of us have buttons and asks for subscriptions at the top, that’s what shows up in the box. As an alternative, I suggested inside the box auto fill to what’s in the social media box on settings. That way we can control what’s in the box.
Thank you!
Ah, I see. I see how the auto-fill can be confusing and passed this along to our product team!
I think — and Emily correct me if I'm wrong — it means she means what the social preview would look like (if you posted the link to Twitter for example)
What it shows is — title, subtitle, and cover photo. Rather than the intro sentences of the post itself.
Ooh yes I second this - haven’t used preview linking nearly as much because of this
How many substack writers are bringing in more than $25k a year from this?
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
Hi, Rohini. Unfortunately, Substack doesn't allow you to embed audio or video files directly in your posts. What I have done is to upload my audio files to soundcloud and my videos to YouTube. I then paste the soundcloud or youtube link, where those pieces of media are being hosted, into my posts. You can do this for older posts, no problem.
Thank you! This really helps! This is one of the aspects I was getting very confused about!
Hi Rohini and Jennifer! We do support Soundcloud, Spotify, and YouTube embeds. For MP3s, you can also click "New episode" to create an audio post and then upload an MP3 that will display at the top of the post, above the text, with a little headphones icon. We've seen writers successfully use that feature to make audio posts a paid perk, or just jazz up their free content.
Unfortunately there is not currently a way to add audio natively to older posts, ie without a Soundcloud embed. We'd like to enable this in the future though!
Ah, thanks for the clarification! That helps organise my head considerably!
Hi Rohini! I have no advice just just thought I'd say hi!
Hey Elizabeth! Good to 'see' you. :) :)
You'll see me reading on What To Read If soon...have been working to mad deadlines, so reading has taken a backseat lately!
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!
Answered #1 below. For #2, there currently isn't an option to do that, but the feedback is well taken.
Thanks Jasmine!
Yes, firmly agree that 1) would be great. I'm also archiving previously seasons of my newsletter under Sections, listed at the top of the newsletter's landing page, but they don't allow me to include anything labelled "podcast" alongside the normal newsletters. It'd be great to be able to put both these formats under the same Section heading - or, even better, allow audio in the "newsletter" format!
Hi! You're both right that it's confusing right now, and we're definitely hoping to redesign this system. For now, if you want *any* audio posts, you have to designate the section as a podcast. Unfortunately the best solution might be creating a new "Podcast" section to migrate everything into, default signing everyone up, then deleting the old "Newsletter" section once the migration is finished.
Thanks, Jasmine! Appreciate your thoughts here, and happy to be patient to see what you come up with (I'm deeply appreciative that the podcast option exists at all! Such a great feature...).
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.
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
No, but it should be possible to do A/B tests to understand what the impact is.
This summer I tracked engagement metrics and found that without outside links, engagement would be at least 50% higher. I don't think it mattered whether the link was to Substack or other websites.
My Twitter engagement has dropped quite a bit since early August. It could be due to Twitter shutting down the "fleets" or potentially something more nefarious. I'm very keen to hear what you find about how social media platforms deprioritize Substack.
I agree with Michael: it's not that Twitter and LinkedIn are de-prioritizing Substack specifically, it's that they de-prioritizing all off-platform links because they want to keep users on their platforms. Tim, here are a couple of things to try. On Twitter, try posting a thread of three tweets and link your Substack post in the last tweet in the thread. On LinkedIn, make a post with no link to your Substack, just text plus a photo, and then "reply" to your own post right away with the link to your Substack, so it's the first reply. Social media algos are opaque and what works keeps changing, but these are a couple of things you can try
Those are both great tips - thanks Linda
Good to see you hopping on here, Linda!
Yeah, how about an update on your outage last night when your server crashed? That was a bit concerning. Thank you.
This is also a great spot! https://twitter.com/SubstackStatus. Apologies for that. Our engineers were doing scheduled maintenance.
Thanks! I didn't know about that (or Sergey's link below).
We post status updates here - https://substack.statuspage.io/
Is there a manual on how to use Substack? No! Why Not?
Bob there are a number of Guides on how to use substack. On the page where you write your drafts newsletters and more. I am sure someone on the substack team can or will address and post the direct links when they jump on.
Here are two great places to get started! https://on.substack.com/p/setting-up-your-substack-for-the & https://on.substack.com/p/getting-your-first-100-signups
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?
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.
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
Aaaand now that close-bracket typo will haunt me all week. #UnfixableTyposAreAgony
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
Love your newsletter, subscribed.
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
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).
Hi Tar,
If not mistaken, Stripe is unavailable on the Substack platform for writers residing in Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, India, Malaysia. I only saw it in this article when I launched paid. https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/4405482746132-How-do-I-set-up-my-Stripe-account-to-start-receiving-payments-
Yes, the payment system is even more complicated for us in India. We have to use Stripe Atlas which helps setting up a company and a US Bank account and only then a writer in India can accept payment, most of which will get dropped because of the reasons mentioned in my previous post.
My substack has almost 6500 readers and is rapidly growing. I want to transition to paid, once the reader base hits 30K but so far the major challenge I foresee is the payment stack on substack.
Hope you’ll find a workaround solution soon. 💪
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?
Very difficult when attempting to grow, I think I will send a personal email from my own account to each email, see what happens.
Dope! (LOL) I try to write thank-you emails to each new subscriber, especially those with email addresses attached to a name I might recognize, so I can address them by name.
Interesting. I will let you know how it goes.
painstaking but probably worth it!
Have to do what needs to be done. Thousands of people are on my list who could have my substack going to their spam.
I'm still weighing it out - just started in the last couple of months. As long as I'm getting engagement with those who do open, I'm not sure how concerned I should be with those that don't.
It depends on what’s important to you. What do you want to measure and how do you measure if you are making progress in your work.
I was obsessively tempted to doing that. Cull or even write to those who don’t open my mails and ask if they want to unsubscribe. But, I think it’s creepy, hahaha.
I think, I’ve arrived at a place now where I’m training myself to take the open rate stats much lightly. Especially now that emails like Apple Mail block this kind of tracking.
I’ve shifted my focus on things other than measuring open rates. It could be people taking action to buy my drawings, new subscribers, etc. Once I’m clearer on what’s important to me as a writer and as a person, I find myself freer from these kind of stats.
Another sanity-saving tactic for me is to disable the unsubscribe notifications. So I don’t go unnecessarily sad with the one or two unsubscribes and I question my work.
Thank you Melinda for taking the time to respond so thoughtfully. I knew myself enough never to enable the unsubscribe notifications. It's definitely a tricky balance to write and share our work for what it is in itself and at the same time to track the stats of the newsletter - what do we measure when the most important element we're after is immeasurable?
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?
This is similar to what I am doing so I'd love to hear what you find out.
Congrats on the consistency! We usually recommend publishing at least once a week for free and paid subscribers (i.e. one free and one paid) to build a clear habit among your readers.
When you first 'go paid,' you may want to send your first few weeks of paid serial content to everyone — but let them know it will be put behind the paywall in the future. That way, it's like a free trial or teaser.
I would also recommend reminding your free readers in the weekly post that there is a paid version, perhaps including a short quote or one-line summary so they know what they're missing.
Ultimately, though, it's up to you and we've seen writers find success with other frequencies. We have more tips on going paid here - https://on.substack.com/p/your-guide-to-going-paid - and your free vs. paid strategy here - https://on.substack.com/p/grow-2
Thanks that's helpful. Now I'll just need to conquer the technology (LOL)
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?
I struggle with this as well. I have started writing about local history (and plan to do a bunch more articles after NaNoWriMo is over as the research is piled up right next to me!) and I'm not convinced my current audience will find it as compelling (or that people who do find it compelling will want to read my other content). But right now managing and promoting one Substack is about all I can manage, so I've created a new section for now. I think once I have a few articles done, I'll revisit things and see how I feel about it.
You might try something similar for now and see how it goes (and if you have the energy to keep writing that content). If it seems to be catching on, you can always create a new Substack and copy the content over.
Hi Cory! That's a good question, and it really depends on how related or unrelated your topics of interests are. If they are completely unrelated and you want each area to have its own identity, separate publication would be best. If they are related in some way, sections would work. It's really up to you.
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!
When you click "subscriber percentage" on the post page. It will show you each person and how many times they opened and if they clicked any links
You can click on their email in the dashboard. I am also wondering how to prevent the spam folder.
Hi there! The best way to prevent emails being sent to spam is asking readers to move your newsletters into their main inbox or adding your Substack email to their contacts. If you think someone specific is having issues receiving your newsletter, you can also send them to this page: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037488332-I-signed-up-for-a-newsletter-but-am-not-receiving-any-emails-What-can-I-do-
Thank you, I think I have an idea.
Thank you!
Sergy thanks for the link
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! :)
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.
Thanks for this Mark. BTW, I follow your Substack, and I think it is great!
Thanks, Paul!