Have questions about publishing, growing, or going paid on Substack?
The Substack team, and your fellow writers, are here to help!
We’re gathering the writer community and members of the Substack team together in this discussion thread to answer writer questions for an hour.
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 updates and reminders from the Substack team:
New homepage header navigation. You may have noticed that we’ve released new header navigation for publication homepages, designed to merge the best of our layout themes and provide a consistent navigation experience for readers. The new navigation displays links to Home (the publication’s homepage), Archive (all posts), and About (the publication’s About page) by default. Let us know what you think in the comments below!
The new homepage navigation, as seen on Alphabet Soup.
Reminder: Food Writers Intensive. Applications are currently open for our Food Writers Intensive. This program will celebrate and accelerate 10 fellows who are pushing the boundaries of food writing on Substack. Details and eligibility guidelines here.
Recently Substack has come under sustained political pressure to censor content published by authors on the platform. The recent statement of principles by Substack’s co-founders reaffirming a commitment to free speech was reassuring and appreciated by many authors here, including myself.
However, I note with significant concern the following facts about Substack’s business infrastructure:
Your web hosting infrastructure is provided by Amazon Web Services.
Your domain and internet security services are provided by Cloudfare.
Your digital payment processing is provided by Stripe.
If any one of these service providers were to cut off its business with Substack, your platform (and our content) would go dark overnight. And all three of these dominant service providers now have a well-established history of acting, both individually and in direct collusion with one another, to systematically deplatform emerging startup competitors and dissenting voices.
Therefore I write to ask, as a stakeholder with a material interest in the continued wellbeing of Substack and its business model, what steps Substack has taken or is considering taking to preemptively mitigate exposure to this risk, including by establishing relationships with alternative providers more aligned with Substack’s mission and values.
N.S. Lyons makes a massively important observation and I echo that concern. PLEASE make a clear address of this obvious and real vulnerability so that we may all know what we are investing our time and talent into.
We live in a world now where discrimination and suppression of Free Speech Rights, granted by the First Amendment, is crushed without any consequences.
And nobody is doing anything about it. This is Farenheit 451 - on steroids.
I agree wholeheartedly Cory. Modern services of the major providers make "speech" easier than anytime in history. Norms of behavior need to prevail and this enforces civility.
Wrong. When they have the Monopoly in the market (70% or more), they become "Public Square". In the Public Square, the First Amendment applies.
2) These rogue behemoths are protected from lawsuits by Section 230 (= Govt). So: they can't have it both ways: either they are private, and can be sued, and broken into pieces not larger than 20% of the market, or they enjoy Govt protection (section 230), in that case they are Public Square and they MUST respect the First Amendment.
For reference: the Standard Oil AntiTrust case.
By the way: Facebook has lost 43% of MarketCap value in the last 6 months.
It would seem the market in question is cloud services and the marketplace is quite competitive between AWS, Microsoft & Google. The "bit" players like Oracle and IBM are not small-fries by any measure. I could be mistaken but don't believe that AWS approaches 70%. Furthermore there is no barrier (except sensibility) why firms might self-host. The range of services and availability and reliability are what keep writers here. Proposing someone "build their own car" b/c Henry Ford only sells black ones and I don't like his politics is a strange solution. Consumers, including Substack have choice and can migrate their services with modern approaches like Kubernetes to competing Cloud Services.
Hats Off to YOU: Since I have participated in "Wrtters" Office Hours," I have read or glanced at hundreds of posts. Without doubt, this is the most important and well-reasoned post I have ever seen on here
PLEASE TELL ME WHAT I CAN DO . Can I sign the letter, the petition. Please write to me with proposed measures I can take.
Yeah. Google, including YouTube, cut me off for no reason and with no response to my many requests for an explanation. I had a bunch of stuff on YouTube, which I had to redo and stick up on Vimeo. They're their platforms. They can do with them whatever the fuck they want to do...but it's a giant pain in the ass when they do. I call them names whenever I'm reminded of it...and I like Vimeo better, anyway:
Why do you think they excommunicated you ? Were you too left wing, too right wing, pornographic, did you offend specific people or sacred cows in the media aristocracy.
I had an Insta acct deleted in one second with no warning. Was never told why. Pure Kafka. Hundreds of posts of original illustration (no swear words, no porn, no violence, no weirdness), public acct, 1300 followers. I believe I was "reported" for "hate" by someone who pulled the "islamophobe" card (bigtech loves it, as it loves reports of "transphobia"). I had pushed back on clear antisemitism against an openly Jewish reporter for Rebel News in Australia. Commenter hurled filthy invective at me and then my acct disappeared. That's just one story. Takes nothing to be deleted if you're already on the wrong side of the ideological fence.
Thanks for this relevant question. Here's mine: Can you please provide a link or two that sheds light on this claim: "... and in direct collusion with one another, to systematically deplatform emerging startup competitors and dissenting voices." Thanks.
I applauded N.S. Lyons remarks, but you are correct. That one line about direct collusion caught my attention as well. I would like to know if there is a basis in fact for that statement (not to defend those three companies, but to know if I have further reason to flee from their bad business practices). If there is not, then I want to keep my judgments as objective as practical.
Couldn't agree more N.S. Lyons. I have come to Substack so I can speak my Truth without fear of impediment, censorship or retribution. I don't incite harm , loss or injury or publish explicit content so am hoping I can trust Substack to allow my rightful free speech.
This is a real concern. Look at what happened to Parler, and look at the repression going on right now in Canada and how funding sources were hit and they rolled over. I don't know what it would take, but somehow for Substack, in time, to set up its own infrastructure so it can't be taken down by these other actors would be a hugely beneficial, maybe even essential, move.
Great notes, but I urge if you are worried, why not also include Substack themselves? The only platform you are guaranteed not to lose, is the one you build yourself.
3. Video feature is awesome for keeping video stuff for subscribers only.
My next dream feature? Polls, preferably subscriber only and which ensure that subscribers can only vote once. But I'm really pleased with everything added to the CMS lately. Cheers.
YES! There was one when the feature debuted, but it vanished almost immediately. So I have to go Google, which is a pain. Would LOVE it to be restored.
We had some concerns writers would be against estimated read times! The worry was that it could disincentivize longer posts - readers may get scared off - and we don't want to do that. Is that not concerning to y'all?
Sounds like giving the writer an option is usually the way to go. I still wish that I could space my posts the way I want to... The current spacing setting does not allow for enough "white space" so to speak, and that is typically recognized as an easy way to lead the reader through the writing and provide a clear, uncluttered look for the reader. Thanks in advance for considering changing this and giving the power to the writer to design their posts' look and feel.
I actually have a solution to this! Go to photoshop or free equivalent (I use GIMP) and create an image with no background with an aspect ratio of 1 inches tall, 5 wide. Leave it blank. Save as "white space," and export as a JPG. You can now paste this image between paragraphs when you want readers to take a longer pause.
I use art asset versions of this to create little pictures in my posts. I used this little mountain drawing in a recent post, "life inside of a snowy mountain painting."
I've found these to be a really nice looking visual break for readers. I like to doodle as well as write. So they're fun to make. I happen to think they're eye catching, and engage a different part of the brain.
In the beginning my posts were WAY too long. I focused on 5-7 minute read time and now tell folks at the top if it was split into two posts. I heard from enough people that they preferred digestible. I doubt I'm engaging enough for more than that for now :) Now I just keep it between the lines and split it if necessary. I heard from enough readers that they like knowing it won't be any longer than X.
I actually am much MORE likely to read something that takes more than, say, 3 minutes. I find that short posts (unless it's by certain writers who intentionally keep things short, like Time Travel Kitchen or something) aren't always worth my time.
Right, this isn't saying I won't read shorter pieces, but I prefer longer pieces that I can dig into. So longer read times aren't necessarily a deal-breaker for all readers!
Ha! yes... if someone needs a time on their reading, maybe they should go wash dishes... :) I'm being facetious. But do wonder where we--as readers even--are at. Not to mention, some read slow, some fast.
It's a valid concern. I feel like I would've been against them at the beginning, since nobody wants to read a long piece from someone they don't really know. But now that I have a decent following and I've built up credibility with my audience, I see read time estimates differently. Basically, I think it helps people make my stories appointment-reading. If I go long, I've found that people are cool with that, but maybe they need to read my longer stuff at a different time. Maybe the solution is to make that feature something we can toggle on and off?? Also, adding the time estimate gives us more data / guidance on the effect of longer pieces. Right now, I just have to estimate and say that was a long piece but it did well. Would be helpful to see if my metrics sustain (or improve) for pieces that cluster at the 15-minute mark, or the 20-minute mark, etc.
I write long and short. Readers can quickly see for themselves how long a piece is. And if they are subscribers and regular openers, they know my style. I'd like the number count on the composition page just to remind me to shut up.
Thank you for forwarding this Fog Chaser. I am excited to grant this option to my readers as I think some like "don't know what you may post about while others "don't care about topic A"
Yeah, it’s a great feature from services that offer it. I always feel like I’m going to get reported as spam if I ever do resend to those who didn’t open it.
I think this is the reasons substack probably won't open it.
I know that past open rate impacts future placement in the spam folder. So if you blast out an email to everyone who didn't open it before, you're looking at an email with a 0% open rate. It's a bad mark on your record as an email sender.
Good point! I think there would have to be some parameters (like, one resend per post), and maybe a time constraint (can only resend once 72hrs have passed since initial send, or something). But, I hear you — the last thing any of us want to do is anger the spam gods.
Thanks for the reminder! I have not been able to see the word count of my posts. do I have to specifically turn it on? Apologize if it is something obvious that I have missed.
I celebrated my one-year anniversary of writing my newsletter over the weekend! I’ve always found it helpful when other writers put together their stats and insights into an article, so I’ve done the same for my (albeit pretty small!) newsletter: https://www.nightwater.email/p/year-one-insights
Looking forward to another great year of writing on Substack!
Adam, I was just reading the article you shared. And 1. What an apt and cool title for a publication you have, and 2. Thank you for sharing The Sample. I just signed up to them myself. I don't know how I've never heard of them before.
Congratulations for reaching (& exceeding) most of your publication goals for the past year even though you didn't know what it will exactly look like at first. It's inspiring, & I look forward to seeing more of your stat sharing.
Also, as a visual artist, I can't help but notice how cool your pub looks.
So glad you found it useful! And that you liked the visual style (I am not even close to a visual artist or designer, but I’ve found Canva very fun to use!).
Thanks for explaining Sample. I got quite a few sign-ups when I first joined but I had no idea how it worked, so I'm down to nothing now. I knew it had to be reciprocal but I'm still not clear on what I have to do at my end!
Hi Ramona! When you signed up Sample would have given you a referral link. You just need to share that link (here, on social media, etc.). If somebody uses your link and subscribes, The Sample will send out your newsletter until somebody subscribes to you. It's a one-to-one barter system - if you get them a subscriber, they'll get you one.
First, I want to thank Katie and Bailey for the opportunity to provide the soundtrack for this week's Writing Hour. If you're looking for a playlist to write to, feel free to use it too!
If you're not on Spotify, let me know and I'd be happy to send you a list of the songs.
And I want to shoutout the folks in the Twitter community who have been supporting one another this week (special thanks to YouTopian Journey for running point on that).
Another Substack I'm enjoying this week is Janeen McCrae's The Stream:
I am all ears, but I don't know what you are referring to.
A) A referral program for WHAT. I am not looking for a referral to a doc will give me groovy drugs (that comes next if I am not given the appreciation and accolades that my smoldering genius merits). Is there a referral to a publisher who will rescue me from soul-destroying anonymity.
A referral program, I would assume, is a method to track people who refer others to your substack. Similar to affiliate programs.
Sites like Teachable (for e-learning courses) and EventBrite (for selling event tickets) have such programs. You can do things like:
- Provide a special price to partners referred from a site or organization
- Earmark a portion of proceeds to back to the organization that referred people.
I can see the value of this, though there are other features that strike me as more important. I wouldn't make it as complex as Eventbrite - rather just be able to track what referral code/partner may have referred traffic and specific sign-ups.
ThANK YOU for responding to my query. I am sorry to bug you with two more questions, but your answers are informed and thorough. Just a couple of questions re some ridiculously basic stuff on substack:
A) In the course of posting an article on substack what can I click on to state
i) Write a comment
ii) Subscribe to my newsletter
iii) Share
I saw a button whicn invited people to subscribe, but what appeared on the actual post was my e mail address !!!!
Use the buttons in the "more" section of your editor.
I suspect your confusion is caused by it displaying your email address because you are logged into substack. This is the same as if you went to someone else's post and they had a subscribe button.
Because you are logged into Substack, your email address auto-populates. Someone who visits your post will either see the subscribe button without an email (if they've never subscribed to a substack author) or they will see THEIR email address.
You can test this as follows.
Copy the link the the post and open an incognito (porn) window in your browser and paste the link there. You will see that no email address is auto-populated.
That is what a brand new, never been to substack, not subscribed to any substack newsletters, visitor would see.
I hope that makes sense.
I created a demo substack for the workshop I gave a few days ago. I've posted an article there with the various buttons.
I wish there was a way to nominate great pubs on Substack for the What to Read feature. There's so many great pubs out there, and I'm not sure how you guys find them but it would be nice to be able to nominate people.
Substack is working great! Thank you to all the Team!
I have one question: will it be possible to embed videos in the middle of a post (article), instead of only at the top? (like we can do with images). Are you working on this feature?
Will it be possible to embed more than one video inside one post (article)?
I use videos extensively in my articles, and right now I have first to upload the videos to one of my YouTube channels (unlisted), then embed the video code within the Substack article.
The ability to upload the videos directly to Substack would make things easier. Thank you in advance.
can you post here the links to you articles with the videos?
by the way: I just subscribed to your Substack...
I've read your "about the Author" page. Interesting... I wrote an article yesterday about the latest developments in the Durham Investigation: I think you might be interested - Jake Sullivan and Marc Elias (Perkins Coie) - maybe these names sound familiar to you...
I had this same question about audio files ... My audio stories are for paid members one of the perks even though it says you can add a paywall so free subscribers can get a taste of your article ... I didn't think I could add a paywall to promote to non-members because the audio is imbedded at the top. Am I missing something?
exactly. As Substack works now with videos, it is only possible to embed the video at the top of the post.
And just one video per post.
In one of my articles (posts) I included 4 different videos, in specific points of the article, and I had to upload each of them first on YouTube, then embed the codes within the article.
My advice to everyone regarding growth is this, it never ends. You need to constantly promote, market, hustle, share, like, tweet, post, tag, etc. I just had some media drop on me and my substack was a significant part of it. I did a guest lecture at a university the other day and my substack was a good portion. You need to do everything and anything to drive people to your work.
Great reminder! I recently finished "Superfans" by Pat Flynn and I am incorporating his ideas into my marketing in an effort to keep my current subscribers and convert more free to paid. If anyone needs some not so common ways of building a loyal following, I strongly recommend it.
Hi, love these threads! I have a random question - I've started doing discussion threads recently, and I notice that I get a huge amount of likes (around 50 compared to the normal 2-3 for the actual newsletters) but very little engagement in comments. I have no idea why this is - is it somehow easier for people to Like the discussions?
They're trying to tell you they're shy. No kidding. :) Would love ideas to make them less shy, but I think different Substacks attract different people with different goals. Not everybody is there for the chat.
It's all about the question. If you ask something simple that requires an opinion, you should get a number of responses. If you ask for someone to talk about an important moment in their lives or something - a question that takes more time/thought - you might get good replies but not as many.
I've been online for about 40 years. You're lucky to get 2% to 10% of your viewers/readers to move from lurking to commenting. I ask simple questions about stock and options trading. Only a couple of folks I know from another site have posted comments. Mostly, thanks, Don. Since I'm writing about investing, I'm guessing that people are reluctant to discuss trades here. But on SeekingAlpha.com, there are lots of comments, and many are better than the articles. So I'm just waiting to collect more subscribers and hoping commenters follow. I actively respond to all commenters in an effort to attract more comments.
This is to be expected. After all, what did Arch Duke Metternich say at the Congress of Vienna? That aristocratic bastard said "The Masses Are Inert."
Most people are frightened mice, scampering, whimpering slaves of the corporate state who never speak up, never challenge tyrants, and want only the narcotic of the say, whether it be religion, junk food or oxycontin. Fat dolts are objects at rest and objects at rest tend to stay at rest.
When you work for employers or clients, you have to understand that when you attack people, the consequences can be disastrous for your targets and for you.
If you hope, for example, to be invited on the Today Show to promote your cause and business, refrain from attacking NBC and other Comcast products. If you plan to visit a dictatorship, be careful what you say.
After you're retired and think you're set for life with no bosses, clients, employees, or suppliers, be careful about how you attack your fans. They can go away in a flash.
I've spent my career in journalism with a byline that isn't the most popular one in some circles and industries because I try to write honestly and accurately for my readers, not for my friends and relatives or for my ego. The latter gets more attention than it should. :-)
As long as you're willing to deal with the consequences and don't hurt people, libel them, slander them or lie about them, go for it. Have fun.
I see your point, but I don't see its applicability to me. You said that one should refrain from attacking one's fans or people whom one would like to work with. Of course, that's eminently sensible. However, I did not attack anyone on this board, or anyplace, in particular. I simply attacked cowardice. Scan my post for proper nouns who were the objects of my sardonic temperament for as long as you want, but you will not find any particular persons who I attempted to "dis." If you think I did attack someone in particular, please tell me who it was.
Hey, it's okay. I am not made of paper maiche (I can't spell to save my life; by "paper maiche" I am referring to silly shit, that was composed of paste and paper and water, that was used in elementary school to create "art") Or as Lillian Hellman put it, I am not made of "sugar water."
I've had the same experience. But I've had success with Ask Me Anything threads. Simple questions such as "What's your favourite pen?" also seem to work well
Threads are such a cool part of Substack. They've worked pretty well for us and we plan to incorporate them more moving forward. I think if you keep going, people will start opening up. Maybe ask one or two people to respond to the thread to kind of kick things off.
Really like the new homepage navigation! Well done, Substack! I'm wondering if there's a way to move threads to their own space on the homepage? I just started doing threads and they've been popular and fun, but I worry that over time my threads will crowd out my stories. Is there any way to differentiate threads on the homepage now, or is something like that coming?
Could you give them their own section? I do Q&As but I messed up my first thread so I haven't tried it again. So maybe you can't turn it into a section.
That only appears if you've first already pinned it. That's talking about the top four spots on the magazine layout or top one spot on the regular layout. At least that's my understanding. It's not talking about whether it appears at all on the home page. Which is too bad. When I first saw this I got really excited that unpinning it from the home page in general was an option I didn't know about. Maybe this should be a new suggestion for the Substack team!
This is a technical question, but since you fixed the bug on opening stats, I've noticed a unique identifier appended to every single URL on my site. What is the purpose of this identifier, and are there any foreseen consequences to sharing that link on social media? In other words, if I share that link by mistake and someone clicks on it, will that show up as an open?
I note that same identifier is also in the URL for this thread.
Yeah I noticed that as well, and wish it wasn't there for a direct open. Now whenever I am trying to copy/paste a link to a Substack (mine or someone else's) I have to remove it.
I've had a similar problem. Sometimes I'll try to link to a specific post, especially on Facebook, and it goes to the general Substack page. My workaround is to go into settings and find the url, but that's a pain!
Thank you for this feedback! It's new, and unrelated to the data issues. We are having an active conversation around this now, and if writers really don't like it that's good for us to know.
If it serves an actual purpose that helps writers, such as tracking traffic sources, then maybe it's worth keeping, but I would be curious to know if that's why it was added.
The funniest thing to me about this post today is that I did notice the new header design, but I thought it was something I did! 😂😂😂 I *just* started adding sections in this past week, so when it shifted to the new look I thought, “Whoa. Had I been depriving myself of this Substack experience all this time just because I didn’t have my own sections?” 😂🤦🏻♀️😂
Honestly, I’m a real slow learner and I keep taking baby steps in all directions with my publication, so my Substack worldview is still in its naivety stage!
Thanks for all you do to keep improving this space and thanks for these weekly threads!
Hi everyone! I can't join the discussion at 1 pm today (grrr!) but I am posting because I am looking for another Substack writer to be my accountability partner and general buddy when it comes to promoting my newsletter, CAFÉ ANNE, which is a newsletter full of original and often absurd reporting, with focus on NYC.
The ideal partner would be someone who is already very serious and disciplined about publishing a high-quality newsletter on regular, consistent basis and just needs some support when it comes to the promotions end of things. We can help each other generate ideas, set goals, plan strategies and check in on a regular basis.
My ideal accountability buddy would also really like my newsletter and I would like theirs, so we can feel superenthusiastic about helping each other grow. Please reply here or send me a note (annekadet@yahoo.com) if interested. Thank you!
Great idea. If you don't find the right person here, try the Substack Writers Unite Discord. Here's an invitation link. Lots of different writers there - I'm sure you'll find the right person. https://discord.gg/qYYjcQZU
Hi Anne - I just subscribed:) I write a very niche newsletter for a few thousand people and a newer one that I just kicked off and really haven't promoted yet (50 Things) that may have some overlap with yours. (This week I wrote about Russ and Daughters and several of my upcoming posts are based on NYC events and weirdness). My main newsletter is monthly and fairly long but 50 Things is weekly and much shorter. There might be some opportunities for us to cross-post/support each other so let's stay in touch!
Just wanted to say I love reading these threads each time they publish, always fun to see everyone's thoughts.
I don't have any questions this week, but in case anyone wants to read about magnet fishing, scrap art and my tiny basement workshop, feel free to head over to https://codingtofreedom.substack.com.
Hi there, I'm Jessica Wilen and I write A Cup of Ambition, a newsletter for working moms who care about career success AND being an involved parent. I just wanted to say how helpful SubstackGO has been for me. I have a really great small group and my newsletter this week focused on interviewing one of them (Sarah Miller from "Can We Read?"--check her out, she's great). You can check it out here: https://acupofambition.substack.com/p/raising-readers
Oh! Oh! I've been meaning to ask for weeks. I would like to import my subscribers from Another Service and set up that newsletter as a section of Non-Boring History. BUT I do not want these folks subscribed to everything, just that section, from the start, or I fear backlash. Help?
Hey! I ran into a similar issue when I launched my news service, Base Camp. Before that I'd just been doing stories and podcasts about outdoor adventures.
To solve the issue, I made an announcement at the top of my newsletter, right before launch.
I explained that they would be receiving a different kind of content mixed in with the normal stuff, and then carefully detailed how they could opt out if they didn't want the news, they just wanted the podcast. I haven't had a single person opt out.
Hi Annette - In my comment earlier I asked for "audience segmentation", which I think would be a fix to your problem. You would be able to import folks for your new section and group them all together.
Don't subsections already have a separate list? If you go to /publish/settings you can scroll down to add a subsection. Substack should probably move that feature to a separate tab. Too many things are all on the settings page.
I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer for when and how to go paid. It’s a confluence of different factors that result in success. I’m sure there are strategies that are tried and true, but I would encourage everyone to do what they feel will work for them and know their why. I am fortunate enough to have less that 100 total sign ups, but paid subscribers among them. For me, it’s amazing. Others might not like those odds.
On the promotion end, I also like to encourage folks to explore different methods. I am hosting a Twitter space tomorrow at 7pm EST with fellow Substacker Diane Hatz of Whole Health. Hope you’ll join us!
For anyone who's interested fellow Substack write Chevanne and I are hosting a twitter space tomorrow to talk about growing and sharing our newsletters. Please join if you'd like to share your best practices or ideas on how we can all grow our publications. 7pm est / 5pm mst Thanks! https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1zqKVBVPrRVKB?s=20
One fun detail about the new header: it allows you to segment pieces into "sections" right up top, which is fantastic. I write fiction, but this week I added my first nonfiction piece (which, shameless plug, is about how the story of Noah's ark is just Netflix's "Don't Look Up" but from thousands of years ago). The sections in the header allow readers to move back and forth seamlessly. Great feature!
Thank you so much Substack‼️ The header navigation that runs across all the pages, including the archive page, really helps to keep the content organized, particularly for newsletters that have multiple sections, as “moviewise: Life Lessons From Movies” does. It’s wonderful! Thank you so much 🤗
A brand new subscriber has opened his first email 444 times within 24 hours, plus 25 links, across four devices. Should we just assume enthusiasm (it's not likely sharing) or is this concerning? Asking for a friend.
My understanding is that when people "share" the email to other people that results in multiple opens or something. Like fowarding and other stuff like that all records as opened by the one person.
I think just generally it would be nice to have a more seamless way of doing things like checking my dashboard or responding to comments, etc. on a phone. I generally use Substack on my laptop as I don't love using my phone's browser (e.g. having to find the site, log in, etc.). Would be great to have the convenience of one click and you're there. Thanks for considering! :)
Hi Katie. I've also requested mp3 files and gave a detailed use case. But in short, I want to be able to embed multiple mp3 files (not a podcast episode) to show a progression of songs.
mp3 #1 = first demo recorded to my phone
mp3 #2 = a demo further down the line (maybe a new verse or??)
mp3 #3 = a more complete recording/produced recording.
Does anyone else have wild stat numbers? It's routine for me to have readers that register high number "opens" and "clicks" that defy all reality. This week I had a reader that showed 32 opens. Another showed 17 clicks. This is every week. Sometimes over half of my opens will be from only a few (maybe 10) subscribers. I know Substack recently corrected a bug in the stat system but there is still something wrong.
Same, it seems like the bug was corrected for my older posts but my two most recent posts have wildly high numbers (though if they're accurate then yay! But they probably aren't).
I contacted one of the subscribers who regularly shows high opens to see if I could figure how this happens. He told that he opened the email did a quick preview. Then came back later in the day and read it. Then deleted it. He should have had two opens. I think. But it registered him as have 12.
I’m wondering what options exist for “tags” or “categories” for posts? Having blogged on different platforms, I’ve used these, and am looking for what options there are like this or similar on Substack. Thank you!
Hi. I use the magazine layout and I think it's lovely. But today some of my images changed and now only show the bottom of the image. I didn't do anything. Any idea why this happened or how to fix it?
That sounds weird, and it doesn't look like my Substacks are doing that. You might try clearing your browser cache and reloading, or maybe try a different browser.
When I search for my name or the name of my newsletter using the Search for writers or publications... tool on the Substack homepage I don't show up. Why? And how do I remedy this?
I've managed to snag my first 1k subscribers for my author newsletter, but I've found that no matter how much I encourage readers to comment, many read but don't comment. What tips can you offer for ways to build and improve community interaction?
To add on to this, sometimes the simplest questions inspire the most comments. My most successful conversation thread just asked what people were drinking that evening.
I love the new Home navigation and I love to see regular improvements on this platform. I've only been on Substack for two months and I've seen several great updates. What a cool platform!
Hallo admins & stackers (?). Here's a cat mom from Ethiopia. It's cool to see fellow writers showing up week after week, paying so much attention to details & managing the technical side of their business.
Now while I'm here, I wanted to let you know that I'm open to adding value to your newsletter through custom-drawn illustrations that can help sear your work onto your readers' minds. If you're thinking of weaving any visual elements into your platform, I'm open to talking about the idea (wintaassefaweldekiros@gmail.com).
And I wish you the best of luck within this platform and beyond :)
That is wonderful. I have a pending post that will use a Google Sheet so I imagine a Google Form for a survey/poll can be straightforward. Love the platform and it is FUN to try out the new stuff for a tinkerer.
Thank you, Substack team, for the many recent enhancements. They seem to coming at a pretty fast clip! I have 2 requests - hopefully shared by others!
1. Would love to be able to create and save a template for my posts. I am doing a work around - created a draft template, but then have to manually copy and paste each piece into a new post. Very time consuming.
2. The ability to click on 'new post' and then decide if I'm going to add a podcast and/or video. Right now you have to select post, podcast, video. Once you have selected and start adding content, if you change your mind, you are unable to switch from one format to another.
I would LOVE LOVE LOVE a template as I post novel chapters that follow the same format every week.
I would also very much like to be able to add a recording after the fact, as I have time. Right now I don't even bother because it would have to be a separate post.
I am coming up on my one year anniversary, considering going paid but also realize my substack is opening other doors and opportunities for being totally free, thoughts?
I definitely think leaving the majority of your posts available for free is the best way to continue to grow.
I’m planning out my move to paid for later this year, and I’m thinking of it as “bonus content” that is less polished, more conversational with my “biggest fans,” so to speak.
Another option you could think about is putting a paywall for bonus content at the end of newsletters, using Substack’s paywall break feature. This leaves every issue available for free but just gives a little something extra for paying subscribers, while also reminding free people that more is available!
I really hate marketing, trying to fit into a niche, maybe spending hours thinking about promoting instead of doing my thing, which is writing. But at the same time, who wouldn't want to make money at it? So I do have a paid subscription program, but it's for support and not for exclusive access.
I don't think I'll ever do that, mainly because it's enough to come up with regular posts without having to think about 'something special'.
That is something to consider. I write a free monthly newsletter and a paid version and it is challenging to come up with "something special" every month but so far, I have managed to come up with something pretty cool every time I am in a crunch :)
I'm sort of in a similar way of thinking. I recently changed my paywall strategy. I now offer the main newsletter to anyone, with payers getting other special sections in addition to the main newsletter. No word yet on how it's going.
I've debated this myself although for slightly different reasons. I'm over a year and a half of being free and a big part of my motivation is the public service element of what I write. I'm writing because I want people to better understand the science behind important issues and I feel uncomfortable paywalling my content. I've decided that I will add a paid option (soon...) but will largely have it as a donation, that is, there won't be much additional content except a few more personal posts from me about what's coming up etc. It might be worth considering that. It wouldn't bring in as much money as having a paywall, but it does leave the option of getting paid while still leaving the content out there to continue giving you other opportunities
I post weekly and initially thought that on going paid I'd put every other post behind the paywall. Now I think I will keep all my articles free but have a weekly discussion thread for paid. I also send out an end of month summary of how my own creativity is going (which was one of my most popular newsletters when I was doing it from aweber) and I'll probably make that paid too.
The new home page navigation looks great. Was the Substack team able to complete the moderation features mentioned during last office hours - i.e. the ability to delete all of a user's comments upon banning them, or bulk deleting comments?
Myself, and a handful of other writers were spammed with hundreds of comments full of racial profanity, and deleting each one by hand took about an hour.
Hi Cole - Really sorry to hear you had to deal with this. A bulk comment delete function is currently being worked on by our team. In the meantime, you can file a support ticket for our support team to take those down for you (if it happens again): https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
I had a random thought a couple days ago, and I wanted to get everyone's feedback on it. It's still very new in my mind, and I'm not sure if I like it or not. But here it is. Thoughts on advantages or disadvantages of using the "founding member" level as a one-time fee for a lifetime paid membership?
The reason I thought of this is because I HATE subscription models, especially for software. For example, I'd rather pay $200 for the Microsoft Office Suite one-time than pay $20/month for Office 365 (I just pulled those numbers out of the air...I don't know what their actual costs are). Would people be more likely to do a paid subscription if they could pay a one-time fee and be done with it? But then, that is potential lost revenue for you down the road, and you'd have to somehow guarantee that you will be around and publishing long enough for the investment to be worth it. And I know that things like magazines and newspapers that are constantly publishing new content are typically done on a subscription basis, not a one-time lifetime fee.
Anyway, interesting idea? Bad idea? Not sure how I feel about it at this point.
I've just started offering paid subscriptions and I would really rather offer them as monthly only, simply because it allows readers to drop out if and when they want to. I have a couple of yearly memberships and I'm a little uncomfortable with them. Will they expect more? I don't know but I'm feeling the pressure...
I agree with you. I am actually toying with killing paid memberships entirely because I don't know if I can commit to a full new year of content (I am serializing novels, and I'm not sure the next one will be ready to go when the current one ends). If membership was only monthly that would make things easier.
I suspect the annual option is more for Substack, though, as they get that money all up front.
There is the option to "freeze" membership--that is, if you need time off from posting, and don't want people paying for that, but want to keep subscribers, you can just freeze the payments, (and send out a note to let them know what's up!) It's under "Pause Paid Subscriptions" in Setting. I think you would gain readers' respect by saying "Hey, I'm writing, and don't want you paying but want you to stay with me through this :)"
Retired newsletter and magazine publisher here. When you sell an annual subscription, Stripe, which collects the money, pays you your earned income monthly. It holds the unearned income and probably uses such unearned income the way insurers hold unearned premiums. You earn the income by being in business for another month. If you quit, Stripe and Substack can refund the pre-paid subscriptions on a pro rata basis. This saves you the trouble of worrying about how to pay off your pre-paid subscribers if you quit or sell your service for any reason. Substack and Strip have you covered. So don't worry about selling annual subscriptions. What ever Stripe or Substack earn playing your float is one way they get paid for serving you.
Interesting. I hadn't heard this. When I got annual subscribers, I got the whole amount at once, not in monthly increments. Does anyone else have experience with this for the founding member level? Does Stripe pay you the whole amount at once, or in monthly increments?
This is my experience as well. If I have a monthly subscriber I get like $4 and change per month. If I have an annual subscriber at $50 I get $40 something within a couple of days. Stripe does not hold on to the fees. From what I understand, if you cancel your paid memberships you have the option to refund people for unused time, though I have just heard this from others and haven't done it myself.
If you got the full fee for the year at the time a subscription was sold, hire a tax accountant and a tax attorney to advise you on how to segregate unearned income from earned income. Have the unearned liabilities available when you quick, retire or die, because, legally, you are obligated to refund unearned income.
Again, there is no payment being held in escrow, so to speak, when somebody pays for a paid subscription. We get the full amount immediately upon payment, minus the percent that Substack takes off the top. Your model might be cleaner, but it’s not how this works.
Yes, that's probably true. In my case, paid subscriptions are strictly for support. Everyone gets the same content (hate that word!), so I don't expect to get many paid subscriptions anyway. But I do like it as a no-pressure option.
This is one of the main reasons I was considering using Ghost instead. Once someone pays for a year, you're kind of committed. The only suggestion I have is to charge so much for an annual subscription that no one would do it. Like $5/mo or $5000 for a year. lol.
The founders podcast has such a set-up. One fee for lifetime access. The only question is: what happens after growth stops? Will the author continue to create content with the same enthusiasm - serving people that are no longer providing yearly cash inflows?
Interesting idea! I’ve seen a few magazines offer this. Jacobin Magazine, for example, is normally $29.95 per year. They offer a lifetime subscription for $295.00, which would be like paying for 10 years of the magazine upfront. I don’t know how what their subscriber breakdown looks like, but it’s an interesting model! They also offer a middle tier, where you pay twice the cost of a yearly subscription if you are able to out of solidarity for their cause.
Oh. Another idea I had was to not offer the lifetime idea to the public in general but to set my founder amount to whatever I want the lifetime fee to be, and then if I have members that are consistently at 4-5 stars, send them a private email that says they I will give them a complementary lifetime membership if they join at the founder level. Seriously, with what I'm thinking of charging, how much time I spend on my newsletter, and what I get paid at my day job, that would be the equivalent of covering 1-2 weeks of my time.
Maybe to decrease the pressure that Ramona was talking about, you could phrase it as "sponsoring" 2 weeks of my time spent on my newsletter, and in return I give them a free paid lifetime membership. When I put it like that, it seems like what I'm thinking of charging for the lifetime fee would be super low...
I am thinking about going paid in the next six months. I read the FAQs and it make sense. I was wondering, is there any possible mentoring available to help me fine-tune my publication?
Every so often Substack has offered programs like Grow (last year) and Go (running right now), so it would be worth keeping an eye out for the next one. In the meantime, Office Hours like this are a great way to ask questions and the Substack Writers Unite discord allows you to ask deeper questions and have more in-depth conversations about all aspects of running a Substack. https://discord.gg/PkhkY93TDe
The new header navigation is great and will be super helpful as I introduce new sections.
One feature request would be spoiler tags (or perhaps rich-text editing). One workaround is to put them on pastebin or a similar site, but it would be nice to not make the reader click away. I realize this may be complicated to implement in an email though.
"Spoilers" is a common thing on most webforums. There is not only the blacking out of text that Reddit has but basically like when you click the Reply button and it opens the comment panel, but read only. So you can "hide", rather than just black out, everything within the spoiler tags.
Oh wow. It would be nice if, in addition to being able to bulk-delete this garbage, Substack would have some controls in place to prevent one user/IP address from leaving more than X comments within a window of time (I would say, a limit per post but that wouldn't work for discussion threads). It would also be nice if their system caught repeat comments like that.
Interesting idea! Currently we do support the ability to ban a commenter from commenting for a period of time (or permanently), but not the ability to throttle the volume of comments from a reader specifically.
A lot of platforms (like WordPress) have some automation to look for spammy behavior. Repeated identical comments and more than so many in a window of time (say 5 per minute or whatever) will flag the poster. Some systems won't block someone but will put up a message like "slow down" or something. That doesn't stop all spammers but it can weed out some of this stuff. It is also possible to automate blocking certain words (like the N word) from comments, or change them to something entertaining (like instead of the N word, it automatically changes it to "nice guy" or whatever.
Dear Substack! I am going to launch my substack newsletter The Mood, about horror popular culture, this weekend. Can you advise or give examples on how some of your best popular culture writers have grown and sustained their audiences? My goal is build this newsletter into a sustainable income stream for myself. Can you also advise on writers in any genre on the platform who have done this rather quickly? Thank you!
I launched my newsletter The First Person with Michael Judge weeks ago but when I search for either my name or The First Person in the Search for writers or publications box I don’t show up at all. Why? And how do I remedy this?
The Substack team is signing off! Thank you for your thoughtful questions and feedback.
We'll be back next week for Office Hours. In the meantime, our resources are here for you.
https://support.substack.com/
https://substack.com/resources
Happy writing,
Katie + Bailey + Rose + Jasmine + Kelsa + Joro + Josh + Kerianne + Peter + Jessica + Farah
Thank you everyone for joining and sharing your questions and answers!
Dear Substack:
Recently Substack has come under sustained political pressure to censor content published by authors on the platform. The recent statement of principles by Substack’s co-founders reaffirming a commitment to free speech was reassuring and appreciated by many authors here, including myself.
However, I note with significant concern the following facts about Substack’s business infrastructure:
Your web hosting infrastructure is provided by Amazon Web Services.
Your domain and internet security services are provided by Cloudfare.
Your digital payment processing is provided by Stripe.
If any one of these service providers were to cut off its business with Substack, your platform (and our content) would go dark overnight. And all three of these dominant service providers now have a well-established history of acting, both individually and in direct collusion with one another, to systematically deplatform emerging startup competitors and dissenting voices.
Therefore I write to ask, as a stakeholder with a material interest in the continued wellbeing of Substack and its business model, what steps Substack has taken or is considering taking to preemptively mitigate exposure to this risk, including by establishing relationships with alternative providers more aligned with Substack’s mission and values.
Thank you.
Feedback heard and shared with the team. Thank you.
Why is my paid subscription channel still awaiting activation?
Way to call out the dangers..Great post
Excellent!!!! Thank you for posting this extremely important and honest post!
AWS, Stripe, and Cloudfare are no friends to free exchange of ideas.
N.S. Lyons makes a massively important observation and I echo that concern. PLEASE make a clear address of this obvious and real vulnerability so that we may all know what we are investing our time and talent into.
With cordial appreciation...
I second this statement.
This may help "How to make your newsletters Undeplatformable":
https://pau1.substack.com/p/how-to-make-your-newsletters-undeplatformable?r=3e1cg
I follow everything you tell me to do! You’re ahead of everybody on this.
This article didn't address the subject at hand. SPAM.
I agree 100%. This is a Clear and present Danger.
We live in a world now where discrimination and suppression of Free Speech Rights, granted by the First Amendment, is crushed without any consequences.
And nobody is doing anything about it. This is Farenheit 451 - on steroids.
There are no free speech rights when you're using a private companies platform. They don't owe you anything.
I agree wholeheartedly Cory. Modern services of the major providers make "speech" easier than anytime in history. Norms of behavior need to prevail and this enforces civility.
Wrong. When they have the Monopoly in the market (70% or more), they become "Public Square". In the Public Square, the First Amendment applies.
2) These rogue behemoths are protected from lawsuits by Section 230 (= Govt). So: they can't have it both ways: either they are private, and can be sued, and broken into pieces not larger than 20% of the market, or they enjoy Govt protection (section 230), in that case they are Public Square and they MUST respect the First Amendment.
For reference: the Standard Oil AntiTrust case.
By the way: Facebook has lost 43% of MarketCap value in the last 6 months.
(= lost $320 Billion)
source: MarketWatch: https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/fb
Twitter has lost 45% of MarketCap value in the last 6 months.
source: https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/twtr
It would seem the market in question is cloud services and the marketplace is quite competitive between AWS, Microsoft & Google. The "bit" players like Oracle and IBM are not small-fries by any measure. I could be mistaken but don't believe that AWS approaches 70%. Furthermore there is no barrier (except sensibility) why firms might self-host. The range of services and availability and reliability are what keep writers here. Proposing someone "build their own car" b/c Henry Ford only sells black ones and I don't like his politics is a strange solution. Consumers, including Substack have choice and can migrate their services with modern approaches like Kubernetes to competing Cloud Services.
Welcome to the World of Abused Children. An issue I've been gaslit since the 70s for speaking about which has spread everywhere.
Hats Off to YOU: Since I have participated in "Wrtters" Office Hours," I have read or glanced at hundreds of posts. Without doubt, this is the most important and well-reasoned post I have ever seen on here
PLEASE TELL ME WHAT I CAN DO . Can I sign the letter, the petition. Please write to me with proposed measures I can take.
Yeah. Google, including YouTube, cut me off for no reason and with no response to my many requests for an explanation. I had a bunch of stuff on YouTube, which I had to redo and stick up on Vimeo. They're their platforms. They can do with them whatever the fuck they want to do...but it's a giant pain in the ass when they do. I call them names whenever I'm reminded of it...and I like Vimeo better, anyway:
https://vimeo.com/showcase/8943359
Vimeo will cancel you, sooner or later.
Rumble seems to be the only solution (for videos) at the moment.
If they do, I'll change it again. It gets kind of fun after a while.
it's the Tech Version of Climate Destruction ;)
Why do you think they excommunicated you ? Were you too left wing, too right wing, pornographic, did you offend specific people or sacred cows in the media aristocracy.
I had an Insta acct deleted in one second with no warning. Was never told why. Pure Kafka. Hundreds of posts of original illustration (no swear words, no porn, no violence, no weirdness), public acct, 1300 followers. I believe I was "reported" for "hate" by someone who pulled the "islamophobe" card (bigtech loves it, as it loves reports of "transphobia"). I had pushed back on clear antisemitism against an openly Jewish reporter for Rebel News in Australia. Commenter hurled filthy invective at me and then my acct disappeared. That's just one story. Takes nothing to be deleted if you're already on the wrong side of the ideological fence.
I quite literally have no idea. They kept sending me a form response saying they don't respond. I would've loved to know.
Thanks for this relevant question. Here's mine: Can you please provide a link or two that sheds light on this claim: "... and in direct collusion with one another, to systematically deplatform emerging startup competitors and dissenting voices." Thanks.
I applauded N.S. Lyons remarks, but you are correct. That one line about direct collusion caught my attention as well. I would like to know if there is a basis in fact for that statement (not to defend those three companies, but to know if I have further reason to flee from their bad business practices). If there is not, then I want to keep my judgments as objective as practical.
Couldn't agree more N.S. Lyons. I have come to Substack so I can speak my Truth without fear of impediment, censorship or retribution. I don't incite harm , loss or injury or publish explicit content so am hoping I can trust Substack to allow my rightful free speech.
Thank you for looking out for all of us. This is a great community.
This is a real concern. Look at what happened to Parler, and look at the repression going on right now in Canada and how funding sources were hit and they rolled over. I don't know what it would take, but somehow for Substack, in time, to set up its own infrastructure so it can't be taken down by these other actors would be a hugely beneficial, maybe even essential, move.
Thank you, NS Lyons!
Great notes, but I urge if you are worried, why not also include Substack themselves? The only platform you are guaranteed not to lose, is the one you build yourself.
1. Magazine layout is great.
2. Word count = 🙏🙏🙏
3. Video feature is awesome for keeping video stuff for subscribers only.
My next dream feature? Polls, preferably subscriber only and which ensure that subscribers can only vote once. But I'm really pleased with everything added to the CMS lately. Cheers.
Polls would be very nice!
Yup, it would be great! I'd use it a lot I think
Concur with adding polls! To enhance engagement...
Endorsing the poll request 👆. Also, an estimated read time next to the word count would be helpful
estimated read time would be huge!
Yess. I think that feature automatically tricks me into reading a piece.
YES! There was one when the feature debuted, but it vanished almost immediately. So I have to go Google, which is a pain. Would LOVE it to be restored.
I set up a word counter with an estimated reading time as well as a few other options. You can read about it here: https://pau1.substack.com/p/stackhacks-word-counter-for-all?r=3e1cg
We had some concerns writers would be against estimated read times! The worry was that it could disincentivize longer posts - readers may get scared off - and we don't want to do that. Is that not concerning to y'all?
Perhaps a checkbox. "Display estimated read time" or something. Allow the author to show what they want on their substack.
I like this idea! Shared it with our team.
Estimated read time is coming extremely soon
Great idea! 💡
Sounds like giving the writer an option is usually the way to go. I still wish that I could space my posts the way I want to... The current spacing setting does not allow for enough "white space" so to speak, and that is typically recognized as an easy way to lead the reader through the writing and provide a clear, uncluttered look for the reader. Thanks in advance for considering changing this and giving the power to the writer to design their posts' look and feel.
I actually have a solution to this! Go to photoshop or free equivalent (I use GIMP) and create an image with no background with an aspect ratio of 1 inches tall, 5 wide. Leave it blank. Save as "white space," and export as a JPG. You can now paste this image between paragraphs when you want readers to take a longer pause.
I use art asset versions of this to create little pictures in my posts. I used this little mountain drawing in a recent post, "life inside of a snowy mountain painting."
https://colenoble.substack.com/p/life-inside-of-a-snowy-mountain-painting?utm_source=url
I've found these to be a really nice looking visual break for readers. I like to doodle as well as write. So they're fun to make. I happen to think they're eye catching, and engage a different part of the brain.
In the beginning my posts were WAY too long. I focused on 5-7 minute read time and now tell folks at the top if it was split into two posts. I heard from enough people that they preferred digestible. I doubt I'm engaging enough for more than that for now :) Now I just keep it between the lines and split it if necessary. I heard from enough readers that they like knowing it won't be any longer than X.
I actually am much MORE likely to read something that takes more than, say, 3 minutes. I find that short posts (unless it's by certain writers who intentionally keep things short, like Time Travel Kitchen or something) aren't always worth my time.
Forest (TREE) is super short... but then I have to mull it over for ages... :)
Right, this isn't saying I won't read shorter pieces, but I prefer longer pieces that I can dig into. So longer read times aren't necessarily a deal-breaker for all readers!
Ha! yes... if someone needs a time on their reading, maybe they should go wash dishes... :) I'm being facetious. But do wonder where we--as readers even--are at. Not to mention, some read slow, some fast.
It's a valid concern. I feel like I would've been against them at the beginning, since nobody wants to read a long piece from someone they don't really know. But now that I have a decent following and I've built up credibility with my audience, I see read time estimates differently. Basically, I think it helps people make my stories appointment-reading. If I go long, I've found that people are cool with that, but maybe they need to read my longer stuff at a different time. Maybe the solution is to make that feature something we can toggle on and off?? Also, adding the time estimate gives us more data / guidance on the effect of longer pieces. Right now, I just have to estimate and say that was a long piece but it did well. Would be helpful to see if my metrics sustain (or improve) for pieces that cluster at the 15-minute mark, or the 20-minute mark, etc.
I would totally read a 15 minute piece from you.
You have! The garage door story is probably 15 minutes. But usually I think I’m in 5-7 minute range.
That may be why it’s one of my most favorite pieces!
I write long and short. Readers can quickly see for themselves how long a piece is. And if they are subscribers and regular openers, they know my style. I'd like the number count on the composition page just to remind me to shut up.
Thank you, glad you're enjoying the new features. Our team will be chuffed to hear it! I've made sure product folks see this polls enthusiasm as well.
Would love a poll feature!
Another vote for adding a poll feature (see what I did there?)
Yes! My current wishlist includes:
1.Audience/list segmentation
2. Adding MP3s to the file types we are allowed to upload (so readers can download)
3. Duplicate post option.
4. Resend to those who unopened.
5. To create a video post but also be able to add podcast audio to it.
Anyone else?
We do have audience segmentation! (more here: https://on.substack.com/p/subscriber-dashboard-guide?r=kaa91). What specifically are you looking for there?
This makes my day. Thank you!!!
Amazing. Sorry, Bailey — I must have missed that. I'll dig into this!
I can't believe I didn't know this feature existed! It works perfectly. Thanks again, Bailey!
No worries at all! It's a *super* powerful tool, and gets underutilized. Glad I could help you learn about it :)
Yes, it looks like we can do A LOT with this. I would love to learn more about it from you!
Audience segmentation sounds awesome if it means what I think it means
(1) My Newsletter is newish
(2) I'm steadily adding subscribers
(3) I don't WANT TO FOCUS on one topic just yet
(4) Would love to have a means to only send some posts to some people
(5) I don't care how many subscribes but rather that readers get what they want
(6) I write sometimes about history, sometimes about tech, sometimes personal, etal.
(7) I feel subscribers tolerate and I don't want to have 3-4 different newsletters...
Hey, turns out we can segment! Bailey pointed me to this, which is super helpful: https://on.substack.com/p/subscriber-dashboard-guide?r=kaa91
Thank you for forwarding this Fog Chaser. I am excited to grant this option to my readers as I think some like "don't know what you may post about while others "don't care about topic A"
Resending sounds great
Yeah, it’s a great feature from services that offer it. I always feel like I’m going to get reported as spam if I ever do resend to those who didn’t open it.
I think this is the reasons substack probably won't open it.
I know that past open rate impacts future placement in the spam folder. So if you blast out an email to everyone who didn't open it before, you're looking at an email with a 0% open rate. It's a bad mark on your record as an email sender.
Great point.
Makes sense
Good point! I think there would have to be some parameters (like, one resend per post), and maybe a time constraint (can only resend once 72hrs have passed since initial send, or something). But, I hear you — the last thing any of us want to do is anger the spam gods.
+1 for polls (this is turning into a poll :)
Thanks for the reminder! I have not been able to see the word count of my posts. do I have to specifically turn it on? Apologize if it is something obvious that I have missed.
Stay tuned - we will share more about a new home for word count soon on.substack.com
Thanks! I'll keep a lookout.
Just put a product update post up with the new location of the word count! Does it show for you now?
Agree on polls.
Polls would be great!
Videos is great and polls would be cool. Can we also get an overall view count? We have it per post so should be simple to add up.
I tried Magazine Layout but it wasn’t capturing the new post. How have you found a way to get a new post to show under the new category?
Hmm haven't had a problem but I have a pinned post on my homepage so maybe that changes things for me.
Yes I agree, Polls would be a good new feature! Overall I like the changes!
I agree, Freddie
I celebrated my one-year anniversary of writing my newsletter over the weekend! I’ve always found it helpful when other writers put together their stats and insights into an article, so I’ve done the same for my (albeit pretty small!) newsletter: https://www.nightwater.email/p/year-one-insights
Looking forward to another great year of writing on Substack!
This is great, thank you for sharing! We'll consider this for our recurring milestone roundup series (last installment: https://on.substack.com/p/year-end-milestone-reflections)
Adam, I was just reading the article you shared. And 1. What an apt and cool title for a publication you have, and 2. Thank you for sharing The Sample. I just signed up to them myself. I don't know how I've never heard of them before.
Congratulations for reaching (& exceeding) most of your publication goals for the past year even though you didn't know what it will exactly look like at first. It's inspiring, & I look forward to seeing more of your stat sharing.
Also, as a visual artist, I can't help but notice how cool your pub looks.
So glad you found it useful! And that you liked the visual style (I am not even close to a visual artist or designer, but I’ve found Canva very fun to use!).
You've got a good eye, then
This is great Adam. I'm sure a lot of writers will find this very helpful..and hopefully be inspired to do the same.
I sure did
Thanks for explaining Sample. I got quite a few sign-ups when I first joined but I had no idea how it worked, so I'm down to nothing now. I knew it had to be reciprocal but I'm still not clear on what I have to do at my end!
Hi Ramona! When you signed up Sample would have given you a referral link. You just need to share that link (here, on social media, etc.). If somebody uses your link and subscribes, The Sample will send out your newsletter until somebody subscribes to you. It's a one-to-one barter system - if you get them a subscriber, they'll get you one.
Thanks, Debra. I'm going to work at it now!
Yes, I think it can be an extremely useful tool if you play around with it!
Agreed - Sample has been helpful and easy to use.
It's been great for me; both as a user and for getting sign-ups.
That was a great post! I will most certainly be looking into some of the strategies you outline regarding SEO.
Right?!
Thanks for posting the metrics!
Congrats on one-year!
Congratulations on your 1 year anniversary!
That's an awesome accomplishment. Thanks for sharing your stats as well!
Wow! Thank you for sharing your experience and insights! This is exactly the help I needed as I consider my writing! Thanks again!!
I see a difference between subscriptions and paid subscriptions. I think it is probably a lot easier to get the former than the latter.
Yup, I think Substack estimates you’ll see somewhere between 5-10% of your free subscribers become paid.
Yes to "Sample"--you've put together a truly useful and interesting piece, Adam--thank you!
Congrats on the milestone!
All we need is better deliverability past junk folders and I am good!
Real danger is the stupid google promotions folder. Users have to do some fancy filterwork to make sure emails dodge it.
💯!
Hi all!
First, I want to thank Katie and Bailey for the opportunity to provide the soundtrack for this week's Writing Hour. If you're looking for a playlist to write to, feel free to use it too!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3JJK2kg6hA8DhyOkDoZFRi?si=58e5227673b34ac7
If you're not on Spotify, let me know and I'd be happy to send you a list of the songs.
And I want to shoutout the folks in the Twitter community who have been supporting one another this week (special thanks to YouTopian Journey for running point on that).
Another Substack I'm enjoying this week is Janeen McCrae's The Stream:
https://janeenmccrae.substack.com/
Funny, thoughtful, incisive, and beautifully written.
Thank you, Substack team, for everything you do! New features are great!
Adored the soundtrack. Thank you for all the care you put into composing it!
Thanks for sharing the playlist! ✨🎶🎧 and for the newsletter recommendation - will check it out for sure
Always looking for playlists to write to. And thanks for the shoutout. :)
Thanks Substack for listening to my requests for referral program!
Thank *you* for taking the time to share your ideas with us. We appreciate it immensely! And I owe you an email.
I am looking forward to it!
There's a referral program?
Talking to them now about it, so hopefully soon!
I don't even know what a referral program is...
I AGREE: Tell us what the referral is for and to whom or what we will be referred.
I am all ears, but I don't know what you are referring to.
A) A referral program for WHAT. I am not looking for a referral to a doc will give me groovy drugs (that comes next if I am not given the appreciation and accolades that my smoldering genius merits). Is there a referral to a publisher who will rescue me from soul-destroying anonymity.
B) Please give me relevant web pages and links
C) Please provide all relevant info
A referral program, I would assume, is a method to track people who refer others to your substack. Similar to affiliate programs.
Sites like Teachable (for e-learning courses) and EventBrite (for selling event tickets) have such programs. You can do things like:
- Provide a special price to partners referred from a site or organization
- Earmark a portion of proceeds to back to the organization that referred people.
I can see the value of this, though there are other features that strike me as more important. I wouldn't make it as complex as Eventbrite - rather just be able to track what referral code/partner may have referred traffic and specific sign-ups.
ThANK YOU for responding to my query. I am sorry to bug you with two more questions, but your answers are informed and thorough. Just a couple of questions re some ridiculously basic stuff on substack:
A) In the course of posting an article on substack what can I click on to state
i) Write a comment
ii) Subscribe to my newsletter
iii) Share
I saw a button whicn invited people to subscribe, but what appeared on the actual post was my e mail address !!!!
Use the buttons in the "more" section of your editor.
I suspect your confusion is caused by it displaying your email address because you are logged into substack. This is the same as if you went to someone else's post and they had a subscribe button.
Because you are logged into Substack, your email address auto-populates. Someone who visits your post will either see the subscribe button without an email (if they've never subscribed to a substack author) or they will see THEIR email address.
You can test this as follows.
Copy the link the the post and open an incognito (porn) window in your browser and paste the link there. You will see that no email address is auto-populated.
That is what a brand new, never been to substack, not subscribed to any substack newsletters, visitor would see.
I hope that makes sense.
I created a demo substack for the workshop I gave a few days ago. I've posted an article there with the various buttons.
https://mmteaching.substack.com/p/test-post-for-some-buttons
I thank you. I will check out the "arrogant sage."
That's highly recommended. He's pretty damned cute and charming as hell!! That's my unbiased opinion.
I wish there was a way to nominate great pubs on Substack for the What to Read feature. There's so many great pubs out there, and I'm not sure how you guys find them but it would be nice to be able to nominate people.
You can actually! They have a Google form for it: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScs-yyToUvWUXIUuIfxz17dmZfzpNp5g7Gw7JUgzbFEhSxsvw/viewform
Whoa I did not know this! Thanks for sharing!
Me neither, honestly. But this is great!
I really like this idea! Discovery as a whole needs a little push into the future, but I heard it's already being worked on.
Substack is working great! Thank you to all the Team!
I have one question: will it be possible to embed videos in the middle of a post (article), instead of only at the top? (like we can do with images). Are you working on this feature?
Will it be possible to embed more than one video inside one post (article)?
I use videos extensively in my articles, and right now I have first to upload the videos to one of my YouTube channels (unlisted), then embed the video code within the Substack article.
The ability to upload the videos directly to Substack would make things easier. Thank you in advance.
This is feedback we've gotten from many writers, and our product team is working on it!
Thank you, Rose!
Great thanks ... I will just continue to add it in a comment in the free articles and promos for subscription.
I love this idea. I posted videos twice now and nobody knows there’s even text under it.
can you post here the links to you articles with the videos?
by the way: I just subscribed to your Substack...
I've read your "about the Author" page. Interesting... I wrote an article yesterday about the latest developments in the Durham Investigation: I think you might be interested - Jake Sullivan and Marc Elias (Perkins Coie) - maybe these names sound familiar to you...
I had this same question about audio files ... My audio stories are for paid members one of the perks even though it says you can add a paywall so free subscribers can get a taste of your article ... I didn't think I could add a paywall to promote to non-members because the audio is imbedded at the top. Am I missing something?
I posted a video for the first time and could not move it from the top of my post.
exactly. As Substack works now with videos, it is only possible to embed the video at the top of the post.
And just one video per post.
In one of my articles (posts) I included 4 different videos, in specific points of the article, and I had to upload each of them first on YouTube, then embed the codes within the article.
Great question!
My advice to everyone regarding growth is this, it never ends. You need to constantly promote, market, hustle, share, like, tweet, post, tag, etc. I just had some media drop on me and my substack was a significant part of it. I did a guest lecture at a university the other day and my substack was a good portion. You need to do everything and anything to drive people to your work.
This is great advice. You should just reuse this every Office Hours 😊
Great reminder! I recently finished "Superfans" by Pat Flynn and I am incorporating his ideas into my marketing in an effort to keep my current subscribers and convert more free to paid. If anyone needs some not so common ways of building a loyal following, I strongly recommend it.
Hi, love these threads! I have a random question - I've started doing discussion threads recently, and I notice that I get a huge amount of likes (around 50 compared to the normal 2-3 for the actual newsletters) but very little engagement in comments. I have no idea why this is - is it somehow easier for people to Like the discussions?
They're trying to tell you they're shy. No kidding. :) Would love ideas to make them less shy, but I think different Substacks attract different people with different goals. Not everybody is there for the chat.
Amen
It's all about the question. If you ask something simple that requires an opinion, you should get a number of responses. If you ask for someone to talk about an important moment in their lives or something - a question that takes more time/thought - you might get good replies but not as many.
I've been online for about 40 years. You're lucky to get 2% to 10% of your viewers/readers to move from lurking to commenting. I ask simple questions about stock and options trading. Only a couple of folks I know from another site have posted comments. Mostly, thanks, Don. Since I'm writing about investing, I'm guessing that people are reluctant to discuss trades here. But on SeekingAlpha.com, there are lots of comments, and many are better than the articles. So I'm just waiting to collect more subscribers and hoping commenters follow. I actively respond to all commenters in an effort to attract more comments.
It's also possible that most of my subscribers are experienced traders and don't have many questions or comments.
This is to be expected. After all, what did Arch Duke Metternich say at the Congress of Vienna? That aristocratic bastard said "The Masses Are Inert."
Most people are frightened mice, scampering, whimpering slaves of the corporate state who never speak up, never challenge tyrants, and want only the narcotic of the say, whether it be religion, junk food or oxycontin. Fat dolts are objects at rest and objects at rest tend to stay at rest.
When you work for employers or clients, you have to understand that when you attack people, the consequences can be disastrous for your targets and for you.
If you hope, for example, to be invited on the Today Show to promote your cause and business, refrain from attacking NBC and other Comcast products. If you plan to visit a dictatorship, be careful what you say.
After you're retired and think you're set for life with no bosses, clients, employees, or suppliers, be careful about how you attack your fans. They can go away in a flash.
I've spent my career in journalism with a byline that isn't the most popular one in some circles and industries because I try to write honestly and accurately for my readers, not for my friends and relatives or for my ego. The latter gets more attention than it should. :-)
As long as you're willing to deal with the consequences and don't hurt people, libel them, slander them or lie about them, go for it. Have fun.
I see your point, but I don't see its applicability to me. You said that one should refrain from attacking one's fans or people whom one would like to work with. Of course, that's eminently sensible. However, I did not attack anyone on this board, or anyplace, in particular. I simply attacked cowardice. Scan my post for proper nouns who were the objects of my sardonic temperament for as long as you want, but you will not find any particular persons who I attempted to "dis." If you think I did attack someone in particular, please tell me who it was.
I was piggy backing on your comment, not attacking you. Sorry my attempt to explain why people lurk instead of comment wasn't clear.
Hey, it's okay. I am not made of paper maiche (I can't spell to save my life; by "paper maiche" I am referring to silly shit, that was composed of paste and paper and water, that was used in elementary school to create "art") Or as Lillian Hellman put it, I am not made of "sugar water."
I've had the same experience. But I've had success with Ask Me Anything threads. Simple questions such as "What's your favourite pen?" also seem to work well
I think part of this is that the button to "like and comment" that is included in thread posts automatically is very prominent for readers?
Threads are such a cool part of Substack. They've worked pretty well for us and we plan to incorporate them more moving forward. I think if you keep going, people will start opening up. Maybe ask one or two people to respond to the thread to kind of kick things off.
I plan to forward an initial discussion thread for the first time tomorrow.
It is with the hope to expand reactions, responses, comments, queries, just any feedback, because I know many are reading posts.
thanks for random question Cass!
I recently did my very first thread and had the same exact experience with almost identical numbers!
Really like the new homepage navigation! Well done, Substack! I'm wondering if there's a way to move threads to their own space on the homepage? I just started doing threads and they've been popular and fun, but I worry that over time my threads will crowd out my stories. Is there any way to differentiate threads on the homepage now, or is something like that coming?
Hey Michael! This is interesting and I could see where this could be helpful. I am going to pass along to our product team.
Could you give them their own section? I do Q&As but I messed up my first thread so I haven't tried it again. So maybe you can't turn it into a section.
If you give them their own section, they still show up on the main/home page. I've tried that already.
This is what I did. Seems to work.
You have an option with every post to 'Unpin from home page'. Would that help?
That only appears if you've first already pinned it. That's talking about the top four spots on the magazine layout or top one spot on the regular layout. At least that's my understanding. It's not talking about whether it appears at all on the home page. Which is too bad. When I first saw this I got really excited that unpinning it from the home page in general was an option I didn't know about. Maybe this should be a new suggestion for the Substack team!
I've had this same thought. It would be nice if threads could be organized differently than main posts.
I put them in a Section called Threads. Seems to work out fine.
Yeah, I publish one story a week, but I'm probably doing like 2 threads a week, so there's a real danger of losing the main event.
What layout are you using?
This is a technical question, but since you fixed the bug on opening stats, I've noticed a unique identifier appended to every single URL on my site. What is the purpose of this identifier, and are there any foreseen consequences to sharing that link on social media? In other words, if I share that link by mistake and someone clicks on it, will that show up as an open?
I note that same identifier is also in the URL for this thread.
Yeah I noticed that as well, and wish it wasn't there for a direct open. Now whenever I am trying to copy/paste a link to a Substack (mine or someone else's) I have to remove it.
I've been doing that too. I just copy the main url and ignore everything after the ?
I've had a similar problem. Sometimes I'll try to link to a specific post, especially on Facebook, and it goes to the general Substack page. My workaround is to go into settings and find the url, but that's a pain!
Yup, it’s a real pain!
Thank you for this feedback! It's new, and unrelated to the data issues. We are having an active conversation around this now, and if writers really don't like it that's good for us to know.
If it serves an actual purpose that helps writers, such as tracking traffic sources, then maybe it's worth keeping, but I would be curious to know if that's why it was added.
I just want to make sure I'm very careful about sharing a URL that seems unique to me. Thank you for your response.
I noticed this as well and wondered about it.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I hadn't notice it.
The funniest thing to me about this post today is that I did notice the new header design, but I thought it was something I did! 😂😂😂 I *just* started adding sections in this past week, so when it shifted to the new look I thought, “Whoa. Had I been depriving myself of this Substack experience all this time just because I didn’t have my own sections?” 😂🤦🏻♀️😂
Honestly, I’m a real slow learner and I keep taking baby steps in all directions with my publication, so my Substack worldview is still in its naivety stage!
Thanks for all you do to keep improving this space and thanks for these weekly threads!
There's nothing wrong with baby steps. Slow and steady gets the job done.
Baby step is kind of like my only mode of travel. I live the sloth life!
Love the word count!
<waves to Jolene>
Waves back 👋😂 to Jackie
Hi everyone! I can't join the discussion at 1 pm today (grrr!) but I am posting because I am looking for another Substack writer to be my accountability partner and general buddy when it comes to promoting my newsletter, CAFÉ ANNE, which is a newsletter full of original and often absurd reporting, with focus on NYC.
The ideal partner would be someone who is already very serious and disciplined about publishing a high-quality newsletter on regular, consistent basis and just needs some support when it comes to the promotions end of things. We can help each other generate ideas, set goals, plan strategies and check in on a regular basis.
My ideal accountability buddy would also really like my newsletter and I would like theirs, so we can feel superenthusiastic about helping each other grow. Please reply here or send me a note (annekadet@yahoo.com) if interested. Thank you!
Great idea. If you don't find the right person here, try the Substack Writers Unite Discord. Here's an invitation link. Lots of different writers there - I'm sure you'll find the right person. https://discord.gg/qYYjcQZU
Yes, seconding this as a place to ask.
Thank you Melanie!
Thanks for that discord link!
This is dope. I think there should be an accountability group!
An accountability group is a great idea. My (awesome) Substack Go cohort might end up turning into this...
Hi Anne - I just subscribed:) I write a very niche newsletter for a few thousand people and a newer one that I just kicked off and really haven't promoted yet (50 Things) that may have some overlap with yours. (This week I wrote about Russ and Daughters and several of my upcoming posts are based on NYC events and weirdness). My main newsletter is monthly and fairly long but 50 Things is weekly and much shorter. There might be some opportunities for us to cross-post/support each other so let's stay in touch!
Thanks Linda. Subscribing now!
Hmmm Don't see 50 things linked to your profile. What is the link please?
Great idea. Hope you find the right fit!
Just wanted to say I love reading these threads each time they publish, always fun to see everyone's thoughts.
I don't have any questions this week, but in case anyone wants to read about magnet fishing, scrap art and my tiny basement workshop, feel free to head over to https://codingtofreedom.substack.com.
I'm glad that you enjoy reading them! I know they can get busy. What helps you navigate them?
Hi there, I'm Jessica Wilen and I write A Cup of Ambition, a newsletter for working moms who care about career success AND being an involved parent. I just wanted to say how helpful SubstackGO has been for me. I have a really great small group and my newsletter this week focused on interviewing one of them (Sarah Miller from "Can We Read?"--check her out, she's great). You can check it out here: https://acupofambition.substack.com/p/raising-readers
Thanks, Substack, for helping us connect!
This is awesome to hear 💓
Oh! Oh! I've been meaning to ask for weeks. I would like to import my subscribers from Another Service and set up that newsletter as a section of Non-Boring History. BUT I do not want these folks subscribed to everything, just that section, from the start, or I fear backlash. Help?
Hey! I ran into a similar issue when I launched my news service, Base Camp. Before that I'd just been doing stories and podcasts about outdoor adventures.
To solve the issue, I made an announcement at the top of my newsletter, right before launch.
I explained that they would be receiving a different kind of content mixed in with the normal stuff, and then carefully detailed how they could opt out if they didn't want the news, they just wanted the podcast. I haven't had a single person opt out.
Thanks, Cole. For various and sundry reasons, a workaround won't work for me. I will need to wait on a fix. But thank you!
Hi Annette - In my comment earlier I asked for "audience segmentation", which I think would be a fix to your problem. You would be able to import folks for your new section and group them all together.
Sounds like a plan! Thanks, Fog.
Apparently this CAN be done. Bailey just let me know: https://on.substack.com/p/subscriber-dashboard-guide?r=kaa91
Don't subsections already have a separate list? If you go to /publish/settings you can scroll down to add a subsection. Substack should probably move that feature to a separate tab. Too many things are all on the settings page.
Thanks, Matthew. I don't think we can import emails to only one section
Hello! 🖖🏾
I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer for when and how to go paid. It’s a confluence of different factors that result in success. I’m sure there are strategies that are tried and true, but I would encourage everyone to do what they feel will work for them and know their why. I am fortunate enough to have less that 100 total sign ups, but paid subscribers among them. For me, it’s amazing. Others might not like those odds.
On the promotion end, I also like to encourage folks to explore different methods. I am hosting a Twitter space tomorrow at 7pm EST with fellow Substacker Diane Hatz of Whole Health. Hope you’ll join us!
https://wholehealth.substack.com/
https://theflare.substack.com
https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1zqKVBVPrRVKB
Haha - I just posted about this also. Looking forward to meeting and chatting with you tomorrow!!
Wonder Twins… activate! 🤜🏾⚡️🤛🏾
Hi all -
For anyone who's interested fellow Substack write Chevanne and I are hosting a twitter space tomorrow to talk about growing and sharing our newsletters. Please join if you'd like to share your best practices or ideas on how we can all grow our publications. 7pm est / 5pm mst Thanks! https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1zqKVBVPrRVKB?s=20
One fun detail about the new header: it allows you to segment pieces into "sections" right up top, which is fantastic. I write fiction, but this week I added my first nonfiction piece (which, shameless plug, is about how the story of Noah's ark is just Netflix's "Don't Look Up" but from thousands of years ago). The sections in the header allow readers to move back and forth seamlessly. Great feature!
I love how you reimagined Noah's ark. I think you might have just gained a new subscriber!
Hey, thanks very much! Fiction writers unite!
I really like the homepage header navigation. I think it provides for a less overwhelming page.
Thank you so much Substack‼️ The header navigation that runs across all the pages, including the archive page, really helps to keep the content organized, particularly for newsletters that have multiple sections, as “moviewise: Life Lessons From Movies” does. It’s wonderful! Thank you so much 🤗
Love reading the threads. The new updates are clean and superb. Way to go, Substack.
A brand new subscriber has opened his first email 444 times within 24 hours, plus 25 links, across four devices. Should we just assume enthusiasm (it's not likely sharing) or is this concerning? Asking for a friend.
Thanks Annette, I've passed this along to our data team to look into.
I just saw an article about the new iOS 15 impacting open rates? I wonder if that could have something to do with it? This is the article: https://convertkit.com/ios15-open-rate?fbclid=IwAR32_DdYxffIH-nvcDCRgaPEq22_q8gySe6nJqPQ9clkOjgg13n0gjccwHw&utm_campaign=InboxReads&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter
But I'm not sure why it would affect only one subscriber, and so many opens at that.
Thanks, Karen! I had heard about this, but good to see it laid out. That said, yes, it's the one person who is worrying me.
I've never understood this, so would love an explanation.
My understanding is that when people "share" the email to other people that results in multiple opens or something. Like fowarding and other stuff like that all records as opened by the one person.
Was it from an email that looks like a real person, or could it have been a bot?
Not sure, except it has a name, so not obviously a bot.
I love the new changes. My page looks far more professional and sleek now. Thanks, Substack!
Thank you so much for the new navigation. It works so much better!
Curious if a Substack mobile app is something that might be in the works in the future?
I think just generally it would be nice to have a more seamless way of doing things like checking my dashboard or responding to comments, etc. on a phone. I generally use Substack on my laptop as I don't love using my phone's browser (e.g. having to find the site, log in, etc.). Would be great to have the convenience of one click and you're there. Thanks for considering! :)
One more comment. Here's my current feature wishlist!
1) Add MP3s to the file types we are allowed to upload (so readers can download)
2) Audience/list segmentation
3) Duplicate post option
4) Resend to unopens
5) To create a video post but also be able to add podcast audio to it.
Passing this along to our product team. A few notes.
1 ) Stay tuned!
2) Can you tell me more about how you would use this?
3) Duplicate post option - is this to templatize a post?
4) This is interesting!
5) Stay tuned!
Hi Katie. I've also requested mp3 files and gave a detailed use case. But in short, I want to be able to embed multiple mp3 files (not a podcast episode) to show a progression of songs.
mp3 #1 = first demo recorded to my phone
mp3 #2 = a demo further down the line (maybe a new verse or??)
mp3 #3 = a more complete recording/produced recording.
I would LOVE this. ;-)
Ooh - cool idea, Matthew!
Thanks, Katie!
1) Awesome.
2) Bailey just informed me that this DOES exist. Sorry!
3) Yes, to templatize (without having to copy/paste)
4) :D
5) Fantastic.
Does anyone else have wild stat numbers? It's routine for me to have readers that register high number "opens" and "clicks" that defy all reality. This week I had a reader that showed 32 opens. Another showed 17 clicks. This is every week. Sometimes over half of my opens will be from only a few (maybe 10) subscribers. I know Substack recently corrected a bug in the stat system but there is still something wrong.
Thanks for letting us know about this, I've passed the feedback to our data team to look into.
There was a glitch in the Substack analytics processing that showed crazy numbers. It's supposed to be fixed. ???
Same, it seems like the bug was corrected for my older posts but my two most recent posts have wildly high numbers (though if they're accurate then yay! But they probably aren't).
I guess it means they are forwarding their emails?
I contacted one of the subscribers who regularly shows high opens to see if I could figure how this happens. He told that he opened the email did a quick preview. Then came back later in the day and read it. Then deleted it. He should have had two opens. I think. But it registered him as have 12.
I’m wondering what options exist for “tags” or “categories” for posts? Having blogged on different platforms, I’ve used these, and am looking for what options there are like this or similar on Substack. Thank you!
What are you hoping to use tags and categories to do? We do offer sections for posts - https://on.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-publication-sections?r=kaa91.
Hi. I use the magazine layout and I think it's lovely. But today some of my images changed and now only show the bottom of the image. I didn't do anything. Any idea why this happened or how to fix it?
Our team is looking into this Alison and Whitney!
That sounds weird, and it doesn't look like my Substacks are doing that. You might try clearing your browser cache and reloading, or maybe try a different browser.
Same here! That happened with my most recent post.
Eeek! If it's happening with others then it is definitely a problem.
So for each post, I need two different sizes of the image, one portrait and one cropped to landscape. What are the optimal sizes for these images?
I'm new to Substack. Are Office Hours on video or just discussion thread?
welcome! it's just a discussion thread, but it's fun and informative.
Just this thread, I believe.
Hey Nicole! 👋
Thanks for asking! I was frantically looking for a zoom dial-in link.
Welcome! These are just discussion thread-based.
When I search for my name or the name of my newsletter using the Search for writers or publications... tool on the Substack homepage I don't show up. Why? And how do I remedy this?
I've managed to snag my first 1k subscribers for my author newsletter, but I've found that no matter how much I encourage readers to comment, many read but don't comment. What tips can you offer for ways to build and improve community interaction?
Have you tried discussion threads where you ask a provocative question or seek their opinions on something juicy?
To add on to this, sometimes the simplest questions inspire the most comments. My most successful conversation thread just asked what people were drinking that evening.
Questions that don't take a lot of thought really are the best. (A lesson I still need to learn myself!)
Good points both! I'll start with these. Thanks so much, folks!
I love the new Home navigation and I love to see regular improvements on this platform. I've only been on Substack for two months and I've seen several great updates. What a cool platform!
Hallo admins & stackers (?). Here's a cat mom from Ethiopia. It's cool to see fellow writers showing up week after week, paying so much attention to details & managing the technical side of their business.
Now while I'm here, I wanted to let you know that I'm open to adding value to your newsletter through custom-drawn illustrations that can help sear your work onto your readers' minds. If you're thinking of weaving any visual elements into your platform, I'm open to talking about the idea (wintaassefaweldekiros@gmail.com).
And I wish you the best of luck within this platform and beyond :)
(1) Magazine layout is fun.
(2) Polls would be great. Experimenting with Google Forms but built-in is better.
(3) Used to do est'd read time externally, built-in would be awesome.
(4) Ability to post images horizontally and anchor text around them with some sort of text wrapping?
Great platform and continuous improvement and great tech service IMO
Wow those are great suggestions! Estimated read time would be awesome!
#2 and #4 are requests we see a lot, and are definitely on the radar. Thanks for the feedback!
That is wonderful. I have a pending post that will use a Google Sheet so I imagine a Google Form for a survey/poll can be straightforward. Love the platform and it is FUN to try out the new stuff for a tinkerer.
Thank you, Substack team, for the many recent enhancements. They seem to coming at a pretty fast clip! I have 2 requests - hopefully shared by others!
1. Would love to be able to create and save a template for my posts. I am doing a work around - created a draft template, but then have to manually copy and paste each piece into a new post. Very time consuming.
2. The ability to click on 'new post' and then decide if I'm going to add a podcast and/or video. Right now you have to select post, podcast, video. Once you have selected and start adding content, if you change your mind, you are unable to switch from one format to another.
Great suggestions, Heather! You aren't the first to ask about templates :)
I've forwarded these on to our team.
I would LOVE LOVE LOVE a template as I post novel chapters that follow the same format every week.
I would also very much like to be able to add a recording after the fact, as I have time. Right now I don't even bother because it would have to be a separate post.
I am coming up on my one year anniversary, considering going paid but also realize my substack is opening other doors and opportunities for being totally free, thoughts?
I definitely think leaving the majority of your posts available for free is the best way to continue to grow.
I’m planning out my move to paid for later this year, and I’m thinking of it as “bonus content” that is less polished, more conversational with my “biggest fans,” so to speak.
Another option you could think about is putting a paywall for bonus content at the end of newsletters, using Substack’s paywall break feature. This leaves every issue available for free but just gives a little something extra for paying subscribers, while also reminding free people that more is available!
A key insight! We wrote a post about this a long time ago - https://on.substack.com/p/why-free-posts-pay-avoiding-a-tempting?utm_source=url
I really hate marketing, trying to fit into a niche, maybe spending hours thinking about promoting instead of doing my thing, which is writing. But at the same time, who wouldn't want to make money at it? So I do have a paid subscription program, but it's for support and not for exclusive access.
I don't think I'll ever do that, mainly because it's enough to come up with regular posts without having to think about 'something special'.
Just my own thoughts on it.
I wish I didn't agree with you...but I do.
That is something to consider. I write a free monthly newsletter and a paid version and it is challenging to come up with "something special" every month but so far, I have managed to come up with something pretty cool every time I am in a crunch :)
I'm sort of in a similar way of thinking. I recently changed my paywall strategy. I now offer the main newsletter to anyone, with payers getting other special sections in addition to the main newsletter. No word yet on how it's going.
I've debated this myself although for slightly different reasons. I'm over a year and a half of being free and a big part of my motivation is the public service element of what I write. I'm writing because I want people to better understand the science behind important issues and I feel uncomfortable paywalling my content. I've decided that I will add a paid option (soon...) but will largely have it as a donation, that is, there won't be much additional content except a few more personal posts from me about what's coming up etc. It might be worth considering that. It wouldn't bring in as much money as having a paywall, but it does leave the option of getting paid while still leaving the content out there to continue giving you other opportunities
Thank you!
If substack was opening other doors for me, I'd leave it totally free. Why mess with success?
I post weekly and initially thought that on going paid I'd put every other post behind the paywall. Now I think I will keep all my articles free but have a weekly discussion thread for paid. I also send out an end of month summary of how my own creativity is going (which was one of my most popular newsletters when I was doing it from aweber) and I'll probably make that paid too.
The new home page navigation looks great. Was the Substack team able to complete the moderation features mentioned during last office hours - i.e. the ability to delete all of a user's comments upon banning them, or bulk deleting comments?
Myself, and a handful of other writers were spammed with hundreds of comments full of racial profanity, and deleting each one by hand took about an hour.
Hi Cole - Really sorry to hear you had to deal with this. A bulk comment delete function is currently being worked on by our team. In the meantime, you can file a support ticket for our support team to take those down for you (if it happens again): https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Could you have copied and pasted the content into a new post, then delete the one with the offensive comments?
Oh, that is awful!
I had a random thought a couple days ago, and I wanted to get everyone's feedback on it. It's still very new in my mind, and I'm not sure if I like it or not. But here it is. Thoughts on advantages or disadvantages of using the "founding member" level as a one-time fee for a lifetime paid membership?
The reason I thought of this is because I HATE subscription models, especially for software. For example, I'd rather pay $200 for the Microsoft Office Suite one-time than pay $20/month for Office 365 (I just pulled those numbers out of the air...I don't know what their actual costs are). Would people be more likely to do a paid subscription if they could pay a one-time fee and be done with it? But then, that is potential lost revenue for you down the road, and you'd have to somehow guarantee that you will be around and publishing long enough for the investment to be worth it. And I know that things like magazines and newspapers that are constantly publishing new content are typically done on a subscription basis, not a one-time lifetime fee.
Anyway, interesting idea? Bad idea? Not sure how I feel about it at this point.
You can opt out of the lifetime option, I think.
I've just started offering paid subscriptions and I would really rather offer them as monthly only, simply because it allows readers to drop out if and when they want to. I have a couple of yearly memberships and I'm a little uncomfortable with them. Will they expect more? I don't know but I'm feeling the pressure...
I agree with you. I am actually toying with killing paid memberships entirely because I don't know if I can commit to a full new year of content (I am serializing novels, and I'm not sure the next one will be ready to go when the current one ends). If membership was only monthly that would make things easier.
I suspect the annual option is more for Substack, though, as they get that money all up front.
There is the option to "freeze" membership--that is, if you need time off from posting, and don't want people paying for that, but want to keep subscribers, you can just freeze the payments, (and send out a note to let them know what's up!) It's under "Pause Paid Subscriptions" in Setting. I think you would gain readers' respect by saying "Hey, I'm writing, and don't want you paying but want you to stay with me through this :)"
That's a good idea, and I hadn't considered it. Thanks!
Retired newsletter and magazine publisher here. When you sell an annual subscription, Stripe, which collects the money, pays you your earned income monthly. It holds the unearned income and probably uses such unearned income the way insurers hold unearned premiums. You earn the income by being in business for another month. If you quit, Stripe and Substack can refund the pre-paid subscriptions on a pro rata basis. This saves you the trouble of worrying about how to pay off your pre-paid subscribers if you quit or sell your service for any reason. Substack and Strip have you covered. So don't worry about selling annual subscriptions. What ever Stripe or Substack earn playing your float is one way they get paid for serving you.
Interesting. I hadn't heard this. When I got annual subscribers, I got the whole amount at once, not in monthly increments. Does anyone else have experience with this for the founding member level? Does Stripe pay you the whole amount at once, or in monthly increments?
This is my experience as well. If I have a monthly subscriber I get like $4 and change per month. If I have an annual subscriber at $50 I get $40 something within a couple of days. Stripe does not hold on to the fees. From what I understand, if you cancel your paid memberships you have the option to refund people for unused time, though I have just heard this from others and haven't done it myself.
If you got the full fee for the year at the time a subscription was sold, hire a tax accountant and a tax attorney to advise you on how to segregate unearned income from earned income. Have the unearned liabilities available when you quick, retire or die, because, legally, you are obligated to refund unearned income.
I don't think this is correct.
The way I read the resources page, it is correct. Hopefully SS folks can weigh in. How is it not correct? Please be specific.
Again, there is no payment being held in escrow, so to speak, when somebody pays for a paid subscription. We get the full amount immediately upon payment, minus the percent that Substack takes off the top. Your model might be cleaner, but it’s not how this works.
What resources page are you reading? Could you give us a link? Thanks!
Yes, that's probably true. In my case, paid subscriptions are strictly for support. Everyone gets the same content (hate that word!), so I don't expect to get many paid subscriptions anyway. But I do like it as a no-pressure option.
This is one of the main reasons I was considering using Ghost instead. Once someone pays for a year, you're kind of committed. The only suggestion I have is to charge so much for an annual subscription that no one would do it. Like $5/mo or $5000 for a year. lol.
I agree with you. There are many complicated scenarios to consider with paid subscriptions, especially annual and lifetime access.
The founders podcast has such a set-up. One fee for lifetime access. The only question is: what happens after growth stops? Will the author continue to create content with the same enthusiasm - serving people that are no longer providing yearly cash inflows?
Interesting thought. Definitely something to consider.
I wouldn't do founders because I think my potential growth is limited by numerous free and paid competitors who covered my topics.
Interesting idea! I’ve seen a few magazines offer this. Jacobin Magazine, for example, is normally $29.95 per year. They offer a lifetime subscription for $295.00, which would be like paying for 10 years of the magazine upfront. I don’t know how what their subscriber breakdown looks like, but it’s an interesting model! They also offer a middle tier, where you pay twice the cost of a yearly subscription if you are able to out of solidarity for their cause.
Oh. Another idea I had was to not offer the lifetime idea to the public in general but to set my founder amount to whatever I want the lifetime fee to be, and then if I have members that are consistently at 4-5 stars, send them a private email that says they I will give them a complementary lifetime membership if they join at the founder level. Seriously, with what I'm thinking of charging, how much time I spend on my newsletter, and what I get paid at my day job, that would be the equivalent of covering 1-2 weeks of my time.
Maybe to decrease the pressure that Ramona was talking about, you could phrase it as "sponsoring" 2 weeks of my time spent on my newsletter, and in return I give them a free paid lifetime membership. When I put it like that, it seems like what I'm thinking of charging for the lifetime fee would be super low...
Don't forget, we have a twitter hype pod for writers, follow me @youtopianj and I will add you.
I see you post this every week, and this week I decided to join! Add me @k_hoffman_16. :)
Done
hey, can you add me too? @heykettleoffish
Hey folks,
I am thinking about going paid in the next six months. I read the FAQs and it make sense. I was wondering, is there any possible mentoring available to help me fine-tune my publication?
Thanks a lot
Every so often Substack has offered programs like Grow (last year) and Go (running right now), so it would be worth keeping an eye out for the next one. In the meantime, Office Hours like this are a great way to ask questions and the Substack Writers Unite discord allows you to ask deeper questions and have more in-depth conversations about all aspects of running a Substack. https://discord.gg/PkhkY93TDe
Thanks Jackie. By the way, it was so nice to actually "see" you the other week on
Substack Go, I think. So nice to put a face with all of your great writing and sound advice!
The new header navigation is great and will be super helpful as I introduce new sections.
One feature request would be spoiler tags (or perhaps rich-text editing). One workaround is to put them on pastebin or a similar site, but it would be nice to not make the reader click away. I realize this may be complicated to implement in an email though.
That's really interesting like a paywall almost but that says "spoiler alert?"
I didn't think of it that way, but yes! On Reddit, the text will be blocked out in white/black and then you click to reveal it.
I see! I am going to pass this idea on to our product team.
I would certainly use this!
Great, thanks Katie!
Thanks, Katie. It sounds promising.
"Spoilers" is a common thing on most webforums. There is not only the blacking out of text that Reddit has but basically like when you click the Reply button and it opens the comment panel, but read only. So you can "hide", rather than just black out, everything within the spoiler tags.
How do I bulk delete hundreds of spam comments of the n-word all left by one bot? https://beijingolympics.substack.com/p/fueling-up-for-victory/comments
That is awful. I'm so sorry that happened to your post.
+1. We are sincerely sorry.
Hi Aaron - So sorry to hear about this! A bulk comment delete function is currently being worked on by our team.
In the meantime, you can file a support ticket for our support team to take those down for you (if it happens again). https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Oh wow. It would be nice if, in addition to being able to bulk-delete this garbage, Substack would have some controls in place to prevent one user/IP address from leaving more than X comments within a window of time (I would say, a limit per post but that wouldn't work for discussion threads). It would also be nice if their system caught repeat comments like that.
Interesting idea! Currently we do support the ability to ban a commenter from commenting for a period of time (or permanently), but not the ability to throttle the volume of comments from a reader specifically.
A lot of platforms (like WordPress) have some automation to look for spammy behavior. Repeated identical comments and more than so many in a window of time (say 5 per minute or whatever) will flag the poster. Some systems won't block someone but will put up a message like "slow down" or something. That doesn't stop all spammers but it can weed out some of this stuff. It is also possible to automate blocking certain words (like the N word) from comments, or change them to something entertaining (like instead of the N word, it automatically changes it to "nice guy" or whatever.
That's terrible!
Why, all of a sudden, do I have to log in every time I want to go to one of my pages? It just,
started last week, and is very annoying.
Is this on a computer or mobile? I notice that I have to log in on my phone a lot because it doesn't cookie me and therefore remember who I am.
Dear Substack! I am going to launch my substack newsletter The Mood, about horror popular culture, this weekend. Can you advise or give examples on how some of your best popular culture writers have grown and sustained their audiences? My goal is build this newsletter into a sustainable income stream for myself. Can you also advise on writers in any genre on the platform who have done this rather quickly? Thank you!
Hey Courtney!
We host a series of interviews called Grow on how writers have grown their list. While not directly pop culture, you might find our interview with Elizabeth Held who runs a book recommendation Substack (https://on.substack.com/p/grow-series-6?r=kaa97) or with Michael Williams who writes about mens fashion (https://on.substack.com/p/grow-series-3?r=kaa97).
There are a handful of other pop culture writers who have grown a meaningful readership on Substack. Some that come to mind:
https://haleynahman.substack.com/
https://www.morningpersonnewsletter.com/
https://www.todayintabs.com/
Any Substack pop culture writers you know that you'd want us to do a Grow interview with?
I'm not sure if you have done one with Brandon Taylor but his sweater weather is fantastic. I'd love to read a Grow interview with him.
This is very helpful Katie. Thank you!
I launched my newsletter The First Person with Michael Judge weeks ago but when I search for either my name or The First Person in the Search for writers or publications box I don’t show up at all. Why? And how do I remedy this?