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Weโre 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 weโll do our best to share knowledge and tips.
Our team will be answering questions and sharing insights with you in the threadย today from 10 a.m.โ11 a.m. PST / 1 p.m.โ2 p.m. EST. We encourage writers to stick around after the hour and continue the conversation together.ย
Some updates and reminders from the Substack team:
Welcome blurbs: We launched a new way to surface and highlight the great recommendations you are receiving: adding blurbs to your welcome page. Set up blurbs in your recommendations settings to let new visitors know how much other readers love your work.
Product updates: In case you missed it, Substack also rolled out polls, a new recommendations email digest, paid podcast art, and more. How are you planning to use these new features?
Poll of the week:
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Analytics can help you understand how your Substack is growing and where to focus your efforts. Learn more about the your Substack dashboard metrics.
Our team is curious to learn more about how you are using Substack analytics today and which analytics help you grow a deeper understanding of your audience. Let us know in the comments!
Have general questions about Substack or feedback on whatโs new? Youโre in the right place! Leave a comment in this thread.
Next week we are taking a break from Office Hours. But weโll be back the following week, on August 4, for our monthly Shoutout Thread. You will have the chance to share what youโve been reading and inspired by recently on Substack plus meet fellow writers. Save it to your calendar so you donโt miss it.
As an aside, I have to say Substack is really rocking my world these days. I've dialed back my social media from endless hours of scrolling to reading actual content that inspires me.
Feel like Iโve discovered a treasure trove of amazing content and art. Reading on Substack is so much more enjoyable than consuming content mindlessly on social media. Real food for thought!
I. am. so. confused. and. overwhelmed..... Is there a link to a guide to doing all this? The two recommendations I have are from people who haven't even started their substack yet so I've got nothing. I feel like no one's picked me for their kickball team!.....
Idk what the right thing to do is but i think Iโm just going to wait until I find newsletters that I really like so that I can write genuine blurbs for others and hope that others see it.
Yeah reader recomms are good. I've been hoarding testimonials from readers (for my "main" pub and am going to put them together in a post and make a link on my home page at recommended links called "What others are saying about [pub name]".
Fine, I'll recommend you if you care to reciprocate and recommend me. I don't know if you will like my stuff. I may be best characterized as an acquired taste.
Iโve been able to find answers to all my questions so far, but the information is all over the place and itโs not always easy to teach yourself everything because its not straightforward or obvious. I think thereโs just a lot of features and its hard to organize it all. Whatโs tripping me up is the vast difference between the app and desktop. Every time I interact with the platform its vastly different because of this and its taking me longer to figure it out.
Yeah, and I forget and everytime I click on sometimes newsletter to check it out and then come back here, I start at the beginning and can't find the message I was reading. Such a pain!
Yes. I love substack. I love being a part of it. I love having the space to share my heart, mind, and soul in words. But the apparatus sometimes feels like a cluster-f. Meaning, it's one confusion after another in rapid succession.
And so... I am getting more comfortable trusting that the true connections, and voices that matter the most will surface and been seen in the right moment, and the right time.
I have that problem too! Makes me hesitant to click to check out a newsletter since it can be challenging to find my way back to what I was reading here.
I usually command+click (on Mac) because then it opens the link in a new tab! That way I don't lose my place in the thread but still can check out that publication.
Same, though not everyone I follow publishes frequently. I kind of wish there was a quick view of publishing frequency. Sometimes, I'll find a Substack that looks interesting, subscribe to read later, and then eventually discover that they haven't published anything in a year.
I always check the Archive tab before subscribing to anyone. Also, I make my publishing frequency (every Friday) clear to subscribers in my About section.
i've been wondering when that was going to happen. doing these really takes it out of a person and is time consuming - i wondered when people would start leaving and just letting theirs sit. my suggestion would be to look on their page to see when they last posted. Do a 'let me read it first' thing.
Yeah, it's not always intuitive finding an answer to a question. Having said that, the community is super helpful and the Substack team is very responsive. I agree that a comprehensive guide might be useful, but all of my questions so far have been answered here, at the Office Hours, or on the Discord. Good luck! Also, just subbed.
Thanks for the feedback! This is something we thought about, but so far haven't done because we don't have a good way to verify that these blurbs would be real.
When using a blurb from a recommending Substack, we know that the original author wrote it. If we allowed users to put in custom blurbs, we unfortunately don't have a way to validate that it's not completely made up, which might devalue the feature.
That said, we're definitely thinking about a good way to do this, and I'd be all ears if you have ways you'd like to see this feature work in mind.
Maybe it could be possible if tagging people in comments was possible. For instance, if in the monthly shout out thread I recommended and tagged Adam's substack, then the tag could be tracked the same way we get notified if someone embeds our publication/post in their post?
If the blurb is in a tweet, a link to that tweet would do it for verification.
I really like this idea too. I get a lot of positive comments on twitter but few here. Yes, I woud love it if the blurbers would come over here and comment, but I can't FORCE them to do that. I think the lack of tweeted blurbs is a self reinforcing problem for people who don't have a lot of followers here yet.
Thanks, Ben! Not to be too glib, but itโs funny to me that the Substack team cares deeply about making sure these blurbs are accurate and verified but doesnโt seem to mind the rampant vaccine and COVID-19 misinformation on the platform. That does more to devalue Substack than a few made-up blurbs.
Ben, I am sorry to bother you. But since you want feedback, and since you are addressing blurbs, I thought I would send the following message to you. I am sorry if I sound snarky and cantankerous. It is, in part, a manifestation of my kind of humor (which might be an acquired taste.) In any event, this is my question about blubs (I already posted it, but I am posting it here to make sure that you, Ben, see this):
Everyone is talking about Blurbs today.
Pardon me, but I am so interested in the content of what I read, as opposed to the form, that I haven't even recognized the blurbs.
However, unfortunately, I suppose I must learn this BS.
Accordingly, I would be much obliged if someone were to:
a) Post a screen shot of a page which contains an alleged blurb. Please circle the blurb
b) Please tell me what keys or buttons on substack can enable me to post a blurb.
c) For bonus points, tell me why blurbs are so absolutely "fabulous" and certainly beat the work of old dead white men like Shakespeare, Milton and Byron.
As for (c), those dead white guys are pretty great so it will be hard to compare, but we think blurbs are nice because they're a way for you to see all of the nice things that other writers have said about you. In addition, we ran some tests and found that users were more likely to leave their emails when presented with a blurb.
Seconding this! People have written lovely things about Unruly Figures in the monthly shoutout threads--it would be cool the be able to use those on the home page!
While we can't add reader blurbs to our landing page yet, we could include them in the About Us or Welcome post. Someone would need to make the effort to navigate there to read them, but it's better than nothing.
Just a heads-up: I've seen folk removed from previous threads for spamming the same self-promotional link to their stuff again and again like you're doing here.
Happy to discover your newsletter - I just finished saying, "there are so many interesting people in the world with fascinating things to say." - you just proved me correct!
Just added blurbs! Had a little trouble choosing three, but it's nice to see so many other Substacks recommending Situation Normal and saying similar things. I guess that's a sign of a strong brand, right? Anyway, thanks for adding this feature & thanks for putting the nudge to enable the feature in the dashboard; the Substack team really does make execution super easy!
Hi Joyce! They're on the homepage, but I'm not sure if they're visible to subscribers or someone who has been to my Substack before (not sure if either one of those describes you). One way to see them, however, is to view my Substack in your browser's privacy mode (incognito if you use chrome). Hope that helps.
Just a little tip! You can always add /welcome to see a homepage, so https://michaelestrin.substack.com/welcome will always take you to the homepage, no incognito required.
I have and I love them! Really personalizes the homepage and offers a more natural endorsement--hoping it gives people a better sense of what they'll get and why they should subscribe.
You get them from recommendations. The feature lets you display other people's endorsements of you that normally sit on their home page, on your home page
I am patiently waiting for the endorsement game to pay off. I have recommended six publications that are ones I really like; I have sent them 93 subscriptions. I am recommended by six publications and I have received four in return.
I think it depends on a few factors. You're more likely to get a subscriber when they first sign up. When this happens, they can just tick a box to subscribe to you as well.
Ive had massive influxes of subscribers when a publication recommending me put out a piece that blew up. And when the inverse happened, I sent them their way too.
Are you recommending publications adjacent to your niche? Ive found these subscribers are more likely to stay
There should be a link on your publisher dashboard for the next day or two, but you can also always find "Recommendation blurbs on welcome page" on the Settings page.
Tell us more about the analytics you use more regularly! How do you use them? What other analytics do you wish you had access to and how would they help you?
Would love to see a more granular breakdown of what the stars mean for subscriber engagement. It's a helpful metric already, but I'd love to know everything that goes into the star rankings.
YES. I heartily second this. What do the stars even mean? I can go in to each subscriber profile and look at them one by one, but it would be great to break it down further.
I asked before but I will take this opportunity to ask again. I would really appreciate knowing exactly where I stand in the category leader boards to evaluate my progression over time. Thanks.
Leaderboards also default to Paid vs. All. Paid, I'd imagine is pretty straightforward, but it helps the big newsletters get bigger. Maybe if it defaulted to "All" and had a random/shuffle feature it would help more people get discovered that way.
Iโd love to know what criteria specifically the leaderboards are based on.
Iโd be happy to see a parallel board featuring a rotating slots for randomly selected new or smaller newsletters that might otherwise not receive exposure.
Also, Iโd appreciate STANDARDIZED categories to avoid confusion or redundancies when tagging my newsletter.
And I have a suspicion that some newsletters by celebrities are placed permanently at the top. I find it unbelievable that a new celebrity newsletter with barely any posts has displaced long-standing newsletters in just a month. I'd ignore the leaderboards and just focus on creating value for your readers. But agree that it hurts visibility for those of us who are just starting--and creates some undue degree of stress about visibility.
I really wish we could see 7 day traffic, or even last 24 hours traffic, in the "stats" page.
The reason is that if we are trying a new way to market/advertise it would be great to see how it is working. That association is lost in the 30 days and 90 days stat.
Some way of aggregating individual post stats would be helpful, rather than seeing stats summarized only by post. Would save a lot of clicking, and would be a helpful one-stop shop.
I'll second this as well. I'd love more info on how my posts due over time, so I can see how my various social media channels are affecting what gets readโand a way to hang onto that initial info without saving the email.
Iโm focused on subscriber growth so I track that closely, plus open rates to make sure that Iโm growing an engaged audience. So far, so good on that front!
I also pay close attention to my recommendation stats. Seeing which Substacks I overlap with for audience is huge because as they grow, I grow, and vice versa. That allows me to be much more targeted in terms of cross-promotion.
In terms of analytics I donโt feel like Iโm missing anything. That said, if there were a way for subscribers to opt-in to sharing some demographic info (age, geographic location, etc.) Iโd love to see that data in an aggregated and anonymized form.
In the spirit of the book โThe One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Resultsโ by Gary Keller, I focus on ONE metric only and that is subscribers. As Keller says โWhatโs the ONE Thing that by focusing on it make everything else easier or unnecessary.โ For me world class content + shameless marketing ๐๐ฟ subscribers
I like the individual post statistics, although I would like to be able to see the same breakdowns we see in the overall statistics. Also, is there a place to see ALL the pages stats? (Like the About page or Subscription page?)
I use what's available within the Dashboard but I'd love more information about Google search terms which are leading people to discover my newsletter!
I would like to know what "direct" mean on the stats page. I would also like the referrer for search engines and social media. That way I can see what people are hitting or searching for outside of Substack that is generating traffic.
"People who have come straight to my newsletter"? Based on some of their comments, I'm pretty sure many of those who read me come to my newsletter somewhat chemically-impaired, and far from....uh, "straight"!๐๐ค๐๐
Well, you once wrote the (apparently) rhetorical question, "Ever heard of Nexus Flip?" Hell, I sat behind him in home room! I always wondered whatever happened to good ole Flip. Last I heard, he was in middle management at Samsung.
I do recall though, back in the day, he roamed the hallways with a cloud following him....not unlike Pigpen in a cloud of dust'n'dirt, but his was a...well, different cloud. But, to answer your question......could be!๐ค๐ค
You subscribing is its own reward, Mark! Thank you! Feel free to peruse the archives so you feel at home behind the rope line (and in the green room with the food spread)!
You'll find a plethora of wordplay Easter eggs throughout, if you (as I do) subscribe to the great Martin Mull's credo: "Some people have a way with words; others, not have way." Thanks again!
I use the recently added (thanks by the way) analytic of "dropped emails" to maintain the health of my list. It's a great tool for finding subscribers who have a full inbox or potential spam accounts, and set them aside for future vetting.
Histogram of 50,100, 250, 500, 1000 subscribers by % of Substack writers. This helps me benchmark and motivate me to get to my 1,000 plus goal by the end of 2023.
I like seeing how many views each post gets, either through direct emails or on the newsletter site itself. It would be nice if it was easier to see this data in a chart form so I can tell which posts gained tractions and which ones didn't. Perhaps this exists and I haven't found it yet.
Either way, I am always astounded by the posts that I think will do well and many times don't. And of course, the ones that I think are average end up doing really well.
I think what you are wishing for is a place to see all your post stats next to each other? You can in your Stats tab when you toggle to the email view.
Yeah. But from what I understand those stats are only for email. I would love to have more stats on traffic to individual posts on the website. I know I have "popular posts" on the right hand side of my newsletter's page that get traffic that doesn't come through email opens.
Ah, the old content conundrum! Writing about songs and music as I do, lengthy is the list of artists who were certain they just recorded a #1 song.....and, lo, it bombs mercilessly!
The obverse, of course, has happened at least as frequently...."OK, we'll just throw this piece of crap out there to satisfy our contract before we split for another label, and.....................what's that? IT'LL DEBUT AT #1 NEXT WEEK?!?" We're standing in a long historic line, William!๐๐ค๐ถ๐ธ๐ต๐๐
Yeah, I am sure this pattern happens EVERYWHERE. This certainly has the ability to keep one humble and keep you centered. Just work hard and enjoy the ride, right?
You nailed it, William! Just do you, push "play," and whoever listens, will. If they don't, they may find you later where I sometimes languish......the cut-out bin! Cheers!๐
I use stats page traffic just to get a sense of volume and what is driving that volume. I noticed regular spikes on the days I publish, which is exactly what I was hoping for. I have not developed a sophisticated analysis of my traffic but I work with spreadsheets for a living so it's only a matter of time...
The one request I would make, is that when I get new subscribers, the email doesn't tell me anything about them. Maybe that is a technically challenging ask, but I received a BIG recommendation recently and it's driven a lot of subscribers my way, but the emails don't tell me that they were referrals, just that they are new subscribers. I had to go to the recommendations page on my stats screen to see the number of referrals tick up incrementally.
Is there any way to differentiate subscriber sources for non-recommendation driven subscribers? I don't know what is technically feasible, but that would help a lot because I could see whether most of my subscribers are random passers-by or people searching for key words.
Thank you as always for the constant improvement to the platform and offering new features!
I love that I can see word count for each of my posts in the editor. It would be great to be able to see the word count/read time in the metrics in the "email stats" section, so that I can better compare if length does anything for a post's popularity. Similarly, breaking out the time and day of the week that an email was sent, from the actual date would be very helpful in the "email stats" section.
I would probably use more analytics if I had readers. :D But just to make this a useful comment, I would like to see a 'unique views' breakdown right on the Dashboard. It would help me track whether or not I've managed to intrigue anyone new.
I have found all of the analytics valuable. Recently I noticed that a number of the subscribers on my email list that I moved over when I changed to Substack from Mailchimp had not opened any of my emails. So to clean my list, I found all the ones from the transferred list with zero opens and deleted them. There is an easy way to do this, and glad to share it with anyone wanting to do it. I was also motivated to do this as Yahoo had begun blocking my newsletters.
1) In Traffic stats, being able to break it down by individual post. Help answer the question: is most of my traffic coming from new posts, or are particular old posts driving a ton of traffic to the site and could be better optimized for new subscribers?
2) In Podcast stats, similar request. How many of my daily/weekly/monthly downloads are coming from specific episodes? How do those downloads look over time?
3) Unsubscribe information about free subscribers โ it would be great to know unsubscribe rate over time.
Lots happening in today's thread. Thanks for weighing in on analytics, we are listening as we think about what tools to build next.
Next week we are taking a break from Office Hours but we will be back the first Thursday in August for our monthly shoutout thread. We hope to see you there: https://lu.ma/shoutout
For those looking at subscriber counts, just keep writing. Because of my Substack, one of my readers reached out to me for a guest post on a blog that is attached to one of the most prestigious universities on the planet. Thanks Substack!
Wow, that's fantastic. This is what I keep hearing from more established Substack writers: gradual growth punctuated occasionally by these growth spurts, all contingent on long-term consistency. Thanks for affirming that.
Oh my God, congrats. Some small part of me wishes J.K. Rowling or Sarah J Maas reads my work in progress Novel and I get famous. But then again, I also wanna be famous from all my hard work...
Yes, those things do happen! One of my readers sent me a DM and we realized we were living close to each other so we met and he told me that he was leaving Japan and was giving things away and did I care for a big flat-screen color TV and a North Face shirt.
I wish when Substack users subscribed to my newsletter, they appeared as their username in my analytics so that I could check out their profile and subscribe to theirs.
Good idea. I do know that if you click on a subscriber's email address, there's an option to "View Profile" if they have one on Substack. That's where you'll be able to see if they have their own publication. Not exactly what you're looking for, but maybe something in the meantime
Just a note to everyone who's too shy to self-promote on social media: you needn't be. It felt awkward the first couple of weeks, but now sharing stuff on LinkedIn/Twitter became pretty organic (and I do share other stuff as well, so it's not an endless stream of self-promotion). People who don't care about your newsletter will just ignore the posts (like we ignore most of our news feeds anyway), but you'll get exposed to new people with every post.
I liked someone's advice to share snippets from the newsletter rather than just the link. You could write up some catchy bullet points. Or ask a question/run a poll.
Good luck to everyone and thanks to everyone sharing their experiences, makes it easier for me to move forward!
Still tackling this, but totally believe you. I was surprised and delighted to find a decent uptick after sharing on LinkedIn, despite my concerns about commingling my work work with my writing. I have the intention of promoting more, especially in regards to reaching outside my current sphere of followers.
I do pretty well via LinkedIn promotion. Just make sure to tailor the message for the specific channel. I write a lot of satire about corporate America, so LinkedIn is the perfect place. Twitter, not so much... :-)
LinkedIn has been a good referrer for me too. LinkedIn users are publishing more inspirational posts than they did a few years ago. Plus, the platform still gets pretty good organic engagement.
Great advice Oleg. Threads are a great way to incite people to read your newsletter. Judd Legum does this brilliantly. Simply directing your audience on Twitter to your newsletter every week is fine, but you can be more effective.
Question about anchor links: it seems that when I try to use an anchor link for a podcast post, and I share that link to social media, the default is to share the audio of the post, and not the section I'm trying to link to, if that makes sense. For example: https://twitter.com/fogchaser__/status/1549822273653071872
Hello all, I launched 8 hrs ago. I plan to initially focus on covering a niche topic (our sense of self) but hope to look at it through art, science, religion and other lenses. Hope to learn from all of you and explore this amazing space. Look forward to collaborations and suggestions from all of you. Thanks Substack.
I launched a few months ago and only have a few subscribers at this point, but focus on that same niche and am open to exploring guest posting on each otherโs blogs (or anyone elseโs in the mental health, self-love, personal growth or similar niches). My tagline is โfor those who want to change lives, starting with their own.โ
my newsletter is for creatives looking inward and about process of writing also - I focus on themes in my fiction writing which include self love, spirituality, personal growth, etc. Happy to give you a recommendation if you do same for me. I'll also subscribe.
I find my writing and exploring themes related to mental health, spirituality, well-being, and wellness takes form as I continue with my blogging and newsletter. I am open to sharing and supporting others on their substack journey.
Just became a free subscriber of YouTopian Journey. Love what little Iโve seen so far and definitely open to cross-posting and/or recommending each other.
The "theme" of mine is "on the journey," which has allowed me to make separate categories for different parts of the journey: travel, personal growth, and spiritual/political discoveries. Substack has made it so easy to do so.
my newsletter is for creatives looking inward and about process of writing also - I focus on themes in my fiction writing which include self love, spirituality, personal growth, etc. Happy to connect and give you a recommendation if you do same for me. I'll also subscribe.
I just subscribed to yours. Hope youโll reciprocate and once weโve had the chance to read each otherโs work we can talk about recommending each other and maybe guest posting.
Subscribed to you also - and yes! Let's figure something out. I'm not quite at guest posting yet but happy to do a shoutout (a couple lines about your newsletter and a link to it.)
Sure, I just subscribed to yours too. Iโve only been publishing my newsletter for a few months and have only participated in a handful of these chats due to my schedule, but always find them helpful and a great way to connect with writers in my niche and others whose ideas interest me.
of course! I just subscribed to you also. would love you to connect with mine also. And let's talk about shoutouts (promoting each other in our newsletters) and recommendations etc. thanks!
wait - is this natasha from yesterday? i don't if i already subscribed but it wouldn't let me. i was confused at your link. (confusion seems to be my state of being for today....)
Subscribed to yours too. Also, FYI (I didnโt realize this at first either) you donโt have to share your url here; every comment you post automatically links to your home page when people click on your photo/other image.
This weekend, I'll be heading to the local coffee shops to distribute a physical manifestation of my Substack blog. I took three representative articles and printed them in zine form; included is a QR code so people can read more online if they desire. So . . .wish me luck! You can see some pictures of the finished product here: https://twitter.com/william_collen/status/1548286398251159556?s=20&t=1nAO6ffx-EsJnsJQoO0yRg
I have compiled all of my posts from my first year and once I finish the formatting, I'll be offering it as an eBook that new subscribers can download for free in exchange for subscribing. I hope to print it out as well but that version I would sell to cover printing/shipping costs.
That's a good idea. I've wondered sometimes what to do with a year's-long archive of previous posts. Having a physical copy, with a table of contents and index, would be a great way to keep my older stuff from getting lost at the bottom of the archive.
The blurbs is the feature I adore. One year into writing on this platform and I have started receiving constant engagement with some really encouraging feedback. The Blurbs feature will help me utilise the potential of recommendations and feedback to actively lure new audience. Thank you Substack for both recommendations and blurb features. ๐๐
Blurbs are something I learned about when I published my first books. I got some great ones and put them on the back cover of my book. Regarding blogging and newsletters on Substack, it is a great idea and a valuable tool for promotion. As I love to write blurbs, I will look to do more as I review other Substack newsletters.
Hi all! How is your week going? This week I asked my followers to share what kind of conditions they require in order to feel renewed. What nourishment and environment they need to be refreshed. So I thought it might be interesting to present that same idea here, Substack Writers Edition: what renews, refreshes, and inspires you as a writer and creator? I'm curious, and I'm sure others are too! ๐ฟ
Great question. In many ways, it's the act of creating itself that renews me. It's not so much my Substack writing, which I enjoy but can be quite draining, but the fiction writing I'm doing, which I'm doing entirely for fun. The other thing that helps me so much is connecting with other writers.
Itโs been an ongoing journey of ebbs and flows within the mindfulness space. I first discovered this path in 1997 by way of a book called โSacred Hoopsโ by Phil Jackson
I feel renewed when I have all my work done. I don't have a plateful of work, but I find getting things taken care of, and off a list feels great. Then I putz around until I make a new list...
Having a dog has definitely changed my relationship with inspiration! He forces me up and out the door every day, and it's so helpful for both body and brain.
Great question, and the title of your newsletter inspired me to check it out. Just became a free subscriber!
Walking in a local park and watching the animals there, especially all the rabbits and the heron who shows up sometimes, renews, refreshes, and inspires me. Several of my Medium articles were inspired by what I saw while walking at the park.
Oh Wendi, that's so kind of you! I hope you enjoy. :)
Yes, I agree with you about nature and its ability to refresh. I think I often get so caught up in my small inner world that seeing the world outside helps me to gain perspective. ๐ฟ
How many of you use notebooks and journals to plan out your newsletters and content? It's part of my workflow, combining bullet journaling with other types of notebooks. See the link for more info! https://howaboutthis.substack.com/p/the-notebook-expo
I wish I had a cooler answer, but literally every article I write starts out as something scribbled on the back of old teletype messages from my work printer.
Turn it 90 degrees and work on the open spread (the fold will be horizontally across the โnewโ double-sized page youโve created)! Only works with blank, grid or dot grid notebooks - unless youโre after a REAL challenge and want to write on lines going the wrong way! :D
I use a passport sized dot grid notebook when Iโm out and about - opened up like this it's not all that far off the A5 size I generally write on at home.
I'm a notebook hoarder, I love a good notebook. It's not explicitly workflow driven, just a place I can empty ideas out of my brain before assembling them into something coherent online. I'll check out your article! Thanks!
Fellow notebook hoarder here! I was recently offered some validation by a friend of mine who is a therapist. She said, in response to my long and desperate rant about my propensity for making lists that go nowhere, "The list is the work." There is intrinsic benefit to transmuting busy thoughts in your brain into tangible words on a page. They don't always have to become more than that.
Google sheets are helpful for logging topics, themes, and article ideas that come to mind. If I like an idea, I commit to three total drafts before publishing - all saved in the same Word file. That's where the organization stops lol, as I save all the Word docs to my desktop #hotmess
"How to Write Smart Notes" is a book that teaches a system of note taking that a lot of prolific writers use. I am part way through the book now, so I don't have a recommendation yet.
I should take a look at that, but I have been happy with the system I use with Evernote. Not only can I keep any relative ideas or notes in a way that I can find them, but I also use Evernote for journaling new ideas and themes and can easily dictate notes that it accurately transcribes for me.
Every time I go out for a walk I take a small notepad and my camera with me. I find walking incredibly inspiring when it comes to generating new ideas.
I do. I'm completely in love with Google Keep. There's a note simply for ideas as a checklist. Then there are collections of quotes and screenshots that will be useful at some point. And there's mindmaps too, my equivalent of an outline. Everything is tagged with labels so that I can find what I'm looking for quickly. And particularly good Substack resource material and useful comments on these threads get stored in there too, tagged with something like "Reader Engagement", etc.
Substack I find it odd that my most supportive subscribers (those who tweet, comment, share, and engage) are free while my paid subscribers have never once engaged. Interested to hear thoughts on this.
I wonder if paid subscribers feel that they've done enough by supporting you financially. Free subscribers recognize that they aren't supporting monetarily and thus want to support in other ways - by sharing, promoting, etc. What do you think?
I wonder if some of your paid subscribers are professionals in a sensitive field like mental health (psychologists, social workers, counselors, therapists, etc.). If so, their incentive for subscribing may be to gain an information advantage or just to learn from another perspective. And all they need to be satisfied is for you to keep publishing. There might actually be disincentives for them to post comments that others can see. Those dynamics, if they exist in your free posts, would be hidden by the dialogue among free subscribers.
Similar dynamics might be in play on an investment newsletter. Just my thoughts....
I think this is very astute. I have a decent-sized list of former colleagues from academia and corporate. They never comment or like my posts because I often write dark and deranged things. The risk of reputational damage, even if small, isn't worth it regardless of whether they loved a post.
This is not an uncommon occurrence, although it is still vexing. I wonder if any marketing research has been done in this area at Substack to explain that trend?
Same. Free posts get way more engagement than subscriber-only posts. There's a larger population receiving the free posts, so that could be part of it, but it is still surprising.
Added three blurbs to my home page because I loved each of them, but now I'm wondering if it feels cluttered to have all three. It would be cool if there was an option to "pick 3 but display 1 at a time" and they could cycle randomly. Just a thought!
My forthcoming novel is scheduled for before Christmas. I have a list of 223 podcasts and YouTube channels that I've either appeared on before, know me, or cover similar material to my content. I will put together an individual email for all of them - addressed by name (the stats are in on this, personalized emails get way more opens) and talking to them about their show - with details - so they know it's not just a bulk send and they're being cold-called. Link them to some media about you, and your Substack or other material, and simply tell them you're looking to promote it and would love to come on as a guest for a chat. Many podcasters and YouTubers are desperate for interesting guests and if you can sell yourself and your product to them (and you are a salesperson) you'll get some leads. And once you've been on a few, you can make a little show-reel of your best bits to include in the emails you send to more people. If no one knows you exist - guess what - no one's going to find you. Good luck.
Thanks, Chris, for great direction; I certainly need to do much more of this type of promotion, especially with my intention of doing another book and podcasting myself.
No worries - in my experience it's the biggest failure point of creatives. If no one knows your stuff exists, why are they going to look for it? And from there you have two options, pay someone to promote you, or get busy with guerilla marketing like this. There's plenty of other things you can do - just get those creative juices away from the page and into promotion occasionally.
I love the idea of using a paywall in my free posts to block off subscriber-only content at the end of the issue. My free readers like to comment and get frustrated when they can't - and when I add a paywall it no longer allows free readers to comment. The interaction is important to me and I want to utilize paywalls in the best way possible. Will there be a functionality in the future for free readers to comment on posts with a paywall?
Great feedback, and very interesting. There are a lot of these kinds of "combination" challenges on Substack today: one might want a paywall gated post with free comments, in your example, or a podcast with a video clip, or many tiers of access per post (e.g. imagine two paywalls: a "paid" paywall and a later "founding" paywall). In general, the more combinations your interface accommodates, the more complex it is, so there's some tension between "supporting every combination of use-cases" and "keeping Substack simple." But there are also many solutions which can achieve this!
Thanks for sharing this use-case; if you have it, others do too, and we'd love to figure out a solution. (We also have some things in the works which *may* address this orthogonally, but that's all I can say at the moment!).
Mills, got a couple of subscribers from paywalls at first, but lately --despite generous free content above paywall and not cutting off mid-story, have had a bunch of unsubscribes instead. I would definitely be interested in tweaks, otherwise not using for now!
It's crazy making! It's too many to disregard, and when it's longtime engaged readers, it's doubly frustrating. It's been decades since most writers were paid properly (or at all) and I would love Substack to research readers ' thinking, plus how we can address it. Certainly, it doesn't apply to celeb Substackers.
I love this interview with Elizabeth Held! Grew her list from 0 to 2000 in a year and a couple cold emails were the big unlock. Don't underestimate a thoughtful email to someone interesting with an audience.
Solid point. I'm only a month in with just 52 subscribers, but I've started to reach out to a few relevant influencers for interviews. A couple of them have agreed, so we'll see how that goes over the course of the next month or two.
I always trumpet business cards! Assuming you're not sequestering in your home, and you sometimes venture out into the general (if not the specific) public, people you bump into at the gym, bank, post office, a restaurant, might all appreciate being given a clever biz card inviting them to read/subscribe!
I even have a QR code on the back of mine, and I hang two cards (a front and a back with code) on Starbucks and Panera community bulletin boards (and wherever else I'm able)!
here in england the starbucks (or any corporate coffee shop staff) are a bit fascistic about what goes on the noticeboard. its not a real notice board in any sense of the word. just 'approved corporate messages' like the rest of the world.
Brit in US here! Planning a trip over, and still puzzling over how to add to my UK audience. I have enthusiastic Brit subscribers, and may have to rely on them. The national aversion to self-promotion is a tough nut to crack!
Well, assuming Starbucks (or any other commercial or governmental agency) doesn't carry their authoritarian reflexes into your interpersonal relationships, a biz card is still a good way to break the ice with someone new you meet, or in my case, I simply ask new "strangers-turned-friends," "What kind of music do you listen to?"
If they answer anything in the classic rock, prog and/or punk of the '70s and beyond arena, BOOM, they get a card, and usually a 5-minute (with their kind indulgence) impassioned review of what my 'Stack can offer them!
Join some forums that deal with similar content to yours. Spend a few weeks joining in with the chat, and then casually drop in a link to your Substack. Aim for ten such forums a month. Find YouTube channels that do a lot of live streams. These people are desperate for new and interesting guests. Link them to your Substack and ask if they'll have you on as a guest. Aim for about 20 a month. Do the same with podcasters - many of these people are actually struggling to find guests and you'll be surprised how many will get you on.
Excellent. There's loads of ways to publicize yourself, and without it you're not, well, public. I published a novel decades ago with a drug theme. Me and some friends printed off hundreds of pages which had little squares containing the book title, my name, the ISBN number and a bit of a review. We cut them out and sat there for days making thousands of 'cocaine wraps', which we then went on to distribute all over London, dropping them in toilets in bars, in trains, buses, restaurant toilets etc. If someone in my target demographic sees one of them, they'll pick it up and put it in their pocket to be checked later. it worked - I even had people contact me and say it was the fact they'd been so cleverly 'had' that made them buy the novel. Unless you can afford to pay for publicity, you have to do it yourself. Best wishes.
Just a note of encouragement for others. I've been making slow, but steady, progress since I started in February. I've had a few posts do well, others not so much. This week I took a risk and wrote something with more of an edge and promoted it in a few places, and it's been viewed more than 4,500 times in three days and added more than 60 free subscribers. I'm a little wary of this -- I don't want to write something quite this angsty every week -- but we'll see how many readers stick with me. For now, I want to second what others have said. I thought Substack would just be another echo chamber, like the rest of social media. What I've found is that it is actually a genuine source of community. There is room for principled disagreement and real conversation, but more importantly for SUBSTANCE. It is such a delight to know there are readers who want to really dig into ideas with me. Thanks.
I have 2 questions I've been holding on to until Office Hours today:
1. How are we all using the "sections" feature? Is that like our version of creating categories for our main Newsletter? I'd love to look at some publications who use it!
2. Do people who write more "personal essay"-type newsletters, or newsletters that talk about multiple topics, find they get much engagement or paid subscribers?
I'm REALLY trying to break my habit of thinking I need to stick to one thing cause (cause I wanna write about what's on my mind and share food recipes and such!) that's all I've been told in online marketing over the past 7 years... But it feels hard to break that narrative when I SEEM to only see people who can write about many things, be people who may have been writing and editing professionally for a long time, are in New York, etc. (like Maybe Baby, and such).
Hi Cierra! I have 2 substacks and on one, Collected Rejections, I use sections. I write personal essays and fiction on my substack, as well as host interviews. Each "genre" has it's own section. You can see them here: http://valorieclark.substack.com
I haven't tried launching paid yet, so I can't speak to whether it'll make much money BUT I do get a lot of engagement on each post. Much more engagement than my history podcast with a much higher subscriber count, actually.
I think when it comes to personal essays, people subscribe to your substack because they like YOU, and so they'll enjoy anything you want to add to the mix. When I started adding in fiction prompts I thought people would hate it but I've gotten uniformly wonderful feedback.
Maybe I need to listen to a mantra tape saying "they're subscribing for YOU" while I sleep so I can get it drilled into my head haha.
I LOVE writing and have always done it whether I was getting paid or not (my current Substack has been on hiatus cause I currently don't make a living wage so I had to prioritize that for now), but may be back soon with a quick series idea!
All I want is engagement and to talk to people and have people resonate and get impacted enough that they comment! That makes me so happy!
Okay... Okay... There are LITERALLY no rules. Truly, when I'm excited to share something on Substack, I'm gonna share it!! <3 Woo!!
Yes!! I do this too! Forgot about the mirror and I definitely have a mirror haha. I truly do need them in my face though or I forget about them/ANYTHING
Hi Cierra, my Substack is "dark comedy" themed but I also write fiction every now and then. It's a radical mix, so I created a fiction section where I can post there directly and then decide if I want to email blast or not (the bulk of my subscribers are here for the jokes). I also created a section for a recurring bit that I do, which functions as a mini-archive for readers into that topic. You can explore the layout here: https://agowani.substack.com/
Oooh thank you! This is giving me ideas for my own newsletter. My newsletter is new enough that I can shift around the intentions of my newsletter in its entirety and create those sections. I'll check yours out! Thanks for giving yours as an example!
You're welcome. I was on Medium and then came over to Substack less than three months ago. It's a very different vehicle and I've been experimenting quite a lot as well. Good luck!
I noticed the feel of Medium has changed over the past couple of years and I didn't like it. I absolutely love how writer-focused Substack is, for sure. And thank you! Good luck to you as well!
Thank you, Jasmine! I'll check these out for sure. I was wondering if I should just make a new publication, or sections... Especially since I'm feeling like my publication may just cover multiple topics!
If you think there's any overlap in interest between the topics, I'd go with sections. After all, many of your readers are probably reading to hear from your voiceโ not just about a specific topic.
You can also provide readers instructions on how to unsubscribe from sections they're not interested in. (They can go to https://whenshemanifests.substack.com/account, and will see checkboxes to add/remove sections.)
Hi! I am brand new but I plan on using substack to publish in "personal essay" format. I am certainly hoping people will be engaged, and one way I'm trying to do that is to "sign off" with a couple of reflection questions (no matter what crazy tangents I went on lol). Wishing you all the best and definitely don't limit yourself to one area if you feel called to expand!
Working hard on getting over that story I keep telling myself, out here trying to read everyone's minds by assuming I know what they're subscribe or unsubscribe to haha.
And welcome! This has been my FAVORITE community to write and be with as far as writers go! I absolutely love it here!
I'm working on coming back in the groove here; life's been happening so I had to hold off putting time into posting as much but I REALLY miss it!
Thanks again for the encouragement to write what I wanna write!!
There's no rules, gotta keep drilling that in my head haha!
Re: analytics, I like to check my subscriber chart every week. Seeing a steady growth trajectory from 0-600 in just over half a year reminds me that folks really are enjoying my content, and to keep at it even when the going gets rough.
In other news, I'm thinking of blending my free and paid content into one weekly newsletter, with free content on top and paid content below the fold. Has anyone else tried this? I'm hoping this will make creating all that content more manageable.
I'm also wondering what has worked for others when converting free subscribers to paid ones. Curious to hear your thoughts!
Garbage Day used to do that split but stopped doing it at some point. I think one annoyance I've seen is that free subscribers can't comment on the posts anymore because they're technically "paid" posts.
I have a question about the stats on readers; does Substack have plans to offer more data on readers outside of the current ratings? As the network starts to get stronger, I would love to see more data about reading habits, open times, etc. Optimizing timing around publishing is an obvious win for most writers, and substack has this data available in theory...
We're very keen to (1) expand the data we organize and share with creators (while respecting reader privacy, of course); and (2) leverage the network to get superior / richer data for creators. I can't make any promises about specific features or timelines, but I can say we intend to develop in this area as much as possible. Thanks for the nudge!
thanks for the reply, this is now a good guy Mills appreciation thread.
Y'all need a public roadmap and a writer-to-writer beta program.
Above all there needs to be writing about the design of Substack! These threads are great, but they run counter to ambition of the platform in terms of clarity of communication. There's a better way! :)
Haha, "good guy Mills"! I'm telling my family about this!
I love public roadmaps. To be candid, I think we're not quite "settled" enough internally / as a company to get there in the near future. As quickly as Substack-the-platform is changing, so too is Substack-the-company: scaling, experimenting, exploring, bringing in new POVs. Another way to put this: we can't share a public roadmap if we barely have a private one! (I shouldn't exaggerate; we have plans, of course). Basically: we'd love to get here and I think we will someday, but probably not in the next few months.
It looks like Jasmine is following up re: a potential beta program, which we'd *also* love to productize / scale. That one might happen sooner!
To your last point: you and my bosses are in complete agreement that there should be more writing about the design of Substack! The team is full of wonderful writers, like Jasmine, so it can definitely happen. Not to sound like a broken record, but we're just a bit busy at the moment! As we scale and settle, it'll be easier to slot in time for these kinds of very important things, and as someone who's written a lot about design over the years, I can't wait!
๐๐ฝ ๐๐ฝ ๐๐ฝ thank you for honest and clear reply.
Having too many amazing things to build all at once is what my Grandpa would have called a "champagne problem". I have confidence y'all will get it right and get it done in time. Thanks again!
What I mean by this is that in a two-sided marketplace like Substack, you should have your writers operate as public beta testers with a different set of account permissions that allow them to test new features before they are rolled out to the larger substack community. This is a pretty widespread practice for platform companies in my experience, and it allows your most passionate and invested users to invest themselves in improving the platform.
Has Substack considered adding links to follow people on social media on home pages or next to authors' bylines? That might be a good way to get people finding each other outside of Substack!
On the custom sidebar, I added links to my twitter and instagram, since you can link out to anywhere. It would be cool to see this done natively in profiles though!
For those who are just starting out and not seeing any growth, just keep at it.
I was in the same position as you a few months ago. My newsletter is still small, but Iโm seeing spikes in growth after months of little to no change.
To put it in perspective, I gained around 50 subscribers over an 8 month period.
In the 1.5 months since then, Iโve gained around 40.
Regarding Analytics: The fact that this is a poll question on "Writer's Hours" is a step in another way to get your newsletter discovered.
I look forward to Substack and Google working together in harmony. That would truly set Substack way ahead of any competition, as the SEO part of Substack was missing and an afterthought. I have hooked up Google Search Console to my Substack, and to delve deeper I use all the Substack tools available on the platform (as listed in the poll).
I appreciate Substack and the connections it has helped me to make. Thanks Katie and all!
I just used Canva.com to create an e-mail post banner, as well as my main page's key graphic component (feel free to see it now)! Subscribe to (eventually) see my e-mail post banner!
I'll check out Picsart, now, but I enjoyed what Canva was able to do, and how easy it was. I subscribed for a month, but I'm told I can delete that within the month and owe nothing.
Second this. Canva is intuitive and fun to learn. You'd be able to create a logo incorporating, text, graphics, or both. I'm no expert but I have made a ton of stuff there, lmk if I can help.
I use Picsart ( https://picsart.com/create ) and have found it pretty easy to work with. I've only tried the free version, so the paid might be even better. It's pretty simple and intuitive. Good luck!
I used Canva to create mine and use it for nearly everything. For litthinkpodcast.substack.com I used the art skills of a friend because we wanted something pretty specific. Contemplating using his skills again when I decide I need a more unique logo for marketing purposes.
Highly recommend my friend Jon Wilcox, who created the logo for my publication, as well as the logo for the Moby Dick Substack (among others, I think). https://jtwilcox.com
Just want to toss an offer of creative support out there... I love creating collage-style images (see example at my site). If you would like an image created for one of your posts for free, please reach out. Maybe I can create something for you that makes a splash.
Hi all - I write about self-love, spirituality, personal growth - it's a newsletter for creatives looking inward. Also some writing stuff. I'd love to connect with a few folks to do cross promotion shoutouts, recommendations, etc. If you write something similar, please feel free to get in touch. There have to be a ton of us out there.
Hi, I really like your line - "for creatives looking inward." I'm probably in that category and would be happy to connect - although please note I have no subscribers as I am brand new lol.
I will sub to your newsletter and learn more about your style!
I'm here as both - still juggling how to go between writing about writing, and creating articles on themes in my writing - which is spirituality, self-love etc.
Yea itโs a struggle. I think my plan in the beginning is to just make sure my WIP is ready to be published every week and any time I have after that, maybe making vlogs about writing on my channel and posting them here along with a blurb. Oh the struggles lol
If you're writing fiction on your substack, make sure you join fictionistas - they seem to be a thriving group. I'm indie publishing a fiction book in sept so am not publishing fiction here but pieces around the themes in my writing (as I mentioned). I might also do some short fiction around characters and alternative scenes from book.
I have subscribed to it and im not sure how to engage with it yet? Lol thanks! That sounds like a good game plan as this is a good platform for that kind of writing.
Hi Team! Last week someone expressed frustration with the interruptions in life that has been preventing them from writing.
Someone replied, โWelcome to the club,โ and I thought โAmen!โ
At the time, my own busy life was interfering with my writing life, but that plaintive cry nagged at me all week, so I thought I might recycle that and ask โthe Clubโ for input on how they handle that issue in their own busy lives.
I have run across some ideas, some of which I have never been able to implement and others that have not worked for me.
One idea that I *could* implement, if I had the discipline of my Little Big Sister, I would get up an hour earlier than I usually do and dedicate that to writing.
Years ago, I read that when the โthrillerโ writer John Grisham worked as an attorney, he sat in his car with a legal tablet and wrote for an hour, before going into work.
Regarding interruptions I have made it clear to my family โDo not call me on Thursday mornings unless it involves smoke or blood or โsuicidal ideation.โโ Today is the third Thursday in a row that life stressors (today, *three* of them just discovered that their boss went bankrupt, owing them money) have intervened. Since they *all* owe me money, the suicidal ideation is running rampant.
Dismissing that idea as impractical (I donโt own a gun or possess any lethal medications. I donโt have a gas stove. Death by defenestration requires more elevation than any of my windows provide).
So, the solution is that everyone takes advantage of the tight job market and gets another job. Any job. One of them is going to take a large cut in pay, but the other two will find something in the same pay range. For the one, any wage is a big step up from zero and will be useful to easing the pressure. For me, I have been hanging onto the dregs of a once useful IRA (paying *me* interest) because I didnโt know *what* was going to go wrong, just that *something* will. Looks like our lucky day has arrived.
More โgrist for the writerโs mill.โ
One thing I do for stress relief is write. I just did. Now, on to finishing three pieces I have started for three Writerโs Hour teammatesโฆ
I don't love getting up early, I'm much more of a night owl, so one thing I did when I needed to kickstart my writing habit was start writing at midnight when everyone else had already gone to bed. It was the last thing I did before bed, so I was sometimes tired, but I found that being tired actually meant I couldn't be critical at the same time. I just wrote down whatever I thought, no hesitation, no self-censoring, and I got some really good work down.
For a while, when I had a really dreamy novella I wanted to write, I got up at 3 am, wrote until 5 am, then went back to bed. Writing in the dark with the lights down, when I had no distractions, was key for it. I think you can't be afraid to change up your habit to suit the project! If getting up 1 hour earlier isn't working for you, try something different!
I used to write late at night too - interesting that you found you were less self-critical at this time. I'm only just learning to write without being intensely self-critical, but it has certainly increased how much I enjoy my writing.
I started my writing habit at a time when my life was insanely busy, and I do what you mentioned, get up early and write then. I'm not a morning person but I've trained myself to do this. At the time I started the habit, it was the only time I got any peace. These days life is less insane but I still get up early to write as that's what my brain likes to do now.
What I would like to see someone do a YouTube on is creating a very basic paid newsletter from start to first paid post. Maybe this has been done, but I haven't seen it. Correct me if I'm wrong.
A lot of the "help" pages and videos I've seen I think implicitly assume a certain basic level of knowledge about blog and newsletter sites (aimed, I guess, at professional writers).
My proposed Substack is "This is Make It Stop!, a newsletter about Technical Solutions for Complete Idiots (Like Me :)".
๐ค
That might actually be a good subject for a first post.
Seriously you all, explain Substack like you're talking to a five year old. Promise my feelings won't get hurt ๐
Fellow writers, for those of you who have overcome the plateau of subscription growth, how do you do it as a beginner (<1 yr writing on Substack)? Any tips on expanding subscribers beyond your immediate circle?
Try new promotion tactics. When I had plateaud at 80 subscribers for a while, I put a personal invitation on my instagram stories. I used the questions feature and told people, "drop your email and I'll subscribe you so you don't have to do the work." They're still giving you permission, but they don't have to physically leave instagram and do it themselves, which is a weirdly big barrier for many people.
One way I've found is to work in seasons, and with each season choose a different topic (within the overarching theme of my newsletter). Each time I do this, I can try to get the interest/tap into a somewhat different audience. For example, last season was about ocean science, so I ended up getting the attention of oceanographers, geologists etc.
If this sounds like the opposite of the popular writing advice of "write what you know" - well, yes it is! That's the point. A new audience is teaching *me* things, and fact-checking me, as I go - which is a great way to get engagement.
I am paddling the Mississippi River, the largest river in North America, in a canoe. Solo. It's 2,340 miles long from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. You can follow along with my day-to-day adventures and discoveries, hardships and victories right here: canoerambler.substack.com
Any thoughts on how to spread the word on a travel log style newsletter? Thanks!
I'm loving the new features. Am wondering if these 2 features are anywhere on the pipeline: in line images as in a magazine. And cropping images within the substack editor. Thanks!
Product question for the Substack team: If I send a post to paying subs first, but set a date for it to be unlocked for free subs, will the free subs receive an email? Or is it just "unlocked" if they visit my SS homepage?
Also looking for anyone involved in parenting/education who is willing to be interviewed for my series "Education Explored". Especially interested in keeping it in the substack sphere, if you or anyone you know would be up for a chat about kids+learning. Thank you!
I work part-time as a tutor for elementary school kids and would be glad to chat with you. Iโm not a parent or a certified teacher though, if that matters.
I think at least having a thumbnail image is great! You can use the "Insert image from Unsplash" feature to find stock photos if you don't have any yourself. Like other writers said, they do a good job of breaking up long chunks of text.
I used to do more pictures to break up content, but now I do just one or two. I believe that too many pictures distract from the flow of the reading experience. But of course, some talented artists use pictures and graphics as a primary form of expression and do it well.
I didn't when I started, but I always do now, because it looks better on your homepage to have an image associated with each article. Where I can I use photos from my own extensive archive, otherwise I mostly use Unsplash. In my case (because I'm writing about science topics and sometimes want something specific) it is also worth checking Wikipedia. Some, but not all, of the images used in Wikipedia articles are available to use under a creative commons license. But you need to check the details because some are not.
it depends on how long your post is and your aesthetics. i tend to do 4 images for 1000-ish words. But that's me. I try to break it up. Most people read on their phone so preview your newsletter on your phone and see what feels right to you. sources - unsplash is free. i use deposit photos - free if you use paid canva or you can subscribe directly through deposit. just google free image sites and you should find a bunch.
I updated my About Page today to bring clarity to my offering and hopefully show a bit of my personality. I also wanted to clearly state what I offer, who my newsletter is for, what others say about my work and offer a bit more about me and my qualifications.
I am concerned it might be too much but I'm going with it...
Hi Jack- Farrah from the Partnership team here. This is a great About page- very clear and well-written. The only thing i would add- and which we have seen success with is 1. Put up a picture of you in your chef whites if you feel brave enough. It brings a level of familiarity. It also underlines the fact you are a professional chef 2. Maybe spell out your mission. We have seen lots of success with writers who have a real mission statement explaining why here, why now? Im making this up (obviously!) but do you feel there are not enough high-end vegan recipes out there and you want to change that? Or maybe you want the world to see and taste how great going vegan can be and so you started this Substack so everyone an easy route into veganism. I hope this makes sense Jack? Small tweak but effective.
Excellent feedback Farrah - I really appreciate it. I will look into incorporating a simple mission statement (I can't believe I missed that one)... As for the Chef's Whites - personally, I haven't been in a restaurant for about 15 years - the photo I posted is how I look when I teach - it's a down-to-earth look that I want to portray...I want people to feel it is easy to talk with me and avoid that air of superiority that is often too common in the industry...
Agree with FogChaser . . people can read as much or as little about you as they want. I am impressed, not just with the extent of the effort you put into your About page but also the extent of what you've done in life!
Jack, VeganWeekly is so good, and I only looked at it a little bit. I just subscribed. Your logo is so simple and attractive, and you have so much content, it's very compelling (I'm not vegan but I also was raised vegetarian, so it speaks to me.) It screams "these recipes are amazing!" Never mind your About page! The publication speaks for itself.
I think this looks great โ it gives people as much as they could possibly want, but is broken up well enough that people can read a section or two and get a really good sense of what your publication is all about. Nice work!
I use Individual Post Stats and Subscriber Growth Stats equally.
I like to keep an eye on how well each of my posts are doing to understand if there are any large up- or down-ticks in everything I publish. Subscriber growth remains a very important metric for me (I'm definitely in growth mode)!
I'm really excited about the possibilities with the recommendation blurbs but I have to get people to recommend me first ;-) We're pretty excited about the progress we've made at liththinkpodcast.substack.com this week with subscribers. I got brave and made a request in a teacher group on FB. Other than that, just trying to balance life and writing!
I like the new blurb feature and will try to master it so I can do blurbs for others. I will look at your substack, especially as I want to do some podcasts myself.
Same here, Roman. I do use the recommendations feature to recommend other writersโ newsletters but as far as I know no one has recommended mine. Iโve never heard of the blurbs feature and donโt know how to use it, but it seems like you need to have recommendations to do so. Donโt know about the welcome page either, unless itโs the same as the about page.
nearly everyone needs help growing their audience. look in subtack's resource section - i think you can get to it from their main page. i've been doing this for almost a year and i'm very overwhelmed, especially today for some reason - so you're not alone. the main advice you'll get is to keep writing. don't focus on numbers/subscribers - just keep writing. and figure out the best way to promote yourself on social media. the other thing that seems to help people is to cross promote with other substacks. i'm still figure that one out because I often feel I write into a black hole. I'm still figuring out how to connect with folks meaningfully. I hear a lot of crickets.
Any suggestions on how to get more subscribers/readers? Started on Substack a bit more than a year ago, have about 100 subscribers, but how can I take it to the next level (here is the link to my page: https://kidscanbepoets.substack.com. Thanks! ๐
I am only in my third week of Substack writing, and I have a list of facebook friends to whom I am sending emails about my page to. But getting free subscribers is going a bit slow, or maybe I am just impatient lol! Anyway, I am looking for any ideas that might improve my progress that will lead to paid subscribers when the time comes! Thanks guys!!
Becky, hereโs what works for me. I sit at a bustling coffeehouse every Saturday and lay a book out in eyeshot of everyone who comes in. Itโs such a great conversation starter. Many ask about the book which then turns into a conversation about what I do for work. I tell โem I read books for a living. Down the rabbit hole they go as I tell โem about my Substack aimed at building human connection one book at a time. 90% sign up right on the spot!
Welcome! This is a great community. I am also brand new and writing under a new pen name. So the biggest challenge is that I'm not sharing this with my usual network, as my writing here is much more personal. But there's freedom in starting from scratch.
Iโm only 2 months in and only have 20 or so subscribers. It was frustrating at first, but I didnโt want to promote on my FB or IG pages. I wanted to slowly grow my readership. So for now, Iโm just writing and talking about what Iโm writing as conversations come naturally.
I am one month in. I feel very uncomfortable promoting myself on social media, but I seem to have no problems reaching out to one person at a time and asking them if I can add them to my email list. Maybe I can take that energy to social media eventually. In the meantime I figure if I am consistent with my weekly posts, it will give me confidence to do the stuff I am not as comfortable with to grow my community and readers.
Same! I had a pretty large following on social media then stepped back about 6 months ago. Also, not having every friend and family member reading my posts is actually freeing for me.
Posting on social just for the sake of it feels so inauthentic for me, but somehow being able to write and then post it makes it more meaningful because it's purposeful. At least I hope so, when I get the courage to do more writing promotion. But I totally get the freeing aspect you are talking about, Holly, this way you can pick and choose what you post on social only when you want to even if it means less promotion. That may be more important, I am realizing it is for me.
Exactly! For example, I am currently en route to be my brotherโs stem cell donor this week. As people have asked me questions about the process, Iโve shared with them I am writing a series here at my Substack space on being a stem cell donor. The goal: raise awareness and hopefully help someone else. But Iโve gotten some subscriptions because people want to follow the journey.
HI Becky- Farrah from Substack here. I know it can feel uncomfortable to promote yourself on your own social channels sometimes but beyond marketing there is actually a really smart reason why you might want to do that. If the day comes when you decide to leave certain social media platforms, you instantly lose the entire community you have spent many years building. If some of those people choose to give you their email and become subscribers to your newsletter you have that email forever. Substack has no claim to it- so it is YOUR audience. Having a healthy email list is always a good think for indie writers because one day you might choose to write a book, launches courses- whatever!
Question: Can someone offer me assistance in how to set up the feature within a post that says "Read more?" For example, I received a newsletter I subscribed to and when reading on a phone or tablet it gives the first two paragraphs, then says "Read more." When clicking "Read more" it then takes the reader to the website with the full article.
I am sure I am losing readers engagement when sending my weekly newsletter as it posts the full article in the email. I am sure people are bailing out after the first paragraph or two as it usually about 1,000 words.
If this makes sense, thank you in advance for your help.
Hello Kirk! Great discussion between you and Marcia and Brad and Stephanie here. We don't have clear signal that "readers are likelier to read long posts on web," for what it's worth, but that doesn't mean it's not the case. It's almost certainly the case that *some* readers are! Let's say X% of readers prefer to click through and read on web, and Y% drop off whenever there's "friction" of any kind (e.g. having to click a button, breaking reading-flow, and switching to another app / surface).
Obviously, if X > Y, you'd want to truncate emails and have clickthrough buttons; if Y > X, you'd want to keep your emails "normal" (untruncated). I would bet that this X vs. Y question isn't consistent across publications, unfortunately; that is, I'm sure some communities of readers skew in one or another direction away from the norm.
I'll make sure we look at this. If emails with truncated text + buttons outperform long emails, we would *definitely* want to know and would almost certainly look into changing how things work broadly, or at least giving authors options. In the past when we've looked at this, we haven't seen signal that readers prefer to click out, but it might be time to revisit!
All of that said: the hack other writers are using, we *think*, is roughly as follows:
(1) write the "preview" form of the post (the first two paragraphs, say)
(2) go to "Settings" and edit the "post URL" at the bottom to whatever you want it to be (e.g. "my-post")
(3) go back into your post and add a "Custom button" from the dropdown menu
(4) in that custom button's URL field, put "yoursubstack.substack.com/p/my-post" (or the appropriate equivalents: your site URL + the URL you chose for the post); where it says "enter text," put "Read More" (or your equivalent)
(5) publish the post (which is now: two paragraphs and a button that links to the post)
(6) once the post is published / the emails have gone out, go back and edit the post to add all the rest of the content
What this will do is send the "preview" version of the post out via email, but when recipients click on the custom button that says "Read More," the link will take them to the (now edited) full version!
Obviously that's extremely laborious and awkward. If this did turn out to be a real phenomenon we can measure and see (and which gives writers better outcomes), we'd make this simpler. Thanks very much for bringing this to our attention, and good luck!
Mills....Thank you for your thorough response. I feel like I just took an Algebra class, but one cannot fault you on your thoroughness and level of detail.
I am a simple guy.....if you read my newsletter. All I know is that I very high profile author whose newsletter I subscribe to implemented this in the past week. It seemed to keep things much more concise for readers on a phone or tablet, which is likely to be most. I suppose by offering two paragraphs then driving them to an actual click button to finish reading the article, perhaps she can measure who is actually clicking through by the link data we are offered on each subsciber.
Honestly, I just want to write a newsletter, so not looking to get into coding or programming here.
Thank you so much for the response. I will dig into this and see what I can try out.
My pleasure, and let us know how it goes! I was a terrible student especially in math, but working out here I've picked up these weird habits like dropping Xs and Ys into sentences as though I know what I'm doing! When in Rome!
And in seriousness, we want the same thing: ideally, writing on Substack will just be writing, and our systems will handle these sorts of decisions and calculations. We're not there yet, but we're pushing!
This is such a great thread, I love the insight into what might be happening in the background. I just have to tailor/apply it for what I see my audience doing, as much as I can see :-) Much appreciated!
Some of the email newsletters I subscribe to have an unobtrusive option "Read on the web" - and as a reader, I have clicked that when the newsletter didn't display properly in my inbox or if I wanted to link to the post in a tweet. Maybe that's the perfect compromise, giving those who want to read in their inbox and those who don't exactly what they want?
Maybe keep an eye on your open rate versus opens? I have a lot more opens than the open rate would imply, so I believe this may be a common pattern with my readers: Receive the email and open it; but they're busy with their day so they move on to other things after a minute; and then they return to read the rest at night or the next morning.
I suspect if I had a "Read more" button in email instead of the full content, they might not click through, or they might click through the first time they open the email, then bookmark the article and forget to return. YMMV, though.
I seem to have a very high open rate, but notice that very, very few click on any buttons such as leading to archives of articles, subscriptions, etc. This leads me to believe that most are simply clicking open their email then moving on. I have only been at this a short time so just new to the learning curve on how to engage more involved readers.
I don't see a lot of clicks, either; I think my recipients prefer to read in their inboxes (and then seem to re-open the email multiple times, which is great, it gives me some indication of whether I wrote something more or less engaging that week).
I would think clicks to subscribe would come more from direct/web readers, since my email readers are already subscribed. And I would love to see indications of whether someone forwarded a newsletter to someone else!
Why do you feel readers are not willing to read a 1000 word article in their inbox and would rather click to a website? That seems far from obvious to me.
The simple answer is that the vast majority of readers are in an information overload mentality when going through an overwhelming number of emails. They are glancing at subject headlines and maybe making it through the first paragraph. This is due to the mindset of our times....2 minute videos that capture attention, one sentence comments on social media, etc. To click on "Read more" pulls them out of their email box and onto the full article with images. I am not sure I can address the full psychology behind it, but clearly there is a "Read More" feature as it came to me by way of another Substack article. I am simply looking for the "how-to" implement it.
From what I know of research on this point, I don't believe your assumptions are correct. Any time there is a need to click to find out more information, you lose people who might otherwise have engaged.
Thanks, Marcia. I appreciate your perspective. However, it begs the question why some pretty big name authors might be using this feature. Perhaps they know something we don't?
The "pretty big-name authors" can AFFORD to put roadblocks, buttons, things to click, etc, because they know their fans (already well familiar with their work) will go anywhere and do anything to hang onto their every written word!
At some point, Kirk, fame and fortune notwithstanding, your readers will shake out to be "fans" of what you're writing, and be more than happy to follow you, regardless of your word count.
Big or small name authors with fervent fans automatically get better and different responses than anyone who offers information lacking that emotional bond with readers. For instance, someone with fervent fans can say "buy my new album/book/whatever" and the fans will rush to buy with no real information about what the new thing is. Others can't get away with that
I know I'm late but I want to toss out something for the @ substack crew. In yesterday's On Substack about product news somebody mentioned the subscribe "pop up" that's being experimented with. Please, please, please do away with this. The thing I love most about Substack (as a reader) is the clean, ad-free, pop-up free interface. In my opinion, preserving that is a key differentiator for the platform.
Just a general shout out of appreciation to everyone! I really look forward to this time of week to connect with you all, I always learn a ton of new things! Please drop by and say hi if you're so inclined https://howaboutthis.substack.com
I'd really love to see a way to create links to headers from the editor. My newsletter is quite long, so I'd appreciate a better way to structure and navigate posts.
Substack, I have seen a steady drop in opens in the past two weeks (after some record setting issues) even though subscriber count is going up, any reasoning for this?
I always see a decline in my American audience at this time of year; website visits, purchases, email open rates, (in my main substack) .... I reckon everyone is on holidays. Meanwhile, it's the middle of winter where I am and I'm busy beavering away doing my best work!
Roll call: Who's added welcome blurbs to their homepage?
Bonus points: What memorable welcome blurbs have you come across on other publications?
As an aside, I have to say Substack is really rocking my world these days. I've dialed back my social media from endless hours of scrolling to reading actual content that inspires me.
Amen to that...I have done the same - so many interesting people in this world with fascinating and interesting things to say!
Feel like Iโve discovered a treasure trove of amazing content and art. Reading on Substack is so much more enjoyable than consuming content mindlessly on social media. Real food for thought!
Exactly. I'm spending more time on Substack at least in part for this very reason.
Thanks for the sub! I just squealed out loud as you're my first!
Here's to many more!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Now if we could only get an Android app for our phones!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I. am. so. confused. and. overwhelmed..... Is there a link to a guide to doing all this? The two recommendations I have are from people who haven't even started their substack yet so I've got nothing. I feel like no one's picked me for their kickball team!.....
Idk what the right thing to do is but i think Iโm just going to wait until I find newsletters that I really like so that I can write genuine blurbs for others and hope that others see it.
a good MO :)
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I agree. I want genuine recommendations. If we could include recommendations from readers instead of only other substackers, that would be great.
Yeah reader recomms are good. I've been hoarding testimonials from readers (for my "main" pub and am going to put them together in a post and make a link on my home page at recommended links called "What others are saying about [pub name]".
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Same! I really just want to get some recommendations so that I can grow organically.
Fine, I'll recommend you if you care to reciprocate and recommend me. I don't know if you will like my stuff. I may be best characterized as an acquired taste.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
No obligations ๐ I'm just trying to teach myself patience.
Is there a Substack on that somewhere? ๐
Iโve been able to find answers to all my questions so far, but the information is all over the place and itโs not always easy to teach yourself everything because its not straightforward or obvious. I think thereโs just a lot of features and its hard to organize it all. Whatโs tripping me up is the vast difference between the app and desktop. Every time I interact with the platform its vastly different because of this and its taking me longer to figure it out.
Yeah, and I forget and everytime I click on sometimes newsletter to check it out and then come back here, I start at the beginning and can't find the message I was reading. Such a pain!
Yes. I love substack. I love being a part of it. I love having the space to share my heart, mind, and soul in words. But the apparatus sometimes feels like a cluster-f. Meaning, it's one confusion after another in rapid succession.
*wanders around lost finding others* oh hey lol
And so... I am getting more comfortable trusting that the true connections, and voices that matter the most will surface and been seen in the right moment, and the right time.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I have that problem too! Makes me hesitant to click to check out a newsletter since it can be challenging to find my way back to what I was reading here.
exactly!
I usually command+click (on Mac) because then it opens the link in a new tab! That way I don't lose my place in the thread but still can check out that publication.
Agreed!
Also, I just subscribed. Honestly I'm a little overwhelmed by all of the Substacks I've subscribed to, but I think I'll get the hang of it!
me too, I'm a serial subscriber right now!
Same, though not everyone I follow publishes frequently. I kind of wish there was a quick view of publishing frequency. Sometimes, I'll find a Substack that looks interesting, subscribe to read later, and then eventually discover that they haven't published anything in a year.
I always check the Archive tab before subscribing to anyone. Also, I make my publishing frequency (every Friday) clear to subscribers in my About section.
i've been wondering when that was going to happen. doing these really takes it out of a person and is time consuming - i wondered when people would start leaving and just letting theirs sit. my suggestion would be to look on their page to see when they last posted. Do a 'let me read it first' thing.
yeah - i'm getting to the point of overwhelm even with subscriptions. but i figure it'll all settle down in time.
I completely sympathize
I wrote in an era before one's work product was supposed to be dressed up in slick, audio-visual silliness.
I would rather simply write and not be compelled to adorn my output with cutesy bullshit.
Same here, David. I'm afraid we are turning into dinosaurs. Welcome to the visual age!
On Facebook, I post a silly photo and get 100 likes and several comments. I post a link to one of my stories and it almost gets unnoticed.
Your example is a perfect illustration of what I was referring to.
We may be dinosaurs but I'd much prefer to have fun with the dinosaurs than become an up to date, empty headed, robot.
I couldn't agree more with that. At the end of the day, it's all about having fun and hopefully doing something that will resonate with other people.
https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/7889090558996
Straight from the team themselves.
@Nikhil, Thank you!
Thanks for this - I was hoping they'd done something on it!
I am very much in the same boat. I'm sort of a deer in headlights right now.
I know!
Iโm beginning to think for an unknown writer, itโs going to be quite a long and arduous road before seeing any substantial results.
I don't think it's something you even need to worry about!
Yeah, it's not always intuitive finding an answer to a question. Having said that, the community is super helpful and the Substack team is very responsive. I agree that a comprehensive guide might be useful, but all of my questions so far have been answered here, at the Office Hours, or on the Discord. Good luck! Also, just subbed.
Found the 'how to'! https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/7889090558996
Thank you for sharing that.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Love the new blurbs. Would love a way to add custom blurbs from people who have shared nice words on Twitter, via email, etc.
Thanks for the feedback! This is something we thought about, but so far haven't done because we don't have a good way to verify that these blurbs would be real.
When using a blurb from a recommending Substack, we know that the original author wrote it. If we allowed users to put in custom blurbs, we unfortunately don't have a way to validate that it's not completely made up, which might devalue the feature.
That said, we're definitely thinking about a good way to do this, and I'd be all ears if you have ways you'd like to see this feature work in mind.
Maybe it could be possible if tagging people in comments was possible. For instance, if in the monthly shout out thread I recommended and tagged Adam's substack, then the tag could be tracked the same way we get notified if someone embeds our publication/post in their post?
I like that idea - thanks!
Any time! I don't know one single thing about coding but I've been writing/living on the internet for a very long time, hahaha
If the blurb is in a tweet, a link to that tweet would do it for verification.
I really like this idea too. I get a lot of positive comments on twitter but few here. Yes, I woud love it if the blurbers would come over here and comment, but I can't FORCE them to do that. I think the lack of tweeted blurbs is a self reinforcing problem for people who don't have a lot of followers here yet.
Great idea. I actually instinctively tried to do that like 20 minutes ago and realized I couldn't.
Yeah, on numerous occasions I've tried to tag a publication or writer and was surprised when I couldn't.
Thanks, Ben! Not to be too glib, but itโs funny to me that the Substack team cares deeply about making sure these blurbs are accurate and verified but doesnโt seem to mind the rampant vaccine and COVID-19 misinformation on the platform. That does more to devalue Substack than a few made-up blurbs.
Ya'll can hook into the Twitter API and show a recommendation/testimonial tweet yeah?
The space I write/podcast about (crypto/NFTs) is big on Twitter and I've gotten a couple of recommendations there but none from substack writers yet.
I totally get the authenticity part however. Can't have people post fake ones, it really would kill the feature.
Ben, I am sorry to bother you. But since you want feedback, and since you are addressing blurbs, I thought I would send the following message to you. I am sorry if I sound snarky and cantankerous. It is, in part, a manifestation of my kind of humor (which might be an acquired taste.) In any event, this is my question about blubs (I already posted it, but I am posting it here to make sure that you, Ben, see this):
Everyone is talking about Blurbs today.
Pardon me, but I am so interested in the content of what I read, as opposed to the form, that I haven't even recognized the blurbs.
However, unfortunately, I suppose I must learn this BS.
Accordingly, I would be much obliged if someone were to:
a) Post a screen shot of a page which contains an alleged blurb. Please circle the blurb
b) Please tell me what keys or buttons on substack can enable me to post a blurb.
c) For bonus points, tell me why blurbs are so absolutely "fabulous" and certainly beat the work of old dead white men like Shakespeare, Milton and Byron.
Howdy!
(a) and (b) you can find on the support page here: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/7889090558996
As for (c), those dead white guys are pretty great so it will be hard to compare, but we think blurbs are nice because they're a way for you to see all of the nice things that other writers have said about you. In addition, we ran some tests and found that users were more likely to leave their emails when presented with a blurb.
yes please - this seems like a logical next step!
Seconding this! People have written lovely things about Unruly Figures in the monthly shoutout threads--it would be cool the be able to use those on the home page!
Screen shot your Blurbs, then post it to Twitter.
I also do this, and I post them to Instagram!
While we can't add reader blurbs to our landing page yet, we could include them in the About Us or Welcome post. Someone would need to make the effort to navigate there to read them, but it's better than nothing.
I did. I didn't even know what blurbs people had written, so it was nice to read those (and even better to share them with potential subscribers).
Same. I had a blurb from someone I actually know IRL who I didn't even know was on Substack!
Glad you are enjoying them Sarah!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
You need to take your spamming and go elsewhere with it.
Hi Farrah, Off-topic from blurbs, what are 'Writer Partnerships'? Thanks :-)
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Just a heads-up: I've seen folk removed from previous threads for spamming the same self-promotional link to their stuff again and again like you're doing here.
There are better ways, mate.
I know, kinda feel guilty! Did you like the post?
I have! And I am so overwhelmed by the lovely things people have said about my work. ๐๐ฝ
I felt the same when I read mine. It's positive but can also be challenging to read.
Agree!
Well deserved, your art is beautiful and the way you write/talk about it is so thoughtful!
Oh thank you, Valorie!
just subbed!
Yay!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Just added blurbs! I had no idea some of the nice things people had written about Unruly Figures. These were so nice to read today!
Happy to discover your newsletter - I just finished saying, "there are so many interesting people in the world with fascinating things to say." - you just proved me correct!
I love that, thanks Jack!
Haha! You used mine! I love what you write about!
I did! Thank you! Did you get a notification when I added it?
Just added blurbs! Had a little trouble choosing three, but it's nice to see so many other Substacks recommending Situation Normal and saying similar things. I guess that's a sign of a strong brand, right? Anyway, thanks for adding this feature & thanks for putting the nudge to enable the feature in the dashboard; the Substack team really does make execution super easy!
just subbed!
Erin, I subbed you! I will write a rec for you tomorrow.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Hi Michael ... I'm trying to see blurbs in action and checked your site and didn't see them. Do you know where they show up?
Hi Joyce! They're on the homepage, but I'm not sure if they're visible to subscribers or someone who has been to my Substack before (not sure if either one of those describes you). One way to see them, however, is to view my Substack in your browser's privacy mode (incognito if you use chrome). Hope that helps.
https://michaelestrin.substack.com/
Just a little tip! You can always add /welcome to see a homepage, so https://michaelestrin.substack.com/welcome will always take you to the homepage, no incognito required.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thanks for the tip, Ben!
Thanks for responding ... starting to get a glimmer!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I have and I love them! Really personalizes the homepage and offers a more natural endorsement--hoping it gives people a better sense of what they'll get and why they should subscribe.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
It's excellent and humbling to get a blurb or 5! Welcome page addition is a great idea, Katie.
I will when I get one! :)
Me too!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I need more recommendations so I can do this!
What do people write in those blurbs? Is it endorsements from readers?
Blurbs are recommendations written by other Substack writers.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
You get them from recommendations. The feature lets you display other people's endorsements of you that normally sit on their home page, on your home page
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Correct.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
On my to-do list after work today!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Same!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I added one nice blurb yesterday...
I particularly like the use of multiple blurbs on Dianne Jacob's Newsletter https://diannejacob.substack.com/welcome
Dianne is such a great model - in so many ways!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thanks, Jack, it was particularly helpful to see this in action.
I am patiently waiting for the endorsement game to pay off. I have recommended six publications that are ones I really like; I have sent them 93 subscriptions. I am recommended by six publications and I have received four in return.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I think it depends on a few factors. You're more likely to get a subscriber when they first sign up. When this happens, they can just tick a box to subscribe to you as well.
Ive had massive influxes of subscribers when a publication recommending me put out a piece that blew up. And when the inverse happened, I sent them their way too.
Are you recommending publications adjacent to your niche? Ive found these subscribers are more likely to stay
Three of those I recommend are in my niche; the other three are those that I just enjoy.
I wanna know how to add a welcome blurb, I canโt seem to find those suckers.
There should be a link on your publisher dashboard for the next day or two, but you can also always find "Recommendation blurbs on welcome page" on the Settings page.
Tell us more about the analytics you use more regularly! How do you use them? What other analytics do you wish you had access to and how would they help you?
Would love to see a more granular breakdown of what the stars mean for subscriber engagement. It's a helpful metric already, but I'd love to know everything that goes into the star rankings.
It has to do with how many days they're active on your publication specifically. Its a more helpful metric for higher frequency newsletters.
YES. I heartily second this. What do the stars even mean? I can go in to each subscriber profile and look at them one by one, but it would be great to break it down further.
I think it's a way to see who is most engaged. Five star people read everything, 0 star people are just deleting every email.
Same!!
I donโt have any conclusive information, but I think itโs by days active
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
You are correct
I asked before but I will take this opportunity to ask again. I would really appreciate knowing exactly where I stand in the category leader boards to evaluate my progression over time. Thanks.
Leaderboards also default to Paid vs. All. Paid, I'd imagine is pretty straightforward, but it helps the big newsletters get bigger. Maybe if it defaulted to "All" and had a random/shuffle feature it would help more people get discovered that way.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Iโd love to know what criteria specifically the leaderboards are based on.
Iโd be happy to see a parallel board featuring a rotating slots for randomly selected new or smaller newsletters that might otherwise not receive exposure.
Also, Iโd appreciate STANDARDIZED categories to avoid confusion or redundancies when tagging my newsletter.
For the current criteria of leaderboards: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/5999320475412-What-are-Substack-leaderboards-
Thank you!
Those are crap criteria :-/
Since I currently write on a monthly basis, the frequency variable surely does not help me in improving my position.
And I have a suspicion that some newsletters by celebrities are placed permanently at the top. I find it unbelievable that a new celebrity newsletter with barely any posts has displaced long-standing newsletters in just a month. I'd ignore the leaderboards and just focus on creating value for your readers. But agree that it hurts visibility for those of us who are just starting--and creates some undue degree of stress about visibility.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Leaderboards? I seemed to have missed that feature.
You can find them in the Discover section
Ah, thank you!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Oooh also curious about this!
I really wish we could see 7 day traffic, or even last 24 hours traffic, in the "stats" page.
The reason is that if we are trying a new way to market/advertise it would be great to see how it is working. That association is lost in the 30 days and 90 days stat.
Some way of aggregating individual post stats would be helpful, rather than seeing stats summarized only by post. Would save a lot of clicking, and would be a helpful one-stop shop.
I would love to see this also! And not just emailed posts, but posted published directly to the site, over timeโฆ
Yes, Iโd love to see if thereโs one or two posts really driving long-term traffic!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I definitely like this idea. Was thinking the other day I wanted to see something less than 30 days.
Yes, I agree completely with this request!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/winter-is-coming?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Agree. I asked for this in the past. I'd like one table listing the number of views per post today, this month, this year, all-time, or similar.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I'll second this as well. I'd love more info on how my posts due over time, so I can see how my various social media channels are affecting what gets readโand a way to hang onto that initial info without saving the email.
Iโm focused on subscriber growth so I track that closely, plus open rates to make sure that Iโm growing an engaged audience. So far, so good on that front!
I also pay close attention to my recommendation stats. Seeing which Substacks I overlap with for audience is huge because as they grow, I grow, and vice versa. That allows me to be much more targeted in terms of cross-promotion.
In terms of analytics I donโt feel like Iโm missing anything. That said, if there were a way for subscribers to opt-in to sharing some demographic info (age, geographic location, etc.) Iโd love to see that data in an aggregated and anonymized form.
In the spirit of the book โThe One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Resultsโ by Gary Keller, I focus on ONE metric only and that is subscribers. As Keller says โWhatโs the ONE Thing that by focusing on it make everything else easier or unnecessary.โ For me world class content + shameless marketing ๐๐ฟ subscribers
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I like the individual post statistics, although I would like to be able to see the same breakdowns we see in the overall statistics. Also, is there a place to see ALL the pages stats? (Like the About page or Subscription page?)
I use what's available within the Dashboard but I'd love more information about Google search terms which are leading people to discover my newsletter!
copy:
site:https://howaboutthis.substack.com/
(you need the word site at the beginning. )
and hit enter. This shows you what Google sees, and if your site is being indexed.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thanks, I get that. I was wondering if they could show us specific search terms that lead to the newsletter. WordPress used to do that.
I would like to know what "direct" mean on the stats page. I would also like the referrer for search engines and social media. That way I can see what people are hitting or searching for outside of Substack that is generating traffic.
"Direct" means people have come straight to your newsletter -- [yournewsletter].substack.com.
"People who have come straight to my newsletter"? Based on some of their comments, I'm pretty sure many of those who read me come to my newsletter somewhat chemically-impaired, and far from....uh, "straight"!๐๐ค๐๐
Brad, Do we share the same audience??
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Well, you once wrote the (apparently) rhetorical question, "Ever heard of Nexus Flip?" Hell, I sat behind him in home room! I always wondered whatever happened to good ole Flip. Last I heard, he was in middle management at Samsung.
I do recall though, back in the day, he roamed the hallways with a cloud following him....not unlike Pigpen in a cloud of dust'n'dirt, but his was a...well, different cloud. But, to answer your question......could be!๐ค๐ค
There should be a reward for that.
You subscribing is its own reward, Mark! Thank you! Feel free to peruse the archives so you feel at home behind the rope line (and in the green room with the food spread)!
You'll find a plethora of wordplay Easter eggs throughout, if you (as I do) subscribe to the great Martin Mull's credo: "Some people have a way with words; others, not have way." Thanks again!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
That would definitely mostly be me then ๐คฃ
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thanks Sarah!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Same here!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I use the recently added (thanks by the way) analytic of "dropped emails" to maintain the health of my list. It's a great tool for finding subscribers who have a full inbox or potential spam accounts, and set them aside for future vetting.
I didnโt know this was a thing! Iโm glad you mentioned it.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
So that WAS new! Thanks.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thanks for mentioning this. I hadn't seen it yet either.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Oooh, I haven't even seen this one yet!
Histogram of 50,100, 250, 500, 1000 subscribers by % of Substack writers. This helps me benchmark and motivate me to get to my 1,000 plus goal by the end of 2023.
Where do you see this info James ? Or is it a wish ?
It is my humble wish! Not yet available.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I like seeing how many views each post gets, either through direct emails or on the newsletter site itself. It would be nice if it was easier to see this data in a chart form so I can tell which posts gained tractions and which ones didn't. Perhaps this exists and I haven't found it yet.
Either way, I am always astounded by the posts that I think will do well and many times don't. And of course, the ones that I think are average end up doing really well.
I think what you are wishing for is a place to see all your post stats next to each other? You can in your Stats tab when you toggle to the email view.
Yeah. But from what I understand those stats are only for email. I would love to have more stats on traffic to individual posts on the website. I know I have "popular posts" on the right hand side of my newsletter's page that get traffic that doesn't come through email opens.
Ah, the old content conundrum! Writing about songs and music as I do, lengthy is the list of artists who were certain they just recorded a #1 song.....and, lo, it bombs mercilessly!
The obverse, of course, has happened at least as frequently...."OK, we'll just throw this piece of crap out there to satisfy our contract before we split for another label, and.....................what's that? IT'LL DEBUT AT #1 NEXT WEEK?!?" We're standing in a long historic line, William!๐๐ค๐ถ๐ธ๐ต๐๐
Yeah, I am sure this pattern happens EVERYWHERE. This certainly has the ability to keep one humble and keep you centered. Just work hard and enjoy the ride, right?
You nailed it, William! Just do you, push "play," and whoever listens, will. If they don't, they may find you later where I sometimes languish......the cut-out bin! Cheers!๐
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I use stats page traffic just to get a sense of volume and what is driving that volume. I noticed regular spikes on the days I publish, which is exactly what I was hoping for. I have not developed a sophisticated analysis of my traffic but I work with spreadsheets for a living so it's only a matter of time...
The one request I would make, is that when I get new subscribers, the email doesn't tell me anything about them. Maybe that is a technically challenging ask, but I received a BIG recommendation recently and it's driven a lot of subscribers my way, but the emails don't tell me that they were referrals, just that they are new subscribers. I had to go to the recommendations page on my stats screen to see the number of referrals tick up incrementally.
Is there any way to differentiate subscriber sources for non-recommendation driven subscribers? I don't know what is technically feasible, but that would help a lot because I could see whether most of my subscribers are random passers-by or people searching for key words.
Thank you as always for the constant improvement to the platform and offering new features!
Here is what to do when you get a new subscriber. Tweak your Welcome email. Ask them a question and say you are asking because you want to make sure they are not a bot. Read: https://pau1.substack.com/p/-which-email-message-has-the-highest
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I love that I can see word count for each of my posts in the editor. It would be great to be able to see the word count/read time in the metrics in the "email stats" section, so that I can better compare if length does anything for a post's popularity. Similarly, breaking out the time and day of the week that an email was sent, from the actual date would be very helpful in the "email stats" section.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Hi FatherofZoomers! I see you are commenting a lot of links. This is not a space to spam fellow writers. Is there a question we can help answer?
I would probably use more analytics if I had readers. :D But just to make this a useful comment, I would like to see a 'unique views' breakdown right on the Dashboard. It would help me track whether or not I've managed to intrigue anyone new.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I have found all of the analytics valuable. Recently I noticed that a number of the subscribers on my email list that I moved over when I changed to Substack from Mailchimp had not opened any of my emails. So to clean my list, I found all the ones from the transferred list with zero opens and deleted them. There is an easy way to do this, and glad to share it with anyone wanting to do it. I was also motivated to do this as Yahoo had begun blocking my newsletters.
Analytics wishlist:
1) In Traffic stats, being able to break it down by individual post. Help answer the question: is most of my traffic coming from new posts, or are particular old posts driving a ton of traffic to the site and could be better optimized for new subscribers?
2) In Podcast stats, similar request. How many of my daily/weekly/monthly downloads are coming from specific episodes? How do those downloads look over time?
3) Unsubscribe information about free subscribers โ it would be great to know unsubscribe rate over time.
Lots happening in today's thread. Thanks for weighing in on analytics, we are listening as we think about what tools to build next.
Next week we are taking a break from Office Hours but we will be back the first Thursday in August for our monthly shoutout thread. We hope to see you there: https://lu.ma/shoutout
In the meantime, our resources are here for you.
https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us
https://substack.com/resources
Keep going,
The Substack Team
Katie, Jasmine, Mills, Amanda, Zoe, Tania, Roberto, Sergey, Helen, and Farrah
For those looking at subscriber counts, just keep writing. Because of my Substack, one of my readers reached out to me for a guest post on a blog that is attached to one of the most prestigious universities on the planet. Thanks Substack!
Wow, that's fantastic. This is what I keep hearing from more established Substack writers: gradual growth punctuated occasionally by these growth spurts, all contingent on long-term consistency. Thanks for affirming that.
Indeed, just keep writing.
Oh my God, congrats. Some small part of me wishes J.K. Rowling or Sarah J Maas reads my work in progress Novel and I get famous. But then again, I also wanna be famous from all my hard work...
Thank you, just keep on rocking!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Truly, just showing up is more than half the battle!
Congrats to you, Shaun! I'll look forward to reading that guest post, which I trust you will share!
You know it! Thank you!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Congratulations, that's great that you got that level of recognition!
Thank you! Keep writing!
Yes, those things do happen! One of my readers sent me a DM and we realized we were living close to each other so we met and he told me that he was leaving Japan and was giving things away and did I care for a big flat-screen color TV and a North Face shirt.
Wow! Thatโs great to hear
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thanks!
Congrats!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thank you!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I wish when Substack users subscribed to my newsletter, they appeared as their username in my analytics so that I could check out their profile and subscribe to theirs.
We're working on improving the "new subscriber" emails so you can see other readers' + writers' profiles!
I would love the opportunity to collect subscriber's full names (or at least their first) and not just their email addresses.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Good idea. I do know that if you click on a subscriber's email address, there's an option to "View Profile" if they have one on Substack. That's where you'll be able to see if they have their own publication. Not exactly what you're looking for, but maybe something in the meantime
That's what we need to have on the subscribers' summary page. But your point was helpful. Thanks.
Thanks!
Yeah, that would be a good feature.
Good point! I've had that impulse too.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Just a note to everyone who's too shy to self-promote on social media: you needn't be. It felt awkward the first couple of weeks, but now sharing stuff on LinkedIn/Twitter became pretty organic (and I do share other stuff as well, so it's not an endless stream of self-promotion). People who don't care about your newsletter will just ignore the posts (like we ignore most of our news feeds anyway), but you'll get exposed to new people with every post.
I liked someone's advice to share snippets from the newsletter rather than just the link. You could write up some catchy bullet points. Or ask a question/run a poll.
Good luck to everyone and thanks to everyone sharing their experiences, makes it easier for me to move forward!
Still tackling this, but totally believe you. I was surprised and delighted to find a decent uptick after sharing on LinkedIn, despite my concerns about commingling my work work with my writing. I have the intention of promoting more, especially in regards to reaching outside my current sphere of followers.
I do pretty well via LinkedIn promotion. Just make sure to tailor the message for the specific channel. I write a lot of satire about corporate America, so LinkedIn is the perfect place. Twitter, not so much... :-)
Oooh. Excited to check it out!
Epic piece coming tomorrow morning at 10:30am ET. :-)
LinkedIn has been a good referrer for me too. LinkedIn users are publishing more inspirational posts than they did a few years ago. Plus, the platform still gets pretty good organic engagement.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Great advice Oleg. Threads are a great way to incite people to read your newsletter. Judd Legum does this brilliantly. Simply directing your audience on Twitter to your newsletter every week is fine, but you can be more effective.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
More power to you, Oleg! And thanks for your support!
Thank you for your note, which i find very helpful and inspiring. I am going to implement your advice in our newsletter promotion and outreach!
My tip for today: anchor links.
In your published post, hover over any header; a link icon appears.
Click it and it'll copy the URL to jump directly to that header on the post page.
Edit your post to add the links.
Example:
https://moviewise.substack.com/p/movie-reviews
Feel free to ask me any questions.
Whoa, you kind of blew my mind. This didn't even occur to me.
This is a feature I've wanted from the start - thanks for sharing this!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
That's a great tip! Thanks
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Question about anchor links: it seems that when I try to use an anchor link for a podcast post, and I share that link to social media, the default is to share the audio of the post, and not the section I'm trying to link to, if that makes sense. For example: https://twitter.com/fogchaser__/status/1549822273653071872
Good feedback! Passing along to our team, might be a bug
Thanks, Katie!
That probably should be brought to the attention of the engineers/ Substack support: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Yes, good idea!
Hello all, I launched 8 hrs ago. I plan to initially focus on covering a niche topic (our sense of self) but hope to look at it through art, science, religion and other lenses. Hope to learn from all of you and explore this amazing space. Look forward to collaborations and suggestions from all of you. Thanks Substack.
I launched a few months ago and only have a few subscribers at this point, but focus on that same niche and am open to exploring guest posting on each otherโs blogs (or anyone elseโs in the mental health, self-love, personal growth or similar niches). My tagline is โfor those who want to change lives, starting with their own.โ
my newsletter is for creatives looking inward and about process of writing also - I focus on themes in my fiction writing which include self love, spirituality, personal growth, etc. Happy to give you a recommendation if you do same for me. I'll also subscribe.
I find my writing and exploring themes related to mental health, spirituality, well-being, and wellness takes form as I continue with my blogging and newsletter. I am open to sharing and supporting others on their substack journey.
great! why don't we follow each other. I'm happy to do a shoutout re yours. Hope you can do something similar.
Just subscribed. Intrigued by your Substack
thanks! and i'm a subscriber of yours!
Personal growth is where its at!
Wendi ... I'm in and hope we can exchange ideas, etc. Neuroscience and gratitude ... love it! I'm launching in the near future. Gratitude Mojo.
Sounds good, Joyce.
dope!
Your site looks fascinating ... look forward to seeing more and possibly connecting when I launch probably next week.
You got it!
Just became a free subscriber of YouTopian Journey. Love what little Iโve seen so far and definitely open to cross-posting and/or recommending each other.
Dope, lets keep in touch on it as you explore more of what my Substack is about and has to offer.
Sounds good. Let me know what you think of mine too and any ideas you have for collaborating.
Looks interesting. I'm a lay neuroscience fan focused on gratitude ... just getting ready to launch. Looking forward to following your work.
I'm all about gratitude - I'm going to subscribe to you. Hope you'll follow back.
Definitely followed you ... you had me at "inner activist." ;-)
The "theme" of mine is "on the journey," which has allowed me to make separate categories for different parts of the journey: travel, personal growth, and spiritual/political discoveries. Substack has made it so easy to do so.
Great idea, Sarah! I may separate mine into two categories: changing our own lives and helping others change theirs.
my newsletter is for creatives looking inward and about process of writing also - I focus on themes in my fiction writing which include self love, spirituality, personal growth, etc. Happy to connect and give you a recommendation if you do same for me. I'll also subscribe.
I just subscribed to yours. Hope youโll reciprocate and once weโve had the chance to read each otherโs work we can talk about recommending each other and maybe guest posting.
Subscribed to you also - and yes! Let's figure something out. I'm not quite at guest posting yet but happy to do a shoutout (a couple lines about your newsletter and a link to it.)
Sounds great!
Sure, I just subscribed to yours too. Iโve only been publishing my newsletter for a few months and have only participated in a handful of these chats due to my schedule, but always find them helpful and a great way to connect with writers in my niche and others whose ideas interest me.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
of course! I just subscribed to you also. would love you to connect with mine also. And let's talk about shoutouts (promoting each other in our newsletters) and recommendations etc. thanks!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
wait - is this natasha from yesterday? i don't if i already subscribed but it wouldn't let me. i was confused at your link. (confusion seems to be my state of being for today....)
Sorry, my url:
https://thefaceinthemirror.substack.com/
ah - just got it and subscribed. hope you'll do same.
Subscribed to yours too. Also, FYI (I didnโt realize this at first either) you donโt have to share your url here; every comment you post automatically links to your home page when people click on your photo/other image.
This weekend, I'll be heading to the local coffee shops to distribute a physical manifestation of my Substack blog. I took three representative articles and printed them in zine form; included is a QR code so people can read more online if they desire. So . . .wish me luck! You can see some pictures of the finished product here: https://twitter.com/william_collen/status/1548286398251159556?s=20&t=1nAO6ffx-EsJnsJQoO0yRg
I have compiled all of my posts from my first year and once I finish the formatting, I'll be offering it as an eBook that new subscribers can download for free in exchange for subscribing. I hope to print it out as well but that version I would sell to cover printing/shipping costs.
Oh my, this is the best tip I got from today's Writer Office Hour! Thanks, Linda, I'll be sure to follow your example.
Excellent idea. Never would have thought of that.
That's a good idea. I've wondered sometimes what to do with a year's-long archive of previous posts. Having a physical copy, with a table of contents and index, would be a great way to keep my older stuff from getting lost at the bottom of the archive.
Really love this! I hope it goes well!
Thanks!
That's a really cool idea! Kudos for putting your work out there like that - a victory in itself.
Thank you!
Let us know if you get a discernable response! I've been contemplating the QR Code route.
Put the QR code to your website URL on the back of a T-shirt. Who can resist a QR code?
https://www.canva.com/design/DAFHEZUBz70/YWBFNuht6MYe0n3q5839mw/view?utm_content=DAFHEZUBz70&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton
Woman here... Nope. ๐๐๐
Ooh, sneaky...
I will, thanks!
Long live zines! As a former zine-making addict, I just love reading from paper.
Would love to hear how this goes for you!
Thanks! My hope is that I will see a statistically-significant uptick in site visits in the course of the following few days.
Clever idea! Fingers crossed!
Thank you! We'll see how it goes.
The blurbs is the feature I adore. One year into writing on this platform and I have started receiving constant engagement with some really encouraging feedback. The Blurbs feature will help me utilise the potential of recommendations and feedback to actively lure new audience. Thank you Substack for both recommendations and blurb features. ๐๐
So glad to hear you like it!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Blurbs are something I learned about when I published my first books. I got some great ones and put them on the back cover of my book. Regarding blogging and newsletters on Substack, it is a great idea and a valuable tool for promotion. As I love to write blurbs, I will look to do more as I review other Substack newsletters.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Hi all! How is your week going? This week I asked my followers to share what kind of conditions they require in order to feel renewed. What nourishment and environment they need to be refreshed. So I thought it might be interesting to present that same idea here, Substack Writers Edition: what renews, refreshes, and inspires you as a writer and creator? I'm curious, and I'm sure others are too! ๐ฟ
Always dropping inspo! Thanks for being here
Thank YOU for creating such an inviting space for us all every week, Katie and Co! โฅ๏ธ
Unplugging from writing and plugging into reading.
(Especially reading all the great writers I follow.)
Agreed. I get a lot of inspiration from reading what others write, and sometimes quote and reflect on something that resonates with me.
Great one! I find that I feel "empty" faster when I'm not reading, for sure. Need input for output!
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Nature
Definitely with you on that. It fills the cup in such a unique way.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Great question. In many ways, it's the act of creating itself that renews me. It's not so much my Substack writing, which I enjoy but can be quite draining, but the fiction writing I'm doing, which I'm doing entirely for fun. The other thing that helps me so much is connecting with other writers.
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Reading interesting books always gets me thinking!
Daily immersion in my โYinโ Taoist journaling and meditation.
It definitely helps to weave mindfulness into your daily routine! How long did it take you to cultivate that as a regular practice?
Itโs been an ongoing journey of ebbs and flows within the mindfulness space. I first discovered this path in 1997 by way of a book called โSacred Hoopsโ by Phil Jackson
I feel renewed when I have all my work done. I don't have a plateful of work, but I find getting things taken care of, and off a list feels great. Then I putz around until I make a new list...
Fellow list-maker here, too. Love this!
Reading, listening to new music, walking my dog.
Having a dog has definitely changed my relationship with inspiration! He forces me up and out the door every day, and it's so helpful for both body and brain.
Great question, and the title of your newsletter inspired me to check it out. Just became a free subscriber!
Walking in a local park and watching the animals there, especially all the rabbits and the heron who shows up sometimes, renews, refreshes, and inspires me. Several of my Medium articles were inspired by what I saw while walking at the park.
Oh Wendi, that's so kind of you! I hope you enjoy. :)
Yes, I agree with you about nature and its ability to refresh. I think I often get so caught up in my small inner world that seeing the world outside helps me to gain perspective. ๐ฟ
I agree with Matt here--reading! I am especially finding inspiration and renewal in discussion via comments.
I find the discussions helpful, too! Knowing that others are dealing with similar questions and doubts makes me feel less alone. โฅ๏ธ
https://fatherofzoomers.substack.com/p/dominick-and-isabella?r=jejuu&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
How many of you use notebooks and journals to plan out your newsletters and content? It's part of my workflow, combining bullet journaling with other types of notebooks. See the link for more info! https://howaboutthis.substack.com/p/the-notebook-expo
I wish I had a cooler answer, but literally every article I write starts out as something scribbled on the back of old teletype messages from my work printer.
This is incredibly cool in it's own way.
Thanks! ๐
unlike my spelling. it's should be its. *headdesk*
Yes! I was just thinking this morning about how my entire publication started (and continues to live) first and foremost in my Field Notes notebooks.
I find that Field Notes are too small for my liking (includes there is a bigger size that I'm not aware of!)
Turn it 90 degrees and work on the open spread (the fold will be horizontally across the โnewโ double-sized page youโve created)! Only works with blank, grid or dot grid notebooks - unless youโre after a REAL challenge and want to write on lines going the wrong way! :D
I use a passport sized dot grid notebook when Iโm out and about - opened up like this it's not all that far off the A5 size I generally write on at home.
Well.. yes, that would work!
Give it a go! :D
I'm a notebook hoarder, I love a good notebook. It's not explicitly workflow driven, just a place I can empty ideas out of my brain before assembling them into something coherent online. I'll check out your article! Thanks!
Fellow notebook hoarder here! I was recently offered some validation by a friend of mine who is a therapist. She said, in response to my long and desperate rant about my propensity for making lists that go nowhere, "The list is the work." There is intrinsic benefit to transmuting busy thoughts in your brain into tangible words on a page. They don't always have to become more than that.
I like this and it makes a lot of sense to me. There's power in the transcript process.
Cool, thanks!
Google sheets are helpful for logging topics, themes, and article ideas that come to mind. If I like an idea, I commit to three total drafts before publishing - all saved in the same Word file. That's where the organization stops lol, as I save all the Word docs to my desktop #hotmess
Makes perfect sense!
"How to Write Smart Notes" is a book that teaches a system of note taking that a lot of prolific writers use. I am part way through the book now, so I don't have a recommendation yet.
Here is a summary: https://www.shortform.com/summary/how-to-take-smart-notes-summary-sonke-ahrens?gclid=Cj0KCQjw8uOWBhDXARIsAOxKJ2GfBBk-5JQKee6oM2iNtTYzlfT7w-xnUYMhCxioxzqTGI-6CQ88QZIaAum4EALw_wcB
Oh yes, I'm familiar with that and have a copy. A lot of people have used that as a means to build Zettelkastens and other permanent knowledge repositories. I reference it in this post: https://howaboutthis.substack.com/p/the-knowledge-that-wont-fit-inside-6d3
I should take a look at that, but I have been happy with the system I use with Evernote. Not only can I keep any relative ideas or notes in a way that I can find them, but I also use Evernote for journaling new ideas and themes and can easily dictate notes that it accurately transcribes for me.
Every time I go out for a walk I take a small notepad and my camera with me. I find walking incredibly inspiring when it comes to generating new ideas.
I used to take my phone with me on walks; the idea being I'd have it if I wanted to take notes, but we all know how that story ends...
Great idea!
I do. I'm completely in love with Google Keep. There's a note simply for ideas as a checklist. Then there are collections of quotes and screenshots that will be useful at some point. And there's mindmaps too, my equivalent of an outline. Everything is tagged with labels so that I can find what I'm looking for quickly. And particularly good Substack resource material and useful comments on these threads get stored in there too, tagged with something like "Reader Engagement", etc.
And Google Keep works across all my devices, so when I'm out and about, I can quickly scratch in some notes before I forget them.
I use Scrivener to plan. I can rearrange the list order or change icons to show progress.
I've never tried Scrivener!
I tried but I keep losing the notebooks. I do use the Notes app on my iphone/computer though, since it syncs across multiple devices.
Out of curiosity, how big are the notebooks? Pocket sized? or larger?
I have tried every size of notebook. I simply cannot be trusted with them.
Gotta do what works for you.
Exactly. Why fight against your own brain?
I strive to be on best terms with my brain because it's the one that really knows what's going on and gets stuff done.
Great article, Mark!
Thanks!
That's one legendary collection Mark!
thanks Oleg!
Love what youโre up to. Iโll be reaching out to connect.
Very kind of you, thanks!
Substack I find it odd that my most supportive subscribers (those who tweet, comment, share, and engage) are free while my paid subscribers have never once engaged. Interested to hear thoughts on this.
Perhaps the paid subscribers are motivated by wanting to support your work, while the free ones are socializing?
BINGO!
I wonder if paid subscribers feel that they've done enough by supporting you financially. Free subscribers recognize that they aren't supporting monetarily and thus want to support in other ways - by sharing, promoting, etc. What do you think?
Didn't occur to me, but it stands to reason. Good insight.
This is a fantastic insight and one I had not considered. Thanks for offering that up as a possibility!
Possible! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this, it is vexing.
Have you reached out to any of those folks to ask them directly?
No, just wondering though.
I wonder if some of your paid subscribers are professionals in a sensitive field like mental health (psychologists, social workers, counselors, therapists, etc.). If so, their incentive for subscribing may be to gain an information advantage or just to learn from another perspective. And all they need to be satisfied is for you to keep publishing. There might actually be disincentives for them to post comments that others can see. Those dynamics, if they exist in your free posts, would be hidden by the dialogue among free subscribers.
Similar dynamics might be in play on an investment newsletter. Just my thoughts....
I think this is very astute. I have a decent-sized list of former colleagues from academia and corporate. They never comment or like my posts because I often write dark and deranged things. The risk of reputational damage, even if small, isn't worth it regardless of whether they loved a post.
Interesting perspective. I also have a lot of creatives, founders, and investors, so not sure. But thank you for this.
This is not an uncommon occurrence, although it is still vexing. I wonder if any marketing research has been done in this area at Substack to explain that trend?
I have been noticing this too! I posted a poll for only paid subscribers--not one of them voted. A real head-scratcher.
I donโt have paid subscribers, but thatโs an interesting occurrence
Same. Free posts get way more engagement than subscriber-only posts. There's a larger population receiving the free posts, so that could be part of it, but it is still surprising.
Added three blurbs to my home page because I loved each of them, but now I'm wondering if it feels cluttered to have all three. It would be cool if there was an option to "pick 3 but display 1 at a time" and they could cycle randomly. Just a thought!
As I only have one blurb, I don't have that problem yet! But this is a great point.
This is useful feedback, thanks!
My forthcoming novel is scheduled for before Christmas. I have a list of 223 podcasts and YouTube channels that I've either appeared on before, know me, or cover similar material to my content. I will put together an individual email for all of them - addressed by name (the stats are in on this, personalized emails get way more opens) and talking to them about their show - with details - so they know it's not just a bulk send and they're being cold-called. Link them to some media about you, and your Substack or other material, and simply tell them you're looking to promote it and would love to come on as a guest for a chat. Many podcasters and YouTubers are desperate for interesting guests and if you can sell yourself and your product to them (and you are a salesperson) you'll get some leads. And once you've been on a few, you can make a little show-reel of your best bits to include in the emails you send to more people. If no one knows you exist - guess what - no one's going to find you. Good luck.
Thanks, Chris, for great direction; I certainly need to do much more of this type of promotion, especially with my intention of doing another book and podcasting myself.
No worries - in my experience it's the biggest failure point of creatives. If no one knows your stuff exists, why are they going to look for it? And from there you have two options, pay someone to promote you, or get busy with guerilla marketing like this. There's plenty of other things you can do - just get those creative juices away from the page and into promotion occasionally.
Thanks, Chris. It is excellent advice for me, who needs to be reminded of where to put my priorities.
A pleasure - get creative with it, there's loads of ways to promote yourself - and some that are waiting to be invented.
I love the idea of using a paywall in my free posts to block off subscriber-only content at the end of the issue. My free readers like to comment and get frustrated when they can't - and when I add a paywall it no longer allows free readers to comment. The interaction is important to me and I want to utilize paywalls in the best way possible. Will there be a functionality in the future for free readers to comment on posts with a paywall?
Great feedback, and very interesting. There are a lot of these kinds of "combination" challenges on Substack today: one might want a paywall gated post with free comments, in your example, or a podcast with a video clip, or many tiers of access per post (e.g. imagine two paywalls: a "paid" paywall and a later "founding" paywall). In general, the more combinations your interface accommodates, the more complex it is, so there's some tension between "supporting every combination of use-cases" and "keeping Substack simple." But there are also many solutions which can achieve this!
Thanks for sharing this use-case; if you have it, others do too, and we'd love to figure out a solution. (We also have some things in the works which *may* address this orthogonally, but that's all I can say at the moment!).
Mills, got a couple of subscribers from paywalls at first, but lately --despite generous free content above paywall and not cutting off mid-story, have had a bunch of unsubscribes instead. I would definitely be interested in tweaks, otherwise not using for now!
Same, Annette! I got a TON of unsubs when I used it.
It's crazy making! It's too many to disregard, and when it's longtime engaged readers, it's doubly frustrating. It's been decades since most writers were paid properly (or at all) and I would love Substack to research readers ' thinking, plus how we can address it. Certainly, it doesn't apply to celeb Substackers.
Completely agree with all of this.
Thanks for the reply, Mills!
I agree, we need this!
Can you share a 3-6 month plan to go from a couple hundred readers to >1K? Just a starting point for new, committed writers.
What milestones should we aim for? What practices are best/highest-leverage?
I love this interview with Elizabeth Held! Grew her list from 0 to 2000 in a year and a couple cold emails were the big unlock. Don't underestimate a thoughtful email to someone interesting with an audience.
https://on.substack.com/p/grow-series-6
Solid point. I'm only a month in with just 52 subscribers, but I've started to reach out to a few relevant influencers for interviews. A couple of them have agreed, so we'll see how that goes over the course of the next month or two.
Thanks Katie! I'm excited to dig into this.
โขWrite early
โขPromote
โขWrite often
โขDo good work
โขGive more than you take
โขDo more promoting
โขConnect with other writers in your same space
โขPromote
Keep writing and promoting.
I always trumpet business cards! Assuming you're not sequestering in your home, and you sometimes venture out into the general (if not the specific) public, people you bump into at the gym, bank, post office, a restaurant, might all appreciate being given a clever biz card inviting them to read/subscribe!
I even have a QR code on the back of mine, and I hang two cards (a front and a back with code) on Starbucks and Panera community bulletin boards (and wherever else I'm able)!
here in england the starbucks (or any corporate coffee shop staff) are a bit fascistic about what goes on the noticeboard. its not a real notice board in any sense of the word. just 'approved corporate messages' like the rest of the world.
Brit in US here! Planning a trip over, and still puzzling over how to add to my UK audience. I have enthusiastic Brit subscribers, and may have to rely on them. The national aversion to self-promotion is a tough nut to crack!
Well, assuming Starbucks (or any other commercial or governmental agency) doesn't carry their authoritarian reflexes into your interpersonal relationships, a biz card is still a good way to break the ice with someone new you meet, or in my case, I simply ask new "strangers-turned-friends," "What kind of music do you listen to?"
If they answer anything in the classic rock, prog and/or punk of the '70s and beyond arena, BOOM, they get a card, and usually a 5-minute (with their kind indulgence) impassioned review of what my 'Stack can offer them!
Hi Brad, thanks for reminding me about this. Now that I'm no longer on zoom all the time and networking, will give it a go.
Happy to help, George! Good luck and go get 'em!
Join some forums that deal with similar content to yours. Spend a few weeks joining in with the chat, and then casually drop in a link to your Substack. Aim for ten such forums a month. Find YouTube channels that do a lot of live streams. These people are desperate for new and interesting guests. Link them to your Substack and ask if they'll have you on as a guest. Aim for about 20 a month. Do the same with podcasters - many of these people are actually struggling to find guests and you'll be surprised how many will get you on.
Dang this is solid. Got me fired up to read. Thank you ๐ I immediately thought of a few next steps
Excellent. There's loads of ways to publicize yourself, and without it you're not, well, public. I published a novel decades ago with a drug theme. Me and some friends printed off hundreds of pages which had little squares containing the book title, my name, the ISBN number and a bit of a review. We cut them out and sat there for days making thousands of 'cocaine wraps', which we then went on to distribute all over London, dropping them in toilets in bars, in trains, buses, restaurant toilets etc. If someone in my target demographic sees one of them, they'll pick it up and put it in their pocket to be checked later. it worked - I even had people contact me and say it was the fact they'd been so cleverly 'had' that made them buy the novel. Unless you can afford to pay for publicity, you have to do it yourself. Best wishes.
Just a note of encouragement for others. I've been making slow, but steady, progress since I started in February. I've had a few posts do well, others not so much. This week I took a risk and wrote something with more of an edge and promoted it in a few places, and it's been viewed more than 4,500 times in three days and added more than 60 free subscribers. I'm a little wary of this -- I don't want to write something quite this angsty every week -- but we'll see how many readers stick with me. For now, I want to second what others have said. I thought Substack would just be another echo chamber, like the rest of social media. What I've found is that it is actually a genuine source of community. There is room for principled disagreement and real conversation, but more importantly for SUBSTANCE. It is such a delight to know there are readers who want to really dig into ideas with me. Thanks.
I have 2 questions I've been holding on to until Office Hours today:
1. How are we all using the "sections" feature? Is that like our version of creating categories for our main Newsletter? I'd love to look at some publications who use it!
2. Do people who write more "personal essay"-type newsletters, or newsletters that talk about multiple topics, find they get much engagement or paid subscribers?
I'm REALLY trying to break my habit of thinking I need to stick to one thing cause (cause I wanna write about what's on my mind and share food recipes and such!) that's all I've been told in online marketing over the past 7 years... But it feels hard to break that narrative when I SEEM to only see people who can write about many things, be people who may have been writing and editing professionally for a long time, are in New York, etc. (like Maybe Baby, and such).
Hi Cierra! I have 2 substacks and on one, Collected Rejections, I use sections. I write personal essays and fiction on my substack, as well as host interviews. Each "genre" has it's own section. You can see them here: http://valorieclark.substack.com
I haven't tried launching paid yet, so I can't speak to whether it'll make much money BUT I do get a lot of engagement on each post. Much more engagement than my history podcast with a much higher subscriber count, actually.
I think when it comes to personal essays, people subscribe to your substack because they like YOU, and so they'll enjoy anything you want to add to the mix. When I started adding in fiction prompts I thought people would hate it but I've gotten uniformly wonderful feedback.
Thanks, Valorie! I'll check yours out!
Maybe I need to listen to a mantra tape saying "they're subscribing for YOU" while I sleep so I can get it drilled into my head haha.
I LOVE writing and have always done it whether I was getting paid or not (my current Substack has been on hiatus cause I currently don't make a living wage so I had to prioritize that for now), but may be back soon with a quick series idea!
All I want is engagement and to talk to people and have people resonate and get impacted enough that they comment! That makes me so happy!
Okay... Okay... There are LITERALLY no rules. Truly, when I'm excited to share something on Substack, I'm gonna share it!! <3 Woo!!
Thanks again!
haha yes! I love writing little affirmations and sticking them somewhere I see them a lot! Next to my computer, on my mirror, etc.
Yes!! I do this too! Forgot about the mirror and I definitely have a mirror haha. I truly do need them in my face though or I forget about them/ANYTHING
Hi Cierra, my Substack is "dark comedy" themed but I also write fiction every now and then. It's a radical mix, so I created a fiction section where I can post there directly and then decide if I want to email blast or not (the bulk of my subscribers are here for the jokes). I also created a section for a recurring bit that I do, which functions as a mini-archive for readers into that topic. You can explore the layout here: https://agowani.substack.com/
Oooh thank you! This is giving me ideas for my own newsletter. My newsletter is new enough that I can shift around the intentions of my newsletter in its entirety and create those sections. I'll check yours out! Thanks for giving yours as an example!
You're welcome. I was on Medium and then came over to Substack less than three months ago. It's a very different vehicle and I've been experimenting quite a lot as well. Good luck!
I noticed the feel of Medium has changed over the past couple of years and I didn't like it. I absolutely love how writer-focused Substack is, for sure. And thank you! Good luck to you as well!
For the first one, sections are a way to organize different kinds or toipcs of posts on your publication site. You can read more about how to use them here: https://on.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-publication-sections/
Here are a couple examples of publications using sections that might help:
- https://theisolationjournals.substack.com/
- https://charlotteledger.substack.com/
Is there a way to change the order in which the section are listed in the header?
Yep! Go to the sections part of your settings page, then drag them into order using the 6 dots on the left of each row.
That was easy. Thanks much!
Thank you, Jasmine! I'll check these out for sure. I was wondering if I should just make a new publication, or sections... Especially since I'm feeling like my publication may just cover multiple topics!
If you think there's any overlap in interest between the topics, I'd go with sections. After all, many of your readers are probably reading to hear from your voiceโ not just about a specific topic.
You can also provide readers instructions on how to unsubscribe from sections they're not interested in. (They can go to https://whenshemanifests.substack.com/account, and will see checkboxes to add/remove sections.)
Thank you so much for that direct link! I'll be sure to add that into the instructions when I build in more ease for my readers!
Thanks overall for the advice! :)
Hi! I am brand new but I plan on using substack to publish in "personal essay" format. I am certainly hoping people will be engaged, and one way I'm trying to do that is to "sign off" with a couple of reflection questions (no matter what crazy tangents I went on lol). Wishing you all the best and definitely don't limit yourself to one area if you feel called to expand!
Working hard on getting over that story I keep telling myself, out here trying to read everyone's minds by assuming I know what they're subscribe or unsubscribe to haha.
And welcome! This has been my FAVORITE community to write and be with as far as writers go! I absolutely love it here!
I'm working on coming back in the groove here; life's been happening so I had to hold off putting time into posting as much but I REALLY miss it!
Thanks again for the encouragement to write what I wanna write!!
There's no rules, gotta keep drilling that in my head haha!
Yes - our minds tell us a lot of stories... only some of them (if any) are true! Best wishes and see you around.
Thank you so much!
Re: analytics, I like to check my subscriber chart every week. Seeing a steady growth trajectory from 0-600 in just over half a year reminds me that folks really are enjoying my content, and to keep at it even when the going gets rough.
In other news, I'm thinking of blending my free and paid content into one weekly newsletter, with free content on top and paid content below the fold. Has anyone else tried this? I'm hoping this will make creating all that content more manageable.
I'm also wondering what has worked for others when converting free subscribers to paid ones. Curious to hear your thoughts!
Garbage Day used to do that split but stopped doing it at some point. I think one annoyance I've seen is that free subscribers can't comment on the posts anymore because they're technically "paid" posts.
I have a question about the stats on readers; does Substack have plans to offer more data on readers outside of the current ratings? As the network starts to get stronger, I would love to see more data about reading habits, open times, etc. Optimizing timing around publishing is an obvious win for most writers, and substack has this data available in theory...
We're very keen to (1) expand the data we organize and share with creators (while respecting reader privacy, of course); and (2) leverage the network to get superior / richer data for creators. I can't make any promises about specific features or timelines, but I can say we intend to develop in this area as much as possible. Thanks for the nudge!
thanks for the reply, this is now a good guy Mills appreciation thread.
Y'all need a public roadmap and a writer-to-writer beta program.
Above all there needs to be writing about the design of Substack! These threads are great, but they run counter to ambition of the platform in terms of clarity of communication. There's a better way! :)
Haha, "good guy Mills"! I'm telling my family about this!
I love public roadmaps. To be candid, I think we're not quite "settled" enough internally / as a company to get there in the near future. As quickly as Substack-the-platform is changing, so too is Substack-the-company: scaling, experimenting, exploring, bringing in new POVs. Another way to put this: we can't share a public roadmap if we barely have a private one! (I shouldn't exaggerate; we have plans, of course). Basically: we'd love to get here and I think we will someday, but probably not in the next few months.
It looks like Jasmine is following up re: a potential beta program, which we'd *also* love to productize / scale. That one might happen sooner!
To your last point: you and my bosses are in complete agreement that there should be more writing about the design of Substack! The team is full of wonderful writers, like Jasmine, so it can definitely happen. Not to sound like a broken record, but we're just a bit busy at the moment! As we scale and settle, it'll be easier to slot in time for these kinds of very important things, and as someone who's written a lot about design over the years, I can't wait!
๐๐ฝ ๐๐ฝ ๐๐ฝ thank you for honest and clear reply.
Having too many amazing things to build all at once is what my Grandpa would have called a "champagne problem". I have confidence y'all will get it right and get it done in time. Thanks again!
Hi! Can you elaborate on what you mean by a "writer-to-writer beta program"?
Hi Jasmine, pleasure to hear from you.
What I mean by this is that in a two-sided marketplace like Substack, you should have your writers operate as public beta testers with a different set of account permissions that allow them to test new features before they are rolled out to the larger substack community. This is a pretty widespread practice for platform companies in my experience, and it allows your most passionate and invested users to invest themselves in improving the platform.
More questions, hit me up by email: caithrin@caithrin.com cheers
Got it, thanks for clarifying! We're exploring something along those lines & will reach out as it progresses.
Has Substack considered adding links to follow people on social media on home pages or next to authors' bylines? That might be a good way to get people finding each other outside of Substack!
That's a great idea! It's something we'd definitely like to explore.
Yay! I'd appreciate it.
On the custom sidebar, I added links to my twitter and instagram, since you can link out to anywhere. It would be cool to see this done natively in profiles though!
Love this idea.
For those who are just starting out and not seeing any growth, just keep at it.
I was in the same position as you a few months ago. My newsletter is still small, but Iโm seeing spikes in growth after months of little to no change.
To put it in perspective, I gained around 50 subscribers over an 8 month period.
In the 1.5 months since then, Iโve gained around 40.
Keep up with the consistency!
Encouraging!
Regarding Analytics: The fact that this is a poll question on "Writer's Hours" is a step in another way to get your newsletter discovered.
I look forward to Substack and Google working together in harmony. That would truly set Substack way ahead of any competition, as the SEO part of Substack was missing and an afterthought. I have hooked up Google Search Console to my Substack, and to delve deeper I use all the Substack tools available on the platform (as listed in the poll).
I appreciate Substack and the connections it has helped me to make. Thanks Katie and all!
Thanks for being here Paul!
Has anyone used a graphic designer recently to create a Substack logo whom they can recommend? Many Thanks, Luke
NZ-based https://www.omnibrand.co.nz/substack-kits/ has worked with a number of Substack writers
I just used Canva.com to create an e-mail post banner, as well as my main page's key graphic component (feel free to see it now)! Subscribe to (eventually) see my e-mail post banner!
I'll check out Picsart, now, but I enjoyed what Canva was able to do, and how easy it was. I subscribed for a month, but I'm told I can delete that within the month and owe nothing.
Second this. Canva is intuitive and fun to learn. You'd be able to create a logo incorporating, text, graphics, or both. I'm no expert but I have made a ton of stuff there, lmk if I can help.
I love Canva.
I use Picsart ( https://picsart.com/create ) and have found it pretty easy to work with. I've only tried the free version, so the paid might be even better. It's pretty simple and intuitive. Good luck!
I also love Canva and have been able to design my logos with a bit of practice.
I used Canva to create mine and use it for nearly everything. For litthinkpodcast.substack.com I used the art skills of a friend because we wanted something pretty specific. Contemplating using his skills again when I decide I need a more unique logo for marketing purposes.
Another Canva lover here! They have free training videos on branding and other cool stuff too.
Highly recommend my friend Jon Wilcox, who created the logo for my publication, as well as the logo for the Moby Dick Substack (among others, I think). https://jtwilcox.com
1. Right on, and thanks for the recommendation!
2. Wait, thereโs a Moby Dick Substack?!
Haha, yes! https://mobydicksummer.substack.com/
Just want to toss an offer of creative support out there... I love creating collage-style images (see example at my site). If you would like an image created for one of your posts for free, please reach out. Maybe I can create something for you that makes a splash.
First person to say yes gets the offer.
So cool! I have been getting more into collage art myself :)
Katie, I'm not saying you can't draw lol... but I admit that I can't.
It's a great medium for those who cannot draw lolol !
Hey Rian! I was just wondering if anybody has taken you up on that offer yet? :) I'd love to collab with you on one!
Hi Celine, you're the first! I'd be happy to connect with you. Are we able to message on this platform? Or would you like to contact me via email?
I don't think there's a private dm function on substack yet! Shall we email? Mine is celinexgabriella@gmail.com :)
Hi all - I write about self-love, spirituality, personal growth - it's a newsletter for creatives looking inward. Also some writing stuff. I'd love to connect with a few folks to do cross promotion shoutouts, recommendations, etc. If you write something similar, please feel free to get in touch. There have to be a ton of us out there.
Hi, I really like your line - "for creatives looking inward." I'm probably in that category and would be happy to connect - although please note I have no subscribers as I am brand new lol.
I will sub to your newsletter and learn more about your style!
no worries - i'll be your first subscriber! i figure we can all grow together!
thanks I've done same at yours! let's keep connected
definitely!
Subscribed! Iโm on here as a fiction writer but my online platform is on spirituality/consciousness (Iโm a numerologist)
I'm here as both - still juggling how to go between writing about writing, and creating articles on themes in my writing - which is spirituality, self-love etc.
Yea itโs a struggle. I think my plan in the beginning is to just make sure my WIP is ready to be published every week and any time I have after that, maybe making vlogs about writing on my channel and posting them here along with a blurb. Oh the struggles lol
If you're writing fiction on your substack, make sure you join fictionistas - they seem to be a thriving group. I'm indie publishing a fiction book in sept so am not publishing fiction here but pieces around the themes in my writing (as I mentioned). I might also do some short fiction around characters and alternative scenes from book.
I have subscribed to it and im not sure how to engage with it yet? Lol thanks! That sounds like a good game plan as this is a good platform for that kind of writing.
they do zooms every month. and comment when you're moved to - others will get to know you....
I think I sent you an email after a Grow session a couple weeks ago, but maybe it didn't go through? How do you prefer to be contacted?
to me? I didn't see it - sorry! I check email more often - dianehatz@substack.com or my usual email diane (at) wholehealthygroup (dot) com
No worries, I'll email you today :)
Dope!
Hi Team! Last week someone expressed frustration with the interruptions in life that has been preventing them from writing.
Someone replied, โWelcome to the club,โ and I thought โAmen!โ
At the time, my own busy life was interfering with my writing life, but that plaintive cry nagged at me all week, so I thought I might recycle that and ask โthe Clubโ for input on how they handle that issue in their own busy lives.
I have run across some ideas, some of which I have never been able to implement and others that have not worked for me.
One idea that I *could* implement, if I had the discipline of my Little Big Sister, I would get up an hour earlier than I usually do and dedicate that to writing.
Years ago, I read that when the โthrillerโ writer John Grisham worked as an attorney, he sat in his car with a legal tablet and wrote for an hour, before going into work.
Regarding interruptions I have made it clear to my family โDo not call me on Thursday mornings unless it involves smoke or blood or โsuicidal ideation.โโ Today is the third Thursday in a row that life stressors (today, *three* of them just discovered that their boss went bankrupt, owing them money) have intervened. Since they *all* owe me money, the suicidal ideation is running rampant.
Dismissing that idea as impractical (I donโt own a gun or possess any lethal medications. I donโt have a gas stove. Death by defenestration requires more elevation than any of my windows provide).
So, the solution is that everyone takes advantage of the tight job market and gets another job. Any job. One of them is going to take a large cut in pay, but the other two will find something in the same pay range. For the one, any wage is a big step up from zero and will be useful to easing the pressure. For me, I have been hanging onto the dregs of a once useful IRA (paying *me* interest) because I didnโt know *what* was going to go wrong, just that *something* will. Looks like our lucky day has arrived.
More โgrist for the writerโs mill.โ
One thing I do for stress relief is write. I just did. Now, on to finishing three pieces I have started for three Writerโs Hour teammatesโฆ
I don't love getting up early, I'm much more of a night owl, so one thing I did when I needed to kickstart my writing habit was start writing at midnight when everyone else had already gone to bed. It was the last thing I did before bed, so I was sometimes tired, but I found that being tired actually meant I couldn't be critical at the same time. I just wrote down whatever I thought, no hesitation, no self-censoring, and I got some really good work down.
For a while, when I had a really dreamy novella I wanted to write, I got up at 3 am, wrote until 5 am, then went back to bed. Writing in the dark with the lights down, when I had no distractions, was key for it. I think you can't be afraid to change up your habit to suit the project! If getting up 1 hour earlier isn't working for you, try something different!
I used to write late at night too - interesting that you found you were less self-critical at this time. I'm only just learning to write without being intensely self-critical, but it has certainly increased how much I enjoy my writing.
I think my brain was like "We're tired, there's only enough energy for one thing." hahaha
I started my writing habit at a time when my life was insanely busy, and I do what you mentioned, get up early and write then. I'm not a morning person but I've trained myself to do this. At the time I started the habit, it was the only time I got any peace. These days life is less insane but I still get up early to write as that's what my brain likes to do now.
Hello,
Does Substack have a handy dandy way of downloading one's archive?
John
Hi John, I was mistaken! You can do this and here is how: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037466012-How-do-I-export-my-posts-
Shoutout to a fellow writer, Mike, who reminded me.
Not today but I see where that could be helpful. I will pass the feature request on to our team!
Hi Office Hours,
What I would like to see someone do a YouTube on is creating a very basic paid newsletter from start to first paid post. Maybe this has been done, but I haven't seen it. Correct me if I'm wrong.
A lot of the "help" pages and videos I've seen I think implicitly assume a certain basic level of knowledge about blog and newsletter sites (aimed, I guess, at professional writers).
My proposed Substack is "This is Make It Stop!, a newsletter about Technical Solutions for Complete Idiots (Like Me :)".
๐ค
That might actually be a good subject for a first post.
Seriously you all, explain Substack like you're talking to a five year old. Promise my feelings won't get hurt ๐
Fellow writers, for those of you who have overcome the plateau of subscription growth, how do you do it as a beginner (<1 yr writing on Substack)? Any tips on expanding subscribers beyond your immediate circle?
Try new promotion tactics. When I had plateaud at 80 subscribers for a while, I put a personal invitation on my instagram stories. I used the questions feature and told people, "drop your email and I'll subscribe you so you don't have to do the work." They're still giving you permission, but they don't have to physically leave instagram and do it themselves, which is a weirdly big barrier for many people.
Shamelessly tell everyone within earshot about it. And when youโre done with that, talk to more people.
Good tactic, I tend to be quite shy about my writing in real life but share a lot on the internet. Will need to be more vocal about it in person :D
One way I've found is to work in seasons, and with each season choose a different topic (within the overarching theme of my newsletter). Each time I do this, I can try to get the interest/tap into a somewhat different audience. For example, last season was about ocean science, so I ended up getting the attention of oceanographers, geologists etc.
If this sounds like the opposite of the popular writing advice of "write what you know" - well, yes it is! That's the point. A new audience is teaching *me* things, and fact-checking me, as I go - which is a great way to get engagement.
HI Mike, this is a great idea actually. This got me thinking about what I could do next for my newsletter. Thank you
Hi Minh! Here are some useful tips for growing your audience: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-4.
I am paddling the Mississippi River, the largest river in North America, in a canoe. Solo. It's 2,340 miles long from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. You can follow along with my day-to-day adventures and discoveries, hardships and victories right here: canoerambler.substack.com
Any thoughts on how to spread the word on a travel log style newsletter? Thanks!
I'm loving the new features. Am wondering if these 2 features are anywhere on the pipeline: in line images as in a magazine. And cropping images within the substack editor. Thanks!
We have gotten lots of feedback on images and it's on our radar.
i crop images in canva. and i would send your substack links to travel blogs and places along the mississippi.
Product question for the Substack team: If I send a post to paying subs first, but set a date for it to be unlocked for free subs, will the free subs receive an email? Or is it just "unlocked" if they visit my SS homepage?
Hey Joe ๐๐ป Yes! You can read more about the feature here: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037870412-How-do-I-schedule-a-post-for-a-future-date-
hope this helps!
xx
Also looking for anyone involved in parenting/education who is willing to be interviewed for my series "Education Explored". Especially interested in keeping it in the substack sphere, if you or anyone you know would be up for a chat about kids+learning. Thank you!
I work part-time as a tutor for elementary school kids and would be glad to chat with you. Iโm not a parent or a certified teacher though, if that matters.
I wrote about the life lessons about parenting found in fourteen family movies that I could talk about:
https://moviewise.substack.com/p/movies-on-parenting-children
Maybe there is already a way to see which subscribers write their own Substacks, but I can't figure it out now! This would be a really nice tool.
Totally makes sense; this is something we're thinking about building!
Happy to hear that! I think it would help a lot with discovery, and with knowing which writers might be willing to collaborate.
The special tool for blurbs sounds like a great idea, and I'll add at least one today!
I'm just starting. How many use photos with each post? Does it help attract readers? What sources do you use for photos? Thanks.
I think at least having a thumbnail image is great! You can use the "Insert image from Unsplash" feature to find stock photos if you don't have any yourself. Like other writers said, they do a good job of breaking up long chunks of text.
I used to do more pictures to break up content, but now I do just one or two. I believe that too many pictures distract from the flow of the reading experience. But of course, some talented artists use pictures and graphics as a primary form of expression and do it well.
I didn't when I started, but I always do now, because it looks better on your homepage to have an image associated with each article. Where I can I use photos from my own extensive archive, otherwise I mostly use Unsplash. In my case (because I'm writing about science topics and sometimes want something specific) it is also worth checking Wikipedia. Some, but not all, of the images used in Wikipedia articles are available to use under a creative commons license. But you need to check the details because some are not.
it depends on how long your post is and your aesthetics. i tend to do 4 images for 1000-ish words. But that's me. I try to break it up. Most people read on their phone so preview your newsletter on your phone and see what feels right to you. sources - unsplash is free. i use deposit photos - free if you use paid canva or you can subscribe directly through deposit. just google free image sites and you should find a bunch.
1-2 per post. I have my pictures custom drawn as it has to do with my topics but you can easily find royalty free pictures via Substack or online.
I updated my About Page today to bring clarity to my offering and hopefully show a bit of my personality. I also wanted to clearly state what I offer, who my newsletter is for, what others say about my work and offer a bit more about me and my qualifications.
I am concerned it might be too much but I'm going with it...
I definitely appreciate any and all comments or suggestions if you have a chance to take a peak. https://myfreshattitude.substack.com/about
Hi Jack- Farrah from the Partnership team here. This is a great About page- very clear and well-written. The only thing i would add- and which we have seen success with is 1. Put up a picture of you in your chef whites if you feel brave enough. It brings a level of familiarity. It also underlines the fact you are a professional chef 2. Maybe spell out your mission. We have seen lots of success with writers who have a real mission statement explaining why here, why now? Im making this up (obviously!) but do you feel there are not enough high-end vegan recipes out there and you want to change that? Or maybe you want the world to see and taste how great going vegan can be and so you started this Substack so everyone an easy route into veganism. I hope this makes sense Jack? Small tweak but effective.
Excellent feedback Farrah - I really appreciate it. I will look into incorporating a simple mission statement (I can't believe I missed that one)... As for the Chef's Whites - personally, I haven't been in a restaurant for about 15 years - the photo I posted is how I look when I teach - it's a down-to-earth look that I want to portray...I want people to feel it is easy to talk with me and avoid that air of superiority that is often too common in the industry...
Agree with FogChaser . . people can read as much or as little about you as they want. I am impressed, not just with the extent of the effort you put into your About page but also the extent of what you've done in life!
Lots and lots of virtual thanks going your way! I really appreciate your comment and for taking the time to let me know your thoughts...
Love the look of yours! I just subscribed. I've been vegan for 16 years, and I am always looking for new inspiration!
Thanks for taking the time to check out my About Page and comment back - really appreciated!
Jack, VeganWeekly is so good, and I only looked at it a little bit. I just subscribed. Your logo is so simple and attractive, and you have so much content, it's very compelling (I'm not vegan but I also was raised vegetarian, so it speaks to me.) It screams "these recipes are amazing!" Never mind your About page! The publication speaks for itself.
My goodness - can you beam yourself over to Switzerland so I can hug you?
I think this looks great โ it gives people as much as they could possibly want, but is broken up well enough that people can read a section or two and get a really good sense of what your publication is all about. Nice work!
Excellent - thanks for the feedback and happy I was able to achieve the broken-up section look!
I use Individual Post Stats and Subscriber Growth Stats equally.
I like to keep an eye on how well each of my posts are doing to understand if there are any large up- or down-ticks in everything I publish. Subscriber growth remains a very important metric for me (I'm definitely in growth mode)!
I'm really excited about the possibilities with the recommendation blurbs but I have to get people to recommend me first ;-) We're pretty excited about the progress we've made at liththinkpodcast.substack.com this week with subscribers. I got brave and made a request in a teacher group on FB. Other than that, just trying to balance life and writing!
I like the new blurb feature and will try to master it so I can do blurbs for others. I will look at your substack, especially as I want to do some podcasts myself.
I think my writing is progressing. I could do with a holiday.
Many writers are taking a holiday! https://on.substack.com/p/out-of-office
Always great to rest and come back reeenergized
I'm so ready for a holiday. Can't wait to not think for a couple weeks.
Not using any - need to understand potential of Substack as I am new here and need help growing audience.
Thank you!
Same here, Roman. I do use the recommendations feature to recommend other writersโ newsletters but as far as I know no one has recommended mine. Iโve never heard of the blurbs feature and donโt know how to use it, but it seems like you need to have recommendations to do so. Donโt know about the welcome page either, unless itโs the same as the about page.
Thanks so much Wendy for your insight. A bit overwhelmed at this point , but excited! Thank you.
nearly everyone needs help growing their audience. look in subtack's resource section - i think you can get to it from their main page. i've been doing this for almost a year and i'm very overwhelmed, especially today for some reason - so you're not alone. the main advice you'll get is to keep writing. don't focus on numbers/subscribers - just keep writing. and figure out the best way to promote yourself on social media. the other thing that seems to help people is to cross promote with other substacks. i'm still figure that one out because I often feel I write into a black hole. I'm still figuring out how to connect with folks meaningfully. I hear a lot of crickets.
Any suggestions on how to get more subscribers/readers? Started on Substack a bit more than a year ago, have about 100 subscribers, but how can I take it to the next level (here is the link to my page: https://kidscanbepoets.substack.com. Thanks! ๐
I have many articles showing ways to grow. Substack also has very good articles on this. (read: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-4).
I find that a lot of people want things, but are not prepared to do the work.
But, when you do take some advice, you will be rewarded. I'm talking about some general Substack writers, and not you in particular Ayaan.๐
Cool, just checked out to your newsletter
Thanks Adi!
I am only in my third week of Substack writing, and I have a list of facebook friends to whom I am sending emails about my page to. But getting free subscribers is going a bit slow, or maybe I am just impatient lol! Anyway, I am looking for any ideas that might improve my progress that will lead to paid subscribers when the time comes! Thanks guys!!
Keep writing, it compounds over time and subscribers will come, especially if there is a lot of content.
This is a great post to help think through how you can use social media to bring readers over https://kadilakwrites.substack.com/p/five-steps-to-growing-your-social
Becky, hereโs what works for me. I sit at a bustling coffeehouse every Saturday and lay a book out in eyeshot of everyone who comes in. Itโs such a great conversation starter. Many ask about the book which then turns into a conversation about what I do for work. I tell โem I read books for a living. Down the rabbit hole they go as I tell โem about my Substack aimed at building human connection one book at a time. 90% sign up right on the spot!
Welcome! This is a great community. I am also brand new and writing under a new pen name. So the biggest challenge is that I'm not sharing this with my usual network, as my writing here is much more personal. But there's freedom in starting from scratch.
Just keep going - my growth was super slow for months but now Iโm seeing a spike.
For the numbers I had like 80 after 9 months, but Iโm now at 125 1.5 months later
Iโm only 2 months in and only have 20 or so subscribers. It was frustrating at first, but I didnโt want to promote on my FB or IG pages. I wanted to slowly grow my readership. So for now, Iโm just writing and talking about what Iโm writing as conversations come naturally.
I am one month in. I feel very uncomfortable promoting myself on social media, but I seem to have no problems reaching out to one person at a time and asking them if I can add them to my email list. Maybe I can take that energy to social media eventually. In the meantime I figure if I am consistent with my weekly posts, it will give me confidence to do the stuff I am not as comfortable with to grow my community and readers.
Same! I had a pretty large following on social media then stepped back about 6 months ago. Also, not having every friend and family member reading my posts is actually freeing for me.
Posting on social just for the sake of it feels so inauthentic for me, but somehow being able to write and then post it makes it more meaningful because it's purposeful. At least I hope so, when I get the courage to do more writing promotion. But I totally get the freeing aspect you are talking about, Holly, this way you can pick and choose what you post on social only when you want to even if it means less promotion. That may be more important, I am realizing it is for me.
You are right. It is easy to forget that sometimes word of mouth can be your best advertising!
Exactly! For example, I am currently en route to be my brotherโs stem cell donor this week. As people have asked me questions about the process, Iโve shared with them I am writing a series here at my Substack space on being a stem cell donor. The goal: raise awareness and hopefully help someone else. But Iโve gotten some subscriptions because people want to follow the journey.
Oh wow! that is awesome! I really hope everything goes well for you and your brother! Yes, very important thing to get the word out about!
Thanks!
HI Becky- Farrah from Substack here. I know it can feel uncomfortable to promote yourself on your own social channels sometimes but beyond marketing there is actually a really smart reason why you might want to do that. If the day comes when you decide to leave certain social media platforms, you instantly lose the entire community you have spent many years building. If some of those people choose to give you their email and become subscribers to your newsletter you have that email forever. Substack has no claim to it- so it is YOUR audience. Having a healthy email list is always a good think for indie writers because one day you might choose to write a book, launches courses- whatever!
Same here.
Question: Can someone offer me assistance in how to set up the feature within a post that says "Read more?" For example, I received a newsletter I subscribed to and when reading on a phone or tablet it gives the first two paragraphs, then says "Read more." When clicking "Read more" it then takes the reader to the website with the full article.
I am sure I am losing readers engagement when sending my weekly newsletter as it posts the full article in the email. I am sure people are bailing out after the first paragraph or two as it usually about 1,000 words.
If this makes sense, thank you in advance for your help.
Hello Kirk! Great discussion between you and Marcia and Brad and Stephanie here. We don't have clear signal that "readers are likelier to read long posts on web," for what it's worth, but that doesn't mean it's not the case. It's almost certainly the case that *some* readers are! Let's say X% of readers prefer to click through and read on web, and Y% drop off whenever there's "friction" of any kind (e.g. having to click a button, breaking reading-flow, and switching to another app / surface).
Obviously, if X > Y, you'd want to truncate emails and have clickthrough buttons; if Y > X, you'd want to keep your emails "normal" (untruncated). I would bet that this X vs. Y question isn't consistent across publications, unfortunately; that is, I'm sure some communities of readers skew in one or another direction away from the norm.
I'll make sure we look at this. If emails with truncated text + buttons outperform long emails, we would *definitely* want to know and would almost certainly look into changing how things work broadly, or at least giving authors options. In the past when we've looked at this, we haven't seen signal that readers prefer to click out, but it might be time to revisit!
All of that said: the hack other writers are using, we *think*, is roughly as follows:
(1) write the "preview" form of the post (the first two paragraphs, say)
(2) go to "Settings" and edit the "post URL" at the bottom to whatever you want it to be (e.g. "my-post")
(3) go back into your post and add a "Custom button" from the dropdown menu
(4) in that custom button's URL field, put "yoursubstack.substack.com/p/my-post" (or the appropriate equivalents: your site URL + the URL you chose for the post); where it says "enter text," put "Read More" (or your equivalent)
(5) publish the post (which is now: two paragraphs and a button that links to the post)
(6) once the post is published / the emails have gone out, go back and edit the post to add all the rest of the content
What this will do is send the "preview" version of the post out via email, but when recipients click on the custom button that says "Read More," the link will take them to the (now edited) full version!
Obviously that's extremely laborious and awkward. If this did turn out to be a real phenomenon we can measure and see (and which gives writers better outcomes), we'd make this simpler. Thanks very much for bringing this to our attention, and good luck!
Mills....Thank you for your thorough response. I feel like I just took an Algebra class, but one cannot fault you on your thoroughness and level of detail.
I am a simple guy.....if you read my newsletter. All I know is that I very high profile author whose newsletter I subscribe to implemented this in the past week. It seemed to keep things much more concise for readers on a phone or tablet, which is likely to be most. I suppose by offering two paragraphs then driving them to an actual click button to finish reading the article, perhaps she can measure who is actually clicking through by the link data we are offered on each subsciber.
Honestly, I just want to write a newsletter, so not looking to get into coding or programming here.
Thank you so much for the response. I will dig into this and see what I can try out.
My pleasure, and let us know how it goes! I was a terrible student especially in math, but working out here I've picked up these weird habits like dropping Xs and Ys into sentences as though I know what I'm doing! When in Rome!
And in seriousness, we want the same thing: ideally, writing on Substack will just be writing, and our systems will handle these sorts of decisions and calculations. We're not there yet, but we're pushing!
This is such a great thread, I love the insight into what might be happening in the background. I just have to tailor/apply it for what I see my audience doing, as much as I can see :-) Much appreciated!
Some of the email newsletters I subscribe to have an unobtrusive option "Read on the web" - and as a reader, I have clicked that when the newsletter didn't display properly in my inbox or if I wanted to link to the post in a tweet. Maybe that's the perfect compromise, giving those who want to read in their inbox and those who don't exactly what they want?
We're definitely looking into this specifically!
Maybe keep an eye on your open rate versus opens? I have a lot more opens than the open rate would imply, so I believe this may be a common pattern with my readers: Receive the email and open it; but they're busy with their day so they move on to other things after a minute; and then they return to read the rest at night or the next morning.
I suspect if I had a "Read more" button in email instead of the full content, they might not click through, or they might click through the first time they open the email, then bookmark the article and forget to return. YMMV, though.
Good point. Thank you.
I seem to have a very high open rate, but notice that very, very few click on any buttons such as leading to archives of articles, subscriptions, etc. This leads me to believe that most are simply clicking open their email then moving on. I have only been at this a short time so just new to the learning curve on how to engage more involved readers.
I don't see a lot of clicks, either; I think my recipients prefer to read in their inboxes (and then seem to re-open the email multiple times, which is great, it gives me some indication of whether I wrote something more or less engaging that week).
I would think clicks to subscribe would come more from direct/web readers, since my email readers are already subscribed. And I would love to see indications of whether someone forwarded a newsletter to someone else!
Why do you feel readers are not willing to read a 1000 word article in their inbox and would rather click to a website? That seems far from obvious to me.
The simple answer is that the vast majority of readers are in an information overload mentality when going through an overwhelming number of emails. They are glancing at subject headlines and maybe making it through the first paragraph. This is due to the mindset of our times....2 minute videos that capture attention, one sentence comments on social media, etc. To click on "Read more" pulls them out of their email box and onto the full article with images. I am not sure I can address the full psychology behind it, but clearly there is a "Read More" feature as it came to me by way of another Substack article. I am simply looking for the "how-to" implement it.
From what I know of research on this point, I don't believe your assumptions are correct. Any time there is a need to click to find out more information, you lose people who might otherwise have engaged.
Thanks, Marcia. I appreciate your perspective. However, it begs the question why some pretty big name authors might be using this feature. Perhaps they know something we don't?
The "pretty big-name authors" can AFFORD to put roadblocks, buttons, things to click, etc, because they know their fans (already well familiar with their work) will go anywhere and do anything to hang onto their every written word!
At some point, Kirk, fame and fortune notwithstanding, your readers will shake out to be "fans" of what you're writing, and be more than happy to follow you, regardless of your word count.
Thank you. Yes. It will take more than the few months I have been at it to shake out a "fan" base. No shortcuts there.
Big or small name authors with fervent fans automatically get better and different responses than anyone who offers information lacking that emotional bond with readers. For instance, someone with fervent fans can say "buy my new album/book/whatever" and the fans will rush to buy with no real information about what the new thing is. Others can't get away with that
Yoooooooooo!
yo yo yo
I know I'm late but I want to toss out something for the @ substack crew. In yesterday's On Substack about product news somebody mentioned the subscribe "pop up" that's being experimented with. Please, please, please do away with this. The thing I love most about Substack (as a reader) is the clean, ad-free, pop-up free interface. In my opinion, preserving that is a key differentiator for the platform.
Just a general shout out of appreciation to everyone! I really look forward to this time of week to connect with you all, I always learn a ton of new things! Please drop by and say hi if you're so inclined https://howaboutthis.substack.com
I'd really love to see a way to create links to headers from the editor. My newsletter is quite long, so I'd appreciate a better way to structure and navigate posts.
Substack, I have seen a steady drop in opens in the past two weeks (after some record setting issues) even though subscriber count is going up, any reasoning for this?
I think Diane's right, I think people are just checked out. It's too hot to sit in front of a computer and read.
I've seen a bit of a decline - I'm chalking it up to summer vacations....
I always see a decline in my American audience at this time of year; website visits, purchases, email open rates, (in my main substack) .... I reckon everyone is on holidays. Meanwhile, it's the middle of winter where I am and I'm busy beavering away doing my best work!
We haven't changed the calculations in any way in the last two weeks.