916 Comments

📊 Poll of the week 📊 If you are keen to learn more about the features you can use as tools to convert free reades to paid subscribers, here is where to start.

Subscriber dashboard & filters allow you to identify how often readers are engaging with your post and send them targeted emails.

https://on.substack.com/p/subscriber-dashboard-guide

Special offers include discounts (https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037835291-How-do-I-offer-a-discount-to-my-publication-) and free trials (https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037465192-How-do-I-offer-a-free-trial-to-my-publication-). You can set both up from your settings page.

The paywall allows writers to tease paid posts to free subscribers and new readers. It provides a call-to-action to upgrade and gives writers flexible control over how much of their paid post to show readers.

https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407989020308-How-do-I-publish-a-free-preview-of-a-paid-post-on-Substack-

Unlock paid posts later schedules a paid post to unlock automatically and be sent as a newsletter to free subscribers.

https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/7737934503828-How-do-I-change-a-post-from-paid-to-free-#:~:text=Interested%20in%20scheduling%20a%20paid%20post%20to%20unlock%20automatically%20and%20be%20sent%20as%20a%20newsletter%20to%20free%20subscribers%3F

How have you most effectively used these tools?

Expand full comment

The Substack team is singing off today! We will be back next week, same time and place, to help answer your questions.

Thanks for being here and generously contributing to the conversation.

See you soon,

Katie, Bailey, Jasmine, Christina, Jairaj, Chloe, Kristen, Joro, Tian, Lucas, Jack, Josh and Kamil

Expand full comment

Hey everyone! Here's a little encouragement from one small newsletter to all of you. If you're feeling stuck, unmotivated, or worried that no one is listening, you're not alone. But here's the most important thing: you don't have to believe everything you think! Odds are, there's someone out there right now who needs to hear what you have to say. So don't keep them waiting! Keep writing, keep moving, keep sharing. The world needs your voice! 🌿

Expand full comment

First Rule - Keep writing.

Expand full comment

So instead of promoting myself on all the socials, I decided my best method to growing my audience is via THIS community. All I want is to be surrounded by people creating good words and stories. I'd rather spin my wheels supporting smaller writers on the Stack by engaging, liking, commenting, not wring my hands over the shifting sands of social media.

For me (and at least for now), social media is the cart before the horse.

Expand full comment

Just wanted to say, I've been feeling less motivated to write and getting less engagement on a number of recent posts, but in the last 24 hours, two separate people I don't know personally reached out to tell me that my writing resonated with them. Plateaus and lulls happen, but our writing matters to people! Keep going :)

Expand full comment

Any advice for promoting my blog. I've tried twitter, reddit, LinkedIn and Facebook pages. None have really brought readers. I'm not a big social media user so don't have much of a following on these platforms. Any advice to grow the blog for someone who is not a big social media user? The blog is about leaving the classroom and the state of English education.

Expand full comment

Honestly thinking about going paid so I can afford to subscribe to more paid Substacks!

Expand full comment

I’ve doubled my subscribers in the last month (writing here for two). Still not a huge number, but I’ll take that growth! How did I do it? I have promoted zero on social media. I have been engaged with the Substack community (and loving all of the content I’m reading!) and referencing some other ‘stackers work in my posts as they relate to topics I’m writing about.

Expand full comment

Funny, I was just chatting about community on the Novelleist Substack. One thing I’ve noticed is that I have an audience of mostly passive readers and within that group a smaller, nascent community. I recently launched a second weekly edition on Wednesday. It’s still slice of life humor like my Sunday stories, but the Wednesday edition is shorter and it includes reader submissions (mostly funny things readers find in the wild). The Wednesday edition isn’t as widely read, but I’ve noticed that in the six weeks since launching the conversations on both days seem to be getting better. I know some Susbtack writers use threads to do this. I tried those a while ago, but they always felt off. A bite-sized edition with community input seemed to be a better fit for me.

Expand full comment

Not mentioned, but a good tactic to get paid subscribers is to tell your readers **WHY** you should go paid and **WHERE** the money goes. My stack's goal is to revive the art of the short story and 50% of the revenue goes to authors. I think that this makes people feel like they are doing something worthwhile with their money rather than just adding to someone's bank account.

https://shortstory.substack.com/

Expand full comment

I always respond to community comments on my newsletter games, but in the upcoming edition (publishing in a half hour), I decided to try shouting-out recent comments I've received. My players say smart and cool things, and I want to showcase them.

Here's a related feature idea. When you paste a Substack link into a post, it converts the link into a nifty feature box. It'd be rad if the same thing happened for comments. So when I post a comment from a previous edition, the formatting is nice and encourages folks to join the conversation.

Expand full comment

I’m using the NPR model of encouraging “Member Supporters” who are enthralled with my free content versus strategies to actively pursue them. That strategy, albeit a slower roll, has worked fabulously well for me. Most importantly, it conforms with my Taoist way of effortlessly allowing what’s meant for me to naturally unfold.

Expand full comment

Everyone, you're doing a great job, I MEAN IT

Expand full comment

We really need more options about subscription costs. As someone who loves to subscribe, $5 limits how many newsletters I can pay for. In some cases, a person is more likely to get 1000 subscribers at $2 or 3 than 400 subscribers at $5, yet those add up to the same payout. Your platform may actually be limiting folks. I read the justification of "why" you have $5 as your lowest, but I strongly disagree with it. Thank you :)

Expand full comment

Hey fellow writers, I went paid last week! So, I just wanted to share my thoughts:

I converted only 3 of the 359 subscribers to paid. My open rates are great (50%), the polls score 4.5 / 5, I've had awesome feedback and it seems people like the work. However, I see a lot other publications converting 3-5% or even 10% of subscribers to paid.

But, I'm not stressed. I priced pretty high for the amount of times I hit publish because I'm focusing on evergreen content that lasts. I know with consistent time, more great content and a few well placed paywalls & special offers more will convert in time.

Aiming for 50 paid / 500 free by the end of the year.

Will be thinking about how to add EVEN more to the subscription (especially things that can be built once like digital products) to get subscribers to go paid.

But, that feeling of someone paying for my work was truly awesome.

Now to keep adding value and trusting the process.

If you're facing the same sorta conversion rate, you're not alone.

We've got this 👊🏼

Expand full comment

Currently struggling with converting direct visitors into free subscribers. Also, finding the right audience is a tough nut it seems. Best to all, Substack is driving my brain into overdrive!

Expand full comment

A feature request: I want the ability to remove/hide any post from my archive, but for that post to still be accessible if someone enters the URL or gets a link. I know about the Unpublish option but that does make the post inaccessible. What I want is not for a page to get actually removed from the internet, but just get hidden from my blog.

Reason for this: I do a monthly recommendations post where I link to other stuff I came across. However, I don't want to keep these posts forever as they'll clutter my archive, which I want to mostly have my original work. I'm currently unpublishing each such post after a month or so, but I wish I could just hide them so that if anyone in the future (myself included) wants to see what I recommended any given month, they can just enter the correct URL and check.

Expand full comment

Hi Substack world! I’m Sam. I write about travel, culture, and my life as an expat in Egypt.

To those of you who have built highly engaged communities on Substack: how did you do it? (Sorry if this has been asked a million times.)

I’m realizing more and more that my goal isn’t just to get people to read my writing—though I definitely do want that!—it’s to find and engage authentically with people who share my interests. I plan to reach out to a couple writers I admire who are good at this, and I appreciated Scott Hines’ advice that when you find your voice, readers will come. But I would love to hear thoughts from the wider group!

For context, I’m very new at this (only been here a month) and I don’t have an existing audience/community that I’m bringing over from another platform.

Expand full comment

I have an opinion that may be unpopular, but I think it is important that writers (and the platform) at least be aware of this perspective.

Sometimes I sign up for a free subscription and then I get a "teaser" email where they dangle a *paid only* post in my face to encourage me to subscribe. I need at least a few weeks of engagement with the content to decide to pay! It is not a small investment for many. I will often unsubscribe immediately from these folks out of principle.

I did not subscribe to these emails and do not want them. I consider them spam. We should be able to only receive what we ask for. Maybe instead, plug your "paid only" post at the end of a free post. something like, "if you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy my post about ____ that is available to paid subscribers". That way you aren't wasting people's time.

Expand full comment

Good morning fellow writers from Portland! Dark coffee in hand, at a bakery, west coast time!

Expand full comment

Could you please post the time GMT, after all it is where all started!!

Expand full comment

3 valuable tips for writers:

1. Clean your subscriber list every month or so and remove users who never open your emails. It impacts your open rates and increases the risk of the user forgetting they signed up and reporting you as spam. There's no point in flaunting large follower numbers if they don't read or engage. It'll hurt, but it's for your own good. Morning Brew, for example, allegedly removes users if no email has been opened within 18 days of signing up.

2. Don't budge from your basic monthly rates. If it's a minimum 5, don't budge. Respect the value of your own offering. Be willing to negotiate on annual rates to an extent. Going too low will hurt the authenticity of your brand. You deserve to be paid for work you put out and that others enjoy.

3. Don't worry about subscriptions drying up. It'll hurt, but post consistently, help others, and be firm where you to be, and the people will come. I may be joining the list of memorable names and faces by helping out here every week. When people know me and recognize me, they trust me and aren't afraid to subscribe, or colloborate, or recommend my newsletter to their readers (this has happened for 60% of my current recos).

"Oh, Nikhil, the What's Curation? guy! He's a nice dude!" is the sentiment I'm chasing.

Expand full comment

It's Office Hours time again! I just wanted to share that my two main Substacks have been seeing incredible growth, and I think most of that of late has come from Recommendations. For those recommending me, thank you! And to those who are still on the fence about Recommendations, I would definitely encourage you to give them a shot.

I also discovered an interesting phenomenon over on Reddit. Someone asked a question in my local sub that I had coincidentally answered in that day's post on my Unseen St Louis Substack. Before I could reply, someone else (one of my subscribers!) had shared the link. Even though the link wasn't the top post, it generated a huge amount of traffic and about 30 subscriptions. That was as good or better performance over when I share my link in a new Reddit post. The moral of the story is, never underestimate the power of word of mouth and personal recommendations (even the non-Substack kind) on social.

Expand full comment

I've been creating these one line "memes" (for lack of a better word) on IG (stories). I find a photo on pixabay or unsplash, and pair it with a link to one of my stack columns and add a line like: "Don't be shy: subscribe." Or "Come hang with me," and a picture of clothespins. See where I'm going? It's fun! Creative, and it does get attention and subscribers!

Expand full comment

I have had wonderful luck with Recommendations. I’ve teamed up with a couple of other newsletter writers to recommend and cross-promote our work. I have a little success with Instagram, but none with Twitter or Facebook. You really need to find an audience that is already reading newsletters, not hope that you can convert readers to them.

Expand full comment

I've got a tiny new publication - just 177 subscribers and only 26 paid. I'd been building a traditional email list for years, but became truly weary of the feeling of continually creating content for that list and social media for free. I love substack creating a space where I can continue to offer free content, but also receive payment for my writing. At first I had steady signups and conversions from social and my email list, but that seems to have entirely tapered off. Would love some ideas to create a more steady increase.

Expand full comment

Off topic thought: it would be cool to be able to save post templates. I write a regular newsletter with the same columns every week--being able to save the format and pull it up easily would save me some time :)

Expand full comment

I love Substack. I write about addiction and recovery and host the Breakfast with an Alcoholic podcast here: https://thanksforlettingmeshare.substack.com

One thing that I'm struggling with is discovery and finding new subscribers and part of that is finding the right niche--I've mentioned before it would be great if there was our own Addiction or Recovery tag. Hint??? If you search "alcoholism" here one of the top results is still a home bartending newsletter.

In the meantime, I'm trying to compile a complete or nearly complete listing of the addiction/recovery stuff available here. I'll be happy to share the list with anyone who wants to use it and happy to add anyone who wants to be included!

Did I mention that I love it here!

Randall

Expand full comment

Hey, friends! I'm coming up on one year since going paid in September. My growth in both paid and free subscribers has been slow but steady. I've had the most significant jumps, after the first flush of sign-ups, through either being unexpectedly given a shout-out in another newsletter or doing a guest post for another newsletter. I've also tried, as a result, to do shout-outs to other newsletters in my own as often as I can.

Now, I'm thinking about expanding what I offer regularly to feature guest posts. At Let Your Life Speak I write about integrity, and how we practice integrity consistently as imperfect human beings in a complex world. https://ashasanaker.substack.com.

If that's an umbrella you could happily climb under and write something, let me know: ashasanaker@gmail.com.

And, hey, happy to write a guest post for you as well! My latest one, for Oldster Magazine, did really well. https://oldster.substack.com/p/at-50-i-started-getting-naked-for

If you're looking for folks to write guest posts for you, or if you know of another Substack soliciting, let me know!

Expand full comment

May I ask if there’s an algorithm that promotes our newsletters when people search on the substack website itself or are recommended it? For example if they’re looking for literature-related newsletters, are the top most suggested ones just the ones with the most followers? How can I tailor my content to reach out to a wider global audience who share the same interests as me? Asking because I’m shy to post on my own social media and have my name and face attached to my newsletter. Appreciate any help or insight!

Expand full comment

Just a quick post to say how much I love this platform! As “The Footloose Muse” (carolmossa.Substack.com), I have 308 subscribers and 18 of those are paid. I’ve been a writer my whole life, and only now do I feel free to create content that matters. Thank you!!

Expand full comment

New to Substack! 2 newsletters out so far - next step is converting!!!! 339 subscribers, 4 are paid.

Excited to read the responses. My newsletter is an alcohol-free one: https://relatableaf.substack.com

Expand full comment

None.

My strategy is to build up my community off free subscribers first. I'm curious if anyone has any insight as to how I might prime the pump in the meantime, however. I may not be going paid any time soon, but there might be strategies to ready my audience for that eventual shift. What say you, fellow Substackers??

Expand full comment

So far my only subscribers are my friends, people who know me. Others are reading my writing but don't seem to want to subscribe. I don't want to shove the paid option down people's throats, but I also want to be recognized for the effort and work that goes into my newsletters. I want to engage with a community who wants to be here, not just any old person who comes across the link.

Expand full comment

Yoooooooo Substack

Expand full comment

I would love to have data on which posts are getting viewed. Right now it’s just the source of where the traffic came from. But not where it’s going.

For instance, I post on Wednesdays with occasional posts on other days. So if I get an uptick in traffic on a Sunday when I haven’t posted anything in 4 days and the past month of content has no increase in views, I have no idea who’s reading what content.

I have weekly posts since February 2021 at a minimum, I can’t go back and check each one to find out what people are reading.

Expand full comment

At litthinkpodcast.substack.com we have just hit over 100 subscribers!!! We are so excited and looking into adding paid after the new year (you know, to avoid messes with taxes). How many free subscribers should we have before we make the change? Any advice for how we can get teachers (mostly) to subscribe so that we can get paid for the freelance work we're doing now?

Expand full comment

Hi all! A friend and I want to launch a pop-up substack (?) of sorts about Louise Penny's books before the 19th one comes out this fall. If you're interested in contributing, please let me know! You definitely don't have to be a book writer to join. We're looking for essays on any topics including:

- The role of food in the books. (looking at you foodie substackers)

- I'd love to have a poet write about Ruth Zardo.

- The unique joy of the audiobooks.

- The role of art/artists (painters, poets and playwrights, oh my)

- Masculinity in the books.

- The way the series approaches Catholicism/religion.

Comment or email whattoreadif@substack.com if you're interested. If you're curious, but don't have a topic idea drop me a note and we'll see what we can think of!

Expand full comment

How do you all do your planning? I have a Miro board with lists of topic ideas, and few Draft posts on Substack itself. But I don't really have anywhere comfortable for fleshing out ideas before they become posts. What do you all do?

Expand full comment

Paid subscribers continue to be readers who don't even open all the emails yet the most engaged readers open everything and remain free, any ideas as to why?

Expand full comment

I have, so far, done a dismal job converting subscribers, but in fairness I haven't tried. I am using a paywall for my paid content, but I realized there might be a challenge with that, because my free subscribers don't know what is hidden behind the paywall or know whether they think it's valuable.

My grand conversion experiment is going to be SUBtember. I mentioned it sometime in July in this space, and I am working steadily towards it. My August posts all have a warning to my subscribers that SUBtember is coming, and I have begun to build spreadsheets to run analytics so that at the end of SUBtember I can report back about how well it worked. I don't like overly promoting, so SUBtember will be my one subscription drive for the year and then I'll leave everyone alone.

I really enjoyed the Going-Paid checklist and it helped me think about my process even though I started paid out of the gate.

Expand full comment

One awesome thing I noticed other writers doing is creating a small list of maybe 3-4 linked bullet points at the bottom of a post, directing their readers to similar content on that same substack. (ex. "Liked my post on Swiss Cheese? You might like this one on Edam and this one on Brie.")

Obviously a little bit of extra work to do this each time, but as a reader, seeing this at the end of a post frequently makes me click from the email to the person's substack page.

I'm sorry I can't remember offhand who I've seen do this, but if it is you then GREAT JOB!

Expand full comment

whats up yall! I recently turned on paid subscriptions (woot woot) with the patronage model - everything is free but if you would like to support and make this all possible, you can become a paying subscriber.

I would love to hear from everyone else here and the substack team on best practices / language / etc for communicating this concept to readers.

right now i tell them its like NPR or Elmo (on PBS), but I don't know if that's good lol.

Excited to hear how others are doing it !

Expand full comment

In response to the poll: I've just had an uptick in paid folks. My first-of-the-month newsletter was a stew of all sorts, even including a "hot weather" recipe to be made early in the day... with the idea to construct your day around getting your writing done. I've done my usual eclectic posts, all about writing, but a real breadth of writing... Sharing my process, but also--always--taking the readers' writing seriously. I think my sheer consistency (posting between 8-12 pieces/month) is paying off. So I'm here to say, keep going. Keep the quality of your posts to a standard, let people know you're here. I've had zero to little response to any sort of "deal," paywalls don't seem to make much difference, I've never done the unlock-later (in fact, I lock down after a short period of free), and when I've targeted 4-5 star free folks, I've gotten little. I think it's just the work itself that's bringing them in. Intriguing pics, and working in areas and approaches to writing that aren't elsewhere.

I do have questions about how commenting works, and how/who gets notifications. How best to let readers know about responses to posts. I need to understand this in order to keep discussion going. Is there a Substack primer on this topic? Many thanks, Team, as always!

Expand full comment

Brand new to Substack, so I'm still working on my content, my schedule and getting free subscribers. Acknowledging all of you who are in paid mode. I hope to be there soon!

Expand full comment

I see that a number of my new subscribers are finding me on the Substack app or platform, which is awesome! That said, I have no idea *where* on the app/platform they are finding me! For example, I see on their subscriber profile that they found me from the "Substack Network"-- what does this mean? Is it another one of my follower's profiles? Is it on the discover page? (I can't find myself there when logged into a friend's account, lol)

TBH I dunno if this knowledge will help me write or tailor my newsletter in anyway. I'm just super curious!

Expand full comment

If I write short stories here, fiction mostly, do I still on the material to publish it later somewhere else?

Expand full comment

Couple things that I saw deep in comment threads that I wanted to put on the surface as useful tidbits:

-The community values consistency, and many writers want to be sure if they're recommending a publication, there's actually something there for their readers to... well... read

-It is possible to oversaturate your readers with content. Make sure you're sticking to the expectations that you lay out in your newsletter

-Community health and engagement > raw subscriber numbers

-The value of social media pages for sharing non-link content: Sometimes just posting pictures, video, etc. simply serves as a reminder to your followers to go check your page

Thanks for a great office hours. I write about the outdoors and climbing, if anyone would like to collaborate, or reach out with questions (I've been at this a while) I'll try to get back to you. You can reach out at colenobleclimbs@gmail.com

Happy writing!

Expand full comment

One last thought to add -- VULNERABILITY COUNTS! This post of mine went skyward within minutes of posting it. Just nuts!

https://greatbooksgreatminds.substack.com/p/a-brand-new-me

Expand full comment