Have questions about publishing, growing, or going paid on Substack?
The Substack team, and your fellow writers, are here to help!
We’re gathering the writer community and members of the Substack team together in this discussion thread to answer writer questions for an hour. Drop your questions in the thread by leaving a comment, and we’ll do our best to share knowledge and tips.
Our team will be answering questions and sharing insights with you in the thread today from 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. PDT / 1 p.m. - 2 p.m. EDT. We encourage writers to stick around after the hour and continue the conversation together.
Some updates and reminders from the Substack team:
Voiceovers to RSS: Voiceovers enable you to add an audio narration to your posts. Writers like Beth Collier and Adam Mastroianni read their posts aloud, another rich way to connect directly with their readers. When you publish a post with a voiceover, you now have the option to include it in podcast and RSS feeds making your voice travel further.
Celebrating milestones: Bill Bishop and Substack turned five this week and more writers celebrated their first anniversary. Congrats to Ijeoma Oluo and Max Read for one year writing on Substack! Who else is a celebrating? Let us know in today’s thread.
It’s been really great to know that I have a way of supporting myself and my family purely from this writing, should I need to. There is a freedom to that in a world that constantly tries to control art. To know that my words - as they come out of my weird brain - are enough, should the books and speaking go away or should that work require me in any way to compromise myself in ways that I’m not comfortable with.
In case you missed it: We invited Gergely Orosz, to share insights on how he developed his voice as an engineer-turned-writer. He brought his blog, The Pragmatic Engineer, to Substack and grew his subscribers to 180,000+.
Got questions about Substack or feedback about what’s new? You’re in the right place! Leave a comment in this thread.
Thanks for a great Office Hours today! The Substack team is signing off but we will be back next week to continue the conversation. In the meantime, I'd encourage you to continue talking with fellow writers here.
See you next week,
Katie, Bailey, Jasmine, Seth, John, Andy, Jonathan, Zoe, and Lucas
Hello all, and happy Office Hours! Here’s a little bit of encouragement from one small newsletter to all of you:
Our modern world has given slowness a bad reputation, especially when it comes to growth. We're always pressured to get-rich-quick, be an overnight success, or fix our problems FAST. But writing is a craft, and every good craft requires cultivation. And cultivation is a slow, steady, daily process of commitment and faithfulness. When you rush craft, you don't get quality results. Plants that are artificially germinated to grow faster are often more delicate under stress. Bread with a rushed rise doesn't bake properly. And when you write expecting instant fame, wealth, and an audience of millions it will probably be less than your best. You'll also be more likely to burn out! Don't focus on speed, focus on showing up. Don't focus on numbers, focus on community. Keep going, keep writing, and DON'T GIVE UP! 🌿
Something I've been curious about is, how does Substack fit into your finances today? Does the revenue you make from paid subscriptions help pay for a portion of your rent, perhaps childcare or something else?
A major milestone for me is that after almost 8 months, I'm now offering a paid option! I will officially announce on Sunday of this week, but it's been activated. This has all been a wonderful journey on Substack, and the fiction community has been incredibly supportive. I continue to write one speculative short story every week, and I don't see signs of stopping any time soon.
There are some fabulous writers on Substack, and I would encourage you to go back through these comments in a few hours and find a couple you will like. You never know, you might be the one to help them reach a milestone!
Hello friends and fellow writers, I'd like to share a community engagement tip I learned from studying my fellow writers: I've been referring to it as the Conversational Layup.
I was thinking about how to start a dialogue at my newsletter. I've seen this discussed often in office hours--things like, end your post with a question, things like that. I decided to look at SE Reid's Wildroot parables--an excellent substack you should all read--because her newsletter has frequent comments and strong engagement, at least from my own observations as a commenter looking in.
I don't know if she does this intentionally, but here is what I learned: The conversational layup. She posts three articles a week. The first article introduces a topic. The second article encourages discussion. The third article encourages reflection. Introduce, Discuss, Reflect. I call this the conversational layup because you aren't hoping conversation just happens somehow, but you are actively seeding conversation over successive articles, so when the conversation DOES happen you have helped to steward that conversation. You give readers the topic you want them to discuss, and time to mull it over. Then you ask them to share their thoughts and add new data. Then you bring the topic to a close by either sharing your own thoughts or riffing off the comments you have already received.
SE Reid does this on a weekly schedule, but I decided to try to adapt it to a monthly schedule. I post a Podcast on the 10th, where I introduced a topic, and then on the 15th had an open thread where I encouraged discussion. It was my most successful open thread yet--tons of very thoughtful comments. I was tempted to undercut myself by thinking--well, maybe the topic was one that resonated, I dont know if I can duplicate this success--but no, the thing is *it worked*! There *was* a lively discussion! Today I posted my "Reflect" piece, so we will see how it goes.
I just wanted to share this tip if you are struggling to find a way to get engagement. Consider trying the conversational layup. Hat tip to SE Reid and the Wildroot Parables for unwittingly helping me discover how this works!
I've used voiceover a few times (I enjoy hearing other writers tell us their stories in their own voice) but need to get better audio editing software. I have a Southern accent that some find amusing.
Recommendations continue to be a gamechanger. I was wondering if the Substack team could provide data on retention rates from subscribers who came to a publication via the recommendation engine. For example, let's say a writer received 10 new subscribers from recs but then two subsequently unsubscribed. Would it be possible to get a breakdown of gross subs via recs vs. net subs via recs over time? Thanks for any insight!
Hey everyone! My milestone: I recently went into a bookstore and found the owner wrote the kindest, complimentary note for my book. It's moments like those that inspire me to continue my humorous, every-day, spiritual approach to memoir and keep working on my Substack. My question: how do you communicate your value when your speciality is memoir?
Am finding the advice we got during the ‘Grow’ program this summer about improving the welcome message that goes out to free subscribers has been paying dividends in terms of paid subscriptions. It’s a good opportunity to say hey, would you like to support me and this is how it would help so thanks as always for the tips @katie and @Bailey
I am struggling with the decision to "niche down" (which is the standard advice to be successful) or to become a generalist, which seems to be working for me.
When does it make sense to move beyond your niche and become a general pundit?
Mark Dykeman — who is such a wonderful writer — just recommended me and wrote the nicest blurb ever on my homepage. You should read some of his work here: https://howaboutthis.substack.com/
I had an article reach exponentially more people because of the subject (I went paragliding with my Uber driver and a stranger I met online), but after that everything I write doesn't quite seem to match that level of excitement. I want to keep consistency so any advice on how to motivate yourself to keep writing know that I don't have to match that level of story each time?
Crime and Punishment: Why the Poor Stay Poor in America celebrated it's first year on the mighty Substack platform just last month on September 15th! A huge thank you to the Substack administrators and my fellow writers for the help and support you've given me!
This week we finished our newsletter collaboration plan with Brad from Front Row & Backstage! Feel free to subscribe to our newsletter even if we talk about a decade difference of music genre! Did anyone had any success with Twitter by the way ? Feeling like the place is not working for my newsletter!
If you haven't tried The Sample yet, I highly recommend it to all. It's basically a servce that sounds out a sample of your NL to hundreds of readers, and some of them might even subscribe! There's both a free and a paid option, I've tried both and helped me get new readers and subscribers. It can also be a good tool to discover new writers in the area you're intrerested in (be it on Substack or other platforms). Here's a link - https://thesample.ai/?ref=850d (full disclosure - this is a referral link, hope that doesn't go against the rules, happy to remove it if it does)
Another example of such a service is htttps://inboxreads.co. Doesn't cost a thing and can help you find new readers who share the same interests.
Just want to pop in and say I really appreciate the new media assets! Even though I have a background in graphic design and make a lot of my own graphics -- it's SO NICE to have something right there and ready to go up on socials with no extra effort. Brilliant!
Hello everybody!! Estoy tan feliz, que además del Newsletter Perinatal que escribo para mi revista, comencé uno propio! Biblioterapia, un camino de encuentro entre lecturas.
I wrote an anniversary post https://sarahrunning.substack.com/p/one-year-in-the-substackverse a few weeks ago that serves as an updated "about" page and links to highlights from the first year. I find it useful to link to this anniversary post when welcoming new subscribers, as it serves as a good intro to the newsletter, and I'm keeping it pinned to the top of my home page for a while.
Hey Substackers, I'm new! I post short and spicy poems, accompanied by sultry portraits. My question is which other platform do you use to spread the word on your Substack? My only other platform is Instagram. Most of my followers are more interested in my photography and art than in my writing.
In my latest post, I just celebrated my content recommendations section called "Some Fun Stuff" turning 14 months old - by creating a playlist of all the songs I have recommended!
I'd love it if you could add a feature that would make it possible to publish tables within a post. Until that happens, I've resorted to creating a table in Excel or Word, taking a screenshot of it, and then uploading it to my post. It works, but it looks a little clunky.
I'm super new to all of this. I began about 2 or three weeks ago. I have published 4 parts of a series. I'm having a lot of fun, but I have no idea how to attract followers. Right now only my friends are reading it.
Although I have been writing for many years, I am NEW to Substack and this form of writing. I will be inviting many friends and associates to come here, but my question is about others on Substack. What is the best way to reach the wonderful people on Substack and bring them to my writings here? Thanks! David
Reposting this feature request from a few months back: 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.
It would be very useful to have some sort of primer (text or video) on the functioning of the "poetry block." I thought I was understanding it... but then it messed up the font instead of creating spaces between lines, and I was stymied :)
So I've been forgetting to ask this question for quite some time but may seem apt given the recent comments about not wanting Substack to appear as a newsletter.
Most of my articles tend to be longer than what Substack was originally designed for, and when I first started I would write up my articles in word documents before copying and pasting them onto Substack.
However, that ended up taking several hours and I reached a point where I would just write up my articles on Substack itself.
Unfortunately, this also meant that I don't have my own digital copy so if something were to happen to Substack I would lose all of those posts.
So I was wondering if Substack was considering having a feature for writers to be able to download their own works. It would be very helpful if we had the ability to download either word documents or even a pdf so that writers can create their own personal archive.
Can I offer some honest feedback? I love the idea of office hours, but this comments section is very difficult to use. Would a chat room be better? On here I have no idea where the conversation begins and ends.
How do people stay motivated when you don't have thousands of subscribers and you're not making significant money from Substack? I want to keep investing in mine -- I love writing it! I have a few hundred subscribers who are engaged, it's a source of creative joy for me, and I'm so happy I started one. But it's also a lot of (free) work to get it consistent and strong enough where I can grow to thousands of subscribers and make some real money from it. How do you make sure burn out isn't inevitable? Would love to hear from others!
Has anyone tried opening up their Substack to advertising? What has it been like for you? I decided to open myself up to it this week on a dynamic pricing method (starting at something like $0.20 per subscriber). Also, if you have advertised on Substack, what did your editorial process look like? I would probably want to exercise some editorial discretion, but that comes with some caveats.
Just wanted to recognize the folks doing readings of their work, wherever you are. I just released the first episode of my serial fiction story, which I narrated. It’s tough! There’s a lot that goes into it and it can’t be stressed enough what great creators you are for venturing in.
Hello everyone, my name is Ahmad and I am an immigrant of Palestine and writer on substack! I write about human rights, occupation, and western colonialism's impact on current politics, news, and culture. I am almost to 100 subscribers if anyone wants to help me out and reach that goal!!
I am new to Substack and am hesitant to publish my first post. Is it better to have some archived posts first? Or just start with one fresh one? How much work should be ready to go before hitting publish? My newsletter is Breath & Ink: Poetry, prompts and practices for living a heart-led life. Thank you. Happy to find this community.
Hello all! I’ve got a question about discussion threads. I’d really like to start including them in my stack, as a way to engage between posts
My open rate is pretty good, I think - 76% on my last post - but my list is still very tiny, as in double digits. So I’m worried that no one will comment, and that wouldn’t look (or feel!) very good .
My question is, do I wait until I have more readers? Or just go for it, and take the chance on hearing crickets?
I am a criminologist and interested in finding a very user friendly template to use for a monthly newsletter with my strong base of followers. Then I eventually, in the future hope to turn that around to selling expert information on sub stack, as I offer when I testify as an expert witness. Thoughts?
Hey! Is there a way to add the social share images you guys generate to the RSS feeds? It’ll make it easier to use zapier to auto share these to insta!
Alternatively, an instagram hookup would be cool! Thanks
Not exactly a milestone but at last I’ve caught up with having my next two posts scheduled - funny how life gets in the way of writing!
I started writing on Substack in June and initially posted twice a week, on Saturdays and Wednesdays. That proved unsustainable and I’m now back in a pattern of scheduling posts for publication every Saturday morning.
Substack is the only social media I do, and nearly 100% (apart from one family member subscriber) of my subscribers have come to me organically via this platform. I didn’t have an email list to import. It means a lot to me for my words to have an audience - I’m not here to be paid, just to be read. I love this community, despite my claims for the last few years (since I left FB, Insta and Twitter) to be allergic to social media.
Hoping to hit my first three-figure milestone by the end of the month. ☺️
Congratulations to everyone on your milestones! I am impressed by all of you!
No substack milestone for me. I have a much more painful one coming up on Monday. As of now, I haven't found the words to write about it yet. I hope they come.
Hello amazing humans. I’ve been on the app for about a month. I’m still getting my feet. But when I get a question that I have, is that I’ve been chosen to use video for better.
Any ideas on how I can leverage this? It seems like it’s it’s standalone YouTube? I was just looking for ideas for that.
I’m also a behavioral scientist, psychologist, median, and coach. I have a NL about why we do what we do. Using neuroscience, pop-culture examples, exploring our biases and what we think makes us human.
Nice to meet you all. Looking forward to learning from you all! :-)
I am surprised by mine only because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stick with it? Also, trying not to be discouraged when I do not get any new subscribers and just keep writing? I think I am going to post three times a week though and have set up themes/guides for myself to stick to.
I've had my Substack going for over a year now, but I'm having trouble growing my subscriber list. I regularly share my posts on social media and with friends. Any tips for reaching new readers outside of your circle?
Do you think newsletter title needs to have a name that summons audience or identifies a particular issue that might be of concern to the audience. Or does it really matter?
Anyone listen to the first episode of The Active Voice, Hamish our Chief Writing Officer's new podcast? He had a conversation with George Saunders for the first episode https://read.substack.com/p/the-active-voice-episode-1-george-saunders
Who's celebrating a milestone this week?
Welcome to all the new writers! Who's here? Any questions we can help answer as you get started?
Thanks for a great Office Hours today! The Substack team is signing off but we will be back next week to continue the conversation. In the meantime, I'd encourage you to continue talking with fellow writers here.
See you next week,
Katie, Bailey, Jasmine, Seth, John, Andy, Jonathan, Zoe, and Lucas
Hello all, and happy Office Hours! Here’s a little bit of encouragement from one small newsletter to all of you:
Our modern world has given slowness a bad reputation, especially when it comes to growth. We're always pressured to get-rich-quick, be an overnight success, or fix our problems FAST. But writing is a craft, and every good craft requires cultivation. And cultivation is a slow, steady, daily process of commitment and faithfulness. When you rush craft, you don't get quality results. Plants that are artificially germinated to grow faster are often more delicate under stress. Bread with a rushed rise doesn't bake properly. And when you write expecting instant fame, wealth, and an audience of millions it will probably be less than your best. You'll also be more likely to burn out! Don't focus on speed, focus on showing up. Don't focus on numbers, focus on community. Keep going, keep writing, and DON'T GIVE UP! 🌿
Something I've been curious about is, how does Substack fit into your finances today? Does the revenue you make from paid subscriptions help pay for a portion of your rent, perhaps childcare or something else?
A major milestone for me is that after almost 8 months, I'm now offering a paid option! I will officially announce on Sunday of this week, but it's been activated. This has all been a wonderful journey on Substack, and the fiction community has been incredibly supportive. I continue to write one speculative short story every week, and I don't see signs of stopping any time soon.
There are some fabulous writers on Substack, and I would encourage you to go back through these comments in a few hours and find a couple you will like. You never know, you might be the one to help them reach a milestone!
Hello friends and fellow writers, I'd like to share a community engagement tip I learned from studying my fellow writers: I've been referring to it as the Conversational Layup.
I was thinking about how to start a dialogue at my newsletter. I've seen this discussed often in office hours--things like, end your post with a question, things like that. I decided to look at SE Reid's Wildroot parables--an excellent substack you should all read--because her newsletter has frequent comments and strong engagement, at least from my own observations as a commenter looking in.
I don't know if she does this intentionally, but here is what I learned: The conversational layup. She posts three articles a week. The first article introduces a topic. The second article encourages discussion. The third article encourages reflection. Introduce, Discuss, Reflect. I call this the conversational layup because you aren't hoping conversation just happens somehow, but you are actively seeding conversation over successive articles, so when the conversation DOES happen you have helped to steward that conversation. You give readers the topic you want them to discuss, and time to mull it over. Then you ask them to share their thoughts and add new data. Then you bring the topic to a close by either sharing your own thoughts or riffing off the comments you have already received.
SE Reid does this on a weekly schedule, but I decided to try to adapt it to a monthly schedule. I post a Podcast on the 10th, where I introduced a topic, and then on the 15th had an open thread where I encouraged discussion. It was my most successful open thread yet--tons of very thoughtful comments. I was tempted to undercut myself by thinking--well, maybe the topic was one that resonated, I dont know if I can duplicate this success--but no, the thing is *it worked*! There *was* a lively discussion! Today I posted my "Reflect" piece, so we will see how it goes.
I just wanted to share this tip if you are struggling to find a way to get engagement. Consider trying the conversational layup. Hat tip to SE Reid and the Wildroot Parables for unwittingly helping me discover how this works!
God bless!
I've used voiceover a few times (I enjoy hearing other writers tell us their stories in their own voice) but need to get better audio editing software. I have a Southern accent that some find amusing.
https://hollyrabalais.substack.com/p/the-great-inspection-fiasco-of-2017
Recommendations continue to be a gamechanger. I was wondering if the Substack team could provide data on retention rates from subscribers who came to a publication via the recommendation engine. For example, let's say a writer received 10 new subscribers from recs but then two subsequently unsubscribed. Would it be possible to get a breakdown of gross subs via recs vs. net subs via recs over time? Thanks for any insight!
Hey everyone! My milestone: I recently went into a bookstore and found the owner wrote the kindest, complimentary note for my book. It's moments like those that inspire me to continue my humorous, every-day, spiritual approach to memoir and keep working on my Substack. My question: how do you communicate your value when your speciality is memoir?
Substack, please allow an option to let anyone comment on paid posts, that would be a great addition!
Am finding the advice we got during the ‘Grow’ program this summer about improving the welcome message that goes out to free subscribers has been paying dividends in terms of paid subscriptions. It’s a good opportunity to say hey, would you like to support me and this is how it would help so thanks as always for the tips @katie and @Bailey
I am struggling with the decision to "niche down" (which is the standard advice to be successful) or to become a generalist, which seems to be working for me.
When does it make sense to move beyond your niche and become a general pundit?
I hope it's okay for me to brag for a minute.
I wrote what I feel was one of my best pieces ever this week (and one that is really emblematic of what I want to focus on): https://www.thecharrette.co/p/the-buendia-family-curse
I gained a bunch of subscribers from it.
Mark Dykeman — who is such a wonderful writer — just recommended me and wrote the nicest blurb ever on my homepage. You should read some of his work here: https://howaboutthis.substack.com/
I had an article reach exponentially more people because of the subject (I went paragliding with my Uber driver and a stranger I met online), but after that everything I write doesn't quite seem to match that level of excitement. I want to keep consistency so any advice on how to motivate yourself to keep writing know that I don't have to match that level of story each time?
https://itsyourworld.substack.com/p/i-went-paragliding-with-a-stranger
Hello!
Crime and Punishment: Why the Poor Stay Poor in America celebrated it's first year on the mighty Substack platform just last month on September 15th! A huge thank you to the Substack administrators and my fellow writers for the help and support you've given me!
Good morning! Celebrating 3 months on the stack and the one year anniversary of publishing my book Lessons of a Wayward Yogini!
This week we finished our newsletter collaboration plan with Brad from Front Row & Backstage! Feel free to subscribe to our newsletter even if we talk about a decade difference of music genre! Did anyone had any success with Twitter by the way ? Feeling like the place is not working for my newsletter!
If you haven't tried The Sample yet, I highly recommend it to all. It's basically a servce that sounds out a sample of your NL to hundreds of readers, and some of them might even subscribe! There's both a free and a paid option, I've tried both and helped me get new readers and subscribers. It can also be a good tool to discover new writers in the area you're intrerested in (be it on Substack or other platforms). Here's a link - https://thesample.ai/?ref=850d (full disclosure - this is a referral link, hope that doesn't go against the rules, happy to remove it if it does)
Another example of such a service is htttps://inboxreads.co. Doesn't cost a thing and can help you find new readers who share the same interests.
Just want to pop in and say I really appreciate the new media assets! Even though I have a background in graphic design and make a lot of my own graphics -- it's SO NICE to have something right there and ready to go up on socials with no extra effort. Brilliant!
Hello everybody!! Estoy tan feliz, que además del Newsletter Perinatal que escribo para mi revista, comencé uno propio! Biblioterapia, un camino de encuentro entre lecturas.
Les dejo los link por si quieren leerme.
Revistaperinatalnews.substack.com
Patriciadiaz26.substack.com
Escribo en español, soy de Argentina, pero entiendo todo leyendo en inglés.
Quiero agradecer el acompañamiento permanente para crecer de Substack.com!!!!
Es increíble la gente talentosa que encuentro, es una plataforma de aprendizaje para mi!!! Abrazo a todos!!
I wrote an anniversary post https://sarahrunning.substack.com/p/one-year-in-the-substackverse a few weeks ago that serves as an updated "about" page and links to highlights from the first year. I find it useful to link to this anniversary post when welcoming new subscribers, as it serves as a good intro to the newsletter, and I'm keeping it pinned to the top of my home page for a while.
Hey Substackers, I'm new! I post short and spicy poems, accompanied by sultry portraits. My question is which other platform do you use to spread the word on your Substack? My only other platform is Instagram. Most of my followers are more interested in my photography and art than in my writing.
In my latest post, I just celebrated my content recommendations section called "Some Fun Stuff" turning 14 months old - by creating a playlist of all the songs I have recommended!
Here it is:
https://hellouniverse.substack.com/p/stories-forever
I'd love it if you could add a feature that would make it possible to publish tables within a post. Until that happens, I've resorted to creating a table in Excel or Word, taking a screenshot of it, and then uploading it to my post. It works, but it looks a little clunky.
I'm super new to all of this. I began about 2 or three weeks ago. I have published 4 parts of a series. I'm having a lot of fun, but I have no idea how to attract followers. Right now only my friends are reading it.
Although I have been writing for many years, I am NEW to Substack and this form of writing. I will be inviting many friends and associates to come here, but my question is about others on Substack. What is the best way to reach the wonderful people on Substack and bring them to my writings here? Thanks! David
Reposting this feature request from a few months back: 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.
It would be very useful to have some sort of primer (text or video) on the functioning of the "poetry block." I thought I was understanding it... but then it messed up the font instead of creating spaces between lines, and I was stymied :)
So I've been forgetting to ask this question for quite some time but may seem apt given the recent comments about not wanting Substack to appear as a newsletter.
Most of my articles tend to be longer than what Substack was originally designed for, and when I first started I would write up my articles in word documents before copying and pasting them onto Substack.
However, that ended up taking several hours and I reached a point where I would just write up my articles on Substack itself.
Unfortunately, this also meant that I don't have my own digital copy so if something were to happen to Substack I would lose all of those posts.
So I was wondering if Substack was considering having a feature for writers to be able to download their own works. It would be very helpful if we had the ability to download either word documents or even a pdf so that writers can create their own personal archive.
Thanks!
Can I offer some honest feedback? I love the idea of office hours, but this comments section is very difficult to use. Would a chat room be better? On here I have no idea where the conversation begins and ends.
I’m still wondering how to see my webpage the way others do. Still new here but happy to report in 2 weeks I got nearly 80 subscribers!
How do people stay motivated when you don't have thousands of subscribers and you're not making significant money from Substack? I want to keep investing in mine -- I love writing it! I have a few hundred subscribers who are engaged, it's a source of creative joy for me, and I'm so happy I started one. But it's also a lot of (free) work to get it consistent and strong enough where I can grow to thousands of subscribers and make some real money from it. How do you make sure burn out isn't inevitable? Would love to hear from others!
Has anyone tried opening up their Substack to advertising? What has it been like for you? I decided to open myself up to it this week on a dynamic pricing method (starting at something like $0.20 per subscriber). Also, if you have advertised on Substack, what did your editorial process look like? I would probably want to exercise some editorial discretion, but that comes with some caveats.
Thoughts?
Also, here's my advertising page: https://www.thecharrette.co/p/advertise-on-the-charrette
Just wanted to recognize the folks doing readings of their work, wherever you are. I just released the first episode of my serial fiction story, which I narrated. It’s tough! There’s a lot that goes into it and it can’t be stressed enough what great creators you are for venturing in.
Here’s my first installment:
https://theflare.substack.com/p/ithaka-chapter-one
Anyone else doing readings?
Hello everyone, my name is Ahmad and I am an immigrant of Palestine and writer on substack! I write about human rights, occupation, and western colonialism's impact on current politics, news, and culture. I am almost to 100 subscribers if anyone wants to help me out and reach that goal!!
I am new to Substack and am hesitant to publish my first post. Is it better to have some archived posts first? Or just start with one fresh one? How much work should be ready to go before hitting publish? My newsletter is Breath & Ink: Poetry, prompts and practices for living a heart-led life. Thank you. Happy to find this community.
Hello all! I’ve got a question about discussion threads. I’d really like to start including them in my stack, as a way to engage between posts
My open rate is pretty good, I think - 76% on my last post - but my list is still very tiny, as in double digits. So I’m worried that no one will comment, and that wouldn’t look (or feel!) very good .
My question is, do I wait until I have more readers? Or just go for it, and take the chance on hearing crickets?
I am a criminologist and interested in finding a very user friendly template to use for a monthly newsletter with my strong base of followers. Then I eventually, in the future hope to turn that around to selling expert information on sub stack, as I offer when I testify as an expert witness. Thoughts?
The Honest Broker by Roger Pielke Jr., 2 years on 25 Oct 2022!
https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/
Two questions today.
How is voiceover different from just producing a podcast?
And, were changes made to captions and I missed a memo? They've been doing odd things and I was not able to make links in them yesterday.
Glad to always see the innovations, but sometimes I would like to have options to retain older styles if possible.
Hey! Is there a way to add the social share images you guys generate to the RSS feeds? It’ll make it easier to use zapier to auto share these to insta!
Alternatively, an instagram hookup would be cool! Thanks
Not exactly a milestone but at last I’ve caught up with having my next two posts scheduled - funny how life gets in the way of writing!
I started writing on Substack in June and initially posted twice a week, on Saturdays and Wednesdays. That proved unsustainable and I’m now back in a pattern of scheduling posts for publication every Saturday morning.
Substack is the only social media I do, and nearly 100% (apart from one family member subscriber) of my subscribers have come to me organically via this platform. I didn’t have an email list to import. It means a lot to me for my words to have an audience - I’m not here to be paid, just to be read. I love this community, despite my claims for the last few years (since I left FB, Insta and Twitter) to be allergic to social media.
Hoping to hit my first three-figure milestone by the end of the month. ☺️
Great thread - thank you, Substack!
Congratulations to everyone on your milestones! I am impressed by all of you!
No substack milestone for me. I have a much more painful one coming up on Monday. As of now, I haven't found the words to write about it yet. I hope they come.
Blessed Be
Hello amazing humans. I’ve been on the app for about a month. I’m still getting my feet. But when I get a question that I have, is that I’ve been chosen to use video for better.
Any ideas on how I can leverage this? It seems like it’s it’s standalone YouTube? I was just looking for ideas for that.
I’m also a behavioral scientist, psychologist, median, and coach. I have a NL about why we do what we do. Using neuroscience, pop-culture examples, exploring our biases and what we think makes us human.
Nice to meet you all. Looking forward to learning from you all! :-)
Jordanbridger.Substack.com
Is this the Writer Office Hour?? Only started my Substack (Page by Page) a couple of weeks ago, so I’m brand new to this!!
I am surprised by mine only because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stick with it? Also, trying not to be discouraged when I do not get any new subscribers and just keep writing? I think I am going to post three times a week though and have set up themes/guides for myself to stick to.
I've had my Substack going for over a year now, but I'm having trouble growing my subscriber list. I regularly share my posts on social media and with friends. Any tips for reaching new readers outside of your circle?
Do you think newsletter title needs to have a name that summons audience or identifies a particular issue that might be of concern to the audience. Or does it really matter?