Have questions about publishing, growing, or going paid on Substack?
The Substack team, and your fellow writers, are here to help!
Today we’re hosting Office Hours with a special guest, Casey Botticello, author of Blogging Guide, a newsletter focused on helping writers navigate the digital publishing landscape and earn money from their writing. Casey knows a lot about publishing and Substack. We’ll be in the thread to answer writer questions for an hour with Casey and the Substack writer community.
How do you increase paid subscribership? To get started: Casey shares 17 strategies he used to reach 100+ paid subscribers on Substack in two months plus a whole host of learnings from writing on Substack.
Seeking inspiring ways to celebrate with readers? Check out The Persuasion Festival. Writers, contributors, and friends are coming together to celebrate all they have accomplished in defending and reinvigorating the values of a free and fair society in their first year on Substack.
Curious what style of writing works best on Substack? Over 325 unique publications were mentioned in the Shoutout Thread last week.Lyle writes memoir-style with a dash of advice column.Sneaky Art posts drawings from sketchbooks in public places. So Relatable shares delicious snacks with a curated list of reads on creative process and writing. A wide array of different writing styles were on display.
Drop your questions in the thread and we’ll do our best to supercharge each other.
Our team will be in the thread today with Casey from 9 am - 10 am PST / 12 pm - 1 pm EST answering questions with you.
We’ll host this thread again next week with a special guest from Substack’s Product team who is are eager to learn more about the publishing tools writers most want. Save it to your calendar so you don’t miss it.
Looking for more ways to connect with writers? Casey hosts a Substack Writers Facebook group.
Thank you for joining us for this week for Office Hours! And a BIG thank you to Casey Botticello for co-hosting with us.
We are wrapping this week's thread but we’ll host this thread again next week with a special guest from Substack’s Product team who is are eager to learn more about the publishing tools writers most want. Save it to your calendar with the link in the top of today's post so you don't miss it.
Be sure you subscribe to Casey's Substack for ongoing resources for navigating the digital publishing landscape. https://bloggingguide.substack.com/
I also wanted to add a few links that may be useful to Substack writers looking to promote their newsletters.
These are newsletter directories. Newsletter directories give you backlinks to your website, which increases the ranking and searchability of your website. They also help readers find newsletters covering a specific topic of interest. Here are a few of the top ones:
I'm reading everything you linked here and finding so much valuable information! I really hate the marketing/PR aspect of substack because I'm selling myself now, which is a lot harder than selling the bigger brand (media outlet.) Have you ever heard of someone who does the marketing/branding/PR for substack writers so we can pay for it instead of just procrastinating and avoiding it?
Haha I've helped a few people myself, but I don't know of anyone who specifically caters to Substack writers (and actually knows what they are talking about). That said, you can always feel free to reach out if you need dedicated help!
Alternatively, you could look for someone who can help you with the specific marketing tasks you don't like, as opposed to an all-in-one Substack specialist. For example, a link building expert to get your posts better backlinks, a content marketer to help you boost content production, or a graphic designer to create custom images, etc.
Thanks, Casey, for your info. I'm interested in such newsletter directories in spanish. Do you know some of them? Any idea on how to find them? Thanks a lot.
I'm currently approaching 1,000 subscribers. I'm considering going to a combination of paid and free subscriptions when I get to about 2,500. Is it possible to do both? I've found no guidlines for how to do this in the help section. Is it even advisable? Or am I better off going paid only? My plan is to offer loads of free content and the ability to comment to paid subscribers. Haven't found any info on how to set that up either (I know it can be done because others are doing it).
Hi Kyle, Yes it is possible to offer a combinator of free and paid posts to your subscriber list. Sorry you had trouble finding information on that.
When you turn on paid and go to publish a post, one of your options will be to send to "send email" to everyone or "send email to paid subscribers."
As a general rule of thumb we encourage writers to have a combination of free an paid content, making their best work free. It's the best possible marketing. Even though every fibre of your being may tell you that your best work should go behind the paywall, it’s smart to make your most thoughtful and accessible content free to everyone. That way, it stands a chance of being shared and widely read.
Just remembered another question. I like that Substack automatically embeds youtube videos right on my site. However, so far it hasn't with Bitchute. I've not yet tried Oracle. Are there any plans to enable that ability with Bitchute, Oracle and others?
I'm struggling with whether to add a paid subscriber option. I could use the extra support, but I don't have the capacity to produce anything extra for paid subscribers right now. What do you think about adding a paid option without extra content, purely for optional financial support of the newsletter? Alternatively: what are some creatives ideas for paid subscriber content that can be managed on an already full and tight schedule?
Discussion threads are a quality (and less demanding of your time) way to offer something extra for paying subscribers. I've done them for both all and paid subscribers, and they really help generate a feeling of community among my readers.
Yeah, I'd really like to do a Friday mailbag-type thread every week, and a monthly thread where paid subscribers can pitch me ideas of what they'd like to see me write about when I got the subscription base to do so!
Would love to hear about creative ideas here. I know one writer offers bi-weekly dance classes on zoom to paid subscribers! (https://raha.substack.com/)
Beyond those creative ideas, one thing to remember is that not every post you publish needs to be at an equal level of depth, especially if you’re publishing more frequently. Here are a few ideas for what to offer readers that reminds them you exist, but doesn’t require as much work from you:
* Paid posts that are rough notes, off-the-cuff ideas, sketches, or other “works in progress” that reveal your writing process
* Audio posts where you narrate something you’ve written, or just say hello to your readers
* Podcast interviews, which you can publish right from your Substack. Interviewing others can be just as much work as writing, depending on your level of polish, but can also help break up your writing schedule.
* Guest posts from other writers. In addition to giving you a break from writing, guest posts are also a great way to cross-promote your newsletter with others.
* Discussion threads, where you ask readers a question. Bonus: they get to meet and interact with other readers, without additional work from you.
* Ask me anythings (AMAs): Use discussion threads to host regular AMAs, either with yourself or with a guest.
* Private community: Offer paid subscribers access to a private discussion forum or community so they can interact with other readers, even on days when you’re not publishing.
I had to stop writing on substack back in April because I landed a job drawing a graphic novel. I just returned, and I find that my subscribers cant read my work because it now sends them a message saying that my newsletter is for paid subscribers onlu. I hadnt intended to charge anyone until I'd built up a decent amount of subscribers. How do I return my newsletter to being free? I've looked through the settings and there's nothing that I can find that allows me to do this.
I've shared this before (so forgive me if I sound like a broken record) but Cherie Hu, who writes the newsletter Water + Music, wrote this excellent post on how to think about asking for reader support -- as in, what's the value proposition? It's really, really good:
Andrea, a Substack called Liberty's Highlights has done just that. Payment is completely optional. I believe that he has at least 100 subscribers paying him $12 per month.
Reading this now -- wow. I am incredibly impressed, and now have a lot to think about as I approach the date I intended to turn on paid subscriptions (Aug 1).
Indeed, I don't have a paywall, everything is free.
I have about 4,500 free subs and about 188 paid subs right now, so around 4% going paid (but I turned on the paid option only 4 months ago, so I don't know where it'll settle -- so far that % is going up every month, but it won't go up forever..).
Could I ask, what's your thinking around not paywalling some content for paid subscribers? I've paywalled some of mine, but I'm leaning toward doing what you're doing.
Hey Terrel. Happy to discuss. Can you email me at my domain name @ substack.com or DM me on Twitter (same twitter username as my website domain name -- DMs are open).
My blog has about 5% conversion to paid with no pay-gate on content. If you have significant subscribers, some amount of them are actually waiting to pay and can't.
That's really interesting. What is your thinking on that, vs. paywalling off some content for paid subscribers only? Love to hear your thoughts (as it's something I wrestle with too).
I haven't tried pay-gating, so I don't really know. When I initially made the decision to move to paid, it was after one of my articles went crazy (by my standards, 75k hits-ish) and I was going paid a lot earlier than I thought. My thinking being that would let people express goodwill even if my overall catalogue of work wasn't enough to pay for yet.
I've thought about gating some content since then, but I'm a sissy and don't really want to.
Curious how many of those 75k hits were email subscribers, RC. I've had some articles also take-off (not quite "viral") but ten times the number of email subscribers. I am going on the assumption that building email subscribers is the main metric. But maybe not?
I am thinking about offering the simple pay option as well. Those who are deeply engaged might be ten times as valuable as those who are just passing through, and many like not just the subjects, but the quality of the writing and might be willing to pay. (I am not looking for this to support myself, but this is a kind of full-time job!)
Have you ever thought of adding a feature that would allow readers to pay for just one article? I know a lot of people are hesitant to sign up for a monthly and yearly subscriptions but might gladly pay $1 or $2 for access to an article on a topic that really intrigues them.
I understand that "micropayments" can be a pain in the butt to administer and many people don't think it's worth it. But it still seems to me that this is leaving a lot of money on the table.
We have thought about this, but we want writers to have consistent revenue - a sense of what they are going to make over the year to make the model sustainable for them. So we prioritize annual and monthly subscriptions.
Thanks for responding. I don't think allowing one-off payments would cannibalize subscriptions. Just the opposite in fact, I think it might boost them. Of course, I'm basing this on my own behaviour so I could be totally wrong. It does seem, however, that this would be something worth testing.
I can't speak for Substack but one way to think about this "micropayment model" is to essentially dramatically increase the quality/value of a single article.
After all, even $5 per month (with the intention to cancel) is essentially a micropayment (as are all subscriptions, in a way, if you consider that most users will not truly subscribe to your newsletter indefinitely).
That way, maybe, some readers will pay for a single VERY high quality/must read article (at say $5 monthly subscription price) since they view that single article as a reasonable deal for such essential content. They are actually subscribing for a month, so chances are they will at least read a few other articles before cancelling their subscription. And a subset of these readers, might then keep subscribing for additional months.
The beauty of a paid newsletter is not only that you generate a revenue stream for some period of time, but that people are actually paying to read (what could be viewed as) a promotion to subscribe for future content.
As a writer, I would definitely rather have a monthly or annual subscriber than a one-off reader, but I think it's a far higher hurdle to consent to monthly payments than to make a one-off purchase.
I often find myself in a situation where I would happily pay $1 for a paywalled article, but I won't buy a subscription. I don't understand why publishers leave this money on the table other than that they believe the margins are too thin, which, as someone who closely follows the industry, I don't think is true.
Hello! Thanks for the shoutout in today's email! I also just joined Casey's Facebook group. :)
I have a question about cross-promotion. I've done mentions in other newsletters, guest posts, and guest editing sections, and I've found each method has diminishing returns over time. Are there any creative cross-promotion techniques you've found interesting or successful?
Ive been contacted by a couple of subscribers that said that they'd found my work in their spam folders. My last article didn't go into any mailboxes. I've read that articles heavy in visual imagery are seen as spam and rerouted from the readers inbox to spam. Any suggestions as to how I can make certain that my work gets to my subscribers inboxes every time? Thank you.
This is a constant problem for me. I hear all the time from subscribers who arent getting anything. One thing I did was send an email to my list (you can download it) from my personal email, which is more likely to get into their inbox, with the subject line "Let me slide into your inbox!" and easy instructions for fixing this problem (add my from email to your contacts list or drag one of my emails into primary). I heard from a few that the email helped, but I'm not sure how much. I find this really really frustrating!
I worry about this, too. I've had some subscribers contact me to ask why they aren't getting the newsletter. It seems to be Gmail. The problem with putting something in your newsletter about how to fix the Gmail problem is....they aren't getting the newsletter in the first place so they don't see that message!
Hi, Heather, I had to stop writing on substack back in April because I landed a job drawing a graphic novel. I just returned, and I find that my subscribers can't read my work because it now sends them a message saying that my newsletter is for paid subscribers only. I hadn't intended to charge anyone until I'd built up a decent amount of subscribers. How do I return my newsletter to being free? I've looked through the settings and there's nothing that I can find that allows me to do this. I was wondering if you might have any insight regarding this mystery. Thanks- TK talbert
Hi, Andrea, I had to stop writing on substack back in April because I landed a job drawing a graphic novel. I just returned, and I find that my subscribers can't read my work because it now sends them a message saying that my newsletter is for paid subscribers only. I hadn't intended to charge anyone until I'd built up a decent amount of subscribers. How do I return my newsletter to being free? I've looked through the settings and there's nothing that I can find that allows me to do this. I was wondering if you might have any insight regarding this mystery. Thanks- TK talbert
I think you can assume that at least some of your subscribers are having that problem. It's endemic. I suggest writing about the Gmail Promotions tab issue in your "welcome e-mail" to subscribers when they sign up.
Hmmm, I do that now, mostly to proof, but I'm thinking I should use my gmail account and test that since Gmail seems to be where most of the problems arise. Thanks Fintwit!
Just cracked the 100+ subscriber milestone on my Substack Scaled and Failed (https://scaledandfailed.substack.com/) and curious about what to focus on for growing next.
1. Is going for more one-off well-exposed or viral growth strategies i.e. shoutouts from people in the startup community or are more slow-burn growth methods better?
2. What are some strategies to get reader engagement in the comments and for sharing the newsletter?
I had the same question. I try to add a question at the end of the post to invite comments, but they are few and far between. Does it make sense to even bother about it as long as they're reading?
Bailey and team thanks for hosting Casey hope to jump back on then. Casey thanks for all the great posts and adming the Substack group on Facebook. I learn so much from the comments from this diverse and helpful community. Keep up the good work.
Started my newsletter, The First Years of Marriage (https://www.thefirstyearsofmarriage.com/welcome), recently and was able to increase my subscribers by 100+ a week. Casey, curious to hear:
1. How do you make your content shareable so that readers are eager to send it to people who would also benefit from it?
2. What are ways you make sure you're writing information of value for your audience?
3. What's another way to monetize the newsletter rather than charge subscription fees?
1. Typically you either make article titles very catchy (easy to share and be shared on social media) or through keyword heavy post titles which might rank organically (SEO).
2. The best way to ensure this is to regularly survey your audience. It's important to get feedback from a wide range of your subscribers. While it's good to listen to complaints or super positive feedback, these types of responses may not be indicative of a larger reader consensus about what constitutes "value" to them.
Here are the TWO things that helped me get 100 new subscribers fast.
1. More VALUABLE content:
I decided to put out THREE newsletters a week - all of varying length - but all filled with value. Since it's a brand new newsletter, quality + quantity = gives people a reason to build a relationship with the newsletter, look forward to reading it, and want to share it with other people.
2. A giveaway:
People love giveaways. I did a simple one - $25 gift card + $25 worth of books and used a free app to help setup the giveaway (KingSumo). This helped so much in getting people to enter, subscribe to the newsletter, and share it.
When you start something new, it's important to get people excited, give them free value, and make them eager to share what you started with their network of people.
One tip on the "shareable" question is visuals. If you have visualizations of data or animations, it can help existing readers absorb and comment on/share your articles faster. We've heard from some writers that their posts with visualizations outperform their others on shareability.
I was wondering if the Substack team can do more research about the % of readers who convert to paid based on engagement.
I’ve seen the general numbers you guys put out in the past, but I think it would be more helpful if you took reader engagement into account.
For example, right now we can see how active/engaged our readers are based on the star system you guys have in place (5-star, 4-star, 3-star, etc). Should we assume our 5-star readers will convert to paid?
Basically, if you could gather data from all Substack newsletters to see how likely readers convert to paid based on their engagement, that would be super helpful. And then maybe include a section for writers that says something like, “By going paid, you could earn $X dollars based on your readership and engagement.”
Heyo! I can share this feedback absolutely. Certainly a subset of our writers would like more know-how about analytics, and we're aware of that :)
It sounds like you've already heard this but we commonly see conversion rates between 5-10% from free -> paid subscribers. Here's a bit more granularity.
Use this paid conversion rate
Less than 30% -> 3%
30-50% -> 5%
Greater than 50% -> 10%
Disclaimer: your open rates are not perfectly predictive of your conversion rate, in any direction! We’re just using these numbers as a rough proxy for estimating what you could make.
Now you’ll need to identify a price. Again, we’re just doing napkin math this week (we’ll get into newsletter pricing next week), so if you’ve got a personal newsletter, we recommend using between $5-10/month, or $50-100/year, as your estimate. If you’ve got a business newsletter (meaning, something you think at least some of your readers could expense for work), use $10-50/month, or $100-500/year.
Multiply your free email list size by your conversion rate, using the table above. Then multiply that by your price.
Here’s a quick example to demonstrate:
Sally writes about food on her free newsletter, Food For Thought. She has 5,000 free subscribers on her list.
Her open rates are usually in the 55% range, so she uses a 10% conversion rate.
Sally multiplies 5,000 x 10% = 500 paying subscribers. She figures she can charge $5/month or $50/year, so her earning potential is $25,000-30,000/year.
What number did you get? Compare it against your financial goals. Is it what you expected? If so, that’s great! If not, read below to figure out what your next steps should be.
Hello!! Not sure if this has been brought up before, but is there a specific way through Substack to submit our newsletter site to Google so it can be crawled/fetched and be searchable? Thank you!
Hi Erin, Casey includes some great tips in his guide in regards to SEO and getting Google to recognize your publication. Here are a few from Casey:
* Don’t underestimate the value of the plain but well-optimized text—Use visual components appropriately and only when they improve content. Random images or GIFs may be entertaining but they can slow down rendering time for a reader (especially in their email).
* Improve headlines and text—It takes time to generate catchy content for your newsletters. Use test emails to analyze how motivating they are. Would you personally click on such an email?
* Apply basic on-page SEO techniques—Use keywords in your headlines (H1 tags), subheaders (H2 tags), and the body of your content (text).
*Use the alt attribute for images—Substack lets you customize alt tags for images in your post. The alt tag is used by screen readers, which are browsers used by blind or visually impaired people. These tags can affect SEO. Google’s article about images has a heading “Use descriptive alt text”. This is no coincidence—Google places a relatively high value on alt text. They use it to determine what is on the image but also how it relates to the surrounding text. Ideally each image should have a unique tag, but at a minimum, any custom featured images, should include descriptive alt text). Note: Captions are not a substitute for alt text!
* Fill out all basic newsletter fields—This seems basic, but I notice many Substack writers who have not properly filled out some of the basic fields attached to their newsletter. These include Publication name, One-line description, tags, Subscription benefits (all three lines), etc.
* While it’s true that Substack has a ways to go on improving its features to optimize each post (i.e. meta descriptions, canonical links, etc.), Substack itself, the website actually has pretty high domain authority and it is certainly possible to rank highly in Google.
For example, if you Google the search phrase: Medium vs. Quora you will see that my post on Substack (through my newsletter Blogging Guide) not only ranks on the first page, but it is the featured snippet for the term.
FYI this is a common question because substack doesn't work well with Google SEO. I do every thing they recommend (I've been writing professionally online for 10 years) and I still get no traction from google searches. Substack is going to have to do more to get us seen.
thanks for being here, Emily! You are right, we have lots of work to do on SEO. It's part of our product and engineering team's focus as they grow their capacity to help writers do more.
I have about 4,500 free subs, and I keep hearing relatively frequently from would-be paid subs that they tried to join for a while but couldn't figure it out and were confused.
I realized that they're just logged out of substack on that browser/device and when they click the "subscribe" button they end up on the page when the field to enter your email and nothing else.
I think it should be made much clearer how to login (it's hidden, low-contrast in the corner) and why you have to login to see the paid options.
I'm sure it's happening to everyone else too, even if they don't know, so improving this would help substack as a whole.
(Another request: I wish crypto had its own category, instead of taking over finance, business and tech -- it really is its own thing).
Hi Liberty, thanks for being here. I'm passing this along to our team as feedback, it seems to be a common confusion as readers move to different devices.
I second this - I've clicked the "subscribe" CTA in some substacks I get, and just get directed to a page to enter my email to sign up (which I've already done). Being directed to a page with the subscription rates/options immediately instead I think would help writers tremendously.
Hi! I started my newsletter (https://ana.substack.com featuring a broad selection of essays about creative influence) about 1.5 years ago and am only up to 40 free subscribers. I actually had a bit of an uptick but realized that I was getting bot subscribes. Granted, I started it to practice writing so I haven't done a lot of promotion beyond social media but I'm wondering if there are any stats on the growth trajectories of successful paid newsletters and their early days.
I spend about 8 hours a week on it and I'm wondering if there's something about how slow it's growing at the moment that indicates it won't ever take off or if the advice is to keep going. (I've tried not to wait for perfection though so am continuously iterating on my about page, for example.) Thanks!
I've written a bit about my newsletter's trajectory, but really every case is unique.
Social media promotion can definitely help but if you don't have a large audience outside of Substack, it will be tough to drive direct traffic.
I'd say keep going but maybe try doing some guest posts on niche sites related to your newsletter, posting actively in various forums/sub-reddits related to your newsletter's topic, and other online spaces.
You may need to increase your post frequency, as well, if you really want to determine the potential for your newsletter.
It looks like you are posting less than once per month, which is totally fine, but may make it harder to establish whether there is demand for your newsletter.
Thanks Casey! My newsletter is actually weekly (I just went on hiatus a couple of times hah). Now that I'm committing to it though, I am curious how that may affect subscriber growth. I'll have to do some brainstorming on niche sites...I guess the challenge for me is that my topics range from week to week as the whole goal of the newsletter is to showcase breadth and diversity. But perhaps I need to promote each newsletter issue to that relevant community rather than to try to think of promoting it as a whole. Thanks for the food for thought!
There are a lot of tactics here, but one simple tip that we recommend to every writer - ensuring the formatting of your post is on point. That basic hygiene is important. Anytime someone reads your work, whether through a forwarded email or public link, they are set up to subscribe or upgrade.
- Email headers and footers: You can edit your “Email banner, header, and footer settings” in your Settings page to customize the top and bottom of emails. This space can be used to prompt free readers to subscribe, request feedback, or insert some visual branding.
- Buttons: Include at least 2x subscribe buttons each post.
@bailey This thread has the question a lot of us have about how Taibbi is sending out part of the subscriber posts to the free people. He somehow has a link to a post to read it but doesn’t have two posts showing on his home page. Check out his system because it seems I’m not the only one who wants to copy it !
Ok, I don't have nearly as many paid subs as you, but so far most of my conversions have come from writing a long post for subscribers, creating an excerpt that I send to the free list, and explain that the excerpt is from a subscriber post. I make sure to include a good hook right before the break that gets readers interested. (I write a local news substack.) I haven't done one yet that hasn't led to new paid subs.
How do you do this technically? I see Taibbi doing it but then I look at his page and don't see two posts so I can't figure out what he's doing on the back end. Thanks!
That's exactly who I got it from! It seems to work pretty well. So my formula is get new readers hooked through my weekly local news summary and convert a percentage of them through long form content available only to subscribers (with the occasional free post as well). I might have to try that Insta formula too, so thanks for that!
I recommend checking out NYT or WaPo or Vice on Instagram. That's how I emulated it. Usually what I do is lead with the announcement with a CTA, then a summary.
Nice, thanks for that. I like the way WaPo did theirs - good style. BTW, looks like I don't live too far away from you - just five hours north in Wisco!
How do you post on IG? I hate posting tons of text in stories because I know it's hard to read but I can't figure out any other way to show bits of the post to them. I also direct them to linktree with screen shots but I don't think it is making anyone click?
I attended a wonderful substack workshop about a month ago, and the focus of it was on crafting a crystal clear "about" page with a clear value proposition for the reader. I'm curious if you have any tips on someone who has a vast array of topics they want to write on.
I've discovered that I not only want to write about tech and software engineering, but other topics including fatherhood and seasons of change. For example, I wrote a piece called [Leaps of Faith](https://memattchung.substack.com/p/leaps-of-faith) that has had over 5,000 views on LinkedIn with 200+ engagement. Prior to publishing it, I had no idea as to whether or not people would even read it.
In short: how do you go about honing in and narrowing your writing topics?
I talked to someone a few days ago who was particularly knowledgeable who said you don't hone your writing topics, you hone your concept of your audience. So think of, like, McDonalds; it has burgers, fries, chicken sandwiches - different products, but all aimed at hungry people in a hurry. Bed Bath and Beyond sells a lot of different stuff, but it's all basically aimed at "people who want to redecorate at least a bit from somewhere a little nicer than Target".
In your case, I'd say it's not a bad idea to write what you want, and then see what connects - then write things that work for the people you connected with. That's mainly what I've done, and it's working out pretty OK.
I just read something similar yesterday. The gist was, write for the reader's experience. So, for example, if you are writing a newsletter about news, you might want to position it as 'news for people who are frustrated with getting so much biased news.' It's really helping me think through learning what my audience wants and what resonates with them.
That's really interesting. Jasmine of our team encourages writers to do the following when drafting their About pages & one-liners, which seems aligned:
Your one-liner should signal who the target audience is and why they might subscribe. The goal should be for a reader to read your one-liner and say, “that’s me!”
Start by asking yourself:
Who wants to read your publication? You may have multiple reader types, and consider both demographic characteristics and personality types.
Why do readers want to read your publication? E.g. motivation, humor, breaking news, professional development.
Great advice — thank you. Up until recently, I've largely ignored the reader metrics but probably should redirect my attention that way since they are helpful (not the sole driving) for steering the content that I write. From the previous workshop, it appeared that onboarding to substack was a fairly linear process: write your one-liner, your about page, etc. But perhaps it's an ever-evolving, non-linear process in which you write -> get feedback (on what sticks and doesn't stick) -> refine one-liner and about pager ... over and over again.
I think you nailed it with the last part of this -- I've found that nearly constant iteration is truly valuable to both my process of creating a newsletter that people want to read, and my readers.
Thanks for articulating this question! I had presented a similar concern in one of these threads a couple of weeks ago. I write personal essays that cover a diverse range of psychosocial subjects (https://richa.substack.com/), and perhaps the most distinctive thing about my publication is my voice as a writer. One of the things I therefore struggle with is the one-line description.
Hi Matt. Just gave you a plug on LinkedIn with a link to your substack in the comments on your post, "Leaps of Faith". Love the photo of you and your little one!
In this interview our co-founder Hamish talks with Tony Mecia who started a Local News publication about how he honed his focus topic: https://on.substack.com/p/spotlight-on-local-news-with-tony. The summary is that Tony focused his topic on something that was under-covered, and also that he had a unique know-how about.
Transcript -
Why did you decide to cover business news rather than just local news in Charlotte?
I'm not opposed to doing local news, and we do a fair amount of general news, but our theory has always been that we want to do writing that's better than what's already in Charlotte, and we want to do writing that's different than what's already in Charlotte.
The number of business reporters here in Charlotte had declined, and I saw an opening content-wise. My background was in business news. It’s something that I knew and felt comfortable covering. There's a pretty big market for it in Charlotte. We’re a business town with banks and tech companies. It's a pretty big city. Business writing also has the advantage that if the newsletter is useful to an employee, they can charge the subscription cost to their company as a business expense.
I would love to get 5,000 views. I write strategies/secrets for non-fiction publishing but when I post a personal story I get a higher open rate mostly because my initial list was my personal contacts of which only about 20% actually write or want to publish a non-fiction book. I need to start reaching outside my network. I have posted to directories and substack's activities like this (i believe have brought me 25-30 organic free subscribers) and I have started to post one or two of my articles on LinkedIn each week. I will be interested in seeing if I get any additional subscribers. I also am posting to Pinterest as I know it has a much longer viewing shelf life. Just started so don't have any real stats, but I will post any results in the Substack Writers Facebook feed when I get enough to discuss.
"What was most helpful for growth was writing two articles that took me a really long time to produce. One took me all of 2020 to research. The other one took me another six months to research. Those two articles were about the publishing industry at large. It turned out that they resonated with people because publishing is a black box, and there are a lot of writers also trying to understand how it works.
I shared those two articles a bunch of different ways, including on Hacker News. You can share your link on there, and sometimes they go viral and sometimes they don't, but one of mine did. That article had something like 60,000 views in one day, and a lot of subscribers came from that one piece of writing that really resonated."
Fascinating — I actually struggle with the opposite problem. I'm fairly comfortable publishing across different networks but what I struggle with the most is learning how to habitually participate and engage within a given community (e.g. reddit, forums). Put differently, I'm learning how to be part of and involved in {writing|tech} community, as someone who deliberate disconnected from social media for 5 years.
I want to try podcast, but I need help on how to produce them and can't find it in resources. What software do I use to record it? How do I edit it? How do I get rid of the ambient sounds? How do I make an introduction audio? Any advice to help me get over the hump of the production aspect?
Emily I can help you I am tech phobic at times and have found a nice simple approach - i'll breakdown what i know and the equipment i bought (under one hundred bucks) equipment - i bought a dynamic mic (it doesn't pick up the room sound just the voice) good for keeping outside noises out / an audio interface, this helps control sound volume via 'gain' and you plug in your mic and connect it to your laptop - then i download Audacity, a free editing tool. I also bought foam cover for the mic to soften my pitch, p's etc - then it is a case of trial and error - audacity is simple, and once i record a segment i always leave a few seconds of dead air for the editing room. my editing process once i have cut and pasted together my podcast is super simple, noise reduction, this removes muffle sound, normalise, and finally compress the sound to make the rise and fall stable (so listeners don't have to keep adjusting volume. the first podcast took countless sessions, but now i can turn one around in maybe 6 to 8 hours (one hour ish podcast) and i am only on my third
David, you are a saint and poet! I'm going to try now to do exactly what you said and not use any more excuses. I'll check back when I have finished one. Thank you so much!
The performance scorecard is a nice touch! I'd say adding social proof (in terms of subscribers) would be most compelling to attracting news subscribers (testimonials, citations, media, etc.)
Because I am a journalist by profession, my answer is always ask permission when using a quote. Sometimes I will be having a private conversation with someone on Facebook about something for my Substack, and I'll always ask if I can quote them and how they wish to be identfied, or not. It's ethical and the right thing to do.
I am wondering how and if people are using Twitter to promote their newsletter. I am a hesitant tweeter, but I have heard that strategic tweets can bring in a lot of readership. Have you experienced that? ( Is That Legal? Newsletter: amygreer.substack.com)
I'm quite active on Twitter, so thought I would chime in. The best way is to take few snippets from your article and post it as a thread with the last tweet of your thread containing the link to the Substack post for people who are curious to read more.
Posting links in the first tweet won't get you much traction as the Twitter algorithm prefers users to stay on Twitter as long as possible.
It's a hit and miss and doesn’t always work unless you've got a large following already.
Substack has their own Share button which gives users options of where to share so I haven't added my own Click to Tweet button even though I considered it at a point.
This is so helpful, Kavir. Thank you! I'm very new to Twitter and am trying to find ways to gain followers. It's been difficult! I appreciate your advice.
I haven't used Twitter much but have been more lately to promote my newsletter. I was just posting one tweet with the link to my post and a little bit of text. Then I saw the recommendation to post several tweets as a thread with the last one containing the link (maybe a recommendation from you elsewhere?). But here's a question from a relatively inexperienced Twitter user: How do you make something a thread? Just post separate tweets about the same thing? Or is there something you have to do to actually link them as a thread? For example, if someone sees my first or second tweet that doesn't have the link, how are they going to find the link if it doesn't naturally come up on their feed?
Hi Karen. Not sure if you'll see this since the thread is over. I had the same problem. When you start a tweet, look at the bottom right corner (Next to Tweet) and you'll see a plus sign. When you click on the + it brings up another tweet, which is threaded (attached) to your first one. You can click the + sign each time you want to add another piece to the thread. When you're done, click Tweet to share the whole thing. Hope that helps.
Thanks for this, Kavir. I'm trying to get smarter on Twitter, hoping to increase sign ups on my substack. I posted my first 'thread' this morning with a link at the end. Since my following is small, I don't expect much, but it's good practice. Any advice on how many tweets to include in the thread?
Three tweets are shown expanded to your followers, so either 2-3 tweets. Or 6-9 tweets to make expanding the thread worthwhile for them. Just some raw, untested observations :)
This is super helpful, Kavir! I don't have a big following myself, but I have some good amplifiers who do. I just need to put up content for them to amplify!
Hey, everybody. I'm interested in a little more depth about the "what style of writing works best on Substack." Is there a big creative nonfiction presence? How about more literary-minded stuff?
Heyo! Perhaps you've already heard this but we commonly see conversion rates between 5-10% from free -> paid subscribers. Here's a bit more granularity.
Use this paid conversion rate
Open rate is less than 30% -> 3%
Open rate is 30-50% -> 5%
Open rate is greater than 50% -> 10%
Disclaimer: your open rates are not perfectly predictive of your conversion rate, in any direction! We’re just using these numbers as a rough proxy for estimating what you could make.
Yello Bailey! Yes, I did read this. Fair enough, these benchmarks make more sense. I knew the 10% benchmark, but the granularity on open rate makes it easier to predict the number of subscribers if I went paid.
Best places to crosspost? I regularly do HackerNews but I'd be interested in other feeds, etc. Reddit is much harder since you have to target the subreddit specifically, which may have all sorts of rules, etc.
I promote in some Reddit groups that I'm in. I also moderately participate in them, so people in them don't view what I'm doing as spammy. It also helps that what you're writing is relevant to the subreddit. I've been promoting my weekly humor column in comedy subs, or my series about work culture in left-leaning political subs who would be potentially into that sort of thing. It's boosted my view/clicks numbers, and it's given me a couple of new subs, but not as many as I was hoping for.
Agreed - your strategy sounds really good but it's high time commitment. I've been trying to just track down the relevant subreddit for each post (since the stuff I do is across both science and the humanities, so AI but also literature - very makes it eclectic). The problem is, as you say, low subscriber rates from views, since pretty much everyone is "just passing through"
Yeah, I guess for Reddit I already unintentionally laid the groundwork for it by using it for years, but I think it would be the case for any sort of audience engagement regardless of the social channel, so you're actually building relationships instead of coming across as spammy or overtly self-promotional.
It does. I've made it to #1 once, and on the front page several times. Generally a #1 spot will net around 20k views. The problem is translating that into subscribers. Honestly from that #1 spot I probably only got about 50 subscribers total. Which is great, and I shouldn't complain, but 1 subscriber per 500 views is a hell of a low turnover rate.
✔️ Medium (somewhat risky since your article may be interpreted as duplicative content or the Medium version will likely outrank the Substack version) but this can be done effectively. Mainly because Medium allows writers to set the article's canonical link. So you can at least signal to Google that the Substack version is intended to be the original.
The same disclaimer applies to the next ideas, but they are still worth considering:
✔️ Quora (if you are at all providing the answer to virtually any question)
✔️ Facebook pages, groups, individual profiles
✔️ Twitter (some writers can get massive amounts of subscribers by mastering the "art of the Twitter Thread" or just by Tweeting useful content.
✔️ LinkedIn can be great for snippets (it can even accommodate very large excerpts or even crossposting an entire article, but I wouldn't recommend that).
✔️ Pinterest (especially if you create custom images that are highly shareable or infographics)
I'm still pretty new to Substack and I write LETTERS FROM EVERYWHERE https://kalpanamohan.substack.com/. These began as LETTERS FROM SINGAPORE after we moved there for six months. Now that I'm back in the San Francisco Bay Area, I wish to continue them applying the same sort of curiosity I felt in Singapore. On average I get about 800 views but some of my posts have had some 1500 views. This is very paltry compared to those of you out on this thread. BUT HOW DARE I GO PAID? I have quite a following on FB and many enthusiastic readers. But guess what? When both my books came out, all that readership did NOT exactly translate to sales. So I'm very skeptical that I can try to go PAID. I'd love some input from folks here/Casey. Thanks so much.
As a general rule of thumb we tell writers to look at their open rate and email list before going paid. If your email open rates are typically...
Less than 30% --> You might expect a 3%
30-50% --> You might expect a 5%
Greater than 50% --> You might expect a 10%
For some quick napkin math this week if you’ve got a personal newsletter, we recommend using between $5-10/month, or $50-100/year, as your estimate. If you’ve got a business newsletter (meaning, something you think at least some of your readers could expense for work), use $10-50/month, or $100-500/year.
Sales of books is very different than newsletters. So I wouldn't let that stop you. But you should make sure that your content is of high enough value to your audience, that they feel they want to pay.
If you have an active following on Facebook, why not survey them and ask if they'd be willing to pay and if so, what price point they thought was fair.
Hey guys! any plans on promoting the podcast option Substack offers? I have a literary newsletter and the podcast rss feed is a great opportunity to build your base and have the good word spread wide!
Hi David, good to see you and happy to hear that podcast has been a good tool for you! Are you hoping that we can help more writers know about the podcasting option?
yes! and help us promote it - i think the feature is really cool and it is perfect for syncing the rss feed to all apps, substack is a much better place to build an audience as it isn't lost in the swamp of spotify algorithms etc
Hi Casey! I'm wondering if you think there's a specific number of subscribers you think one should have before converting to a paid subscription model.
I don't think there is a specific threshold. Remember, you can enable monetization before you actually start charging readers (and even then you can choose any mixture of free/paid subscriber only posts).
But I've seen people successfully start operating the paid subscription model with less than 100 free sign ups.
Casey, in your information about other ways to monetize a newsletter you mention selling one's own information products -- any thoughts about how best to do this on Substack?
There are a few ways to do this, and perhaps Substack will even have some product solutions in the future to address this.
But generally, you can use Substack as more than "just a newsletter" and really think of it as the gateway to your community/membership products. That is-people pay for access and in addition to paid subscriber newsletter issues, they also get access to all of your information products which are all hosted in posts behind Substack's paywall.
In my case, I use Gumroad to actually host and distribute those products (templates, eBooks, courses) because you can use it for free.
This might just solve my angst around going paid (i.e., I want to offer paid subscribers something special right away when they convert) -- I will definitely look into Gumroad. Thank you, Casey! All your Substack content is amazing, and your willingness to share your knowledge is deeply appreciated.
Thank you for this suggestion, Casey. I saw someone else using Gumroad, but wasn't familiar with it. Maybe it could also be used for giving away things for an unpaid newsletter when people sign up. Really appreciate your time with the group today. Thank you.
Lots of questions, stock piled for the past 2 weeks. Not sure how to best ask so many, so I'll just create a list here:
1. Any update on the ability to house pdf's on substack?
2. Welcome page - suggest we could add text and photos with links so we could offer 'freebies' for signing up. I've tried to encourage the sign up with my image, but that's the best I could think of so far. (https://kindnessmagnet.substack.com/welcome
3. Would also be nice to be able to add a few testimonials on the welcome page. So, I guess I'm asking if we could have that page be a bit more like a landing page.
4. Add ability to add a link in the message that we can have appear at the top of each post and also a button. Right now I'm having to create my own and copy/paste each week. Example: https://kindnessmagnet.substack.com/p/bested-kindergarteners
5. Could we have the ability to create pages that are 'hidden' so we could use them as a landing page. I see Woodruff.substack.com is using 'draft' pages to accomplish something like this.
6. Is it possible to have YouTube videos reside on substack instead of going to Youtube?
7. Is it possible to make photos/images with clickable links?
8. Any chance of a SCRIPT font option?
9. Would like the ability to underline words.
10. Ability to place images left, right, center.
11. Could the 'share via email' be enhanced? Right now it just copies the link into the body.
12. Ability to house a poll on substack instead of taking the reader off the page. Ex: Typeform bot survey called 'Conversations', used on WonderTools.substack.com
13. Would love to hear from someone using podcasts - how are they enjoying the experience, what tips do they have.
14. Would love to hear from folks who are using twitter to build their lists and specifically how they are doing it.
15. Would also like to hear from folks who are using Instagram to build their lists and how they are doing it.
16. Discussion Thread - what's the best way to publicize the thread so people show up at a specific time?
Sorry for so many questions.....I'm having so much fun with Substack! Thank you.
Hi Heather, You are so much more organized than I am, but many of your questions are ones I have as well, especially #7,9,12,13,15. I have used Twitter to get some subscribers mostly by @ing individuals or organizations who are either mentioned or featured in my newsletter. Sometimes they will retweet it and/or subscribe. I can't say it has been wildly successful, but it gets my work out there with little effort. I peeked at your newsletter and see that probably wouldn't work for you as a strategy though.
Actually, that's a great idea, Anna. I haven't written any focused on business yet, but my background is in higher education performance improvement - and I want to start including some posts to help businesses improve outcomes through kindness. I'm so new (started in April, have a little less than 200 sign ups), and I'm still trying to figure out how to address the business market, along with my individual peeps.
Have been facing a bunch of issues over the last 1 to 2 weeks:
1. Delivery of emails getting delayed occasionally - in some cases, as much as 15 to 20 mins.
2. Tracking is not working properly - I have my personal email as a subscriber and although I read every day, it is not tracked as read sometimes. I do not have any kind of blockers, btw. Because of this, open rates are staggering a lot.
I've had the tracking issue too. I sent one email as a trial to my mom and sister for something new I wanted to incorporate, and Substack said my email was opened 32 times - for two readers!! They both said they opened it no more than twice. So I'm a little leery to trust Substack's statistics.
Just to second this, I get this a lot with my daily email with inflated view counts (I mean... not hating on it of course). And I also often see people who have clicked links.... but did not 'open the email' which is curious.
I've been writing my newsletter robust.substack.com fairly consistently for four years now and I just cannot seem to break through in growing my list. I write personal essays about my midlife Gen X vibes, peppered with pop culture and philosophy references. I'm out of friends and family and extended network at this point. With my teeny-tiny sub-100 subscribers, my open rate is usually close to 75% or more, which is heart-warming. But I want reach a larger audience and I'm just running out of steam and ideas. Twitter is not for me; I've tried, but I just can't. Please help. I need newsletter therapy.
Hi Heather. I certainly don't have it nailed down (and your 75% open rate is awesome). Perhaps revisit your one-liner on your welcome page. There are 65+ million Gen Xers. What do you see as their current problem or need? State how you solve that in your one-liner and that might encourage them to sign up. The one-liner needs to be about them, not you. If Twitter isn't for you (totally get that sentiment!), where else do you feel you could (and want to) reach your audience? Perhaps there are online websites/blogs that have your same audience and you could write an article for them. Would that be more comfortable for you?
Thanks (fellow) Heather. I think the problem with Gen Xers is essentially that we're getting old, but we are also still so young and feel so young and it's just confusing sometimes. And we are already so full of angst, it's kind of our calling card. But good call on reworking the one-liner. I'm definitely pitching other outlets with like-minded audiences. To answer Anne's question above, the purpose of my newsletter is really just to build my little ecosystem as a writer on (and off) the internet. I'm working on a book, and the newsletter is where I'm developing some of the ideas. I just think it can sometimes be hard to find your people.
I think going to Reddit and looking at the subReddits may be a good jumping off point to find my people. First I'm going to flush out how to separate the strands of what I have written - journal entries, poetic prose, or dreams.
As a newbie, here are my thoughts. One - what is the purpose of your newsletter? I think mine will be specific - like to publish the journals and focus on personal growth. Do I expect a particular number of readers or an income? Probably not. What I've heard about success is that less than 1% (rough estimate) of people reach a huge success. I think a 75% open rate is tremendous! It indicates to me the quality of what you're producing. I guess question two is who are you doing the newsletter for? Mine may basically be for me - this is the life I've been living at 64. I have content going back to the 70s that my son, bless his heart, will never look at. So I'm putting it out there.
How do you email a part of a newsletter to the free list with a link to subscribe for the rest of the post? I have gotten these emails from other substack writers and don't know how they are doing it because I don't see two posts on their sites. I think it would help a lot to convert free to paid subscribers if I can give them a taste of each one they could get.
You have to do them as separate posts -- first, one to paid subscribers. Then, a version to free subscribers, where you cut off the rest of the post. You don't see them both as posts on their sites because in Substack, emails sent to your free list only do not show up on the site. A related tool you might use is the preamble function, which allows you to make a pitch to free people at the top (or bottom) without annoying the paid people
I still don’t understand and I really want to do it tomorrow because a website is taking part of my paid only post and I want to be sure my free readers also get it. So do I make a new post and send it to everyone? That would mean the paid ones get it twice and there will be two links to posts on my site. I don’t see how else to do it. Can someone ask Taibbi since he’s got the system so effective now ? Thank you!
Thank you for helping me but I'm still confused. So I write the post and hit publish and send to the paid subscribers. Then do I do a new post and send to the free subscribers or just cut and paste a part of it out and send just as an email to free people? I really want to get my much bigger list of free people to start seeing what they are missing! :)
Yes. Sorry for not being clear. I send a full post to paid subscribers. Then I copy and paste that into a new post, but I delete out all but the first couple paragraphs of each item (we usually have 3-4 separate items), then do a custom button that says "Subscribe to keep reading" with a link to the /subscribe page. And I do a little note at the top of the free version saying something like, "Paid subscribers got the full version, here's how to subscribe." And I send that to the free list
Sounds like Tony does something pretty similar to what I do. Here is how I handle it: Write the full post with a six to seven paragraph hook that ends in something of a cliffhanger for the rest of the story, and post it or schedule it. That is sent to paid subscribers only. Then I copy and paste the lede (that 6-7 grafs) and start a new story. THAT one goes to "only free signups" with a note that this is an excerpt for free subscribers - to see this full story and the rest of The Wausonian archive, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Since a subscriber can only be a paid or free subscriber, they only see whichever one they're signed up for, so they don't see two posts. Here is an example: https://wausonian.substack.com/p/meet-the-citys-new-community-development-36e
Wow. Thanks! I had no idea that free subscribers can’t see the paid subscriber only post that they are missing. Are you sure about that? It makes it easier for me to send out the free ones with just a piece of the post, but I always thought I was enticing them by letting them see everything that they can’t read too by the home page. Since so many of us want to do this system, it may be good to add this to writers resources @substack
Yep, if you send it to paid it doesn’t go to the free ones. I have separate emails signed up for both so I can see. If you send to everyone it goes to all of them - when I send the excerpt I use the free subscriptions only option to make sure paid subs don’t get it twice. Hope it goes well for you!
Are you writing two posts and clicking paid subscriber on one, free on other and then emailing them the posts ? Or do you mean you somehow email the free people without a way to link back to a post ? Just an email ? I’m still confused !
Is it better to ask just one question? I posted a list an hour ago because I thought it would be easier, but I can understand that it might harder for Bailer and Casey to get to.
Thank you for responding, Casey. I posted a list of 16 questions that I've been accumulating for 2 weeks, thinking it would be easier to just post one list. Several other writers commented that they had the same questions. I posted it very early - before the official start time. Not sure how else to get them to you so here's the list again (sorry for the length!) By the way, I signed up for Blogging Guide and am already loving it. Thank you!
Heather Johnston BrebaughWrites Kindness Magnet 🧲·6 hr ago
Lots of questions, stock piled for the past 2 weeks. Not sure how to best ask so many, so I'll just create a list here:
1. Any update on the ability to house pdf's on substack?
2. Welcome page - suggest we could add text and photos with links so we could offer 'freebies' for signing up. I've tried to encourage the sign up with my image, but that's the best I could think of so far. (https://kindnessmagnet.substack.com/welcome
3. Would also be nice to be able to add a few testimonials on the welcome page. So, I guess I'm asking if we could have that page be a bit more like a landing page.
4. Add ability to add a link in the message that we can have appear at the top of each post and also a button. Right now I'm having to create my own and copy/paste each week. Example: https://kindnessmagnet.substack.com/p/bested-kindergarteners
5. Could we have the ability to create pages that are 'hidden' so we could use them as a landing page. I see Woodruff.substack.com is using 'draft' pages to accomplish something like this.
6. Is it possible to have YouTube videos reside on substack instead of going to Youtube?
7. Is it possible to make photos/images with clickable links?
8. Any chance of a SCRIPT font option?
9. Would like the ability to underline words.
10. Ability to place images left, right, center.
11. Could the 'share via email' be enhanced? Right now it just copies the link into the body.
12. Ability to house a poll on substack instead of taking the reader off the page. Ex: Typeform bot survey called 'Conversations', used on WonderTools.substack.com
13. Would love to hear from someone using podcasts - how are they enjoying the experience, what tips do they have.
14. Would love to hear from folks who are using twitter to build their lists and specifically how they are doing it.
15. Would also like to hear from folks who are using Instagram to build their lists and how they are doing it.
16. Discussion Thread - what's the best way to publicize the thread so people show up at a specific time?
Sorry for so many questions.....I'm having so much fun with Substack! Thank you.
What is a best practice for communicating updates with subscribers outside of regular newsletter issues, e.g., to update them on changes? Just include them as issues? Notes at the beginning or end of issues? Or separate mailing list?
Go to the Subscribers page on your Dashboard. Select all the readers/subscribers that you want to send an email to. AFTER you select your readers, an Email button will appear at the top right of the subscriber list. Then you click that and write/send your email. (P.S. I had to ask how to do this too...)
Sections can be used for this purpose. For example, I do a recap of external articles, about once per month that is sent to only those who opt into it. I also send "breaking news" to those that specifically opt in.
Hi all. I am currently simply looking to grow my subscriber base, keeping everything free for the time being. My content is history-based that also touches on current events and social commentary. Essentially, my work seeks to show how history connects with our daily lives and the world around us. If anyone has any advice, particularly regarding growing nonfiction content that is academic in nature but written to be accessible and interesting to a general readership, I would be most appreciative. Thanks.
Many of our top writers are non-fiction writers, and also academics. Heather Cox Richardson is doing so well, in part because of how she's engaged her community in regular threads and been incredibly consistent with writing. Might be worth studying her newsletter? https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/
This has been suggested elsewhere on this thread (by Casey, I believe), but I had a jump in subscribers after writing a guest post for another Substack with a much wider reach. I would look to make some connections with other newsletters that might host you, or with traditional publishing platforms (newspapers, magazines, etc.) where you could write a piece that dovetails with the content of your newsletter, and will let more people know what you're up to!
I'm a new writer to Substack, and would like to know, do you have a support group to answer questions as they come up? Under what conditions does a reader need to enter a password to Comment or Like a post? (I have only free subscribers, so I don't think a password would be necessary.) Lastly, is there a reason my reader would try to Comment and the Twitter symbol would come up?
I would love to be able to highlight comments in these weekly threads so I could go back later and review those. Is there a way to do that, or other suggestions on how to capture what is most relevant to each of us? The threads become so long.
We don't have highlight options right now. I like that idea though! We want to improve our basic commenting functionality first, but perhaps this could come down the line.
Is having a large social following super helpful for growing your newsletter?
I have been writing consistently for over a year and have written some great pieces, but I still have a sub 50 subscriber base. Is there anything you'd recommend?
I would get super clear on WHO your ideal readers are (be specific!) and WHERE they hang out so you can get in front of them. They may not already be following you on social media, but that's ok.
Depending on what you're writing about and for whom, you'll want to approach promotions differently. If you read/listen to these two interviews, one with a fiction writer (https://on.substack.com/p/spotlight-on-fiction) and one with a local news reporter (https://on.substack.com/p/spotlight-on-local-news-with-tony) you'll see that their tactics were different but the approach was the same - they know who they are hoping to get their newsletter in front of, and design ways to do that that are quite specific.
Wonder if there was a time zone issue today. The announcement said 12 pm to 1 pm EST (it's actually EDT on the east Coast USA), but the discussion seems to have started an hour ago.
We (the Substack team!) are active in the thread from 12pm-1 answering questions. We email out the thread before we jump in to answer so there's time for folks receive it in their inboxes.
Hi! I write "This Is a Newsletter!" My staple is a post every Friday that's a round-up of the news, memes, videos of the week and kind of takes a Daily Show approach to the internet. I also aim for two essays a month about culture, personal humor, or millennial urban life.
I'm also in the midst of releasing a six-part essay series about how America's work culture has influenced our pandemic response. It has really boosted engagement with my followers (email open rates are now 40-50%), but it hasn't boosted my subscribers like I was hoping it would.
I started this 2 months ago, and I'm at 100 subs with 4 paying. I promote my content through Instagram, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Discord, but I was wondering if people have any other ways of expanding my network? Maybe other humor/pop culture communities? I appreciate any help. Thanks!
I have a reputable longstanding niche news site that I launched back in 2007 in the olden times, when monetization was but a dream. It's called The Comic's Comic, about comedians and the comedy business (https://thecomicscomic.com/). Of course now I feel like I should make the leap to Substack. Any advice on how to convert my readers from blog to subscription? (I do have a pre-existing Substack called Piffany (https://piffany.substack.com/) but have held off moving forward because I want to do it right. Ack! Advice please?
I'm going to ask our team for more insight on this but one thing that comes to mind is that you could change your Substack domain to be https://thecomicscomic.com/ so that readers who are returning for your site end up on your Susbtack.
Alas, I do not have an email list outside of Substack. Didn't I read a little while back about Substack offering multi-channel newsletters? As in, I could write Piffany essays and The Comic's Comic posts under the same domain, and then have them (and potentially other categories) as individual channels? Oh, wait. I could look this up. Publication Sections! Maybe that's what I should do, publication sections, so I can separate the comedy-specific news from other news and/or commentary?
Thanks! So yes, I'd love any advice or counsel in terms of transitioning folks over from old-school blog to new-school newsletter (and then hopefully getting them to pay/donate to my cause!).
I know Substack is great for launching a new newsletter...I'm not sure how to convert readers from a 14-year-old free website with thousands of posts and listeners from a 6-year-old free podcast with 345 episodes to a new subscription-based newsletter version of same. Or do I need to start fresh here to make it work?
I recently had a serious family emergency. I stopped publishing for two months. I let all my subscribers know what was going on. No one unsubscribed. Was this the best way to handle my situation. I back now BTW.
Hi Lloyd, I hope that your family is well. I think being honest like you were, in the beginning, is the best policy and sharing how you plan to show up in the coming months for readers (e.g. weekly, monthly, etc) and what you will be writing about moving forward.
Hi Anne, welcome! I recommend scrolling through on your browser and finding a few questions that jump out. Feel free to hit "reply" where you want to jump in or start a new comment if a new question pops up.
Hi! I started doing that. I'm not sure how I found the thread. That's the first situation. I also noticed the time - 12 EST - thinking it was 12 EDT that meant the thread was underway when I got here. I have now commented, opened links in another tab to read things later, and am motivated with this new information and comments from others so engaged. I liked a couple of posts, too, so that was fun.
I write a newsletter called 10+1 Things where I write about 11 things that I thought were worth sharing. It is a curated list covering various topics( For eg. Last week I talked about 'The Deadliest Predator, Tiny Forests, Oldest Living Things and Cyclists of Burundi'
My newsletter (https://www.asiancenturystocks.com) grew nicely in the first three months, with about 100 subscribers each paying $30 per month.
But over the past week, I've had zero growth. I'm trying to figure out why. Is there a seasonality pattern in paid subscription sign-ups (summer months)? Or is this a reflection of people spending more time outside the home now that many have been vaccinated?
The truth is that it's very common for growth to come in waves - that there will be several weeks without great increase, and then a viral post will lead to a jump in subscriptions. This is the normal path and experience that all writers have on Substack.
A few things to consider auditing:
* Are your posts are too long?
Some writers have extremely long posts that would be better served by splitting them up into shorter ones throughout the week or month.
If you're a monthly longform writer, consider breaking up the post into a few sections so that you can send at least one post out per week, but it doesn't create any new writing requirements.
* Do you make Substack your primary landing page?
If you don't have your Substack as your "link in bio" on other profiles, consider doing so.
And if you have a separate website which reposts much of your Substack’s free content, it can hurt your Substack’s SEO and make it difficult to convert new readers into habitual readers and paying subscribers. Readers may also be confused about what differentiates a Substack subscription from what they can read elsewhere, and this may be why some aren’t realizing that a subscription includes your web archive of paid posts. To ensure that your existing audience can find you, we recommend that writers use Substack as their primary home on the web.
* Do you have a strong one-line description?
Your one-line description, seen on your landing page, should demonstrate the value of reading. A great example - Pull Request, e.g. "A newsletter about tech and culture, by technologists, for technologists, published weekly."
* How are your publication tags?
For Substack’s current discovery features, broader tags are more useful than specific ones - especially if they fit in our featured categories list on Reader and substack.com/home. I might try changing your tags to increase the chance your publication is featured.
* Do you celebrate or share testimonials?
Consider collecting and re-sharing when people celebrate your newsletter. This might mean asking for permission to use quotes from readers who email you a compliment directly or it may be re-sharing (and saving) public tweets from people talking about your newsletter on Twitter. These testimonials can be shared with readers in your About page and can be highlighted at launch moments, ahead of special offers, and at key milestones in the publication's journey.
* Are you including ~two sentences about your publication at the top of each of your posts?
Consider publishing a few sentences about your publication (and subscriptions, if relevant) at the top of your posts. It can be short and include a subscribe button. That way, if someone forwards your articles to a friend, or shares a link, it will help capture new subscribers.
*Price - what price point best suits you and your writer's needs?
The answer here varies widely. You can browse different categories of newsletters on our homepage to get a sense of how much writers charge that are similar to you. You might also consider offering a promotional discount or comping a few free subscribers to give them a sense of what they'd get if they became a paid subscriber.
We recently had a conversation with Elle Griffin who is serializing her novel on Substack. She talked about cross-promotion with other newsletters and classified ads. She talks about it in the audio recorded section of this interview: https://on.substack.com/p/spotlight-on-fiction
Hi everyone, I'm still trying to figure out why "Writes A Satuday Letter" doesn't appear in my name next to these comments. Bailey or anyone, do you have ideas?
Yes. We are still in a version 1.0 with this "publication next to name in comments" feature. Soon you'll have more control over what publication appears next to your name (if any)
1. Are you looking to put something like "Dear <NAME>" at the beginning of each email and have it autogenerate from your subscriber list? Current we do not have that functionality. Can you tell me more about how that would help you and how you might us it?
2. We accept payments through Stripe current.y What type of payments were you hoping to take besides CCs?
1. Yes, that is exactly what I am trying to add to so that the names can auto generate from my subscriber list, it will help me personalize my letters, so that my subscribers feel a connection to me.
2. I was hoping to incorporate Paystack or Flutterwave, which are African companies, I was hoping to use their platforms to do direct debits from my subscribers, credit cards that enable international transactions are not common in Nigeria, so using credit cards to collect payments would limit my number of subscribers substantially, simple because they cannot pay.
1. Right now, we don't have that feature but I am making a note with our product team. I see where that could be very helpful in making readers feel connected.
2. Our ability to accept your payment depends on what's supported by Stripe. Making a note about Paystack or Flutterwave with our team too!
Thank you for joining us for this week for Office Hours! And a BIG thank you to Casey Botticello for co-hosting with us.
We are wrapping this week's thread but we’ll host this thread again next week with a special guest from Substack’s Product team who is are eager to learn more about the publishing tools writers most want. Save it to your calendar with the link in the top of today's post so you don't miss it.
Be sure you subscribe to Casey's Substack for ongoing resources for navigating the digital publishing landscape. https://bloggingguide.substack.com/
Until then, happy writing!
Katie + Bailey + Casey
I just read all the posts and want to shout out to Casey, Katie and the Substack team, it was SUPER useful, lots of precious insights. Thanks!
Thanks for checking it out, Gaía! We're glad it was useful.
Thanks, Gaía! That is very kind of you to say 🙂
Thanks for having me! Always happy to help fellow passion economy creators!
Hey everyone,
Thanks for the intro!
I'll try to add a few responses to questions, but feel free to ask me any questions here, and I'll do my best to respond.
Here are a few Substack FAQs and Tips:
https://bloggingguide.substack.com/p/substack-faqs-and-tips
I also wanted to add a few links that may be useful to Substack writers looking to promote their newsletters.
These are newsletter directories. Newsletter directories give you backlinks to your website, which increases the ranking and searchability of your website. They also help readers find newsletters covering a specific topic of interest. Here are a few of the top ones:
https://inboxreads.co/
https://findnewsletters.com/
https://letterlist.com/
https://www.radletters.com/
https://thanksforsubscribing.app/
https://inboxreads.co/
https://newsletterjunkie.com/
https://mereku.com/
https://inboxstash.com/
https://www.newsletters.co/
A few more free resources writers may find useful:
⭐ Royalty Free Images for Substack Posts ➡️ https://unsplash.com/
⭐ Create an Online Community (easy to add to Substack) ➡️ https://peerboard.com/
⭐ Emojis to Add Flair to Substack Posts ➡️ https://emojipedia.org
⭐ Force Update Post Previews ➡️ Facebook: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/ | Twitter: https://cards-dev.twitter.com/validator | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/post-inspector/
⭐ Articles on Substack and Subscription Newsletters ➡️ https://bloggingguide.com/guides/newsletter/
⭐ Miscellaneous Tools ➡️ https://bloggingguide.com/tools/
I'm reading everything you linked here and finding so much valuable information! I really hate the marketing/PR aspect of substack because I'm selling myself now, which is a lot harder than selling the bigger brand (media outlet.) Have you ever heard of someone who does the marketing/branding/PR for substack writers so we can pay for it instead of just procrastinating and avoiding it?
Haha I've helped a few people myself, but I don't know of anyone who specifically caters to Substack writers (and actually knows what they are talking about). That said, you can always feel free to reach out if you need dedicated help!
Alternatively, you could look for someone who can help you with the specific marketing tasks you don't like, as opposed to an all-in-one Substack specialist. For example, a link building expert to get your posts better backlinks, a content marketer to help you boost content production, or a graphic designer to create custom images, etc.
Thanks, Casey, for your info. I'm interested in such newsletter directories in spanish. Do you know some of them? Any idea on how to find them? Thanks a lot.
Here is an article containing some newsletter directories: https://bloggingguide.com/newsletter-directories/
Thank you, Casey!
I'm currently approaching 1,000 subscribers. I'm considering going to a combination of paid and free subscriptions when I get to about 2,500. Is it possible to do both? I've found no guidlines for how to do this in the help section. Is it even advisable? Or am I better off going paid only? My plan is to offer loads of free content and the ability to comment to paid subscribers. Haven't found any info on how to set that up either (I know it can be done because others are doing it).
Hi Kyle, Yes it is possible to offer a combinator of free and paid posts to your subscriber list. Sorry you had trouble finding information on that.
When you turn on paid and go to publish a post, one of your options will be to send to "send email" to everyone or "send email to paid subscribers."
As a general rule of thumb we encourage writers to have a combination of free an paid content, making their best work free. It's the best possible marketing. Even though every fibre of your being may tell you that your best work should go behind the paywall, it’s smart to make your most thoughtful and accessible content free to everyone. That way, it stands a chance of being shared and widely read.
Katie - Thanks for the information. As to the other part of my question: How do I set up the ability for paid subscribers to comment?
You can enable comments in the settings and then for each unique post decide if you want to offer commenting privileges to paid or free subscribers.
Here is our guide: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037832711-How-do-I-enable-or-disable-comments-on-my-posts-
Just remembered another question. I like that Substack automatically embeds youtube videos right on my site. However, so far it hasn't with Bitchute. I've not yet tried Oracle. Are there any plans to enable that ability with Bitchute, Oracle and others?
If not, how do I embed them?
Thanks again!
No question from me today. I just came to say thanks for the shout-out!
Hi Lyle 👋
Hi Lyle!
I'm struggling with whether to add a paid subscriber option. I could use the extra support, but I don't have the capacity to produce anything extra for paid subscribers right now. What do you think about adding a paid option without extra content, purely for optional financial support of the newsletter? Alternatively: what are some creatives ideas for paid subscriber content that can be managed on an already full and tight schedule?
Discussion threads are a quality (and less demanding of your time) way to offer something extra for paying subscribers. I've done them for both all and paid subscribers, and they really help generate a feeling of community among my readers.
FYI - Terrell is a role model for discussion threads :)
Thank you, Bailey!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️
Yeah, I'd really like to do a Friday mailbag-type thread every week, and a monthly thread where paid subscribers can pitch me ideas of what they'd like to see me write about when I got the subscription base to do so!
Would love to hear about creative ideas here. I know one writer offers bi-weekly dance classes on zoom to paid subscribers! (https://raha.substack.com/)
Beyond those creative ideas, one thing to remember is that not every post you publish needs to be at an equal level of depth, especially if you’re publishing more frequently. Here are a few ideas for what to offer readers that reminds them you exist, but doesn’t require as much work from you:
* Paid posts that are rough notes, off-the-cuff ideas, sketches, or other “works in progress” that reveal your writing process
* Audio posts where you narrate something you’ve written, or just say hello to your readers
* Podcast interviews, which you can publish right from your Substack. Interviewing others can be just as much work as writing, depending on your level of polish, but can also help break up your writing schedule.
* Guest posts from other writers. In addition to giving you a break from writing, guest posts are also a great way to cross-promote your newsletter with others.
* Discussion threads, where you ask readers a question. Bonus: they get to meet and interact with other readers, without additional work from you.
* Ask me anythings (AMAs): Use discussion threads to host regular AMAs, either with yourself or with a guest.
* Private community: Offer paid subscribers access to a private discussion forum or community so they can interact with other readers, even on days when you’re not publishing.
Thanks, Bailey! Hosting two guest posts and an interview in the coming weeks!!
Thanks for this, Bailey! I’m working on getting ‘guest bakers’ to interview 🍰
Oooh! Can I put my hand up as a guest baker?
😂 love it! 🍰 email me!
thanks for this!
These are some really good ideas.
I had to stop writing on substack back in April because I landed a job drawing a graphic novel. I just returned, and I find that my subscribers cant read my work because it now sends them a message saying that my newsletter is for paid subscribers onlu. I hadnt intended to charge anyone until I'd built up a decent amount of subscribers. How do I return my newsletter to being free? I've looked through the settings and there's nothing that I can find that allows me to do this.
I've shared this before (so forgive me if I sound like a broken record) but Cherie Hu, who writes the newsletter Water + Music, wrote this excellent post on how to think about asking for reader support -- as in, what's the value proposition? It's really, really good:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/five-lessons-from-my-first-year-running-patreon-page-cherie-hu/
She also wrote this great follow-up, about the value of building a community among your readers:
https://blog.patreon.com/journalist-patreon-cherie-hu/
Hope these help!
Yes they do, thank you!
Andrea, a Substack called Liberty's Highlights has done just that. Payment is completely optional. I believe that he has at least 100 subscribers paying him $12 per month.
https://www.libertyrpf.com/
I love the way they described what they're doing/asked for reader support here:
https://www.libertyrpf.com/p/like-what-you-see-become-a-supporter
Reading this now -- wow. I am incredibly impressed, and now have a lot to think about as I approach the date I intended to turn on paid subscriptions (Aug 1).
Thanks for reading, Sarah! 💚 🥃
Thank you for reading, Terrell! 💚 🥃
Hey! That's me!
Indeed, I don't have a paywall, everything is free.
I have about 4,500 free subs and about 188 paid subs right now, so around 4% going paid (but I turned on the paid option only 4 months ago, so I don't know where it'll settle -- so far that % is going up every month, but it won't go up forever..).
Could I ask, what's your thinking around not paywalling some content for paid subscribers? I've paywalled some of mine, but I'm leaning toward doing what you're doing.
Hey Terrel. Happy to discuss. Can you email me at my domain name @ substack.com or DM me on Twitter (same twitter username as my website domain name -- DMs are open).
Sure thing! DM'ing you now...
My blog has about 5% conversion to paid with no pay-gate on content. If you have significant subscribers, some amount of them are actually waiting to pay and can't.
That's really interesting. What is your thinking on that, vs. paywalling off some content for paid subscribers only? Love to hear your thoughts (as it's something I wrestle with too).
I haven't tried pay-gating, so I don't really know. When I initially made the decision to move to paid, it was after one of my articles went crazy (by my standards, 75k hits-ish) and I was going paid a lot earlier than I thought. My thinking being that would let people express goodwill even if my overall catalogue of work wasn't enough to pay for yet.
I've thought about gating some content since then, but I'm a sissy and don't really want to.
Curious how many of those 75k hits were email subscribers, RC. I've had some articles also take-off (not quite "viral") but ten times the number of email subscribers. I am going on the assumption that building email subscribers is the main metric. But maybe not?
I am thinking about offering the simple pay option as well. Those who are deeply engaged might be ten times as valuable as those who are just passing through, and many like not just the subjects, but the quality of the writing and might be willing to pay. (I am not looking for this to support myself, but this is a kind of full-time job!)
Im in the same boat Andrea!
Have you ever thought of adding a feature that would allow readers to pay for just one article? I know a lot of people are hesitant to sign up for a monthly and yearly subscriptions but might gladly pay $1 or $2 for access to an article on a topic that really intrigues them.
I understand that "micropayments" can be a pain in the butt to administer and many people don't think it's worth it. But it still seems to me that this is leaving a lot of money on the table.
We have thought about this, but we want writers to have consistent revenue - a sense of what they are going to make over the year to make the model sustainable for them. So we prioritize annual and monthly subscriptions.
Thanks for responding. I don't think allowing one-off payments would cannibalize subscriptions. Just the opposite in fact, I think it might boost them. Of course, I'm basing this on my own behaviour so I could be totally wrong. It does seem, however, that this would be something worth testing.
I can't speak for Substack but one way to think about this "micropayment model" is to essentially dramatically increase the quality/value of a single article.
After all, even $5 per month (with the intention to cancel) is essentially a micropayment (as are all subscriptions, in a way, if you consider that most users will not truly subscribe to your newsletter indefinitely).
That way, maybe, some readers will pay for a single VERY high quality/must read article (at say $5 monthly subscription price) since they view that single article as a reasonable deal for such essential content. They are actually subscribing for a month, so chances are they will at least read a few other articles before cancelling their subscription. And a subset of these readers, might then keep subscribing for additional months.
The beauty of a paid newsletter is not only that you generate a revenue stream for some period of time, but that people are actually paying to read (what could be viewed as) a promotion to subscribe for future content.
As a writer, I would definitely rather have a monthly or annual subscriber than a one-off reader, but I think it's a far higher hurdle to consent to monthly payments than to make a one-off purchase.
I often find myself in a situation where I would happily pay $1 for a paywalled article, but I won't buy a subscription. I don't understand why publishers leave this money on the table other than that they believe the margins are too thin, which, as someone who closely follows the industry, I don't think is true.
In the spirit of sharing, here's a terrific article about how to promote newsletters on Twitter: https://www.newslettercrew.com/blog/how-to-promote-your-newsletter-on-twitter
Hello! Thanks for the shoutout in today's email! I also just joined Casey's Facebook group. :)
I have a question about cross-promotion. I've done mentions in other newsletters, guest posts, and guest editing sections, and I've found each method has diminishing returns over time. Are there any creative cross-promotion techniques you've found interesting or successful?
I'd love to hear from other writers on this! Elle Griffin shared some ideas with us in our recent Spotlight On: Ficiton. More here: https://on.substack.com/p/spotlight-on-fiction
Ive been contacted by a couple of subscribers that said that they'd found my work in their spam folders. My last article didn't go into any mailboxes. I've read that articles heavy in visual imagery are seen as spam and rerouted from the readers inbox to spam. Any suggestions as to how I can make certain that my work gets to my subscribers inboxes every time? Thank you.
This is a constant problem for me. I hear all the time from subscribers who arent getting anything. One thing I did was send an email to my list (you can download it) from my personal email, which is more likely to get into their inbox, with the subject line "Let me slide into your inbox!" and easy instructions for fixing this problem (add my from email to your contacts list or drag one of my emails into primary). I heard from a few that the email helped, but I'm not sure how much. I find this really really frustrating!
I worry about this, too. I've had some subscribers contact me to ask why they aren't getting the newsletter. It seems to be Gmail. The problem with putting something in your newsletter about how to fix the Gmail problem is....they aren't getting the newsletter in the first place so they don't see that message!
Hi, Heather, I had to stop writing on substack back in April because I landed a job drawing a graphic novel. I just returned, and I find that my subscribers can't read my work because it now sends them a message saying that my newsletter is for paid subscribers only. I hadn't intended to charge anyone until I'd built up a decent amount of subscribers. How do I return my newsletter to being free? I've looked through the settings and there's nothing that I can find that allows me to do this. I was wondering if you might have any insight regarding this mystery. Thanks- TK talbert
How kind of you to take the time. Thank you for your generosity, Heather.
Of course. We're all helping each other!
Hi T.K. First, congrats on getting the job drawing for the graphic novel! I don't have a paid newsletter, but I did find this article in Substack support: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360060408872-How-do-I-turn-off-paid-subscriptions-
Maybe that will help you. If not, I would contact support at support@substack.com. Hope that helps!
I worry about the same thing. Thanks for asking!
Thanks for the acknowledgment, Andrea, I glory in any certainty that my work is being veiwed by someone on substack. Best of luck to the both of us.
Hi, Andrea, I had to stop writing on substack back in April because I landed a job drawing a graphic novel. I just returned, and I find that my subscribers can't read my work because it now sends them a message saying that my newsletter is for paid subscribers only. I hadn't intended to charge anyone until I'd built up a decent amount of subscribers. How do I return my newsletter to being free? I've looked through the settings and there's nothing that I can find that allows me to do this. I was wondering if you might have any insight regarding this mystery. Thanks- TK talbert
Ask each of them to move the mail to the primary inbox. That will help Google's algorithm to learn that your newsletter is not spam.
That helps if the subscriber lets you know, but otherwise, you have no way of knowing which is frustrating
I think you can assume that at least some of your subscribers are having that problem. It's endemic. I suggest writing about the Gmail Promotions tab issue in your "welcome e-mail" to subscribers when they sign up.
Tip: send yourself multiple test emails as you’re writing your work to make sure it’s going into your main inbox
Hmmm, I do that now, mostly to proof, but I'm thinking I should use my gmail account and test that since Gmail seems to be where most of the problems arise. Thanks Fintwit!
Just cracked the 100+ subscriber milestone on my Substack Scaled and Failed (https://scaledandfailed.substack.com/) and curious about what to focus on for growing next.
1. Is going for more one-off well-exposed or viral growth strategies i.e. shoutouts from people in the startup community or are more slow-burn growth methods better?
2. What are some strategies to get reader engagement in the comments and for sharing the newsletter?
Congrats Amil! What was your strategy in getting to 100?
I'm also looking for more comments - I have hundreds of people read each post and like the same two people comment!
I had the same question. I try to add a question at the end of the post to invite comments, but they are few and far between. Does it make sense to even bother about it as long as they're reading?
Bailey and team thanks for hosting Casey hope to jump back on then. Casey thanks for all the great posts and adming the Substack group on Facebook. I learn so much from the comments from this diverse and helpful community. Keep up the good work.
You are most welcome, Liz! I appreciate the kind words!
Started my newsletter, The First Years of Marriage (https://www.thefirstyearsofmarriage.com/welcome), recently and was able to increase my subscribers by 100+ a week. Casey, curious to hear:
1. How do you make your content shareable so that readers are eager to send it to people who would also benefit from it?
2. What are ways you make sure you're writing information of value for your audience?
3. What's another way to monetize the newsletter rather than charge subscription fees?
1. Typically you either make article titles very catchy (easy to share and be shared on social media) or through keyword heavy post titles which might rank organically (SEO).
2. The best way to ensure this is to regularly survey your audience. It's important to get feedback from a wide range of your subscribers. While it's good to listen to complaints or super positive feedback, these types of responses may not be indicative of a larger reader consensus about what constitutes "value" to them.
3. https://bloggingguide.com/how-to-monetize-your-newsletter/
I have googled your titles Casey and they appear at the TOP of many Google searches. Your titles are also "catchy." I am learning, learning, learning.
wow - great growth - what's the secret! and keep going!
Writing 3x a week has been the best idea an the most helpful growth strategy.
Hey Jen! Great newsletter. What strategies did you use to grow 100+ in a week? Was it all organic? Or was it existing audience from other platforms?
Here are the TWO things that helped me get 100 new subscribers fast.
1. More VALUABLE content:
I decided to put out THREE newsletters a week - all of varying length - but all filled with value. Since it's a brand new newsletter, quality + quantity = gives people a reason to build a relationship with the newsletter, look forward to reading it, and want to share it with other people.
2. A giveaway:
People love giveaways. I did a simple one - $25 gift card + $25 worth of books and used a free app to help setup the giveaway (KingSumo). This helped so much in getting people to enter, subscribe to the newsletter, and share it.
When you start something new, it's important to get people excited, give them free value, and make them eager to share what you started with their network of people.
Thank you so much for this information! I'd love to get 100 subscribers per week!
I don't know if this is helpful to you, but I have seen some newsletter writers incorporate relevant paid advertising into their newsletters!
I want to do this when my subscriber list goes up!
Re #2 - do you seek feedback from your readers (especially the most engaged ones) in any way currently?
What are some good best practices for doing this?
This is a great idea/topic for a newsletter, btw!
Thank you so much
One tip on the "shareable" question is visuals. If you have visualizations of data or animations, it can help existing readers absorb and comment on/share your articles faster. We've heard from some writers that their posts with visualizations outperform their others on shareability.
Fascinating topic. New subscriber here
I appreciate that, Michael!
I was wondering if the Substack team can do more research about the % of readers who convert to paid based on engagement.
I’ve seen the general numbers you guys put out in the past, but I think it would be more helpful if you took reader engagement into account.
For example, right now we can see how active/engaged our readers are based on the star system you guys have in place (5-star, 4-star, 3-star, etc). Should we assume our 5-star readers will convert to paid?
Basically, if you could gather data from all Substack newsletters to see how likely readers convert to paid based on their engagement, that would be super helpful. And then maybe include a section for writers that says something like, “By going paid, you could earn $X dollars based on your readership and engagement.”
Heyo! I can share this feedback absolutely. Certainly a subset of our writers would like more know-how about analytics, and we're aware of that :)
It sounds like you've already heard this but we commonly see conversion rates between 5-10% from free -> paid subscribers. Here's a bit more granularity.
Use this paid conversion rate
Less than 30% -> 3%
30-50% -> 5%
Greater than 50% -> 10%
Disclaimer: your open rates are not perfectly predictive of your conversion rate, in any direction! We’re just using these numbers as a rough proxy for estimating what you could make.
Now you’ll need to identify a price. Again, we’re just doing napkin math this week (we’ll get into newsletter pricing next week), so if you’ve got a personal newsletter, we recommend using between $5-10/month, or $50-100/year, as your estimate. If you’ve got a business newsletter (meaning, something you think at least some of your readers could expense for work), use $10-50/month, or $100-500/year.
Multiply your free email list size by your conversion rate, using the table above. Then multiply that by your price.
Here’s a quick example to demonstrate:
Sally writes about food on her free newsletter, Food For Thought. She has 5,000 free subscribers on her list.
Her open rates are usually in the 55% range, so she uses a 10% conversion rate.
Sally multiplies 5,000 x 10% = 500 paying subscribers. She figures she can charge $5/month or $50/year, so her earning potential is $25,000-30,000/year.
What number did you get? Compare it against your financial goals. Is it what you expected? If so, that’s great! If not, read below to figure out what your next steps should be.
Thanks!
Hello!! Not sure if this has been brought up before, but is there a specific way through Substack to submit our newsletter site to Google so it can be crawled/fetched and be searchable? Thank you!
Hi Erin, Casey includes some great tips in his guide in regards to SEO and getting Google to recognize your publication. Here are a few from Casey:
* Don’t underestimate the value of the plain but well-optimized text—Use visual components appropriately and only when they improve content. Random images or GIFs may be entertaining but they can slow down rendering time for a reader (especially in their email).
* Improve headlines and text—It takes time to generate catchy content for your newsletters. Use test emails to analyze how motivating they are. Would you personally click on such an email?
* Apply basic on-page SEO techniques—Use keywords in your headlines (H1 tags), subheaders (H2 tags), and the body of your content (text).
*Use the alt attribute for images—Substack lets you customize alt tags for images in your post. The alt tag is used by screen readers, which are browsers used by blind or visually impaired people. These tags can affect SEO. Google’s article about images has a heading “Use descriptive alt text”. This is no coincidence—Google places a relatively high value on alt text. They use it to determine what is on the image but also how it relates to the surrounding text. Ideally each image should have a unique tag, but at a minimum, any custom featured images, should include descriptive alt text). Note: Captions are not a substitute for alt text!
* Fill out all basic newsletter fields—This seems basic, but I notice many Substack writers who have not properly filled out some of the basic fields attached to their newsletter. These include Publication name, One-line description, tags, Subscription benefits (all three lines), etc.
* While it’s true that Substack has a ways to go on improving its features to optimize each post (i.e. meta descriptions, canonical links, etc.), Substack itself, the website actually has pretty high domain authority and it is certainly possible to rank highly in Google.
For example, if you Google the search phrase: Medium vs. Quora you will see that my post on Substack (through my newsletter Blogging Guide) not only ranks on the first page, but it is the featured snippet for the term.
More from Casey here: https://bloggingguide.substack.com/p/substack-faqs-and-tips
Thank you so much!!
I just googled Medium vs. Quora and Casey's Substack was at the top---in a FRAME!! Casey obviously follows his own advice!
Not directly, no. That is not to say Substack doesn't index well in Google.
Section 4 of https://bloggingguide.substack.com/p/substack-faqs-and-tips talks a bit about the few SEO features you can control on Substack.
Note to Substack: Features that would be useful seo-wise: Meta-Description Customization and Canonical Links would be nice!
Thank you Casey. All of this info is very helpful and appreciated.
Casey! Tipping my hat to you! Thank you!!
FYI this is a common question because substack doesn't work well with Google SEO. I do every thing they recommend (I've been writing professionally online for 10 years) and I still get no traction from google searches. Substack is going to have to do more to get us seen.
thanks for being here, Emily! You are right, we have lots of work to do on SEO. It's part of our product and engineering team's focus as they grow their capacity to help writers do more.
Hi, thanks for doing this!
I have about 4,500 free subs, and I keep hearing relatively frequently from would-be paid subs that they tried to join for a while but couldn't figure it out and were confused.
I realized that they're just logged out of substack on that browser/device and when they click the "subscribe" button they end up on the page when the field to enter your email and nothing else.
I think it should be made much clearer how to login (it's hidden, low-contrast in the corner) and why you have to login to see the paid options.
I'm sure it's happening to everyone else too, even if they don't know, so improving this would help substack as a whole.
(Another request: I wish crypto had its own category, instead of taking over finance, business and tech -- it really is its own thing).
Thank you
Hi Liberty, thanks for being here. I'm passing this along to our team as feedback, it seems to be a common confusion as readers move to different devices.
Thank you Katie! I appreciate that
I second this - I've clicked the "subscribe" CTA in some substacks I get, and just get directed to a page to enter my email to sign up (which I've already done). Being directed to a page with the subscription rates/options immediately instead I think would help writers tremendously.
Same question regarding the confusion about joining/subscribing.
Hi! I started my newsletter (https://ana.substack.com featuring a broad selection of essays about creative influence) about 1.5 years ago and am only up to 40 free subscribers. I actually had a bit of an uptick but realized that I was getting bot subscribes. Granted, I started it to practice writing so I haven't done a lot of promotion beyond social media but I'm wondering if there are any stats on the growth trajectories of successful paid newsletters and their early days.
I spend about 8 hours a week on it and I'm wondering if there's something about how slow it's growing at the moment that indicates it won't ever take off or if the advice is to keep going. (I've tried not to wait for perfection though so am continuously iterating on my about page, for example.) Thanks!
Hey Ana,
I've written a bit about my newsletter's trajectory, but really every case is unique.
Social media promotion can definitely help but if you don't have a large audience outside of Substack, it will be tough to drive direct traffic.
I'd say keep going but maybe try doing some guest posts on niche sites related to your newsletter, posting actively in various forums/sub-reddits related to your newsletter's topic, and other online spaces.
You may need to increase your post frequency, as well, if you really want to determine the potential for your newsletter.
It looks like you are posting less than once per month, which is totally fine, but may make it harder to establish whether there is demand for your newsletter.
https://bloggingguide.com/how-often-should-you-send-your-subscription-newsletter/
Thanks Casey! My newsletter is actually weekly (I just went on hiatus a couple of times hah). Now that I'm committing to it though, I am curious how that may affect subscriber growth. I'll have to do some brainstorming on niche sites...I guess the challenge for me is that my topics range from week to week as the whole goal of the newsletter is to showcase breadth and diversity. But perhaps I need to promote each newsletter issue to that relevant community rather than to try to think of promoting it as a whole. Thanks for the food for thought!
I think publishing weekly for 2-3 months will probably answer your question. Best of luck!
I have 95 paying subscribers; and 740 total readers at whatiscalledthinking.Substack.com —how do I convert non paying to paying readers?
There are a lot of tactics here, but one simple tip that we recommend to every writer - ensuring the formatting of your post is on point. That basic hygiene is important. Anytime someone reads your work, whether through a forwarded email or public link, they are set up to subscribe or upgrade.
- Email headers and footers: You can edit your “Email banner, header, and footer settings” in your Settings page to customize the top and bottom of emails. This space can be used to prompt free readers to subscribe, request feedback, or insert some visual branding.
- Buttons: Include at least 2x subscribe buttons each post.
@bailey This thread has the question a lot of us have about how Taibbi is sending out part of the subscriber posts to the free people. He somehow has a link to a post to read it but doesn’t have two posts showing on his home page. Check out his system because it seems I’m not the only one who wants to copy it !
Thx!
Ok, I don't have nearly as many paid subs as you, but so far most of my conversions have come from writing a long post for subscribers, creating an excerpt that I send to the free list, and explain that the excerpt is from a subscriber post. I make sure to include a good hook right before the break that gets readers interested. (I write a local news substack.) I haven't done one yet that hasn't led to new paid subs.
How do you do this technically? I see Taibbi doing it but then I look at his page and don't see two posts so I can't figure out what he's doing on the back end. Thanks!
Matt Taibbi is very good at doing this. I also do a similar tactic on Instagram to get people to click on my Linktree, which links to my Substack.
That's exactly who I got it from! It seems to work pretty well. So my formula is get new readers hooked through my weekly local news summary and convert a percentage of them through long form content available only to subscribers (with the occasional free post as well). I might have to try that Insta formula too, so thanks for that!
I recommend checking out NYT or WaPo or Vice on Instagram. That's how I emulated it. Usually what I do is lead with the announcement with a CTA, then a summary.
Here's an example of mine, if it helps: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQqmQ0bMonB/
nice work
Nice, thanks for that. I like the way WaPo did theirs - good style. BTW, looks like I don't live too far away from you - just five hours north in Wisco!
How do you post on IG? I hate posting tons of text in stories because I know it's hard to read but I can't figure out any other way to show bits of the post to them. I also direct them to linktree with screen shots but I don't think it is making anyone click?
Agree this is a great technique!
Zohar, that's wonderful. I would love to have 95 paid subscribers. How long did it take you to get that number of subscribers?
About 9 months
You conversion rate is already above 10%, which is pretty good — you might also focus on finding new free readers
I attended a wonderful substack workshop about a month ago, and the focus of it was on crafting a crystal clear "about" page with a clear value proposition for the reader. I'm curious if you have any tips on someone who has a vast array of topics they want to write on.
I've discovered that I not only want to write about tech and software engineering, but other topics including fatherhood and seasons of change. For example, I wrote a piece called [Leaps of Faith](https://memattchung.substack.com/p/leaps-of-faith) that has had over 5,000 views on LinkedIn with 200+ engagement. Prior to publishing it, I had no idea as to whether or not people would even read it.
In short: how do you go about honing in and narrowing your writing topics?
I talked to someone a few days ago who was particularly knowledgeable who said you don't hone your writing topics, you hone your concept of your audience. So think of, like, McDonalds; it has burgers, fries, chicken sandwiches - different products, but all aimed at hungry people in a hurry. Bed Bath and Beyond sells a lot of different stuff, but it's all basically aimed at "people who want to redecorate at least a bit from somewhere a little nicer than Target".
In your case, I'd say it's not a bad idea to write what you want, and then see what connects - then write things that work for the people you connected with. That's mainly what I've done, and it's working out pretty OK.
I just read something similar yesterday. The gist was, write for the reader's experience. So, for example, if you are writing a newsletter about news, you might want to position it as 'news for people who are frustrated with getting so much biased news.' It's really helping me think through learning what my audience wants and what resonates with them.
That's really interesting. Jasmine of our team encourages writers to do the following when drafting their About pages & one-liners, which seems aligned:
Your one-liner should signal who the target audience is and why they might subscribe. The goal should be for a reader to read your one-liner and say, “that’s me!”
Start by asking yourself:
Who wants to read your publication? You may have multiple reader types, and consider both demographic characteristics and personality types.
Why do readers want to read your publication? E.g. motivation, humor, breaking news, professional development.
Great advice — thank you. Up until recently, I've largely ignored the reader metrics but probably should redirect my attention that way since they are helpful (not the sole driving) for steering the content that I write. From the previous workshop, it appeared that onboarding to substack was a fairly linear process: write your one-liner, your about page, etc. But perhaps it's an ever-evolving, non-linear process in which you write -> get feedback (on what sticks and doesn't stick) -> refine one-liner and about pager ... over and over again.
I think you nailed it with the last part of this -- I've found that nearly constant iteration is truly valuable to both my process of creating a newsletter that people want to read, and my readers.
Thanks for articulating this question! I had presented a similar concern in one of these threads a couple of weeks ago. I write personal essays that cover a diverse range of psychosocial subjects (https://richa.substack.com/), and perhaps the most distinctive thing about my publication is my voice as a writer. One of the things I therefore struggle with is the one-line description.
Perhaps you already attended this workshop or read the materials, but we put together some tips & inspiration on one-liners here - https://on.substack.com/p/how-to-polish-your-publications-about
Thank you for putting together so many incredibly useful resources!
Yes, the resources are awesome...and I make it a point never to use that word...
Hi Matt. Just gave you a plug on LinkedIn with a link to your substack in the comments on your post, "Leaps of Faith". Love the photo of you and your little one!
Thanks so much Heather appreciate sharing it.
In this interview our co-founder Hamish talks with Tony Mecia who started a Local News publication about how he honed his focus topic: https://on.substack.com/p/spotlight-on-local-news-with-tony. The summary is that Tony focused his topic on something that was under-covered, and also that he had a unique know-how about.
Transcript -
Why did you decide to cover business news rather than just local news in Charlotte?
I'm not opposed to doing local news, and we do a fair amount of general news, but our theory has always been that we want to do writing that's better than what's already in Charlotte, and we want to do writing that's different than what's already in Charlotte.
The number of business reporters here in Charlotte had declined, and I saw an opening content-wise. My background was in business news. It’s something that I knew and felt comfortable covering. There's a pretty big market for it in Charlotte. We’re a business town with banks and tech companies. It's a pretty big city. Business writing also has the advantage that if the newsletter is useful to an employee, they can charge the subscription cost to their company as a business expense.
I would love to get 5,000 views. I write strategies/secrets for non-fiction publishing but when I post a personal story I get a higher open rate mostly because my initial list was my personal contacts of which only about 20% actually write or want to publish a non-fiction book. I need to start reaching outside my network. I have posted to directories and substack's activities like this (i believe have brought me 25-30 organic free subscribers) and I have started to post one or two of my articles on LinkedIn each week. I will be interested in seeing if I get any additional subscribers. I also am posting to Pinterest as I know it has a much longer viewing shelf life. Just started so don't have any real stats, but I will post any results in the Substack Writers Facebook feed when I get enough to discuss.
Elle Griffin has done an awesome job of this. She shares a lot about how in our recent interview (apologies if you already read it) - https://on.substack.com/p/spotlight-on-fiction
"What was most helpful for growth was writing two articles that took me a really long time to produce. One took me all of 2020 to research. The other one took me another six months to research. Those two articles were about the publishing industry at large. It turned out that they resonated with people because publishing is a black box, and there are a lot of writers also trying to understand how it works.
I shared those two articles a bunch of different ways, including on Hacker News. You can share your link on there, and sometimes they go viral and sometimes they don't, but one of mine did. That article had something like 60,000 views in one day, and a lot of subscribers came from that one piece of writing that really resonated."
> I need to start reaching outside my network
Fascinating — I actually struggle with the opposite problem. I'm fairly comfortable publishing across different networks but what I struggle with the most is learning how to habitually participate and engage within a given community (e.g. reddit, forums). Put differently, I'm learning how to be part of and involved in {writing|tech} community, as someone who deliberate disconnected from social media for 5 years.
Good question! I was also curious about getting ideas on this too since I plan to write on various life topics.
I want to try podcast, but I need help on how to produce them and can't find it in resources. What software do I use to record it? How do I edit it? How do I get rid of the ambient sounds? How do I make an introduction audio? Any advice to help me get over the hump of the production aspect?
Emily I can help you I am tech phobic at times and have found a nice simple approach - i'll breakdown what i know and the equipment i bought (under one hundred bucks) equipment - i bought a dynamic mic (it doesn't pick up the room sound just the voice) good for keeping outside noises out / an audio interface, this helps control sound volume via 'gain' and you plug in your mic and connect it to your laptop - then i download Audacity, a free editing tool. I also bought foam cover for the mic to soften my pitch, p's etc - then it is a case of trial and error - audacity is simple, and once i record a segment i always leave a few seconds of dead air for the editing room. my editing process once i have cut and pasted together my podcast is super simple, noise reduction, this removes muffle sound, normalise, and finally compress the sound to make the rise and fall stable (so listeners don't have to keep adjusting volume. the first podcast took countless sessions, but now i can turn one around in maybe 6 to 8 hours (one hour ish podcast) and i am only on my third
Thanks so much for this as I have been pondering the same questions!
David, you are a saint and poet! I'm going to try now to do exactly what you said and not use any more excuses. I'll check back when I have finished one. Thank you so much!
I am trying to improve my About Page. Would you have any feedback on mine?
https://playingfordoubles.substack.com/about
The performance scorecard is a nice touch! I'd say adding social proof (in terms of subscribers) would be most compelling to attracting news subscribers (testimonials, citations, media, etc.)
thank you - why didnt i think of that?
One of my readers said they made $500K because of one of my posts, and then sent me a $250 giftcard as a thank you...funny how the internet works
That's a great idea. Do I have to ask the subscriber to use their quote and a name? Or can I just put it on the page?
Because I am a journalist by profession, my answer is always ask permission when using a quote. Sometimes I will be having a private conversation with someone on Facebook about something for my Substack, and I'll always ask if I can quote them and how they wish to be identfied, or not. It's ethical and the right thing to do.
That is my instinct, thank you. I just don't want to expose my email to too many people I don't know but good idea to use social media to ask. Thanks!
Generally, I would suggest getting explicit permission.
i'd ask
If you haven't already read through this resource, it's a great one! https://on.substack.com/p/how-to-polish-your-publications-about
I am wondering how and if people are using Twitter to promote their newsletter. I am a hesitant tweeter, but I have heard that strategic tweets can bring in a lot of readership. Have you experienced that? ( Is That Legal? Newsletter: amygreer.substack.com)
I'm quite active on Twitter, so thought I would chime in. The best way is to take few snippets from your article and post it as a thread with the last tweet of your thread containing the link to the Substack post for people who are curious to read more.
Posting links in the first tweet won't get you much traction as the Twitter algorithm prefers users to stay on Twitter as long as possible.
It's a hit and miss and doesn’t always work unless you've got a large following already.
If you don't mind me asking, do you use 'click to tweet'? I've looked at it, but it seems confusing and I have no idea if it's worthwhile.
Substack has their own Share button which gives users options of where to share so I haven't added my own Click to Tweet button even though I considered it at a point.
Thank you!
This is so helpful, Kavir. Thank you! I'm very new to Twitter and am trying to find ways to gain followers. It's been difficult! I appreciate your advice.
Of course!
I haven't used Twitter much but have been more lately to promote my newsletter. I was just posting one tweet with the link to my post and a little bit of text. Then I saw the recommendation to post several tweets as a thread with the last one containing the link (maybe a recommendation from you elsewhere?). But here's a question from a relatively inexperienced Twitter user: How do you make something a thread? Just post separate tweets about the same thing? Or is there something you have to do to actually link them as a thread? For example, if someone sees my first or second tweet that doesn't have the link, how are they going to find the link if it doesn't naturally come up on their feed?
Hi Karen. Not sure if you'll see this since the thread is over. I had the same problem. When you start a tweet, look at the bottom right corner (Next to Tweet) and you'll see a plus sign. When you click on the + it brings up another tweet, which is threaded (attached) to your first one. You can click the + sign each time you want to add another piece to the thread. When you're done, click Tweet to share the whole thing. Hope that helps.
I did see it. Thanks! That's very helpful.
If you don't mind me asking, do you use 'click to tweet'? I've looked at it, but it seems confusing and I have no idea if it's worthwhile.
Thanks for this, Kavir. I'm trying to get smarter on Twitter, hoping to increase sign ups on my substack. I posted my first 'thread' this morning with a link at the end. Since my following is small, I don't expect much, but it's good practice. Any advice on how many tweets to include in the thread?
Three tweets are shown expanded to your followers, so either 2-3 tweets. Or 6-9 tweets to make expanding the thread worthwhile for them. Just some raw, untested observations :)
This is super helpful, Kavir! I don't have a big following myself, but I have some good amplifiers who do. I just need to put up content for them to amplify!
Kavir, I notice you do not mention your Substack in your Twitter Bio!!
I have a large twitter following but get very little traffic from it. Traffic from social media is almost entirely from Facebook.
Oh, I just saw the article. Any other suggestions?
Hey, everybody. I'm interested in a little more depth about the "what style of writing works best on Substack." Is there a big creative nonfiction presence? How about more literary-minded stuff?
Lots of "literary-minded stuff" - especially folks recommending books to read, and academics!
Good to know. Thanks!
Hi there! I'm Kavir. I write https://thediscourse.substack.com which is at the intersection of product, startups, and no-code.
What's the best way to gauge if the free subscribers will be willing to go paid? Do you run a survey in advance to get a sense of expectations?
Heyo! Perhaps you've already heard this but we commonly see conversion rates between 5-10% from free -> paid subscribers. Here's a bit more granularity.
Use this paid conversion rate
Open rate is less than 30% -> 3%
Open rate is 30-50% -> 5%
Open rate is greater than 50% -> 10%
Disclaimer: your open rates are not perfectly predictive of your conversion rate, in any direction! We’re just using these numbers as a rough proxy for estimating what you could make.
Yello Bailey! Yes, I did read this. Fair enough, these benchmarks make more sense. I knew the 10% benchmark, but the granularity on open rate makes it easier to predict the number of subscribers if I went paid.
Thanks!
Best places to crosspost? I regularly do HackerNews but I'd be interested in other feeds, etc. Reddit is much harder since you have to target the subreddit specifically, which may have all sorts of rules, etc.
Curious for others to chime in here!
Have you checked out Facebook groups, discord servers, etc related to your topic?
I promote in some Reddit groups that I'm in. I also moderately participate in them, so people in them don't view what I'm doing as spammy. It also helps that what you're writing is relevant to the subreddit. I've been promoting my weekly humor column in comedy subs, or my series about work culture in left-leaning political subs who would be potentially into that sort of thing. It's boosted my view/clicks numbers, and it's given me a couple of new subs, but not as many as I was hoping for.
Agreed - your strategy sounds really good but it's high time commitment. I've been trying to just track down the relevant subreddit for each post (since the stuff I do is across both science and the humanities, so AI but also literature - very makes it eclectic). The problem is, as you say, low subscriber rates from views, since pretty much everyone is "just passing through"
Yeah, I guess for Reddit I already unintentionally laid the groundwork for it by using it for years, but I think it would be the case for any sort of audience engagement regardless of the social channel, so you're actually building relationships instead of coming across as spammy or overtly self-promotional.
Does Hacker News work for you? I get 3-4 reads max and then nothing. For me, Twitter works best, followed by Reddit.
It does. I've made it to #1 once, and on the front page several times. Generally a #1 spot will net around 20k views. The problem is translating that into subscribers. Honestly from that #1 spot I probably only got about 50 subscribers total. Which is great, and I shouldn't complain, but 1 subscriber per 500 views is a hell of a low turnover rate.
Was it always easy for you? Mine never get any traction, despite great feedback from the same articles on Reddit. I only have 3 karma points though
Crosspost Articles in Their Entirety:
✔️ Medium (somewhat risky since your article may be interpreted as duplicative content or the Medium version will likely outrank the Substack version) but this can be done effectively. Mainly because Medium allows writers to set the article's canonical link. So you can at least signal to Google that the Substack version is intended to be the original.
The same disclaimer applies to the next ideas, but they are still worth considering:
✔️ HackerNews
✔️ Reddit (some subreddits)
✔️ IndieHackers (https://medium.com/digital-marketing-lab/what-is-indie-hackers-and-why-should-entrepreneurs-be-interested-9c6777eef503)
✔️ ManyStories (https://bloggingguide.com/guides/manystories)
Crosspost Snippets of Articles
✔️ Quora (if you are at all providing the answer to virtually any question)
✔️ Facebook pages, groups, individual profiles
✔️ Twitter (some writers can get massive amounts of subscribers by mastering the "art of the Twitter Thread" or just by Tweeting useful content.
✔️ LinkedIn can be great for snippets (it can even accommodate very large excerpts or even crossposting an entire article, but I wouldn't recommend that).
✔️ Pinterest (especially if you create custom images that are highly shareable or infographics)
I'm still pretty new to Substack and I write LETTERS FROM EVERYWHERE https://kalpanamohan.substack.com/. These began as LETTERS FROM SINGAPORE after we moved there for six months. Now that I'm back in the San Francisco Bay Area, I wish to continue them applying the same sort of curiosity I felt in Singapore. On average I get about 800 views but some of my posts have had some 1500 views. This is very paltry compared to those of you out on this thread. BUT HOW DARE I GO PAID? I have quite a following on FB and many enthusiastic readers. But guess what? When both my books came out, all that readership did NOT exactly translate to sales. So I'm very skeptical that I can try to go PAID. I'd love some input from folks here/Casey. Thanks so much.
Hi Kalpana, Welcome back to SF!
As a general rule of thumb we tell writers to look at their open rate and email list before going paid. If your email open rates are typically...
Less than 30% --> You might expect a 3%
30-50% --> You might expect a 5%
Greater than 50% --> You might expect a 10%
For some quick napkin math this week if you’ve got a personal newsletter, we recommend using between $5-10/month, or $50-100/year, as your estimate. If you’ve got a business newsletter (meaning, something you think at least some of your readers could expense for work), use $10-50/month, or $100-500/year.
Would love other writers' thoughts too!
I've ghost written or published 100+ eBooks (mostly through amazon KDP):
https://bloggingguide.com/guides/amazon-kdp/
Sales of books is very different than newsletters. So I wouldn't let that stop you. But you should make sure that your content is of high enough value to your audience, that they feel they want to pay.
If you have an active following on Facebook, why not survey them and ask if they'd be willing to pay and if so, what price point they thought was fair.
Hey guys! any plans on promoting the podcast option Substack offers? I have a literary newsletter and the podcast rss feed is a great opportunity to build your base and have the good word spread wide!
Hi David, good to see you and happy to hear that podcast has been a good tool for you! Are you hoping that we can help more writers know about the podcasting option?
yes! and help us promote it - i think the feature is really cool and it is perfect for syncing the rss feed to all apps, substack is a much better place to build an audience as it isn't lost in the swamp of spotify algorithms etc
We are ramping up our efforts to get the word out on a number of substack features and I'll flag podcasting to see if we can get some extra momentum!
Hi Casey! I'm wondering if you think there's a specific number of subscribers you think one should have before converting to a paid subscription model.
I don't think there is a specific threshold. Remember, you can enable monetization before you actually start charging readers (and even then you can choose any mixture of free/paid subscriber only posts).
But I've seen people successfully start operating the paid subscription model with less than 100 free sign ups.
Thanks for that, Casey. I just signed up for your Facebook Substack. Lots of good advice and useful information.
Casey, in your information about other ways to monetize a newsletter you mention selling one's own information products -- any thoughts about how best to do this on Substack?
There are a few ways to do this, and perhaps Substack will even have some product solutions in the future to address this.
But generally, you can use Substack as more than "just a newsletter" and really think of it as the gateway to your community/membership products. That is-people pay for access and in addition to paid subscriber newsletter issues, they also get access to all of your information products which are all hosted in posts behind Substack's paywall.
In my case, I use Gumroad to actually host and distribute those products (templates, eBooks, courses) because you can use it for free.
This might just solve my angst around going paid (i.e., I want to offer paid subscribers something special right away when they convert) -- I will definitely look into Gumroad. Thank you, Casey! All your Substack content is amazing, and your willingness to share your knowledge is deeply appreciated.
Thanks, Sarah!
Thank you for this suggestion, Casey. I saw someone else using Gumroad, but wasn't familiar with it. Maybe it could also be used for giving away things for an unpaid newsletter when people sign up. Really appreciate your time with the group today. Thank you.
good question
Lots of questions, stock piled for the past 2 weeks. Not sure how to best ask so many, so I'll just create a list here:
1. Any update on the ability to house pdf's on substack?
2. Welcome page - suggest we could add text and photos with links so we could offer 'freebies' for signing up. I've tried to encourage the sign up with my image, but that's the best I could think of so far. (https://kindnessmagnet.substack.com/welcome
3. Would also be nice to be able to add a few testimonials on the welcome page. So, I guess I'm asking if we could have that page be a bit more like a landing page.
4. Add ability to add a link in the message that we can have appear at the top of each post and also a button. Right now I'm having to create my own and copy/paste each week. Example: https://kindnessmagnet.substack.com/p/bested-kindergarteners
5. Could we have the ability to create pages that are 'hidden' so we could use them as a landing page. I see Woodruff.substack.com is using 'draft' pages to accomplish something like this.
6. Is it possible to have YouTube videos reside on substack instead of going to Youtube?
7. Is it possible to make photos/images with clickable links?
8. Any chance of a SCRIPT font option?
9. Would like the ability to underline words.
10. Ability to place images left, right, center.
11. Could the 'share via email' be enhanced? Right now it just copies the link into the body.
12. Ability to house a poll on substack instead of taking the reader off the page. Ex: Typeform bot survey called 'Conversations', used on WonderTools.substack.com
13. Would love to hear from someone using podcasts - how are they enjoying the experience, what tips do they have.
14. Would love to hear from folks who are using twitter to build their lists and specifically how they are doing it.
15. Would also like to hear from folks who are using Instagram to build their lists and how they are doing it.
16. Discussion Thread - what's the best way to publicize the thread so people show up at a specific time?
Sorry for so many questions.....I'm having so much fun with Substack! Thank you.
I agree with so many of these! I would add to #10 the ability to wrap text around an image.
Haha! I agree, just realized I was asking SO much!
Hi Heather, You are so much more organized than I am, but many of your questions are ones I have as well, especially #7,9,12,13,15. I have used Twitter to get some subscribers mostly by @ing individuals or organizations who are either mentioned or featured in my newsletter. Sometimes they will retweet it and/or subscribe. I can't say it has been wildly successful, but it gets my work out there with little effort. I peeked at your newsletter and see that probably wouldn't work for you as a strategy though.
Actually, that's a great idea, Anna. I haven't written any focused on business yet, but my background is in higher education performance improvement - and I want to start including some posts to help businesses improve outcomes through kindness. I'm so new (started in April, have a little less than 200 sign ups), and I'm still trying to figure out how to address the business market, along with my individual peeps.
I would like to type in color. New to Substack this past 2 weeks.
Have been facing a bunch of issues over the last 1 to 2 weeks:
1. Delivery of emails getting delayed occasionally - in some cases, as much as 15 to 20 mins.
2. Tracking is not working properly - I have my personal email as a subscriber and although I read every day, it is not tracked as read sometimes. I do not have any kind of blockers, btw. Because of this, open rates are staggering a lot.
Please solve these issues.
I've had the tracking issue too. I sent one email as a trial to my mom and sister for something new I wanted to incorporate, and Substack said my email was opened 32 times - for two readers!! They both said they opened it no more than twice. So I'm a little leery to trust Substack's statistics.
Sorry to hear this! Let me message our product folks to see what I can find out.
Just to second this, I get this a lot with my daily email with inflated view counts (I mean... not hating on it of course). And I also often see people who have clicked links.... but did not 'open the email' which is curious.
I've been writing my newsletter robust.substack.com fairly consistently for four years now and I just cannot seem to break through in growing my list. I write personal essays about my midlife Gen X vibes, peppered with pop culture and philosophy references. I'm out of friends and family and extended network at this point. With my teeny-tiny sub-100 subscribers, my open rate is usually close to 75% or more, which is heart-warming. But I want reach a larger audience and I'm just running out of steam and ideas. Twitter is not for me; I've tried, but I just can't. Please help. I need newsletter therapy.
Hi Heather. I certainly don't have it nailed down (and your 75% open rate is awesome). Perhaps revisit your one-liner on your welcome page. There are 65+ million Gen Xers. What do you see as their current problem or need? State how you solve that in your one-liner and that might encourage them to sign up. The one-liner needs to be about them, not you. If Twitter isn't for you (totally get that sentiment!), where else do you feel you could (and want to) reach your audience? Perhaps there are online websites/blogs that have your same audience and you could write an article for them. Would that be more comfortable for you?
Thanks (fellow) Heather. I think the problem with Gen Xers is essentially that we're getting old, but we are also still so young and feel so young and it's just confusing sometimes. And we are already so full of angst, it's kind of our calling card. But good call on reworking the one-liner. I'm definitely pitching other outlets with like-minded audiences. To answer Anne's question above, the purpose of my newsletter is really just to build my little ecosystem as a writer on (and off) the internet. I'm working on a book, and the newsletter is where I'm developing some of the ideas. I just think it can sometimes be hard to find your people.
I think going to Reddit and looking at the subReddits may be a good jumping off point to find my people. First I'm going to flush out how to separate the strands of what I have written - journal entries, poetic prose, or dreams.
As a newbie, here are my thoughts. One - what is the purpose of your newsletter? I think mine will be specific - like to publish the journals and focus on personal growth. Do I expect a particular number of readers or an income? Probably not. What I've heard about success is that less than 1% (rough estimate) of people reach a huge success. I think a 75% open rate is tremendous! It indicates to me the quality of what you're producing. I guess question two is who are you doing the newsletter for? Mine may basically be for me - this is the life I've been living at 64. I have content going back to the 70s that my son, bless his heart, will never look at. So I'm putting it out there.
How do you email a part of a newsletter to the free list with a link to subscribe for the rest of the post? I have gotten these emails from other substack writers and don't know how they are doing it because I don't see two posts on their sites. I think it would help a lot to convert free to paid subscribers if I can give them a taste of each one they could get.
You have to do them as separate posts -- first, one to paid subscribers. Then, a version to free subscribers, where you cut off the rest of the post. You don't see them both as posts on their sites because in Substack, emails sent to your free list only do not show up on the site. A related tool you might use is the preamble function, which allows you to make a pitch to free people at the top (or bottom) without annoying the paid people
Hi Tony! Thanks for jumping in :)
I still don’t understand and I really want to do it tomorrow because a website is taking part of my paid only post and I want to be sure my free readers also get it. So do I make a new post and send it to everyone? That would mean the paid ones get it twice and there will be two links to posts on my site. I don’t see how else to do it. Can someone ask Taibbi since he’s got the system so effective now ? Thank you!
Thank you for helping me but I'm still confused. So I write the post and hit publish and send to the paid subscribers. Then do I do a new post and send to the free subscribers or just cut and paste a part of it out and send just as an email to free people? I really want to get my much bigger list of free people to start seeing what they are missing! :)
Yes. Sorry for not being clear. I send a full post to paid subscribers. Then I copy and paste that into a new post, but I delete out all but the first couple paragraphs of each item (we usually have 3-4 separate items), then do a custom button that says "Subscribe to keep reading" with a link to the /subscribe page. And I do a little note at the top of the free version saying something like, "Paid subscribers got the full version, here's how to subscribe." And I send that to the free list
Sounds like Tony does something pretty similar to what I do. Here is how I handle it: Write the full post with a six to seven paragraph hook that ends in something of a cliffhanger for the rest of the story, and post it or schedule it. That is sent to paid subscribers only. Then I copy and paste the lede (that 6-7 grafs) and start a new story. THAT one goes to "only free signups" with a note that this is an excerpt for free subscribers - to see this full story and the rest of The Wausonian archive, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Since a subscriber can only be a paid or free subscriber, they only see whichever one they're signed up for, so they don't see two posts. Here is an example: https://wausonian.substack.com/p/meet-the-citys-new-community-development-36e
Now I’m trying to do it and realize my paid subscribers are getting two emails. Is that what you mean about link af top for the paid ?
Wow. Thanks! I had no idea that free subscribers can’t see the paid subscriber only post that they are missing. Are you sure about that? It makes it easier for me to send out the free ones with just a piece of the post, but I always thought I was enticing them by letting them see everything that they can’t read too by the home page. Since so many of us want to do this system, it may be good to add this to writers resources @substack
Yep, if you send it to paid it doesn’t go to the free ones. I have separate emails signed up for both so I can see. If you send to everyone it goes to all of them - when I send the excerpt I use the free subscriptions only option to make sure paid subs don’t get it twice. Hope it goes well for you!
Are you writing two posts and clicking paid subscriber on one, free on other and then emailing them the posts ? Or do you mean you somehow email the free people without a way to link back to a post ? Just an email ? I’m still confused !
Is it better to ask just one question? I posted a list an hour ago because I thought it would be easier, but I can understand that it might harder for Bailer and Casey to get to.
What is your question?
Thank you for responding, Casey. I posted a list of 16 questions that I've been accumulating for 2 weeks, thinking it would be easier to just post one list. Several other writers commented that they had the same questions. I posted it very early - before the official start time. Not sure how else to get them to you so here's the list again (sorry for the length!) By the way, I signed up for Blogging Guide and am already loving it. Thank you!
Heather Johnston BrebaughWrites Kindness Magnet 🧲·6 hr ago
Lots of questions, stock piled for the past 2 weeks. Not sure how to best ask so many, so I'll just create a list here:
1. Any update on the ability to house pdf's on substack?
2. Welcome page - suggest we could add text and photos with links so we could offer 'freebies' for signing up. I've tried to encourage the sign up with my image, but that's the best I could think of so far. (https://kindnessmagnet.substack.com/welcome
3. Would also be nice to be able to add a few testimonials on the welcome page. So, I guess I'm asking if we could have that page be a bit more like a landing page.
4. Add ability to add a link in the message that we can have appear at the top of each post and also a button. Right now I'm having to create my own and copy/paste each week. Example: https://kindnessmagnet.substack.com/p/bested-kindergarteners
5. Could we have the ability to create pages that are 'hidden' so we could use them as a landing page. I see Woodruff.substack.com is using 'draft' pages to accomplish something like this.
6. Is it possible to have YouTube videos reside on substack instead of going to Youtube?
7. Is it possible to make photos/images with clickable links?
8. Any chance of a SCRIPT font option?
9. Would like the ability to underline words.
10. Ability to place images left, right, center.
11. Could the 'share via email' be enhanced? Right now it just copies the link into the body.
12. Ability to house a poll on substack instead of taking the reader off the page. Ex: Typeform bot survey called 'Conversations', used on WonderTools.substack.com
13. Would love to hear from someone using podcasts - how are they enjoying the experience, what tips do they have.
14. Would love to hear from folks who are using twitter to build their lists and specifically how they are doing it.
15. Would also like to hear from folks who are using Instagram to build their lists and how they are doing it.
16. Discussion Thread - what's the best way to publicize the thread so people show up at a specific time?
Sorry for so many questions.....I'm having so much fun with Substack! Thank you.
As you can see, my typing is poor!
What is a best practice for communicating updates with subscribers outside of regular newsletter issues, e.g., to update them on changes? Just include them as issues? Notes at the beginning or end of issues? Or separate mailing list?
There is a way to just email your subscribers without it being an actual post. That's what I would recommend.
I've never been able to figure out how to email the readers without a post. Do you know how to do that?
Go to the Subscribers page on your Dashboard. Select all the readers/subscribers that you want to send an email to. AFTER you select your readers, an Email button will appear at the top right of the subscriber list. Then you click that and write/send your email. (P.S. I had to ask how to do this too...)
This is so easy and I've spent months trying! Thank you.
Sections can be used for this purpose. For example, I do a recap of external articles, about once per month that is sent to only those who opt into it. I also send "breaking news" to those that specifically opt in.
https://bloggingguide.com/substack-recommended-links/
You could create a section for these updates if you only want people who *want* to see them to be able to do so - https://on.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-publication-sections
I have an interest in this too.
Hi all. I am currently simply looking to grow my subscriber base, keeping everything free for the time being. My content is history-based that also touches on current events and social commentary. Essentially, my work seeks to show how history connects with our daily lives and the world around us. If anyone has any advice, particularly regarding growing nonfiction content that is academic in nature but written to be accessible and interesting to a general readership, I would be most appreciative. Thanks.
Many of our top writers are non-fiction writers, and also academics. Heather Cox Richardson is doing so well, in part because of how she's engaged her community in regular threads and been incredibly consistent with writing. Might be worth studying her newsletter? https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/
This has been suggested elsewhere on this thread (by Casey, I believe), but I had a jump in subscribers after writing a guest post for another Substack with a much wider reach. I would look to make some connections with other newsletters that might host you, or with traditional publishing platforms (newspapers, magazines, etc.) where you could write a piece that dovetails with the content of your newsletter, and will let more people know what you're up to!
I'm a new writer to Substack, and would like to know, do you have a support group to answer questions as they come up? Under what conditions does a reader need to enter a password to Comment or Like a post? (I have only free subscribers, so I don't think a password would be necessary.) Lastly, is there a reason my reader would try to Comment and the Twitter symbol would come up?
We have this thread every week to answer questions, and there are a number of organic groups for Substack writers, including Casey's Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/substackwriters/) and Elle Griffin's Discord group (https://discard.cc/guilds/809073184371638315)
Thank you!
I would love to be able to highlight comments in these weekly threads so I could go back later and review those. Is there a way to do that, or other suggestions on how to capture what is most relevant to each of us? The threads become so long.
We don't have highlight options right now. I like that idea though! We want to improve our basic commenting functionality first, but perhaps this could come down the line.
Thank you, Bailey. There's so much 'good stuff' in these threads.
Is having a large social following super helpful for growing your newsletter?
I have been writing consistently for over a year and have written some great pieces, but I still have a sub 50 subscriber base. Is there anything you'd recommend?
Newsletter: https://fullstackcreator.substack.com
I would get super clear on WHO your ideal readers are (be specific!) and WHERE they hang out so you can get in front of them. They may not already be following you on social media, but that's ok.
Depending on what you're writing about and for whom, you'll want to approach promotions differently. If you read/listen to these two interviews, one with a fiction writer (https://on.substack.com/p/spotlight-on-fiction) and one with a local news reporter (https://on.substack.com/p/spotlight-on-local-news-with-tony) you'll see that their tactics were different but the approach was the same - they know who they are hoping to get their newsletter in front of, and design ways to do that that are quite specific.
Wonder if there was a time zone issue today. The announcement said 12 pm to 1 pm EST (it's actually EDT on the east Coast USA), but the discussion seems to have started an hour ago.
We (the Substack team!) are active in the thread from 12pm-1 answering questions. We email out the thread before we jump in to answer so there's time for folks receive it in their inboxes.
We will fix that EST / EDT issue !
But I tuned in at 12 noon eastern time and the conversation was going for an hour. That is the problem. I don't know if it's an EST/EDT issue.
Yeah, I noticed that too.
Me too!
Hi! I write "This Is a Newsletter!" My staple is a post every Friday that's a round-up of the news, memes, videos of the week and kind of takes a Daily Show approach to the internet. I also aim for two essays a month about culture, personal humor, or millennial urban life.
(Example: https://thatguyfromtheinternet.substack.com/p/who-cares-about-a-pandemic-when-theres)
I'm also in the midst of releasing a six-part essay series about how America's work culture has influenced our pandemic response. It has really boosted engagement with my followers (email open rates are now 40-50%), but it hasn't boosted my subscribers like I was hoping it would.
I started this 2 months ago, and I'm at 100 subs with 4 paying. I promote my content through Instagram, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Discord, but I was wondering if people have any other ways of expanding my network? Maybe other humor/pop culture communities? I appreciate any help. Thanks!
i am where you are and second this question!
I have a reputable longstanding niche news site that I launched back in 2007 in the olden times, when monetization was but a dream. It's called The Comic's Comic, about comedians and the comedy business (https://thecomicscomic.com/). Of course now I feel like I should make the leap to Substack. Any advice on how to convert my readers from blog to subscription? (I do have a pre-existing Substack called Piffany (https://piffany.substack.com/) but have held off moving forward because I want to do it right. Ack! Advice please?
Hey Sean!
Do you have an email list for any of the readers for https://thecomicscomic.com/?
I'm going to ask our team for more insight on this but one thing that comes to mind is that you could change your Substack domain to be https://thecomicscomic.com/ so that readers who are returning for your site end up on your Susbtack.
Alas, I do not have an email list outside of Substack. Didn't I read a little while back about Substack offering multi-channel newsletters? As in, I could write Piffany essays and The Comic's Comic posts under the same domain, and then have them (and potentially other categories) as individual channels? Oh, wait. I could look this up. Publication Sections! Maybe that's what I should do, publication sections, so I can separate the comedy-specific news from other news and/or commentary?
Yes, exactly! Sections. Perhaps this is what you found: https://on.substack.com/p/a-guide-to-publication-sections
Thanks! So yes, I'd love any advice or counsel in terms of transitioning folks over from old-school blog to new-school newsletter (and then hopefully getting them to pay/donate to my cause!).
I know Substack is great for launching a new newsletter...I'm not sure how to convert readers from a 14-year-old free website with thousands of posts and listeners from a 6-year-old free podcast with 345 episodes to a new subscription-based newsletter version of same. Or do I need to start fresh here to make it work?
I recently had a serious family emergency. I stopped publishing for two months. I let all my subscribers know what was going on. No one unsubscribed. Was this the best way to handle my situation. I back now BTW.
Hi Lloyd, I hope that your family is well. I think being honest like you were, in the beginning, is the best policy and sharing how you plan to show up in the coming months for readers (e.g. weekly, monthly, etc) and what you will be writing about moving forward.
I'm brand new, don't follow other thread sites, how do I best read this thread?
Hi Anne, welcome! I recommend scrolling through on your browser and finding a few questions that jump out. Feel free to hit "reply" where you want to jump in or start a new comment if a new question pops up.
Here's our guide to threads if your curious to learn more about how they work on Substack: https://on.substack.com/p/new-on-substack-build-your-community
Hi! I started doing that. I'm not sure how I found the thread. That's the first situation. I also noticed the time - 12 EST - thinking it was 12 EDT that meant the thread was underway when I got here. I have now commented, opened links in another tab to read things later, and am motivated with this new information and comments from others so engaged. I liked a couple of posts, too, so that was fun.
Thanks for flagging that on time. We will correct that next week! Glad you have fun, hope to see you again :)
do you also have a link to recommend newsletters for the five a week thread thingy - read a couple goodies recently
Are you talking about At Length? https://on.substack.com/p/fiction-at-length-vampires-scientists
I am interested in this!
Hi,
I write a newsletter called 10+1 Things where I write about 11 things that I thought were worth sharing. It is a curated list covering various topics( For eg. Last week I talked about 'The Deadliest Predator, Tiny Forests, Oldest Living Things and Cyclists of Burundi'
Link: https://rishikesh.substack.com/p/the-deadliest-predator-tiny-forests)
My questions are as follows:
1. How does Substack help you in driving traffic to your blog and other resources? I'm confused whether to include my blog posts in my newsletter.
2. What criteria do you follow for headings and urls of new posts? Do you use any headline analysers for added SEO advantage?
Regards,
Rishi
My newsletter (https://www.asiancenturystocks.com) grew nicely in the first three months, with about 100 subscribers each paying $30 per month.
But over the past week, I've had zero growth. I'm trying to figure out why. Is there a seasonality pattern in paid subscription sign-ups (summer months)? Or is this a reflection of people spending more time outside the home now that many have been vaccinated?
Hi Michael,
The truth is that it's very common for growth to come in waves - that there will be several weeks without great increase, and then a viral post will lead to a jump in subscriptions. This is the normal path and experience that all writers have on Substack.
A few things to consider auditing:
* Are your posts are too long?
Some writers have extremely long posts that would be better served by splitting them up into shorter ones throughout the week or month.
If you're a monthly longform writer, consider breaking up the post into a few sections so that you can send at least one post out per week, but it doesn't create any new writing requirements.
* Do you make Substack your primary landing page?
If you don't have your Substack as your "link in bio" on other profiles, consider doing so.
And if you have a separate website which reposts much of your Substack’s free content, it can hurt your Substack’s SEO and make it difficult to convert new readers into habitual readers and paying subscribers. Readers may also be confused about what differentiates a Substack subscription from what they can read elsewhere, and this may be why some aren’t realizing that a subscription includes your web archive of paid posts. To ensure that your existing audience can find you, we recommend that writers use Substack as their primary home on the web.
* Do you have a strong one-line description?
Your one-line description, seen on your landing page, should demonstrate the value of reading. A great example - Pull Request, e.g. "A newsletter about tech and culture, by technologists, for technologists, published weekly."
* How are your publication tags?
For Substack’s current discovery features, broader tags are more useful than specific ones - especially if they fit in our featured categories list on Reader and substack.com/home. I might try changing your tags to increase the chance your publication is featured.
* Do you celebrate or share testimonials?
Consider collecting and re-sharing when people celebrate your newsletter. This might mean asking for permission to use quotes from readers who email you a compliment directly or it may be re-sharing (and saving) public tweets from people talking about your newsletter on Twitter. These testimonials can be shared with readers in your About page and can be highlighted at launch moments, ahead of special offers, and at key milestones in the publication's journey.
* Are you including ~two sentences about your publication at the top of each of your posts?
Consider publishing a few sentences about your publication (and subscriptions, if relevant) at the top of your posts. It can be short and include a subscribe button. That way, if someone forwards your articles to a friend, or shares a link, it will help capture new subscribers.
*Price - what price point best suits you and your writer's needs?
The answer here varies widely. You can browse different categories of newsletters on our homepage to get a sense of how much writers charge that are similar to you. You might also consider offering a promotional discount or comping a few free subscribers to give them a sense of what they'd get if they became a paid subscriber.
Has anyone played around with paid promotion of a blog? Subscription services, targeted ads, etc?
We recently had a conversation with Elle Griffin who is serializing her novel on Substack. She talked about cross-promotion with other newsletters and classified ads. She talks about it in the audio recorded section of this interview: https://on.substack.com/p/spotlight-on-fiction
Thanks for this!
Hi everyone, I'm still trying to figure out why "Writes A Satuday Letter" doesn't appear in my name next to these comments. Bailey or anyone, do you have ideas?
Hmmm! Sorry that's happening, Sebastian. Please write our support team at support@substackinc.com and they can help get to the bottom of it.
Great, thanks!
Yes. We are still in a version 1.0 with this "publication next to name in comments" feature. Soon you'll have more control over what publication appears next to your name (if any)
Good day, I have two questions.
1. How do I personalize my Substack newsletters by adding the subscribers name? Is there a function for that.
2. Is it possible for me to integrate a native payment solution when I want to start charging, credit cards won’t really work for my audience.
Hi Kenechukwu,
Hopefully, I can answer your questions.
1. Are you looking to put something like "Dear <NAME>" at the beginning of each email and have it autogenerate from your subscriber list? Current we do not have that functionality. Can you tell me more about how that would help you and how you might us it?
2. We accept payments through Stripe current.y What type of payments were you hoping to take besides CCs?
1. Yes, that is exactly what I am trying to add to so that the names can auto generate from my subscriber list, it will help me personalize my letters, so that my subscribers feel a connection to me.
2. I was hoping to incorporate Paystack or Flutterwave, which are African companies, I was hoping to use their platforms to do direct debits from my subscribers, credit cards that enable international transactions are not common in Nigeria, so using credit cards to collect payments would limit my number of subscribers substantially, simple because they cannot pay.
1. Right now, we don't have that feature but I am making a note with our product team. I see where that could be very helpful in making readers feel connected.
2. Our ability to accept your payment depends on what's supported by Stripe. Making a note about Paystack or Flutterwave with our team too!