Have questions about publishing, growing, or going paid on Substack?
The Substack team, and your fellow writers, are here to help! Drop your questions in the discussion thread by leaving a comment, and we’ll do our best to share knowledge and tips.
Our team will be answering questions and sharing insights with you in the thread today from 10 a.m.–11 a.m. PST / 1 p.m.–2 p.m. EST. We encourage writers to stick around after the hour and continue the conversation together.
Some reminders and updates from the Substack team:
In case you missed it: Substack Chat now supports reader participation and is available on the web. This makes building a thriving subscriber community easier than ever.
How are you sparking conversation in Chat? We published a guide on how to build a community with your free and paid subscribers in Chat. Share your strategy in today’s thread!
Hey everyone! 👋 I'm Terrell and I'm one of the original testers of the Chat feature, and one of the things that has worked well for me in sparking engagement and conversation among my readers is asking them to share photos of where they are in the world -- mine is a running-focused newsletter, so sometimes I'll ask "where did you run this weekend" or "where are you right now?" It's been fascinating to see people post from places around the U.S. as well as far away as Italy, Spain, Greece, etc. It's such a cool cool feature.
Hello all, and happy Office Hours! Here's a little bit of encouragement from one small newsletter to all of you:
When you put them on the scale of your creative life, which one is heavier: criticism, or compliments? I don't know about you, but I can receive ten compliments and feel pretty good, but if someone gives me ONE piece of negative feedback? Oof. Whole week ruined.
But why? Why do we let negativity sit heavier in our souls? I don't have a good answer to that. But what I DO know is that criticism and compliments only weigh as much as their ability to propel you forward. If a compliment keeps you comfy but stagnant, then it's worthless. Similarly, if a piece of criticism helps you improve, then it's more valuable than gold! Don't let the snipes, gripes, and insults about your work get you down. They may feel heavy, but they're hollow on the inside. For every compliment and criticism, ask yourself: is this valuable to me? Is it keeping me moving forward? If the answer is no, then let it go!
Most importantly: keep going, keep writing, and DON'T GIVE UP! 🌿
Hi substack folks - last week I missed this post by 1 hour and there were already 1000+ comments. It's not really possible to have a voice that way. Any thoughts on how this weekly office hours post could be changed to address that?
I'm trying to convince Substack to do an office hour devoted to Classifieds. Let's do an experiment, let's use this thread as a classifieds section. I'm sacrificing my notifications for the cause.
If you are looking for collaborations, share this information in a reply to this comment:
-What is your substack? Share a link!
-What is your substack about? Pitch prospective collaborators!
- What kind of collaboration are you looking for? Guest post? Podcast Guest? Letter writing counterpart? Cross-post? Something I can't think of right now? Mention it here.
-Who is your ideal collaboration? someone who is in the same space as you? Something different? Are you looking for someone to enhance an idea you focus on, or introduce a new idea you want to talk about?
If you are open to collaborations, scroll the replies and respond to people if you think you are a match! Coordinate among yourselves how to get the collab going.
I hope this works! Good luck out there! Happy hunting!
I came across a substack that uses a "Tip jar" rather than paid subscription. Readers leave a one-time tip if they enjoyed the articles or want to support the writer with a one-time payment. Has anyone tried this? Any thoughts on adding a 'tip jar' option?
Is there any way to organise a Substack writers meet-up in our respective cities? Or at least a resource of where people are grouped so we can do the leg work ourselves of organising? Community is everything and meeting with other writers in our city would be so inspiring and helpful beyond the screen.
Hey all, I’m celebrating a modest yet significant-to-me milestone: I have earned NET $400 as a writer on Substack! 🎉
Income is not not currently my goal but a happy side effect of offering the option to subscribers. All the money from Stripe gets deposited directly into my savings account where I’m holding it for costs related to editing and publishing my book at some point in the near future.
I was feeling pretty low key about this because it doesn’t feel like a lot, but I mentioned it to my friend the other day who has published a dozen books and he made a big deal out of me earning money as a writer. He celebrated it!
So here I am thanking Substack for making a space where nobodys like me can make a buck or two for doing what I love.
An ignorant question here. If I send a post out to all of my subscribers and then update it, they don't get separate emails every time I do that, right? I've seen some folks posting comments admitting to typos, but they didn't go back and fix them. I'm obsessive enough that sometimes I'll tweak things even after sending out a new post -- and I definitely go back and fix errors (an embarrassing one was when Autocorrect changed "Noam" Chomsky to "Norm" Chomsky :). But am I spamming my subscribers every time I do that?
I was wondering why PayPal is not a payment solution? My readership is mostly European which means that most of them do not own a credit card. They use paypal instead. Currently I let them pay via paypal and comp them but that is quite manual also I guess not really ideal for substack is it? 🤷♀️
Hey there! So I'm a bit new (haven't even started my full Substack yet), so I wanted to see if anyone had any advice on starting? Do I need to have a ton of posts in the archive before I publish? Should I just start the darn thing and see what happens? I think I am in my head about the first newsletter and providing enough to get a subscription from readers. Anyway, any advice would be oh-so welcome and appreciated!
Hey Substack, is there a way to delete old or abandoned chat threads from the feed? Some folks I subscribe to haven't posted a chat in months (chat's not for everyone and that's a-okay!) but there doesn't seem to be a way to clear those dormant threads. Am I missing something obvious here? Thank you!
Hi there! My partner and I co-write our Substack, The Queerest Year, about queer art, media and creators (and our year *only* intaking queer art, media & voices).
I'm wondering about the categories available for tagging our Substacks... I know this is a topic that comes up a lot and that Substack is hesitant to add more, but I find that the categories are really limiting, especially for Substacks that are relevant to communities/demographics of people.
In other words, currently the category tags are focused on WHAT the newsletter content is about, but what if we had some categories for WHO the newsletter is for, especially now when certain communities (like queer and BIPOC communities) are under increasing social and political attack and we need to feel more connected. I would love for more people from the LGBTQ+ community to more easily be able to find our newsletter. (Yes, I know readers could search the word "queer" or "LGBTQ" but it's not the same.) Would love to hear what people, esp those at Substack, think. Cheers!
How many people are also doing voice-overs and pushing them to Podcast players? Are you seeing much traction? The one thing I've noticed is that Substack only tracks Podcast episodes for taffic, NOT voiceovers pushed to RSS. This could be a really great addition.
If you are doing recordings, I'd love your feedback on mine as I'm always looking to learn and grow.
Hello! I run the "What I'm Reading" newsletter (https://phillewis.substack.com/), and I'm relatively new to the Substack world. What are some tips for growing your newsletter?
Thanks, Substack managers, for Writers Office Hours! I've picked up about 40% of my subscribers directly or indirectly from hanging out and chatting here on Office Hours every Thursday. Also find 2 or 3 new Substacks each week that I really like or even love.
I recently suffered a stroke. It has impacted my speech and coordination in my left hand. Subsequently, this has also affected my ability to write and speak (cognition is thankfully unaffected, although I get tired more quickly during the day as my brain tries to heal). I am making improvement through therapies.
If you have suggestions for resources, strategies, and/or tools to accommodate this type of situation, please share.
Several of my subscribers have mentioned that they would like to have a way to pull back on all the recommendations they are receiving as they feel they are getting overwhelmed with recommendation emails from Substack. I'm not sure if there is a way for them to control how often they receive these emails already...in which case, please let me know...but, if not, they have mentioned that twice a month would be plenty to receive as otherwise they just feel blasted with them.
I need some examples of Substacks for some guidance, either ones you write or read. I am a multipotentialite, meaning I have a lot of different interests, many of them creative endeavors, including writing, photography, music, romance novels, etc. It's a fun life, but also frustrating because I'm not a specialist and can't whittle my Substack down to one catchy, concise thing. (As of now, it's a place where I share published journalism articles, photographs I've taken, stories from my travels, occasional writing tips, and more.)
I'd like to see examples of other Substacks like this to see how they operate for some inspo, please! Do you write one? Do you read one you love? Please share.
Please fix the commenting interface for office hours. I was just writing a thoughtful reply to someone, and because the page reloads with so many active comments, it ended up reloading a few times and then the comment I was writing just disappeared.
I'm sure I'm not the only one this has happened to.
Hello all! My Substack pal Michael Estrin who writes the delightful Situation Normal newsletter put out a great issue recently detailing how he got this first 2,000 subscribers and what he learned. I found it very helpful and you might too!
My Substack, Serialize, is my way of bringing my teaching (I’m a creative writing professor at Northwestern university) to more aspiring writers. The chat could be the equivalent of a writing workshop, but we’ve had trouble finding a central spot to post as a group. I have an AMA page, but I’d love suggestions.
I teach the art of serializing a novel or memoir, which is a way to produce work readers really (really) want to read (and keep reading)—a skill anyone who wants to get an agent or sell a book needs.
How do I get more interaction with readers on my substack? Right now, I have very few comments on my materials, and I try regularly to comment on others’ work to be a good literary citizen. I feel like I’m missing something!
I love office hours! Question...I absolutely love writing my newsletter and want to offer my readers the best experience but don't want to inundate them. Is there a 'sweet spot' for how often I should be putting out content?
Since my newsletter is about investing and helping the average investor, there is SO much awesome content to share...and so much is changing day to day. I also give trade ideas and could do this daily but don't want to burden or annoy......lol...
Hi, I hope everyone is having a good week!! Polls have been a great way for me to engage my readers! And to help me fine tune the newsletter. It would be helpful for me to see which reader voted on what in the backend. And maybe they could run for longer: two weeks? ✨🖤
Hi everyone. I would love to get your take on how important images are for your newsletter and how you find them. When I started my newsletter Onward (which is about life-long learning and personal reinvention) 10 months ago, I mostly went for photos and illustrations from Unsplash, iStock and the like. By now, I've almost completely switched to images I create myself on Canva (I also dabbled in Dall-E 2) to better capture the point I try to make in a post. What are your experiences which imagery?
This is my newsletter, in case you want to check it out ;)
Hi, team: Are you taking a look at the leaderboards? Honestly, I'm not a fan of ranking Stacks that often talk about very different things in the same list, but now I get the distinct impression that people are self-selecting into categories to which they absolutely don't belong, simply to rank high somewhere. This is pretty much guaranteed to put off readers, who are looking for useful and knowledgeable, rather than weird, esoteric, and irrelevant. I'm concerned that this may put off a huge, broad and untapped audience that Substack is just beginning to reach: We need a universally appealing reputation for Substack with the niche reputation reserved for individual Substack newsletters.
I grew my substack from 0 to 1,200 readers in 6 months. What growth tips would you recommend to get to that 10,000 subscriber milestone? Are there certain benchmarks that you can share around healthy growth trends. Like if you hit X in Y time you are doing great, average, below average. It would be good to understand that from a push / pull perspective. Thank you!
I'd love to hear about how folks who have a newsletter that's not super specific are growing! My newsletter is more my musings on living under capitalism, creativity, capacity, and wellbeing, so it's not super targeted. I'd love to get more readers and maybe even eventually turn on paid subscriptions. Would love to hear from others who are in the same boat :)
Thinking of trying out chat now that subscribers can start topics in it, but I tried doing a basic 'introduce yourself' thread earlier this month and it got no response. So I don't think these features will work for me right now. Around what number of subscribers would you say that features like this do get a response? Seems like starting chat now wouldn't have much purpose.
I'm a PhD Economist currently writing a small substack ( https://nominalnews.substack.com/ ) writing about applying economic research to current issues and issues of interest to people.
One question I have is regarding engagement. Basically, as I started this substack, I would like my readers over time to suggest topics that they may be interested in (Economics is much more broad than people perceive). Do you have an effective way to reach out to the subscriber to ask them to contribute, either via comments or direct message? Should you put a sentence at the beginning of the post that gets emailed? Send out a unique post asking to comment underneath?
Hi Substack team. I really love writing on Substack but I find myself in a bit of a chicken and egg situation - when I write, my posts seem to go down well, and I build up my subscribers. But finding the time to write is hard as I need to pay my mortgage. I know that Substack will offer "deals" to certain high profile writers to help them get started and essentially solve this problem - I was wondering if the company would ever offer (lower value) deals to smaller writers, and if there is an application process where applicants can make a business case?
Long ago, I learned that search engines like Google emphasize only the first three substantive words in a title and longer titles are ignored in searches. Is that still true for Substack articles?
Hello. I'm new to substack, however have an extensive body of work on Medium, Forbes, Psychology and other platforms. I like a "neutral" platform that leaves me in control and I need to better understand why I should switch from Medium (leaving 100 articles behind) over to Substack.
Hi everyone, I've been writing on substack for over a year now and want to start a practice of connecting with fellow writers. I've been reading the comments in these office hours and every one is truly helpful! before substack, I wrote off and on on my old wordpress blog but lack of feedback, comments discouraged me a lot. But this time on Substack, I feel I'm more matured now and have gone beyond the feedback/comments/likes and focus only on writing. I've realized now that my writing is like therapy to me and has healed lot of spaces within me. I would love to connect with fellow writers and be a part of this wonderful community! I write "Love, action and miracles" on the topics of inner/personal transformation, spirituality and my epiphanies.
I am brand new to Substack. I look forward to connecting with others on this fantastic platform. I look forward to connecting with other writers, as well as being able to post my thoughts. Is there anyone is willing to share their knowledge and experiences when they began that will help guide me? I have been writing for years. Now it's time to take my first baby steps along this exciting new journey.
I write about spirituality, astrology, & general nonfiction, I have a travel piece coming up. My goal is to work all of these themes into one cohesive newsletter (not switch from topic to topic, but we’ll see). I also write through a very optimistic lens, hence “The Solstice” — trying to find the maximum light in any given situation!
I would be interested in reading, subscribing, and collaborating with anyone sharing any of these interests. So please ping me if you do! 🤩✨❤️💌
I'm looking to find a couple more quality newsletters to read...I write The Tobin Report which is all about money, markets and charts...I'd be interested in others who write about money and investing. I love seeing others perspectives.
I had so much fun connecting with many of you yesterday during chat! It truly made me believe collaborative, creative communities ARE possible! 💗
If we haven’t connected yet, I’m interested in doing artist interviews (yes, you’re an artist), starting a community directory to share your work, doing art shares, and more! My goal is to create a place for creative folks of all kinds to come together and thrive…I’d love for you to be part of it!
Monday I’ll be announcing what I’m calling “Creative Contemplation,” a way to deepen your creative practice with others. I’ll be offering ALL subscribers a free journal with affirmations and creative prompts, as well as a time to gather monthly online and share. If this resonates with you, let me know so we can learn and grow together!
I write a weekly substack (https://millennialmaybe.substack.com/) about being a Millennial maybe adult in a genZ world and what it means to date, eat, and survive in it. Lots of Hinge horror stories and love letters to ice cream. If anyone writes about similar themes, or is interested in cross-collaborating, please message me! You can find me on IG (@aggiemaybe)
Who's using Chat? 💬
How are you liking it on the web? Will you be letting your subscribers start their own chat threads?
Hey everyone! 👋 I'm Terrell and I'm one of the original testers of the Chat feature, and one of the things that has worked well for me in sparking engagement and conversation among my readers is asking them to share photos of where they are in the world -- mine is a running-focused newsletter, so sometimes I'll ask "where did you run this weekend" or "where are you right now?" It's been fascinating to see people post from places around the U.S. as well as far away as Italy, Spain, Greece, etc. It's such a cool cool feature.
Thank you for joining us today at Office Hours! Are team is signing off today but we will be back next week at the same time.
See you then,
Katie, Bailey, Nadav, Jonathan, Lisa, and Josh
Hello all, and happy Office Hours! Here's a little bit of encouragement from one small newsletter to all of you:
When you put them on the scale of your creative life, which one is heavier: criticism, or compliments? I don't know about you, but I can receive ten compliments and feel pretty good, but if someone gives me ONE piece of negative feedback? Oof. Whole week ruined.
But why? Why do we let negativity sit heavier in our souls? I don't have a good answer to that. But what I DO know is that criticism and compliments only weigh as much as their ability to propel you forward. If a compliment keeps you comfy but stagnant, then it's worthless. Similarly, if a piece of criticism helps you improve, then it's more valuable than gold! Don't let the snipes, gripes, and insults about your work get you down. They may feel heavy, but they're hollow on the inside. For every compliment and criticism, ask yourself: is this valuable to me? Is it keeping me moving forward? If the answer is no, then let it go!
Most importantly: keep going, keep writing, and DON'T GIVE UP! 🌿
Hi substack folks - last week I missed this post by 1 hour and there were already 1000+ comments. It's not really possible to have a voice that way. Any thoughts on how this weekly office hours post could be changed to address that?
I'm trying to convince Substack to do an office hour devoted to Classifieds. Let's do an experiment, let's use this thread as a classifieds section. I'm sacrificing my notifications for the cause.
If you are looking for collaborations, share this information in a reply to this comment:
-What is your substack? Share a link!
-What is your substack about? Pitch prospective collaborators!
- What kind of collaboration are you looking for? Guest post? Podcast Guest? Letter writing counterpart? Cross-post? Something I can't think of right now? Mention it here.
-Who is your ideal collaboration? someone who is in the same space as you? Something different? Are you looking for someone to enhance an idea you focus on, or introduce a new idea you want to talk about?
If you are open to collaborations, scroll the replies and respond to people if you think you are a match! Coordinate among yourselves how to get the collab going.
I hope this works! Good luck out there! Happy hunting!
I came across a substack that uses a "Tip jar" rather than paid subscription. Readers leave a one-time tip if they enjoyed the articles or want to support the writer with a one-time payment. Has anyone tried this? Any thoughts on adding a 'tip jar' option?
Is there any way to organise a Substack writers meet-up in our respective cities? Or at least a resource of where people are grouped so we can do the leg work ourselves of organising? Community is everything and meeting with other writers in our city would be so inspiring and helpful beyond the screen.
Hey all, I’m celebrating a modest yet significant-to-me milestone: I have earned NET $400 as a writer on Substack! 🎉
Income is not not currently my goal but a happy side effect of offering the option to subscribers. All the money from Stripe gets deposited directly into my savings account where I’m holding it for costs related to editing and publishing my book at some point in the near future.
I was feeling pretty low key about this because it doesn’t feel like a lot, but I mentioned it to my friend the other day who has published a dozen books and he made a big deal out of me earning money as a writer. He celebrated it!
So here I am thanking Substack for making a space where nobodys like me can make a buck or two for doing what I love.
An ignorant question here. If I send a post out to all of my subscribers and then update it, they don't get separate emails every time I do that, right? I've seen some folks posting comments admitting to typos, but they didn't go back and fix them. I'm obsessive enough that sometimes I'll tweak things even after sending out a new post -- and I definitely go back and fix errors (an embarrassing one was when Autocorrect changed "Noam" Chomsky to "Norm" Chomsky :). But am I spamming my subscribers every time I do that?
I was wondering why PayPal is not a payment solution? My readership is mostly European which means that most of them do not own a credit card. They use paypal instead. Currently I let them pay via paypal and comp them but that is quite manual also I guess not really ideal for substack is it? 🤷♀️
Hey there! So I'm a bit new (haven't even started my full Substack yet), so I wanted to see if anyone had any advice on starting? Do I need to have a ton of posts in the archive before I publish? Should I just start the darn thing and see what happens? I think I am in my head about the first newsletter and providing enough to get a subscription from readers. Anyway, any advice would be oh-so welcome and appreciated!
Hey Substack! Any plans to introduce new ways for writers without a big audience to gain subscribers?
Happy Office Hours! I am happy to share that my Substack experience has been so wonderful that I decided to start a new Substack!
Read my latest edition about GPT-4 on this new newsletter, and consider subscribing if you are interested in AI and other cutting-edge technologies 😀:
https://futuretelescope.substack.com/p/future-telescope-6
Hey Substack, is there a way to delete old or abandoned chat threads from the feed? Some folks I subscribe to haven't posted a chat in months (chat's not for everyone and that's a-okay!) but there doesn't seem to be a way to clear those dormant threads. Am I missing something obvious here? Thank you!
Hi there! My partner and I co-write our Substack, The Queerest Year, about queer art, media and creators (and our year *only* intaking queer art, media & voices).
I'm wondering about the categories available for tagging our Substacks... I know this is a topic that comes up a lot and that Substack is hesitant to add more, but I find that the categories are really limiting, especially for Substacks that are relevant to communities/demographics of people.
In other words, currently the category tags are focused on WHAT the newsletter content is about, but what if we had some categories for WHO the newsletter is for, especially now when certain communities (like queer and BIPOC communities) are under increasing social and political attack and we need to feel more connected. I would love for more people from the LGBTQ+ community to more easily be able to find our newsletter. (Yes, I know readers could search the word "queer" or "LGBTQ" but it's not the same.) Would love to hear what people, esp those at Substack, think. Cheers!
How many people are also doing voice-overs and pushing them to Podcast players? Are you seeing much traction? The one thing I've noticed is that Substack only tracks Podcast episodes for taffic, NOT voiceovers pushed to RSS. This could be a really great addition.
If you are doing recordings, I'd love your feedback on mine as I'm always looking to learn and grow.
https://polymathicbeing.substack.com/p/new-podcast
Hello! I run the "What I'm Reading" newsletter (https://phillewis.substack.com/), and I'm relatively new to the Substack world. What are some tips for growing your newsletter?
Starting a new podcast here on Substack which is different from my current Substack, exciting times.
Thanks, Substack managers, for Writers Office Hours! I've picked up about 40% of my subscribers directly or indirectly from hanging out and chatting here on Office Hours every Thursday. Also find 2 or 3 new Substacks each week that I really like or even love.
I recently suffered a stroke. It has impacted my speech and coordination in my left hand. Subsequently, this has also affected my ability to write and speak (cognition is thankfully unaffected, although I get tired more quickly during the day as my brain tries to heal). I am making improvement through therapies.
If you have suggestions for resources, strategies, and/or tools to accommodate this type of situation, please share.
Several of my subscribers have mentioned that they would like to have a way to pull back on all the recommendations they are receiving as they feel they are getting overwhelmed with recommendation emails from Substack. I'm not sure if there is a way for them to control how often they receive these emails already...in which case, please let me know...but, if not, they have mentioned that twice a month would be plenty to receive as otherwise they just feel blasted with them.
I need some examples of Substacks for some guidance, either ones you write or read. I am a multipotentialite, meaning I have a lot of different interests, many of them creative endeavors, including writing, photography, music, romance novels, etc. It's a fun life, but also frustrating because I'm not a specialist and can't whittle my Substack down to one catchy, concise thing. (As of now, it's a place where I share published journalism articles, photographs I've taken, stories from my travels, occasional writing tips, and more.)
I'd like to see examples of other Substacks like this to see how they operate for some inspo, please! Do you write one? Do you read one you love? Please share.
Please fix the commenting interface for office hours. I was just writing a thoughtful reply to someone, and because the page reloads with so many active comments, it ended up reloading a few times and then the comment I was writing just disappeared.
I'm sure I'm not the only one this has happened to.
Hello all! My Substack pal Michael Estrin who writes the delightful Situation Normal newsletter put out a great issue recently detailing how he got this first 2,000 subscribers and what he learned. I found it very helpful and you might too!
https://michaelestrin.substack.com/p/i-hit-2000-subscribers-heres-what?r=1fqhx&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
My Substack, Serialize, is my way of bringing my teaching (I’m a creative writing professor at Northwestern university) to more aspiring writers. The chat could be the equivalent of a writing workshop, but we’ve had trouble finding a central spot to post as a group. I have an AMA page, but I’d love suggestions.
https://serialize.substack.com/
I teach the art of serializing a novel or memoir, which is a way to produce work readers really (really) want to read (and keep reading)—a skill anyone who wants to get an agent or sell a book needs.
How do you stay disciplined and avoid burnout as a writer?
How do I get more interaction with readers on my substack? Right now, I have very few comments on my materials, and I try regularly to comment on others’ work to be a good literary citizen. I feel like I’m missing something!
I love office hours! Question...I absolutely love writing my newsletter and want to offer my readers the best experience but don't want to inundate them. Is there a 'sweet spot' for how often I should be putting out content?
Since my newsletter is about investing and helping the average investor, there is SO much awesome content to share...and so much is changing day to day. I also give trade ideas and could do this daily but don't want to burden or annoy......lol...
Thoughts?
Love the Recommend feature. It has generated 10% of subscribers so far, second only to getting cross posted!
Hi, I hope everyone is having a good week!! Polls have been a great way for me to engage my readers! And to help me fine tune the newsletter. It would be helpful for me to see which reader voted on what in the backend. And maybe they could run for longer: two weeks? ✨🖤
Hi everyone. I would love to get your take on how important images are for your newsletter and how you find them. When I started my newsletter Onward (which is about life-long learning and personal reinvention) 10 months ago, I mostly went for photos and illustrations from Unsplash, iStock and the like. By now, I've almost completely switched to images I create myself on Canva (I also dabbled in Dall-E 2) to better capture the point I try to make in a post. What are your experiences which imagery?
This is my newsletter, in case you want to check it out ;)
https://annetteschaefer.substack.com/
I have a question. What is a good open rate? I have 305 subscribers and hot between 40 and 45%
Hi, team: Are you taking a look at the leaderboards? Honestly, I'm not a fan of ranking Stacks that often talk about very different things in the same list, but now I get the distinct impression that people are self-selecting into categories to which they absolutely don't belong, simply to rank high somewhere. This is pretty much guaranteed to put off readers, who are looking for useful and knowledgeable, rather than weird, esoteric, and irrelevant. I'm concerned that this may put off a huge, broad and untapped audience that Substack is just beginning to reach: We need a universally appealing reputation for Substack with the niche reputation reserved for individual Substack newsletters.
I grew my substack from 0 to 1,200 readers in 6 months. What growth tips would you recommend to get to that 10,000 subscriber milestone? Are there certain benchmarks that you can share around healthy growth trends. Like if you hit X in Y time you are doing great, average, below average. It would be good to understand that from a push / pull perspective. Thank you!
I'd love to hear about how folks who have a newsletter that's not super specific are growing! My newsletter is more my musings on living under capitalism, creativity, capacity, and wellbeing, so it's not super targeted. I'd love to get more readers and maybe even eventually turn on paid subscriptions. Would love to hear from others who are in the same boat :)
Thinking of trying out chat now that subscribers can start topics in it, but I tried doing a basic 'introduce yourself' thread earlier this month and it got no response. So I don't think these features will work for me right now. Around what number of subscribers would you say that features like this do get a response? Seems like starting chat now wouldn't have much purpose.
I'm a PhD Economist currently writing a small substack ( https://nominalnews.substack.com/ ) writing about applying economic research to current issues and issues of interest to people.
One question I have is regarding engagement. Basically, as I started this substack, I would like my readers over time to suggest topics that they may be interested in (Economics is much more broad than people perceive). Do you have an effective way to reach out to the subscriber to ask them to contribute, either via comments or direct message? Should you put a sentence at the beginning of the post that gets emailed? Send out a unique post asking to comment underneath?
Any and all suggestions welcome! Thank you!
Hi Substack team. I really love writing on Substack but I find myself in a bit of a chicken and egg situation - when I write, my posts seem to go down well, and I build up my subscribers. But finding the time to write is hard as I need to pay my mortgage. I know that Substack will offer "deals" to certain high profile writers to help them get started and essentially solve this problem - I was wondering if the company would ever offer (lower value) deals to smaller writers, and if there is an application process where applicants can make a business case?
Long ago, I learned that search engines like Google emphasize only the first three substantive words in a title and longer titles are ignored in searches. Is that still true for Substack articles?
Hello. I'm new to substack, however have an extensive body of work on Medium, Forbes, Psychology and other platforms. I like a "neutral" platform that leaves me in control and I need to better understand why I should switch from Medium (leaving 100 articles behind) over to Substack.
Hi everyone, I've been writing on substack for over a year now and want to start a practice of connecting with fellow writers. I've been reading the comments in these office hours and every one is truly helpful! before substack, I wrote off and on on my old wordpress blog but lack of feedback, comments discouraged me a lot. But this time on Substack, I feel I'm more matured now and have gone beyond the feedback/comments/likes and focus only on writing. I've realized now that my writing is like therapy to me and has healed lot of spaces within me. I would love to connect with fellow writers and be a part of this wonderful community! I write "Love, action and miracles" on the topics of inner/personal transformation, spirituality and my epiphanies.
I am brand new to Substack. I look forward to connecting with others on this fantastic platform. I look forward to connecting with other writers, as well as being able to post my thoughts. Is there anyone is willing to share their knowledge and experiences when they began that will help guide me? I have been writing for years. Now it's time to take my first baby steps along this exciting new journey.
Is anyone else concerned that chat, useful though it may be, is also opening the Pandora's Box of Substack becoming another social media platform?
Hi all & happy office hours :)
I write about spirituality, astrology, & general nonfiction, I have a travel piece coming up. My goal is to work all of these themes into one cohesive newsletter (not switch from topic to topic, but we’ll see). I also write through a very optimistic lens, hence “The Solstice” — trying to find the maximum light in any given situation!
I would be interested in reading, subscribing, and collaborating with anyone sharing any of these interests. So please ping me if you do! 🤩✨❤️💌
Hey guys, I just started out few weeks ago and it would be lovely to learn from everyone.
And I write about deep introspection that bothers on basically any topic. I won’t mind any tips to help me grow. Xx
In case you want to check me out, this is my sub stack.
https://thinkdeeperpeople.substack.com/?r=n9tb4&utm_campaign=pub-share-checklist
I'm looking to find a couple more quality newsletters to read...I write The Tobin Report which is all about money, markets and charts...I'd be interested in others who write about money and investing. I love seeing others perspectives.
MEMOIR -- I started a group chat for writers of memoir, autofiction, and personal essay and many have already joined 👁❤️.
If you write on Substack in these genres (especially memoir!), please join us https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/ec458494-5827-4be4-9071-6485dd551fcc
I had so much fun connecting with many of you yesterday during chat! It truly made me believe collaborative, creative communities ARE possible! 💗
If we haven’t connected yet, I’m interested in doing artist interviews (yes, you’re an artist), starting a community directory to share your work, doing art shares, and more! My goal is to create a place for creative folks of all kinds to come together and thrive…I’d love for you to be part of it!
Monday I’ll be announcing what I’m calling “Creative Contemplation,” a way to deepen your creative practice with others. I’ll be offering ALL subscribers a free journal with affirmations and creative prompts, as well as a time to gather monthly online and share. If this resonates with you, let me know so we can learn and grow together!
I write a weekly substack (https://millennialmaybe.substack.com/) about being a Millennial maybe adult in a genZ world and what it means to date, eat, and survive in it. Lots of Hinge horror stories and love letters to ice cream. If anyone writes about similar themes, or is interested in cross-collaborating, please message me! You can find me on IG (@aggiemaybe)