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I started writing on Substack 11 months ago. Iβve seen pretty solid growth with both free and paid (starting with 50 subscribers from
friends n family).
The best thing you can do as a new writer on Substack is:
1. Write quality, engaging material
2. Post regularly and consistently (I recommend 2-3 times per week but this is wildly variable; you want to hook peopleβs interest without exploding their email inbox)
3. Read other Substacks and comment on them; try to be courteous, thoughtful and positive.
4. Reach out to other writers who write similar material after youβve been writing a while and ask to cross-post, collaborate, etc.
5. Remember that Substack is a writing community; support others.
6. Attend Substack Office Hours
7. Read, subscribe, and pay for my Substack, Sincere American Writing. *(This is required.)
You know the oft-repeated bit of advice about "writing what you know"? It's wrong - or at least, it's highly misleading, and leads to a lot of misery and paralyzing self-doubt. What it seems to say (and pretty much everyone reads it this way) is "IF YOU'RE NOT A PROPER EXPERT, WHY ARE YOU EVEN TALKING, STEP AWAY, YOU TIMEWASTING LOUDMOUTH."
This leaves the door wide open to the kind of internal imposter syndrome that can have you staring at a flashing cursor for days - even weeks - as the fear of saying something wrong plays merry havoc with your nervous system.
So here's a better bit of advice: WRITE WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN.
There's good science on the power of doing this: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/how-to-be-brilliant/201206/the-protege-effect It will help you learn better, remember things better and be more creatively curious. But it will *also* protect you from imposter syndrome, because it's admitting that you may get stuff wrong as you go along. Because of course you will. You're a student!
(The trick is to be open to being corrected - which is a great way to build trust and engagement in readers, because if they see you're humble enough to be publicly corrected and own up to your mistakes, they will consider your voice a credible presence in their Inboxes.
**Personal case study: I write a newsletter about the science of curiosity - and I'm not a scientist or science journalist, so sometimes I get things a bit wrong. And when I'm corrected by readers - which, to date, has *always* been respectfully - then I issue a mea culpa, correct the online version of the newsletter, and thank the person who was kind enough to steer me in the right direction. Every single time I do this, I get emails from readers telling me they trust me even more, and I even get a few paid signups. Every time.**
The other thing about this is - it lets you invite your readers on a journey with you. A journey of learning. You're guiding them, but you're learning alongside them. That is a *really compelling* value proposition in a newsletter.
So: write what you want to learn, whether it's something you already know something about, or it's something you're learning from scratch. You don't need to be a world authority. No student ever is. You just need to share the excitement of learning something you're both interested in.
βοΈπ§ - I have the impression that 70% of people using Substack (reading, posting Notes, etc.) are writers themselves, looking to find their own tribe. Could this be accurate? As a writer of fiction (mainly), I'd like to get access to readers who primarily read, not write themselves too. Or is this an irrelevant distinction? What do you think?
π§ My tip o the day for writers: re-runs are your friend!! Reruns are posts you posted a year ago that only 13 people saw. Repost em and now all your new subscribers can read them! And don't even make a big deal of it, no explanation, nothing, just repost!
Any of your readers that matter won't care and anyone that cares doesn't matter.
π§ As my newsletter has grown more established, I've been looking forward to adding reader blurbs to my welcome page. After 6 months I'm starting to get enough feedback to make this appropriate.
I was surprised to find that only other Substack writers can submit "blurbs" for the welcome page. While it's a nice endorsement to have a blurb from other writers, it really seems appropriate to accept blurbs from *readers*. My primary audience is readers, not Substack writers, and I'm guessing this isn't unusual.
Here's a brief example of the kind of reader feedback I want to post on my welcome page: "Your content is excellent. I'm a senior developer who never took the time to get a grip on Python, especially for data science. Your content has really motivated me and empowered me to think clearly about fundamentals and how to learn."
I understand you don't want to let writers just copy paste blurbs like this, because you'd have no way of knowing if the blurbs are authentic. But could you consider building a page where we could send readers who want to leave a recommendation for a newsletter? This seems like a really great way to capture the kind of feedback that would help new readers decide if they want to subscribe, or at least look more closely at a newsletter.
π§ I use Substack largely as an exercise in developing the skill of not focusing on outcomes, either in terms of quality or engagement. I have my Saturday mornings scheduled for Substack writing. Some weeks I like what I write, some weeks I don't feel like I got to where I wanted to end up. My following still is small and consists mostly of friends and hasn't really grown much since I started.
But! Just having the scheduled time to write something SOMEBODY will read has improved my overall mood and it gives me more of a sense of direction than Twitter did, where I just kind of let myself indulge in a momentary cleverness that never satisfied. So, while it would be nice to make more money off of Substack, it's already doing so much for my general well-being.
I just went paid yesterday. I told myself I wouldn't do it until I had a larger Subscriber list. Oh, the plans of mice and men. I did it because people want me to write stories about the mill I used to work in. I don't know why they like those stories more than the ones I want to write, but whatever. I thought, well, if you like them that much, show me. So I wrote a story about a friend I used to work with and put it up behind the paywall. I had a paywall up before, but I was unprepared. Several of my friends just bought subscriptions. I took it down and suspended payments because I didn't really have anything to offer them. So I decided to put my "mill" stories up there. I know all 7 subscribers personally, and felt comfortable telling them about my "storied" work past. I don't know if anyone will buy into it, but I've committed myself to it, so now I have to write funny stories about my work life.
π§ Not a question, but a special shout out to the Substack team!
Our publication, The Story Birds, completed two years in April, and our subscriber base, though small, is steadily growing. We would not have come this far without Substack's wonderful team who have been with us every step of the way. We really appreciate the fact that our needs as writers have always been taken into consideration. We look forward to every new feature that is made available, and enjoy using and experimenting with it.
Substackβs Tech Support has always been prompt to address all our queries, however small. This was of immense help, particularly in the initial months when we were familiarising ourselves with the platform. The workshops from the Marketing team and their tips on growing our subscriber base have also helped us increase our reach beyond our immediate friends and family circle. The small but growing community of story enthusiasts that we are building around our Substack is truly rewarding.
βοΈ - I feel like I tend to ramble a bit in my articles, and Iβve been wanting to try and make my writing more concise. What have you found to be the best ways to βcut out the fluffβ?
βοΈ - Iβve been wanting to use Notes to help grow my audience and expand my reach, but as a new person whoβs practically building an entire audience from Substack directly (moved from beehiiv with almost no audience), I havenβt found Notes to be particularly useful for me. Have you found success with Notes? Is there a particular format that works best for you? Or have you found that other methods work better than Notes for someone with no audience?
βοΈπ§ - What tips do you have for a writer who eventually wants to go paid while keeping most content free?
I am looking for guest writers to feature on The Books That Made Us, a community of bibliophiles and book lovers.
Every post is written by a different guest writer who discusses a βfoundational bookβ. A book that you read and reread and have thought about ever since. A book that shaped who you are today. A book that made you.
In 3 weeks since launch we have already garnered over 400 subscribers (and a 70% open rate) so itβs a great opportunity to get your writing in front of more eyeballs!
To start with the latest shiny toy in social, is anyone trying Threads, and finding it helping you attract new readers (and perhaps even paying subscribers) to your newsletter?
π§ After just three months on Substack, it's so refreshing to take part in a true "build it and they will come" ecosystem. By no fault of our own, so many of us have spent years trying to stage our work on numerous platforms that 1) never met our aesthetic tastes/needs and 2) offered no long-term support in sustaining our hard-earned audiences.
While some might dig through these comments looking for tips and tricks and "get rich quick" schemes, the great news is thatβas is the case in real lifeβshowing up with authentic, original, and soulful work is the only sure shot for finding your audience on Substack.
Good recognize good, and there are so many profoundly gifted folks on here. I've only discovered them because they float to the top, a unique feature in terms of discoverability in the social media era.
3 weeks ago I came back on my newsletter to see a huge number of new followers (welcome everyone!) I still have a single paid subscriber but Iβm close to the 200 free subs ! Hope to see everyone there !
I just launched my Substack todayβahhh! Nervous and excited to see what happens from here.
βοΈ My question is re: sections. What are common use cases for these? How did you determine whether to add sections or not? And how has that affected your subscriptions or engagement with readers?
π§ I just want to publicly declare July National Serialization Month.
1. Stay tuned for a great interview with E. Jean Carroll, Mary Trump, and Jenn Taub, the creators of the game-changing Substack serialization The Italian Lesson, which I had the honor of conducting for Substackβs podcast The Active Voice.
βοΈ - I am curious to know more about the subscriber referrals that was released recently. Have you turn it on? What kind of rewards do you offer? Has it helped you grow your audience?
βοΈ For anyone who's had a paid subscription program on Substack for more than a year, I wonder what your experience has been with renewals? I just passed the one-year mark, and one person initiated a chargeback, claiming that he'd asked to be taken off the list but was charged without permission.
I went and rewrote the automated renewal message that Substack sends out in my own words, but I wonder if I should be more proactive in contacting paid subscribers when their renewal comes up?
π§ For the Substack team: What do you feel is best practice here?
βοΈ I'm thinking about the possibility of creating a hub of special-interest substacks. I'm not sure how to do it and am wondering if anyone has already created such a thing?
I have written many articles and have from 50 to 90 subscribers but only 2 to 3 ever click a like button or write a comment. I suspect my readers are fearful of responding because my newsletter topics are politics and energy from a common sense, conservative perspective. I stopped posting for a while but tried again. About the same response. Not sure this is worth the time or effort.
π§ My weekly newsletter serves as a community newspaper for the Dallas suburb my family calls home. I have nearly 770 paid subscribers plus 1,140 free subscribers. My goal is 3,000 paid subscribers, because thatβs how many people voted the last time one of our city council elections went to a runoff; if you care enough to participate in a runoff election, I figure you ought to also care about my newsletterβs content.
Here are ways I've built my subscriber numbers that have nothing to do with other Substack newsletters:
β’ I'm always looking out for people on Facebook and Nextdoor who are asking questions about topics I've covered. When I find them, I provide a link to that coverage.
β’ I'm a paid sponsor of youth sports teams in my community.
β’ I'm a member of my community's chamber of commerce.
β’ I created a print edition of my newsletter that I passed out during my community's Fourth of July parade.
β’ I created promotional T-shirts via teepublic.com. In my next free edition (last edition of each month), I'm going to tell my subscribers that anybody who buys a T-shirt will get complimentary access to my paid content for one year.
Writing on Substack has really changed my life because itβs made me accountable and has helped organize my writing. I find social media anxious-making and donβt use any. Which means most of my subscribers have found me organically on Substack. I started four months ago and am growing slowly and steadily with an engaged audience.
π§ I think it would be great to be able to have more than three blurbs on the About page.
βοΈ I'm just wondering what other writers do. I rotate them (when I remember!) but I have been wondering about creating a separate blurbs page. Thoughts?
βοΈ Folks who have done pieces celebrating milestones:
I have my 100th post coming up soon! I want to make it something special for my readers, to peel back the layer of the onion and share my writing process, along with a little biographical info (like how I became interested enough to write about this stuff every day).
What sort of things should I be thinking about, given that I want to do something like this?
1. When I embed another Substack article within my post, sometimes I'm able to change it to Small/Medium/Large size and sometimes not. It's a great feature - any idea why it doesn't work sometimes?
2. I would absolutely love the possibility of making either post templates or separate email header/footer for different sections, or both. If either exists, I would also like to know about it. :)
π§ Hi Substack team. I'm interested in the new app feature on our (some?) profiles displaying subscriber numbers and the ability to click through to see the names of subscribers. I get that I want to do that for my subscribers, but am unsure about having individual subscribers visible to all. Could that be a toggle on-off feature? βοΈ What do other writers and subscribers think about it here?
Hey substack fam! I finally have something to be proud of, having resumed regular writing, even if it's something I can't publish. Feels so good getting things out of my head again.
Hope everyone is having a nice productive time β€οΈ
I just kinda started writing. Launched 3 months ago and building a bit of a following (here comes triple digits!).
I find myself crossing across intersections between mental health, productivity, fatherhood and a bit of business. All of these things encompassing me write now and feel right to write about, but how important is it to niche down?
Should I rebrand and go deep on mental health? Should I keep going and trust the process with minor tinkers?
Fellow writers are reaching out and I have some amazing collabs on the horizon, but I just want to make sure my spider web is set up to catch folks and have them subscribe once they land on my page.
For anyone who is either asking, or wondering silently (yes, I'm an introvert) about how to get more subscribers, I'd like to share my experience in the hopes that it will be useful. Caveat: both my Substack newsletters are currently free.
I started Kindness Magnet a couple of years ago. I shared it with my friends through email and Facebook. I subscribed to other writing that I enjoyed on Substack and engaged thoughtfully with those writers. They are wonderful people! I tried Twitter - for me it was a huge time suck. I know others like @Mike Sowden have had success. I participate in The Sample, which has brought me quite a few subscribers. I recommend other work on my own Substacks (so easy to use the Recommendation feature in Settings). I used to fret over subscribes and unsubscribes (cheer for one and slump in defeat for the other), but I've pretty much stopped doing that. I have a little over 700 subscribers on Kindness Magnet. My new Substack (After 21 Club) launched 2 weeks ago and has about 25 subscribers. I haven't shared it with friends or Facebook - still noodling around with content.
If it helps, I have found that, after about 500 subscribers, the publication seems to gain traction and subscribers.
I used to worry about what I wrote - would people like it, etc. I've stopped doing that and just write what about what I enjoy and what I enjoy exploring. I'm not an expert. But I enjoy sharing. As long as that's what floats my boat, I'll continue.
For those of you who are writing, I hope you will continue to share what you have to offer. π
βοΈ I've missed @S.E Reid's encouraging words normally posted during every Writers Office Hours. Does anyone know if she is okay, enjoying vacation, or whatever?
βοΈ How do you guys sift through these office hours without your head wanting to explode? π (It's kind of a half joke, and half directed at the structure of these office hours. Looking at you, Substack.) I just sift through from the top... I guess the icons help a bit too.
βοΈπ§ Hi stackers. Thx so much for these Thursday mornings. My question is about Notes. Is there an algorithm that prioritizes βcelebrityβ stackers as the first to pop up in my Notes or email notification of Notes? There are my favorite lesser known stackers who donβt show up. Thx!
βοΈ Hi, I have been a rather insecure member of Substack for a year, with a newsletter called Moments of Connection, for which I got good feedback but would then go months without posting. Battling the demons of doubt and all that. I'm so happy to be here, and want to take the next step in getting involved, sharing inspiration, staying positive and hey, starting a paid subscription! I would appreciate advice on how to reach people to announce it. It will be a memoir-based musing (hopefully sometimes amusing as well) on synchronicity, past lives, deja vu and the beauty of the unexplained... called "On the Road with Bob Dylan and Other Unsolved Mysteries".
π§ I've been on Substack for a month. As far as Google (and all the other search engines) are concerned, I don't exist. On Medium, Google would pick up my stories in a few days. Why is Substack completely invisible to search engines? This makes trying to build a community out there hopeless. Other Substack users say that Twitter also doesn't let Substack links work -- "Musk is jealous of Substack" -- but I haven't seen this. I've looked for several other new Substack accounts and Google doesn't find them either.
π§ - would it be possible to get βnext chapterβ βprevious chapterβ buttons for fiction writers? I find it very time consuming to link everything. Also an index would be cool!! π
I mentioned this on Notes but no one responded. This morning I have gotten two warnings in my browser when I try to go to Substack newsletters, saying that the site might be malicious or a phishing scam and it's warning me to be careful. Thought I'd let everyone know.
βοΈπ§ Substack has been a wonderful place for my mental health. It has allowed me to connect with a wider net of people than IRL. I have found readers who like to write, writers who like to read, and people who care about the state of literary arts, culture, and philosophy. As someone who often feels pretty awful about herself, working a minimum wage job that pays more than her writing, watching others succeed has given me hope that even if no one reads me, good people are being read and recognized. Does anyone else feel this way too?
I'm considering offering a 100% free newsletter while leaving a paid option open for folks to support my weekly output. In principle, this is more aligned with how I'd like to use Substack so I'm curious if anyone has found success with this model?
(little pencil) Who has used their Substack to get publication in print media (regional or national, newspapers or magazines)? How did you approach those editors? thanks, Ken
π§ Help other writers with comments that indicate you've actually read the piece, be concrete and share to Notes as a way to shout-out and help others. "Only connect..." is my mantra: shout-outs to @Jay Adler who writes ajadler whose depth and brilliance will hold you, @Eleanor Anstruther who writes under her name and bares her soul, @Sam Kahn who writes Castalia, @Joshua DoleΕΎal who writes The Recovering Academic, @Rebecca Holden who writes Dear Reader I'm Lost, @J.E. Peterson https://thedispatches.substack.com, @Plain Jane who writes theaustenconnection.substack.com,@ Mills Baker who is simply FAB, @W.V.Buluma who writes TheEditorialSection.substack.com, to Victoria K Walker who writes BeyondBloomsbury.substack.com that amazes and to @Alicia Kenworthy who writes Catalectic and has a writing voice to die for! Love, Mary
I've received 382 hits from Google in the past three months although I don't know why or for which specific posts. I've been active for 14 months. Maybe age of site has something to do with it?
π§ - Hello, Substack community! I'm still relatively new (double digit subscribers) and have two questions:
1. is there any chance NOTES can add a way to search/discover notes by topic?? This would add the possibility of new writers to be discovered based on the topic/quality of what we're writing (rather than relying on popularity)
2. And speaking of topics: can a few more subject categories be added? I'm writing about the intersection of creativity, empathy and sustainability, but there's no good "subject" at the moment for this. Seems like SUSTAINABILITY or ENVIRONMENT would be great categories (not just for me, and science is too broad)... or just a blanket WRITING?
π§ - How much does engagement from comments and likes impact discovery on the Substack network? Does it weigh more heavily compared to total number of subscribers?
To help organize the conversation, please use one of the following emojis when you start a new comment.
π§ - when sharing strategy or advice for fellow writers
βοΈ - when asking questions or seeking feedback from fellow writers
π§ - when asking a question you hope the Substack team can help answer
Use your emoji keyboard or simply copy and paste the emoji at the beginning of your comment.
I started writing on Substack 11 months ago. Iβve seen pretty solid growth with both free and paid (starting with 50 subscribers from
friends n family).
The best thing you can do as a new writer on Substack is:
1. Write quality, engaging material
2. Post regularly and consistently (I recommend 2-3 times per week but this is wildly variable; you want to hook peopleβs interest without exploding their email inbox)
3. Read other Substacks and comment on them; try to be courteous, thoughtful and positive.
4. Reach out to other writers who write similar material after youβve been writing a while and ask to cross-post, collaborate, etc.
5. Remember that Substack is a writing community; support others.
6. Attend Substack Office Hours
7. Read, subscribe, and pay for my Substack, Sincere American Writing. *(This is required.)
Michael Mohr
βSincere American Writingβ
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
π§ - A tip for battling imposter syndrome:
You know the oft-repeated bit of advice about "writing what you know"? It's wrong - or at least, it's highly misleading, and leads to a lot of misery and paralyzing self-doubt. What it seems to say (and pretty much everyone reads it this way) is "IF YOU'RE NOT A PROPER EXPERT, WHY ARE YOU EVEN TALKING, STEP AWAY, YOU TIMEWASTING LOUDMOUTH."
This leaves the door wide open to the kind of internal imposter syndrome that can have you staring at a flashing cursor for days - even weeks - as the fear of saying something wrong plays merry havoc with your nervous system.
So here's a better bit of advice: WRITE WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN.
There's good science on the power of doing this: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/how-to-be-brilliant/201206/the-protege-effect It will help you learn better, remember things better and be more creatively curious. But it will *also* protect you from imposter syndrome, because it's admitting that you may get stuff wrong as you go along. Because of course you will. You're a student!
(The trick is to be open to being corrected - which is a great way to build trust and engagement in readers, because if they see you're humble enough to be publicly corrected and own up to your mistakes, they will consider your voice a credible presence in their Inboxes.
**Personal case study: I write a newsletter about the science of curiosity - and I'm not a scientist or science journalist, so sometimes I get things a bit wrong. And when I'm corrected by readers - which, to date, has *always* been respectfully - then I issue a mea culpa, correct the online version of the newsletter, and thank the person who was kind enough to steer me in the right direction. Every single time I do this, I get emails from readers telling me they trust me even more, and I even get a few paid signups. Every time.**
The other thing about this is - it lets you invite your readers on a journey with you. A journey of learning. You're guiding them, but you're learning alongside them. That is a *really compelling* value proposition in a newsletter.
So: write what you want to learn, whether it's something you already know something about, or it's something you're learning from scratch. You don't need to be a world authority. No student ever is. You just need to share the excitement of learning something you're both interested in.
Try it!
βοΈπ§ - I have the impression that 70% of people using Substack (reading, posting Notes, etc.) are writers themselves, looking to find their own tribe. Could this be accurate? As a writer of fiction (mainly), I'd like to get access to readers who primarily read, not write themselves too. Or is this an irrelevant distinction? What do you think?
π§ My tip o the day for writers: re-runs are your friend!! Reruns are posts you posted a year ago that only 13 people saw. Repost em and now all your new subscribers can read them! And don't even make a big deal of it, no explanation, nothing, just repost!
Any of your readers that matter won't care and anyone that cares doesn't matter.
π§ As my newsletter has grown more established, I've been looking forward to adding reader blurbs to my welcome page. After 6 months I'm starting to get enough feedback to make this appropriate.
I was surprised to find that only other Substack writers can submit "blurbs" for the welcome page. While it's a nice endorsement to have a blurb from other writers, it really seems appropriate to accept blurbs from *readers*. My primary audience is readers, not Substack writers, and I'm guessing this isn't unusual.
Here's a brief example of the kind of reader feedback I want to post on my welcome page: "Your content is excellent. I'm a senior developer who never took the time to get a grip on Python, especially for data science. Your content has really motivated me and empowered me to think clearly about fundamentals and how to learn."
I understand you don't want to let writers just copy paste blurbs like this, because you'd have no way of knowing if the blurbs are authentic. But could you consider building a page where we could send readers who want to leave a recommendation for a newsletter? This seems like a really great way to capture the kind of feedback that would help new readers decide if they want to subscribe, or at least look more closely at a newsletter.
I recently posted a Note about growing from 12-292 readers and the comments and curious questions from other readers were fantastic.
Sharing a link below in case anyone else is feeling stuck.
https://substack.com/@amandabhinton/note/c-18437031?r=4i32v&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
π§ I use Substack largely as an exercise in developing the skill of not focusing on outcomes, either in terms of quality or engagement. I have my Saturday mornings scheduled for Substack writing. Some weeks I like what I write, some weeks I don't feel like I got to where I wanted to end up. My following still is small and consists mostly of friends and hasn't really grown much since I started.
But! Just having the scheduled time to write something SOMEBODY will read has improved my overall mood and it gives me more of a sense of direction than Twitter did, where I just kind of let myself indulge in a momentary cleverness that never satisfied. So, while it would be nice to make more money off of Substack, it's already doing so much for my general well-being.
I just went paid yesterday. I told myself I wouldn't do it until I had a larger Subscriber list. Oh, the plans of mice and men. I did it because people want me to write stories about the mill I used to work in. I don't know why they like those stories more than the ones I want to write, but whatever. I thought, well, if you like them that much, show me. So I wrote a story about a friend I used to work with and put it up behind the paywall. I had a paywall up before, but I was unprepared. Several of my friends just bought subscriptions. I took it down and suspended payments because I didn't really have anything to offer them. So I decided to put my "mill" stories up there. I know all 7 subscribers personally, and felt comfortable telling them about my "storied" work past. I don't know if anyone will buy into it, but I've committed myself to it, so now I have to write funny stories about my work life.
π§ Not a question, but a special shout out to the Substack team!
Our publication, The Story Birds, completed two years in April, and our subscriber base, though small, is steadily growing. We would not have come this far without Substack's wonderful team who have been with us every step of the way. We really appreciate the fact that our needs as writers have always been taken into consideration. We look forward to every new feature that is made available, and enjoy using and experimenting with it.
Substackβs Tech Support has always been prompt to address all our queries, however small. This was of immense help, particularly in the initial months when we were familiarising ourselves with the platform. The workshops from the Marketing team and their tips on growing our subscriber base have also helped us increase our reach beyond our immediate friends and family circle. The small but growing community of story enthusiasts that we are building around our Substack is truly rewarding.
So, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you!
Rohini and Shaiontoni (The Story Birds team)
βοΈ - I feel like I tend to ramble a bit in my articles, and Iβve been wanting to try and make my writing more concise. What have you found to be the best ways to βcut out the fluffβ?
βοΈ - Iβve been wanting to use Notes to help grow my audience and expand my reach, but as a new person whoβs practically building an entire audience from Substack directly (moved from beehiiv with almost no audience), I havenβt found Notes to be particularly useful for me. Have you found success with Notes? Is there a particular format that works best for you? Or have you found that other methods work better than Notes for someone with no audience?
βοΈπ§ - What tips do you have for a writer who eventually wants to go paid while keeping most content free?
βοΈ My fellow Substack writers!
I am looking for guest writers to feature on The Books That Made Us, a community of bibliophiles and book lovers.
Every post is written by a different guest writer who discusses a βfoundational bookβ. A book that you read and reread and have thought about ever since. A book that shaped who you are today. A book that made you.
In 3 weeks since launch we have already garnered over 400 subscribers (and a 70% open rate) so itβs a great opportunity to get your writing in front of more eyeballs!
Details about how to write for us here:
https://booksthatmadeus.substack.com/p/write-for-us
To start with the latest shiny toy in social, is anyone trying Threads, and finding it helping you attract new readers (and perhaps even paying subscribers) to your newsletter?
π§ After just three months on Substack, it's so refreshing to take part in a true "build it and they will come" ecosystem. By no fault of our own, so many of us have spent years trying to stage our work on numerous platforms that 1) never met our aesthetic tastes/needs and 2) offered no long-term support in sustaining our hard-earned audiences.
While some might dig through these comments looking for tips and tricks and "get rich quick" schemes, the great news is thatβas is the case in real lifeβshowing up with authentic, original, and soulful work is the only sure shot for finding your audience on Substack.
Good recognize good, and there are so many profoundly gifted folks on here. I've only discovered them because they float to the top, a unique feature in terms of discoverability in the social media era.
βοΈ Quick question...,
HOW ON GODβS HOLY HOLLOW EARTH DO I GET PEOPLE TO READ MY STUFF???
Like, I have around 20 subs, but I want people to recognize my writing more.
Hope someone, anyone, can help. Thanks.
Hey π
3 weeks ago I came back on my newsletter to see a huge number of new followers (welcome everyone!) I still have a single paid subscriber but Iβm close to the 200 free subs ! Hope to see everyone there !
I just launched my Substack todayβahhh! Nervous and excited to see what happens from here.
βοΈ My question is re: sections. What are common use cases for these? How did you determine whether to add sections or not? And how has that affected your subscriptions or engagement with readers?
π§ I just want to publicly declare July National Serialization Month.
1. Stay tuned for a great interview with E. Jean Carroll, Mary Trump, and Jenn Taub, the creators of the game-changing Substack serialization The Italian Lesson, which I had the honor of conducting for Substackβs podcast The Active Voice.
Read the romance novel here: https://www.backstoryserial.com/
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2. Upcoming βSerialize Your Novel with Artistry and (Yes) Easeβ workshop at Writers at Work.
Find out more here: https://www.writersatwork.net/p/serialize-your-novel-or-memoir-on
Happy National Serialization Month!π§
βοΈ - I am curious to know more about the subscriber referrals that was released recently. Have you turn it on? What kind of rewards do you offer? Has it helped you grow your audience?
βοΈ For anyone who's had a paid subscription program on Substack for more than a year, I wonder what your experience has been with renewals? I just passed the one-year mark, and one person initiated a chargeback, claiming that he'd asked to be taken off the list but was charged without permission.
I went and rewrote the automated renewal message that Substack sends out in my own words, but I wonder if I should be more proactive in contacting paid subscribers when their renewal comes up?
π§ For the Substack team: What do you feel is best practice here?
βοΈ I'm thinking about the possibility of creating a hub of special-interest substacks. I'm not sure how to do it and am wondering if anyone has already created such a thing?
I have written many articles and have from 50 to 90 subscribers but only 2 to 3 ever click a like button or write a comment. I suspect my readers are fearful of responding because my newsletter topics are politics and energy from a common sense, conservative perspective. I stopped posting for a while but tried again. About the same response. Not sure this is worth the time or effort.
π§ My weekly newsletter serves as a community newspaper for the Dallas suburb my family calls home. I have nearly 770 paid subscribers plus 1,140 free subscribers. My goal is 3,000 paid subscribers, because thatβs how many people voted the last time one of our city council elections went to a runoff; if you care enough to participate in a runoff election, I figure you ought to also care about my newsletterβs content.
Here are ways I've built my subscriber numbers that have nothing to do with other Substack newsletters:
β’ I'm always looking out for people on Facebook and Nextdoor who are asking questions about topics I've covered. When I find them, I provide a link to that coverage.
β’ I'm a paid sponsor of youth sports teams in my community.
β’ I'm a member of my community's chamber of commerce.
β’ I created a print edition of my newsletter that I passed out during my community's Fourth of July parade.
β’ I created promotional T-shirts via teepublic.com. In my next free edition (last edition of each month), I'm going to tell my subscribers that anybody who buys a T-shirt will get complimentary access to my paid content for one year.
Writing on Substack has really changed my life because itβs made me accountable and has helped organize my writing. I find social media anxious-making and donβt use any. Which means most of my subscribers have found me organically on Substack. I started four months ago and am growing slowly and steadily with an engaged audience.
Canβt ask for more! Thank you!
π§ I think it would be great to be able to have more than three blurbs on the About page.
βοΈ I'm just wondering what other writers do. I rotate them (when I remember!) but I have been wondering about creating a separate blurbs page. Thoughts?
βοΈ Folks who have done pieces celebrating milestones:
I have my 100th post coming up soon! I want to make it something special for my readers, to peel back the layer of the onion and share my writing process, along with a little biographical info (like how I became interested enough to write about this stuff every day).
What sort of things should I be thinking about, given that I want to do something like this?
Much appreciated, brain trust!
Hi! 2 format questions / suggestions
1. When I embed another Substack article within my post, sometimes I'm able to change it to Small/Medium/Large size and sometimes not. It's a great feature - any idea why it doesn't work sometimes?
2. I would absolutely love the possibility of making either post templates or separate email header/footer for different sections, or both. If either exists, I would also like to know about it. :)
Thanks a lot!
π§ - Hi folks! I wanted to ask if there are any benchmarks we need to reach for being considered a featured publication and/or verified? Thank you!
π§ Hi Substack team. I'm interested in the new app feature on our (some?) profiles displaying subscriber numbers and the ability to click through to see the names of subscribers. I get that I want to do that for my subscribers, but am unsure about having individual subscribers visible to all. Could that be a toggle on-off feature? βοΈ What do other writers and subscribers think about it here?
Hey substack fam! I finally have something to be proud of, having resumed regular writing, even if it's something I can't publish. Feels so good getting things out of my head again.
Hope everyone is having a nice productive time β€οΈ
βοΈ - looking for feedback on my niche
I just kinda started writing. Launched 3 months ago and building a bit of a following (here comes triple digits!).
I find myself crossing across intersections between mental health, productivity, fatherhood and a bit of business. All of these things encompassing me write now and feel right to write about, but how important is it to niche down?
Should I rebrand and go deep on mental health? Should I keep going and trust the process with minor tinkers?
Fellow writers are reaching out and I have some amazing collabs on the horizon, but I just want to make sure my spider web is set up to catch folks and have them subscribe once they land on my page.
π§ ON GETTING MORE SUBSCRIBERS:
For anyone who is either asking, or wondering silently (yes, I'm an introvert) about how to get more subscribers, I'd like to share my experience in the hopes that it will be useful. Caveat: both my Substack newsletters are currently free.
I started Kindness Magnet a couple of years ago. I shared it with my friends through email and Facebook. I subscribed to other writing that I enjoyed on Substack and engaged thoughtfully with those writers. They are wonderful people! I tried Twitter - for me it was a huge time suck. I know others like @Mike Sowden have had success. I participate in The Sample, which has brought me quite a few subscribers. I recommend other work on my own Substacks (so easy to use the Recommendation feature in Settings). I used to fret over subscribes and unsubscribes (cheer for one and slump in defeat for the other), but I've pretty much stopped doing that. I have a little over 700 subscribers on Kindness Magnet. My new Substack (After 21 Club) launched 2 weeks ago and has about 25 subscribers. I haven't shared it with friends or Facebook - still noodling around with content.
If it helps, I have found that, after about 500 subscribers, the publication seems to gain traction and subscribers.
I used to worry about what I wrote - would people like it, etc. I've stopped doing that and just write what about what I enjoy and what I enjoy exploring. I'm not an expert. But I enjoy sharing. As long as that's what floats my boat, I'll continue.
For those of you who are writing, I hope you will continue to share what you have to offer. π
βοΈ I've missed @S.E Reid's encouraging words normally posted during every Writers Office Hours. Does anyone know if she is okay, enjoying vacation, or whatever?
βοΈ How do you guys sift through these office hours without your head wanting to explode? π (It's kind of a half joke, and half directed at the structure of these office hours. Looking at you, Substack.) I just sift through from the top... I guess the icons help a bit too.
βοΈπ§ Hi stackers. Thx so much for these Thursday mornings. My question is about Notes. Is there an algorithm that prioritizes βcelebrityβ stackers as the first to pop up in my Notes or email notification of Notes? There are my favorite lesser known stackers who donβt show up. Thx!
βοΈ Hi, I have been a rather insecure member of Substack for a year, with a newsletter called Moments of Connection, for which I got good feedback but would then go months without posting. Battling the demons of doubt and all that. I'm so happy to be here, and want to take the next step in getting involved, sharing inspiration, staying positive and hey, starting a paid subscription! I would appreciate advice on how to reach people to announce it. It will be a memoir-based musing (hopefully sometimes amusing as well) on synchronicity, past lives, deja vu and the beauty of the unexplained... called "On the Road with Bob Dylan and Other Unsolved Mysteries".
π§
Here is what has worked for me regarding growth.
Recommendations-100 percent
Notes-Not so much.
Cross promotion-Hit or miss
Marketing outside of Substack-100 percent.
π§ I've been on Substack for a month. As far as Google (and all the other search engines) are concerned, I don't exist. On Medium, Google would pick up my stories in a few days. Why is Substack completely invisible to search engines? This makes trying to build a community out there hopeless. Other Substack users say that Twitter also doesn't let Substack links work -- "Musk is jealous of Substack" -- but I haven't seen this. I've looked for several other new Substack accounts and Google doesn't find them either.
π§ - would it be possible to get βnext chapterβ βprevious chapterβ buttons for fiction writers? I find it very time consuming to link everything. Also an index would be cool!! π
Why is Youtube the only supported platform for embedding videos in articles? I'd like to be able to embed Odysee or Rumble videos also.
On Medium, I'm able to embed Odysee videos by copy/pasting the URLs.
Otherwise, I'm very happy with Substack and pleased that I've got about 10% of my readers supporting me.
I mentioned this on Notes but no one responded. This morning I have gotten two warnings in my browser when I try to go to Substack newsletters, saying that the site might be malicious or a phishing scam and it's warning me to be careful. Thought I'd let everyone know.
Yooooooo Substack.
βοΈπ§ Substack has been a wonderful place for my mental health. It has allowed me to connect with a wider net of people than IRL. I have found readers who like to write, writers who like to read, and people who care about the state of literary arts, culture, and philosophy. As someone who often feels pretty awful about herself, working a minimum wage job that pays more than her writing, watching others succeed has given me hope that even if no one reads me, good people are being read and recognized. Does anyone else feel this way too?
βοΈ Seeking feedback re: paid tier.
I'm considering offering a 100% free newsletter while leaving a paid option open for folks to support my weekly output. In principle, this is more aligned with how I'd like to use Substack so I'm curious if anyone has found success with this model?
How on earth has this thread been live for 10 minutes and thereβs already nearly 400 comments?
(little pencil) Who has used their Substack to get publication in print media (regional or national, newspapers or magazines)? How did you approach those editors? thanks, Ken
π§ Help other writers with comments that indicate you've actually read the piece, be concrete and share to Notes as a way to shout-out and help others. "Only connect..." is my mantra: shout-outs to @Jay Adler who writes ajadler whose depth and brilliance will hold you, @Eleanor Anstruther who writes under her name and bares her soul, @Sam Kahn who writes Castalia, @Joshua DoleΕΎal who writes The Recovering Academic, @Rebecca Holden who writes Dear Reader I'm Lost, @J.E. Peterson https://thedispatches.substack.com, @Plain Jane who writes theaustenconnection.substack.com,@ Mills Baker who is simply FAB, @W.V.Buluma who writes TheEditorialSection.substack.com, to Victoria K Walker who writes BeyondBloomsbury.substack.com that amazes and to @Alicia Kenworthy who writes Catalectic and has a writing voice to die for! Love, Mary
I've received 382 hits from Google in the past three months although I don't know why or for which specific posts. I've been active for 14 months. Maybe age of site has something to do with it?
π§ - Hello, Substack community! I'm still relatively new (double digit subscribers) and have two questions:
1. is there any chance NOTES can add a way to search/discover notes by topic?? This would add the possibility of new writers to be discovered based on the topic/quality of what we're writing (rather than relying on popularity)
2. And speaking of topics: can a few more subject categories be added? I'm writing about the intersection of creativity, empathy and sustainability, but there's no good "subject" at the moment for this. Seems like SUSTAINABILITY or ENVIRONMENT would be great categories (not just for me, and science is too broad)... or just a blanket WRITING?
Thank you!
π§ - How much does engagement from comments and likes impact discovery on the Substack network? Does it weigh more heavily compared to total number of subscribers?