Have questions about publishing, growing, or going paid on Substack?
The Substack team, and your fellow writers, are here to help! Our team will answer questions and share insights with you in the comments 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.
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General Thread
Do you have questions about a Substack feature or want help strategizing how to best set up your publication? Drop any general questions in the discussion thread by commenting on this post, and we’ll do our best to share knowledge and tips.
Podcasting Podcasting on Substack is unique: it creates a two-way conversation that lends itself to publishers who favor cultivating loyal and dedicated audiences. To make podcasting even easier, we’ve just added transcripts and audiogram clip sharing to the podcasting toolkit. Today we’ll answer questions on how to get started if you are tinkering with podcasts or how to bring over a podcast you distribute elsewhere, plus anything else on your mind. Join the conversation.
🟧 ✏️ How do you keep writing week in and week out, even when it feels like you have nothing left in the tank? I hit walls of writer's block and dissatisfaction with my work more often now that significantly impedes my progress. This leads to me having multiple projects I jump between, none of which get finished and the projects continue to grow.
🟧 I’ve got my payments available and people can support my publication voluntarily. Yet in stats I don’t see them as paid nor do I get any bank transfers. Why js that?
I have a question I hope someone can help me with! When you record a voice over for a post, there's an option to add it to RSS feed and the fine print says that this will make it searchable in podcast platforms or something to that extent. Where does it get sent to??? Is my voice randomly telling stories in a platform I don't know about? Haha
Hi there. Substack Support ? (I hope.) My request: I do NOT want to make any money from Substack, but I DO want Substack Inc to put a new button feature wherein readers can donate DIRECTLY TO Substack (the company), whether one-time or recurring, simply to support its platform and website. If you decide to add this feature, please somehow let me know. Thank you.
🟧 I have seen “subscribe” written next to the names of people who leave comments on other substack posts. How does that happen as I would like to add that feature when I make a comment.
🟧 I eventually want to publish the audio for my articles on Apple, etc. Do you suggest including the audio along with your written posts or posting them separately through podcasts?
Also, can you post podcasts without emailing your subscribers I'll soon be adding audio for past articles and want to avoid sending out 10 separate emails.
Does Substack automatically eliminate email addresses with bounces or failed deliveries? That would explain why in the last few days, my # subscribers does not coincide with [# of previous day subscribers] + [# new subscribers] - [# of disabled emails]. Thx!
My ongoing contretemps with Substack's AI---thought resolved---continues. A subscription billing which I attempted to get moved from the last day of the month has met AI indifference meets lack of logic. Rather than doing the expeditious thing of moving the billing date, the "creature" has insisted on my intentions being to cancel my subscription. This was something I repeatedly reiterated as not being my intention whatsoever.
🟧 - I have edited my very first post 1 zillion times. It emails correctly and views correctly. HOWEVER, when I look at it in the column of posts, the byline has never changed, even after the 1 zillion edits to fix it. Is there a lag time with your server?
I have been writing everyday (and transferring my posts from elsewhere on the 'net) since last week. I have over 30 posts.
However, today, I discovered "Publishing." It doesn't have any of my posts and no stats. How is "publishing" DIFFERENT from writing and either emailing subscribers and/or posting directly "to the web"? Also, how would I transfer my 30+ posts over to "Publishing"? In other words, I now see something, "________'s Substack" with zero content. But I also see the title, a list of posts and a DIFFERENT dashboard. SUPER CONFUSING. Thanks in advance, for your input.
Re email lists. I would like to have names associated with the email addresses. Also, I would like to put these in groups or to be able to filter them. Can I do that?
✏️Can ANYONE tell me how to give someone a link to subscribe to my founding member plan? It's my first! And I can't figure out how the heck to make this work! Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaasssssseeeee????? THANK YOU!
✏️ 🟧 I currently have a Substack in English, but I am bilingual, and I would like to provide a translated version in German too. My question is: is it better to put the German translations as a separate section within the same Substack, or would it be better to create a new, separate Substack? I can imagine arguments for both sides. It seems that for me it would be easier to have one Substack to manage, but for the readers it might be confusing to have to subscribe (and for the existing readers to UNsubscribe) from a particular language version. What do you think? -- Thanks!
🟧 ✏️ Is there any upper limit for free-of-cost data-storage available to each creator account? It's unclear if we have to pay for the online storage if our posted media exceeds certain data limit. Please clarify.
✏️ Hi all, can anyone tell me how to create new "tabs" across the top, so in addition to the default Home, Notes, Archives and About? I tried Pages but couldn't get it to work. Thanks in advance!
✏️I have a question about my writings. How do I get people to read them or better yet, how does this site work? I’m a writer who was invited to this platform by another writer who has a publication but I don’t know how to navigate the site and I don’t comprehend how it works so I have a hard time visiting the page.
🟧I'm sorry I couldn't link up at the time suggested. However, I have the following questions:
1) About the Substack features. I noticed that whenever I write a new post and have to fill the space provided for tags with keywords, the words disappear. Why is that so?
2) It appears I have two Substack accounts with the following names: Pedroodubayothompson.substack.com and revayo36.substack.com; what do I do to combine both accounts and use "Writers Wonderland" as my new account name. It would be wonderful if I could be helped with, thank you in advance.
3) The least not the last, I really need to grow big time and reach my goal of going paid. Thanks once again and looking forward to hearing from you.
✏️ 🟧 Hello! A technical question please. Can anyone tell me how to turn off the predictive text? I find its suggestions so distracting! And I am appreciating this growth discussion, thank you.
It was a joy to converse with Peter Wang on his Work in Progress podcast.
Sixty minutes felt like five; we could have gone on for hours.
St. John Paul II once said, “The worst prison is a closed heart.” I opened my heart during this far-too-short conversation and hope that you open yours when listening to my words.
I leave you with Peter’s exceptionally kind introduction:
“Live and live well, for someday you will be needed by somebody…[after all, your] life is not about you. Your life is about others."
In the latest Work In Progress podcast episode, Thomas J. White IV shares profound wisdom on how he embraced the curse and the gift of Tourette, the purpose of his life, and how hardships lead to true vulnerability and dignity.
Tom writes a thoughtful newsletter called White Noise, consults (thinking-as-a-service as he puts it), and invests across asset classes.
A few nuggets of wisdom from our conversation:
1. On celebrating life: “Embrace the life that you lead. Let your talk be heard. And remember, each word is a celebration and hope.”
2. On gratitude: “'A grateful heart hath a continual feast.' Gratitude is the only way to treat the wonder and the joy that we all take for granted on a daily basis.”
3. On hardship and vulnerability: "Hardship leads to vulnerability, which leads to connection, which leads to conversation, which leads to camaraderie, which leads to dignity."
Ever get confused when you approach a door, especially if someone of the opposite sex is waiting along side you to walk through? Women 's role in our society,our laws are out of touch...women are weight lifters,police,football players,boxers,many aren't sraying in the kitchen baking cookeis..High time our laws evolved to reflect that. Never hit a woman if you're a man? How many beatings are you supposed to endure?
✏️ Howdy. Fairly new to Substack… Wondering if it's possible to load an article or piece on my page without "publishing" it? Meaning, without sending it to my subscribers? Thanks for your help. 🙏🏼 Raf
✏️ 1. What are everyone’s favorite climate newsletters? I’m partial to Emily Atkin’s Heated and Bill McKibben’s The Crucial Years, and glad that Katherine Hayhoe is now on Substack, but interested in learning about others, particularly lesser known authors.
🟧 I recently joined Substack and have been gaining followers (yay). I an receiving notes from paid subscribers that show up on my dashboard. How might I reply to them most easily? I just noticed them through my desktop but don’t see them anywhere on the app. (Boo) thanks in advance.
I’m blogging on Wordpress (since December 2015) and have decided to move to Substack for several reasons (accessibility, fond and graphics issues with an ageing MacBook)
Subtrack, why don't you respond to followers? This appears to be the only way to get word to you about a problem with your system. Seriously, I experienced a problem with your system, which when I tried to report it to you, I received only a machine response. I am a longtime follower and subscriber to Heather Cox Richardson's Letters to America. I went to comment on a post of hers but was told I had to subscribe to do so. I went to the site to subscribe again and did so. However, while I was doing so, I received a message, telling me there was an error in your system, as it had found that I was subscribed already. As a result, it appears I was required to pay again, due to an error in your system. Having already been a subscriber, I do not care to subscribe twice, nor to pay a second time for what I was subscribed. Please correct your system’s error, refund my payment, and confirm my continuing subscription. You may also want to correct the bug in your system. I look forward to your "non-machine" response, please. Thank you.
🟧 hi, I am totally new to this. Literally just signed up. I want to give my Substack a name, so it's not just 'myname' at Substack. however, I'm not yet sure what that name should be. 1. how do I change it, and 2. does it look bad to "rebrand" later down the line?
✏️ 🟧 - how do you integrate Substack subscribers with other email platforms? I love that Substack has an email builder, but I would also like the option to communicate with Subs in a private setting (like an email list) and not manage multiple lists. Constantly exporting and scrubbing lists is not ideal and it looks like Zapier doesn't connect.
Long time blogger but new to Substack. I also have an outside podcast. Other than linking, is there a way to embed? I’m still trying to find my way around
To help organize the conversation, please use one of the following emojis when you start a new comment.
🧠 - when sharing strategy or advice for fellow writers
✏️ - when asking questions or seeking feedback from fellow writers
🟧 - 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 am not on instagram, Facebook or twitter. How can I Use substack with just talking to my self?
🟧 ✏️ How do you keep writing week in and week out, even when it feels like you have nothing left in the tank? I hit walls of writer's block and dissatisfaction with my work more often now that significantly impedes my progress. This leads to me having multiple projects I jump between, none of which get finished and the projects continue to grow.
@northseafanclub witty, weekly stories about swimming in the North Sea
🟧 I’ve got my payments available and people can support my publication voluntarily. Yet in stats I don’t see them as paid nor do I get any bank transfers. Why js that?
I have a question I hope someone can help me with! When you record a voice over for a post, there's an option to add it to RSS feed and the fine print says that this will make it searchable in podcast platforms or something to that extent. Where does it get sent to??? Is my voice randomly telling stories in a platform I don't know about? Haha
Hi there. Substack Support ? (I hope.) My request: I do NOT want to make any money from Substack, but I DO want Substack Inc to put a new button feature wherein readers can donate DIRECTLY TO Substack (the company), whether one-time or recurring, simply to support its platform and website. If you decide to add this feature, please somehow let me know. Thank you.
🟧 I have seen “subscribe” written next to the names of people who leave comments on other substack posts. How does that happen as I would like to add that feature when I make a comment.
🟧 Hi, what's the URL for today's OH please? The link in the email sends me here, not to the latest one. Thanks
🟧 I eventually want to publish the audio for my articles on Apple, etc. Do you suggest including the audio along with your written posts or posting them separately through podcasts?
Also, can you post podcasts without emailing your subscribers I'll soon be adding audio for past articles and want to avoid sending out 10 separate emails.
🟧 The images for the articles I post are cropped on the home page. How do I avoid that so the entire image is shown?
Does Substack automatically eliminate email addresses with bounces or failed deliveries? That would explain why in the last few days, my # subscribers does not coincide with [# of previous day subscribers] + [# new subscribers] - [# of disabled emails]. Thx!
My ongoing contretemps with Substack's AI---thought resolved---continues. A subscription billing which I attempted to get moved from the last day of the month has met AI indifference meets lack of logic. Rather than doing the expeditious thing of moving the billing date, the "creature" has insisted on my intentions being to cancel my subscription. This was something I repeatedly reiterated as not being my intention whatsoever.
My screaming into the void is fruitless.
You guys are too hard to use!
🟧 - I have edited my very first post 1 zillion times. It emails correctly and views correctly. HOWEVER, when I look at it in the column of posts, the byline has never changed, even after the 1 zillion edits to fix it. Is there a lag time with your server?
✏️ - Greetings -
I have been writing everyday (and transferring my posts from elsewhere on the 'net) since last week. I have over 30 posts.
However, today, I discovered "Publishing." It doesn't have any of my posts and no stats. How is "publishing" DIFFERENT from writing and either emailing subscribers and/or posting directly "to the web"? Also, how would I transfer my 30+ posts over to "Publishing"? In other words, I now see something, "________'s Substack" with zero content. But I also see the title, a list of posts and a DIFFERENT dashboard. SUPER CONFUSING. Thanks in advance, for your input.
Re email lists. I would like to have names associated with the email addresses. Also, I would like to put these in groups or to be able to filter them. Can I do that?
✏️Can ANYONE tell me how to give someone a link to subscribe to my founding member plan? It's my first! And I can't figure out how the heck to make this work! Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaasssssseeeee????? THANK YOU!
I am wondering how it is that I think I post a note, but then it doesn't show up in the postings sent to me?
✏️ 🟧 I currently have a Substack in English, but I am bilingual, and I would like to provide a translated version in German too. My question is: is it better to put the German translations as a separate section within the same Substack, or would it be better to create a new, separate Substack? I can imagine arguments for both sides. It seems that for me it would be easier to have one Substack to manage, but for the readers it might be confusing to have to subscribe (and for the existing readers to UNsubscribe) from a particular language version. What do you think? -- Thanks!
Something really fun
Hi I’m a published author via Amazon and I would like to know how to use Substack to this end
Thank You
How do keep my post emails from landing in Promotions, where they languish unheeded?
🟧 ✏️ Is there any upper limit for free-of-cost data-storage available to each creator account? It's unclear if we have to pay for the online storage if our posted media exceeds certain data limit. Please clarify.
Agree
✏️ Hi all, can anyone tell me how to create new "tabs" across the top, so in addition to the default Home, Notes, Archives and About? I tried Pages but couldn't get it to work. Thanks in advance!
Sorry, I missed it, I have find it today on Sept. 3rd. Is it going to be another meeting any soon ??
What is the cost of “Paid” ???
Thx,
Virginia Adams
✏️I have a question about my writings. How do I get people to read them or better yet, how does this site work? I’m a writer who was invited to this platform by another writer who has a publication but I don’t know how to navigate the site and I don’t comprehend how it works so I have a hard time visiting the page.
I would like to suport you, but it is difficile because I don't see well. I wish you good luck "et bon courage!
Connie Bygdnes
🟧I'm sorry I couldn't link up at the time suggested. However, I have the following questions:
1) About the Substack features. I noticed that whenever I write a new post and have to fill the space provided for tags with keywords, the words disappear. Why is that so?
2) It appears I have two Substack accounts with the following names: Pedroodubayothompson.substack.com and revayo36.substack.com; what do I do to combine both accounts and use "Writers Wonderland" as my new account name. It would be wonderful if I could be helped with, thank you in advance.
3) The least not the last, I really need to grow big time and reach my goal of going paid. Thanks once again and looking forward to hearing from you.
Pedro Odubayo Thompson
✏️ 🟧 Hello! A technical question please. Can anyone tell me how to turn off the predictive text? I find its suggestions so distracting! And I am appreciating this growth discussion, thank you.
Thank you very much. Please explain about RSS feeds
It was a joy to converse with Peter Wang on his Work in Progress podcast.
Sixty minutes felt like five; we could have gone on for hours.
St. John Paul II once said, “The worst prison is a closed heart.” I opened my heart during this far-too-short conversation and hope that you open yours when listening to my words.
I leave you with Peter’s exceptionally kind introduction:
“Live and live well, for someday you will be needed by somebody…[after all, your] life is not about you. Your life is about others."
In the latest Work In Progress podcast episode, Thomas J. White IV shares profound wisdom on how he embraced the curse and the gift of Tourette, the purpose of his life, and how hardships lead to true vulnerability and dignity.
Tom writes a thoughtful newsletter called White Noise, consults (thinking-as-a-service as he puts it), and invests across asset classes.
A few nuggets of wisdom from our conversation:
1. On celebrating life: “Embrace the life that you lead. Let your talk be heard. And remember, each word is a celebration and hope.”
2. On gratitude: “'A grateful heart hath a continual feast.' Gratitude is the only way to treat the wonder and the joy that we all take for granted on a daily basis.”
3. On hardship and vulnerability: "Hardship leads to vulnerability, which leads to connection, which leads to conversation, which leads to camaraderie, which leads to dignity."
More here: https://www.whitenoise.email/p/appearing-on-the-work-in-progress
Ever get confused when you approach a door, especially if someone of the opposite sex is waiting along side you to walk through? Women 's role in our society,our laws are out of touch...women are weight lifters,police,football players,boxers,many aren't sraying in the kitchen baking cookeis..High time our laws evolved to reflect that. Never hit a woman if you're a man? How many beatings are you supposed to endure?
Okay
✏️ Howdy. Fairly new to Substack… Wondering if it's possible to load an article or piece on my page without "publishing" it? Meaning, without sending it to my subscribers? Thanks for your help. 🙏🏼 Raf
✏️ 1. What are everyone’s favorite climate newsletters? I’m partial to Emily Atkin’s Heated and Bill McKibben’s The Crucial Years, and glad that Katherine Hayhoe is now on Substack, but interested in learning about others, particularly lesser known authors.
✏️ 2. Any way to search these comments?
🟧 I recently joined Substack and have been gaining followers (yay). I an receiving notes from paid subscribers that show up on my dashboard. How might I reply to them most easily? I just noticed them through my desktop but don’t see them anywhere on the app. (Boo) thanks in advance.
✏️- how do I become famous off of indie publishing my novel(s)?
Technical question:
I’m blogging on Wordpress (since December 2015) and have decided to move to Substack for several reasons (accessibility, fond and graphics issues with an ageing MacBook)
Subtrack, why don't you respond to followers? This appears to be the only way to get word to you about a problem with your system. Seriously, I experienced a problem with your system, which when I tried to report it to you, I received only a machine response. I am a longtime follower and subscriber to Heather Cox Richardson's Letters to America. I went to comment on a post of hers but was told I had to subscribe to do so. I went to the site to subscribe again and did so. However, while I was doing so, I received a message, telling me there was an error in your system, as it had found that I was subscribed already. As a result, it appears I was required to pay again, due to an error in your system. Having already been a subscriber, I do not care to subscribe twice, nor to pay a second time for what I was subscribed. Please correct your system’s error, refund my payment, and confirm my continuing subscription. You may also want to correct the bug in your system. I look forward to your "non-machine" response, please. Thank you.
🟧 hi, I am totally new to this. Literally just signed up. I want to give my Substack a name, so it's not just 'myname' at Substack. however, I'm not yet sure what that name should be. 1. how do I change it, and 2. does it look bad to "rebrand" later down the line?
🟧 - When I post in notes is it discoverable by people who don't follow me?
🟧 - Is there a way to get visibility in interest groups like climate, culture?
🟧 - Do #s work in substack?
Hey Fam... love the feeling of connection really 🩵☝🏻
Also, if you want to engage in another fascinating reading ... I got you covered ⤵️
“Some Words For Your Soul”
https://avwritingco.gumroad.com/l/somewordsforyoursoul_ebook
📖 It’s a book made for you. So claim your copy dear friend.
🟧 How do I access a donation?
How do I access a donation?
✏️ 🟧 - how do you integrate Substack subscribers with other email platforms? I love that Substack has an email builder, but I would also like the option to communicate with Subs in a private setting (like an email list) and not manage multiple lists. Constantly exporting and scrubbing lists is not ideal and it looks like Zapier doesn't connect.
Long time blogger but new to Substack. I also have an outside podcast. Other than linking, is there a way to embed? I’m still trying to find my way around
Don't have time