Have questions about publishing, growing, or going paid on Substack?
The Substack team, and your fellow writers, are here to help!
Today we’re gathering the writer community and members of our Community, Product, and Writer Development teams together in a thread to answer writer questions for an hour.
How do you communicate to readers what makes your publication unique? Category Pirates explores how businesses (and writers) create new categories and redesign old ones. Get inspired by reading their post, Languaging: The Strategic Use Of Language To Change Thinking.
Hoping to build an independent media business on Substack? Isaac Saul, the writer behind Tangle, recently broke 25,000 free readers and 4,000 paying subscribers on Substack. He generously shared his insights on what worked and what didn’t in a recent tweet.
Drop your questions in the thread and we’ll do our best to supercharge each other.
Our team will be in the thread today from 9 am - 10 am PST / 12 pm - 1 pm EST answering questions with you.
Thanks for being here for this week's Office Hours thread and jumping in to answer each other's questions. We'll be back next week same time, same place.
Hey Melanie! I wish we had a magic button to host at the same time in every time zone. We are going to do our best to host programs/events that accommodate other time zones. In the meantime, if you have a question for this week, you can respond here and I will do my best to answer now.
2. Embed tables and interactive data viz (e.g. from Tableau/Datawrapper)
3. Embed PDFs—the first time I checked out an Office Hours somebody else requested this and a Substack employee replied saying they were in the pipeline!
Thanks for responding Bailey! Just to add one more, if the product manager is still watching:
4. A choice of justified or left alignment (not opposed to right either lol, I just have no immediate use for it). I'm not sure if this is an international thing, but in many UK newspapers & supplements, justified and left alignment are used to distinguish between types of content: justified for hard news, left alignment for opinion/lifestyle/culture/features/etc. I would like to be able to utilise this stylistic signifies if possible!
Hey Patrick. Yes, I asked that some time ago. I know they had some staff issues at one time, so not sure where this is now. I just posted the pdf question - before I saw yours here. 💜
Hello. And thank you Substack team for continuing to meet with us each week. I have been learning a lot - and I'm guessing I'm not alone!
To the Substack Team:
I am looking for an update on the ability to house a pdf within substack. I would love to give my readers downloadable guides or other digital products. Having those within Substack would really be so much more professional than sending folks to a google download. Can you please talk about this and give us an ETA? Thanks so much.
Heather! I see you and we haven't forgotten about this request, I promise! I have communicated it to the publication tools team and will double check to see if it's on the road map.
No, I'm sorry that we haven't shipped this yet. PDFs have faced a series of unfortunate internal blocks that have delayed them. We know writers want them though, I promise!
My whatiscalledthinking.Substack.com just passed 100 paying subscribers. What’s the best way to try to convert non paying subscribers? (I have 750 total)
Whew! This is a meaty topic! The non-specific and abstract but most true answer is: it depends on your topic and audience.
Beyond that, I'm going to give you the full list of tactics we have on file at Substack HQ. Prepare thyself:
Here, we list some tactics for doing that - feel free to try what sounds like a good fit for your publication and readership:
*Highlight subscriber benefits*
Tell readers about the paid subscription - Readers need to understand that the writer is running a publication with paid subscriptions involved, so tell them that somewhere – on your About page, at least, but perhaps also in a note at the bottom of every post (and pair it with a subscribe button). Make sure to include a personal note as well, just like you do in your announcement post. TrueHoop does a good job of explaining why paid subscriptions matter, and The Isolation Journals clearly list subscriber benefits.
Experiment with new language in preambles: Edit your email header and footer from your Settings page to encourage your current free readers to subscribe. You can explain subscriber benefits, write a personal note, or link them to previews of old paid posts. It can be useful to change these up semi-regularly so readers don’t just gloss over the message.
Interview one of your paid subscribers (maybe someone who’s reached out to you before to say thanks?) about how your newsletter has helped them. Send the edited interview to your free subscribers, and encourage the interviewee to share it through their networks.
Even if you don’t do a whole interview feature, testimonial quotes/clips can also be added to your about page, preambles, etc.
This is even more effective if you interview a subscriber who has a large and/or overlapping audience themselves (see Delia Cai’s strategy for “Borrowing other people’s audiences”).
*Target high-potential free readers*
Use the subscriber dashboard to send your most active free readers (e.g. most opens over the past 30 days) a personal email asking to become a paid subscriber. I recommend making the ask in your authentic voice - be honest about the costs that go into the production of your free content, and how much it’d mean to have them as donors. Video example here.
*Offer free trials or free previews*
Unlock old paid content: You may also want to “unlock” some of your old-but-good paid posts via editing the post settings. This allows you to share them as examples of paid subscriber benefits in your about page, targeted emails to subscribers, welcome emails, etc. (Example.)
Give your free audience a free 2 weeks of paid posts, either resharing old posts or as a “trial period” for the new paid posts. Since you publish your paid posts more frequently, this will demonstrate value to them, and allow you to launch a new conversion campaign for your large free audience. You can also do this via emails in the subscriber dashboard if you don’t want to share them to your Substack site.
Provide an instant free trial for new subscribers: You can edit the welcome email that goes out to new free readers to offer them a link to a credit card free trial. This might get a lot more free readers to test out the paid subscription faster, and they can still cancel in order to avoid being charged. This strategy is an alternative to just unlocking old paid posts.
Remind readers what they’ve missed. Send an email to your free list highlighting and teasing some of your best paid posts that they can unlock with a subscription. Example: Noahpinion.
*Re-launch to readers*
There's no reason a writer shouldn't re-introduce themselves to their readers by sharing who they are and what they care about, and get into the mission of the publication, from time to time.
This can be a dedicated post, perhaps positioned as a "welcome" to new readers. It could also be at junctures like the six-month mark of publishing the newsletter, the year mark, before the holidays/new year, etc; or if you plan on introducing a new content line for paid subscribers. It can also be framed as "what this community has accomplished" together, and paired with a discount code.
*Offer discounts*
Some writers haven't experimented with discounts, and these can be a huge driver of subscriptions. It's worth trying and pointing to people who have done it successfully.
Pomp sends discounts to his free-only list, which is a popular and successful way to get in front of would-be subscribers.
You can use the subscriber dashboard to target your most active/engaged free readers with a special offer.
I have a substack called FIRES and I have gotten more subscribers lately. As I continue to ramp things up (it's been inactive due to my day job and I'd like to produce income from it) I am wondering how I can get my readers chatting with each other. These are scientists, wildfire specialists, and folks who are interested in learning more about the history of wildfires. I also want to build more readership bc I have a book coming out next summer. So essentially what I am asking is: how can I create more community engagement for my readers?
Hello, Hello, Stacy! I BLATANTLY ask people to help me solve reader's problems on Ask E. Jean. The subscriber's advice to correspondents is ALWAYS better than my own. For instance, here are the subscribers on Monday advising a young 20-year old woman NOT to get breast implants. https://ejeancarroll.substack.com/p/dying-for-a-d-cup
And here are the subscribers (today) advising a woman on overcoming her shyness. You will see how brilliant they are! How they pitch in and help one another!
Stacy that’s a really good question and agree a plus of Substack is the building of a community. Seems you might have moderators who answer questions. Open mic so to speak. Days and hours when discussion is welcome.
Years ago in my Cake Mix Doctor days I had a massive reader forum and it was the moderators who donated their time and just loved being the queen bees of baking.
Thanks Anne. I don't know why I didn't think of this. I used to have a webforum and moderated a few others in my day, I didn't even think about using this idea on substack!
This is especially amazing thinking I could get scientists and even subscribers to moderate and answer Q's. I hadn't even thought of that. What a game changer.
Jenny, your domain doesn't cost anything because it's a substack domain. Jen is using her own domains (they don't have .substack in them), which you have to purchase the rights to use. So it's free to have two substacks, but not to use your own domains.
Hi, would love to know the recommended/optimum image size and resolution (dots per inch) for including within Substack newsletters and for using as the thumbnail
From our engineers: "This will change when we make design changes to our web layout … but currently the optimal image size for images in posts is at least 1,456px wide. There’s no problem with going a bit wider than that too — we’ll automatically resize the image for you as is appropriate."
Hi! Thanks, as always, for doing this! I saw you're planning on launching Substack Grow — it sounds very exciting. Do you have a sense of when we'll get more info on the program?
I want to start a podcast but I’m stuck because I don’t know how to do production. Could substack provide a link or resources on how to record, software, microphone, editing, etc? Really need the podcast 101 to do it.
Hey party people, I have a general question for everyone: has anyone experimented with publishing on various days of the week? I run a weekly newsletter -- https://www.stockduediligence.com/ -- that publishes on Fridays. I average 50-60% open rates, but I'm curious if any authors have tested different days (e.g. Monday vs. Friday). Looking forward to your replies!
I think 50-60% opens is amazing. Whatever you're doing you should keep on doing. In my case, I publish on Saturdays, because I like to, but have published every day of the week, at different times. I've found that if the topic is of interest, it could be published any day.
Hey Carter! I have experimented a lot. The challenge I fact is my readers are mainly in USA, Europe and India separated by timezones. I'm tweaking a lot, but yet to achieve the optimum. Last week I scheduled it for Sunday evening 6pm PST, but was a failure. My open rate dropped from +60% to 30%.
I publish free on Tuesday and paid on Friday but that may soon change. I noticed healthy open rates before Memorial Day but they’ve really diminished this summer. Is engagement down across the board in the summer?
I have noticed -10% open rate at weekends compared with weekdays. The majority of the newsletters that I am subscribed to send on Friday. I get a stack of subs.
What's the aspect ratio that substack thumbnails *doesn't* crop at? I am working with an illustrator to do a unique image per post for my essays on bridging the arts and sciences. AFAIK it'll be the first substack with this sort of unified aesthetic (one writer, one illustrator) so I'm quite excited about the experiment. But the issue is in cropping. Substack seems to center the image and go to a chosen aspect ratio for thumbnails - what exactly is that?
My partner and I have been co-creating our newsletter Mouse & Minnow with the main arrangement being that I do the writing and he does the illustration, although we have left it open for us to swap roles for individual issues (he's a much better writer than I am an artist, so if we do that it could get visually dicey!). I'd be interested in more info on image sizing and cropping as well. (It'd also be nice to be able to adjust where the banner cropping is on the top post.)
Sounds great! I am also working with an illustrator to launch something similar next week. I would be interested in any and all info on image size and resolution
That's great - maybe we're at the beginning of a trend. I just *hate* finding images for my posts, as I care a lot about aesthetics but always end up with some fee-to-use stock image, none of which really match.
I have the same issue! So many of the images I find are for non-commercial use only. When I go paid I will have to remove them all, so I got an illustrator!
Hi there, George here - I write The Strategy Toolkit newsletter! Thanks for these regular office hours.
Regarding how I try to communicate uniqueness, I just had the good fortune of being featured in Publishers Weekly's Soapbox section, in the July 19th edition, in which I spoke about the wonderful experience of Substack for myself and a few others.
Here are some publications who are using our podcast tool well -
Maybe Baby
Recommentunde
Time To Say Goodbye
Useful Idiots
TrueHoop
The Pomp Letter
Some writers use Substack’s podcast feature to narrate their posts, like PRESS RUN, Patti Smith, and https://florencehrs.substack.com/ (who is in this thread!)
My Substack, TheEndGame (on joyful and purposeful aging), has about 260 non-paid subscribers. My plan is to add a podcast that will be by paid subscription, with the newsletter remaining free. Has anyone had success with this model they can share?
This is also my plan. I introduced the idea but hadn't really set it up yet because I didn't get a lot of feedback. I've had a lot of technical issues and just not sure how to make substack work well for me. That could be on me though I'm also writing in other places.
This is my plan as well, but I have to increase my subscriber base first. I've been using social media as a way to promote my newsletter. Any other ideas?
I started a cooking and memoirish newsletter Between the Layers a few months ago with a solid email list over 20K. Free on Tuesday but it’s tough getting them to pay to subscribe for the Friday post. Nearing 100 paid. Any tips? Loving this experience and the regular writing deadlines but feel I’m doing something wrong!
Hi Anne! I just posted a long reply on this topic. It sounds like you need to focus on "converting" free readers to paid, as your list is so healthy in size already!
Thanks, Anne. I just signed on to the platform a few weeks ago. I'm finding it a refreshing way to write about subjects other than pie. Hope you might take a look.
Regarding how to get more subscribers. I have been pretty successful with LinkedIn and am looking at Twitter. I've used it some, but haven't seen the followers convert to subscribers. I am participating in an online event tomorrow called Humanity for Life, bringing together speakers from Canada, Nigeria, South Africa, India, and the U.S. My newsletter is about daily kindness habits, so there is a big correlation between my work and the event. I'm hoping it increases my exposure to a larger audience. If anyone is interested, the zoom link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9552839859. It starts at 10am PDT. The host organization is Theatre of Solutions, based in Nigeria. I have already received several new subscribers from attendees, so I'll report back to the group next week to let you know if this is useful.
I'm really enjoying working here. I started in April, went paid June 1, try to be generous with sharing material. Am posting 8-10 pieces/month on creative writing. Have about 20% signing up to be paid. But numbers are still very low.
I have to say I'm a bit stymied by how to be "found" by Substack seekers. Under the "Discover" button, then the search, "writing" yields nothing. Why is this?
How do we show up once in awhile on the "featured" page?
Many thanks for your time--these Thursday mornings are very useful :)
Finally, given your conversion rate is so excellent but "numbers are still very low," it sounds like you should focus on growing your free list.
To grow your free list, the highest leverage things you can do are publishing good content consistently and making your work easy for potential readers to find.
Here are some tactics for doing that:
Make Substack your primary landing page: Linking to your Substack from your social media bios and including Substack's subscribe embed on your website will drive more potential readers to your page. This improves your Substack’s SEO (which is largely based on number of links) and helps ensure that your fans can subscribe to your work directly rather than having to remember to visit your website or see your social media posts.
Write a strong one-line description: Your one-line description should demonstrate the concrete value of reading your newsletter. Ideally, it should imply both the intended audience and intended purpose, so someone can quickly identify themselves as a target reader. Two great examples of one-liners are Technically and Kosmic Cooking Club. Read more tips for your one-liner in our guide here.
Use calls to action in your posts: In every post, you should use buttons and email headers and footers to ask readers to sign up, become a paying subscriber, comment, or forward your emails to their friends. Ted Gioia does a great job of highlighting his subscribe button and publication description here.
Celebrate and share testimonials: Collect and re-share quotes when your readers celebrate your newsletter. This might mean asking for permission to use quotes from readers who email you a compliment directly or it may be re-sharing (and saving) public tweets from people talking about your newsletter on Twitter. These testimonials can be shared with readers in the writer's About page and can be highlighted at launch moments, ahead of special offers, and at key milestones in the publication's journey.
Conduct targeted outreach to the press and community leaders. Whether in advance of your publication launch, breaking news, or a big story, you can create your own “press list” of journalists and influencers (in your industry, locality, or community) to reach out to for promotion. This can include both people you know personally and cold outreach. This encourages other influential writers and leaders to share and/or cite your work, as Edwin Dorsey explains here - https://on.substack.com/p/going-paid-the-bear-cave. You can even offer to give these people comped paid subscriptions to your newsletter.
Publish interviews or community spotlights to “borrow” other people’s audiences. For example, Delia Cai writes about growing her list by interviewing media figures like Ann Friedman, and Chinese Storytellers published a spotlight interview with reporter Karen Hao. These can be effective because your interviewee is likely to reshare your newsletter post to their audience as well.
Improve your publication tags: For Substack’s current discovery features, broader tags are more useful than specific ones - especially if they fit in our featured categories list on Reader. I might try changing your tags to INSERT TAGS to increase the chance your publication is found.
Comment on other writers’ publications: Substack includes a link to your publication when you comment elsewhere. When you engage with and discuss with other writers (e.g. comments, threads), more of their readers will find your own work as well.
Include two sentences about the publication at the top of posts: You might consider publishing a few sentences about your publication at the top of free posts. It can be short and include a subscribe button. This way, new readers who find and love one post will know that your newsletter publishes more content. Here are examples: Byrne Hobart, The Diff https://diff.substack.com/p/surfing-the-right-s-curve; Isaac Saul, Tangle https://www.readtangle.com/p/new-rules-for-the-debate.
Bailey!!! Thank you!!! (So many exclamation marks...) This is all so useful. I will review step by step. Some of this I've been doing, but altogether this is ramping up--and I am grateful for your time spent here. Mostly, I've been focusing on content and connecting with the people I already have on board--just as I did in my teaching in the past. (A creative writing program.) But this is all good! Exciting. Have a great day!
I have a newsletter where I write about various things (living with terminal cancer, parenting, literature) - usually for free, and publish a chapter a week of a novel I wrote (which is behind a paywall). I've heard that you can divde things into categories and I would love to make the story easier to follow for the readers who are mostly there for the novel. Where are these "categories" that I have heard of because I can't find them anywhere.
Thank you for writing on Substack, Melanie! I'm going to check out your publication.
We do have a tool for this - sections. And recently did a post all about how a fiction writer is using sections to serialize a novel. This could be a good resource for you - https://on.substack.com/p/spotlight-on-fiction
I use five categories (sections) on my moviewise newsletter: Movie Lists! | Guides To Life | Movie Therapy | Ready To Laugh | +Guest Posts (new). It's a great way to organize the content and help readers find things easier. https://moviewise.substack.com
Hi, I'd really like to send an invite to a group of email addresses from my account that includes a "subscribe" button and some custom copy in the email. I don't want to subscribe them, just invite them to subscribe. Would your product team be interested in building such a thing? There must be tons of users like me - folks with a group of email addresses we'd like to invite to our new substack pub without being so rude as to opt them in automatically. TIA!
Katie, I would love this! I have a larger contact list than substack subscribers, but I'd like to convert them! Would love to be able to send emails to non-subscribers
Thanks so much @Katie, also this feature isn't just for folks getting started, I would regularly like to invite folks after starting and want to give them an "opt-in" option for that for courtesy purposes - so email, sent from substack, with custom copy (could be a private post) and a "subscribe" button. I think it'd be a big hit with all your customers! Feel free to have product team get in touch with me if they have questions :)
This would be helpful. I made the mistake of automatically subscribing my email list and when I realized I unsubscribed them and couldn't add those back who were interested.
Any thoughts on promoting one another on our substacks? If any fellow writers want to get featured in my substack/feature mine in theirs, reply. I think the best way to grow and go far is to do it together. You can see mine here https://youtopianjourney.substack.com/
I'm adding Guest Posts (a section) to my moviewise newsletter for anyone interested in sharing movie recommendations and the Life Lessons they've found in those movies.
My question: getting more notice for new posts. Google News will pick up the smallest mentions of me in local blogs, Patch, etc. but never for the latest Substack post. Is there a trick to this that I'm missing? My newsletter is http://jeffersongraham.substack.com
I’m 5 months into this and still haven’t done any PR/marketing or updates to my site because I just can’t self promote. I will continue to procrastinate unless I find a work around to do the necessary marketing but not about myself. Advice ?
It’s an easy and genuine share on social media. Not so much pushing yourself as it is letting people know you’ve created this and you’re inviting them to take a look.
Ah yes I share on Twitter and Facebook and that’s where I get almost all my traffic. But I know I need to do the about page and what I am unique things and all that stuff which I can’t do.
I would love to hear from those who have either created a second newsletter within your main one and/or created 2 separate newsletters....your reasoning behind either decision and any feedback on how they are working for you? Thank you. 📰
And you gave me a great link to Lenny's Newsletter (lennysnewsletter.substack.com), plus you gave me one about how he great his list (from nothing) - I can't find that one right now, but if you have it, could you share it again? It was amazingly helpful and might help Enrico.
I am looking for other newsletter writers who are willing to do cross-marketing.
I run a Substack called Asian Century Stocks (www.asiancenturystocks.com), which focuses on stock ideas within the Asia Pacific region.
I am looking for other Substacks in the region who might want to collaborate, perhaps by interviewing each other. I found that it's been helpful to bring in new readers to each other's Substacks. Here is a recent collaboration for your reference: https://www.asiancenturystocks.com/p/10-questions-with-aaron-pek
I have a Substack called Piffany and want to fully launch the new expanded version of it, growing it by folding in elements from my pre-existing comedy news website of 14 years, as well as my pre-existing interview podcast of 6 years. How can I do that smoothly via Sections without completely disrupting my pre-existing sites? Any advice or pointing me to the right person would be fabulous, thanks!
Hi Katie! Yes. But since then, I've developed a more formal and specific plan for how I want to grow Piffany moving forward (and into paid, too!). Can I talk to you or someone else outside of office hours, perchance? Thanks!
Hi, for some reason it asks me to log in every time I try to respond to a comment from the email. Readers also have told me they have problems logging in to post a comment. Do you know what's causing it? Thank you!!!
Sorry for this confusion! If a publication you are visiting has a unique domain (e.g. not www.publication.substack.com but rather www. publication.com) you can quickly navigate to the top of the page and click "login" and should be able to login with one click. These types of publications are not automatically logged in.
If it takes longer than that, it is likely that your information was not saved in your browser.
Thank you Katie! In my case, it is a regular Substack publication (on Substack, not on my own domain). It started happening a couple of months ago, and still happening. Whenever I try to respond to a comment from an email, it asks me to log in (and takes several clicks to do that because it first tries to send me an email instead of letting me put in the password, etc.) Hope this detail helps!!! Thank you again.
Going to re-ask since it got a number of agreement replies below - what's the aspect ratio that a thumbnail image is not cropped at? A lot of us are doing things like adding custom art to our stacks, so it's important to try to have non-cropped images.
Any resources or thoughts on writing an attractive headline? I have seen some publishers using the issue number as the headline and others using catchy lines.
My newsletter is a curated one and has multiple topics discussed in a single issue. Was wondering what is a proven way for better engagement?
For example my latest issue is titled: Build a City, Curator Economy, Hacking Tractors and Microneedles.
My main thing is still finding a way to make it clearer for free subs who are logged out of substack on a particular device/browser and that want to become paid sub that they need to log in to see the paid options.
Many readers have expressed to me that they're confused and can't find it, because when they click the "subscribe" button I put in my NL, they just get the page with an empty field to put your email (and they're already free subs, so don't want to re-sub again).
There is now the option to create separate publications under the name of the main newsletter. Can these separate section be paid only and how do you do it?
Hey, folks. I'm interested in answers to the first bullet above -- viz., "How do you communicate to readers what makes your publication unique?" Beyond a solid About page and author bio, what other strategies, tips, etc. do you recommend for communicating uniqueness?
Our recommendations are below, and would love to hear from other writers out there!
A great one-line description clearly and concisely highlights what makes your publication special – what differentiates it from the other newsletters out there. For some writers, that’s their years of domain expertise; for others, it’s their unique voice and personality; and for yet others, it’s covering a niche that nobody else will or can.
Your one-liner should signal who the target audience is and why they might subscribe. The goal should be for a reader to read your one-liner and say, “that’s me!”
Start by asking yourself:
Who wants to read your publication? You may have multiple reader types, and consider both demographic characteristics and personality types.
Why do readers want to read your publication? E.g. motivation, humor, breaking news, professional development.
If you’re still stuck, read through positive comments and replies from readers, or think of one reader you know by name, and write the one-liner just for them. Your readers can often articulate your publication’s value proposition even better than you can!
Here’s some inspiration:
Kosmic Cooking Club: Straight from an herbalist's kitchen to your inbox, you'll get weekly herbal recipes designed to keep you inspired and nourished.
Technically: Technically explains software in a simple and engaging way so you can impress your boss.
Tangle: An independent, ad-free, non-partisan politics newsletter that offers both sides of the biggest news stories every day.
Flow State: Every weekday, two hours of music perfect for working.
Thanks, Bailey. I have seen and perused that (very helpful) guide. I'd love to hear other strategies as well -- formats, use of images and layouts, varying types of posts (an essay, say, followed by a later post asking a question), etc.
I am wondering how much to draw from my real life in my Substack newsletter. My life veers toward the incredible and the two problems I have with sharing too much truth is: 1) It’s so amazing people might not even believe it (both in a good way and in a terrible way.) 2) I don’t know that I want to share too much, because I used to be a private person. I like the idea of doing a Substack newsletter and am flattered that I have the opportunity to do so, and I am pre-brainstorming at this point.
I can relate to this. I have had crazy things happen in my life, I don't share them very often at all though. I was a blogger many years ago and I shared a lot of my life. I think it all comes down to your audience. People may not have the experiences you've had but what do they have in common with you or what interest do they have that your stories touch on? Also, you can emphasize the unbelievable nature of things: "yes this really happened, crazy right?"
Totally. I don’t really tend to think about my audience very much, to be honest, I feel like it may be putting the cart before the horse, when, like myself, you haven’t gotten started yet. I do know that my friends and family always are intrigued, entertained and baffled at my life, but therein lies the catch: my life is not up for interpretation. What happens is what happens, and I don’t always like to hear opinions about it. I’m a highly moral person, so it’s not about judgement, but rather eyebrows raised like “holy sh*t” and I’m all “Told Ya’!”
In my experience, people crave connection with the true stories from other people's lives. These stories can be very powerful - helping people to have less shame, have more options, have more confidence. Just knowing someone else went through something I'm going through helps me to feel seen and not alone. That said, it's super hard to share sometimes. I'd say go for it.
Thanks for sharing, Kate. I guess all newsletters are about what goes on in real life, and in one’s mind, too, of course. I’m a huge dessert person so I bet your newsletter is fun.
I guess this fundamentally a question about non fiction vs. fiction.
I want to ask some question that you might face too in substack. Do you know why my subscribers need to sign in again when they want to comment on my post? And sometimes our email goes to their promotions not their inbox. Please let me know if any of you have this issue - I’m trying to resolve this! Thank you before.
Ok. Here is the deal. It is hard enough to get people to subscribe and then to keep them reading. Most of them have a gmail ID. And the ********* at Google have no clue what the hell their algorithm is doing but more likely maliciously sidelining newsletters. To add to this you guys go ahead and create a new ID for every folder that I create. Now I have viveksrinivasan+thoughts@substrack.com and two other ID sending mails on my behalf. Why?
Why is substack sabotaging its writers because some coder wanted to find a half assed solution to classifying comments or something like that?
I've missed the Office Hours but I have an administrative question: I just started my blog yesterday and am just getting to know Substack's platform....one thing I discovered is that when I tried to search for my page -- another person with the same name comes up....how can I fix this? The page doesn't let me edit that?? HELP! thanks!!
I like the hover cards! They are very helpful. I also noticed that search is working much better. It's so nice to see continual improvement and added features. Thank you so much Substack!!
Well maybe sometimes later still fighting on a Hoban abuse and how people need to fuight it also money is not good not all of us feel we should sell our heritage
Hey all,
Thanks for being here for this week's Office Hours thread and jumping in to answer each other's questions. We'll be back next week same time, same place.
In the meantime, our new (!!) resource page is here for you: https://substack.com/resources
Happy Writing!
Katie + Bailey
Any chance of occasionally doing this at a different time? It's about 3am in New Zealand and I'd love to participate but I just can't manage that.
Hey Melanie! I wish we had a magic button to host at the same time in every time zone. We are going to do our best to host programs/events that accommodate other time zones. In the meantime, if you have a question for this week, you can respond here and I will do my best to answer now.
Three feature requests:
1. Embed article previews within a newsletter (see e.g. Revue: "Instead of hyperlinking text, you can add links to external articles and we’ll automatically create beautiful previews" http://help.getrevue.co/en/articles/4648579-how-to-write-a-newsletter-in-the-revue-editor)
2. Embed tables and interactive data viz (e.g. from Tableau/Datawrapper)
3. Embed PDFs—the first time I checked out an Office Hours somebody else requested this and a Substack employee replied saying they were in the pipeline!
Shared this directly with the product manager focused on this work. Thank you!
Thanks for responding Bailey! Just to add one more, if the product manager is still watching:
4. A choice of justified or left alignment (not opposed to right either lol, I just have no immediate use for it). I'm not sure if this is an international thing, but in many UK newspapers & supplements, justified and left alignment are used to distinguish between types of content: justified for hard news, left alignment for opinion/lifestyle/culture/features/etc. I would like to be able to utilise this stylistic signifies if possible!
Yes! I would especially love the pdfs. This is making some of my substack plans a little difficult.
Hey Patrick. Yes, I asked that some time ago. I know they had some staff issues at one time, so not sure where this is now. I just posted the pdf question - before I saw yours here. 💜
Hello. And thank you Substack team for continuing to meet with us each week. I have been learning a lot - and I'm guessing I'm not alone!
To the Substack Team:
I am looking for an update on the ability to house a pdf within substack. I would love to give my readers downloadable guides or other digital products. Having those within Substack would really be so much more professional than sending folks to a google download. Can you please talk about this and give us an ETA? Thanks so much.
Agree! Would like to offer a pdf download sometime soon.
Heather! I see you and we haven't forgotten about this request, I promise! I have communicated it to the publication tools team and will double check to see if it's on the road map.
Great news. It's at the "top of their roadmap" :) Fingers crossed that means you could see some movement on this in the next few weeks.
Can I give the mutiple hearts?!
Thank you, Bailey. I'm sorry, I must sound like a broken record by now.
No, I'm sorry that we haven't shipped this yet. PDFs have faced a series of unfortunate internal blocks that have delayed them. We know writers want them though, I promise!
LOL, I made the hover card example image. Substack, I love you.
We're fans of you (and your snacks) too!
https://twitter.com/SubstackInc/status/1418226351312719873
My whatiscalledthinking.Substack.com just passed 100 paying subscribers. What’s the best way to try to convert non paying subscribers? (I have 750 total)
Whew! This is a meaty topic! The non-specific and abstract but most true answer is: it depends on your topic and audience.
Beyond that, I'm going to give you the full list of tactics we have on file at Substack HQ. Prepare thyself:
Here, we list some tactics for doing that - feel free to try what sounds like a good fit for your publication and readership:
*Highlight subscriber benefits*
Tell readers about the paid subscription - Readers need to understand that the writer is running a publication with paid subscriptions involved, so tell them that somewhere – on your About page, at least, but perhaps also in a note at the bottom of every post (and pair it with a subscribe button). Make sure to include a personal note as well, just like you do in your announcement post. TrueHoop does a good job of explaining why paid subscriptions matter, and The Isolation Journals clearly list subscriber benefits.
Experiment with new language in preambles: Edit your email header and footer from your Settings page to encourage your current free readers to subscribe. You can explain subscriber benefits, write a personal note, or link them to previews of old paid posts. It can be useful to change these up semi-regularly so readers don’t just gloss over the message.
Interview one of your paid subscribers (maybe someone who’s reached out to you before to say thanks?) about how your newsletter has helped them. Send the edited interview to your free subscribers, and encourage the interviewee to share it through their networks.
Even if you don’t do a whole interview feature, testimonial quotes/clips can also be added to your about page, preambles, etc.
This is even more effective if you interview a subscriber who has a large and/or overlapping audience themselves (see Delia Cai’s strategy for “Borrowing other people’s audiences”).
*Target high-potential free readers*
Use the subscriber dashboard to send your most active free readers (e.g. most opens over the past 30 days) a personal email asking to become a paid subscriber. I recommend making the ask in your authentic voice - be honest about the costs that go into the production of your free content, and how much it’d mean to have them as donors. Video example here.
*Offer free trials or free previews*
Unlock old paid content: You may also want to “unlock” some of your old-but-good paid posts via editing the post settings. This allows you to share them as examples of paid subscriber benefits in your about page, targeted emails to subscribers, welcome emails, etc. (Example.)
Give your free audience a free 2 weeks of paid posts, either resharing old posts or as a “trial period” for the new paid posts. Since you publish your paid posts more frequently, this will demonstrate value to them, and allow you to launch a new conversion campaign for your large free audience. You can also do this via emails in the subscriber dashboard if you don’t want to share them to your Substack site.
Provide an instant free trial for new subscribers: You can edit the welcome email that goes out to new free readers to offer them a link to a credit card free trial. This might get a lot more free readers to test out the paid subscription faster, and they can still cancel in order to avoid being charged. This strategy is an alternative to just unlocking old paid posts.
Remind readers what they’ve missed. Send an email to your free list highlighting and teasing some of your best paid posts that they can unlock with a subscription. Example: Noahpinion.
*Re-launch to readers*
There's no reason a writer shouldn't re-introduce themselves to their readers by sharing who they are and what they care about, and get into the mission of the publication, from time to time.
This can be a dedicated post, perhaps positioned as a "welcome" to new readers. It could also be at junctures like the six-month mark of publishing the newsletter, the year mark, before the holidays/new year, etc; or if you plan on introducing a new content line for paid subscribers. It can also be framed as "what this community has accomplished" together, and paired with a discount code.
*Offer discounts*
Some writers haven't experimented with discounts, and these can be a huge driver of subscriptions. It's worth trying and pointing to people who have done it successfully.
Pomp sends discounts to his free-only list, which is a popular and successful way to get in front of would-be subscribers.
You can use the subscriber dashboard to target your most active/engaged free readers with a special offer.
Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
That's a fantastic conversion rate - well done!
The hover cards are great! It's making it so easy to subscribe to other writers. Thanks for adding them!
Shared this with the team working on it :)
Yes, they are nice! Just discovered someone I follow on Twitter has a Substack newsletter simply by recognizing their avatar.
I have a substack called FIRES and I have gotten more subscribers lately. As I continue to ramp things up (it's been inactive due to my day job and I'd like to produce income from it) I am wondering how I can get my readers chatting with each other. These are scientists, wildfire specialists, and folks who are interested in learning more about the history of wildfires. I also want to build more readership bc I have a book coming out next summer. So essentially what I am asking is: how can I create more community engagement for my readers?
Hello, Hello, Stacy! I BLATANTLY ask people to help me solve reader's problems on Ask E. Jean. The subscriber's advice to correspondents is ALWAYS better than my own. For instance, here are the subscribers on Monday advising a young 20-year old woman NOT to get breast implants. https://ejeancarroll.substack.com/p/dying-for-a-d-cup
And here are the subscribers (today) advising a woman on overcoming her shyness. You will see how brilliant they are! How they pitch in and help one another!
https://ejeancarroll.substack.com/p/roll-over-meghan-mccain
I love my subscribers so much!
This is so amazing, thanks so much E. Jean! (also you are incredible)
Stacy that’s a really good question and agree a plus of Substack is the building of a community. Seems you might have moderators who answer questions. Open mic so to speak. Days and hours when discussion is welcome.
Ooooh this is a great idea!
Years ago in my Cake Mix Doctor days I had a massive reader forum and it was the moderators who donated their time and just loved being the queen bees of baking.
Thanks Anne. I don't know why I didn't think of this. I used to have a webforum and moderated a few others in my day, I didn't even think about using this idea on substack!
This is especially amazing thinking I could get scientists and even subscribers to moderate and answer Q's. I hadn't even thought of that. What a game changer.
Offering an opinion comes easy to a lot people - including me. 🤣
Hi Stacy! "Threads" are a great way to start (like this one) if you haven't yet.
Examples:
The New Fatherhood https://www.thenewfatherhood.org/?sort=community
Amal Content https://amal.substack.com/?sort=community
Letters from an American https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/?sort=community
Griefbacon https://griefbacon.substack.com/?sort=community
You can learn more about how to use threads here: https://on.substack.com/p/new-on-substack-build-your-community
Thank you so much Bailey!! Hoping to be more regular on posting; starting a six week series next week.
Also - I've seen your publication and love it!
Would guest posts work?
I just want to say how much I'm enjoying my time on Substack.
I have two newsletters:
www.youareodd.com
www.thefirstyearsofmarriage.com/welcome
I'm considering starting a podcast too and want to know if you get good analytics through substack platform.
Do you link your two newsletters together (do they have the same subscriber base) or are they completely separate?
Totally separate!
Thats great
How much does it cost to own and operate two domains?
A one time fee of $50 each to set it up for Substack and then $12/year per domain on Google domain
Jenny, your domain doesn't cost anything because it's a substack domain. Jen is using her own domains (they don't have .substack in them), which you have to purchase the rights to use. So it's free to have two substacks, but not to use your own domains.
Hi, would love to know the recommended/optimum image size and resolution (dots per inch) for including within Substack newsletters and for using as the thumbnail
From our engineers: "This will change when we make design changes to our web layout … but currently the optimal image size for images in posts is at least 1,456px wide. There’s no problem with going a bit wider than that too — we’ll automatically resize the image for you as is appropriate."
Hey Bailey, Is it required to optimise the image(compression) before uploading? Or Substack does it automatically?
Yes, this is what I meant by optimum image size, the size of the file.
Thanks a lot! What about the image quality or resolution?
Same (boosting so substack sees) - specifically I'm interested in what the aspect ratio is such that the image isn't cropped.
Hi! Thanks, as always, for doing this! I saw you're planning on launching Substack Grow — it sounds very exciting. Do you have a sense of when we'll get more info on the program?
Early next week! Stay tuned 👀
!!!
Just curious! How'd you hear about Substack Grow, Elizabeth?
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/substack-to-offer-free-classes-to-help-writers-earn-their-first-1-000
I want to start a podcast but I’m stuck because I don’t know how to do production. Could substack provide a link or resources on how to record, software, microphone, editing, etc? Really need the podcast 101 to do it.
This is on our list of to-dos for sure. Thank you for the request! I'll flag it again to our team.
Hi, Bailey, that would be great!
Maybe just ask the current substack podcast folks what they do and use so we all can learn from the community?
Hey party people, I have a general question for everyone: has anyone experimented with publishing on various days of the week? I run a weekly newsletter -- https://www.stockduediligence.com/ -- that publishes on Fridays. I average 50-60% open rates, but I'm curious if any authors have tested different days (e.g. Monday vs. Friday). Looking forward to your replies!
I think 50-60% opens is amazing. Whatever you're doing you should keep on doing. In my case, I publish on Saturdays, because I like to, but have published every day of the week, at different times. I've found that if the topic is of interest, it could be published any day.
Good to know! I'm not really sure what the benchmark is for financial newsletters honestly.
Good to know x2! I'm used to Friday, so I'll stick with it then.
Hey Carter! I have experimented a lot. The challenge I fact is my readers are mainly in USA, Europe and India separated by timezones. I'm tweaking a lot, but yet to achieve the optimum. Last week I scheduled it for Sunday evening 6pm PST, but was a failure. My open rate dropped from +60% to 30%.
Ahhhh that is a tough challenge. At least it's a good problem to have -- you're international, that's impressive!
I'm getting slightly higher open rates on Sundays than on Mondays and Wednesdays
I publish free on Tuesday and paid on Friday but that may soon change. I noticed healthy open rates before Memorial Day but they’ve really diminished this summer. Is engagement down across the board in the summer?
I also notice, Ms. Byrn, that you do a "COMING THIS FRIDAY FOR SUBSCRIBERS." This is genius!
Yes and I let Friday subscribers know what’s coming to everyone Tuesday. They get the heads up.
Did you offer both free and paid newsletters at the onset? Or did you grow into that?
Hmm that's an interesting question. I haven't noticed a summer dip, personally.
Yes, I offered free and paid as I’d been writing an email newsletter for 10 years or more and didn’t want to turn off the followers asking for $.
Oh wow! That's an impressive history. Yeah that makes sense then haha
I have noticed -10% open rate at weekends compared with weekdays. The majority of the newsletters that I am subscribed to send on Friday. I get a stack of subs.
What's the aspect ratio that substack thumbnails *doesn't* crop at? I am working with an illustrator to do a unique image per post for my essays on bridging the arts and sciences. AFAIK it'll be the first substack with this sort of unified aesthetic (one writer, one illustrator) so I'm quite excited about the experiment. But the issue is in cropping. Substack seems to center the image and go to a chosen aspect ratio for thumbnails - what exactly is that?
My partner and I have been co-creating our newsletter Mouse & Minnow with the main arrangement being that I do the writing and he does the illustration, although we have left it open for us to swap roles for individual issues (he's a much better writer than I am an artist, so if we do that it could get visually dicey!). I'd be interested in more info on image sizing and cropping as well. (It'd also be nice to be able to adjust where the banner cropping is on the top post.)
Love finding out about this! That's exactly what we're aiming for, I think it looks great!
I love the illustration of the snek! So cute!
Aw, thank you! He'll be thrilled to hear that. :)
Sounds great! I am also working with an illustrator to launch something similar next week. I would be interested in any and all info on image size and resolution
That's great - maybe we're at the beginning of a trend. I just *hate* finding images for my posts, as I care a lot about aesthetics but always end up with some fee-to-use stock image, none of which really match.
I have the same issue! So many of the images I find are for non-commercial use only. When I go paid I will have to remove them all, so I got an illustrator!
You can see how I do my images. They are custom drawn. https://youtopianjourney.substack.com/
Love - any idea on aspect ratios?
Is there a good way of integrating a reader poll into substack?
Typeform or Google Forms but Substack is working on native poll functionality as well
What Michael said! Our product team is aware of this request, absolutely
Good to hear! that's going to be useful
Great question. I'd love to use polls.
Hi there, George here - I write The Strategy Toolkit newsletter! Thanks for these regular office hours.
Regarding how I try to communicate uniqueness, I just had the good fortune of being featured in Publishers Weekly's Soapbox section, in the July 19th edition, in which I spoke about the wonderful experience of Substack for myself and a few others.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/soapbox/article/86882-what-authors-have-found-in-substack.html
Awesome! This is wonderful, George. Thanks for the kind words.
I'm interested in learning more about podcasts and the best way to use this Substack feature.
Hi there!
Here are some publications who are using our podcast tool well -
Maybe Baby
Recommentunde
Time To Say Goodbye
Useful Idiots
TrueHoop
The Pomp Letter
Some writers use Substack’s podcast feature to narrate their posts, like PRESS RUN, Patti Smith, and https://florencehrs.substack.com/ (who is in this thread!)
Podcast help resources for you -
How to use Substack for podcasts: https://on.substack.com/p/how-to-use-substack-for-podcasts
How to bring audio into your Substack posts: https://on.substack.com/p/how-to-bring-more-audio-into-your
How do I create and publish a podcast?: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037462092-How-do-I-create-and-publish-a-podcast-
How do I import my podcast episodes from elsewhere?: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037830571-How-do-I-import-my-podcast-episodes-from-elsewhere-
Will my Podcast RSS feed show paid-only content?: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041722272-Will-my-Podcast-RSS-feed-show-paid-only-content-
How do I submit my podcast to other podcast directories?: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038462911-How-do-I-submit-my-podcast-to-other-podcast-directories-
My Substack, TheEndGame (on joyful and purposeful aging), has about 260 non-paid subscribers. My plan is to add a podcast that will be by paid subscription, with the newsletter remaining free. Has anyone had success with this model they can share?
This is also my plan. I introduced the idea but hadn't really set it up yet because I didn't get a lot of feedback. I've had a lot of technical issues and just not sure how to make substack work well for me. That could be on me though I'm also writing in other places.
Alicia Kennedy offers a podcast only for paid subscribers - https://www.aliciakennedy.news/about
Thanks, Bailey!
This is my plan as well, but I have to increase my subscriber base first. I've been using social media as a way to promote my newsletter. Any other ideas?
I started a cooking and memoirish newsletter Between the Layers a few months ago with a solid email list over 20K. Free on Tuesday but it’s tough getting them to pay to subscribe for the Friday post. Nearing 100 paid. Any tips? Loving this experience and the regular writing deadlines but feel I’m doing something wrong!
Ann, I find I have much better "hit" rate on Tuesday and Thursday posts. Perhaps try doing the free post on Friday and the paid post on Tuesday?
That’s a great idea!
Hi Anne! I just posted a long reply on this topic. It sounds like you need to focus on "converting" free readers to paid, as your list is so healthy in size already!
Take a look here at some of the tips for that: https://on.substack.com/p/office-hours-9/comments#comment-2439269
Thank you!
Nice to meet you, Anne! I just subscribed and saw your post about meringue, I’m posting tomorrow about Baked Alaska!
I’ll check out your newsletter! Thank you. Meringue is so overlooked. 😂
I agree! Swiss Meringue is like fancy toasted marshmallows 😂 I started a couple of months ago here on Substack, too, really enjoying.
Love your pie post.
Huge kudos coming from you! ❤️
Thanks, Anne. I just signed on to the platform a few weeks ago. I'm finding it a refreshing way to write about subjects other than pie. Hope you might take a look.
Will do! You are a pro. Happy to collaborate via phone or Zoom sometime.
Did you see this recent pie post I did? https://katemcdermott.substack.com/p/2-2-jul-21
A fun idea!
Regarding how to get more subscribers. I have been pretty successful with LinkedIn and am looking at Twitter. I've used it some, but haven't seen the followers convert to subscribers. I am participating in an online event tomorrow called Humanity for Life, bringing together speakers from Canada, Nigeria, South Africa, India, and the U.S. My newsletter is about daily kindness habits, so there is a big correlation between my work and the event. I'm hoping it increases my exposure to a larger audience. If anyone is interested, the zoom link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9552839859. It starts at 10am PDT. The host organization is Theatre of Solutions, based in Nigeria. I have already received several new subscribers from attendees, so I'll report back to the group next week to let you know if this is useful.
I'm really enjoying working here. I started in April, went paid June 1, try to be generous with sharing material. Am posting 8-10 pieces/month on creative writing. Have about 20% signing up to be paid. But numbers are still very low.
I have to say I'm a bit stymied by how to be "found" by Substack seekers. Under the "Discover" button, then the search, "writing" yields nothing. Why is this?
How do we show up once in awhile on the "featured" page?
Many thanks for your time--these Thursday mornings are very useful :)
Hey there! Thanks for writing on Substack.
First off, that conversion rate is awesome. Congrats!
Second, we are always looking for inspiring Substacks to feature. Please tell us about them here: https://bitly.com/substackstowatch
Finally, given your conversion rate is so excellent but "numbers are still very low," it sounds like you should focus on growing your free list.
To grow your free list, the highest leverage things you can do are publishing good content consistently and making your work easy for potential readers to find.
Here are some tactics for doing that:
Make Substack your primary landing page: Linking to your Substack from your social media bios and including Substack's subscribe embed on your website will drive more potential readers to your page. This improves your Substack’s SEO (which is largely based on number of links) and helps ensure that your fans can subscribe to your work directly rather than having to remember to visit your website or see your social media posts.
Write a strong one-line description: Your one-line description should demonstrate the concrete value of reading your newsletter. Ideally, it should imply both the intended audience and intended purpose, so someone can quickly identify themselves as a target reader. Two great examples of one-liners are Technically and Kosmic Cooking Club. Read more tips for your one-liner in our guide here.
Use calls to action in your posts: In every post, you should use buttons and email headers and footers to ask readers to sign up, become a paying subscriber, comment, or forward your emails to their friends. Ted Gioia does a great job of highlighting his subscribe button and publication description here.
Celebrate and share testimonials: Collect and re-share quotes when your readers celebrate your newsletter. This might mean asking for permission to use quotes from readers who email you a compliment directly or it may be re-sharing (and saving) public tweets from people talking about your newsletter on Twitter. These testimonials can be shared with readers in the writer's About page and can be highlighted at launch moments, ahead of special offers, and at key milestones in the publication's journey.
Conduct targeted outreach to the press and community leaders. Whether in advance of your publication launch, breaking news, or a big story, you can create your own “press list” of journalists and influencers (in your industry, locality, or community) to reach out to for promotion. This can include both people you know personally and cold outreach. This encourages other influential writers and leaders to share and/or cite your work, as Edwin Dorsey explains here - https://on.substack.com/p/going-paid-the-bear-cave. You can even offer to give these people comped paid subscriptions to your newsletter.
Publish interviews or community spotlights to “borrow” other people’s audiences. For example, Delia Cai writes about growing her list by interviewing media figures like Ann Friedman, and Chinese Storytellers published a spotlight interview with reporter Karen Hao. These can be effective because your interviewee is likely to reshare your newsletter post to their audience as well.
Improve your publication tags: For Substack’s current discovery features, broader tags are more useful than specific ones - especially if they fit in our featured categories list on Reader. I might try changing your tags to INSERT TAGS to increase the chance your publication is found.
Comment on other writers’ publications: Substack includes a link to your publication when you comment elsewhere. When you engage with and discuss with other writers (e.g. comments, threads), more of their readers will find your own work as well.
Include two sentences about the publication at the top of posts: You might consider publishing a few sentences about your publication at the top of free posts. It can be short and include a subscribe button. This way, new readers who find and love one post will know that your newsletter publishes more content. Here are examples: Byrne Hobart, The Diff https://diff.substack.com/p/surfing-the-right-s-curve; Isaac Saul, Tangle https://www.readtangle.com/p/new-rules-for-the-debate.
I missed two links in there: https://on.substack.com/p/how-to-polish-your-publications-about
https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/notes-on-my-pandemic-reading
Bailey!!! Thank you!!! (So many exclamation marks...) This is all so useful. I will review step by step. Some of this I've been doing, but altogether this is ramping up--and I am grateful for your time spent here. Mostly, I've been focusing on content and connecting with the people I already have on board--just as I did in my teaching in the past. (A creative writing program.) But this is all good! Exciting. Have a great day!
I have a newsletter where I write about various things (living with terminal cancer, parenting, literature) - usually for free, and publish a chapter a week of a novel I wrote (which is behind a paywall). I've heard that you can divde things into categories and I would love to make the story easier to follow for the readers who are mostly there for the novel. Where are these "categories" that I have heard of because I can't find them anywhere.
https://themelimello.substack.com
I'm def interested in organizing by categories!
Likewise!
Thank you for writing on Substack, Melanie! I'm going to check out your publication.
We do have a tool for this - sections. And recently did a post all about how a fiction writer is using sections to serialize a novel. This could be a good resource for you - https://on.substack.com/p/spotlight-on-fiction
I use five categories (sections) on my moviewise newsletter: Movie Lists! | Guides To Life | Movie Therapy | Ready To Laugh | +Guest Posts (new). It's a great way to organize the content and help readers find things easier. https://moviewise.substack.com
They're called Sections, check your settings panel
Hi, I'd really like to send an invite to a group of email addresses from my account that includes a "subscribe" button and some custom copy in the email. I don't want to subscribe them, just invite them to subscribe. Would your product team be interested in building such a thing? There must be tons of users like me - folks with a group of email addresses we'd like to invite to our new substack pub without being so rude as to opt them in automatically. TIA!
Hey Tarikh, I see where this could be helpful and I am flagging with our product team
Katie, I would love this! I have a larger contact list than substack subscribers, but I'd like to convert them! Would love to be able to send emails to non-subscribers
Thanks so much @Katie, also this feature isn't just for folks getting started, I would regularly like to invite folks after starting and want to give them an "opt-in" option for that for courtesy purposes - so email, sent from substack, with custom copy (could be a private post) and a "subscribe" button. I think it'd be a big hit with all your customers! Feel free to have product team get in touch with me if they have questions :)
Will do!
This would be helpful. I made the mistake of automatically subscribing my email list and when I realized I unsubscribed them and couldn't add those back who were interested.
Any thoughts on promoting one another on our substacks? If any fellow writers want to get featured in my substack/feature mine in theirs, reply. I think the best way to grow and go far is to do it together. You can see mine here https://youtopianjourney.substack.com/
I'm adding Guest Posts (a section) to my moviewise newsletter for anyone interested in sharing movie recommendations and the Life Lessons they've found in those movies.
https://moviewise.substack.com
Yoooooooooo! This is dope!
My question: getting more notice for new posts. Google News will pick up the smallest mentions of me in local blogs, Patch, etc. but never for the latest Substack post. Is there a trick to this that I'm missing? My newsletter is http://jeffersongraham.substack.com
I’m 5 months into this and still haven’t done any PR/marketing or updates to my site because I just can’t self promote. I will continue to procrastinate unless I find a work around to do the necessary marketing but not about myself. Advice ?
It’s an easy and genuine share on social media. Not so much pushing yourself as it is letting people know you’ve created this and you’re inviting them to take a look.
Ah yes I share on Twitter and Facebook and that’s where I get almost all my traffic. But I know I need to do the about page and what I am unique things and all that stuff which I can’t do.
To Substack Writers:
I would love to hear from those who have either created a second newsletter within your main one and/or created 2 separate newsletters....your reasoning behind either decision and any feedback on how they are working for you? Thank you. 📰
Hi! To grow in substack you must have an audience on other social (Youtube, Instagram...)
Have you got any suggest on how to grow without an audience? How the people can to find my newsletter on the app? Thanks a lot!
I disagree with that first statement! We have a lot of great learnings and tips from folks who have built a successful Substack without a pre-existing following. Here are two to start - https://on.substack.com/p/going-paid-the-defiant, https://on.substack.com/p/how-petition-grew-their-newsletter
WoW THE DEFIANT! What an edifying read!
And you gave me a great link to Lenny's Newsletter (lennysnewsletter.substack.com), plus you gave me one about how he great his list (from nothing) - I can't find that one right now, but if you have it, could you share it again? It was amazingly helpful and might help Enrico.
Thanks a lot for the resources, i'll read it!
This is the link! https://on.substack.com/p/how-lenny-rachitsky-earned-65000
Thanks a lot Bailey and Heater. I didn't think that Substack have this big community
I would also check out this thread for more ideas and tips: https://on.substack.com/p/office-hours-9/comments#comment-2439339
I am looking for other newsletter writers who are willing to do cross-marketing.
I run a Substack called Asian Century Stocks (www.asiancenturystocks.com), which focuses on stock ideas within the Asia Pacific region.
I am looking for other Substacks in the region who might want to collaborate, perhaps by interviewing each other. I found that it's been helpful to bring in new readers to each other's Substacks. Here is a recent collaboration for your reference: https://www.asiancenturystocks.com/p/10-questions-with-aaron-pek
Let me know if this might be of interest to you.
I'm not in a similar space but love the idea. Good luck. 🙌
Hey Michael! I run a curated newsletter called 10+1 Things where I share 11 interesting things for the curious minds. Let's connect?
https://Rishikesh.substack.com
I write YouTopian Journey, your readers may dig it. https://youtopianjourney.substack.com/
I have a Substack called Piffany and want to fully launch the new expanded version of it, growing it by folding in elements from my pre-existing comedy news website of 14 years, as well as my pre-existing interview podcast of 6 years. How can I do that smoothly via Sections without completely disrupting my pre-existing sites? Any advice or pointing me to the right person would be fabulous, thanks!
Hey Sean! I think we might have chatted in a previous office hours.
I think what you want to import from your past posts from your blog and podcast.
Here is how to do that for blog: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037830351-How-do-I-import-my-posts-from-another-platform-such-as-Mailchimp-WordPress-TinyLetter-Revue-or-Medium-
And podcast: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037830571-How-do-I-import-my-podcast-episodes-from-elsewhere-
Hi Katie! Yes. But since then, I've developed a more formal and specific plan for how I want to grow Piffany moving forward (and into paid, too!). Can I talk to you or someone else outside of office hours, perchance? Thanks!
From time to time Substack profiles pages. What is the criteria to be considered for profile
Which profiles are you talking about? We are always looking for inspiring Substacks! Tell us about them here: https://bitly.com/substackstowatch
I wonder about this, too...
Hi, for some reason it asks me to log in every time I try to respond to a comment from the email. Readers also have told me they have problems logging in to post a comment. Do you know what's causing it? Thank you!!!
Hi Tessa and Anne,
Sorry for this confusion! If a publication you are visiting has a unique domain (e.g. not www.publication.substack.com but rather www. publication.com) you can quickly navigate to the top of the page and click "login" and should be able to login with one click. These types of publications are not automatically logged in.
If it takes longer than that, it is likely that your information was not saved in your browser.
Hope that helps.
Thank you Katie! In my case, it is a regular Substack publication (on Substack, not on my own domain). It started happening a couple of months ago, and still happening. Whenever I try to respond to a comment from an email, it asks me to log in (and takes several clicks to do that because it first tries to send me an email instead of letting me put in the password, etc.) Hope this detail helps!!! Thank you again.
Appreciate the additional context and sharing with our team!
Agree! Do think it’s stopping some folks from commenting!
Going to re-ask since it got a number of agreement replies below - what's the aspect ratio that a thumbnail image is not cropped at? A lot of us are doing things like adding custom art to our stacks, so it's important to try to have non-cropped images.
Hey,
Any resources or thoughts on writing an attractive headline? I have seen some publishers using the issue number as the headline and others using catchy lines.
My newsletter is a curated one and has multiple topics discussed in a single issue. Was wondering what is a proven way for better engagement?
For example my latest issue is titled: Build a City, Curator Economy, Hacking Tractors and Microneedles.
Link: https://rishikesh.substack.com/p/build-a-cuty-curator-economy
Any feedback is appreciated!
Hey Rishi!
WTF SEO offers great tips for writing SEO friendly headlines: https://wtfseo.substack.com/p/three-tips-to-write-effective-seo
Hot and spicy headlines sell. Ask yourself if you'd click on it.
Hi,
Thanks for doing this.
My main thing is still finding a way to make it clearer for free subs who are logged out of substack on a particular device/browser and that want to become paid sub that they need to log in to see the paid options.
Many readers have expressed to me that they're confused and can't find it, because when they click the "subscribe" button I put in my NL, they just get the page with an empty field to put your email (and they're already free subs, so don't want to re-sub again).
Thank you 💚 🥃
L
Hey L!
We're flagging with our team and hoping to make it easier on you and your readers. Sorry for the trouble!
Thank you Katie!
Can I make one of the secondary newsletters paid only?
Yes you can! Are you referring a separate publication or section of an existing publication?
There is now the option to create separate publications under the name of the main newsletter. Can these separate section be paid only and how do you do it?
The way to do that would be simply to make all post in that section "paid only"
Once they are mailed, do they stay "paid only" on the site?
Hey, folks. I'm interested in answers to the first bullet above -- viz., "How do you communicate to readers what makes your publication unique?" Beyond a solid About page and author bio, what other strategies, tips, etc. do you recommend for communicating uniqueness?
We wrote a guide on this topic a few weeks back in case you haven't yet seen it: https://on.substack.com/p/how-to-polish-your-publications-about
Our recommendations are below, and would love to hear from other writers out there!
A great one-line description clearly and concisely highlights what makes your publication special – what differentiates it from the other newsletters out there. For some writers, that’s their years of domain expertise; for others, it’s their unique voice and personality; and for yet others, it’s covering a niche that nobody else will or can.
Your one-liner should signal who the target audience is and why they might subscribe. The goal should be for a reader to read your one-liner and say, “that’s me!”
Start by asking yourself:
Who wants to read your publication? You may have multiple reader types, and consider both demographic characteristics and personality types.
Why do readers want to read your publication? E.g. motivation, humor, breaking news, professional development.
If you’re still stuck, read through positive comments and replies from readers, or think of one reader you know by name, and write the one-liner just for them. Your readers can often articulate your publication’s value proposition even better than you can!
Here’s some inspiration:
Kosmic Cooking Club: Straight from an herbalist's kitchen to your inbox, you'll get weekly herbal recipes designed to keep you inspired and nourished.
Technically: Technically explains software in a simple and engaging way so you can impress your boss.
Tangle: An independent, ad-free, non-partisan politics newsletter that offers both sides of the biggest news stories every day.
Flow State: Every weekday, two hours of music perfect for working.
Thanks, Bailey. I have seen and perused that (very helpful) guide. I'd love to hear other strategies as well -- formats, use of images and layouts, varying types of posts (an essay, say, followed by a later post asking a question), etc.
I am wondering how much to draw from my real life in my Substack newsletter. My life veers toward the incredible and the two problems I have with sharing too much truth is: 1) It’s so amazing people might not even believe it (both in a good way and in a terrible way.) 2) I don’t know that I want to share too much, because I used to be a private person. I like the idea of doing a Substack newsletter and am flattered that I have the opportunity to do so, and I am pre-brainstorming at this point.
I can relate to this. I have had crazy things happen in my life, I don't share them very often at all though. I was a blogger many years ago and I shared a lot of my life. I think it all comes down to your audience. People may not have the experiences you've had but what do they have in common with you or what interest do they have that your stories touch on? Also, you can emphasize the unbelievable nature of things: "yes this really happened, crazy right?"
Totally. I don’t really tend to think about my audience very much, to be honest, I feel like it may be putting the cart before the horse, when, like myself, you haven’t gotten started yet. I do know that my friends and family always are intrigued, entertained and baffled at my life, but therein lies the catch: my life is not up for interpretation. What happens is what happens, and I don’t always like to hear opinions about it. I’m a highly moral person, so it’s not about judgement, but rather eyebrows raised like “holy sh*t” and I’m all “Told Ya’!”
In my experience, people crave connection with the true stories from other people's lives. These stories can be very powerful - helping people to have less shame, have more options, have more confidence. Just knowing someone else went through something I'm going through helps me to feel seen and not alone. That said, it's super hard to share sometimes. I'd say go for it.
Minimize your future potential regrets
I live life with no regrets. And on that note, I’m going to peace out.✌🏻
I'm making that shift too, Jennifer. My blog continues to be pie based. My Substack newsletter is a place for me to share what goes on in my mind.
Thanks for sharing, Kate. I guess all newsletters are about what goes on in real life, and in one’s mind, too, of course. I’m a huge dessert person so I bet your newsletter is fun.
I guess this fundamentally a question about non fiction vs. fiction.
I am at day one with Substack and would like to launch a newletter/podcast soon. What is the most important thing to focus on?
Your ability to write regularly. All too many newsletters start with a bang and then fizzle out after a few weeks or months.
Scott, thanks for sharing this insight!
I would say quality, without a doubt. Clear writing, nice images, interesting topics. Regular posting is also important.
Thank you, Florence for your helpful insights!
Hey all,
I want to ask some question that you might face too in substack. Do you know why my subscribers need to sign in again when they want to comment on my post? And sometimes our email goes to their promotions not their inbox. Please let me know if any of you have this issue - I’m trying to resolve this! Thank you before.
Hey, someone. I would like to know how to preview a post before I commit it to posterity and embarrass myself. Thanks!
Ok. Here is the deal. It is hard enough to get people to subscribe and then to keep them reading. Most of them have a gmail ID. And the ********* at Google have no clue what the hell their algorithm is doing but more likely maliciously sidelining newsletters. To add to this you guys go ahead and create a new ID for every folder that I create. Now I have viveksrinivasan+thoughts@substrack.com and two other ID sending mails on my behalf. Why?
Why is substack sabotaging its writers because some coder wanted to find a half assed solution to classifying comments or something like that?
I've missed the Office Hours but I have an administrative question: I just started my blog yesterday and am just getting to know Substack's platform....one thing I discovered is that when I tried to search for my page -- another person with the same name comes up....how can I fix this? The page doesn't let me edit that?? HELP! thanks!!
I like the hover cards! They are very helpful. I also noticed that search is working much better. It's so nice to see continual improvement and added features. Thank you so much Substack!!
what are costs, if any?
Wondering when we will be able to embed TikTok videos in the same way as YouTube and Vimeo - it’s time!
Are there costs associated with this service?
Well maybe sometimes later still fighting on a Hoban abuse and how people need to fuight it also money is not good not all of us feel we should sell our heritage
Can I remove annual subscriptions and only have monthly? If so how do I go about doing that?
This is for paid subscriptions.
Hi. We write the Global Economic Outlook (G.E.O), a weekly publication analyzing various economic events across the world.
Want to appreciate the Substack team for this very informative session as always.
Please feel free to subscribe to our publication: https://ecofinar.substack.com/