Readers’ impressions of your publication aren’t just about your writing. They also respond to the overall look and feel of your Substack website and posts. We recently introduced new features, including homepage layouts and tags, adding to a suite of ways you can customize and organize your Substack.
Today, we invite writers to share how they are using these tools and ask questions about how they work.
Plus, read stories about how writers with varying design skills, interests, and resources are finding a way to create an aesthetic that matches their writing.
I want to take a moment to thank the team at Substack for listening and responding to our asks. I know it’s not possible to do all of them at once, but week after week I see updates and new changes. Thanks for being responsive!
🧠Hello all, and happy Office Hours! Here's a little bit of encouragement from one small newsletter to all of you:
Today, I'm going to preach to myself. And I hope it resonates with some of you, too! Recently I was reading a journal that I kept during the early days of March 2020. And one line that I wrote to myself stood out: "You are not weak, or this would not have been tasked to you."
At that time, I didn't know all of the hardships that were coming my way. I didn't know about what was about to happen with my job, propelling me into writing fulltime. I certainly didn't know what Substack was! I just believed in the impossible belief that I was in the right place, however lost I felt.
Writer, hear me: you are not weak, or this craft of writing would not have been tasked to you. This is not an easy adventure, but it's a good one. Please don't stop, and please don't be discouraged. You're stronger than you think!
Most importantly: keep going, keep writing, and DON'T GIVE UP! 🌿
🟧 I'm very happy to see the introduction of tags, but I have some questions about how to use them.
I went through and added tags to all my posts. Most posts have one to four tags; the tags refer to the main topics that each post centers on. I ended up with 24 tags at this point, and 10 of those tags have enough posts that I want to call readers' attention to them. I created a page called Topics. This page lists the tags that have two or more posts, and a brief description of why readers might be interested in those particular posts:
I would expect tags to appear on a post's page, because that's how almost every site that's ever implemented tags has used them. When a reader finds a post interesting, they click on one of the tags, and they can find more content that's relevant to their interests. As far as I can see, Substack doesn't do this!
So, my questions are:
- Is there any plan to have tags appear on post pages automatically? I don't want to have to add them manually, and manually-added tags are really susceptible to link rot. But, I want to see them there because they're great for helping readers find relevant posts.
- Can you explain some of the thinking behind tags? It really feels like, given the current implementation, they're an attempt to address people's confusion around Sections rather than implementing a full tagging system. These seem like categories, not tags.
🧠 I have set a goal of spending 15 minutes on Notes every day to interact with other writers and find new substacks to subscribe to. This has brought more traffic to my own publication and created a couple new free subscribers.
✏️ Any other personal essay/humorists over here? Also, I'd appreciate feedback on the project I'm currently working on "40 before 40" I'm writing 40 essays before I turn 40 years old in December as a memoir-ish exercise in writing.
I need to get deeper into this now that I have 500 subs…game on! BTW, I use www.pexels.com for free imagery - just need to mention the source and photographer…great content there…
A quick tip that I saw elsewhere and wanted to share here: It can be worth having a "header" to your email which briefly re-introduces your publication, so that readers can remember why they subscribed to you. For example, at the top of mine I have:
"Hi there. You’re reading "Ironclad Creative,” my newsletter to help freelancers, content creators, and business owners deal with the challenges of an ever-changing world. If you want to work effectively, create beautiful content, be successful, and build trust, then I hope you find inspiration here.
If this newsletter is useful to you, I’d love it if you could forward it to a friend, share it, or hit that like button. Thanks so much! Paul."
I don't know if it helps, but I figure it can't hurt!
Edited to add: You're welcome to copy this wording for your own newsletter if it's helpful :)
✏️ Hi! Longtime listener, first-time caller. I'm wondering if people have success with doing occasional (or even regular?) stories outside their niche? I normally write humorously about travel/trying new things, and all of the anxiety-inducing problems adventuring can bring. But I'm working on a sort of essay about my quest to clear out years' worth of emails from my inbox and become a more organized person. In a way, this is trying a new thing (i.e. getting my life together), so I thought I might be able to use it for Substack. But the essay is more serious and less focused on actually, you know, leaving the house to try new things. How have people fared when they venture outside of what they've been doing? I am sure it depends on many factors, but I'd love to hear others' experiences. Is it better to try to frame it as something that sort of IS related to my niche, or to own it and say "I'm doing something different this week?"
🧠 Some tips that I've accumulated from my own experience with Substack
1) Watch out when pasting passages with quotes! When pasting in from other editors, sometimes you can end up with smart quotes that go the wrong way. I use the browser's find feature to do a quick scan though to make sure the quotes are all straight.
2) If you paste text with embedded links from a Substack post into a Note, it looks fine when you paste it…but then barfs once the Note is posted. Give your Note a look once it's posted to make sure it looks right.
3) Take some time to dig through all the settings in your writer dashboard. Some things are buried many layers deep, or hard to find. For example, did you know you can manage which blurbs that other writers have written about your substack that appear on your welcome page?
4) Now that we have Tags, use them instead of Sections unless you have a really really good reason to want people to be able to sub/unsub to different sections. That said, don't get too excited about putting in a million tags; you'll probably want to change them, etc, and most people will just use the search on your archive page to find posts.
5) Also in Settings: consider turning on the Notes tab, so that people who find your Stack can also find your Notes.
6) Revisit and update your Home, About and Welcome pages regularly. Don't forget that you may have pinned certain posts and may want to update those as well.
Keep writing, have fun, and as Charlie Becker put it recently, "Do the weirdest thing that feels right."
AN ORDINARY DISASTER
A book-length memoir of a man thrashing against being alone—and then learning to live with the fact that we are _all_ alone, serialized right here on Substack:
🟧 Suggestion for Substack on the new homepage layout. I'd love to be able to specify which article I want in which spot on the homepage. To get them to land where I want them in the five highlighted posts, they have to be selected in a very specific order. I'd love to be able to say I want this article in spot 1, this article in spot 2, etc. without having to figure out what order to pin them in.
🟧 -Hi! I've been talking in Notes with many smaller creators who are concerned about the way substack mostly seems to promote larger accounts. Smaller accounts can have a lot of trouble gaining traction, and often feel like they're yelling into the void. The fact that search doesn't work very well on notes doesn't help.
Again, these concerns do seem to resonate with a lot of creators. I hope substack will consider ways in which it might create regular forums for highlighting smaller accounts, and perhaps search features that make it easier to locate topic specific writers, or people with a smaller footprint.
🟧 Congrats on the latest tags addition! One comment about tags.
I think the homepage navigation bar can become super busy if we have too many topics. Therefore I suggest placing tags in 2 places: 1) Allocate a nicely designed sub-menu for topics generated from tags and 2) place respective tags at the footer of each post.
🟧 Could we have the option to add a drop-down menu of links to the navigation bar, please?
In my case, each email contains several themed sections and I would like to add anchor links to my Homepage (i.e. https://unfoundvideo.substack.com/i/116898342/components) to let visitors drop right into the section that attracts them from the archive. I'm sure other writers would find it handy too. Thanks!
🟧 - So excited to implement tags on Adventure Snack! I've been looking for a way to organize my games by genre for awhile (fantasy, sci-fi, etc).
Are tags planned to work only within individual Substacks for the time being? Or should I be tagging with the idea that in the near future, a reader could stumble to my Substack through a public tag?
🟧 Hi all! I love all the tools you are providing so us writers can add a bit of creativity to the appearance of our Substacks. This is really important for long form writing, so can I make some further suggestions? I would love if pull quotes actually pulled left and right a little into the white space outside of the main block of text, with maybe the option to add an image. I would love to be able to add drop capitals to differentiate sections. I would love to have the option to justify text rather than ragged right. I would love to be able to centre headings. I have no idea how difficult it might be to implement, but I wonder if the Substack team might consider such changes for the future.
🟧 is there any way to erase my own views on posts? By that I mean: I access and re-access posts regularly so I can link back and forth, and I see my activity always impacting the amount of views my newsletter gets. Like, some days I'll see an enormous spike, and that's because I'm in there adjusting things and hopping from post to post.
I know in Google Analytics, for example, you can adjust this to, say, block your IP from reporting. But I haven't run across anything like that in Substack just yet. I'd love to get a more accurate view on not just views, but on the funnel as a whole (View --> Subscribe --> Paid (or whatever action).
🟧 You know that there are people who use Substack that don't live in the USA, right? I know that may be difficult to believe but some of us live in "other countries". 😱
🧠 I use my Substack to teach and help writers master the art and business of the literary newsletter and strengthen their writing habits. That means offering workshops via Substack like this one coming up. I’m using video, which is fun. https://www.writersatwork.net/p/workshop-the-art-of-the-literary
✏️ Would pages be a good option to share a freebie with EXISTING, FREE subscribers?
I know that I can add a link with the freebie to my welcome email for new subscribers. But I'm trying to get it to existing subscribers as well, without it being publicly viewable on my Substack.
To my fellow Substackers: do you prefer black text on white background, or do you enjoy a bit of background color? What about black background and white text? I know that can be hard to read for some. Thinking of starting up my second Substack soon and am in the design planning stages now.
🟧 I posted this as a reply to another writer's post asking about Substack's plans to address content concerns on Notes: I'd like to know this, too. Substack's CEO recently did an interview I found very disturbing that included a refusal to say there would be any effort to moderate content, even if it violated Substack's policies. He all but issued a personal invite to right-wing extremists to say whatever they want on Notes. It bothered me so much that I haven't encouraged my subscribers to use Notes and rarely post or read there myself.
Am I the last one to have a look at the new features? Can't wait to dive in, but it's been so hectic at home I'm finding zero time or energy to write. Barely squeezed out a post written in 30 second bursts. Is it even possible to maintain a writing habit with young kids?
🧠 I love the new site design changes! Since I put a lot of effort in the cover images of my posts, I find that having a layout that highlights those images is very helpful. I think it helps new readers easily see what a post is about and click on it if it sounds interesting.
✏️ Does anybody have any advice on a prominent way to offer student/senior discounts? Is there a way to do this on the subscription page? I have a note on my About and Intro pages, but I’m not sure, following feedback from a reader, that these are prominent enough. Thanks in advance...
✏️ Related to customizing and organizing -- how often, if ever, do you reshare old posts, or link to them in your current posts? And, is there some unwritten guidance on how much time you let elapse before you recycle your content? Here's an example: I wrote this piece last Mother's Day. https://elizabethbeggins.substack.com/p/my-caterpillar-teacher
It's pretty timeless. I worry that sharing anything after just a year could be tedious for engaged readers, but I have gained a lot (for me) of new subscribers in that time. Thinking maybe it's best to link it in a new post.
Thoughts appreciated. I know there's no one right way; just curious how others approach this.
🟧 I’d love to embed my substack onto a page in my website. I’ve already added the sign up code from there, but I’d love to go one step further. I’ve also seen someone (not sure who and how) with a page on their substack that looked like an embedded page from their website and would love to know how to do that. I love the customisation here, I’ve added my wordmark and customised my colours and I’m so pleased with how cohesive and personal it’s looking. Will be continuing to explore further ways to customise 🤩
🟧 Thank you for the Notes tab! If you added an option to replace the Most Popular home page column with a Notes feed, my life would be complete. Do you have any plans to do this?
Those of us who work in multiple media formats could use a Notes feed to pull in our videos and other media that might be hosted elsewhere (YouTube, etc.), and make our home page a real hub for all of the content we're creating.
Honestly, I haven't tried any of the new tools yet. I've been busy with other projects, including creating a free "Depression and Anxiety Survival Kit" that I'm very proud of. You can get it here: wendigordon.gumroad.com
🧠 I have loads of sections, and would like to add one or two more. Part of the reason is that until recently we didn't have the tags facility. But I just wondered, given that the navigation bar is getting crowded now, how other writers have handled this situation. I write at https://terryfreedman.substack.com/ by the way. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
✏️ I'm curious if anyone has had luck expanding a substack from one writer to several writers and/or bringing in a contract copy-editor to help out?
I'm thinking of starting to grow a bit more/faster and wondering if you all have any insights into how that works for you all, particularly around process. :)
hi All, anyone any thoughts on engagement rates and what to expect? I'm recently new, have about 1,000 visits and about 50 free subs. All in about 2.5 months. Is this par for the course or not? Views and experiences welcome!!
🟧 and ✏️ I make all wordmark/email header/welcome page/icon graphics with a transparent background. But I recently updated my newsletter icon, and also with one graphic in my last newsletter- they aren't transparent! I re-downloaded them from Canva and that did not solve the issue. Some work just fine. Anyways, wondering if anyone has some insight!
🟧 I recently changed the name of my newsletter and I was wondering if I can redirect the links on older posts to the new publication? The posts are all there but since the name changed they did not automatically redirect. This is making me go to previous 240 posts and change the links myself. Any suggestion? The publication is https://mindbodygoal.substack.com/ and an example of old post with broken link is -https://mindbodygoal.substack.com/p/i-have-big-goals-and-i-have-rules
I love the new features (layout, tags, Notes) - it arrived at just the right time as I had an idea for content that didn't fit in my newsletters because of the frequency of publication. Notes solved that problem. The magazine layout turns out to support my content - pin my monthly theme post/newsletter and weekly prompts float around it. It's so cool, I love it!
🟧 - I have several sections on my site, and I would like to add people to a specific one, but not the main one. Is there a way to do that? Or to segment a list so only people not on one list or on two lists gets an email?
🟧 Will there be more than two threads in Writer Office Hours at some point? I'm very grateful for the attempt to provide some organization by topic, since it used to be impossible to wade through all of the comments to find those most helpful and relevant to me. However, the current thread options are so limited. Even just a third "miscellaneous" thread would be nice, but I'd especially appreciate more specific threads like "how to get more paid subscribers," "how to stand out and get discovered when you don't have many subscribers," and "newsletters about topic x (mental health in my case)."
🟧 Great work so far (especially tags). An improvement I'd like to see next... I'd like an additional level of organization for the navigation bar - a customizable drop-down option that would let me group multiple items under a single nav bar item (versus the current long and undifferentiated line of links). So I might make a top-level nav bar item called "Topics", and on the drop-down tied to that item I'd link to each of my tag pages (etc.). I already see this on some sites (Bulwark+ has exactly what I want https://plus.thebulwark.com/) but I guess they did that with some extra coding that's not in my skill set...
🟧 - Thank you to the Substack team for doing these office hours every week! I’m wondering if Substack will ever offer multiple tier-based pricing (like Patreon)?
I’m just starting out with my newsletter and I’d love to be able to allow my readers to support me at different levels and receive different benefits for this.
To help organize the conversation, please use one of the following emojis when you start a new comment.
✏️ - when asking questions or seeking feedback from fellow writers
🧠 - when sharing strategy or advice for 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 want to take a moment to thank the team at Substack for listening and responding to our asks. I know it’s not possible to do all of them at once, but week after week I see updates and new changes. Thanks for being responsive!
🧠Hello all, and happy Office Hours! Here's a little bit of encouragement from one small newsletter to all of you:
Today, I'm going to preach to myself. And I hope it resonates with some of you, too! Recently I was reading a journal that I kept during the early days of March 2020. And one line that I wrote to myself stood out: "You are not weak, or this would not have been tasked to you."
At that time, I didn't know all of the hardships that were coming my way. I didn't know about what was about to happen with my job, propelling me into writing fulltime. I certainly didn't know what Substack was! I just believed in the impossible belief that I was in the right place, however lost I felt.
Writer, hear me: you are not weak, or this craft of writing would not have been tasked to you. This is not an easy adventure, but it's a good one. Please don't stop, and please don't be discouraged. You're stronger than you think!
Most importantly: keep going, keep writing, and DON'T GIVE UP! 🌿
🟧 I'm very happy to see the introduction of tags, but I have some questions about how to use them.
I went through and added tags to all my posts. Most posts have one to four tags; the tags refer to the main topics that each post centers on. I ended up with 24 tags at this point, and 10 of those tags have enough posts that I want to call readers' attention to them. I created a page called Topics. This page lists the tags that have two or more posts, and a brief description of why readers might be interested in those particular posts:
https://mostlypython.substack.com/p/topics
I would expect tags to appear on a post's page, because that's how almost every site that's ever implemented tags has used them. When a reader finds a post interesting, they click on one of the tags, and they can find more content that's relevant to their interests. As far as I can see, Substack doesn't do this!
So, my questions are:
- Is there any plan to have tags appear on post pages automatically? I don't want to have to add them manually, and manually-added tags are really susceptible to link rot. But, I want to see them there because they're great for helping readers find relevant posts.
- Can you explain some of the thinking behind tags? It really feels like, given the current implementation, they're an attempt to address people's confusion around Sections rather than implementing a full tagging system. These seem like categories, not tags.
Having a detailed About page has really helped with subscribers. I see so many Substacks with nothing in their About page.
I don’t always have time to read through newsletters so reading the About page gives me an idea of who you are and what you write about.
If there is no About page, I skip the Substack.
I love the look of the new Substacks and the customization options.
I also wanted to mention some other visual and formatting best practices and areas that we can improve when we're writing our newsletter.
- Use clear and distinctive titles and headings that help to signpost the reader as they're going through your writing.
- Break down complex subjects into bulletpoints, these are great for "unordered lists" where you don't need to make statements in a particular order.
- For complex points where you're walking the reader through, step by step, use numbered lists.
- Keep paragraphs short, and just cover one or two key points in each one. Give the reader time to absorb that before moving onto the next para.
- Make good use of whitespace to give the reader's eye a break as they're reading through your newsletter.
- Use horizontal lines and images to break up the text.
- Make sparing use of bold and italic text to highlight important points.
- Use block or pull quotes to add some distinct formatting and call attention to specific areas of your newsletter.
All of these techniques help to make your content more readable, which improves engagement and makes it more likely to be shared.
🧠 I have set a goal of spending 15 minutes on Notes every day to interact with other writers and find new substacks to subscribe to. This has brought more traffic to my own publication and created a couple new free subscribers.
✏️ Any other personal essay/humorists over here? Also, I'd appreciate feedback on the project I'm currently working on "40 before 40" I'm writing 40 essays before I turn 40 years old in December as a memoir-ish exercise in writing.
Happy Thursday!
✏️ What tools do you use to find images or create visuals for your Substack?
I need to get deeper into this now that I have 500 subs…game on! BTW, I use www.pexels.com for free imagery - just need to mention the source and photographer…great content there…
A quick tip that I saw elsewhere and wanted to share here: It can be worth having a "header" to your email which briefly re-introduces your publication, so that readers can remember why they subscribed to you. For example, at the top of mine I have:
"Hi there. You’re reading "Ironclad Creative,” my newsletter to help freelancers, content creators, and business owners deal with the challenges of an ever-changing world. If you want to work effectively, create beautiful content, be successful, and build trust, then I hope you find inspiration here.
If this newsletter is useful to you, I’d love it if you could forward it to a friend, share it, or hit that like button. Thanks so much! Paul."
I don't know if it helps, but I figure it can't hurt!
Edited to add: You're welcome to copy this wording for your own newsletter if it's helpful :)
✏️ Hi! Longtime listener, first-time caller. I'm wondering if people have success with doing occasional (or even regular?) stories outside their niche? I normally write humorously about travel/trying new things, and all of the anxiety-inducing problems adventuring can bring. But I'm working on a sort of essay about my quest to clear out years' worth of emails from my inbox and become a more organized person. In a way, this is trying a new thing (i.e. getting my life together), so I thought I might be able to use it for Substack. But the essay is more serious and less focused on actually, you know, leaving the house to try new things. How have people fared when they venture outside of what they've been doing? I am sure it depends on many factors, but I'd love to hear others' experiences. Is it better to try to frame it as something that sort of IS related to my niche, or to own it and say "I'm doing something different this week?"
🧠 Some tips that I've accumulated from my own experience with Substack
1) Watch out when pasting passages with quotes! When pasting in from other editors, sometimes you can end up with smart quotes that go the wrong way. I use the browser's find feature to do a quick scan though to make sure the quotes are all straight.
2) If you paste text with embedded links from a Substack post into a Note, it looks fine when you paste it…but then barfs once the Note is posted. Give your Note a look once it's posted to make sure it looks right.
3) Take some time to dig through all the settings in your writer dashboard. Some things are buried many layers deep, or hard to find. For example, did you know you can manage which blurbs that other writers have written about your substack that appear on your welcome page?
e.g. https://YOURSUBSTACKHERE.substack.com/publish/settings/blurbs
you can check those blurbs by adding ?showWelcome=true to your URL, e.g.
https://bowendwelle.substack.com/?showWelcome=true
4) Now that we have Tags, use them instead of Sections unless you have a really really good reason to want people to be able to sub/unsub to different sections. That said, don't get too excited about putting in a million tags; you'll probably want to change them, etc, and most people will just use the search on your archive page to find posts.
5) Also in Settings: consider turning on the Notes tab, so that people who find your Stack can also find your Notes.
6) Revisit and update your Home, About and Welcome pages regularly. Don't forget that you may have pinned certain posts and may want to update those as well.
Keep writing, have fun, and as Charlie Becker put it recently, "Do the weirdest thing that feels right."
AN ORDINARY DISASTER
A book-length memoir of a man thrashing against being alone—and then learning to live with the fact that we are _all_ alone, serialized right here on Substack:
https://bowendwelle.substack.com/
🟧 Suggestion for Substack on the new homepage layout. I'd love to be able to specify which article I want in which spot on the homepage. To get them to land where I want them in the five highlighted posts, they have to be selected in a very specific order. I'd love to be able to say I want this article in spot 1, this article in spot 2, etc. without having to figure out what order to pin them in.
🟧 -Hi! I've been talking in Notes with many smaller creators who are concerned about the way substack mostly seems to promote larger accounts. Smaller accounts can have a lot of trouble gaining traction, and often feel like they're yelling into the void. The fact that search doesn't work very well on notes doesn't help.
I wrote about some of these issues here.
https://noahberlatsky.substack.com/p/substack-doesnt-love-the-little-guy
Again, these concerns do seem to resonate with a lot of creators. I hope substack will consider ways in which it might create regular forums for highlighting smaller accounts, and perhaps search features that make it easier to locate topic specific writers, or people with a smaller footprint.
Thanks!
🟧 Congrats on the latest tags addition! One comment about tags.
I think the homepage navigation bar can become super busy if we have too many topics. Therefore I suggest placing tags in 2 places: 1) Allocate a nicely designed sub-menu for topics generated from tags and 2) place respective tags at the footer of each post.
What do you think?
🟧 Could we have the option to add a drop-down menu of links to the navigation bar, please?
In my case, each email contains several themed sections and I would like to add anchor links to my Homepage (i.e. https://unfoundvideo.substack.com/i/116898342/components) to let visitors drop right into the section that attracts them from the archive. I'm sure other writers would find it handy too. Thanks!
🟧 - So excited to implement tags on Adventure Snack! I've been looking for a way to organize my games by genre for awhile (fantasy, sci-fi, etc).
Are tags planned to work only within individual Substacks for the time being? Or should I be tagging with the idea that in the near future, a reader could stumble to my Substack through a public tag?
🟧 Hi all! I love all the tools you are providing so us writers can add a bit of creativity to the appearance of our Substacks. This is really important for long form writing, so can I make some further suggestions? I would love if pull quotes actually pulled left and right a little into the white space outside of the main block of text, with maybe the option to add an image. I would love to be able to add drop capitals to differentiate sections. I would love to have the option to justify text rather than ragged right. I would love to be able to centre headings. I have no idea how difficult it might be to implement, but I wonder if the Substack team might consider such changes for the future.
🟧 is there any way to erase my own views on posts? By that I mean: I access and re-access posts regularly so I can link back and forth, and I see my activity always impacting the amount of views my newsletter gets. Like, some days I'll see an enormous spike, and that's because I'm in there adjusting things and hopping from post to post.
I know in Google Analytics, for example, you can adjust this to, say, block your IP from reporting. But I haven't run across anything like that in Substack just yet. I'd love to get a more accurate view on not just views, but on the funnel as a whole (View --> Subscribe --> Paid (or whatever action).
Thank you!
🟧 You know that there are people who use Substack that don't live in the USA, right? I know that may be difficult to believe but some of us live in "other countries". 😱
🧠 I use my Substack to teach and help writers master the art and business of the literary newsletter and strengthen their writing habits. That means offering workshops via Substack like this one coming up. I’m using video, which is fun. https://www.writersatwork.net/p/workshop-the-art-of-the-literary
🟧 How is substack addressing concerns brought up by Sharon Hurley Hall? https://www.antiracismnewsletter.com/p/trolled-on-substack-notes
✏️ Those who use "sections," what's your thought process in what deserves its own section?
For example, I write 3 essays a month and 1 poem, but I'm not sure the poetry deserves a section rather than a tag... Curious your thoughts.
✏️ Would pages be a good option to share a freebie with EXISTING, FREE subscribers?
I know that I can add a link with the freebie to my welcome email for new subscribers. But I'm trying to get it to existing subscribers as well, without it being publicly viewable on my Substack.
✏️🧠 - Honestly I have decided to stick to no navigation bar and homepage links.
I had to contrast my tendency to be the Master Categoriser to do that 🤪
But I feel like is saving me a lot of work before posting. So that I do not have to think which article goes where.
You can see it here: https://livmkk.substack.com/
I am seriously thinking to use Chat GPT to read my articles and come up with a good welcome message. Anyone has experience with that?
To my fellow Substackers: do you prefer black text on white background, or do you enjoy a bit of background color? What about black background and white text? I know that can be hard to read for some. Thinking of starting up my second Substack soon and am in the design planning stages now.
🟧 I posted this as a reply to another writer's post asking about Substack's plans to address content concerns on Notes: I'd like to know this, too. Substack's CEO recently did an interview I found very disturbing that included a refusal to say there would be any effort to moderate content, even if it violated Substack's policies. He all but issued a personal invite to right-wing extremists to say whatever they want on Notes. It bothered me so much that I haven't encouraged my subscribers to use Notes and rarely post or read there myself.
Am I the last one to have a look at the new features? Can't wait to dive in, but it's been so hectic at home I'm finding zero time or energy to write. Barely squeezed out a post written in 30 second bursts. Is it even possible to maintain a writing habit with young kids?
🧠 I love the new site design changes! Since I put a lot of effort in the cover images of my posts, I find that having a layout that highlights those images is very helpful. I think it helps new readers easily see what a post is about and click on it if it sounds interesting.
✏️ Does anybody have any advice on a prominent way to offer student/senior discounts? Is there a way to do this on the subscription page? I have a note on my About and Intro pages, but I’m not sure, following feedback from a reader, that these are prominent enough. Thanks in advance...
🟧 1. If I edit a post after publication, will the edits show up to readers (for instance, as strikethroughs)?
2. If I edit a post after publication, will the post have a new publication date/time stamp?
3. Can I add tags to previously published posts?
Thank you!
Does anyone know any charities or small businesses using the platform yet? Are we all indies/ writers?
✏️ Related to customizing and organizing -- how often, if ever, do you reshare old posts, or link to them in your current posts? And, is there some unwritten guidance on how much time you let elapse before you recycle your content? Here's an example: I wrote this piece last Mother's Day. https://elizabethbeggins.substack.com/p/my-caterpillar-teacher
It's pretty timeless. I worry that sharing anything after just a year could be tedious for engaged readers, but I have gained a lot (for me) of new subscribers in that time. Thinking maybe it's best to link it in a new post.
Thoughts appreciated. I know there's no one right way; just curious how others approach this.
🟧 I’d love to embed my substack onto a page in my website. I’ve already added the sign up code from there, but I’d love to go one step further. I’ve also seen someone (not sure who and how) with a page on their substack that looked like an embedded page from their website and would love to know how to do that. I love the customisation here, I’ve added my wordmark and customised my colours and I’m so pleased with how cohesive and personal it’s looking. Will be continuing to explore further ways to customise 🤩
🟧 Thank you for the Notes tab! If you added an option to replace the Most Popular home page column with a Notes feed, my life would be complete. Do you have any plans to do this?
Those of us who work in multiple media formats could use a Notes feed to pull in our videos and other media that might be hosted elsewhere (YouTube, etc.), and make our home page a real hub for all of the content we're creating.
🟧 I think customizable welcome pages would be awesome. I’d like to make the “no thanks” a bit more noticeable and maybe change up the layout
How do you edit the alt text of an image? I find that when I try to delete the current text, the menu disappears and the text remains the same.
Honestly, I haven't tried any of the new tools yet. I've been busy with other projects, including creating a free "Depression and Anxiety Survival Kit" that I'm very proud of. You can get it here: wendigordon.gumroad.com
🧠 I have loads of sections, and would like to add one or two more. Part of the reason is that until recently we didn't have the tags facility. But I just wondered, given that the navigation bar is getting crowded now, how other writers have handled this situation. I write at https://terryfreedman.substack.com/ by the way. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
✏️ I'm curious if anyone has had luck expanding a substack from one writer to several writers and/or bringing in a contract copy-editor to help out?
I'm thinking of starting to grow a bit more/faster and wondering if you all have any insights into how that works for you all, particularly around process. :)
This question is for the Substack team and fellow writers.
Is it advisable to 'tag' older posts prior to the introduction of the 'tags' feature?
hi All, anyone any thoughts on engagement rates and what to expect? I'm recently new, have about 1,000 visits and about 50 free subs. All in about 2.5 months. Is this par for the course or not? Views and experiences welcome!!
🟧 and ✏️ I make all wordmark/email header/welcome page/icon graphics with a transparent background. But I recently updated my newsletter icon, and also with one graphic in my last newsletter- they aren't transparent! I re-downloaded them from Canva and that did not solve the issue. Some work just fine. Anyways, wondering if anyone has some insight!
🟧 I recently changed the name of my newsletter and I was wondering if I can redirect the links on older posts to the new publication? The posts are all there but since the name changed they did not automatically redirect. This is making me go to previous 240 posts and change the links myself. Any suggestion? The publication is https://mindbodygoal.substack.com/ and an example of old post with broken link is -https://mindbodygoal.substack.com/p/i-have-big-goals-and-i-have-rules
🟧 Is there a way to make the wordmark bigger? When I tried to customize it,it would always look so small..
I love the new features (layout, tags, Notes) - it arrived at just the right time as I had an idea for content that didn't fit in my newsletters because of the frequency of publication. Notes solved that problem. The magazine layout turns out to support my content - pin my monthly theme post/newsletter and weekly prompts float around it. It's so cool, I love it!
🟧 - I have several sections on my site, and I would like to add people to a specific one, but not the main one. Is there a way to do that? Or to segment a list so only people not on one list or on two lists gets an email?
🟧 Will there be more than two threads in Writer Office Hours at some point? I'm very grateful for the attempt to provide some organization by topic, since it used to be impossible to wade through all of the comments to find those most helpful and relevant to me. However, the current thread options are so limited. Even just a third "miscellaneous" thread would be nice, but I'd especially appreciate more specific threads like "how to get more paid subscribers," "how to stand out and get discovered when you don't have many subscribers," and "newsletters about topic x (mental health in my case)."
🟧 Great work so far (especially tags). An improvement I'd like to see next... I'd like an additional level of organization for the navigation bar - a customizable drop-down option that would let me group multiple items under a single nav bar item (versus the current long and undifferentiated line of links). So I might make a top-level nav bar item called "Topics", and on the drop-down tied to that item I'd link to each of my tag pages (etc.). I already see this on some sites (Bulwark+ has exactly what I want https://plus.thebulwark.com/) but I guess they did that with some extra coding that's not in my skill set...
🟧 - Thank you to the Substack team for doing these office hours every week! I’m wondering if Substack will ever offer multiple tier-based pricing (like Patreon)?
I’m just starting out with my newsletter and I’d love to be able to allow my readers to support me at different levels and receive different benefits for this.
Thanks!