Is growth top of mind? Ask for advice and share your best strategic tips with your fellow writers on growing your list and converting free readers to paid subscribers.
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Thanks Katie! I look forward to these posts. You can get the word out and find so many opportunities to grow your page here. Like this...https://benwoestenburg.substack.com/about
My favorite part of Thursdays! Love the new, more focused format, too. I would like to be able to close up the comments, as we did before, and there's still the issue of 'losing' a comment as the site refreshes, but those are just technical issues.
The overall feeling here is one of community and camaraderie and I love it!
The Grow interview you linked to happens to be the only one I've already read. It was interesting. But, while I was impressed with what those guys did despite supposedly not having any credentials, I have to admit that they didn't feel super-relatable (to me — obviously, everyone is different).
I hope there are or will be some interviews with successful Substackers who are just ordinary schleps. I know there are plenty of them. Maybe some stories of growth from, say, 100 to 1000 subscribers so we noobs don't feel like it's out-of-reach.
Don't get me wrong, though. Perfectly Imperfect was a good interview and enjoyable read. Those guys earned all the recognition they are getting.
I do sometimes get some ideas from the grow series, but many seem indeed not very applicable, whereas the category from 100 to 1000 is very fitting for me now. I'm there, and I am not completely sure what is contributing to my growth. I saw a bunch of new subscribers last month, and I have no real idea why.
I agree Bob, I'd enjoy reading some organic growth posts about someone who perhaps never expected to grow their Substack so much.
For me, I'm not using social media of Twitter/FB/Instagram, so if there are people out there doing it the same then I'd be keen to hear different thoughts.
I love these interviews. They help keep me motivated and inspired. I've definitely learned something from each of them! Would love to see more stories of people who've grown their Substacks from scratch (no prior claim to fame or built-in audiences).
I like them very much. I'm open to any tips that might help me grow my newsletters, but I will say I take the advice of the more famous and successful writers with a grain of salt.
Most of them come with a built-in audience or have ways of promoting we can only dream of. Some of them are people you at Substack brought in yourselves, so any advice they might give to those of us who have to start from scratch is almost irrelevant.
I'm more interested in writers who have built their newsletters up from scratch and are growing and happy with the results.
I like these. There's always at least one good nugget. It helps to be reminded. Some people are quite ingenious about it -- I think the people think about it in unorthodox ways are my favorite interviews.
I'm also surprised sometimes at how out-of-the-box some people think and how they combine growing their content with growing their subscribers. The newsletters gets more interesting and at the same time it gets in front of more people. I think that for me one of the biggest take away was how collaborations play such a big role in the growth curve.
I can't remember anything in particular, but at the time I read them I usually take one particular thing the person has done and either try it myself or add it to a 'to try' list. So they are definitely useful, and encouraging
Hi Bailey, jumping on this Grow thread, no doubt will want to read all 3 eventually :)
I read each Grow interview and look for ideas - I find something relatable / usable about half the time. There are so many different types of authors on Substack with differing models and objectives. I don't expect every interview to fit with what I am trying to achieve.
For example, the one about the 3 "pirates" who write collaboratively was very helpful.
Seems there is an appetite for more insights into those authors without pre-existing brands / huge pre-Substack email lists, who have made meaningful progress, and how.
To echo what Bob Merberg said, the Grow interviews are great but not relatable. In these interviews, the people had large social media presences to pull from. I worked in media as a reporter for EW Scripts and an ABC affiliate. Each time I left a publication or a TV station, I lost basically all of my work and most of my social media followers. I did freelance work for various companies based on different topics, but nothing cohesive enough to build a dedicated social following. I debated as to whether to even start a Substack instead of building out a paywalled website, which I know how to do as a former social and digital media manager. However, as a member of the Author’s Guild, I have been part of several webinars talking about different growth opportunities and Substack was part of that. But part of the Substack community are people who are working on building both social followers and Substack followers, so it would be nice to have Grow interviews with people who started with nothing and built up. Miigwech! (thank you in Chippewa)
They're very helpful! I always learn something, and they're good reminder that while there are best practices for growth, there's no *right* way to grow.
I love reading the Grow series. And while I'm curious about the growth tips shared in these interviews I think that I'm excited to discover new Substacks. If there is one thing that all these Substacks have in common is good content, and I'm always fascinated by their growth journey in terms of how the content they deliver evolved over time and how they learned what brings value to their subscribers.
I would like to see more examples of fiction, literature, game, comedy writers and their journeys on Substack. I know that fiction authors don't have huge followings on Substack like other type of newsletters... would be interesting to know why and also understand how the audience of a fiction newsletter is different than the audience of, say, a business or a lifestyle newsletter. Also, is there a type of creative writing that is more engaging than the others? Thank you.
This. Would love to see some growth interviews from fellow fiction writers.
(And to add to Claudia's point, these threads are in themselves a slow but steady way of ensuring growth. I perhaps wouldn't have found Claudia's Substack were it not for such threads.)
I loved Action Cookbook I resonated most with his approach of writing about anything happening in his world and the way he structures free and paid posts. I love his writing voice, too!
I love hearing tips and how people grow, and I also don't find it too inspiring if it's someone who was like, an editor somewhere major or just well known and posted on IG "hey I'm moving to Substack with a newsletter!" then their hundreds or thousands of fans just followed.
Don't mind hearing about them! They just don't resonate as deeply as "helpful" since they already had a pretty big audience that would convert to a pretty hefty following over onto Substack.
I’ve always gotten an idea or two that I think adds to my newsletter or at least will get readers to engage. While I cannot relate to the trajectory, I’m hoping to build more quickly. I am not banging out fiction but I’ve gotten into a more comfortable routine with just getting ideas, keeping up with deadlines or deliverables, and publishing. It’s a process that brings joy which I think is worth a lot.
Great advice. I keep reminding myself that word of mouth is probably the most important factor for growth, and for that to work, you have to have great writing to show people. If they enjoy what you put out, they'll come back and they will tell others about you. Here's hoping I'm lucky/talented enough to run a great newsletter.
Totally agree. Even in the Grow series, interview after interview I can see that all the newsletters that stand out have great content. The work and craft that go into those newsletters is unbelievable.
So true, even for the newsletters who are small like mine. We tend to think that we have nothing to give (yet). But that's not true. Being an engaged member of the Substack community, showing interest in other people's work and supporting them are always welcomed (right?).
Thanks Nathan, I am working on my next short story and I hope to have it ready for Monday. I already rewrote it so many times, I'm getting tired 😩 but at some point it has to stop. Otherwise I'll keep rewriting it for the rest of my life.
I just did the same thing with my latest post. I rewrote it too many times, editing and reshuffling and changing. Glad to have had my self-imposed Substack deadline.
Send it out there. It's OK if it's not perfect. It'll never be perfect. Nothing ever is. But that's OK, it's what we strive for and keeps us going :)
To probably use totally the wrong term, perfection is the asymptote of creativity.
All very well put by the best citizens on Substack. All I would add is take advantage of any opportunity to participate in Office Hours or any other forum offered by Substack - it can always lead to a new subscriber/reader. I also fundamentally believe that anyone who approaches this work in good faith will make his/her/their own luck.
I was very shy to participate in the Office Hours in the first 5 months of my journey on Substack. I didn't want to seem like I'm pushing myself out there... but after I started participating in the talks I realised how silly I was.
There is, of course, a level of self-promotion when participating in the threads, but I was surprised by how much I enjoy exchanging thoughts (and sometimes jokes) with the community, reading what other writers think, discovering interesting newsletters... now I'm looking forward each week to the Office Hours. Also, everyone is very decent and only a very small percentage of people just shamelessly push their newsletters without contributing. This shows what a good crowd this is. 👏
It's honestly one of the nicest internet discussions places I've ever come across. It makes sense, because everyone here is writing on Substack, so there's a good pre-filter, but I still find it surprising and warming to read all the kind messages of support and advice.
Exactly, it feels like a real community, like a conversation. Not just everyone talking at each other. 😂 Or worse, insulting each other as I so often see on Twitter.
well said robert - it is my 2 year birthday on Substack this week and fellow Substackers have been supporting me alot with recommendations for a feature, great platform and community of wordy types :)
What great advice. I’ve just started out a few months ago and am slowly finding my grove with writing. Slow and steady is how I’m approaching substack, I’ve just discovered to wisdom in Office Hours.
I so believe that! It's a matter of being patient. Word of mouth usually starts off as a whisper before it becomes a shout. One of the things I like to do is SHARE my "About" page, so people can see what I have to offer. Like this: https://benwoestenburg.substack.com/about If you share it when you make a comment--not every time because that's "troll'ish", isn't it?--but once in a while so that people reading your comment might be inclined to looking at your profile.
If you use the button 'Submit a newsletter', your Substack newsletters will be pulled automatically from Substack and sent out. You get a weekly overview of your performance on the sample.ai. And if someone subscribes, you get a csv file with the email that you can either copy-paste or import to Substack.
I signed on with them for the free option a few weeks (months?) back. As they suggest is likely, I picked up some new subscribers (less than 10), and now it's tapered off. Can't expect much from a free service. I'm sure it would improve if I were willing, and able, to sink some money into it.
I had the same experience and I'm curious if the paid option works better. I also wonder if the audience of the sample.ai prefers a certain type of content. I had a newsletter about how Substacks helped me find my writing process that brought in 3 subscribers (0.8% conversion). I wonder if their audience consists mainly of writers...
This worked well for me for about the first two weeks that I was on The Sample, and then I didn't get many more after that. Grateful for that initial batch, though!
The same happened to me. I got 12 subscribers the first week or so and a lot of traffic but now...zilch. I'm wondering if you have to start paying to keep the benefits?
My guess is that the referral links play a big role. I haven't personally tried using them though so am curious if people really did see a difference from using the referrals.
It's a (free) service that will send your email out to their audience. Readers can then subscribe to it. That's obviously helpful, but if you like to /read/ newsletters, it's good for seeing new ones you might not've other wise. There's also a dashboard of all participating writers, so you can connect/collaborate.
The more you use it, the better it gets at knowing what you want to read. On the writing side, the more traffic you send their way, the more they'll send your work out.
I feel a bit like the doom and gloom but I have to say that quality work doesn’t always rise to the top on Substack - from my experience, it’s a huge social media following or being promoted by those with a large Substack following that seems to work best. But there’s something to be said for not panicking about growth and keeping true to yourself in terms of what you write, not always chasing the numbers but rather the connections that truly appreciate what you do and read it!
The focus on growth can be somewhat demoralising if you spend too much time dwelling on it. I love to see the stats, but really I want to be reading and writing quality, interesting and inspiring work, even if it's for a limited audience. Over time, I'd like to hope that anyone writing such work will be found and rise, but it just might be a slower process. But that's OK. The journey is everything.
Totally agree that actually there’s something about having a more niche audience that truly appreciates how you write and your unique voice. Part of me isn’t looking for large numbers or amazing stats as then that might mean I’m too mainstream or middle of the road! But maybe I am just very strange about what matters to me!
I agree so much, sometimes you write a newsletter as a creative outlet. Nobody wants to hear the crickets, but even a small audience can be such a source of inspiration and support for a writer. Fortunately, I have a day job and I don't have to worry about monetising my newsletter. I am so happy that I finally found a place that keeps me on fire about writing my stories and putting them out in the world.
For me, I found other newsletters I genuinely enjoyed, and after awhile just offered to write a a guest post. I didn't ask for anything in return, so it was an easy "sell."
Office hours is a fantastic way to meet other Substack writers, and to get some questions answered. But it's also so busy that it can be a really frustrating experience.
I wrote up an Office Hours survival guide. If you're new to Office Hours, or if you've been here but found yourself frustrated by the jumpy interface, take a look and get a few pointers about how to make Office Hours a more enjoyable experience.
There's tips about how to bookmark comments you're interested in, including your own; how to read longer comments without the page jumping around, and how to write replies without the page jumping around. There's also a short list of feature requests, that I think would make these discussions more enjoyable for both writers and staff.
yes, it is helpful, thanks Bailey -- but, and, the jumpy interface and unreliable notifications / link-backs, as Eric Matthes noted in his post, still make it really hard to work with... any improvements on those would be much appreciated!
There's something fun about seeing how big office hours can be, but in terms of utility, breaking out into separate spaces is really helpful. Like, today is the first time in months that I haven't felt overwhelmed at office hours.
CAP OFF THE CHARACTER LENGTH. Less scroll = more engagement back and forth. Also, who are the people who can write paragraphs this fast? Do they come prepped with cut and paste. Curious!!
This is also the first live chat I’ve been in, so cannot speak to the formatting before. however, I’ve been toggling between two threads. Lots of great stuff and people. But some really lengthy explanations that slow down the experience fwiw.
I don't think it's the length of comments that make the pages jumpy, it's the rate at which new comments come in. It's the auto-refresh that makes everything move around while you're reading, or worse, while you're trying to write a reply.
They certainly are! I think it will take people a few weeks to sort out exactly where to post. But I already see more focused conversations. If one or two of them are less used but those conversations are more focused, that's a big improvement.
I think this is super helpful! I feel like I'm back in a conversation again - not scrolling crazily trying to find where I'm at. Thanks for doing this!
Still a lot of content to get through, but I think that's the nature of the "beast" (we should come up with a better idiom for when the case in point is not exactly beastly - ha!) Segmenting conversations like this helps!
Agree, I can hardly keep up! (and to get visibility you have to sit in constant refresh to watch the link pop up so you can actually get a comment near the top! :)
I've actually realised I quite like getting to this a few hours in because then I can scroll through all the goodness and comment on what people have written.
THANK YOU, BEN!!!! (Yes, I am shouting for joy!) I was accustomed to seeing something that said "collapse" or "collapse thread"--not just having to know to click the line. Would be better if they added an arrow to make that more intuitive. Again, thanks so much!
Hello all, and happy Office Hours in a NEW format! Since Growth requires a little push now and then, here's a little bit of encouragement from one small newsletter to all of you:
Something that I think is really important to meditate on is how far you've come, even if it doesn't feel like it. Every single step counts! No matter where you are in your writing journey, you're further along than you were one year ago, or five, or ten. Have you only posted ten posts to your Substack? Well, that's ten posts you didn't have before you started! Did you just start your Substack today? Then you've made a big leap forward, compared to yesterday!
Celebrating the little wins isn't insignificant. Little wins add up! No matter where you are on the path, you've got miles behind you that show you how far you've come. Celebrate it, and let other writers celebrate with you!
Most importantly: keep going, keep writing, and DON'T GIVE UP! 🌿
Hey! I needed to hear this. A couple of days ago, after a bout of work-related exhaustion, I almost quit my newsletter. But I got a good night's sleep and I'm back in the saddle. Writing is hard business, especially if you've got a full-time job, but it's worth it. So worth it.
I agree with that Ramona. When I was working I was getting up @ 3:30 just so I could get 2 hours of writing time. I loved it. Now that I'm retired, I'm getting up @7:00 am. But don't give up whatever you do, because time slips away and that's something you can never get back.
Two months after I started my newsletter, I took a two-month break also due to work-related stress. I'm so happy that I got back and already wrote 3 newsletters. I did have to get a bit more realistic about how often I can send out a quality newsletter and settled for bi-weekly instead of weekly.
3 months ago, when I turned on paid subscription I didn't really know what to expect. Now I have over 200 paid subscribers. 🤯
But it's still really easy to overly focus and obsess about day-to-day growth, thinking that new number is the baseline, and I have to grow more, faster, etc. Thanks for the reminder to celebrate the wins!
My newsletter is around 56k subscribers, so I'm more like 0.3% paid. Hopefully that gets closer to 10% as the year goes on, but hey, I'll settle for 5%! 😂
Thanks! I'm still trying stuff out and learning what drives subscriptions the most.
The two largest growth spikes were 1) when I launched paid subscriptions, 2) when I ran a 20%-off annual sale (which I advertised for 2 weeks).
As for the content, my main newsletter goes out on Tuesdays, and that one is always free, not paywalled. Then I usually (but not always) do an additional issue on Thursdays which is sometimes paid-only, and sometimes does the paywall preview thing. It does seem like the paywall previews helps drive additional signups, but not significantly so compared to the regular free issue (at least at this point).
I usually only do the paywall preview if I can offer value above the fold. I do reader Q&As where I list all the questions at the top and then put a couple of the answers behind the paywall. So they still get value from the answers above the fold, so it doesn't just feel like spam or something.
Love this! Thanks for calling it out. Sometimes it's so easy to get stuck in the slog it's hard to remember to celebrate. I just celebrated a year of my publication, and that felt pretty good!
Celebrate every little win! I make a point of punching the air with every new subscriber I get. That's one more person that wants to hear what I have to say, and that's amazing!
Yes, and thanks for your continued reminders that every little step is a win. I had my first unexpected shout-out from a reader I didn't know, in a post she wrote for a larger online community, and gained a few followers that way. Once I calmed down, I realized it only happened because I was writing what mattered to me, and it resonated with one reader. I didn't orchestrate it or pitch it. I just wrote. Celebrating that!
I so agree. When you write about what interests you and don't think about trying to pick up subscribers, or if they'll like it, and why aren't they leaving comments, it's like a weight falls off. The readers will come. So what if it takes a year or two? Cheer those who have double your readers in half the time it took you. It's not a competition.
The challenge for those of us who are new to Substack but not new to writing is that there's a little bit of each of the discussions I'd like to behefit from. I'll admit that I tend to answer posts from new writers with suggestions, and benefit most from interaction with other experienced writers. Not sure how to unpack that, but having early trouble with this format.
Stick with it. I've been here 9 months. I worked on my ABOUT page. I wanted it to stand out so that anyone looking at it would know what I was offering. I looked at all sorts of other pages to try and figure out what to do; experimented with the video, and podcasts, tried the Cross-over and recommended pages I liked and followed. I only have 120'ish subscribers, and while I tell myself that's not a lot, I am picking up 10-20/month. But I don't think you'll find a better platform.
A good reminder! I've been disappointed by how few subscribers I'm able to convert to paid - but it's important to remind myself of how many free subscribers I've gathered, and the amount of quality work I've been able to produce in the last couple of years.
Thank you for this. It is really reassuring to read comments like this. I started on Substack during lockdown in 2021. But due to hiccups with the substack system and lack of paid subscription growth, I found it hard to sustain and it deflated me. So I quit. In retrospect, I shouldn't have. But I am back now with a renewed mindset and a focus on good content over the growth. It feels right and I agree with so many voicing a similar sentiment here. In the end it is all about staying true to your writing and fostering a community that appreciates your effort. And little wins do matter. Thank you :)
Welcome back, Sneh! I understand what you're going through so much. I almost quit a couple of days ago too, for various reasons. Mainly life getting in the way, but also disappointment due to slow growth. But writing is truly fulfilling and, as you said, the Substack community is so great, and I want to stay on here as long as I'm able to, because it's probably the most positive space for writers on the internet.
Thank you for the warm welcome Andrei. I agree, it is a noisy world out there and it can become very hard for your voice to be heard over the noise. But you have to keep persisting.
I'm SO GLAD you came back, Sneh! Just keep moving forward, following the joy, and the right people will find you. When you focus on fostering community over growing numbers, all kinds of magic can happen. I believe it! 🌿
I posted this in stand alone comment, but in case you don't see it there (your post hadn't shown up yet).
I propose that Substack employ S. E. Reidm and put her in charge of attitude on their social media venture.
I see two themes emerging in Google News and other sites that indicate more people are looking for a purpose in life and have realized that fear driven hatred is not the solution to our manifold problems but a contributor to the overarching struggle between democracy and autocracy.
Here is a slightly mangled copy of her “invitation to “join the discussion.”
open, honest, gracious, and curious.
This is YOUR space to discuss with each other, not just engage with me! Because of this, SAFE SHARING is my highest priority. If you are not engaging safely and with grace with others, you will have to leave. Period.
Thank you for sharing all your encouraging words with everyone every week. I'm looking forward to reading your post on our cousins. Right now my granddaughter's trailer has a Plumbing Leak and her mother has a gumption leak as a result of her severe depression but I will get back to today's writer hours as soon as I can
Yes, growth is top of my list - and I've been getting discouraged because I see so many substacks that are growing like crazy. But I'm tweaking and re-setting and carrying on with what I want to write. I think when I click into that, the growth will come. With all the AI coming, I think we need to find our voice more than anything. And it's a process.
In that vein, I've changed my substack name to "Diane Discovers" - new blurb is "A newsletter offering insight into our ever-evolving life adventure by exploring purpose, meaning, and the search for Self. And cool things. Join this amazing journey! Free and optional paid."
And I'm excited about this shift - I hope it'll help me connect with others.
I totally agree with you about iteration! I have been iterating from Day 1, and each time I make a big change I'm like, "ugh, maybe people will hate this and be annoyed"...but it's always the right decision! I also changed the name of my Substack, and I'm so glad I did, my current name feels so right for me. I've changed my tagline approximately six billion times. Once I just viewed this all as a big sandbox, I became more OK with my constant evolution!
Love what you're writing - I'm subscribing! haha - I've done same with my tagline. And you're right - this is a sandbox. And I think we should update our newsletter as we update ourselves.
I absolutely love that you spoke on this just now! I've changed my newsletter name maybe2-3 times now, and was thinking about changing it again (this would be the second time in a few months) just because life's been changing (specifically this last name change and this possible upcoming name change cause of huge life events).
I'm still playing with the format and figuring out what I wanna write, and I sometimes feel flakey and wrong for that.
Your words, and everyone replying, have felt so validating to read!
Thank you again for bringing it up! No clue how much I needed it. :)
I have recently discovered the power of iteration here on Substack and I must say it is absolutely liberating. To get out of the mindset that nothing is set in stone .. that is the key to eventually arriving at what feels like it feeds your soul.
I think each week I tweak a little bit of my tagline or bio. I was wondering if anyone did the same. I also tweak my welcome email. Thanks for making me feel seen!
I'm constantly tweaking! I tweak, I edit, I add, I subtract--and whenever I feel the least bit guilty about it, I remember that this is my space and I'm the decorator, so anything goes if it makes me happy! (I've changed the name of one of my newsletters three times. I think I've settled now, but who knows? LOL)
I feel like I tweak my Welcome Email all the time. I recently saw someone's welcome email that included a short bio and a "what to expect" and I borrowed that idea. With time, I get more clear on exactly what my newsletter is and who its for, and that makes me feel more confident with each post.
I love that you've changed the name at blurb of your newsletter to something that resonates more with you. I think of the scary things about setting up a substack is that you feel like it might be one thing but it takes a complete different direction as you continue to write! Happy writing! x
I also wonder about this a lot, how I started with one idea and ended up somewhere else. I guess the reality of writing on a regular basis and the effort it involves are good filters for what is relevant or not. Who knows what the future will bring.
In my case, my newsletter did just that--it changed--and I changed my title to reflect the new direction I was taking. It's actually been a fascinating journey!
Very cool Diane! My newsletter Artificial Ignorance is exploring how AI is impacting our day to day lives, and I 100% agree that finding your voice and your personality is incredibly importnant.
I hope that the new AI wave will open new opportunities for human writers with a unique voice.
I've also reworked my About page recently, and found a lot of inspiration on how to go about it in the newsletters I love to read.
I just had a look at your About page and would like to suggest a new blurb, if I may be allowed:
--Discover a meaningful life of adventure, purpose and self-exploration with the founder of TEDxManhattan 'Changing the Way We Eat' and award-winning author of 'Rock Gods & Messy Monsters.' Join for free to get inspired!--
You have great achievements and I think that mentioning a couple of them give an insight into the kind of person you are and the type of content that the potential subscriber can expect from you.
In this newsletter milieu I think growth is at the top of all of our lists. I think as we struggle to build readerships we have to remember that the subscription system means we're also building friends.
The people who choose to subscribe are doing it with the understanding that whatever you write will appear in their inboxes and they'll get to choose whether or not to open that door.
After much trial and error, I found my most comfortable voice when I latched onto what I've just written above. I was writing for friends! My writing became more personal and less broad. I used 'I' and 'you' and thought of my blogs as community centers and parlor spaces, and not just internet entities.
It may not work that way for any of you, but it fit my style of writing well, and I'm enjoying the experience far more than I did when anxiety sat on my shoulder and wouldn't leave!
I invite anyone writing personal essays to join in on our lively conversations at Writer Everlasting. We're a community and a safe place for writers who might need both of those things!
This super resonates with me, Ramona! I have to always picture my friends when I'm writing, in order to stave off the urge to try and make everyone happy. The great thing about Substack is that I don't need to make everyone happy, I just need to make my subscribers and MYSELF happy :). I also notice that the more personal and intimate my writing, the better the response.
This is my first experience with newsletters, so it took a while to figure things out, but once I realized there was such a thing as reader loyalty I began to write for them.
Most of the newsletters I admire now do the same thing. There are, of course, newsletters that appeal to the more technical aspects of writing, but I write personal and opinion essays so this works for me!
It's been interesting for me as someone who writes in more of an academic niche to incorporate my own voice (unfiltered opinions, emotions, use of first person). I do feel that newsletters have more of a personal "vibe" rather than a simple blog or news article, just from the fact that it appears directly in readers' inboxes.
Yes, I have found this as well. When discussing, say, scientific topics, I make the approach more personal than I did before, both by addressing the reader and by opening up more about my own thoughts and feelings. I think people respond to that. The fact that we are NOT the new york times or an indifferent scientific journal is our strength!
Definitely! It's also really cathartic to just be able to let loose about things that we might need to tiptoe around in a more strictly academic article. Wouldn't be able to say something like "...and that's why this policy SUCKS"
Yes! Some people want to change the name away from 'newsletters', and I was one of them for a while, but I think I like it now. There's a sense of community that isn't there with a standard blog or website.
I love the community center and parlor space image, Ramona! I like to imagine my readers rocking on a front porch together, journals in hand. Then a few come on inside and help themselves to a snack in the kitchen.
Again, it took me a while to get comfortable with that kind of 'intimacy', since my earlier writing was mainly feature writing and opinions, but I'm nestling in now and it feels RIGHT!
Now I’m trying to figure out how to entice a few more into the kitchen when the snacks are worth paying for. Better signs? Better snacks? Fancy recipes? Or just good solid food I like cooking? Maybe I’ve stretched this metaphor as far as it should go.
"Entice" is such a great word for what we're trying to do. It's a little tougher with the paying crowd but if they like what they see and feel (and maybe even smell) how can they resist? 🤗
I think about some of my more enthusiastic readers when I write. The ones who read and comment on almost every post. What would they want to see? Right now, it's a bit easier, as there aren't that many of these. But I imagine as your audience gets bigger, there will be a need to balance catering to your audience versus keeping yourself genuine and trusting your feelings.
Most of the newsletters I'm subscribed to right now (the big ones) have paywalls on comments. It's unfortunate and it makes it very difficult to get your stack out there where so many subscribers are. But I suppose that's a good problem for them to have :) One I don't suppose I'll have to worry about any time soon.
It does appear that the personal essays get the most attention. I write scifi and fantasy short stories along with my personal/human interest stuff. But it's early on and I don't know how those are working out yet. I started this to get better at writing in general so the fiction is a big part of that.
Yes! And I so appreciate what you write (even if the past two months of book launch and work have kept me from reading MOST of the newsletters I subscribe to).
Thanks, Sarah. I'm always happy when you join the conversation. Good to know you're reading it, even if you can't comment. Good luck with your launch and everything else you're doing to keep busy.
I recognise this. I tend to do journalistic style content wherein I cover topics that our society is struggling / dealin with. Since moving to substack I have started shifting my language to a more personalised way of 'speaking' to the reader. Still trying out what tone / balance feels right, but I think it makes more sense in the substack format to do it like that. Experimenting with different styles and formats is also something I like to do, and then keeping what works and changing what doesn't.
My love is fiction. I think I have a lot to say when I post something political which requires no small amount of non-fiction (one would hope), so I try to make it a bit more conversational. I use humorous examples and good (also one would hope) analogies. But the tone always feels different and a bit more somber. It's an odd balance for me.
I cross-posted someone else's article on self-publishing. It just fit well. And when I read a good article I might use it in one of my posts. I let the author know that I linked to it, even if I don't cross-post. Got a sub out of the last one :)
I love thinking of community centers and parlor spaces as where and who we're writing to. A lot of my close friends were my earliest supporters and knowing that has definitely helped me keep a more personal and vulnerable tone.
I have been working my little butt off to grow this thing, and some days I feel great about the progress and others not so much! A couple things that have worked really well for me recently:
- I would be remiss if I didn't start with being featured on Substack Reads and Substack app - that has been my biggest win yet by far! Other writers can recommend you, so if you are posting great stuff regularly and want to be featured, see if someone is interested in making that recommendation.
- Once I had a bigger audience from the features, I have been able to start converting to paid more reliably. I am doing this by teasing my paid content at the end of my free content, as well as in free-standing emails. Also, definitely turn off Boost (My opinion). Boost was sending very marketing-y emails on my behalf that I didn't know about, and I found out because it started alienating my readers and they started emailing me about it (angry, mostly).
- Finally, recommendations are key! I am trying super hard not to be game-y about it, no "let's swap recommendations!" emails, at least yet. Just good old fashioned friend-making and trying to keep putting out high quality work that people want to recommend (per Kevin's recs!)
Oh one more thought! I also have seen that adding discussion questions at the end of my essays really helps people feel comfortable engaging in the comments and has led to some really amazing, robust discussions.
I've done that pretty much since the start of my newsletter, but it has not seemed to help... I have gotten a few robust discussions going, but certainly not with most posts. Any thoughts or suggestions, because I generally agree with this approach—thanks!
Last thing! I am working with a wonderful consultant who has helped me take my Substack to the next level. If you are looking for someone like this, leave a note.
I'd love that type of mentorship or consulting with that down the line! I'm still in my exploration phase and JUST came to some revelations I plan to play with for my newsletter and how I want to show up for my work. So I may not be ready yet for consulting? But I do wanna take this seriously!
Thank you for sharing your growth strategy. What gave you the idea of getting the consultant? Is this a person that has experience with Substack? I'd love to know more.
#1 thing is that I would want everything to be in my own voice, so I would like to edit & review emails before they start going out. Maybe also a way to pause it for a few days if I have a great preview email scheduled and wouldn’t want to send 2 emails soliciting paid subscriptions in the same week.
As a subscriber to another paid newsletter, I was also quite put off by these emails. There must be other, more covert strategies, for conversion. Asking for subscriptions, tips, likes, comments may seem like a great strategy, but for a simple reader they may be alienating. Substack is such a classy platform, there must be other ways to market subscriptions without making the writer look like they are begging for something.
Thank you Rae. I was going to try Boost but like you feel it’s not right for my readers. There’s one option where you can edit the email, but even still, I’m going to hold off.
Though growth has been on my mind lately, I wanted to share something I was thinking about the other day. Think about how many subscribers you have all in a room. For me, that would be the size of a relatively large lecture in college. That would be speaking to a lot of folks! I know the digital age makes us feel like everything is infinitely scalable, and that capitalism has taught us that it's growth at all costs otherwise you're failing, but sharing what you have to say with the people who want to hear it, regardless of audience size is powerful.
Thank you for this, Sara! Just the perspective I needed to read. You are so right- I can picture a lecture hall in my mind with my dear readers with me. My newsletter is going on 8 months and I’ve focused my energies on writing consistently instead of the metrics.
Love this! I'll have to think it through, since the idea of being in a lecture hall with an audience of hundreds can be pretty intimidating, but if I'm ever to grow I need to get out of my comfy comfort zone!
Yes! And engagement is really key as well. If half of those people in the lecture hall were sleeping or on their phones, the "numbers" wouldn't really matter.
Totally! But also, I've seen people with huge audiences sell very little, and people with small and very engaged/loyal audiences sell a lot. I saw this all the time on my podcast--more often than not my guests with smaller audiences got more listens than those with huge audiences. So it's as much about quality as it is quantity!
Yes, I would MUCH rather have a smaller engaged audience (my open rate is around 45-50%) than a large, unengaged audience. So I'm happy with that. Would just like to see some growth and feeling very stuck.
Hey! On the topic of growth, I have a question that's been bugging me. I've been writing for a few months, and although in the beginning I didn't really know what I wanted from my blog or even if I was going to stick with it, things have become more clear. I've managed to find a voice. Now the question: how do I define my value proposition? I write personal essays, but they are on different topics, and what brings them together are usually my voice and my unique perspective. But I don't know how to tie it all together into a neat value proposition. Edit: For reference, you can find my newsletter here: https://sismanandrew.substack.com/
For me, the value prop is a work in progress, but the best guide I have is my readers. I experiment, ask them what they think, refine, experiment again, etc. People will tell you what they will and won't pay for, but in order to hear them you need to engage your readers in an ongoing conversation. Hope that helps!
Hey Michael! Thanks for answering. That definitely helps, and I've been trying to do that. I included a poll in my latest issue, and the results were a happy surprise. I'll make sure to keep doing that, and to use the chat more often.
If you're writing the kinds of things that don't fit in any particular slot you might want to consider changing your sections to reflect the different courses of your posts.
You have sections, I see, so it's an easy fix to divide your diverse pieces into sections that will draw readers looking for just that content.
It's fine to be eclectic as long as your audience can maneuver through your space with ease. That should be your goal--keeping your readers happy. 😋
Finding your voice is HUGE! I think that for a personal essayist, in a lot of ways your voice IS your value proposition, or at least one of them. People who love you often love you for your unique way of telling something, and you can kind of talk about anything if you have a strong, consistant voice.
Is there any nucleus at the core of all your topics? My solution has just been to list mine out (chronic disease, work culture, mothering, money& power), and they don't seem particularly related, but they all do weave together within my work. People seem to be drawn to the whole suite of ideas, so I wouldn't be afraid to just list out your main topics and see if they resonate.
I don't think there's quite a nucleus there yet. I'm still exploring. I am finding myself writing about childhood a lot, though. But this is great advice. I'll keep an eye out for which topics I gravitate towards.
I would recommend exactly this! I think the answer comes with time and the more writing you do- I wouldn't feel the need to pigeonhole yourself. The main thing I can identify about my own voice is my optimism so I'm using that as a general lens for now, but it will probably get more specific as I evolve. You can always start broad, the right idea will come with time :)
Good idea. For unclear reason, I get few comments on my newsletter but subscribers slowing growing. I am thinking a poll of what topics subscribers are interested in might be a way to get feedback. Does anybody know how to set up a poll on Substack? I have seen a couple of other writers use a poll
I have something similar, as I tend to care about a wide variety of topics. Haven't yet figured out the value proposition myself either, figured I should focus on growing first, but I always communicate it as 'what I think are important topics to cover/talk/learn more about. When they see you putting out high-quality work, I think that people will know that when you want to write about something, it's something worth paying attention to. Curious to learn how others approach these things.
Last month I shifted my strategy. I'm working on a memoir and I'm posting work-in-progress pieces for my paid subscribers (preview for everyone) and I'm writing more vulnerable posts related to church trauma that I'm also keeping behind a paywall. Everything else is for everyone. And I don't believe in niche either 😉
Yes! I was thinking about something similar, include sneek peaks & more personal things in the paid subscription. I also tend to do a lot of research, so I could also end an article with some of the other things I found that were interesting but did not get into the final product. A sort of broader discussion/info section for those who support you.
I had this idea after seeing how much info and sources I often have left after publishing a post that I might not do anything with later, but that is nonetheless interesting. I think it might also help trim down the rest of the post and make it more focused on one topic.
Yes Robert, engage with the writers in comments and note their impressions and you will start to see a pattern emerge. That pattern suggest core appeal. Subs comments as well esp. when are recommending you and why that's key
It took me almost a year before I figured out the best value proposition for my paid subscribers, and I've gained a couple in the last month. I really want to grow my free subscriber audience and then, if they decide they want to be a part of the more detailed, vulnerable journey that I'm providing for paid subscribers, they are welcome to do so. I changed my model a month ago and I love it.
Thanks for bringing this up Andrei--This is an issue for me to. I don't think one has to stick to a single niche or topic. I mean, that _might_ be "better" for "growth" on the internet, but as a writer that's not how I operate, and so that's not what I want to or even can do. That said, it sure is harder to explain in a title or short tagline what a publication is about if it's about a whole bunch of things vs one single, focused topic. I sort of envy writers who work that way... but again, I don't -- I write about intuition, identity, addiction, depression, spirituality, sports, travel, masculinity, sex, love, meditation, and other things including and perhaps most of all a memoir in progress that I am sharing chapter by chapter.
I do have my stack broken up into sections, and I think that helps a bit.
You might notice that my stack is called "Decide Nothing" ;) which is not (at least consciously) a reflection of my inability to decide what to 'focus on' -- it's a reference to intuition... that said, I've been thinking of a name change that's perhaps a little less obtuse.
If you mean value prop for paid subscribers, that might take time. I just opened mine up and don't give anything extra to paid folks and I have 10, which I'm not going to retire on but it's a start. If you mean value prop for your newsletter, you and your voice/opinion are your value prop. Work that. With AI here now, your perspective is going to become more and more important.
I'm not contemplating starting a paid subscription yet. It's still early days. But yeah, I guess I'm trying to figure out how to turn my voice and perspective into a driving force, to make people want to subscribe to my newsletter. As you and Michael said, it's still a work in progress. Thanks for answering!
Some of my readers are my close friends, and they message me on WhatsApp. Others are writers I've known or people I met on various apps, and they either message me on those apps or leave comments on my posts. I haven't really done anything to encourage them to comment other than leave little disclaimers in my posts, like "If you liked the post, don't forget to press the heart button..." or I'll ask a little question and have them answer in the comments. Most people don't, they'll just read and drop a like or maybe not even that, but there will be some who will be truly engaged. I think it's just a matter of finding the right readers and giving them little nudges like that.
Would you say it is a good idea to offer paid from the start, giving those who want to pay the option to subscribe, then gradually build it from there? Or is it better to build towards a certain moment when you think, yes, now I'm offering paid since the audience is big enough and knows what to expect? Thinking out loud, so there probably is something worthwhile to be found in both of these options..
IMO, turn it on on day 1. I did because I didn't know any better. With the benefit of hindsight, I think a lot of people want to support you as a writer and/or your project more than they might want any 'extra" content.
I can't really answer that - you have to go with your gut. I have issues with folks who turn on paid and then don't let free readers comment or read the whole piece. I've turned mine on from the start so obviously I think that's the way to go (for me at least). In time when I have a big enough list, I'll think about doing a monthly Q&A or chats or something with paid subscribers. But I don't think I'll ever ban free readers from commenting or reading my posts. Sorry I'm not much help with your decision - just go with what feels right to you.
That already helps, I feel similar to this. I basically want to reach/help/inform as many people as possible but one also has to balance writing with having a stable income. I'm gravitating towards not walling off the 'main' content and instead offering 'bonus' content or more personal / entertaining posts for (future) paid subscribers. Feels like way to do it while sticking to my values. For now, my focus is growing as much as I can & managing to more consistently offer content (which increases the value proposition). I think my gut will tell me when 'the moment is right', i.e. when I would feel comfortable asking for people to pay. But hearing other people's experiences really helps make up my mind in the process !
I turned mine on from day one but didn't start offering different content until later. The free, Sunday newsletter will always be free. The paid members get bonus monthly posts. I was doing a weekly post for Founding Members (to my surprise, I have four!) but I had to put that on pause and find a more sustainable way to offer them something extra. I've decided to do monthly new moon gatherings for the founding members instead- something I'm actually really excited to do!
I think something else that I've noticed is I keep writing what I need to hear that week. Like my very own pep talk- it's for others but really it's for me. I don't know if that's helpful or not, my Substack is geared towards artists who need to re-fill their creative well, so to speak (which is also me!) so it's very personal and usually what I'm ruminating on that week that I think might benefit others.
That’s a cool way to look at things. I suppose that my own stuff is heavily influenced by what I’m preoccupied with the week I hit publish. And definitely the things I write are relevant to me first, that’s how I figure they’re worth spending time on.
I'm just past a year in on Substack and am coming to a place of deciding that my value proposition is me. That sounds way more egocentric than I feel about it, but it's another way of saying that I don't think I am ever going to be a writer who fits neatly into a genre or subject matter box. I write about what moves me. I hope it also resonates with others. Some posts get more engagement than others, but I've yet to have one that didn't seem to appeal to anyone. Growth has been steady, albeit slow.
I am about to apply for a grant that requires me to show income from my craft, and that is going to drive me turning on the paid option. But, I don't have the capacity to add more bells and whistles - at least not yet. So, I'm approaching this milestone with the mindset that the writing as a form of art and hoping that some will choose to support it for the sake of itself.
It took me a while to figure it out, and I am still doing so, but I encourage you to keep writing things that interest you and have meaning. I just looked back on articles I have written over the last few years and discovered that I have enough content on a meaningful theme and for a better-defined audience now to write a second book.
Here is another fact. There are several other email writers who write the similar thing as yours and are doing extremely well. I guess the key is to never give up or simply go ‘crazy’ by publishing everyday at a certain time.
I think you are on the right lines, the readers that stay with you will be interested in your writing and your voice while you find the subjects and structure that works best for you. In my opinion that is where the value is!
It's taken me a little bit of time to sort out what exactly I'm doing with my Substack, but after exploring several options I did eventually find my common thread! I agree that it's difficult to phrase a value proposition when essentially what you're presenting is your particular perspective across a wide variety of experiences and topics. Is there some personal anecdote or personality trait that you can highlight in what you're presenting?
Maybe there is. I'll have to explore that question. I can feel I gravitate towards certain topics more than others, but I'm still figuring things out. Maybe it's still too early to pinpoint my value proposition just yet. Thanks for the answer!
Thanks for bringing this up to let us explore and talk about this, Andrei! I'm in a similar boat. I've stepped away from a lot personally to really learn what I wanted in life, and as a writer and I indeed VERY recently learned I want to hone-in on personal essays. I just finished listening to Crying in H-Mart and it was beautifully-written! Helped spark a new excitement for the voice and structure I want to develop in future writings that I'll start playing with in the upcoming weeks (and possibly tomorrow's newsletter!).
Because I talk about pretty personal happenings too, and now it feels like a new fun challenge to try and figure out how to make these stories matter to my readers. I wish you luck on your writing journey!
I write personal stories, sci-fi/fantasy, and politics. I have three different sections on my substack. It's difficult switching back and forth. I don't feel the kind of humor flowing from me when I'm writing a political piece, but I try to let it show through regardless. Only been doing this in earnest for about a month so I'm not sure whether the 'voice' is quite there yet. You make an excellent point. What do your readers really like and gravitate to? How do we offer them value?
I've been playing with this too. I finally created a free "Creative Contemplation" journal that ALL subscribers get. The journal is then tied into bonus monthly letters that paid members will receive. Founding Members only will have access to a monthly online gathering. It all goes together and my hope is that people will engage on the level that means the most to them! But it makes me happy to have something to offer everyone. I just announced it this week and it's a 12 month journal/offering, so I think there's opportunity to keep promoting and sharing it.
Thank you for asking this! I am in a very similar boat, writing essays, all on different topics, and sometimes even deviating from essay format. I'm absolutely struggling with the value prop and how to grow this community of people who connect to these stories.
I get a lot of free subscriber growth through recommendations and reader sharing, so I've shifted my focus to growing paid subs.
For context, I launched paid at the end of December. I didn't paywall anything, just asked those who wanted to pay to do so. That did OK. Better than I expected, tbh. But I got the sense that there was a limit to that approach and that I was heading toward that limit. So I've changed things up by posting the occasional paywalled post. The first one goes out this Sunday. I'm hopeful that I'll have good results, in part because the announcement generated six new paid subs.
That said, like everything else I do on Substack, my paid strategy is an experiment / work in progress / ongoing conversation with my readers. I don't know how it'll turn out, but my advice to anyone trying to grow free or paid subs is as follows:
1) Set realistic expectations
2) Engage your readers in a conversation about what you're doing
3) Try new things
4) Track your progress
5) Adjust as needed
6) Tell your readers how it's going
BTW, if it helps, I wrote a piece recently about what I learned on my way to 2,000 free subs. Here's that link👇
Well, so far I've been e-mailing a few writers whose work I love and asking them to check out mine. It worked twice, and even the two who rejected my proposal have been super nice about it! I've just been reaching out to people whose audience I think might like my work. In my case, a writer I admire chose to recommend my newsletter because she discovered me from my comments on her posts. I suppose the advice is, get yourself seen! Don't be obnoxious or spammy, always be respectful, and it's easier when you've been commenting on those writers' posts for a while, but sometimes you gotta just take a leap of faith and reach out to wonderful strangers.
So true Andrei, writers are great and chatting with and for them is also great. Comments from subs are few but comments with writers have lead to wonderful feedback and insight and darn if they don't get into my next post as inspiration 😊 I intend to mention writers right on the page. I have two in mind now. I haven't done any cross posts yet,but a mention to a writer's site amounts to the same
I recommend Substacks based on three criteria: I enjoy them, I think my readers might enjoy them, and they post consistently. That's the giving to the community part. The taking back less than I put in part, is that I ask subs in the footer of my email to consider recommending Situation Normal, assuming the write on Substack, which some of them do. Hope that helps!
BTW, Charlie, just subscribed to your newsletter. I write humor, but I'm fascinated by AI and I often play with ChatGTP and share the results with my readers. Looking forward to digging into your Substack and learning more!
Michael I have a humor section as well 'the funnies' and directed an Englishman to read the articles. One article features our late Queen. I never didn't hear back p'haps he was not amused 😊
Ok Charlie, engage here with writers for sure and make your notes search links offered and read the Author's work and comment if it resonates with you. Also comment and engage with writers who send you comments more than just a thanks. I don't subscribe right away unless I know I will read it and I also place recommendations blurbs on my homepage page.
What do you mean by "setting realistic expectations?" For someone who's a newbie at this, how can I know what to expect? Or is that meant more as in, "don't be ridiculous, don't expect you're going to have a million readers" kind of thing?
I mean be realistic about how quickly and big you expect to grow. If you're growing at one new sub a week, it's unrealistic to expect 1,000 new subs in a month, right? Also, if you're comparing yourself to another writer who has a huge following, remember that it probably took them a long time, maybe years, to build their audience. That's what I mean by being realistic.
I'm looking forward to seeing how paywalling pans out for you, Michael. You have such a devoted following that I'm expecting good things. Only problem is, you'll have to write bios for ALL your new paid subscribers :)
I read your yoga post this week and I liked how you asked questions at the end to generate a discussion in the comments section. I think it's a great way to gauge interaction and readership and see what's a good topic to expand upon.
Thanks Jen! You're totally right about that. I started doing this more than a year ago. It took a little time for the personalities to emerge, but the discussion questions have helped create a sense of community among the situation normies, and on several occasions things that have been said in the comments section have led to future stories. In fact, this Wednesday I'm posting answers to some follow-up questions my readers had about a profile I did. I think that'll be a real crowd pleaser!
So I have a newsletter called Five Things (https://www.fivethin.gs) and the subscriber numbers are growing, but not going through the roof. I had 900 subscribers when I switched from Revue and now have 1350 or so, which is a nice development.
Two weeks ago I decided to copy & paste the content of my weekly newsletter to LinkedIn and create a new newsletter there: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/five-things-7040583970144571392/ - LinkedIn then pinged a bunch of people in my very extended network (I have 46k followers on LinkedIn) and now I have more than 4600 subscribers for my newsletter on LinkedIn. After two weeks. Not bad, I think.
But, obviously I'd rather have all those people to subscribe to substack, because then I have their email-adresses, have better stats and whatnot.
As anyone ever successfully tried to motivate people on LinkedIn Newsletters to subscribe to Substack instead? Obviously I can nag and put in links to my "real" newsletter, but I want to do it in a away that doesn't annoy people too much. Is there any clever way to do it?
I have a lot more subscribers to other platforms/newsletters than I have on Substack, but I want them all here. So, I just continually peel off people. I share the Substack links on all my platforms and encourage people to make the jump. I still provide different content on other sites. I don't cut and paste my Substack over there. It's more like, "Here's a teaser" or "If you like this, then you'll love Substack."
Hey Nico, I replied to your post yesterday on /r/substack!
You've inspired to try creating a LinkedIn newsletter - I'd like to test a strategy of posting half of the content and being upfront that it's a preview in order to try to drive more subscribers. I know your content is only 5 links though, so it might not work as well in your case.
There might be tools that extract emails from LI, but that might be against GDPR. I have people who read my stuff when I post on Li, even if they never subscribe. Some people just like getting things in their fave feed rather than in their inbox
Interesting. As an author, Nico, do you have a preference where your readers read your work? Is there a difference (to you) whether they see it via Substack or via LinkedIn (or elsewhere)?
I assume that more subscribers on Substack will help me grow the newsletter faster b/c of boost, recommendations and what not. Also, hopefully a lot of people will turn paid because they like what I do. All this gets lost when people read the content over at LinkedIn. It will help me grow on LinkedIn, but to me that's too much of a black box and I don't have access to the email-addresses and therefore cannot take my readers with me if I wanted to.
it's pretty simple: I have direct access to them via Substack as I have their email-addresses. I have no idea how LinkedIn sends out the newsletters and I cannot take the users with me. And obviously, paid newsletters don't exist on LinkedIn...
Hey - loving Substack as a platform and community but still trying to build my subscriber list organically. I obviously want to grow beyond my little social network and find my true audience. Any tips are much appreciated. Secondary to that, a lot of people seem to read but don't subscribe, or subscribe but comment directly to me as opposed to the post. Would love to correct that naturally.
Anyway, my Substack is SecondRateCities.com. It combines my love for running, bars, and overlooked cities into a long-form, non-conventional travel blog. The premise is short trips to any cities and towns that are not typical travel destinations and exploring them through, you guessed it, running and bar hopping. I think it gives a more honest feel of place than simply listing out "must-dos and sees" and uncovers lots of gems.
With that in mind, I would love to find more travel and culture Subs to follow, holler if you have one!
You’re friends with my college buddy Nick Walsh- Saw your Substack on his IG! Love the concept, Tacoma 4ever.✌️As a Substack reader I am definitely overwhelmed by how many I follow and all the inbox traffic- I know I can turn off email notifications but then what’s the point, because I’m rarely in the app. So now I make a more conscious decision on whether to add a new publication. I would imagine other people are in that situation as well.
TACOMA FOREVER! Yes, Nick's my boi, that's amazing.
Well, my questionable long form style + travel concept means I'm not hitting inboxes frequently, so hopefully that makes it easier for people to subscribe. But I get it, I too am overwhelmed in a world overflowing with content.
Hi Zach, definitely get your Substack on The Sample. I also include my Substack url on my personal and work email for visibility. I just got started at http://anuprabhala.substack.com and my first two posts were inspired by my travels to Morocco and the third was on Vedanta (spirituality), my other area of interest.
Oh, that sounds fascinating. I sometimes write about travel when we are doing it and will be writing about our trip to Galveston next week when we get back. And I'll be writing about running my first half-marathon in St Louis in just over a week 😊
Heck yeah! St Louis is my next city covered... it's a very interesting place. Should be publishing next week, so stay tuned! What's your Stack? I want to take a look.
Hi everyone, In trying to grow, I'm hoping I can get some ears on my voice-overs and see if you wonderful writers have any tips and tricks! I'm just hoping for some constructive insights since I'm kind of shooting in the dark here.
I'm thinking if I can dial in the audio side of the house, I can really hit a new market to pull people into my substack.
It's come a long was from the start and you can find my latest here:
As mentioned, I'm just hoping for some constructive insights since I don't get solid data on the audience from substack on how many are listening (and not hearing from them directly either). Also open to any other feedback on the form/fit/function of the essays.
I have been experimenting with doing voice-over myself and even podcasting. The best voice-over I’ve found is Speechify, which I appreciate being a bit dyslexic myself. I added it to a couple of my recent blog posts, only to find out that I would have to pay another $100 to get their commercial version. I will probably do it to support them and their excellent work. If you write on Medium, which I do, it automatically adds Speechify to your articles. I would recommend Substack do the same for all of us.
I checked out your voice-over; it is a great addition to your article. Your content is well-organized and excellent. I will subscribe because your writing complements some of my work and exploration.
I love doing voice over of my own work and often include audio that I've recorded especially on my memoir chapters. I use Descript to record and edit. It's amazing in that it transcribes the audio as you record, and you can edit the audio by editing the text! It also uses AI to learn your voice so that you can compose synthesized speech as well. I love Descript, and it makes doing voiceover pretty fun. Still takes time, but I'm getting better and faster.
you can hear the results, for example, on my latest chapter of memoir:
@Michael - I think you're doing great with the audio! To me, it sounds very in line with a typical audiobook or podcast recording (I don't agree with the "too computer-y" comment unless your goal is to for a YouTube-type appeal where the audio is the main draw, rather than a companion to the text (if that's the goal, then yes I'd go for "quicker, punchier, excitable, the trendy young YouTuber narration is like constant state of shock, regardless if there's anything actually surprising ha).
It's not too slow imo. if anything could be faster. but listeners have option to speed up anyway so they can go at the pace they prefer (I do 1.5x with almost every audiobook i listen to)
What are you recording with? There are some simple tools that can modulate your voice to whatever you like (deeper, softer, "more like radio," "more like npr," etc). It's surprisingly easy to do nowadays!
Thanks for the feedback. I'm using audacity right now with no filters. I'm also not trying to read the essays how I write them in my head so I'm not really trying to make it too punchy. Because I think it'd be at odds with the text.
Maybe I'm just being egotistical, but I'm trying to make these thoughtful and compelling, not 'click bait or trendy' in that sense. But that could just me wanting to pretend I'm philisophical :)
Do you feel like voice overs are moving the needle on your growth? I'm not a huge fan of my own voice so I'm working on a tool to automate creating AI voiceovers from my Substack posts.
What I'm finding from my audience is a lot of people is that if they don't have time to read the essay, they often can plug it in and listen on their commute. Since mine are no more than 20 min, and most people listen at 1.5X speed, it makes a nice quick listen.
I don't think anyone likes the sound of their own voice either. What I find is that the more I record, the less I dislike it.
ps - I just listened to a bit. The voice sounds a little too computer-y for me. Maybe speed it up a hair? This is just my opinion, but when I hear a podcast or YT video that sounds like a robot, I turn it off immediately, no matter what it's about.
I'm not sure I totally follow' Computer-y. The one major feedback I have gotten is that I talk too fast, so I've been trying to slow it down a little :) Any more insight on that would be helpful.
It takes me about twice the total finished recording length to do. At first it took about 3X but I've gotten better.
What's made it faster is that I'll pause and stop the recording after a paragraph. This makes editing easier as well as removing 'mouth noises' like breaths, or tongue noises. (You'd be suprised at how much a good mic picks up that you don't notice in real life.) I've also gotten better and only stepping back a fraction if I have to re-read. Like starting at a comma or an 'and' instead of the start of the sentence or worse, the paragraph.
Seeing some familiar faces in here which is cool! I'm looking to connect with writers in the space of exploring/navigating curiosity and ideas.
My niche isn't super well defined because the more I get into my Substack the more I feel like my niche is my personality. People who like my blog will like it because they would get along with me as a person. The idea here is that this is sustainable because I'll never be on a dry spell since I just write about what I'm interested at the time.
Curious to hear people's thoughts on this.
Also, down to co-write a post with anyone. I'll let you pick the topic. Shoot me a message.
Hi Collin, I'm happy to have found a writer to doesn't have a specifically defined niche! I'm in the same circle as you as I write what I find interesting that week. I've just read your 'robe power' piece and I loved this part: "Working in a robe makes me want to follow my dreams. Redbull doesn’t give you wings. Wearing a bathrobe does."
Take a look at my writing and if you're interested, we could collaborate on a letters exchange (https://read.substack.com/p/letters)? And if not, well I'm happy to just be a fellow reader of your work! :)
That's the tough part. I'm still trying to figure out if this is a sustainable strategy to grow at a decent rate or if you need to pick a niche and hone in.
Hi all! So this week I met my first newsletter fan that wasn't a friend, co-worker or family member:). He works for the ACLU and it was a real honor to know he's reading me. I'd love any tips on ways to target regional audiences... I write about LGBTQ and women's rights in South Carolina and I'd love to grow the list of local readers.
Oh man, that's amazing! It's so cool to know you've managed to hook somebody who works there.
I don't have many tips for regional readers unfortunately, my 'stack is much more about international human rights issues...it'd be good to know more about that for when I cover issues more local to me, though.
Trying to get activism content out to the people on the ground near where things are happening is a huge concern!
I see reporters out once in a blue moon in my city, I've spoken to one journalist who was out looking for opinions, but it's rarely ever on anything big.
I've seen one lady talking to the camera about a court case, and the ones who called me over were out talking about a couple of car break-ins downtown.
Last time I was at a protest, I didn't see any news vans at all. The time before that, nothing. The cause was mentioned briefly on the evening news, but no footage was shown, nor activists interviewed.
It makes spreading the word a real pain in the back end!
Hey everyone, here's my obligatory "Just started on Substack" intro (hello) - I'm coming in from a literary journal background and I'm happy to have readers already willing to follow me On Here.
In your experience, have newsletter aggregators proved useful when it comes to getting more readers?
Hi and welcome to Substack, Barbara! I don't know exactly what you mean by newsletter aggregators, but if you're talking something like The Sample, which recommends your newsletter to people, I've had mixed results. I've been using it for about two months (free, I never paid a dime) and I only got 2 subscribers. I've gotten many more from other writers recommending my newsletter.
Oh, I got a couple from people who either liked what I've been publishing or believed in the Recommendation Network, so to speak. Have you considered just asking writers who cover a similar beat?
Hey, thanks for the comment! I was thinking about The Sample too, but, as you know, there are several free services like that available - I'm just unsure about the "discovery" potential.
Yesterday I discovered a writer that I really liked and wanted to support by being a paid subscriber. They had their paid subscription paused bc they were taking a month off from the newsletter. Their past newsletters were still paywalled. Is there any way to give writers the option to be able to have paid subscriptions still on for the past newsletters despite their current newsletter being paused? That would be a great option/feature. I imagine I’m not the only one that has run into this issue and the writer is missing out on gaining future paid subscribers.
Right. She is the one that paused the paid subscriptions. I was suggesting making a feature where you could pay to read PAST newsletters that are paywalled bc current subscriptions are paused. She didn’t want her current readers charged monthly bc she wasn’t putting out current newsletters.
I've been fortunate to have almost 1/3 of my subscribers come from recommendations, but I tended to see a lot of churn from readers who weren't ready for what they signed up for with my publication. One recent tweak I made was to have a short introduction to each newsletter to orient new readers, and along with it I've noticed a big decrease in unsubscribes. Could be a coincidence, but I think it's made a difference. Check out my latest post to see how I constructed the intro:
My subs seem to enjoy the discovery ride of my writing Amran and that's been the general comment from writers here as well. Your preamble approach might work for specific topic content
Hi all. Thanks for the great posts here. Something I see often (which is a great piece of advice generally but is perhaps not specifically actionable) is “Find other writers and engage with them” or “Find your readers where they are.”
The trouble for me right now is that I don’t know where readers ARE or how to get to them. Twitter is utterly pointless for writers right now who don’t already have massive followings; even if they do, the algorithm does not prioritize links (I recently saw a super popular writer with 55K followers tweet a link, and it has like 17 likes. No one is seeing anything on Twitter anymore).
There are very few subreddits where you can post anything you’ve written without getting flagged for self promotion, even if you are an active Redditor otherwise who posts substantive comments and then just mentions a link at the end.
Instagram faces the same algorithmic challenges and isn’t really a space for writers as far as I can tell.
So, really: Where is anyone posting their work where people can see it, find you, and be compelled to subscribe? Where IS everyone (yes, besides here…)?
I have other newsletters, plus Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook, but by far the majority of my subscribers comes from Subtack. I wouldn't go so far as to suggest social media is a waste of time, but in my experience you have to put in a lot of time to get results, and I'd rather be writing and commenting
I'm ONLY here, Mikala, and I'm pretty happy with just this platform. I do a lot of subscribing, reading and commenting, plus I've got a regular collaboration with another Substacker, Terry Freedman, and I'm finding by reading, commenting, writing and posting regularly new subscribers come my way.
Here is the site URL: https://post.news and see if that works. It works like Twitter, Mastodon, etc.Most writers have moved there, sick of dealing with Twitter's overbearing owner lol
Hey, people. My last interaction on Office Hours brought me almost 15 subscribers in a day, by far the biggest spike I've ever had. Growing feels great. And on that note, I want to reiterate that I'm open to collaborations with other writers, whether through cross-posting, recommending or writing a guest post. I write personal essays, mostly memoir, but also observations on other things I've seen or heard or done that have influenced me. Come join me on this journey. The only way we grow is together!
My substack growth was quite stagnant for a while, but then I started a new regular slot called Start the Week, as well as exchanging letters with Rebecca Holden (see her most recent one here: https://rebeccaholden.substack.com/p/55-a-letter-to-terry-9) and my subscriber growth has been faster since then. Maybe it's coincidence (correlation not causation) but I think the regular new series plus lively exchange in the letters has had a lot to do with it. So my conclusions (based on limited evidence I grant you) is collaborate, and keep turning up, especially in a regular series. Hope that's helpful cos it's all I've got!
Thanks for the shout-out, Terry! Nice one with your subscriber growth - me too, as it happens! 😉 I find our correspondence really valuable because I never know in advance what I'm going to be responding to, and I get to write about stuff that I wouldn't necessarily be thinking about in regard to my own newsletter.
Collaboration is brilliant - I really enjoy it - not just in my 'Letters to Terry', but also in commenting on posts by those I subscribe to - I flipping love that about Substack!
Hi Terry, I'm a subscriber of Rebecca's and I love reading your letter exchange. May I ask how you guys got it started? I'd love to start a letter exchange or some sort of collaboration with someone but I don't know where to start. I've just shared it in the comments and asked a writer whose work I quite liked.
Aww, thanks, Natalie! Terry and I had been reading each other's work for a while, and then soon after On Substack started posting about 'Substack Letters', Terry asked if I would like to correspond with him. Eighteen letters later and we're still going..... I'm having a real giggle with it!
Absolutely wonderful, I hope to find a writer who I can build a network and friendship with like the one you with Terry. It's wonderful to read your correspondence to each other!
Hang on Natalie? Do you subscribe to mine? That way you will not only not miss a thing, but you will also feel the warm glow of having helped a fellow human being. I'll answer your Q in a minute, but thought I'd fire this off before it disappears in the maelstrom of five million comments.
I have had back and forth comment sessions and realized I hadn't subscribed no obligation of course but I had difficulty finding my writer subscribe list had to make a written list as I don't always get to the inbox for the welcome. Correspondence aside I don't subscribe unless I know I will read the content. Feedback from writers is valuable and should be followed up even if their content isn't your cup of Joe
OK, here is my second response, which answers your question I hope. Rebecca and I were commenting on each other's posts and struck up a friendship. Also, as she had only three books in her possession (and hadn't even finished colouring one of them in), I asked her if she would like to exchange letters -- that was when substack introduced the letters idea. So I think the answer is that we got to know and like each other a bit first, and so the letters kind of flow naturally. Obviously, Rebecca might have a different take on it, but I hope this was useful.
That's basically where I'm at. I don't do a whole lot of promoting, my links are available on my social media and I include a little 'hey, I have a Substack!' at the bottom of my Medium articles.
Beyond that, most of my subscribers and readers find me through the Explore page here anyway.
People looking for politics and culture will stumble on my writing eventually if I keep putting it out there, and thus far a few people have found their way in for a cup of coffee and some activism rants!
I’m rarely reading on the web, but when I did I was really impressed with how easy it is to scroll through the most recent posts in a topic. So I agree, people will stumble upon ones work as long as you keep putting it out there.
Stumble across if that's what you want But for more growth consider changing your site name to make it more distinguished in the search. Category is only half of the picture
Same here, Louise! I'm happy to just keep writing, reading, writing and reading, and I'm having a lovely time just doing that. Keeping on keeping on is right up my street!
It was true then, and still true now, Terry. Although another way of looking at 'full of potholes' is of course 'empty of tarmac'.... which is also true, of course. 🤣
3) Get media coverage from places like qwoted.com. My newsletter "moviewise: Life Lessons From Movies" was mentioned in an article about dating advice:
Hey everyone, I´m fairly new on here. I have almost 1,300 subscribers, mostly transferred over from my old list. I´ve gained 200 new ones since I made the shift, but I´ve also lost 100 and I have around 20 paid now as well. Most of my new ones come from Linkedin but I´m having trouble with visibility on there even though I have 7,000 followers (eg posts get less than 200 views some days!). The algorithm is most unhelpful. Where do you find your new subscribers?
I’m glad you mentioned this re LinkedIn as I used to do quite well there when I was on Medium and posting links to writing there but since moving to Substack things have really gone downhill and I struggle to get views never mind likes/clicks/readers. But surely the LinkedIn algorithm isn’t against Substack?! I’d love to know how to get more traction on LinkedIn/beat the algorithm as that’s where I can access my biggest potential audience.
I haven´t tried posting links directly to my Substack site or articles more than a couple of times because I didn´t get much traction. I try to write short posts there to engage my followers on career changes, remote working and project management careers as those are the topics I write about on TPC. I used to get up to 50,000 views on my posts but the last 3 months or so it´s died a death and I´m not doing anything differently.
Well I know this doesn’t help you but it’s helped me to know I’m not the only one who feels like I’m dying a death there! I usually write a short post to introduce my writing and include a link to it on Substack. I am loath to use LinkedIn articles even though those are likely to be better in the algorithm as that doesn’t help get people to Substack. Also finding Twitter a bit useless too recently!
I guess it depends what you are offering. If not work related maybe less engagement. I will follow this up and see how it goes posting non related work content.
Thanks for asking this question, Bailey! I've been thinking a lot about recommendations lately. Right now I recommend about 8 Substacks, and I'd love to recommend more, but I notice that every time I add a rec, I'm diluting the pool and each of my recommendations gets less subscribers. How have the rest of you dealt with this issue? Have any of you rotated recommendations?
HI, I have made a few recommendations and can see that they have resulted in between 10-20 new subscribers for those 7 or 8 writers but so far it hasn´t worked in my favour :-(
Hello Substack team and writers! Happy office hour!
My publication, which I write in Mandarin, is about Japan startups and tech trends.
With AI and all those translation tools, I realized that I am able to easily turned my Mandarin posts into English.
Here’s the question. Has anyone done this before? I would like to know what is it like to have multiple publication on Substack, like, how do you grow all of them at the same time.
Also I’m very curious that if anyone is writing posts in multiple languages. Please share your experience with us 🙌
My biggest growth moment so far has been when another newsletter recommended me. I love recommending my favorite newsletters too and am always open to new ones. I write vessels, a newsletter that explores emotional and literal landscapes through personal essays and film photography. Check it out and let me know if you think I'd be into your writing!
I've found BookFunnel promos to be an effective way to bring in new fiction readers. Once you've got enough material to create a sample, you can use group promos to attract new readers. Because the sample is of the same material on the newsletter, it keeps churn to a minimum. BookFunnel isn't free, but it's more effective than traditional paid ads, in my experience.
Where I've really struggled is in converting free readers to paid. So I shall now dive into the comments here in search of enlightenment....
Once my second book is done, I'm going to be sending an email to my most engaged free subscribers, asking them to upgrade to paid. They'll get two full ebooks immediately so hopefully that will get some new paid subscriptions. Will let you know how that goes!
Please do! I thought my ebook collection for paid readers would shift the needle, but so far it's been quiet. Feel like I might be getting my messaging wrong somewhere along the way.
I've tried to encourage people to just hit the "heart" button to let me know that they've read the post, which has not done anything, and I've had a giveaway going for several months now that would be very easy to win, but no one wants to enter! Not sure what the answer is, but will keep experimenting and trying.
It's very hard. Can feel like shouting at a brick wall. And then I do a non-fiction post or a discussion and get 50+ comments without even trying, and it feels like I'm doing something right.
I mean, nobody ever said being a writer was easy.
When had Wattpad as my main platform, I got tens of thousands of read - 100k+ in some cases. The scale there was enormous. Lots of comments and engagement, too. But it never really felt like it was going anywhere - it was social media-style interactions. They were Wattpad users, rather than Simon K Jones readers, for the most part. Which is fine - but I'm still very hopeful that Substack can do something a bit deeper and more meaningful for me.
Hi there, thanks for the hours, I need them! Here’s my first question. I am bringing on new “bylines” to my Substack. It’s great. I want to give them a revenue share of any paid memberships their posts garner. Question: What would be a fair percentage? Anyone done this? AND, does Substack do the kind of reporting where I could see, week to week or month to month, which posts are generating (x) number of paid subs?
I had a talk with one of my subscribers the other day, who wanted to pledge to my newsletter. However, because they had to fill in credit card information, they ultimately did not follow through with it. Is this something that can be resolved, or that others have run into? I mean, I can understand not wanting to leave your payment information if you do not know if and when you will have to start paying for something.
Yeah, I don't really understand the pledge system. Feels more like a potential barrier/scary thing for free subscribers than a useful indicator of paid potential. Maybe I'm misunderstanding how it works, but I turned it off very quickly. To my UK brain it feels very weird.
My UK brain says it is a bit yucky asking people to 'pledge' either to pay you or give you compliments. Either you set it up for payment or not. I have no problem with selling your own product (I hand out flyers about my books to complete strangers) but it seems somehow in-between. I turned it off too.
Sometimes wish I had gone paid from the start but with #s steady increase just may wait. Difficult times for people all over so having a pleasant little read to look forward to is something I am glad to offer.
I don't completely understand what you're saying but you can always set up something like ko-fi and put the link to that in. People can send you a few bucks right away. I have one in my blogroll on main page. You can also create a button and add to your posts when you want.
It's not patreon - you don't have to have levels and offer people things. The whole thing is or used to be based around someone buying you a cup of coffee as a thank you for what you write. (ko-fi is pronounced coffee....) So people can just give a few bucks as a one-off or they can pledge regularly. I think that might be less scary than the substack pledge thing if you create a custom button in your newsletters - you can say- buy me a coffee/tea/beer, call it a tip jar, etc. So people know you're not asking for a lot.
that sounds kind of nice, actually. I have so far been using a stripe donation button, but this might offer a bridge to the longer-term goal of offering subscriptions
If you look at my substack, scroll down a bit. Under 'most popular' on the right are a bunch of links. I call that the blog roll/link roll, etc. you can add in links in settings. I can't remember exactly where but if you go into your dashboard and then settings, you'll find it.
Something I read last night (and which I haven't been using particularly effectively yet) is, when writing about topics that are general or abstract in nature, it helps to start with a more targeted, more personal anecdote (e.g. name and write about an individual and their experiences) to get the reader to relate to the article and want to read more. I'm thinking about how to use that technique in next month's edition on strategy & philosophy...
What are your thoughts on sending individual emails to prospects on your list? I’m a speaker and I have subscribers who are event planners, L&D professionals and so on who could potentially lead to me being hired for gigs. I’d love to send them a personal email inviting them to a virtual coffee, but I’m not sure if that’s breaking some kind of invisible rule or expectation for the subscriber. Has anyone experimented with this? Would love to get opinions and/or tips for doing this well.
This is less subscriber-oriented growth and more personal-oriented growth I guess.
I set an aggressive schedule for myself for both of my publications--the Peasant Times-Dispatch (for Catholic lifestyle) and Gibberish (for fiction). This month, I missed my first milestone--my podcast, which is supposed to come out on the second Wednesday of each month. I was really unhappy I missed it, and it derailed everything. I've really been struggling to get back to it. Partly for things going on in my personal life--I have less free time than I had a month ago, much less when I started my substack almost a year ago. But really, missing my schedule really just made me doubt the whole process. I was supposed to publish something yesterday and I couldn't because of this odd mix of lack of time and perfectly valid Things Going On (TM).
I'm trying to figure out whether I need to re-evaluate my substack--if I did, this would be the third such restructuring in less than a year, the thought of which demotivates me. But if I don't re-evaluate my substack, I need to change something else to be able to hit my publication milestones. SOMETHING has to change.
Has anyone else encountered a challenge like this? I am really frustrated by falling off the horse and I am trying to take this time on the ground to figure out what to do differently so next time I'm on the horse I can stay on.
I relate to this. This month I had some big pieces, but got hit by a huge wave of depression and exhaustion. Instead of missing my weekly posts I just posted something simple and told my readers why. Being honest with your readers can be a good thing. I am also planning to take the first two weeks of April off (spring break and what not).
Advice: be honest, plan breaks, and reevaluate your commitment. Less but consistent is better than more and burning out.
I initially set myself a very strict posting schedule and stuck to it. This year, however, life has thrown some obstacles in my path that just don’t allow me to stick to that initial plan. I could try, but I know I’d be putting out sub par content just to get something out there rather than waiting to post something I was happy with. So, I’ve decided to loosen my deadlines and focus on quality over quantity. Posts will wait until they’re ready.
I subscribe to other pubs that post intermittently and it’s never bothered me. I subscribe to some that post every other week and it’s plenty. Once a month is even fine, so long as the content is worthwhile. I also get bombarded by a few that post several times a week and some are borderline spam. I think the secret is finding the cadence that allows for quality without anxiety. Whatever that balance is, readers will adjust to it.
I’ve experienced this. Juggling writing and podcasting is proving really challenging for me too. There is only so much free time in a week! I back burnered the podcast for now in the hopes I can streamline my processes to make room for both. But we’ll see...
The best tip I can give is patience. Patience and attention to detail.
If you're putting out good, solid work, your audience will fill find it. Using social media spaces that your audience is likely to frequent, engaging often and keeping links to your writing in your bio can really help get the word out, too.
Networking gets results. Reaching out and engaging with other Substack writers, commenting on similar topics with thoughtful and detailed suggestions or insights will build your name.
If people see your name everywhere, and they find what you say interesting, they'll feel compelled to check out your work!
Hi Substack writers. I launched on Monday and have had about 10K viewers to my substack. It's free for right now. But, is there a button or way to convert those readers to free subscribers? Has anybody had luck putting up a free paywall -- meaning, give me your email and you'll get to read the rest of the story.
Sounds like it would work Joe Bel, but can be tricky ground as may piss off, if you will, some potential subs. I tried teasers Stories'on Facebook and nothing. People's time is being played with so when ya hold them up waiting they may not return. Such methods may be reserved for big # stats suggesting loyal engagement
We have a natural prompt to subscribe that pops up for 1) readers who are *not* logged into substack and 2) readers who are logged in but navigate away from your article for a while. But that's on the web. If you think these views could come from your emails being forwarded, I would make sure you have really great buttons and calls to action in your posts - https://on.substack.com/i/40522481/the-art-of-buttons
I experimented with a free version of my podcast last week and saw some immediate results in upgrades to paid. My model was the Cafe Insider podcasts that Preeh Bharara puts out on Tuesdays, with a 10-12 minute sample of the longer conversation, and then some unique outro language that explains what a subscription would include. This drove more paid subscriptions in a single week than anything I've done yet.
What I can't tell yet is how many people who upgrade their subscription to gain access to the full version of paywalled content stick around as paying subscribers. But I've only been doing this for a full year, so the sample size is still quite low.
still praying nightly for some way to filter for publications with 500-1,000 subscribers who take comments from free subscribers...like I do. This appears the best way to get a sympatico author's attention and to nurture mutual cross-posts...but I would need a part-time person to push through al the pubs manually...argh. Help!
Happy Office Hours, fellow Stackers! I am so excited because *drumroll* I am about to hit 100 subscribers! 😱 So here's a question - what do you do to celebrate these milestones with your community? I was thinking maybe some kind of giveaway? But I'm curious to learn how others celebrate!
I started writing on substack almost two months ago, and now I am looking for ways to improve my writing so that I can give my readers the best content possible. Does someone have any suggestions?
Write what you know and what you're comfortable with. It's about really finding your unique voice. And read lots of other successful Substacks that touch on similar topics. Being conversational really helps. This is stuff you probably already know but I think it's good to hear some times.
Just a general plea for HELP! Only been posting for around 3 months so early days, and have attracted a couple of subscribers who aren't personally known to me, which is a tiny ego boost. But I don't have a big presence on social media, and it would be inappropriate to share my posts with colleagues. I do follow quite a few Substacks and comment, but I can't read everybody because of, you know, life. Any tips?
I’ve been writing here for two months, have just under 200 subscribers with 13% paid. It seems I’ve stalled. I use IG to promote and a site called The Sample. Any tips to get my work seen by a wider audience?
Thinking a bit more - have you seen the following subreddit => https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/ (I'm not HNW or UHNW, browse out of curiosity) they might be interested in an AMA (ask me anything) from a Private Chef.
Hi Will - that's surprising and unpleasant. Did you post on /r/fatFIRE and they gave some push back or is it that you suggested a q&a on your Substack and they pushed back or something else?
I introduced myself and suggested a q& a but was verbally abused by two or three people. I was told I was staff, should be fired and to go and check if something was burning. It was like the internet twenty years ago. I deleted my profile. Sad.
Growth and reach has been my focus, so much so that I’ve shifted from one substack a week to a Sunday deep-dive and a weekly Wednesday newsletter where I share some of my best finds: songs of the week, quotes of the week, “What is Denise Reading?” with the creme de la creme articles of the week, and an advice column!
Having two spaces to flex my writers muscle in short and long form has kept me nimble and interested -- my short form Wednesday newsletter has been my favorite part of the week as of late.
Check it out below! This week I chatted about the newness of spring, if we should reread our sad poetry, and the innocent joys of secretly eloping young.
I have a question about pace for other Substack writers. I have so many ideas and things I'm excited to try to really build a thriving, creative and collaborative community AND I'm a full-time mom of an 8 month old who needs a lot of attention!
I have a lot of enthusiasm but I also don't want to burn out. Or make so many changes it confuses my readers.
I think it can feel urgent to those of us trying to earn an income from this while also maintaining our creative integrity and work/life balance.
I'm also a mom of a very energetic toddler and I think the pace that keeps you motivated for the long run is the best pace. I would say take it slow(er) than you'd prefer and see how much more you can handle and add that in. I think you'll know when it's too much! I say this because I'm doing the same :)
Thanks for the feedback! It's nice to know there are others out there juggling many roles and responsabilities but still taking the time to show up here for ourselves and others. <3
Keep writing and the excitement wears off 😂 kidding, but after a while I realized that the pace will be what it will be. And ideas that I thought would be an entire post are really only worth a line. I am a mom, teacher, and just started a nonprofit- the time I’m able to put in is so sacred to me that it’s worth it no matter what.
I just started and grew into mine. Moved my monthly email here after 6 months which had a kind of round up format and I now have three sections... I’m super happy with where I’ve got to in a year.
I'd like to have a writing marathon with my Attic Workshop, lauramoreno.substack.com , but not sure how to do it online. Guess it's similar to writing prompts, but with more advance notice and clear goals.
I was exhausted at the end of each day (still am - with unpacking) and there was no energy left for anything else. I knew the importance of writing consistently, but it's okay to take a break once in a while because life happens. I know I can only produce my best work when I am well-rested.
Be gentle with yourself so that you can produce your best work.
I have to take forced around the company here 😔 I know that when I have the 'office' to myself I write around the clock. But circumstances are what they are at present and I may have to consider online income again too. Considering cancelling subs who have 0 #s and just focusing on engagement
I just published a "Best Of" my work...see how that goes! Shameless plug to get subscribers ;) https://corruptionduck.substack.com/p/best-of-corruption-duck . I write about something fairly boring (mortgage fraud), but I always try to find a different angle, and obviously, the crazy characters help!
I like the sound of this - I've been thinking for a while that I'd like more recent subscribers to go back in time to read some of my earlier posts, so I'm planning a retrospective post every now and again! In my own experience as a new subscriber to newsletters, I don't very often go back into the writers' Substack archives - I tend to concentrate on their new stuff as and when they post it - so I think that a post linking to some earlier posts, or even a repost of one of them every so often, duly labelled as such, would be a really good move.
Yes Rebecca, just got chatting about this when a writer commented on my very first post which is still among the most popular 😊 Would like to hear more about your archive approach. I direct readers attention to any post I've written if applicable to the content and it saves them from searching through which they might not do otherwise
I've only reposted one (other than the best of), and that was for some updated information. And ok, cuz I thought it should have been more popular than it was! ;) It is my most read post by far. But yes, I think readers should appreciate what you think is your best work or the best path to your work. If you just read one of my boring vanilla mortgage frauds or my more random rants, you probably would not subscribe, no matter how good of a title/meme I slap on it!
Yes. The movie "House of Sand and Fog" is a Shakespearian tragedy, but the reality that some people have indeed lost their homes because of bureaucratic errors related to property taxes as is alluded to in the movie is an even bigger tragedy still! 🤯
My tragedies are more about people not having access to homes due to the actions of more than a few greedy real estate investors, and the inaction of bureaucrats. Similar! I think we have quite a few stories here in Arizona where people investing in property tax liens have colluded with the bureaucracy to essentially steal properties right out from under people. Generally retirees who's first notice it is happening is an eviction notice...
I have been cross posting to the various socials and gaining followers from the former mailchimp list as well as many brand new ones.
Personally, I like the shorter blogs myself. When I see the ones that are 52 minutes, I have to really be interested and it needs to start off with a spark for me to engage
I’m still posting all for free right now, trying to build the audience
Hi! I have a good amount of free subscribers but I have been struggling to convert them to paid and have even lost quite a few despite my overall readership going up. Any suggestions for how to convert would be greatly appreciated! I already offer exclusive content and have a big backlog of paid posts. Thanks so much! Allison
Thanks for joining us today at Office Hours! The Substack team is signing off but we'll be back next week. In the meantime, checkout the resources listed at the top of the post.
If you have feedback on our Office Hours experiment today, feel free to respond to this comment.
Thanks Katie! I look forward to these posts. You can get the word out and find so many opportunities to grow your page here. Like this...https://benwoestenburg.substack.com/about
My favorite part of Thursdays! Love the new, more focused format, too. I would like to be able to close up the comments, as we did before, and there's still the issue of 'losing' a comment as the site refreshes, but those are just technical issues.
The overall feeling here is one of community and camaraderie and I love it!
I liked it but got stuck in the wrong thread, lol - my bad, didn't realise there were multiples and had a lovely time there anyhow :)
Curious to hear: What do you think of the Grow interviews we do? (example: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-series-27-perfectly-imperfect)
- Are they helpful? Have you learned anything particularly memorable or useful from the series?
- Who should we interview next and why / about what?
The Grow interview you linked to happens to be the only one I've already read. It was interesting. But, while I was impressed with what those guys did despite supposedly not having any credentials, I have to admit that they didn't feel super-relatable (to me — obviously, everyone is different).
I hope there are or will be some interviews with successful Substackers who are just ordinary schleps. I know there are plenty of them. Maybe some stories of growth from, say, 100 to 1000 subscribers so we noobs don't feel like it's out-of-reach.
Don't get me wrong, though. Perfectly Imperfect was a good interview and enjoyable read. Those guys earned all the recognition they are getting.
I am also interested in reading some growth stories from 100 to 1,000 subscribers. Great point! :)
I'd even appreciate 43 to 100.
Shameless self promo: There's me. I started w/ zero and no platform. Here's how I did it. https://on.substack.com/p/grow-series-6
That's beautiful honesty you have there.
I like how you shared about reaching out to other Substack writers, and the positive responses you received from them.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for sharing this! I love this type of growth stories. I'll enjoy reading this so much! 😄
Yes I’d like to read that!
I do sometimes get some ideas from the grow series, but many seem indeed not very applicable, whereas the category from 100 to 1000 is very fitting for me now. I'm there, and I am not completely sure what is contributing to my growth. I saw a bunch of new subscribers last month, and I have no real idea why.
Still, I would like to try out new things.
Same
I agree Bob, I'd enjoy reading some organic growth posts about someone who perhaps never expected to grow their Substack so much.
For me, I'm not using social media of Twitter/FB/Instagram, so if there are people out there doing it the same then I'd be keen to hear different thoughts.
very well said, Bob
👏👏
I love these interviews. They help keep me motivated and inspired. I've definitely learned something from each of them! Would love to see more stories of people who've grown their Substacks from scratch (no prior claim to fame or built-in audiences).
I like them very much. I'm open to any tips that might help me grow my newsletters, but I will say I take the advice of the more famous and successful writers with a grain of salt.
Most of them come with a built-in audience or have ways of promoting we can only dream of. Some of them are people you at Substack brought in yourselves, so any advice they might give to those of us who have to start from scratch is almost irrelevant.
I'm more interested in writers who have built their newsletters up from scratch and are growing and happy with the results.
well said, Ramona, I am organic here and growing with my audience.
I like these. There's always at least one good nugget. It helps to be reminded. Some people are quite ingenious about it -- I think the people think about it in unorthodox ways are my favorite interviews.
I'm also surprised sometimes at how out-of-the-box some people think and how they combine growing their content with growing their subscribers. The newsletters gets more interesting and at the same time it gets in front of more people. I think that for me one of the biggest take away was how collaborations play such a big role in the growth curve.
I can't remember anything in particular, but at the time I read them I usually take one particular thing the person has done and either try it myself or add it to a 'to try' list. So they are definitely useful, and encouraging
Hi Bailey, jumping on this Grow thread, no doubt will want to read all 3 eventually :)
I read each Grow interview and look for ideas - I find something relatable / usable about half the time. There are so many different types of authors on Substack with differing models and objectives. I don't expect every interview to fit with what I am trying to achieve.
For example, the one about the 3 "pirates" who write collaboratively was very helpful.
Seems there is an appetite for more insights into those authors without pre-existing brands / huge pre-Substack email lists, who have made meaningful progress, and how.
George
To echo what Bob Merberg said, the Grow interviews are great but not relatable. In these interviews, the people had large social media presences to pull from. I worked in media as a reporter for EW Scripts and an ABC affiliate. Each time I left a publication or a TV station, I lost basically all of my work and most of my social media followers. I did freelance work for various companies based on different topics, but nothing cohesive enough to build a dedicated social following. I debated as to whether to even start a Substack instead of building out a paywalled website, which I know how to do as a former social and digital media manager. However, as a member of the Author’s Guild, I have been part of several webinars talking about different growth opportunities and Substack was part of that. But part of the Substack community are people who are working on building both social followers and Substack followers, so it would be nice to have Grow interviews with people who started with nothing and built up. Miigwech! (thank you in Chippewa)
Just subscribed to your Substack, Maghan. Look forward to checking it out.
Thank you! I hope you enjoy it!
They're very helpful! I always learn something, and they're good reminder that while there are best practices for growth, there's no *right* way to grow.
Quality content that is valuable to the reader seems to be a common thread though...
Did not know about these, Bailey, but will take a look soon. Thanks for bringing them to our attention.
I love reading the Grow series. And while I'm curious about the growth tips shared in these interviews I think that I'm excited to discover new Substacks. If there is one thing that all these Substacks have in common is good content, and I'm always fascinated by their growth journey in terms of how the content they deliver evolved over time and how they learned what brings value to their subscribers.
I would like to see more examples of fiction, literature, game, comedy writers and their journeys on Substack. I know that fiction authors don't have huge followings on Substack like other type of newsletters... would be interesting to know why and also understand how the audience of a fiction newsletter is different than the audience of, say, a business or a lifestyle newsletter. Also, is there a type of creative writing that is more engaging than the others? Thank you.
This. Would love to see some growth interviews from fellow fiction writers.
(And to add to Claudia's point, these threads are in themselves a slow but steady way of ensuring growth. I perhaps wouldn't have found Claudia's Substack were it not for such threads.)
And the other way around, it must be said ☺️
They're great for giving me motivation and letting me know I'm on the right track!
It's also really cool to hear people's stories and how they got their start.
I get a lot out of them, especially if they’re more actionable. Particularly loved the piece on reaching your first 100 subs.
Me too, very good
I loved Action Cookbook I resonated most with his approach of writing about anything happening in his world and the way he structures free and paid posts. I love his writing voice, too!
I love hearing tips and how people grow, and I also don't find it too inspiring if it's someone who was like, an editor somewhere major or just well known and posted on IG "hey I'm moving to Substack with a newsletter!" then their hundreds or thousands of fans just followed.
Don't mind hearing about them! They just don't resonate as deeply as "helpful" since they already had a pretty big audience that would convert to a pretty hefty following over onto Substack.
I get a lot of value out of them; especially when they feature writers on a similar trajectory to me.
yes, good point, Kevin
I’ve always gotten an idea or two that I think adds to my newsletter or at least will get readers to engage. While I cannot relate to the trajectory, I’m hoping to build more quickly. I am not banging out fiction but I’ve gotten into a more comfortable routine with just getting ideas, keeping up with deadlines or deliverables, and publishing. It’s a process that brings joy which I think is worth a lot.
Did the ability to collapse threads go away?
Looks like it. That's too bad. I really liked that feature, though it was harder to get back into a conversation later on.
•Do good work
•Find other writers in your same space and engage with them
•Be consistent
•Keep doing good work
•Give more than you take
•More good work
•Link in bio
•Offer to crosspost and/or guest post
•Be patient
•Keep on keepin’ on
•Check out aggregators like The Sample and Inbox Reads for more opportunities
•Keep… you guessed it shipping your best work
•Remember that quality work always rises to the top.
•When you get some momentum, help the people that were in your shoes a year ago.
Great advice. I keep reminding myself that word of mouth is probably the most important factor for growth, and for that to work, you have to have great writing to show people. If they enjoy what you put out, they'll come back and they will tell others about you. Here's hoping I'm lucky/talented enough to run a great newsletter.
Word of mouth & the recommendation feature have been game changers for this platform.
Really underrated advice.
Totally agree. Even in the Grow series, interview after interview I can see that all the newsletters that stand out have great content. The work and craft that go into those newsletters is unbelievable.
Love "Give more than you take." :)
Soooooo important! It's the secret ingredient to building community, but it shouldn't be a secret.
So true, even for the newsletters who are small like mine. We tend to think that we have nothing to give (yet). But that's not true. Being an engaged member of the Substack community, showing interest in other people's work and supporting them are always welcomed (right?).
You have *so* much to give, Claudia :D
(I'm checking my email every day, awaiting that next post...
No pressure, I'm just letting you know that's how much I already value your writing!)
Thanks Nathan, I am working on my next short story and I hope to have it ready for Monday. I already rewrote it so many times, I'm getting tired 😩 but at some point it has to stop. Otherwise I'll keep rewriting it for the rest of my life.
#relate
I just did the same thing with my latest post. I rewrote it too many times, editing and reshuffling and changing. Glad to have had my self-imposed Substack deadline.
Send it out there. It's OK if it's not perfect. It'll never be perfect. Nothing ever is. But that's OK, it's what we strive for and keeps us going :)
To probably use totally the wrong term, perfection is the asymptote of creativity.
Yes, self-imposed deadlines cannot be underestimated. I started writing this short story in 2020...
All very well put by the best citizens on Substack. All I would add is take advantage of any opportunity to participate in Office Hours or any other forum offered by Substack - it can always lead to a new subscriber/reader. I also fundamentally believe that anyone who approaches this work in good faith will make his/her/their own luck.
I was very shy to participate in the Office Hours in the first 5 months of my journey on Substack. I didn't want to seem like I'm pushing myself out there... but after I started participating in the talks I realised how silly I was.
There is, of course, a level of self-promotion when participating in the threads, but I was surprised by how much I enjoy exchanging thoughts (and sometimes jokes) with the community, reading what other writers think, discovering interesting newsletters... now I'm looking forward each week to the Office Hours. Also, everyone is very decent and only a very small percentage of people just shamelessly push their newsletters without contributing. This shows what a good crowd this is. 👏
It's honestly one of the nicest internet discussions places I've ever come across. It makes sense, because everyone here is writing on Substack, so there's a good pre-filter, but I still find it surprising and warming to read all the kind messages of support and advice.
Exactly, it feels like a real community, like a conversation. Not just everyone talking at each other. 😂 Or worse, insulting each other as I so often see on Twitter.
Haha, yep. I can't really enjoy being in those places. Reddit's the only other social place I flit in and out of.
Reddit? Where exactly? I sometimes read some stuff but I can't find my way around really.
Wholly agree! I like to say, trust in yourself more than you trust in the algorithm..
well said robert - it is my 2 year birthday on Substack this week and fellow Substackers have been supporting me alot with recommendations for a feature, great platform and community of wordy types :)
Congrats on the anniversary, David!
What great advice. I’ve just started out a few months ago and am slowly finding my grove with writing. Slow and steady is how I’m approaching substack, I’ve just discovered to wisdom in Office Hours.
I so believe that! It's a matter of being patient. Word of mouth usually starts off as a whisper before it becomes a shout. One of the things I like to do is SHARE my "About" page, so people can see what I have to offer. Like this: https://benwoestenburg.substack.com/about If you share it when you make a comment--not every time because that's "troll'ish", isn't it?--but once in a while so that people reading your comment might be inclined to looking at your profile.
100% yes to all of that!
I have been getting subscribers from The Sample. I have also included my Substack link on my personal and work email for more visibility.
Have not heard of the sample. Can you offer me a link?
Here you go! https://thesample.ai/?ref=edd7
Thanks. Didn't know about this. Do you have to submit things to it, or does it automatically just pull things from your Substack?
You don’t have to do anything. It just sends you a notification when your subscription file is ready to be downloaded!
If you use the button 'Submit a newsletter', your Substack newsletters will be pulled automatically from Substack and sent out. You get a weekly overview of your performance on the sample.ai. And if someone subscribes, you get a csv file with the email that you can either copy-paste or import to Substack.
Thanks, good to know. That's great. Just signed up, will see how it goes.
Thank you!
I signed on with them for the free option a few weeks (months?) back. As they suggest is likely, I picked up some new subscribers (less than 10), and now it's tapered off. Can't expect much from a free service. I'm sure it would improve if I were willing, and able, to sink some money into it.
I agree. I'm retired now and have a limited income. Maybe if I grow my paywall page I can use that money to invest in myself?
I had the same experience and I'm curious if the paid option works better. I also wonder if the audience of the sample.ai prefers a certain type of content. I had a newsletter about how Substacks helped me find my writing process that brought in 3 subscribers (0.8% conversion). I wonder if their audience consists mainly of writers...
https://thesample.ai/
Thank you!
i think i filled out the form for the sample correctly but not sure i added them as a subscriber correctly ,
I hadn't heard of The Sample- thanks for sharing!
This worked well for me for about the first two weeks that I was on The Sample, and then I didn't get many more after that. Grateful for that initial batch, though!
The same happened to me. I got 12 subscribers the first week or so and a lot of traffic but now...zilch. I'm wondering if you have to start paying to keep the benefits?
My guess is that the referral links play a big role. I haven't personally tried using them though so am curious if people really did see a difference from using the referrals.
same
same for me
i think i filled out the form for the sample correctly but not sure i added them as a subscriber correctly ,
how will i know when this is completed correctly ?
what is The Sample?
It's a (free) service that will send your email out to their audience. Readers can then subscribe to it. That's obviously helpful, but if you like to /read/ newsletters, it's good for seeing new ones you might not've other wise. There's also a dashboard of all participating writers, so you can connect/collaborate.
The more you use it, the better it gets at knowing what you want to read. On the writing side, the more traffic you send their way, the more they'll send your work out.
Check it out: https://thesample.ai/?ref=85a1 (aff. link)
I have had good luck with the Sample.
thank you
ooo didn't know about the Sample! That's fun site. Are there others like that?
The Sample
Lettergrowth
Inboxreads
Radletters
Ditto didn't know about these. Thanks, Kevin.
Thanks a lot, didn't know three of these options. I'll try them out. 👍
I don’t know if others. I’d love it if anyone else that knows shares!
"When you get some momentum, help the people that were in your shoes a year ago."
Spot on, and thank you for the reminder.
so well said
I feel a bit like the doom and gloom but I have to say that quality work doesn’t always rise to the top on Substack - from my experience, it’s a huge social media following or being promoted by those with a large Substack following that seems to work best. But there’s something to be said for not panicking about growth and keeping true to yourself in terms of what you write, not always chasing the numbers but rather the connections that truly appreciate what you do and read it!
Yeah, agree.
The focus on growth can be somewhat demoralising if you spend too much time dwelling on it. I love to see the stats, but really I want to be reading and writing quality, interesting and inspiring work, even if it's for a limited audience. Over time, I'd like to hope that anyone writing such work will be found and rise, but it just might be a slower process. But that's OK. The journey is everything.
Totally agree that actually there’s something about having a more niche audience that truly appreciates how you write and your unique voice. Part of me isn’t looking for large numbers or amazing stats as then that might mean I’m too mainstream or middle of the road! But maybe I am just very strange about what matters to me!
So true. Not strange at all. We should all aim for that mentality.
I agree so much, sometimes you write a newsletter as a creative outlet. Nobody wants to hear the crickets, but even a small audience can be such a source of inspiration and support for a writer. Fortunately, I have a day job and I don't have to worry about monetising my newsletter. I am so happy that I finally found a place that keeps me on fire about writing my stories and putting them out in the world.
+1
There's only one Deborah Sloan.
Always great advice, Kevin. I'm not at the crosspost or guest post place yet, but I do like reading them when others do it.
I haven't had much luck with Sample but it's me, not them. I'm not exactly sure how to promote them, and I don't see much promotion anywhere else.
But patience, helping, and paying it forward--I'm all in!
I believe this fully because I've seen Kevin do all of this himself. A man who practices what he preaches.
Thank you! You are a good example to follow. :)
No shortcuts!
Love that last bullet! Any suggestions on how to guest post / cross post? Are there certain best practices you'd
"moviewise: Life Lessons From Movies" is open to Guest Posts. For more information, please see:
https://moviewise.substack.com/p/be-our-guest
Prompt:
If you've ever felt that you learned something about life from a movie, please share it with us 🤗
Thank you!
For me, I found other newsletters I genuinely enjoyed, and after awhile just offered to write a a guest post. I didn't ask for anything in return, so it was an easy "sell."
Thank you!
Thank you !
👆
Yes, to all of this, Kevin! Especially "give more than you take."
Yes!
Growth takes time, a lot of time. Shortcuts make it not worth it.
Nice,Kevin!
Thanks for the advice!
Some fantastic tips here, thank you. Love ‘give more than you take.’
Office hours is a fantastic way to meet other Substack writers, and to get some questions answered. But it's also so busy that it can be a really frustrating experience.
I wrote up an Office Hours survival guide. If you're new to Office Hours, or if you've been here but found yourself frustrated by the jumpy interface, take a look and get a few pointers about how to make Office Hours a more enjoyable experience.
https://mostlypython.substack.com/p/using-substack
There's tips about how to bookmark comments you're interested in, including your own; how to read longer comments without the page jumping around, and how to write replies without the page jumping around. There's also a short list of feature requests, that I think would make these discussions more enjoyable for both writers and staff.
Curious if you think that these separated conversations are helpful - make it any less overwhelming? Would love to hear feedback!!
yes, it is helpful, thanks Bailey -- but, and, the jumpy interface and unreliable notifications / link-backs, as Eric Matthes noted in his post, still make it really hard to work with... any improvements on those would be much appreciated!
I like this very much. Office Hours was getting a bit unwieldly, so dividing interests is a brilliant option! Thanks.
Totally agree!
Me too!!
There's something fun about seeing how big office hours can be, but in terms of utility, breaking out into separate spaces is really helpful. Like, today is the first time in months that I haven't felt overwhelmed at office hours.
confused me slightly but i need coffee today :)
WAY less overwhelming! I think one more option could come up for threads, maybe “talk around the water cooler” for any general discussions?
CAP OFF THE CHARACTER LENGTH. Less scroll = more engagement back and forth. Also, who are the people who can write paragraphs this fast? Do they come prepped with cut and paste. Curious!!
Personally, I type 70 WAM so yes, I can type paragraphs that fast! LOL
This is also the first live chat I’ve been in, so cannot speak to the formatting before. however, I’ve been toggling between two threads. Lots of great stuff and people. But some really lengthy explanations that slow down the experience fwiw.
I don't think it's the length of comments that make the pages jumpy, it's the rate at which new comments come in. It's the auto-refresh that makes everything move around while you're reading, or worse, while you're trying to write a reply.
They certainly are! I think it will take people a few weeks to sort out exactly where to post. But I already see more focused conversations. If one or two of them are less used but those conversations are more focused, that's a big improvement.
Love the new format. Very helpful, thanks Bailey.
Yes, it's a good thing to have implemented, thanks.
These spaces always feel a bit exhilarating to jump into with how unwieldy they can get, but I enjoy it.
I've experienced less jumping around today, but maybe that's because less people are in and Liking each section, causing them to move up/down?
Yes, I like it because it's easier to look at the page without it hiccuping while it loads. Thank you!
I think this is super helpful! I feel like I'm back in a conversation again - not scrolling crazily trying to find where I'm at. Thanks for doing this!
Yes, really great so far. Helps organise the threads into different categories.
Still a lot of content to get through, but I think that's the nature of the "beast" (we should come up with a better idiom for when the case in point is not exactly beastly - ha!) Segmenting conversations like this helps!
Agree, I can hardly keep up! (and to get visibility you have to sit in constant refresh to watch the link pop up so you can actually get a comment near the top! :)
I've actually realised I quite like getting to this a few hours in because then I can scroll through all the goodness and comment on what people have written.
I feel like both the app and web have gotten better at handling the conversation. It is definitely still overwhelming in general, thanks for the tips!
Agreed! This thread is barely 15 minutes old and already there's a tsunami of comments to get through!
And what happened to collapse!!!! This is a nightmare for me now. I'm only going to stay on a bit because it all gets so unwieldy.
The collapse works. I just did it. I just clicked on the line leading from your icon on the left, and it collapsed.
THANK YOU, BEN!!!! (Yes, I am shouting for joy!) I was accustomed to seeing something that said "collapse" or "collapse thread"--not just having to know to click the line. Would be better if they added an arrow to make that more intuitive. Again, thanks so much!
Same. It was the one Office Hours trick I knew. Some good tips are in the guide Eric linked to. If you can find it again on the page!
This! It's really tripping me up.
This is awesome. The time stamp tip alone is huge!
Thank you!
Thank you for this! It is so useful. Office hours are a terrible time for my time zone, so that adds an extra layer of frustration.
Great! I can't wait to read it. Thanks!
Nice! Thanks, Eric.
Thanks Eric, will check it out. The current interface is a peeve of many here
Thank you for the tips, Eric!
Thanks for this, Eric. I needed it. It's a very well put together guide.
great post Eric -- totally agree!!
Hello all, and happy Office Hours in a NEW format! Since Growth requires a little push now and then, here's a little bit of encouragement from one small newsletter to all of you:
Something that I think is really important to meditate on is how far you've come, even if it doesn't feel like it. Every single step counts! No matter where you are in your writing journey, you're further along than you were one year ago, or five, or ten. Have you only posted ten posts to your Substack? Well, that's ten posts you didn't have before you started! Did you just start your Substack today? Then you've made a big leap forward, compared to yesterday!
Celebrating the little wins isn't insignificant. Little wins add up! No matter where you are on the path, you've got miles behind you that show you how far you've come. Celebrate it, and let other writers celebrate with you!
Most importantly: keep going, keep writing, and DON'T GIVE UP! 🌿
Hey! I needed to hear this. A couple of days ago, after a bout of work-related exhaustion, I almost quit my newsletter. But I got a good night's sleep and I'm back in the saddle. Writing is hard business, especially if you've got a full-time job, but it's worth it. So worth it.
Don't give up, Andrei! I definitely know the feeling. But you're right: the challenges are SO worth it.🌿
well said! :)
Maybe don't think of it as a 'business' but more as a calling, a craft, or an art form. Don't think of it as a 'job'. It's what you do for love!
I agree with that Ramona. When I was working I was getting up @ 3:30 just so I could get 2 hours of writing time. I loved it. Now that I'm retired, I'm getting up @7:00 am. But don't give up whatever you do, because time slips away and that's something you can never get back.
Two months after I started my newsletter, I took a two-month break also due to work-related stress. I'm so happy that I got back and already wrote 3 newsletters. I did have to get a bit more realistic about how often I can send out a quality newsletter and settled for bi-weekly instead of weekly.
Don't give up! 🌟
It's so hard to remember to celebrate the wins!
3 months ago, when I turned on paid subscription I didn't really know what to expect. Now I have over 200 paid subscribers. 🤯
But it's still really easy to overly focus and obsess about day-to-day growth, thinking that new number is the baseline, and I have to grow more, faster, etc. Thanks for the reminder to celebrate the wins!
Congrats on that win, Jesse. 200 paid is terrific. What is your subscriber total? Is 200 in that 10% sweet spot that Substack suggest is the average?
Ha, I WISH I had 10%! 😅
My newsletter is around 56k subscribers, so I'm more like 0.3% paid. Hopefully that gets closer to 10% as the year goes on, but hey, I'll settle for 5%! 😂
That is amazing! And how long did it take to get 56,000? I just turned on my Paid page yesterday.
Thanks! I started my newsletter just over two years ago. Good luck!
WOW! Nicely done.
Thank you!
Congrats on all of your success! It certainly looks very well deserved! I'm curious: do you think paywalling content helped drive paid subscriptions?
Thanks! I'm still trying stuff out and learning what drives subscriptions the most.
The two largest growth spikes were 1) when I launched paid subscriptions, 2) when I ran a 20%-off annual sale (which I advertised for 2 weeks).
As for the content, my main newsletter goes out on Tuesdays, and that one is always free, not paywalled. Then I usually (but not always) do an additional issue on Thursdays which is sometimes paid-only, and sometimes does the paywall preview thing. It does seem like the paywall previews helps drive additional signups, but not significantly so compared to the regular free issue (at least at this point).
I usually only do the paywall preview if I can offer value above the fold. I do reader Q&As where I list all the questions at the top and then put a couple of the answers behind the paywall. So they still get value from the answers above the fold, so it doesn't just feel like spam or something.
Thanks for answering. This is all so helpful!
That is fantastic! Just took a peek at your stack and I see why it is so popular. Going to send a link to my son...
Thanks, Patricia!
Wow, great success story! 👏 You should be featured on the Grow series (if you weren't yet).
Love this! Thanks for calling it out. Sometimes it's so easy to get stuck in the slog it's hard to remember to celebrate. I just celebrated a year of my publication, and that felt pretty good!
Congratulations, Sara!! One year is no small feat!! 🌿
Celebrate every little win! I make a point of punching the air with every new subscriber I get. That's one more person that wants to hear what I have to say, and that's amazing!
Yes, and thanks for your continued reminders that every little step is a win. I had my first unexpected shout-out from a reader I didn't know, in a post she wrote for a larger online community, and gained a few followers that way. Once I calmed down, I realized it only happened because I was writing what mattered to me, and it resonated with one reader. I didn't orchestrate it or pitch it. I just wrote. Celebrating that!
YES! When what we write about matters, it shines through and people get engaged.
Yes! This is where the magic happens--when you're writing from the heart in your authentic voice!
I so agree. When you write about what interests you and don't think about trying to pick up subscribers, or if they'll like it, and why aren't they leaving comments, it's like a weight falls off. The readers will come. So what if it takes a year or two? Cheer those who have double your readers in half the time it took you. It's not a competition.
The challenge for those of us who are new to Substack but not new to writing is that there's a little bit of each of the discussions I'd like to behefit from. I'll admit that I tend to answer posts from new writers with suggestions, and benefit most from interaction with other experienced writers. Not sure how to unpack that, but having early trouble with this format.
Stick with it. I've been here 9 months. I worked on my ABOUT page. I wanted it to stand out so that anyone looking at it would know what I was offering. I looked at all sorts of other pages to try and figure out what to do; experimented with the video, and podcasts, tried the Cross-over and recommended pages I liked and followed. I only have 120'ish subscribers, and while I tell myself that's not a lot, I am picking up 10-20/month. But I don't think you'll find a better platform.
I hear you, Howard! I'm curious to see how this all shakes out, too. Regardless, I'm glad you're here! 🌿
I am too!
A good reminder! I've been disappointed by how few subscribers I'm able to convert to paid - but it's important to remind myself of how many free subscribers I've gathered, and the amount of quality work I've been able to produce in the last couple of years.
Thanks!
Thank you for this. It is really reassuring to read comments like this. I started on Substack during lockdown in 2021. But due to hiccups with the substack system and lack of paid subscription growth, I found it hard to sustain and it deflated me. So I quit. In retrospect, I shouldn't have. But I am back now with a renewed mindset and a focus on good content over the growth. It feels right and I agree with so many voicing a similar sentiment here. In the end it is all about staying true to your writing and fostering a community that appreciates your effort. And little wins do matter. Thank you :)
Welcome back, Sneh! I understand what you're going through so much. I almost quit a couple of days ago too, for various reasons. Mainly life getting in the way, but also disappointment due to slow growth. But writing is truly fulfilling and, as you said, the Substack community is so great, and I want to stay on here as long as I'm able to, because it's probably the most positive space for writers on the internet.
Thank you for the warm welcome Andrei. I agree, it is a noisy world out there and it can become very hard for your voice to be heard over the noise. But you have to keep persisting.
I'm SO GLAD you came back, Sneh! Just keep moving forward, following the joy, and the right people will find you. When you focus on fostering community over growing numbers, all kinds of magic can happen. I believe it! 🌿
Love your motivational words.
well said!
If I can add:
Anyone "just starting" is already light years ahead of all the people still standing at the start line staring at their shoes.
Your additions are always welcome! They're supposed to be staring at the finish line and moving towards it, not looking back at their track shoes.
I posted this in stand alone comment, but in case you don't see it there (your post hadn't shown up yet).
I propose that Substack employ S. E. Reidm and put her in charge of attitude on their social media venture.
I see two themes emerging in Google News and other sites that indicate more people are looking for a purpose in life and have realized that fear driven hatred is not the solution to our manifold problems but a contributor to the overarching struggle between democracy and autocracy.
Here is a slightly mangled copy of her “invitation to “join the discussion.”
open, honest, gracious, and curious.
This is YOUR space to discuss with each other, not just engage with me! Because of this, SAFE SHARING is my highest priority. If you are not engaging safely and with grace with others, you will have to leave. Period.
Oh Pete, always so kind! Thank you so much for your sweet words. I'm just glad that people resonate with what I share! 🌿
Thank you for sharing all your encouraging words with everyone every week. I'm looking forward to reading your post on our cousins. Right now my granddaughter's trailer has a Plumbing Leak and her mother has a gumption leak as a result of her severe depression but I will get back to today's writer hours as soon as I can
Great advice!
Needed this!
Yes, growth is top of my list - and I've been getting discouraged because I see so many substacks that are growing like crazy. But I'm tweaking and re-setting and carrying on with what I want to write. I think when I click into that, the growth will come. With all the AI coming, I think we need to find our voice more than anything. And it's a process.
In that vein, I've changed my substack name to "Diane Discovers" - new blurb is "A newsletter offering insight into our ever-evolving life adventure by exploring purpose, meaning, and the search for Self. And cool things. Join this amazing journey! Free and optional paid."
And I'm excited about this shift - I hope it'll help me connect with others.
I totally agree with you about iteration! I have been iterating from Day 1, and each time I make a big change I'm like, "ugh, maybe people will hate this and be annoyed"...but it's always the right decision! I also changed the name of my Substack, and I'm so glad I did, my current name feels so right for me. I've changed my tagline approximately six billion times. Once I just viewed this all as a big sandbox, I became more OK with my constant evolution!
Love what you're writing - I'm subscribing! haha - I've done same with my tagline. And you're right - this is a sandbox. And I think we should update our newsletter as we update ourselves.
I absolutely love that you spoke on this just now! I've changed my newsletter name maybe2-3 times now, and was thinking about changing it again (this would be the second time in a few months) just because life's been changing (specifically this last name change and this possible upcoming name change cause of huge life events).
I'm still playing with the format and figuring out what I wanna write, and I sometimes feel flakey and wrong for that.
Your words, and everyone replying, have felt so validating to read!
Thank you again for bringing it up! No clue how much I needed it. :)
And you've validated me - thank you SO much for sharing!! I've been feeling like you - and it sounds like we're not alone.
I’m so glad to hear it! And of course! I love these Office Hours so we can voice ourselves like this ♥️
I love hearing about others' process behind the scenes, it makes the changes and tweaks I'm doing feel less "amateur" and more just part of the play.
I have recently discovered the power of iteration here on Substack and I must say it is absolutely liberating. To get out of the mindset that nothing is set in stone .. that is the key to eventually arriving at what feels like it feeds your soul.
I feel you. I rewrite my about page and welcome email about once a week.
I think each week I tweak a little bit of my tagline or bio. I was wondering if anyone did the same. I also tweak my welcome email. Thanks for making me feel seen!
I'm constantly tweaking! I tweak, I edit, I add, I subtract--and whenever I feel the least bit guilty about it, I remember that this is my space and I'm the decorator, so anything goes if it makes me happy! (I've changed the name of one of my newsletters three times. I think I've settled now, but who knows? LOL)
Just subscribed to you. Looks great!
https://scottweinzirl.substack.com/
If this is for me, thank you! You're always welcome to join in the conversations.
I have been making plans to change the name of Merlin's newsletter which was just a placeholder.
As usual I've been dithering but I see that was not necessary and I'm going to follow the lead of these adventurous people and do that myself.
oh, you've made me feel so much better - thanks!
I feel like I tweak my Welcome Email all the time. I recently saw someone's welcome email that included a short bio and a "what to expect" and I borrowed that idea. With time, I get more clear on exactly what my newsletter is and who its for, and that makes me feel more confident with each post.
This reminds me that I have completely neglected my Welcome Email. I have no idea what my subscribers get... 😐
I am constantly tweaking my emails and bio! You're not alone.
I love that you've changed the name at blurb of your newsletter to something that resonates more with you. I think of the scary things about setting up a substack is that you feel like it might be one thing but it takes a complete different direction as you continue to write! Happy writing! x
I also wonder about this a lot, how I started with one idea and ended up somewhere else. I guess the reality of writing on a regular basis and the effort it involves are good filters for what is relevant or not. Who knows what the future will bring.
In my case, my newsletter did just that--it changed--and I changed my title to reflect the new direction I was taking. It's actually been a fascinating journey!
I love the name and I respect how you keep adapting and reinventing your work. Keep on keeping on, Diane!
Thanks - that means more than you know!
Very cool Diane! My newsletter Artificial Ignorance is exploring how AI is impacting our day to day lives, and I 100% agree that finding your voice and your personality is incredibly importnant.
love the name of your newsletter!
Great title!
I really loved what you had to say in that newsletter. I appreciate the changes that you are trying to make.
Thanks so much, Sarah!
I like your new name, Diane. Good going!
Thanks, Ramona!
Noticed your shift today, Diane - thank you for the clear guidance (and good luck with final days getting past your bout of covid...)
Thanks, George!!
Your change sounds very cool, Diane!
I hope that the new AI wave will open new opportunities for human writers with a unique voice.
I've also reworked my About page recently, and found a lot of inspiration on how to go about it in the newsletters I love to read.
I just had a look at your About page and would like to suggest a new blurb, if I may be allowed:
--Discover a meaningful life of adventure, purpose and self-exploration with the founder of TEDxManhattan 'Changing the Way We Eat' and award-winning author of 'Rock Gods & Messy Monsters.' Join for free to get inspired!--
You have great achievements and I think that mentioning a couple of them give an insight into the kind of person you are and the type of content that the potential subscriber can expect from you.
In this newsletter milieu I think growth is at the top of all of our lists. I think as we struggle to build readerships we have to remember that the subscription system means we're also building friends.
The people who choose to subscribe are doing it with the understanding that whatever you write will appear in their inboxes and they'll get to choose whether or not to open that door.
After much trial and error, I found my most comfortable voice when I latched onto what I've just written above. I was writing for friends! My writing became more personal and less broad. I used 'I' and 'you' and thought of my blogs as community centers and parlor spaces, and not just internet entities.
It may not work that way for any of you, but it fit my style of writing well, and I'm enjoying the experience far more than I did when anxiety sat on my shoulder and wouldn't leave!
I invite anyone writing personal essays to join in on our lively conversations at Writer Everlasting. We're a community and a safe place for writers who might need both of those things!
This super resonates with me, Ramona! I have to always picture my friends when I'm writing, in order to stave off the urge to try and make everyone happy. The great thing about Substack is that I don't need to make everyone happy, I just need to make my subscribers and MYSELF happy :). I also notice that the more personal and intimate my writing, the better the response.
This is my first experience with newsletters, so it took a while to figure things out, but once I realized there was such a thing as reader loyalty I began to write for them.
Most of the newsletters I admire now do the same thing. There are, of course, newsletters that appeal to the more technical aspects of writing, but I write personal and opinion essays so this works for me!
It's been interesting for me as someone who writes in more of an academic niche to incorporate my own voice (unfiltered opinions, emotions, use of first person). I do feel that newsletters have more of a personal "vibe" rather than a simple blog or news article, just from the fact that it appears directly in readers' inboxes.
Yes, I have found this as well. When discussing, say, scientific topics, I make the approach more personal than I did before, both by addressing the reader and by opening up more about my own thoughts and feelings. I think people respond to that. The fact that we are NOT the new york times or an indifferent scientific journal is our strength!
Definitely! It's also really cathartic to just be able to let loose about things that we might need to tiptoe around in a more strictly academic article. Wouldn't be able to say something like "...and that's why this policy SUCKS"
Definitely! After the confines of academic writing, substack writing feels very liberating!
Yes! Some people want to change the name away from 'newsletters', and I was one of them for a while, but I think I like it now. There's a sense of community that isn't there with a standard blog or website.
I love the community center and parlor space image, Ramona! I like to imagine my readers rocking on a front porch together, journals in hand. Then a few come on inside and help themselves to a snack in the kitchen.
Again, it took me a while to get comfortable with that kind of 'intimacy', since my earlier writing was mainly feature writing and opinions, but I'm nestling in now and it feels RIGHT!
That's such a great way of putting it, Julie!
Now I’m trying to figure out how to entice a few more into the kitchen when the snacks are worth paying for. Better signs? Better snacks? Fancy recipes? Or just good solid food I like cooking? Maybe I’ve stretched this metaphor as far as it should go.
"Entice" is such a great word for what we're trying to do. It's a little tougher with the paying crowd but if they like what they see and feel (and maybe even smell) how can they resist? 🤗
This resonates with me, too. Each person who signs up is making a big decision to let me enter their inboxes and therefore their lives.
I think about some of my more enthusiastic readers when I write. The ones who read and comment on almost every post. What would they want to see? Right now, it's a bit easier, as there aren't that many of these. But I imagine as your audience gets bigger, there will be a need to balance catering to your audience versus keeping yourself genuine and trusting your feelings.
I don't think the size of your audience should change anything. You be you and they will come.
Most of the newsletters I'm subscribed to right now (the big ones) have paywalls on comments. It's unfortunate and it makes it very difficult to get your stack out there where so many subscribers are. But I suppose that's a good problem for them to have :) One I don't suppose I'll have to worry about any time soon.
It does appear that the personal essays get the most attention. I write scifi and fantasy short stories along with my personal/human interest stuff. But it's early on and I don't know how those are working out yet. I started this to get better at writing in general so the fiction is a big part of that.
https://scottweinzirl.substack.com/
Yes! And I so appreciate what you write (even if the past two months of book launch and work have kept me from reading MOST of the newsletters I subscribe to).
Thanks, Sarah. I'm always happy when you join the conversation. Good to know you're reading it, even if you can't comment. Good luck with your launch and everything else you're doing to keep busy.
I recognise this. I tend to do journalistic style content wherein I cover topics that our society is struggling / dealin with. Since moving to substack I have started shifting my language to a more personalised way of 'speaking' to the reader. Still trying out what tone / balance feels right, but I think it makes more sense in the substack format to do it like that. Experimenting with different styles and formats is also something I like to do, and then keeping what works and changing what doesn't.
My love is fiction. I think I have a lot to say when I post something political which requires no small amount of non-fiction (one would hope), so I try to make it a bit more conversational. I use humorous examples and good (also one would hope) analogies. But the tone always feels different and a bit more somber. It's an odd balance for me.
Let's support each other's work. I think we share a similar perspective, maybe we can even do some cross-posting / collaboration.
Absolutely. Email me about what you've got going.
I cross-posted someone else's article on self-publishing. It just fit well. And when I read a good article I might use it in one of my posts. I let the author know that I linked to it, even if I don't cross-post. Got a sub out of the last one :)
Thanks. I've got yours in my subscriber list. That's the beauty of still having so few subscribers :-) I can review it more easily.
I'll check in with you later.
I also like to use a conversational tone, most newsletters I start with a salutation and always end with an informal closing.
I love this! Just subscribed. :)
I love thinking of community centers and parlor spaces as where and who we're writing to. A lot of my close friends were my earliest supporters and knowing that has definitely helped me keep a more personal and vulnerable tone.
Hey growth people!
I have been working my little butt off to grow this thing, and some days I feel great about the progress and others not so much! A couple things that have worked really well for me recently:
- I would be remiss if I didn't start with being featured on Substack Reads and Substack app - that has been my biggest win yet by far! Other writers can recommend you, so if you are posting great stuff regularly and want to be featured, see if someone is interested in making that recommendation.
- Once I had a bigger audience from the features, I have been able to start converting to paid more reliably. I am doing this by teasing my paid content at the end of my free content, as well as in free-standing emails. Also, definitely turn off Boost (My opinion). Boost was sending very marketing-y emails on my behalf that I didn't know about, and I found out because it started alienating my readers and they started emailing me about it (angry, mostly).
- Finally, recommendations are key! I am trying super hard not to be game-y about it, no "let's swap recommendations!" emails, at least yet. Just good old fashioned friend-making and trying to keep putting out high quality work that people want to recommend (per Kevin's recs!)
Oh one more thought! I also have seen that adding discussion questions at the end of my essays really helps people feel comfortable engaging in the comments and has led to some really amazing, robust discussions.
I've done that pretty much since the start of my newsletter, but it has not seemed to help... I have gotten a few robust discussions going, but certainly not with most posts. Any thoughts or suggestions, because I generally agree with this approach—thanks!
Discussion questions Rae, can give me an example
I like that idea... the discussion questions. Also considering opening chat but not quite there yet...
Last thing! I am working with a wonderful consultant who has helped me take my Substack to the next level. If you are looking for someone like this, leave a note.
I'd be interested in learning more about the consultant! Specifically, I'm curious how what impact you feel they've had on your writing and growth.
I'd love that type of mentorship or consulting with that down the line! I'm still in my exploration phase and JUST came to some revelations I plan to play with for my newsletter and how I want to show up for my work. So I may not be ready yet for consulting? But I do wanna take this seriously!
Also, would love your input on a brief survey I created about generative AI. I'm working on a piece about it. I may list a few writers' substacks in the piece depending on the input I get. Here's the form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1gwK6najJ-f4dASvJTf3B44cm5JHY9r8vSDSOLWbEkBs/edit
Hmm Rae I'd be interested!
Thank you for sharing your growth strategy. What gave you the idea of getting the consultant? Is this a person that has experience with Substack? I'd love to know more.
Thanks for the offer, Rae. Would appreciate an introduction.
+1 to turning off Boost. I had no idea it would be emailing people without my knowledge
Shoot. We are trying to get that across in the onboarding for Boost. I will share this feedback with the team so we can do better here.
How, ideally, would you want this to work?
#1 thing is that I would want everything to be in my own voice, so I would like to edit & review emails before they start going out. Maybe also a way to pause it for a few days if I have a great preview email scheduled and wouldn’t want to send 2 emails soliciting paid subscriptions in the same week.
Great feedback. Sharing it with our engineers and PMs!
I've turned off Boost as well. I'm uncomfortable not knowing when something is going to go out to my reader, or what it says.
Maybe a heads up before you do it, giving us a choice to opt in or out?
As a subscriber to another paid newsletter, I was also quite put off by these emails. There must be other, more covert strategies, for conversion. Asking for subscriptions, tips, likes, comments may seem like a great strategy, but for a simple reader they may be alienating. Substack is such a classy platform, there must be other ways to market subscriptions without making the writer look like they are begging for something.
Thank you Rae. I was going to try Boost but like you feel it’s not right for my readers. There’s one option where you can edit the email, but even still, I’m going to hold off.
Yes Rae, recommendations and collabration. I have set aside time to do that and have been recommending writers
Though growth has been on my mind lately, I wanted to share something I was thinking about the other day. Think about how many subscribers you have all in a room. For me, that would be the size of a relatively large lecture in college. That would be speaking to a lot of folks! I know the digital age makes us feel like everything is infinitely scalable, and that capitalism has taught us that it's growth at all costs otherwise you're failing, but sharing what you have to say with the people who want to hear it, regardless of audience size is powerful.
Thank you for this, Sara! Just the perspective I needed to read. You are so right- I can picture a lecture hall in my mind with my dear readers with me. My newsletter is going on 8 months and I’ve focused my energies on writing consistently instead of the metrics.
Love this! I'll have to think it through, since the idea of being in a lecture hall with an audience of hundreds can be pretty intimidating, but if I'm ever to grow I need to get out of my comfy comfort zone!
Great point, thank you!
Yes! And engagement is really key as well. If half of those people in the lecture hall were sleeping or on their phones, the "numbers" wouldn't really matter.
That it is. . .really the ultimate goal - at least for me.
I like the imagery. And it is a trip to think about how we directly reach our subscribers, that we're speaking right to them.
This is a really good perspective. Of course, I'm also trying to sell a self-published book at the same time, so a bigger audience would really help 😉
Totally! But also, I've seen people with huge audiences sell very little, and people with small and very engaged/loyal audiences sell a lot. I saw this all the time on my podcast--more often than not my guests with smaller audiences got more listens than those with huge audiences. So it's as much about quality as it is quantity!
Yes, I would MUCH rather have a smaller engaged audience (my open rate is around 45-50%) than a large, unengaged audience. So I'm happy with that. Would just like to see some growth and feeling very stuck.
That is such great perspective, Sara! Thank you for sharing--definitely makes me appreciate what I've already accomplished.
My pleasure! Happy it helps.
I really appreciate this perspective.
Hey! On the topic of growth, I have a question that's been bugging me. I've been writing for a few months, and although in the beginning I didn't really know what I wanted from my blog or even if I was going to stick with it, things have become more clear. I've managed to find a voice. Now the question: how do I define my value proposition? I write personal essays, but they are on different topics, and what brings them together are usually my voice and my unique perspective. But I don't know how to tie it all together into a neat value proposition. Edit: For reference, you can find my newsletter here: https://sismanandrew.substack.com/
For me, the value prop is a work in progress, but the best guide I have is my readers. I experiment, ask them what they think, refine, experiment again, etc. People will tell you what they will and won't pay for, but in order to hear them you need to engage your readers in an ongoing conversation. Hope that helps!
Hey Michael! Thanks for answering. That definitely helps, and I've been trying to do that. I included a poll in my latest issue, and the results were a happy surprise. I'll make sure to keep doing that, and to use the chat more often.
If you're writing the kinds of things that don't fit in any particular slot you might want to consider changing your sections to reflect the different courses of your posts.
You have sections, I see, so it's an easy fix to divide your diverse pieces into sections that will draw readers looking for just that content.
It's fine to be eclectic as long as your audience can maneuver through your space with ease. That should be your goal--keeping your readers happy. 😋
What are sections please? I write on a variety of topics but have not grouped them in any way. How to do that? Thanks
Elaine, if you look under my banner you'll see a list of topics. They are sections, and when I'm writing a piece I choose which section it'll go into.
If you want to know more about them, I've written a Substack tutorial for newbies and in this chapter I touch on 'Sections'. If you need more guidance let me know in the comments and I'll walk you through it. https://writereverlasting.substack.com/p/exploring-the-mysteries-of-substack-9c4
Finding your voice is HUGE! I think that for a personal essayist, in a lot of ways your voice IS your value proposition, or at least one of them. People who love you often love you for your unique way of telling something, and you can kind of talk about anything if you have a strong, consistant voice.
Is there any nucleus at the core of all your topics? My solution has just been to list mine out (chronic disease, work culture, mothering, money& power), and they don't seem particularly related, but they all do weave together within my work. People seem to be drawn to the whole suite of ideas, so I wouldn't be afraid to just list out your main topics and see if they resonate.
Rae Katz, so true that your voice IS your value proposition.
I don't think there's quite a nucleus there yet. I'm still exploring. I am finding myself writing about childhood a lot, though. But this is great advice. I'll keep an eye out for which topics I gravitate towards.
Gavitate right over to mine Andrei, if polls don't repel the porch light is always on
I would recommend exactly this! I think the answer comes with time and the more writing you do- I wouldn't feel the need to pigeonhole yourself. The main thing I can identify about my own voice is my optimism so I'm using that as a general lens for now, but it will probably get more specific as I evolve. You can always start broad, the right idea will come with time :)
Good idea. For unclear reason, I get few comments on my newsletter but subscribers slowing growing. I am thinking a poll of what topics subscribers are interested in might be a way to get feedback. Does anybody know how to set up a poll on Substack? I have seen a couple of other writers use a poll
your about page is great btw Rae -- I gotta take some pointers from you!
I have something similar, as I tend to care about a wide variety of topics. Haven't yet figured out the value proposition myself either, figured I should focus on growing first, but I always communicate it as 'what I think are important topics to cover/talk/learn more about. When they see you putting out high-quality work, I think that people will know that when you want to write about something, it's something worth paying attention to. Curious to learn how others approach these things.
Last month I shifted my strategy. I'm working on a memoir and I'm posting work-in-progress pieces for my paid subscribers (preview for everyone) and I'm writing more vulnerable posts related to church trauma that I'm also keeping behind a paywall. Everything else is for everyone. And I don't believe in niche either 😉
Yes! I was thinking about something similar, include sneek peaks & more personal things in the paid subscription. I also tend to do a lot of research, so I could also end an article with some of the other things I found that were interesting but did not get into the final product. A sort of broader discussion/info section for those who support you.
Oh, I hadn't thought about bonus content on standard posts for paid subscribers!
I had this idea after seeing how much info and sources I often have left after publishing a post that I might not do anything with later, but that is nonetheless interesting. I think it might also help trim down the rest of the post and make it more focused on one topic.
You lend that a lot of great tips here Sarah, might I suggest you change your profile photo. You look bored I think 😔 Just a thought
Yes Robert, engage with the writers in comments and note their impressions and you will start to see a pattern emerge. That pattern suggest core appeal. Subs comments as well esp. when are recommending you and why that's key
It took me almost a year before I figured out the best value proposition for my paid subscribers, and I've gained a couple in the last month. I really want to grow my free subscriber audience and then, if they decide they want to be a part of the more detailed, vulnerable journey that I'm providing for paid subscribers, they are welcome to do so. I changed my model a month ago and I love it.
Thanks for bringing this up Andrei--This is an issue for me to. I don't think one has to stick to a single niche or topic. I mean, that _might_ be "better" for "growth" on the internet, but as a writer that's not how I operate, and so that's not what I want to or even can do. That said, it sure is harder to explain in a title or short tagline what a publication is about if it's about a whole bunch of things vs one single, focused topic. I sort of envy writers who work that way... but again, I don't -- I write about intuition, identity, addiction, depression, spirituality, sports, travel, masculinity, sex, love, meditation, and other things including and perhaps most of all a memoir in progress that I am sharing chapter by chapter.
I do have my stack broken up into sections, and I think that helps a bit.
You might notice that my stack is called "Decide Nothing" ;) which is not (at least consciously) a reflection of my inability to decide what to 'focus on' -- it's a reference to intuition... that said, I've been thinking of a name change that's perhaps a little less obtuse.
I'll take a look at your about page & I'd love your comments on mine https://bowendwelle.substack.com/about
Your about page is excellent- I just subscribed!
thank you Sofia!! I updated it a bit during office hours, inspired by a glance at Rae Katz's page :)
If you mean value prop for paid subscribers, that might take time. I just opened mine up and don't give anything extra to paid folks and I have 10, which I'm not going to retire on but it's a start. If you mean value prop for your newsletter, you and your voice/opinion are your value prop. Work that. With AI here now, your perspective is going to become more and more important.
I'm not contemplating starting a paid subscription yet. It's still early days. But yeah, I guess I'm trying to figure out how to turn my voice and perspective into a driving force, to make people want to subscribe to my newsletter. As you and Michael said, it's still a work in progress. Thanks for answering!
That is amazing. My readers almost never communicate with me. They rather send a Whatsapp message or keep their feelings; It is extremely depressing.
How do you help them respond to you? And where do you receive their responses?
Some of my readers are my close friends, and they message me on WhatsApp. Others are writers I've known or people I met on various apps, and they either message me on those apps or leave comments on my posts. I haven't really done anything to encourage them to comment other than leave little disclaimers in my posts, like "If you liked the post, don't forget to press the heart button..." or I'll ask a little question and have them answer in the comments. Most people don't, they'll just read and drop a like or maybe not even that, but there will be some who will be truly engaged. I think it's just a matter of finding the right readers and giving them little nudges like that.
Oh. Then I think I am on the right path then. Thanks
I have same issue. I don't know most of my readers. Good suggestion about asking a question for readers to comment on. Going to do that next article!
Would you say it is a good idea to offer paid from the start, giving those who want to pay the option to subscribe, then gradually build it from there? Or is it better to build towards a certain moment when you think, yes, now I'm offering paid since the audience is big enough and knows what to expect? Thinking out loud, so there probably is something worthwhile to be found in both of these options..
IMO, turn it on on day 1. I did because I didn't know any better. With the benefit of hindsight, I think a lot of people want to support you as a writer and/or your project more than they might want any 'extra" content.
I can't really answer that - you have to go with your gut. I have issues with folks who turn on paid and then don't let free readers comment or read the whole piece. I've turned mine on from the start so obviously I think that's the way to go (for me at least). In time when I have a big enough list, I'll think about doing a monthly Q&A or chats or something with paid subscribers. But I don't think I'll ever ban free readers from commenting or reading my posts. Sorry I'm not much help with your decision - just go with what feels right to you.
That already helps, I feel similar to this. I basically want to reach/help/inform as many people as possible but one also has to balance writing with having a stable income. I'm gravitating towards not walling off the 'main' content and instead offering 'bonus' content or more personal / entertaining posts for (future) paid subscribers. Feels like way to do it while sticking to my values. For now, my focus is growing as much as I can & managing to more consistently offer content (which increases the value proposition). I think my gut will tell me when 'the moment is right', i.e. when I would feel comfortable asking for people to pay. But hearing other people's experiences really helps make up my mind in the process !
I think you'll know when it's time - you seem to know what you're doing.
I turned mine on from day one but didn't start offering different content until later. The free, Sunday newsletter will always be free. The paid members get bonus monthly posts. I was doing a weekly post for Founding Members (to my surprise, I have four!) but I had to put that on pause and find a more sustainable way to offer them something extra. I've decided to do monthly new moon gatherings for the founding members instead- something I'm actually really excited to do!
I think something else that I've noticed is I keep writing what I need to hear that week. Like my very own pep talk- it's for others but really it's for me. I don't know if that's helpful or not, my Substack is geared towards artists who need to re-fill their creative well, so to speak (which is also me!) so it's very personal and usually what I'm ruminating on that week that I think might benefit others.
That’s a cool way to look at things. I suppose that my own stuff is heavily influenced by what I’m preoccupied with the week I hit publish. And definitely the things I write are relevant to me first, that’s how I figure they’re worth spending time on.
I'm just past a year in on Substack and am coming to a place of deciding that my value proposition is me. That sounds way more egocentric than I feel about it, but it's another way of saying that I don't think I am ever going to be a writer who fits neatly into a genre or subject matter box. I write about what moves me. I hope it also resonates with others. Some posts get more engagement than others, but I've yet to have one that didn't seem to appeal to anyone. Growth has been steady, albeit slow.
I am about to apply for a grant that requires me to show income from my craft, and that is going to drive me turning on the paid option. But, I don't have the capacity to add more bells and whistles - at least not yet. So, I'm approaching this milestone with the mindset that the writing as a form of art and hoping that some will choose to support it for the sake of itself.
I love, "my value proposition is me"! 100%. I think aiming to fit into a specific box is the antithesis to creativity, anyway!
Isn't that the whole point? Gaining more readers because they love your work.
These resources may be useful and worth reading!
"Craft your paid subscriptions pitch" - https://on.substack.com/i/77022705/craft-your-paid-subscriptions-pitch
"How to polish your publication's About page and one-line description" - https://on.substack.com/p/how-to-polish-your-publications-about
It took me a while to figure it out, and I am still doing so, but I encourage you to keep writing things that interest you and have meaning. I just looked back on articles I have written over the last few years and discovered that I have enough content on a meaningful theme and for a better-defined audience now to write a second book.
Here is another fact. There are several other email writers who write the similar thing as yours and are doing extremely well. I guess the key is to never give up or simply go ‘crazy’ by publishing everyday at a certain time.
Yeah, for sure, and I know some of those writers too. They're a huge inspiration for me!
I think you are on the right lines, the readers that stay with you will be interested in your writing and your voice while you find the subjects and structure that works best for you. In my opinion that is where the value is!
It's taken me a little bit of time to sort out what exactly I'm doing with my Substack, but after exploring several options I did eventually find my common thread! I agree that it's difficult to phrase a value proposition when essentially what you're presenting is your particular perspective across a wide variety of experiences and topics. Is there some personal anecdote or personality trait that you can highlight in what you're presenting?
Maybe there is. I'll have to explore that question. I can feel I gravitate towards certain topics more than others, but I'm still figuring things out. Maybe it's still too early to pinpoint my value proposition just yet. Thanks for the answer!
Thanks for bringing this up to let us explore and talk about this, Andrei! I'm in a similar boat. I've stepped away from a lot personally to really learn what I wanted in life, and as a writer and I indeed VERY recently learned I want to hone-in on personal essays. I just finished listening to Crying in H-Mart and it was beautifully-written! Helped spark a new excitement for the voice and structure I want to develop in future writings that I'll start playing with in the upcoming weeks (and possibly tomorrow's newsletter!).
Because I talk about pretty personal happenings too, and now it feels like a new fun challenge to try and figure out how to make these stories matter to my readers. I wish you luck on your writing journey!
I write personal stories, sci-fi/fantasy, and politics. I have three different sections on my substack. It's difficult switching back and forth. I don't feel the kind of humor flowing from me when I'm writing a political piece, but I try to let it show through regardless. Only been doing this in earnest for about a month so I'm not sure whether the 'voice' is quite there yet. You make an excellent point. What do your readers really like and gravitate to? How do we offer them value?
https://scottweinzirl.substack.com/
I've been playing with this too. I finally created a free "Creative Contemplation" journal that ALL subscribers get. The journal is then tied into bonus monthly letters that paid members will receive. Founding Members only will have access to a monthly online gathering. It all goes together and my hope is that people will engage on the level that means the most to them! But it makes me happy to have something to offer everyone. I just announced it this week and it's a 12 month journal/offering, so I think there's opportunity to keep promoting and sharing it.
that's a great way to do your newsletter!
Thank you for asking this! I am in a very similar boat, writing essays, all on different topics, and sometimes even deviating from essay format. I'm absolutely struggling with the value prop and how to grow this community of people who connect to these stories.
I get a lot of free subscriber growth through recommendations and reader sharing, so I've shifted my focus to growing paid subs.
For context, I launched paid at the end of December. I didn't paywall anything, just asked those who wanted to pay to do so. That did OK. Better than I expected, tbh. But I got the sense that there was a limit to that approach and that I was heading toward that limit. So I've changed things up by posting the occasional paywalled post. The first one goes out this Sunday. I'm hopeful that I'll have good results, in part because the announcement generated six new paid subs.
That said, like everything else I do on Substack, my paid strategy is an experiment / work in progress / ongoing conversation with my readers. I don't know how it'll turn out, but my advice to anyone trying to grow free or paid subs is as follows:
1) Set realistic expectations
2) Engage your readers in a conversation about what you're doing
3) Try new things
4) Track your progress
5) Adjust as needed
6) Tell your readers how it's going
BTW, if it helps, I wrote a piece recently about what I learned on my way to 2,000 free subs. Here's that link👇
https://open.substack.com/pub/michaelestrin/p/i-hit-2000-subscribers-heres-what?r=1fqhx&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
What's been your approach to writer recommendations? I can't seem to figure out the best way to get started there.
Well, so far I've been e-mailing a few writers whose work I love and asking them to check out mine. It worked twice, and even the two who rejected my proposal have been super nice about it! I've just been reaching out to people whose audience I think might like my work. In my case, a writer I admire chose to recommend my newsletter because she discovered me from my comments on her posts. I suppose the advice is, get yourself seen! Don't be obnoxious or spammy, always be respectful, and it's easier when you've been commenting on those writers' posts for a while, but sometimes you gotta just take a leap of faith and reach out to wonderful strangers.
hi Andrei! i suppose that really works because your comment here actually made me discover your work. i resonated with you funeral blues :)
Hey Angelica! I saw. Thanks so much for the support. I'm glad you liked it!!!
So true Andrei, writers are great and chatting with and for them is also great. Comments from subs are few but comments with writers have lead to wonderful feedback and insight and darn if they don't get into my next post as inspiration 😊 I intend to mention writers right on the page. I have two in mind now. I haven't done any cross posts yet,but a mention to a writer's site amounts to the same
That makes sense, thank you!
I recommend Substacks based on three criteria: I enjoy them, I think my readers might enjoy them, and they post consistently. That's the giving to the community part. The taking back less than I put in part, is that I ask subs in the footer of my email to consider recommending Situation Normal, assuming the write on Substack, which some of them do. Hope that helps!
BTW, Charlie, just subscribed to your newsletter. I write humor, but I'm fascinated by AI and I often play with ChatGTP and share the results with my readers. Looking forward to digging into your Substack and learning more!
Michael I have a humor section as well 'the funnies' and directed an Englishman to read the articles. One article features our late Queen. I never didn't hear back p'haps he was not amused 😊
That's awesome, thanks Michael!
Ok Charlie, engage here with writers for sure and make your notes search links offered and read the Author's work and comment if it resonates with you. Also comment and engage with writers who send you comments more than just a thanks. I don't subscribe right away unless I know I will read it and I also place recommendations blurbs on my homepage page.
What do you mean by "setting realistic expectations?" For someone who's a newbie at this, how can I know what to expect? Or is that meant more as in, "don't be ridiculous, don't expect you're going to have a million readers" kind of thing?
I mean be realistic about how quickly and big you expect to grow. If you're growing at one new sub a week, it's unrealistic to expect 1,000 new subs in a month, right? Also, if you're comparing yourself to another writer who has a huge following, remember that it probably took them a long time, maybe years, to build their audience. That's what I mean by being realistic.
Cool. Thanks for clearing it up. And thanks for saying that. It's really quite uplifting!
Yes and there is an option to show # of subs or not so sub # is low don't show
I'm looking forward to seeing how paywalling pans out for you, Michael. You have such a devoted following that I'm expecting good things. Only problem is, you'll have to write bios for ALL your new paid subscribers :)
That's what we call a good problem! Also, when I see how this lands, I'll be happy to share whatever I learned in a milestone post, so stay tuned!
Milestone post?
Hi De! A milestone post is just a post about hitting a particular milestone. A lot of writers on Substack do them. For example I wrote this post about what I learned when I reached 2k free subs. https://open.substack.com/pub/michaelestrin/p/i-hit-2000-subscribers-heres-what?r=1fqhx&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Love the LinkedIn idea! Thanks for sharing 😊
I read your yoga post this week and I liked how you asked questions at the end to generate a discussion in the comments section. I think it's a great way to gauge interaction and readership and see what's a good topic to expand upon.
Thanks Jen! You're totally right about that. I started doing this more than a year ago. It took a little time for the personalities to emerge, but the discussion questions have helped create a sense of community among the situation normies, and on several occasions things that have been said in the comments section have led to future stories. In fact, this Wednesday I'm posting answers to some follow-up questions my readers had about a profile I did. I think that'll be a real crowd pleaser!
So I have a newsletter called Five Things (https://www.fivethin.gs) and the subscriber numbers are growing, but not going through the roof. I had 900 subscribers when I switched from Revue and now have 1350 or so, which is a nice development.
Two weeks ago I decided to copy & paste the content of my weekly newsletter to LinkedIn and create a new newsletter there: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/five-things-7040583970144571392/ - LinkedIn then pinged a bunch of people in my very extended network (I have 46k followers on LinkedIn) and now I have more than 4600 subscribers for my newsletter on LinkedIn. After two weeks. Not bad, I think.
But, obviously I'd rather have all those people to subscribe to substack, because then I have their email-adresses, have better stats and whatnot.
As anyone ever successfully tried to motivate people on LinkedIn Newsletters to subscribe to Substack instead? Obviously I can nag and put in links to my "real" newsletter, but I want to do it in a away that doesn't annoy people too much. Is there any clever way to do it?
Following this.
I have a lot more subscribers to other platforms/newsletters than I have on Substack, but I want them all here. So, I just continually peel off people. I share the Substack links on all my platforms and encourage people to make the jump. I still provide different content on other sites. I don't cut and paste my Substack over there. It's more like, "Here's a teaser" or "If you like this, then you'll love Substack."
thanks, I'll try that!
Hey Nico, I replied to your post yesterday on /r/substack!
You've inspired to try creating a LinkedIn newsletter - I'd like to test a strategy of posting half of the content and being upfront that it's a preview in order to try to drive more subscribers. I know your content is only 5 links though, so it might not work as well in your case.
Yes, I noticed. And sure, my format is a bit different, but I still wanf to make it work as I think it provides value. ✌🏻
No but have recently started using it again so this is of interest, thanks for sharing.
Wow! Impressive! I've never had much luck at Linkedin, but this is inspiring!
There might be tools that extract emails from LI, but that might be against GDPR. I have people who read my stuff when I post on Li, even if they never subscribe. Some people just like getting things in their fave feed rather than in their inbox
yes, LinkedIn is a Blackbox :)
Interesting. As an author, Nico, do you have a preference where your readers read your work? Is there a difference (to you) whether they see it via Substack or via LinkedIn (or elsewhere)?
well, yes. :)
I assume that more subscribers on Substack will help me grow the newsletter faster b/c of boost, recommendations and what not. Also, hopefully a lot of people will turn paid because they like what I do. All this gets lost when people read the content over at LinkedIn. It will help me grow on LinkedIn, but to me that's too much of a black box and I don't have access to the email-addresses and therefore cannot take my readers with me if I wanted to.
Those are impressive numbers!
to be honest: I'd rather have 4600 substack subscribers instead of having them over at LinkedIn :)
Yes impressive indeed Nico. Why Substack subscribers over LinkedIn? I have a following on LinkedIn also but haven't mined it as yet
it's pretty simple: I have direct access to them via Substack as I have their email-addresses. I have no idea how LinkedIn sends out the newsletters and I cannot take the users with me. And obviously, paid newsletters don't exist on LinkedIn...
Hey - loving Substack as a platform and community but still trying to build my subscriber list organically. I obviously want to grow beyond my little social network and find my true audience. Any tips are much appreciated. Secondary to that, a lot of people seem to read but don't subscribe, or subscribe but comment directly to me as opposed to the post. Would love to correct that naturally.
Anyway, my Substack is SecondRateCities.com. It combines my love for running, bars, and overlooked cities into a long-form, non-conventional travel blog. The premise is short trips to any cities and towns that are not typical travel destinations and exploring them through, you guessed it, running and bar hopping. I think it gives a more honest feel of place than simply listing out "must-dos and sees" and uncovers lots of gems.
With that in mind, I would love to find more travel and culture Subs to follow, holler if you have one!
Cheers,
You’re friends with my college buddy Nick Walsh- Saw your Substack on his IG! Love the concept, Tacoma 4ever.✌️As a Substack reader I am definitely overwhelmed by how many I follow and all the inbox traffic- I know I can turn off email notifications but then what’s the point, because I’m rarely in the app. So now I make a more conscious decision on whether to add a new publication. I would imagine other people are in that situation as well.
TACOMA FOREVER! Yes, Nick's my boi, that's amazing.
Well, my questionable long form style + travel concept means I'm not hitting inboxes frequently, so hopefully that makes it easier for people to subscribe. But I get it, I too am overwhelmed in a world overflowing with content.
I see a name that I know, but I'm not sure if it's the same Nick! I have an art college buddy by the same name.
I know what you guys mean by having a lot of emails coming into my inbox at all hours. It can be messy and hard to keep up sometimes.
Hmm Nick wasn't an art student to my knowledge, but he went to UPS!
Not the same Nick, then! The Nick Walsh I knew went to a dedicated craft and design college with me a couple years ago.
I love this concept!
Thank you! I'll check out your writing as well.
Hi Zach, definitely get your Substack on The Sample. I also include my Substack url on my personal and work email for visibility. I just got started at http://anuprabhala.substack.com and my first two posts were inspired by my travels to Morocco and the third was on Vedanta (spirituality), my other area of interest.
Thank you for the tip! I'll check out your Stack as well :)
Oh, that sounds fascinating. I sometimes write about travel when we are doing it and will be writing about our trip to Galveston next week when we get back. And I'll be writing about running my first half-marathon in St Louis in just over a week 😊
Heck yeah! St Louis is my next city covered... it's a very interesting place. Should be publishing next week, so stay tuned! What's your Stack? I want to take a look.
Sarahstyf.substack.com
Ecola State park is a wonderland. I can't do it justice either. :)
It's so under the radar. I was there last weekend for the first 60 degree day of the year. Magic.
Can you clarify the settings comment, not sure I'm following. And thanks!
Oh oh, got it. That is cool, thanks for clarifying.
Hi everyone, In trying to grow, I'm hoping I can get some ears on my voice-overs and see if you wonderful writers have any tips and tricks! I'm just hoping for some constructive insights since I'm kind of shooting in the dark here.
I'm thinking if I can dial in the audio side of the house, I can really hit a new market to pull people into my substack.
It's come a long was from the start and you can find my latest here:
https://polymathicbeing.substack.com/p/you-know-nothing
I did play around a while back with having an AI engine 'read' the text and merged that audio into the voiceove
https://polymathicbeing.substack.com/p/can-ai-be-creative
Also, they are pushed to podcast players so if that works better:
https://polymathicbeing.substack.com/p/new-podcast
As mentioned, I'm just hoping for some constructive insights since I don't get solid data on the audience from substack on how many are listening (and not hearing from them directly either). Also open to any other feedback on the form/fit/function of the essays.
I have been experimenting with doing voice-over myself and even podcasting. The best voice-over I’ve found is Speechify, which I appreciate being a bit dyslexic myself. I added it to a couple of my recent blog posts, only to find out that I would have to pay another $100 to get their commercial version. I will probably do it to support them and their excellent work. If you write on Medium, which I do, it automatically adds Speechify to your articles. I would recommend Substack do the same for all of us.
I think that's a great idea. I've been recording with Audacity which works well for what I need right now.
I checked out your voice-over; it is a great addition to your article. Your content is well-organized and excellent. I will subscribe because your writing complements some of my work and exploration.
I love doing voice over of my own work and often include audio that I've recorded especially on my memoir chapters. I use Descript to record and edit. It's amazing in that it transcribes the audio as you record, and you can edit the audio by editing the text! It also uses AI to learn your voice so that you can compose synthesized speech as well. I love Descript, and it makes doing voiceover pretty fun. Still takes time, but I'm getting better and faster.
you can hear the results, for example, on my latest chapter of memoir:
https://bowendwelle.substack.com/p/09-i-let-confusion-in
@Michael - I think you're doing great with the audio! To me, it sounds very in line with a typical audiobook or podcast recording (I don't agree with the "too computer-y" comment unless your goal is to for a YouTube-type appeal where the audio is the main draw, rather than a companion to the text (if that's the goal, then yes I'd go for "quicker, punchier, excitable, the trendy young YouTuber narration is like constant state of shock, regardless if there's anything actually surprising ha).
It's not too slow imo. if anything could be faster. but listeners have option to speed up anyway so they can go at the pace they prefer (I do 1.5x with almost every audiobook i listen to)
What are you recording with? There are some simple tools that can modulate your voice to whatever you like (deeper, softer, "more like radio," "more like npr," etc). It's surprisingly easy to do nowadays!
Thanks for the feedback. I'm using audacity right now with no filters. I'm also not trying to read the essays how I write them in my head so I'm not really trying to make it too punchy. Because I think it'd be at odds with the text.
Maybe I'm just being egotistical, but I'm trying to make these thoughtful and compelling, not 'click bait or trendy' in that sense. But that could just me wanting to pretend I'm philisophical :)
i think its good! right on for your goal - sounds exactly like that.
Do you feel like voice overs are moving the needle on your growth? I'm not a huge fan of my own voice so I'm working on a tool to automate creating AI voiceovers from my Substack posts.
What I'm finding from my audience is a lot of people is that if they don't have time to read the essay, they often can plug it in and listen on their commute. Since mine are no more than 20 min, and most people listen at 1.5X speed, it makes a nice quick listen.
I don't think anyone likes the sound of their own voice either. What I find is that the more I record, the less I dislike it.
Does it take you a lot of time to do that? I've been thinking of something similar but everything ends up taking so much time....
ps - I just listened to a bit. The voice sounds a little too computer-y for me. Maybe speed it up a hair? This is just my opinion, but when I hear a podcast or YT video that sounds like a robot, I turn it off immediately, no matter what it's about.
I'm not sure I totally follow' Computer-y. The one major feedback I have gotten is that I talk too fast, so I've been trying to slow it down a little :) Any more insight on that would be helpful.
It takes me about twice the total finished recording length to do. At first it took about 3X but I've gotten better.
What's made it faster is that I'll pause and stop the recording after a paragraph. This makes editing easier as well as removing 'mouth noises' like breaths, or tongue noises. (You'd be suprised at how much a good mic picks up that you don't notice in real life.) I've also gotten better and only stepping back a fraction if I have to re-read. Like starting at a comma or an 'and' instead of the start of the sentence or worse, the paragraph.
Hey everyone.
Seeing some familiar faces in here which is cool! I'm looking to connect with writers in the space of exploring/navigating curiosity and ideas.
My niche isn't super well defined because the more I get into my Substack the more I feel like my niche is my personality. People who like my blog will like it because they would get along with me as a person. The idea here is that this is sustainable because I'll never be on a dry spell since I just write about what I'm interested at the time.
Curious to hear people's thoughts on this.
Also, down to co-write a post with anyone. I'll let you pick the topic. Shoot me a message.
i love your creativity! did you make all those artworks? 🤍
Thank you! Wish I could say I did.
Hi Collin, I'm happy to have found a writer to doesn't have a specifically defined niche! I'm in the same circle as you as I write what I find interesting that week. I've just read your 'robe power' piece and I loved this part: "Working in a robe makes me want to follow my dreams. Redbull doesn’t give you wings. Wearing a bathrobe does."
Take a look at my writing and if you're interested, we could collaborate on a letters exchange (https://read.substack.com/p/letters)? And if not, well I'm happy to just be a fellow reader of your work! :)
Let's do it!
Amazing! Just sent you a DM on twitter!
Guest Post opportunity:
https://on.substack.com/p/office-hours-grow/comment/13881767
Thanks, will submit something (:
Totally agree with your view of your substack. Feels similar to where I’ve ended up.
One struggle I’ve had with this “personal writing” niche is what categories do you use so others can find you?
That's the tough part. I'm still trying to figure out if this is a sustainable strategy to grow at a decent rate or if you need to pick a niche and hone in.
Hi all! So this week I met my first newsletter fan that wasn't a friend, co-worker or family member:). He works for the ACLU and it was a real honor to know he's reading me. I'd love any tips on ways to target regional audiences... I write about LGBTQ and women's rights in South Carolina and I'd love to grow the list of local readers.
well done, Emily
Oh man, that's amazing! It's so cool to know you've managed to hook somebody who works there.
I don't have many tips for regional readers unfortunately, my 'stack is much more about international human rights issues...it'd be good to know more about that for when I cover issues more local to me, though.
Trying to get activism content out to the people on the ground near where things are happening is a huge concern!
Especially when we have so much local media closing or severely underfunded :(.
It's incredibly frustrating, isn't it? Sigh.
I see reporters out once in a blue moon in my city, I've spoken to one journalist who was out looking for opinions, but it's rarely ever on anything big.
I've seen one lady talking to the camera about a court case, and the ones who called me over were out talking about a couple of car break-ins downtown.
Last time I was at a protest, I didn't see any news vans at all. The time before that, nothing. The cause was mentioned briefly on the evening news, but no footage was shown, nor activists interviewed.
It makes spreading the word a real pain in the back end!
This post may be worth a read! Local news writers on Substack have to think similarly - https://on.substack.com/p/spotlight-on-local-news-with-tony#details
Thanks!! Very helpful!
That's worth celebrating, Emily!
So exciting! First stranger who loves your work is HUGE :)
Hey everyone, here's my obligatory "Just started on Substack" intro (hello) - I'm coming in from a literary journal background and I'm happy to have readers already willing to follow me On Here.
In your experience, have newsletter aggregators proved useful when it comes to getting more readers?
Hi and welcome to Substack, Barbara! I don't know exactly what you mean by newsletter aggregators, but if you're talking something like The Sample, which recommends your newsletter to people, I've had mixed results. I've been using it for about two months (free, I never paid a dime) and I only got 2 subscribers. I've gotten many more from other writers recommending my newsletter.
Second this. I've been using The Sample for about 1.5 months and gotten 2 subscribers.
Andrei, what's been your approach to writer recommendations? I don't really know where to get started there.
Oh, I got a couple from people who either liked what I've been publishing or believed in the Recommendation Network, so to speak. Have you considered just asking writers who cover a similar beat?
Hey, thanks for the comment! I was thinking about The Sample too, but, as you know, there are several free services like that available - I'm just unsure about the "discovery" potential.
They're all probably decently useful, but shouldn't be relied upon as the only engine of growth.
Yesterday I discovered a writer that I really liked and wanted to support by being a paid subscriber. They had their paid subscription paused bc they were taking a month off from the newsletter. Their past newsletters were still paywalled. Is there any way to give writers the option to be able to have paid subscriptions still on for the past newsletters despite their current newsletter being paused? That would be a great option/feature. I imagine I’m not the only one that has run into this issue and the writer is missing out on gaining future paid subscribers.
Sounds like something they have chosen to do themselves rather than Substack imposed but I could be wrong.
Right. She is the one that paused the paid subscriptions. I was suggesting making a feature where you could pay to read PAST newsletters that are paywalled bc current subscriptions are paused. She didn’t want her current readers charged monthly bc she wasn’t putting out current newsletters.
I've been fortunate to have almost 1/3 of my subscribers come from recommendations, but I tended to see a lot of churn from readers who weren't ready for what they signed up for with my publication. One recent tweak I made was to have a short introduction to each newsletter to orient new readers, and along with it I've noticed a big decrease in unsubscribes. Could be a coincidence, but I think it's made a difference. Check out my latest post to see how I constructed the intro:
https://agowani.substack.com/p/diversify-your-bonds
I LOVE the clarity of this. Thank you for sharing!
Thanksfor sharing, Amran. That l;ooks pretty good
My subs seem to enjoy the discovery ride of my writing Amran and that's been the general comment from writers here as well. Your preamble approach might work for specific topic content
Hi all. Thanks for the great posts here. Something I see often (which is a great piece of advice generally but is perhaps not specifically actionable) is “Find other writers and engage with them” or “Find your readers where they are.”
The trouble for me right now is that I don’t know where readers ARE or how to get to them. Twitter is utterly pointless for writers right now who don’t already have massive followings; even if they do, the algorithm does not prioritize links (I recently saw a super popular writer with 55K followers tweet a link, and it has like 17 likes. No one is seeing anything on Twitter anymore).
There are very few subreddits where you can post anything you’ve written without getting flagged for self promotion, even if you are an active Redditor otherwise who posts substantive comments and then just mentions a link at the end.
Instagram faces the same algorithmic challenges and isn’t really a space for writers as far as I can tell.
So, really: Where is anyone posting their work where people can see it, find you, and be compelled to subscribe? Where IS everyone (yes, besides here…)?
I have other newsletters, plus Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook, but by far the majority of my subscribers comes from Subtack. I wouldn't go so far as to suggest social media is a waste of time, but in my experience you have to put in a lot of time to get results, and I'd rather be writing and commenting
Yup social media is a slow slog Terry. Instagram is not bad
I'm ONLY here, Mikala, and I'm pretty happy with just this platform. I do a lot of subscribing, reading and commenting, plus I've got a regular collaboration with another Substacker, Terry Freedman, and I'm finding by reading, commenting, writing and posting regularly new subscribers come my way.
Have you thought of signing up for Post.news? It’s a social media platform, but thoughtful lol
Yes have but a bit misleading as you seem to have to subscribe to another writer first or something stuck on how to proceed there actually Amy
Here is the site URL: https://post.news and see if that works. It works like Twitter, Mastodon, etc.Most writers have moved there, sick of dealing with Twitter's overbearing owner lol
I'm with you Mikala! Instagram is basically my only place. I added my newsletter to my email signature as well so we'll see what that does
Hey, people. My last interaction on Office Hours brought me almost 15 subscribers in a day, by far the biggest spike I've ever had. Growing feels great. And on that note, I want to reiterate that I'm open to collaborations with other writers, whether through cross-posting, recommending or writing a guest post. I write personal essays, mostly memoir, but also observations on other things I've seen or heard or done that have influenced me. Come join me on this journey. The only way we grow is together!
Very well said! It's all about reading and writing relationships, isn't it?
definitely
YES. Yes it is. Nothing’s better than getting together with people of your ilk, people who share your passions.
Open to collaborations:
https://on.substack.com/p/office-hours-grow/comment/13881767
Will post to your site soon. Thanks again for the invite 😊
whoa, that's impressive!
My substack growth was quite stagnant for a while, but then I started a new regular slot called Start the Week, as well as exchanging letters with Rebecca Holden (see her most recent one here: https://rebeccaholden.substack.com/p/55-a-letter-to-terry-9) and my subscriber growth has been faster since then. Maybe it's coincidence (correlation not causation) but I think the regular new series plus lively exchange in the letters has had a lot to do with it. So my conclusions (based on limited evidence I grant you) is collaborate, and keep turning up, especially in a regular series. Hope that's helpful cos it's all I've got!
Thanks for the shout-out, Terry! Nice one with your subscriber growth - me too, as it happens! 😉 I find our correspondence really valuable because I never know in advance what I'm going to be responding to, and I get to write about stuff that I wouldn't necessarily be thinking about in regard to my own newsletter.
Collaboration is brilliant - I really enjoy it - not just in my 'Letters to Terry', but also in commenting on posts by those I subscribe to - I flipping love that about Substack!
Same here in terms of writing about stuff I normally wouldn';t. It's good for stretching yourself methinks
And your comments are brilliant, Rebecca! I'm always so impressed with how thoughtful they are.
definitely, couldn't agree more!
Oh, that's so very kind of you to say, Jillian - thank you! The fact that I love reading 'Noted' makes commenting on your writing very easy indeed! 😊
blimey, what a shmoozer
Have a look at a question from Natalie about our letters, and my second response in particuar
👌👋
Hi Terry, I'm a subscriber of Rebecca's and I love reading your letter exchange. May I ask how you guys got it started? I'd love to start a letter exchange or some sort of collaboration with someone but I don't know where to start. I've just shared it in the comments and asked a writer whose work I quite liked.
Aww, thanks, Natalie! Terry and I had been reading each other's work for a while, and then soon after On Substack started posting about 'Substack Letters', Terry asked if I would like to correspond with him. Eighteen letters later and we're still going..... I'm having a real giggle with it!
Absolutely wonderful, I hope to find a writer who I can build a network and friendship with like the one you with Terry. It's wonderful to read your correspondence to each other!
ooh, thank you for subscribing, Natalie! I think leaving comments on each other's stuff and having a laugh and a joke were key.
Thank you Terry! I'll keep that in mind as I read others work!
😊
did you enjoy my books insult? Chortle
I chose to ignore it! 🤣 You can go off people, you know! 😉
it's a good larf, that's for sure.
Hang on Natalie? Do you subscribe to mine? That way you will not only not miss a thing, but you will also feel the warm glow of having helped a fellow human being. I'll answer your Q in a minute, but thought I'd fire this off before it disappears in the maelstrom of five million comments.
Shockingly enough, I haven't subscribed...why haven't I?? PS. I laughed at your "what a mug" image and blurry background photo.
😂
I have had back and forth comment sessions and realized I hadn't subscribed no obligation of course but I had difficulty finding my writer subscribe list had to make a written list as I don't always get to the inbox for the welcome. Correspondence aside I don't subscribe unless I know I will read the content. Feedback from writers is valuable and should be followed up even if their content isn't your cup of Joe
OK, here is my second response, which answers your question I hope. Rebecca and I were commenting on each other's posts and struck up a friendship. Also, as she had only three books in her possession (and hadn't even finished colouring one of them in), I asked her if she would like to exchange letters -- that was when substack introduced the letters idea. So I think the answer is that we got to know and like each other a bit first, and so the letters kind of flow naturally. Obviously, Rebecca might have a different take on it, but I hope this was useful.
Hi Terry, I love that - sounds like a wonderful friendship! 🤣
I think so. Funny though, we've never met IRL or even chatted on Zoom. All in writing!
🤣
I'm here for the small wins! I know growth will take time and i'm committed to my topic, so I just keep on keeping on!
That's basically where I'm at. I don't do a whole lot of promoting, my links are available on my social media and I include a little 'hey, I have a Substack!' at the bottom of my Medium articles.
Beyond that, most of my subscribers and readers find me through the Explore page here anyway.
People looking for politics and culture will stumble on my writing eventually if I keep putting it out there, and thus far a few people have found their way in for a cup of coffee and some activism rants!
I’m rarely reading on the web, but when I did I was really impressed with how easy it is to scroll through the most recent posts in a topic. So I agree, people will stumble upon ones work as long as you keep putting it out there.
Stumble across if that's what you want But for more growth consider changing your site name to make it more distinguished in the search. Category is only half of the picture
Your tone sounds very 60ish kind of layed back with the power stringer at the tale Sam 😊
That’s great Sam!
Same here, Louise! I'm happy to just keep writing, reading, writing and reading, and I'm having a lovely time just doing that. Keeping on keeping on is right up my street!
Yep!
I remember a photo of your street. It's full of potholes.
It was true then, and still true now, Terry. Although another way of looking at 'full of potholes' is of course 'empty of tarmac'.... which is also true, of course. 🤣
It's all in here: https://rebeccaholden.substack.com/p/35-letters-to-terry-2-of-3
empty of tarmac: 🤣
same here, Louise
Exactly. Overnight success is basically a myth, and if one is only in it for a subscriber count, then it will show in the work.
It took me thirty years to become an overnight success
Exactly. And all the variations of that bon mot!
Wow 😲 Terry not sure I have that much credit if ya know what I mean 😉
😂
Absolutely!
Tips: 👉 Ask Me Anything!
1) Create a spreadsheet for SEO descriptions and titles. After "Direct" as a source, Google search is my #2 source for visitors.
2) Add your publication to Google News:
https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKMKfgvAswtPvTAw?ceid=US:en&oc=3
3) Get media coverage from places like qwoted.com. My newsletter "moviewise: Life Lessons From Movies" was mentioned in an article about dating advice:
https://getmegiddy.com/lemon-meringue-pie-dating-theory
Thanks for sharing this. I was impressed how my guest article for you showed up on Google News!
Brilliant, thanks!
#2 & #3 done - straightforward!
Hey everyone, I´m fairly new on here. I have almost 1,300 subscribers, mostly transferred over from my old list. I´ve gained 200 new ones since I made the shift, but I´ve also lost 100 and I have around 20 paid now as well. Most of my new ones come from Linkedin but I´m having trouble with visibility on there even though I have 7,000 followers (eg posts get less than 200 views some days!). The algorithm is most unhelpful. Where do you find your new subscribers?
I’m glad you mentioned this re LinkedIn as I used to do quite well there when I was on Medium and posting links to writing there but since moving to Substack things have really gone downhill and I struggle to get views never mind likes/clicks/readers. But surely the LinkedIn algorithm isn’t against Substack?! I’d love to know how to get more traction on LinkedIn/beat the algorithm as that’s where I can access my biggest potential audience.
I haven´t tried posting links directly to my Substack site or articles more than a couple of times because I didn´t get much traction. I try to write short posts there to engage my followers on career changes, remote working and project management careers as those are the topics I write about on TPC. I used to get up to 50,000 views on my posts but the last 3 months or so it´s died a death and I´m not doing anything differently.
Well I know this doesn’t help you but it’s helped me to know I’m not the only one who feels like I’m dying a death there! I usually write a short post to introduce my writing and include a link to it on Substack. I am loath to use LinkedIn articles even though those are likely to be better in the algorithm as that doesn’t help get people to Substack. Also finding Twitter a bit useless too recently!
I guess it depends what you are offering. If not work related maybe less engagement. I will follow this up and see how it goes posting non related work content.
How have you done with recommendations thus far? They are a very powerful tool in the Substack -verse!
https://on.substack.com/p/recommendations-update
Thanks for asking this question, Bailey! I've been thinking a lot about recommendations lately. Right now I recommend about 8 Substacks, and I'd love to recommend more, but I notice that every time I add a rec, I'm diluting the pool and each of my recommendations gets less subscribers. How have the rest of you dealt with this issue? Have any of you rotated recommendations?
Not sure what you are experiencing Jillian can you elaborate? Recs have so far been positive for me
HI, I have made a few recommendations and can see that they have resulted in between 10-20 new subscribers for those 7 or 8 writers but so far it hasn´t worked in my favour :-(
BUT WHICH DISCUSSION GROUP ARE MY FRIENDS JOINING?! Now I have FOMO! 😂
I'm here, but late as usual!😂 hoping I fit the criteria.
Yessssss! 🎉
Not able to write? Pay your bills! 💸
—
A few weeks ago, I was struggling to write. Something was blocking me. Some boring administrative tasks.
Stuff I always postpone. Stuff I hate to do.
But given I had no choice, I surrendered. And took care of the weights first.
Surprisingly, it turned out to be quite gratifying. And could write again!!!
So, my friends, do not underestimate the power to take care of the weights, so you can proceed to the more “important” tasks.
If this resonates with you, give me a little like ❤️ Bliss! https://livmkk.substack.com/p/pay-your-bills
Hello Substack team and writers! Happy office hour!
My publication, which I write in Mandarin, is about Japan startups and tech trends.
With AI and all those translation tools, I realized that I am able to easily turned my Mandarin posts into English.
Here’s the question. Has anyone done this before? I would like to know what is it like to have multiple publication on Substack, like, how do you grow all of them at the same time.
Also I’m very curious that if anyone is writing posts in multiple languages. Please share your experience with us 🙌
I love reading the Grow interview series! Including older posts such as the one from Delia Cai: https://on.substack.com/p/how-delia-cai-grew-deez-links-from#details. It's refreshing to hear other peoples' experience with starting from zero.
My biggest growth moment so far has been when another newsletter recommended me. I love recommending my favorite newsletters too and am always open to new ones. I write vessels, a newsletter that explores emotional and literal landscapes through personal essays and film photography. Check it out and let me know if you think I'd be into your writing!
"moviewise: Life Lessons From Movies" discusses film:
https://moviewise.substack.com
I always need reminders of what movies to watch! Thanks, will check it out
I've found BookFunnel promos to be an effective way to bring in new fiction readers. Once you've got enough material to create a sample, you can use group promos to attract new readers. Because the sample is of the same material on the newsletter, it keeps churn to a minimum. BookFunnel isn't free, but it's more effective than traditional paid ads, in my experience.
Where I've really struggled is in converting free readers to paid. So I shall now dive into the comments here in search of enlightenment....
Once my second book is done, I'm going to be sending an email to my most engaged free subscribers, asking them to upgrade to paid. They'll get two full ebooks immediately so hopefully that will get some new paid subscriptions. Will let you know how that goes!
Please do! I thought my ebook collection for paid readers would shift the needle, but so far it's been quiet. Feel like I might be getting my messaging wrong somewhere along the way.
I've tried to encourage people to just hit the "heart" button to let me know that they've read the post, which has not done anything, and I've had a giveaway going for several months now that would be very easy to win, but no one wants to enter! Not sure what the answer is, but will keep experimenting and trying.
It's very hard. Can feel like shouting at a brick wall. And then I do a non-fiction post or a discussion and get 50+ comments without even trying, and it feels like I'm doing something right.
I mean, nobody ever said being a writer was easy.
When had Wattpad as my main platform, I got tens of thousands of read - 100k+ in some cases. The scale there was enormous. Lots of comments and engagement, too. But it never really felt like it was going anywhere - it was social media-style interactions. They were Wattpad users, rather than Simon K Jones readers, for the most part. Which is fine - but I'm still very hopeful that Substack can do something a bit deeper and more meaningful for me.
Hi there, thanks for the hours, I need them! Here’s my first question. I am bringing on new “bylines” to my Substack. It’s great. I want to give them a revenue share of any paid memberships their posts garner. Question: What would be a fair percentage? Anyone done this? AND, does Substack do the kind of reporting where I could see, week to week or month to month, which posts are generating (x) number of paid subs?
This is so rad. I don't think we have info on that, but let me ask!
I’m also interested in view count information on single posts over time.
Great question and something I wonder about as well when I see guest writers etc.
I had a talk with one of my subscribers the other day, who wanted to pledge to my newsletter. However, because they had to fill in credit card information, they ultimately did not follow through with it. Is this something that can be resolved, or that others have run into? I mean, I can understand not wanting to leave your payment information if you do not know if and when you will have to start paying for something.
Yeah, I don't really understand the pledge system. Feels more like a potential barrier/scary thing for free subscribers than a useful indicator of paid potential. Maybe I'm misunderstanding how it works, but I turned it off very quickly. To my UK brain it feels very weird.
My UK brain says it is a bit yucky asking people to 'pledge' either to pay you or give you compliments. Either you set it up for payment or not. I have no problem with selling your own product (I hand out flyers about my books to complete strangers) but it seems somehow in-between. I turned it off too.
Sometimes wish I had gone paid from the start but with #s steady increase just may wait. Difficult times for people all over so having a pleasant little read to look forward to is something I am glad to offer.
I don't completely understand what you're saying but you can always set up something like ko-fi and put the link to that in. People can send you a few bucks right away. I have one in my blogroll on main page. You can also create a button and add to your posts when you want.
Not familiar with it. I checked out the homepage, it looks a bit like Patreon, are they similar?
It's not patreon - you don't have to have levels and offer people things. The whole thing is or used to be based around someone buying you a cup of coffee as a thank you for what you write. (ko-fi is pronounced coffee....) So people can just give a few bucks as a one-off or they can pledge regularly. I think that might be less scary than the substack pledge thing if you create a custom button in your newsletters - you can say- buy me a coffee/tea/beer, call it a tip jar, etc. So people know you're not asking for a lot.
that sounds kind of nice, actually. I have so far been using a stripe donation button, but this might offer a bridge to the longer-term goal of offering subscriptions
My attitude is it can't hurt to try it!....
How is a blog role different Diane Can you explain your process
If you look at my substack, scroll down a bit. Under 'most popular' on the right are a bunch of links. I call that the blog roll/link roll, etc. you can add in links in settings. I can't remember exactly where but if you go into your dashboard and then settings, you'll find it.
Glad you brought this up Robert as I too don't like any payment online dealing and I am more hesitant to go paid than my subs I think 🙃
Hi, I've been writing here for almost two months now and I've come to believe that one of the best ways to grow is to create good content.
For that reason I'm looking for ways to improve my writing skills, so that I can give my readers the best content possible.
Any suggestions?
Something I read last night (and which I haven't been using particularly effectively yet) is, when writing about topics that are general or abstract in nature, it helps to start with a more targeted, more personal anecdote (e.g. name and write about an individual and their experiences) to get the reader to relate to the article and want to read more. I'm thinking about how to use that technique in next month's edition on strategy & philosophy...
Alan, Photos with short text in between also change colour themes, site name for search purposes, engage with feedback and monitor for patterns
What are your thoughts on sending individual emails to prospects on your list? I’m a speaker and I have subscribers who are event planners, L&D professionals and so on who could potentially lead to me being hired for gigs. I’d love to send them a personal email inviting them to a virtual coffee, but I’m not sure if that’s breaking some kind of invisible rule or expectation for the subscriber. Has anyone experimented with this? Would love to get opinions and/or tips for doing this well.
We did. Individual emails work only if you do them manually... which is a struggle as soon as you have more than 100 emails to work with.
In our experience it never worked with any kind of automation service - feels like people are allergic to it :)
Do it personally - and keep it short. One sentence. If you got a response - then reply with a full description. of your event.
Hope it helps!
Looks like a nice idea, test it out
This is less subscriber-oriented growth and more personal-oriented growth I guess.
I set an aggressive schedule for myself for both of my publications--the Peasant Times-Dispatch (for Catholic lifestyle) and Gibberish (for fiction). This month, I missed my first milestone--my podcast, which is supposed to come out on the second Wednesday of each month. I was really unhappy I missed it, and it derailed everything. I've really been struggling to get back to it. Partly for things going on in my personal life--I have less free time than I had a month ago, much less when I started my substack almost a year ago. But really, missing my schedule really just made me doubt the whole process. I was supposed to publish something yesterday and I couldn't because of this odd mix of lack of time and perfectly valid Things Going On (TM).
I'm trying to figure out whether I need to re-evaluate my substack--if I did, this would be the third such restructuring in less than a year, the thought of which demotivates me. But if I don't re-evaluate my substack, I need to change something else to be able to hit my publication milestones. SOMETHING has to change.
Has anyone else encountered a challenge like this? I am really frustrated by falling off the horse and I am trying to take this time on the ground to figure out what to do differently so next time I'm on the horse I can stay on.
All wisdom welcome! Thank you in advance!
I relate to this. This month I had some big pieces, but got hit by a huge wave of depression and exhaustion. Instead of missing my weekly posts I just posted something simple and told my readers why. Being honest with your readers can be a good thing. I am also planning to take the first two weeks of April off (spring break and what not).
Advice: be honest, plan breaks, and reevaluate your commitment. Less but consistent is better than more and burning out.
https://caitlinhmallery.substack.com/p/americans-celebrate-two-saints
I initially set myself a very strict posting schedule and stuck to it. This year, however, life has thrown some obstacles in my path that just don’t allow me to stick to that initial plan. I could try, but I know I’d be putting out sub par content just to get something out there rather than waiting to post something I was happy with. So, I’ve decided to loosen my deadlines and focus on quality over quantity. Posts will wait until they’re ready.
I subscribe to other pubs that post intermittently and it’s never bothered me. I subscribe to some that post every other week and it’s plenty. Once a month is even fine, so long as the content is worthwhile. I also get bombarded by a few that post several times a week and some are borderline spam. I think the secret is finding the cadence that allows for quality without anxiety. Whatever that balance is, readers will adjust to it.
I am experimenting with times and days. But a break may be good esp. if you are feeling pushed or whatever
I’ve experienced this. Juggling writing and podcasting is proving really challenging for me too. There is only so much free time in a week! I back burnered the podcast for now in the hopes I can streamline my processes to make room for both. But we’ll see...
The best tip I can give is patience. Patience and attention to detail.
If you're putting out good, solid work, your audience will fill find it. Using social media spaces that your audience is likely to frequent, engaging often and keeping links to your writing in your bio can really help get the word out, too.
Networking gets results. Reaching out and engaging with other Substack writers, commenting on similar topics with thoughtful and detailed suggestions or insights will build your name.
If people see your name everywhere, and they find what you say interesting, they'll feel compelled to check out your work!
Hi Substack writers. I launched on Monday and have had about 10K viewers to my substack. It's free for right now. But, is there a button or way to convert those readers to free subscribers? Has anybody had luck putting up a free paywall -- meaning, give me your email and you'll get to read the rest of the story.
Sounds like it would work Joe Bel, but can be tricky ground as may piss off, if you will, some potential subs. I tried teasers Stories'on Facebook and nothing. People's time is being played with so when ya hold them up waiting they may not return. Such methods may be reserved for big # stats suggesting loyal engagement
We have a natural prompt to subscribe that pops up for 1) readers who are *not* logged into substack and 2) readers who are logged in but navigate away from your article for a while. But that's on the web. If you think these views could come from your emails being forwarded, I would make sure you have really great buttons and calls to action in your posts - https://on.substack.com/i/40522481/the-art-of-buttons
I experimented with a free version of my podcast last week and saw some immediate results in upgrades to paid. My model was the Cafe Insider podcasts that Preeh Bharara puts out on Tuesdays, with a 10-12 minute sample of the longer conversation, and then some unique outro language that explains what a subscription would include. This drove more paid subscriptions in a single week than anything I've done yet.
What I can't tell yet is how many people who upgrade their subscription to gain access to the full version of paywalled content stick around as paying subscribers. But I've only been doing this for a full year, so the sample size is still quite low.
still praying nightly for some way to filter for publications with 500-1,000 subscribers who take comments from free subscribers...like I do. This appears the best way to get a sympatico author's attention and to nurture mutual cross-posts...but I would need a part-time person to push through al the pubs manually...argh. Help!
Great point I do this too. I’ve done it manually like you, not sure of another way but I’d love to adopt a better system!
Happy Office Hours, fellow Stackers! I am so excited because *drumroll* I am about to hit 100 subscribers! 😱 So here's a question - what do you do to celebrate these milestones with your community? I was thinking maybe some kind of giveaway? But I'm curious to learn how others celebrate!
Congratulations, Meaghan. I must be pretty exciting. Looking forward to it one day.
https://scottweinzirl.substack.com/
Sorry, 'it' must be pretty exciting.
Oh that’s a nice idea!
Hi!
I started writing on substack almost two months ago, and now I am looking for ways to improve my writing so that I can give my readers the best content possible. Does someone have any suggestions?
Write what you know and what you're comfortable with. It's about really finding your unique voice. And read lots of other successful Substacks that touch on similar topics. Being conversational really helps. This is stuff you probably already know but I think it's good to hear some times.
Just a general plea for HELP! Only been posting for around 3 months so early days, and have attracted a couple of subscribers who aren't personally known to me, which is a tiny ego boost. But I don't have a big presence on social media, and it would be inappropriate to share my posts with colleagues. I do follow quite a few Substacks and comment, but I can't read everybody because of, you know, life. Any tips?
I think showing up in these threads is helpful for growth and exposure - what do you write about?
I’ve been writing here for two months, have just under 200 subscribers with 13% paid. It seems I’ve stalled. I use IG to promote and a site called The Sample. Any tips to get my work seen by a wider audience?
Thank you
Hi Will - have you seen https://emilyrnunn.substack.com/ it's a Salad recipe Substack might be worth checking out to see how they approach growth.
Many thanks
Thinking a bit more - have you seen the following subreddit => https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/ (I'm not HNW or UHNW, browse out of curiosity) they might be interested in an AMA (ask me anything) from a Private Chef.
You’re very kind. Thanks for your input.
I got a lot of abuse for suggesting a q&a on my work linked to my Substack. Oh dear…
Hi Will - that's surprising and unpleasant. Did you post on /r/fatFIRE and they gave some push back or is it that you suggested a q&a on your Substack and they pushed back or something else?
I introduced myself and suggested a q& a but was verbally abused by two or three people. I was told I was staff, should be fired and to go and check if something was burning. It was like the internet twenty years ago. I deleted my profile. Sad.
Growth and reach has been my focus, so much so that I’ve shifted from one substack a week to a Sunday deep-dive and a weekly Wednesday newsletter where I share some of my best finds: songs of the week, quotes of the week, “What is Denise Reading?” with the creme de la creme articles of the week, and an advice column!
Having two spaces to flex my writers muscle in short and long form has kept me nimble and interested -- my short form Wednesday newsletter has been my favorite part of the week as of late.
Check it out below! This week I chatted about the newness of spring, if we should reread our sad poetry, and the innocent joys of secretly eloping young.
https://denisemasiel.substack.com/p/are-the-dog-days-over
I have a question about pace for other Substack writers. I have so many ideas and things I'm excited to try to really build a thriving, creative and collaborative community AND I'm a full-time mom of an 8 month old who needs a lot of attention!
I have a lot of enthusiasm but I also don't want to burn out. Or make so many changes it confuses my readers.
I think it can feel urgent to those of us trying to earn an income from this while also maintaining our creative integrity and work/life balance.
I'd love to hear others' thoughts!
I'm also a mom of a very energetic toddler and I think the pace that keeps you motivated for the long run is the best pace. I would say take it slow(er) than you'd prefer and see how much more you can handle and add that in. I think you'll know when it's too much! I say this because I'm doing the same :)
Me too! 😅
Thanks for the feedback! It's nice to know there are others out there juggling many roles and responsabilities but still taking the time to show up here for ourselves and others. <3
Keep writing and the excitement wears off 😂 kidding, but after a while I realized that the pace will be what it will be. And ideas that I thought would be an entire post are really only worth a line. I am a mom, teacher, and just started a nonprofit- the time I’m able to put in is so sacred to me that it’s worth it no matter what.
Thank you for that perspective! It is worth it.
I just started and grew into mine. Moved my monthly email here after 6 months which had a kind of round up format and I now have three sections... I’m super happy with where I’ve got to in a year.
I’m so impressed you’ve only been here a year and your Substack looks so great. I subscribed after last weeks office hours, your work is awesome!
Oh thanks so much Laura. It’s like I’ve finally found the platform for me! That means a lot. Look forward to chatting more. X
I'd like to have a writing marathon with my Attic Workshop, lauramoreno.substack.com , but not sure how to do it online. Guess it's similar to writing prompts, but with more advance notice and clear goals.
I listened to my own advice (https://everytinythought.substack.com/p/i-hope-you-get-some-rest) and took a break last month because I was in the process of moving to a new place.
I was exhausted at the end of each day (still am - with unpacking) and there was no energy left for anything else. I knew the importance of writing consistently, but it's okay to take a break once in a while because life happens. I know I can only produce my best work when I am well-rested.
Be gentle with yourself so that you can produce your best work.
Agreed. I take breaks and our readers don't mind at all. They still open at the same rate when I get back to writing.
That's great to hear! I can't wait to get back at it soon! The writing itch is driving me crazy!
I have to take forced around the company here 😔 I know that when I have the 'office' to myself I write around the clock. But circumstances are what they are at present and I may have to consider online income again too. Considering cancelling subs who have 0 #s and just focusing on engagement
I just published a "Best Of" my work...see how that goes! Shameless plug to get subscribers ;) https://corruptionduck.substack.com/p/best-of-corruption-duck . I write about something fairly boring (mortgage fraud), but I always try to find a different angle, and obviously, the crazy characters help!
I like the sound of this - I've been thinking for a while that I'd like more recent subscribers to go back in time to read some of my earlier posts, so I'm planning a retrospective post every now and again! In my own experience as a new subscriber to newsletters, I don't very often go back into the writers' Substack archives - I tend to concentrate on their new stuff as and when they post it - so I think that a post linking to some earlier posts, or even a repost of one of them every so often, duly labelled as such, would be a really good move.
I ran out of time to finish a post before I went on vacation so published what I had and links to some older posts. I liked the feel of it.
Yes Rebecca, just got chatting about this when a writer commented on my very first post which is still among the most popular 😊 Would like to hear more about your archive approach. I direct readers attention to any post I've written if applicable to the content and it saves them from searching through which they might not do otherwise
I love the catalogue style idea Rebecca - think I’ll do this for my year anniversary and again in Dec for holiday reading. 🎅
I've only reposted one (other than the best of), and that was for some updated information. And ok, cuz I thought it should have been more popular than it was! ;) It is my most read post by far. But yes, I think readers should appreciate what you think is your best work or the best path to your work. If you just read one of my boring vanilla mortgage frauds or my more random rants, you probably would not subscribe, no matter how good of a title/meme I slap on it!
Likewise, I just recently published one sentence summaries of my most useful posts:
The Wisest, Most Helpful, Movie Wisdom Posts:
TL;DR Summaries Of The Top Must-Read "moviewise" Articles
https://moviewise.substack.com/p/the-wisest-most-helpful-movie-wisdom
I will check it out!
You may enjoy my "house" post:
When A House Is A Tragic Character:
A Tale Of Two Movies: "House of Sand and Fog" (2003) and "Up" (2009)
https://moviewise.substack.com/p/when-a-house-is-a-tragic-character
I may have to work a link into one of my tragedies!
Yes. The movie "House of Sand and Fog" is a Shakespearian tragedy, but the reality that some people have indeed lost their homes because of bureaucratic errors related to property taxes as is alluded to in the movie is an even bigger tragedy still! 🤯
My tragedies are more about people not having access to homes due to the actions of more than a few greedy real estate investors, and the inaction of bureaucrats. Similar! I think we have quite a few stories here in Arizona where people investing in property tax liens have colluded with the bureaucracy to essentially steal properties right out from under people. Generally retirees who's first notice it is happening is an eviction notice...
Thanks, I remember Up. I know I watched Sand and Fog, but I'm Foggy on the plot! Maybe worth a rewatch!
Personally I am writing about what I love and what I have learned. I started in mid-January and gained my 80th subscriber today.
People seem to enjoy the multi-part blogs or maybe it was just because it was about getting ripped off... https://open.substack.com/pub/patricia40303/p/deception-by-omission-of-the-truth?utm_source=direct&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I have been cross posting to the various socials and gaining followers from the former mailchimp list as well as many brand new ones.
Personally, I like the shorter blogs myself. When I see the ones that are 52 minutes, I have to really be interested and it needs to start off with a spark for me to engage
I’m still posting all for free right now, trying to build the audience
If I see its gonna take 15 minutes, I hesitate too!
Hi! I have a good amount of free subscribers but I have been struggling to convert them to paid and have even lost quite a few despite my overall readership going up. Any suggestions for how to convert would be greatly appreciated! I already offer exclusive content and have a big backlog of paid posts. Thanks so much! Allison
Thank you!!