We’re focused on building simple tools that help you grow your audience and earn an income directly from subscribers, on your own terms. Over the last two months we have rolled out a handful of new features to support you as you get started, grow, and earn money on Substack.
🟧 Hi Katie! I am the producer for a weekly podcast called What Happens Next in Six Minutes. Last week some of our listeners tried to access the podcast via email and received this error message: "Failed to play this media: it may not be supported by this browser." I had never had this problem before, and the only change I made was uploading a larger audio file with a higher sample rate (96k vs 48k). Do you know what the issue could be?
The emojis aren't showing for me, but this for Substack please.
I would very much like to be able to override the theme set by the stack author.
Reason? I want to check out a stack, read some things in order to decide about subbing.
Problem? When the stack is a dark theme, I'm gone. Can't do it. Eyes just don't do it.
For other people, it's opposite. They can't handle a light theme.
Solution? Let readers select their theme. This will open up more stacks to more people. And Substack will get more subs, maybe more paid subs, more money.
Yes, Katie, I forgot to mention that I'm talking about on the web site. That's where I hang out, on my computer with my giant screen. I have the app on my tablet, but I really prefer the big screen.
One thing I'd like to be able to do is to curate a better index - I've had to create one as a standalone entry https://therunoutgrooves.substack.com/p/index to group editions by the year of the album's release. I'd love to have an index as an option like Archive, Home and About at the top and have something a little more dynamic.
Same. I find it upsetting that posts drop off the search after a while. I also created an index page. I have an edited Substack and I want all my authors to have visibility.
I think this could really work for me. I review movies and want to leave the Archive just as it is, listing my weekly publications backwards in time chronologically.
But I'd like to make available an Index of Movie Titles, so someone could easily find one of my reviews of a movie they're particularly interested in.
btw, what does the /p/ in your url stand for? Just a subdirectory?
This solves a problem for me. I'm deep into my SECOND year of publishing every Sunday at noon EDT and I DON'T want to Index by year -- people tend to shy away from things that are older.
Scrolling backwards in time in an Archive is fine; people stop scrolling whenever they've seen enough titles.
But an Index like the one you suggest gives them an easy chance to quickly find the review that they want to read. Aces! I very much appreciate your suggestion.
Yes, I have had this issues, too. I have created some posts that group things into a bit of a digest, and then offered readers a list of words to search in the archives if they want to know more, but I like the idea of a more robust tabbing system.
At the moment, I use an index more for me. To make it public facing like that, I'd prefer it not to be a page full of links like it is and have it look better,
I think it's really useful as is. I'm going to implement an index on my site next month, after my first locked series is completely public.
If your archive is useful to people, having an index adds a lot more value to people. I just looked at your archive, and was surprised to find that Substack's search feature works better than I thought it did. But I think there's good value in just having everything right there on one page. People can see the depth of your catalog better than they can through a search box. For example when I use Substack's search bar, I find the artist/ album I'm looking for. But on your index page, I easily find that information *and* I see a bunch of other artists and albums I'm interested in.
You could put a message at the top that you're in the processing of building out a more complete index. I think it's already really useful though, and the kind of people who would click on an index are probably not going to be surprised to see a long list of entries. If you feel the need, you could put some google analytics (or other analytics), and see if people who visit the page tend to click links or just leave. I would bet a good number of visitors to that page do click on your links.
BTW your newsletter looks fantastic, thank you for putting it out there!
Hey Alexander! These are great suggestions. We're actively looking at improving the commenting experience. On Notes we've seen people really enjoy the mentioning experience, and it would be great to extend this to other surfaces.
Cool. Yep. There are great discussions in lengthy comments so it would be cool to be able to include people via @mention to join the discourse and/or for people to be able to quote parts of it for future (cross)posts on their substack like Scott was suggesting in one of my recent comment discussions "On Openings". He will have to do it the old-fashioned copy-pasta way.
I was pulling my hair and almost resorted to using for three non-breakable spaces but... it's such an easy thing to offer. I do hope we get to indent dialogue soon.
I am a little confused about "restacks!" How does this work? I know we used to be able to cross-post, but I am not quite sure how the restack feature works and I am afraid to try it until I know. Does it send it out to our list? I am specifically talking about full posts, not notes. Thanks!
I'm really new to Substack also but I did try to restack during the last office meeting that I attended because I thought the question was important. I thought I was "retweeting" but really just putting the question on my page. That is how I understand "restack" to be but will wait for an expert to weigh in.
I'd actually like the "restack" option that pops up upon highlighting text to go away. I find it very distracting and far too much like "retweeting" for my tastes.
Hey Substack, for each of my emails/posts, there are around 20 emails that do not go through, but I have no way of knowing which ones they are. Are they bad email addresses? Are they dropped? Is there a problem I should know about? How should I handle this? How can I identify them? Should I delete them, or leave them alone? Please advise -- thank you.
I think this is people who are subscribed to your newsletter, but have chosen not to receive emails. I believe these are people who prefer to read new posts in the app. For most of my posts, the number of recipients is typically about 95% of my total subscriber count.
In your subscriber list, you can choose which columns are displayed. Number of drops is one of the columns. There's also Number of Received, so you can get a better idea. For example, I have some that are dropped sometimes, but not always. I found a couple of others that were always dropped, and I removed them.
It could be a good idea to make the feature that automatically asks you to subscribe once clicking on an article optional. I know there is a no thanks button, but by making the feature a toggle I think some people could get more views. This is because I feel like a lot of the time when people click on an article and see that pop up, they automatically assume they have to pay and close out without realizing there is a no thanks button. I know I’ve done that before.
I got a reply back from Substack, he said “That feature actually is optional today. Although we strongly encourage the use of that feature based on previous A/B tests + tracking, we do leave it up to writers to control on a per publication basis. You can find it in your Publication Settings under "Subscribe prompts on post pages". Again - we do strongly encourage the use of the Subscribe prompt modal, but it is ultimately up to writers :)” If any of you needed the info!
The editable embed post arrived just when I needed it, but is missing one crucial feature: could it be possible to choose a different thumbnail? I'm running a 12-week course on crapness and creativity, and will start using (smaller) embeds as a menu to previous lessons - but it would look a lot better if I could customise the images. Thanks!
🟧 I unfortunately can't stay around today (might come back at the end) but, after trying to figure things out one at a time I'm wondering if anyone hires themselves out as a Substack expert. I'd happily pay for someone to get on Zoom, share my screen, and answer many of my questions at once. Gotta say I've been using computers for 30+ years and I love Substack but find it remarkably unintuitive (or else I'm not as intuitive as I used to be!!) Most of my questions are simply what's going to show up where based on what's put in the publication settings and post settings (and the difference between how posts and pages show up on phones and desktops.) I also just set up a new Section which has complicated things even more. Any experts out there wanting to make a few bucks to consult?
Yes, count me in on a personal tutoring session. I am woefully ignorant of computers...have a Mac but am always struggling. Substack seems to be everything I would want in a publishing forum, but frankly I'm pretty stuck. Thought a document (1st chapter of a book I already wrote) would load right up, but no. As a doc it was all formatted to look like a book, paragraphs, indents. etc....but it came out as one continuous blob of text. Readable but lost so much in the presentation. Rewriting each chapter to put on Substack is not feasible. Help!
Nice that I can now add my historical novel, Of Wind and Wolves, to my profile. Great new feature, especially for indie authors who increasingly publish books right here on Substack!
🟧-- When we post or restack on Notes, it takes us back to the top of the feed. I know it's on the dev team's radar, but I'm curious if there's been any movement on implementing a fix?
🟧 a question for the Substack team--have you all considered rolling out an option for readers to pay for individual paywalled posts? I know I'm not the first person to float this idea, but I'm about to post a series of travel guides and would prefer to give people the option of picking and choosing what they want to pay for rather than forcing a monthly subscription. I think it would also be a useful feature for food writers who post paywalled recipes. And I'm sure there are lots of other cool uses that I am not thinking of!
(also, side note--I came to this thread on the app, but the link from the main office hours page redirected me to a web browser rather than keeping me in the app...and I wasn't signed in in the browser, so couldn't post my comment. I'm now retyping it on my laptop, but just wanted to make you all aware that that is happening in the app because it is v annoying!)
Hey Samantha! Appreciate the feedback. First of all sorry about the confusing web/app state - sounds frustrating. I've reported it to the relevant team.
As for the individual paywall, we have explored this idea in the past! It's definitely been on our mind before, and I'll pass this on as well. Travel guides do seem like a good use for it. Thank you!
New user here. I'm one week old. When you import your previous blog content into Substack, where does it go? On top of your previous posts (I have 4), to the bottom, or somewhere else?
🧠Welcome, Anne! And, major points for being new and NOT putting the word, "Newsletter" or "Substack" as part of your newsletter name! Creative right off the bat! I think what I would do is simply cut'n'paste your previous blog content, one article at a time, onto a new Substack blank post form page.
Notice my "disclaimer" toward the top of the article: "Portions of this article first appeared in The Runner Sports, September 23, 2018." Hope this helps, and again, welcome, Anne!
Nice! Your current 'Stack name is so much more creative and a clearer invitation to what you're about than (like so many other 'Stack writers tend to do.....for some reason), say, "Cindy's Newsletter" or "Patricia's Substack"!
You figured it out, to your credit.....so many of our colleagues don't even bother, and I've made it a policy to not even READ, much less subscribe, a 'Stack whose writer can't spend longer than 3 seconds to creatively craft an alluring title beyond "Bonnie Sue's Newsletter"!
Would YOU be more likely to read "War and Peace" or "Leo's Long Book"?
As Patricia says, imported posts go to their chronological position based on their original date. Keep in mind however that you can edit the pub dates once they're in your stack so that they appear in a different chronological order.
Unless I am missing the preference on the website, I would like to see the ability to switch between dark or light backgrounds (subsequently change in text coloring) through a user preference, and not necessarily the author’s theme of their posts.
This would help those that do not easily read text with dark backgrounds and white text coloring but instead can more easily see black text on white backgrounds.
I have been asking for this for months. I would like to check out some stacks, maybe sub, but my eyes can't do dark themes. So I have to bail out. For other people, it's light themes they can't handle. It would be great if we could choose.
🟧 - apologies if this is documented elsewhere but is the default for Substack Notes posts that every Substack member gets access to all Notes but can then mute or otherwise customize their feed?
✏️ - I just wanted to say thank you to the people who suggested that I download the Substack app last week. I've mainly been using it on desktop but the app has been a great way to explore other writers and get started with Notes. Thanks!
Yea I got it on my phone - was much more appealing to sit down for an hour to read through other writers while lounging on my phone, than sitting at my desk!
SEO: I've been using the SEO customizations and also have a subodmain for my newsletter (https://newsletter.visualstorytell.com), but still my post visibility is low. When I search for my post titles nothing comes up in results even after sharing on social.
Outside question: I often feel my posts are getting lost in the black hole of chronological order. Yea I can feature a few posts but the rest of them are gone. Post inter-linking can only help so much. SEO visibility to posts is still sketchy per above.
what about adding new categorization options?
I see 2 simple ways:
Passive: using a word cloud.
Active: allowing writers to customize their categories by tagging posts.
A very efficient way to improve the SEO clout of our ex nihilo letter was to use Wikipedia (which was relatively easy because we regularly have conversations with exciting intellectuals who consistently have Wikipedia accounts). In this way, the newsletter went from being completely undiscoverable to having a significant Google presence within a few weeks. The background is probably that the Google algorithm classifies Wikipedia as a source that speaks for a high relevance
My compagnon did that - adding it to the web links section. Actually, every writer was absolutely happy about that - and Wikiepedia provides a small, but constant stream of users
This is a great idea that I never would have considered. Can you explain your process a little more and drop a link to where you added your newsletter?
Im Gespräch mit...Niko Paech (Interview mit Martin Burckhardt über Ex nihilo)
The basic idea behind it is that the SEO clout improves this way. So if you enter the following phrase into the Google search engine, it's the first entry to appear:
Same question here that I keep asking - can't find myself in search, even when using my post title verbatim. It's weird and definitely not helpful in strangers never being able to happen upon me!
Also curious how to get readers rather down into my archives. I did create pages with different themes to regroup them in. Link to your highlights in About section. Maybe make a new post of your greatest hits. I tried posting my favorite oldie in Notes and no one cared, so sigh ;)
My thought exactly! Have just had a short poetic novella accepted by Audible, but its behind a paywall, so if I put it on YT I might get round that difficulty re Substack listeners. Thanks for suggestion.
Thank you for all the great improvements that just keep coming! I am trying to keep up with using them all. Meanwhile, I do have a question/suggestion...
I publish two Substacks, and would like to be credited as the publisher/administrator of each. Instead, it seems I can only be credited as the "owner" of one of them, so I have to choose which one I want to lead as my brand. Then, I am listed only as a "contributor" on my other publication.
That is not accurate, but also, it gets even more confusing because when I have to choose how I want to attribute a post that has more than one collaborator, I end up last on the list, even though I am the lead. I get shown as a contribor and my guests get shown as having the byline.
This poses a real problem for me since I am the one doing the work and want to be credited and known as such, not for vanity's sake, but because these two publictions are my job. I need the platform to reflect that I am the one doing the work and should be the one people are paying to subscribe to.
Hi Whitney! I looked and I do see you listed as the Owner in both publications. Is there a specific post you're thinking of that displays the unordered bylines you mention? Hopefully we can get it straightened out!
Okay, of course screen shots aren't supported in the comments section, so if you go to the home page for News of the Ensouled Universe (ensouled.substack.com) then what you will see for the entry dated April 21 is that my name comes second.
When I open up the template for a new post, I come up as "contributor" and then am offered a drop down menu that allows me to add bylined authors. In my mind, a bylined author is the same as a contributor.
Then, when I go to docu-mental, at documental.substack.com, I am also listed only as a contributor.
On my profile page, it says I am only a writer at ensouled, and seems to indicate I am the publisher of documental. But I publish and write at both.
Maybe I am confused because previously Support had said that it was only possible to be the owner of one (I still have that email exchange), although they did say they liked my suggestion that we could have ownership over more than one. Maybe that has been addressed, then?
Oh weird! I went into your publication and created a new draft and do see the behavior that you're describing. I'm going to report this as a bug. Apologies you have to deal with this!
Hi, Seth! Thanks so much. I just checked, too. I am wondering if your fantastic support team was able to take care of that (I have been asking them to see if it was possible), and just didn't email me that it was done. I am going to see if I can get screen shots here of what happens when I try to post. If not, I will describe it another way...
🟧 This is an "old product" question (maybe I should use a brown square instead?): When I occasionally drill down into subscriber stats, I see: Email opens (all time) and Emails opened (all time). In my case, the numbers for my most engaged subscriber are 627 and 61, respectively. The latter number is the total number of emails I've sent. What on earth is the former number supposed to represent? I know this person is not sitting at their computer opening and closing my 61 essays repeatedly. Lol.
✏️ hey folks, those of you with Substacks with different sections, how did you roll those out? Did you start a section and add a post to it at the same time, and would that mean that your subscribers automatically get it? I'm flirting with the idea of opening sections to expand the scope of my newsletter, but I'm not sure how to properly do it. Suggestions?
🟧This is so overwhelming for me. Is there a way to simplify things? I admit I'm not the best with this tech stuff. Here's my question. Firstly am I on today's office hours right now? (apr 27?) I understand you are trying to cater it to be more specific so thank you and I will try to give it a go. My question is how to reach people who I think would be interested in my newsletter and vice versa. I suppose I would have to sum up what exactly my newsletter is about. I guess it's an exploration of the human condition. Topics like what is this place, meaning the universe. My last one was entitled, Revolving or evolving.
I am trying to write my first post and cannot locate the place "text" begins, or how to upload a written piece and post it: is there any way to be newer than that?
🟧 I'm still having an issue with the text-to-speech on my posts. Katie replied to my inquiry about it and said anyone reading in the app can use the text to speech features. I double checked my posts on the app and the option for text-to-speech was not there, as in the headphone icon did nothing when I clicked on it. This morning I texted a friend who has a Substack that I listen to via text-to-speech on a regular basis. He checked my posts and said the text-to-speech option is not working. How can we fix this? Thanks.
🟧 (reposed with emoji marker) It could be a good idea to make the feature that automatically asks you to subscribe once clicking on an article optional. I know there is a no thanks button, but by making the feature a toggle I think some people could get more views. This is because I feel like a lot of the time when people click on an article and see that pop up, they automatically assume they have to pay and close out without realizing there is a no thanks button. I know I’ve done that before.
Hey RoboticWorx! That feature actually is optional today. Although we strongly encourage the use of that feature based on previous A/B tests + tracking, we do leave it up to writers to control on a per publication basis. You can find it in your Publication Settings under "Subscribe prompts on post pages". Again - we do strongly encourage the use of the Subscribe prompt modal, but it is ultimately up to writers :)
✏️ I'm starting a new section on my Substack called "Backstage" which will feature paid content. I realize most of us have Substacks with a mix of paid and free posts—those of you who have found a way to make it work, what advice or tips or insights can you share? What features or functions within Substack have you found to be most effective in driving paid subs?
I'm not sure the usual "this Substack takes a lot of work to produce pls support me!" works since it's so overused.
I try to offer my paid subscribers something they would like. I think it depends upon your audience. For me, I offer a behind the scenes look at the newest book I'm writing. They get rough draft chapters along with my process notes. They also get an occasional post that is just for them that doesn't go with the book. I have happy hours on Zoom with them and I recently started doing one-on-one 15 minute coaching sessions.
🟧 I’d love to do a more visual, images-driven post on recent travels to Morocco. What are my options with Substack? Right now, I write text and drop in an image (it drops straight in, no tllting left or right, nondrop shadow, etc.). However, I can’t use this format of straight images stacked one below the other for a visual travel story. It’ll look sloppy and boring. Any other options here? Mostly I do text heavy posts but this one begs for less text and more pictures in my mind’s eye. Thanks!
Hi Seth, with image gallery, it clubs images together! I’d like them inserted one by one. Insert an image, say something; insert 2 and say something, etc. I’d also like to insert images at a certain rotation and add drop shadow. Any of these possible? Thank you so much.
✏️I’d love to know how you keep a handle on your editorial calendar—when and what you publish.
Substack team, editable post embeds are a great feature! Are you thinking of offering any in built tools to help plan our editorial calendar? Sorry, I could not get your logo to appear at the beginning of my question!
I try to plan quarterly at this time. I have a spreadsheet of topics, and break it down into longer essays that need more time, and some easier pieces that can accompany the bigger pieces.
Thanks! I guess I have to find the time and discipline to do this. I seem to have a lot of last minute inspirations. Mostly fighting for time to write, so planning that far ahead seems daunting!
Absolutely--that's how I am getting the writing done. What I am referring to is how to plan out the editorial--I feel pulled in many different ways and while time is some of it, it's the anticipating what's coming, what I'd like to say, etc. that is getting to me. Sudden inspiration seems to strike me more than concerted long-term planning...maybe a reflection of my personality;-)
My calendar is decidedly low- tech. I literally have a piece of paper w/upcoming ideas/topics/whatever listed on it. Then I write them in batches. I ship 4x/week, so that has been a great forcing function- otherwise, I'd probably just hang out on Notes all day.
🟧 Hello! I would like to move over my 4 month course to Substack! Fun! Is there any way to charge a fixed feed that corresponds to a fixed amount of time as a paid subscriber? So I would like to make this 6 months for the course. I will host other events as well like viewing parties and discussion groups. Again, may be limited in time. Thank you!
So far, I think the only option is to subscribe indefinitely. My course is available as a perk to paid subscribers and as soon as they enroll, they get access to the whole thing to go through on their own time. And so as long as they keep their subscription, they have access to the content. But if they downgrade to free or unsubscribe, they lose the access.
Hey Lori! Nikko is right. George Saunders is another great example of someone who does "course based" publication. Readers subscribe indefinitely and continuously receive access to new and old material.
Would love to see limited subscriptions to help ease people into subscription models. The endless model can be a deterrent for some. And as people find more Substackers, they may have a limited budget they want to plug and play into content . . .what do you think?
I’m working on creating more in-depth course offerings for the founding members, and that will give people multiple price points for what I am sharing. I don’t see other Substackers as competition so much as validation of the model working. Price points for Substack subscriptions that I have seen are SO MUCH LESS than the hundreds to thousands that I see other courses on other platforms selling for. So, no, I’m not feeling concerned about what budget my potential readers have or don’t have... one thing about the platform though is it seems like you can comp people into the paid tier but not the founding members tier.
That all sounds great! My circle of friends have a set budget for what they can spend on content. Would be great to be able to apply it where your interest lies at that point . . .
🟧 - Hoping I can get an answer on this one this week. My own Substack posts don't come up in search when I put in all the right keywords, or even the title verbatim. I'm not even at the bottom of the list. Not there at all. I'm new here and small, but what does it take to show up in a simple search? Would really help if strangers can find me who might be interested in my topics. Thanks for the time!
🟧 Hey Substack team, I appreciate all of the new development, I know that all of this stuff takes time and energy and there doesn't seem to be a lot of you... That being said, I've been asking the same question for many weeks now and my support issue still have not been fixed and support has gone crickets on me. Is there someone who can help me resolve the issue where my podcast art, looks broken on all of my podcast episodes? I've been in limbo since I put in a support ticket in February, and I really don't know what else to do. Is there someone who can help me resolve this bug?? Here's a link to an episode so you can see what I'm referring to https://makingthisup.substack.com/p/episode-51-singer-gigi-rowe-on-seeing-9f1
Hi Aden! I'm really sorry to hear this - I can see the problem you're talking about. I'm sending this information to the relevant team and hopefully we can get it straightened out.
Hi Aden, indeed, very sorry about that! If you take a look now, I think it's fixed. We had saved an image URL from your imported podcast, which then got deleted, which then broke the links. Sorry!
Hi Sam, each episode has it's own individual artwork... and I'm not seeing that. What I see is the general artwork for the show, which is certainly an improvement over a broken image... BUT it would be a shame if we're not pushing the individual covers that I created for these episodes. They look really awesome.... With my previous host, this was something I was able to do easily. What is Substacks capability on this?
Showing your logo on that surface is the intended behavior. On the post page for podcasts, we show the podcast logo to try and help build brand awareness. The individual art URLs should still be pushed to the various podcast players if the podcast players support it. On Spotify, for example, it looks to me like it's showing the artwork you want:
> With my previous host, this was something I was able to do easily. What is Substacks capability on this?
I think the answer is that we too do this, we just always show the podcast logo at the top of the post page. Otherwise, we should still be distributing the image to different players correctly. Let me know if something here sounds wrong!
My hope is that we are at least as flexible as other platforms when it comes to distributing the podcast and customizing the feed, while a bit opinionated about what is displayed at the top of the post page (like I said, always the logo). If you think we're falling short somewhere, let me know.
⛽ Question re contacting people who are just readers on Substack (ie haven't started posting on their own site yet). Is there a way to contact them via Notes? Sometimes you see a Substack "what's going on" message in their Notes tab that you can reply to...and sometimes that doesn't show?
When you add a post link of some other post to your post while you are writing it, it creates this preview with some text 'embedded' between the text. We can now customise what that embedded post looks like.
🟧 Hi, shouldn't I get notified when a subscriber unsubscribes? I noticed by chance that a subscriber was gone, but I never got any notification. I think I saw another writer on Substack asking the same.
🟧 Has the Substack team every considered making a special product for local journalism? Roy Woods Jr made some very moving comments about local journalism in the last 5 minutes of his presentation last night at White House correspondents dinner (available on YouTube).
Hi there. If we create a new section in our account and want to add specific existing subscribers to it, is there a way to do that? Or what is the best practice?
Is there a way to tell if a specific paid user is sharing our content with other users? Either by IP logs or multiple clicks etc? Our paid subs get access to unique and insider info for political related topics, I just had one user unsubscribe and admit he's seeing paid posts through a shared account.
🟧 I figured this out. But a comment about the new "embed" feature ..... I didn't realize immediately that it only is relevant when embedding links to our own work. I was attempting to share pages from a few other substacks, and I wasn't seeing the new feature show up. (As noted, I did sort out my misunderstanding.) Will the embed customization be extended to include sharing other substack content? --- I like the look and style of the new embeds both for sharing our own content and for including content from others (which seems to fit the overall community approach).
🟧 Hi Katie! I am the producer for a weekly podcast called What Happens Next in Six Minutes. Last week some of our listeners tried to access the podcast via email and received this error message: "Failed to play this media: it may not be supported by this browser." I had never had this problem before, and the only change I made was uploading a larger audio file with a higher sample rate (96k vs 48k). Do you know what the issue could be?
The emojis aren't showing for me, but this for Substack please.
I would very much like to be able to override the theme set by the stack author.
Reason? I want to check out a stack, read some things in order to decide about subbing.
Problem? When the stack is a dark theme, I'm gone. Can't do it. Eyes just don't do it.
For other people, it's opposite. They can't handle a light theme.
Solution? Let readers select their theme. This will open up more stacks to more people. And Substack will get more subs, maybe more paid subs, more money.
I hope you'll consider this. Thanks.
Yes, Katie, I forgot to mention that I'm talking about on the web site. That's where I hang out, on my computer with my giant screen. I have the app on my tablet, but I really prefer the big screen.
One thing I'd like to be able to do is to curate a better index - I've had to create one as a standalone entry https://therunoutgrooves.substack.com/p/index to group editions by the year of the album's release. I'd love to have an index as an option like Archive, Home and About at the top and have something a little more dynamic.
Same. I find it upsetting that posts drop off the search after a while. I also created an index page. I have an edited Substack and I want all my authors to have visibility.
How do you create an index page?
I just did it as a page of linked text, like a web-only post. Maybe there's a better way: https://books.substack.com/p/our-authors I gave it its own heading: "Our Authors" here https://books.substack.com/
I think this could really work for me. I review movies and want to leave the Archive just as it is, listing my weekly publications backwards in time chronologically.
But I'd like to make available an Index of Movie Titles, so someone could easily find one of my reviews of a movie they're particularly interested in.
btw, what does the /p/ in your url stand for? Just a subdirectory?
This solves a problem for me. I'm deep into my SECOND year of publishing every Sunday at noon EDT and I DON'T want to Index by year -- people tend to shy away from things that are older.
Scrolling backwards in time in an Archive is fine; people stop scrolling whenever they've seen enough titles.
But an Index like the one you suggest gives them an easy chance to quickly find the review that they want to read. Aces! I very much appreciate your suggestion.
And I've subscribed to your Substack.
I agree. I mentioned this last week and someone from Substack said they were thinking about it.
Yes please!
Yes, I have had this issues, too. I have created some posts that group things into a bit of a digest, and then offered readers a list of words to search in the archives if they want to know more, but I like the idea of a more robust tabbing system.
Is there any reason you don't add your index page to your tabs? (Settings > Website > Navigation)
At the moment, I use an index more for me. To make it public facing like that, I'd prefer it not to be a page full of links like it is and have it look better,
I think it's really useful as is. I'm going to implement an index on my site next month, after my first locked series is completely public.
If your archive is useful to people, having an index adds a lot more value to people. I just looked at your archive, and was surprised to find that Substack's search feature works better than I thought it did. But I think there's good value in just having everything right there on one page. People can see the depth of your catalog better than they can through a search box. For example when I use Substack's search bar, I find the artist/ album I'm looking for. But on your index page, I easily find that information *and* I see a bunch of other artists and albums I'm interested in.
You could put a message at the top that you're in the processing of building out a more complete index. I think it's already really useful though, and the kind of people who would click on an index are probably not going to be surprised to see a long list of entries. If you feel the need, you could put some google analytics (or other analytics), and see if people who visit the page tend to click links or just leave. I would bet a good number of visitors to that page do click on your links.
BTW your newsletter looks fantastic, thank you for putting it out there!
Thanks for your kind words, Eric. I may take a look at adding that index in tomorrow
+1
🟧 1) Will it be possible to use @mentions in comments?
2) Will it be possible to use the excerpt feature on comments?
3) Will it be possible to indent dialogue?
Thanks!
Hey Alexander! These are great suggestions. We're actively looking at improving the commenting experience. On Notes we've seen people really enjoy the mentioning experience, and it would be great to extend this to other surfaces.
Cool. Yep. There are great discussions in lengthy comments so it would be cool to be able to include people via @mention to join the discourse and/or for people to be able to quote parts of it for future (cross)posts on their substack like Scott was suggesting in one of my recent comment discussions "On Openings". He will have to do it the old-fashioned copy-pasta way.
As for indent formatting. Please? 🥹
Copy pasta? Is that some sort of 3D printed food? GD&R. 😉
could be! it's what we call it lovingly, goes down more smoothly than the ole CTRL C and VEE ;)
I love the indent dialogue suggestion. Currently, I use the block quote function in lieu.
I was pulling my hair and almost resorted to using for three non-breakable spaces but... it's such an easy thing to offer. I do hope we get to indent dialogue soon.
I am a little confused about "restacks!" How does this work? I know we used to be able to cross-post, but I am not quite sure how the restack feature works and I am afraid to try it until I know. Does it send it out to our list? I am specifically talking about full posts, not notes. Thanks!
Hi Sara. Restacks shares a post to Notes and does not email your subscribers. You can read more about them here https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/14671398684308-What-is-a-restack-on-Substack-Notes-
I keep thinking 'retweet', just can't help it.
A restack sends the item (maybe the whole article or maybe a selection of the article) to Notes. It does not send email.
I'm really new to Substack also but I did try to restack during the last office meeting that I attended because I thought the question was important. I thought I was "retweeting" but really just putting the question on my page. That is how I understand "restack" to be but will wait for an expert to weigh in.
I'm wondering about this, too.
I'd actually like the "restack" option that pops up upon highlighting text to go away. I find it very distracting and far too much like "retweeting" for my tastes.
Hey Substack, for each of my emails/posts, there are around 20 emails that do not go through, but I have no way of knowing which ones they are. Are they bad email addresses? Are they dropped? Is there a problem I should know about? How should I handle this? How can I identify them? Should I delete them, or leave them alone? Please advise -- thank you.
I also would love more insight into email deliverability!
I think this is people who are subscribed to your newsletter, but have chosen not to receive emails. I believe these are people who prefer to read new posts in the app. For most of my posts, the number of recipients is typically about 95% of my total subscriber count.
In your subscriber list, you can choose which columns are displayed. Number of drops is one of the columns. There's also Number of Received, so you can get a better idea. For example, I have some that are dropped sometimes, but not always. I found a couple of others that were always dropped, and I removed them.
Yes! You just reminded me. How the heck do you get a Substack email? I thought I turned on a special button.
It could be a good idea to make the feature that automatically asks you to subscribe once clicking on an article optional. I know there is a no thanks button, but by making the feature a toggle I think some people could get more views. This is because I feel like a lot of the time when people click on an article and see that pop up, they automatically assume they have to pay and close out without realizing there is a no thanks button. I know I’ve done that before.
I have had people irl tell me they don’t check out my site b/c they think they have to subscribe to see anything at all 😥
I got a reply back from Substack, he said “That feature actually is optional today. Although we strongly encourage the use of that feature based on previous A/B tests + tracking, we do leave it up to writers to control on a per publication basis. You can find it in your Publication Settings under "Subscribe prompts on post pages". Again - we do strongly encourage the use of the Subscribe prompt modal, but it is ultimately up to writers :)” If any of you needed the info!
Happened to me just today. Sent someone I met to my newsletter and he immediately thought there is a pay wall.
Been there.
Agreed. No thanks is not obvious
Me likey anything editable. 👍
Web chat— haven’t used. Don’t know benefits. 🤔
Will promote like crazy when book is finished. Sounds promising. 😊
Would love more info on the rest. 🙏
I write humorous essays. The latest one garnered fab comments. “A great read Full of laughs.”
Mmmmmmm......edible post embeds!🤗
See? That why I need the edit button. Edible could be yummy.
Delish with Ranch!
I make a fab wasabi aioli.
I'm down! Edible Post Embeds with wasabi aioli?!? A double order, please!
Haha. I’m hungry.
The editable embed post arrived just when I needed it, but is missing one crucial feature: could it be possible to choose a different thumbnail? I'm running a 12-week course on crapness and creativity, and will start using (smaller) embeds as a menu to previous lessons - but it would look a lot better if I could customise the images. Thanks!
LOL: Crapness.
It may be our greatest under-utilised resource!
Shouldn't it be left that way, though?
I argue "not," in twelve insufferable instalments.
🤔
Thanks for the feedback Graeme! I'll pass this along to the team working on embeds.
Thanks, Jonathan!
🟧 I unfortunately can't stay around today (might come back at the end) but, after trying to figure things out one at a time I'm wondering if anyone hires themselves out as a Substack expert. I'd happily pay for someone to get on Zoom, share my screen, and answer many of my questions at once. Gotta say I've been using computers for 30+ years and I love Substack but find it remarkably unintuitive (or else I'm not as intuitive as I used to be!!) Most of my questions are simply what's going to show up where based on what's put in the publication settings and post settings (and the difference between how posts and pages show up on phones and desktops.) I also just set up a new Section which has complicated things even more. Any experts out there wanting to make a few bucks to consult?
Yes, count me in on a personal tutoring session. I am woefully ignorant of computers...have a Mac but am always struggling. Substack seems to be everything I would want in a publishing forum, but frankly I'm pretty stuck. Thought a document (1st chapter of a book I already wrote) would load right up, but no. As a doc it was all formatted to look like a book, paragraphs, indents. etc....but it came out as one continuous blob of text. Readable but lost so much in the presentation. Rewriting each chapter to put on Substack is not feasible. Help!
Or maybe hold the office hours some week via Zoom? I would appreciate seeing things set up also.
I do this for some people. Feel free to email me at cmallerywriter@gmail.com
Nice that I can now add my historical novel, Of Wind and Wolves, to my profile. Great new feature, especially for indie authors who increasingly publish books right here on Substack!
+1
🟧-- When we post or restack on Notes, it takes us back to the top of the feed. I know it's on the dev team's radar, but I'm curious if there's been any movement on implementing a fix?
Hi Kevin! Yeah, great suggestion. We're very actively working on this surface and hopefully this should be fixed up soon! Appreciate the find
🟧 a question for the Substack team--have you all considered rolling out an option for readers to pay for individual paywalled posts? I know I'm not the first person to float this idea, but I'm about to post a series of travel guides and would prefer to give people the option of picking and choosing what they want to pay for rather than forcing a monthly subscription. I think it would also be a useful feature for food writers who post paywalled recipes. And I'm sure there are lots of other cool uses that I am not thinking of!
(also, side note--I came to this thread on the app, but the link from the main office hours page redirected me to a web browser rather than keeping me in the app...and I wasn't signed in in the browser, so couldn't post my comment. I'm now retyping it on my laptop, but just wanted to make you all aware that that is happening in the app because it is v annoying!)
Hey Samantha! Appreciate the feedback. First of all sorry about the confusing web/app state - sounds frustrating. I've reported it to the relevant team.
As for the individual paywall, we have explored this idea in the past! It's definitely been on our mind before, and I'll pass this on as well. Travel guides do seem like a good use for it. Thank you!
Thanks for your response, Seth!!
New user here. I'm one week old. When you import your previous blog content into Substack, where does it go? On top of your previous posts (I have 4), to the bottom, or somewhere else?
AQC
howtoeatanddrink.substack.com
🧠Welcome, Anne! And, major points for being new and NOT putting the word, "Newsletter" or "Substack" as part of your newsletter name! Creative right off the bat! I think what I would do is simply cut'n'paste your previous blog content, one article at a time, onto a new Substack blank post form page.
I've done that from The Runner Sports all-sports blog site, where I covered the Houston Astros from 2014-2020 (https://therunnersports.com/author/bradsmack/). It just seems a lot easier. Here's an example of a post I brought over from The Runner Sports, updated, and "cleaned it up" for my Substack site: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/astros-flashback-hoard-of-the-rings
Notice my "disclaimer" toward the top of the article: "Portions of this article first appeared in The Runner Sports, September 23, 2018." Hope this helps, and again, welcome, Anne!
Omg. Mine was called Patricia’s Substack for two weeks before I figured out how I could customize it.
Nice! Your current 'Stack name is so much more creative and a clearer invitation to what you're about than (like so many other 'Stack writers tend to do.....for some reason), say, "Cindy's Newsletter" or "Patricia's Substack"!
You figured it out, to your credit.....so many of our colleagues don't even bother, and I've made it a policy to not even READ, much less subscribe, a 'Stack whose writer can't spend longer than 3 seconds to creatively craft an alluring title beyond "Bonnie Sue's Newsletter"!
Would YOU be more likely to read "War and Peace" or "Leo's Long Book"?
You truly made me laugh out loud! Leo’s Long Book sounds like a lot of effort...
😉
;D but I can't figure out how to get to the emojis :O
I push the windows button with the "period" button at the same time (Dell Windows laptop), if that's what you mean! 🙂👍☕
Well, I'm on a MacBook Air. Surely there is a way. Will google that. Thanks again
Thanks, Brad! Very helpful
I do what I can............thanks for thanking, Anne!
Hi there. Blogs I imported from WP went to the bottom in order of the original posted date.
Gracias!
As Patricia says, imported posts go to their chronological position based on their original date. Keep in mind however that you can edit the pub dates once they're in your stack so that they appear in a different chronological order.
Great tip!
Thanks
Editable post embeds 👍🏻 nice upgrade
Web chat 🌀 haven't found much use for chat yet
Promote my 📖 will be great once I publish! Serializing memoir here for now ⬇️
Boost upsell and founding tier 👌🏻
Subscriber report 👍🏻 👍🏻 👍🏻
SEO 🙃 nice to have, but I wish "SEO" would die
Guest posts ⭐️⭐️ let's do it!
AN ORDINARY DISASTER
A serialized book-length memoir of a man thrashing against—
and then learning to live with the fact that we are _all_ alone.
https://bowendwelle.substack.com/s/memoir
Unless I am missing the preference on the website, I would like to see the ability to switch between dark or light backgrounds (subsequently change in text coloring) through a user preference, and not necessarily the author’s theme of their posts.
This would help those that do not easily read text with dark backgrounds and white text coloring but instead can more easily see black text on white backgrounds.
Regards.
Diatribes? https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/
Tried to think of something that matched my name and would be an honest assessment of whatever subject I wrote. But, who knows, may change the name.
My comment was just a bit of self-promotion...... pointing you to my Slouching Towards Bethlehem essays: https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/
which some would see as diatribes.... although I would call them by a gentler name!
I have been asking for this for months. I would like to check out some stacks, maybe sub, but my eyes can't do dark themes. So I have to bail out. For other people, it's light themes they can't handle. It would be great if we could choose.
https://on.substack.com/p/office-hours-notes-76/comment/15309599
🟧 - apologies if this is documented elsewhere but is the default for Substack Notes posts that every Substack member gets access to all Notes but can then mute or otherwise customize their feed?
On the desktop, we can view all, or subscribed... not released on app yet
✏️ - I just wanted to say thank you to the people who suggested that I download the Substack app last week. I've mainly been using it on desktop but the app has been a great way to explore other writers and get started with Notes. Thanks!
Get it on your phone too! I use it particularly to fix any typos I might notice on a recent post;) to browsing other writers when I have a moment!
Yea I got it on my phone - was much more appealing to sit down for an hour to read through other writers while lounging on my phone, than sitting at my desk!
I love the books-in-profile thing! Thank you for that, Substack!
🟧 Great features. I have two questions:
SEO: I've been using the SEO customizations and also have a subodmain for my newsletter (https://newsletter.visualstorytell.com), but still my post visibility is low. When I search for my post titles nothing comes up in results even after sharing on social.
Outside question: I often feel my posts are getting lost in the black hole of chronological order. Yea I can feature a few posts but the rest of them are gone. Post inter-linking can only help so much. SEO visibility to posts is still sketchy per above.
what about adding new categorization options?
I see 2 simple ways:
Passive: using a word cloud.
Active: allowing writers to customize their categories by tagging posts.
Thoughts?
A very efficient way to improve the SEO clout of our ex nihilo letter was to use Wikipedia (which was relatively easy because we regularly have conversations with exciting intellectuals who consistently have Wikipedia accounts). In this way, the newsletter went from being completely undiscoverable to having a significant Google presence within a few weeks. The background is probably that the Google algorithm classifies Wikipedia as a source that speaks for a high relevance
Wait … can anyone have a Wikipedia page?
Nice idea! How did you achieve that? Convincing intelectuals to add to their Wikipedia pages? Or adding links yourself with modetator approval?
My compagnon did that - adding it to the web links section. Actually, every writer was absolutely happy about that - and Wikiepedia provides a small, but constant stream of users
This is a great idea that I never would have considered. Can you explain your process a little more and drop a link to where you added your newsletter?
look at this, in the weblinks section:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niko_Paech#Weblinks
Im Gespräch mit...Niko Paech (Interview mit Martin Burckhardt über Ex nihilo)
The basic idea behind it is that the SEO clout improves this way. So if you enter the following phrase into the Google search engine, it's the first entry to appear:
Gespräch ex nihilo
This is a snazzy strategy. Thanks for sharing!
Very very helpful and thoughtful explanation, Martin. Vielen danke,
Same question here that I keep asking - can't find myself in search, even when using my post title verbatim. It's weird and definitely not helpful in strangers never being able to happen upon me!
Also curious how to get readers rather down into my archives. I did create pages with different themes to regroup them in. Link to your highlights in About section. Maybe make a new post of your greatest hits. I tried posting my favorite oldie in Notes and no one cared, so sigh ;)
I just tried the new embeds feature and it's brilliant. It makes it really easy to create a round-up post that won't take up the whole page!
Would embeds be a way to link to an audio of a text as an option? Have not yet encountered embeds!
i tried embedding audio months ago, to no avail, but it might be different now
Thanks for reply. I clearly have to get to grips with Substack's options! I have a feeling that short audios might be better for my kind of material.
There's almost too m uch! I suppose if an audio embed option isn't available, you could always record sound-only youtube videos and embed them
My thought exactly! Have just had a short poetic novella accepted by Audible, but its behind a paywall, so if I put it on YT I might get round that difficulty re Substack listeners. Thanks for suggestion.
Hello!
Thank you for all the great improvements that just keep coming! I am trying to keep up with using them all. Meanwhile, I do have a question/suggestion...
I publish two Substacks, and would like to be credited as the publisher/administrator of each. Instead, it seems I can only be credited as the "owner" of one of them, so I have to choose which one I want to lead as my brand. Then, I am listed only as a "contributor" on my other publication.
That is not accurate, but also, it gets even more confusing because when I have to choose how I want to attribute a post that has more than one collaborator, I end up last on the list, even though I am the lead. I get shown as a contribor and my guests get shown as having the byline.
This poses a real problem for me since I am the one doing the work and want to be credited and known as such, not for vanity's sake, but because these two publictions are my job. I need the platform to reflect that I am the one doing the work and should be the one people are paying to subscribe to.
How can we resolve this?
Thanks!!
Hi Whitney! I looked and I do see you listed as the Owner in both publications. Is there a specific post you're thinking of that displays the unordered bylines you mention? Hopefully we can get it straightened out!
Okay, of course screen shots aren't supported in the comments section, so if you go to the home page for News of the Ensouled Universe (ensouled.substack.com) then what you will see for the entry dated April 21 is that my name comes second.
When I open up the template for a new post, I come up as "contributor" and then am offered a drop down menu that allows me to add bylined authors. In my mind, a bylined author is the same as a contributor.
Then, when I go to docu-mental, at documental.substack.com, I am also listed only as a contributor.
On my profile page, it says I am only a writer at ensouled, and seems to indicate I am the publisher of documental. But I publish and write at both.
https://substack.com/profile/18582-whitney-mcknight
Maybe I am confused because previously Support had said that it was only possible to be the owner of one (I still have that email exchange), although they did say they liked my suggestion that we could have ownership over more than one. Maybe that has been addressed, then?
Oh weird! I went into your publication and created a new draft and do see the behavior that you're describing. I'm going to report this as a bug. Apologies you have to deal with this!
Thanks very much, Seth. I have confidence it will get sorted out.
Excellent. Thank you so much, Yuriy!
Hi, Seth! Thanks so much. I just checked, too. I am wondering if your fantastic support team was able to take care of that (I have been asking them to see if it was possible), and just didn't email me that it was done. I am going to see if I can get screen shots here of what happens when I try to post. If not, I will describe it another way...
Thank you Patricia!
🟧 Love the platform but support is really slow. I‘m still waiting on a response to a ticket I submitted on Tues, and this is par for course.
I want to grow with the platform but it’s really hard when you don’t have support to fix technical issues.
Is there any plan to expand the support team? 🙏🙏🙏
🟧 This is an "old product" question (maybe I should use a brown square instead?): When I occasionally drill down into subscriber stats, I see: Email opens (all time) and Emails opened (all time). In my case, the numbers for my most engaged subscriber are 627 and 61, respectively. The latter number is the total number of emails I've sent. What on earth is the former number supposed to represent? I know this person is not sitting at their computer opening and closing my 61 essays repeatedly. Lol.
✏️ hey folks, those of you with Substacks with different sections, how did you roll those out? Did you start a section and add a post to it at the same time, and would that mean that your subscribers automatically get it? I'm flirting with the idea of opening sections to expand the scope of my newsletter, but I'm not sure how to properly do it. Suggestions?
I just started using Substack. Where would I find resources to help my newsletter look more professional looking?
🟧This is so overwhelming for me. Is there a way to simplify things? I admit I'm not the best with this tech stuff. Here's my question. Firstly am I on today's office hours right now? (apr 27?) I understand you are trying to cater it to be more specific so thank you and I will try to give it a go. My question is how to reach people who I think would be interested in my newsletter and vice versa. I suppose I would have to sum up what exactly my newsletter is about. I guess it's an exploration of the human condition. Topics like what is this place, meaning the universe. My last one was entitled, Revolving or evolving.
Yes you are here in the now, April 27. 😉
I am trying to write my first post and cannot locate the place "text" begins, or how to upload a written piece and post it: is there any way to be newer than that?
Hi Stephen, I've written what I think are simplified tutorials for beginners. I'm not sure I've answered your question, but here's the link to the first one. Links to the others are at the end of each post. https://writereverlasting.substack.com/p/exploring-the-mysteries-of-substack
What a lovely human you are to have created these helpful posts. 🥰
Thank you. I put together what I thought I would have needed myself when I first began!
I just started using substack, where are the resources to make my news letter look more professional?
🟧 I'm still having an issue with the text-to-speech on my posts. Katie replied to my inquiry about it and said anyone reading in the app can use the text to speech features. I double checked my posts on the app and the option for text-to-speech was not there, as in the headphone icon did nothing when I clicked on it. This morning I texted a friend who has a Substack that I listen to via text-to-speech on a regular basis. He checked my posts and said the text-to-speech option is not working. How can we fix this? Thanks.
🟧 (reposed with emoji marker) It could be a good idea to make the feature that automatically asks you to subscribe once clicking on an article optional. I know there is a no thanks button, but by making the feature a toggle I think some people could get more views. This is because I feel like a lot of the time when people click on an article and see that pop up, they automatically assume they have to pay and close out without realizing there is a no thanks button. I know I’ve done that before.
Hey RoboticWorx! That feature actually is optional today. Although we strongly encourage the use of that feature based on previous A/B tests + tracking, we do leave it up to writers to control on a per publication basis. You can find it in your Publication Settings under "Subscribe prompts on post pages". Again - we do strongly encourage the use of the Subscribe prompt modal, but it is ultimately up to writers :)
Awesome, thanks for the info!
✏️ I'm starting a new section on my Substack called "Backstage" which will feature paid content. I realize most of us have Substacks with a mix of paid and free posts—those of you who have found a way to make it work, what advice or tips or insights can you share? What features or functions within Substack have you found to be most effective in driving paid subs?
I'm not sure the usual "this Substack takes a lot of work to produce pls support me!" works since it's so overused.
Here's an example of the type of paid content I'm planning (this is the first one published yesterday!) >> https://themuse.substack.com/p/no-mixed-emotions-about-the-rolling
I try to offer my paid subscribers something they would like. I think it depends upon your audience. For me, I offer a behind the scenes look at the newest book I'm writing. They get rough draft chapters along with my process notes. They also get an occasional post that is just for them that doesn't go with the book. I have happy hours on Zoom with them and I recently started doing one-on-one 15 minute coaching sessions.
🟧 I’d love to do a more visual, images-driven post on recent travels to Morocco. What are my options with Substack? Right now, I write text and drop in an image (it drops straight in, no tllting left or right, nondrop shadow, etc.). However, I can’t use this format of straight images stacked one below the other for a visual travel story. It’ll look sloppy and boring. Any other options here? Mostly I do text heavy posts but this one begs for less text and more pictures in my mind’s eye. Thanks!
I have used Canva to create the image layout, then imported the finished jpg, if that is an option for you?
Thanks Patricia! I have heard of Canva, but never used it. Is there a free version available?
Yes there is!
Hey Anu! Sounds like a great post. Image gallery might work well for you here. You can select the image in the post toolbar and click "Add gallery".
Hi Seth, with image gallery, it clubs images together! I’d like them inserted one by one. Insert an image, say something; insert 2 and say something, etc. I’d also like to insert images at a certain rotation and add drop shadow. Any of these possible? Thank you so much.
✏️I’d love to know how you keep a handle on your editorial calendar—when and what you publish.
Substack team, editable post embeds are a great feature! Are you thinking of offering any in built tools to help plan our editorial calendar? Sorry, I could not get your logo to appear at the beginning of my question!
Thanks! Anu anuprabhala.substack.com
I try to plan quarterly at this time. I have a spreadsheet of topics, and break it down into longer essays that need more time, and some easier pieces that can accompany the bigger pieces.
Thanks! I guess I have to find the time and discipline to do this. I seem to have a lot of last minute inspirations. Mostly fighting for time to write, so planning that far ahead seems daunting!
I know it sounds cliché, but you don't find time, you make it.
If possible, mark an hour on your calendar the same way you might mark going to the gym, a lunch date, etc. Once it's on there, don't delete it.
Absolutely--that's how I am getting the writing done. What I am referring to is how to plan out the editorial--I feel pulled in many different ways and while time is some of it, it's the anticipating what's coming, what I'd like to say, etc. that is getting to me. Sudden inspiration seems to strike me more than concerted long-term planning...maybe a reflection of my personality;-)
I don't write everything that far ahead, but it actually does help with last minute inspiration
My calendar is decidedly low- tech. I literally have a piece of paper w/upcoming ideas/topics/whatever listed on it. Then I write them in batches. I ship 4x/week, so that has been a great forcing function- otherwise, I'd probably just hang out on Notes all day.
Thanks! I have been diligently making time for writing one a week, this week 2💪🏼, it’s the planning ahead that’s getting to me!
🟧 Hello! I would like to move over my 4 month course to Substack! Fun! Is there any way to charge a fixed feed that corresponds to a fixed amount of time as a paid subscriber? So I would like to make this 6 months for the course. I will host other events as well like viewing parties and discussion groups. Again, may be limited in time. Thank you!
So far, I think the only option is to subscribe indefinitely. My course is available as a perk to paid subscribers and as soon as they enroll, they get access to the whole thing to go through on their own time. And so as long as they keep their subscription, they have access to the content. But if they downgrade to free or unsubscribe, they lose the access.
Really creative! Thank you for sharing your kindness of the share!
Hey Lori! Nikko is right. George Saunders is another great example of someone who does "course based" publication. Readers subscribe indefinitely and continuously receive access to new and old material.
Would love to see limited subscriptions to help ease people into subscription models. The endless model can be a deterrent for some. And as people find more Substackers, they may have a limited budget they want to plug and play into content . . .what do you think?
I’m working on creating more in-depth course offerings for the founding members, and that will give people multiple price points for what I am sharing. I don’t see other Substackers as competition so much as validation of the model working. Price points for Substack subscriptions that I have seen are SO MUCH LESS than the hundreds to thousands that I see other courses on other platforms selling for. So, no, I’m not feeling concerned about what budget my potential readers have or don’t have... one thing about the platform though is it seems like you can comp people into the paid tier but not the founding members tier.
That all sounds great! My circle of friends have a set budget for what they can spend on content. Would be great to be able to apply it where your interest lies at that point . . .
🟧 - Hoping I can get an answer on this one this week. My own Substack posts don't come up in search when I put in all the right keywords, or even the title verbatim. I'm not even at the bottom of the list. Not there at all. I'm new here and small, but what does it take to show up in a simple search? Would really help if strangers can find me who might be interested in my topics. Thanks for the time!
Hello, why might my total views have gone down every day for 3 days? Not kidding. i was up to 850 and now back down to 760...
🟧 Hey Substack team, I appreciate all of the new development, I know that all of this stuff takes time and energy and there doesn't seem to be a lot of you... That being said, I've been asking the same question for many weeks now and my support issue still have not been fixed and support has gone crickets on me. Is there someone who can help me resolve the issue where my podcast art, looks broken on all of my podcast episodes? I've been in limbo since I put in a support ticket in February, and I really don't know what else to do. Is there someone who can help me resolve this bug?? Here's a link to an episode so you can see what I'm referring to https://makingthisup.substack.com/p/episode-51-singer-gigi-rowe-on-seeing-9f1
Hi Aden! I'm really sorry to hear this - I can see the problem you're talking about. I'm sending this information to the relevant team and hopefully we can get it straightened out.
Thank you so much!!
Hi Aden, indeed, very sorry about that! If you take a look now, I think it's fixed. We had saved an image URL from your imported podcast, which then got deleted, which then broke the links. Sorry!
Let me know if it's not fixed.
Hi Sam, each episode has it's own individual artwork... and I'm not seeing that. What I see is the general artwork for the show, which is certainly an improvement over a broken image... BUT it would be a shame if we're not pushing the individual covers that I created for these episodes. They look really awesome.... With my previous host, this was something I was able to do easily. What is Substacks capability on this?
Showing your logo on that surface is the intended behavior. On the post page for podcasts, we show the podcast logo to try and help build brand awareness. The individual art URLs should still be pushed to the various podcast players if the podcast players support it. On Spotify, for example, it looks to me like it's showing the artwork you want:
https://open.spotify.com/show/34EGi5dYBIbNijwiazyU9B?si=50b094acacf94869
We also show that art in the /archive of your substack. It's only the top of the post page where we default to the logo.
The way we resolve which podcast art to show is kind of convoluted, but is explained here:
https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/8503114939412-What-artwork-appears-for-my-Substack-podcast-
> With my previous host, this was something I was able to do easily. What is Substacks capability on this?
I think the answer is that we too do this, we just always show the podcast logo at the top of the post page. Otherwise, we should still be distributing the image to different players correctly. Let me know if something here sounds wrong!
Well... in that case, I'd say it's fixed! Thank you Sam!
Sure thing, sorry about the confusion and sorry it took so long to resolve!
For what it's worth, as far as I know we allow all the RSS feed customizations that other platforms allow. According to the itunes spec (https://help.apple.com/itc/podcasts_connect/#/itcb54353390), for example, you can set an individual image for each episode (<itunes:image>). It's up to individual podcast players to interpret and display that data. Apple, for example, at least on desktop, doesn't use the episode images anywhere (at least that I can see https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-changed-podcast-with-aden-nepom/id1516559215).
My hope is that we are at least as flexible as other platforms when it comes to distributing the podcast and customizing the feed, while a bit opinionated about what is displayed at the top of the post page (like I said, always the logo). If you think we're falling short somewhere, let me know.
✏️ Excited for the new embed post feature - would love to see how others are using it. Especially those doing round-up posts.
⛽ Question re contacting people who are just readers on Substack (ie haven't started posting on their own site yet). Is there a way to contact them via Notes? Sometimes you see a Substack "what's going on" message in their Notes tab that you can reply to...and sometimes that doesn't show?
The editable post embeds are a nice touch. Is the founding tier page customisable or is it merely a separate link that you can share?
What am I missing? I don't know what 'editable post imbeds' are. Are they within our posts or are we embedding someone else's post?
When you add a post link of some other post to your post while you are writing it, it creates this preview with some text 'embedded' between the text. We can now customise what that embedded post looks like.
Thank you. I found the instructions, but they still seem confusing. I'll play with it when I edit next. Maybe then it'll make more sense!
It's like what we used to be able to do on Medium, if that helps.
Thanks. That helps!
🟧 Hi, shouldn't I get notified when a subscriber unsubscribes? I noticed by chance that a subscriber was gone, but I never got any notification. I think I saw another writer on Substack asking the same.
How do I edit the title of my post? I tried the editing tool and it doesn't change it, even tho it says it did? Help?
🟧 Has the Substack team every considered making a special product for local journalism? Roy Woods Jr made some very moving comments about local journalism in the last 5 minutes of his presentation last night at White House correspondents dinner (available on YouTube).
Hi there. If we create a new section in our account and want to add specific existing subscribers to it, is there a way to do that? Or what is the best practice?
Is there a way to tell if a specific paid user is sharing our content with other users? Either by IP logs or multiple clicks etc? Our paid subs get access to unique and insider info for political related topics, I just had one user unsubscribe and admit he's seeing paid posts through a shared account.
Thank you
🧠 Thanks for new profile editing that allows us to promote our books. Very helpful and easy to do!
🟧 I figured this out. But a comment about the new "embed" feature ..... I didn't realize immediately that it only is relevant when embedding links to our own work. I was attempting to share pages from a few other substacks, and I wasn't seeing the new feature show up. (As noted, I did sort out my misunderstanding.) Will the embed customization be extended to include sharing other substack content? --- I like the look and style of the new embeds both for sharing our own content and for including content from others (which seems to fit the overall community approach).
French please