What holds you back from producing your best work on Substack?
In this thread are Kevin, Maggie, and Kerianne from the Substack Services team. We run writer support programs such as Substack Defender (legal support) and Substack Health (health insurance supportโapplications close in two weeks!).
Weโd love to hear about what holds you back as an independent writer. Our team and your fellow writers are here to help.
Join in and share any thoughts on the following questions:
What holds you back from writing consistently?
What hesitations, anxieties, or challenges get in the way of producing your best work?
What would help you go independent as a writer?
The Substack Services team will be on this thread today from 10 a.m.โ11 a.m. PST / 1 p.m.โ2 p.m. EST to learn about the needs of writers and respond to ideas.
What is up with that black box that keeps popping up: "Your changes were synced..."?! It is incredibly annoying to have it invading my eyeline every time I write a sentence. Can I switch it off?
It's a big demotivator for me as a writer living in South Africa to not be able to earn on Substack through paid subscriptions simply because SA is not on Stripe's supported county list and it's the only payment [rocessing option on Substack.
It takes time, effort and energy to create content and as much as I love writing, like anything else you do it's all worth it when your efforts are rewarded financially. Especially if it is your plan for freelance writing to be a major source of income for you.
I cannot understand why Stripe is the only payment processing option. There must be many other options, like PayPal to mention just one, out there and it flattens me as to why there is only one option.
There are so many writers out there like me who cannot be paywalled on platforms because of this Stripe issue.
Same here in India. Stripe being the only option is limiting. I wish Substack supported UPI payments (Google Pay, PayTM etc.) which is really a big thing in India.
AT THIS POINT OF TIME , I HAVE TWO UNIVERSITY DEGREES AND A DIPLOMA IN EDUCATION AND BEING AWARDED THE VERY PRESTIGIOUS UNIVERSITY BOOK PRIZE AND WITH VERY HARD WORK , I WROTE MY BOOK IN PDF FORMAT READY TO BE GIVEN ON A WORLD WIDE SCALE AND WE BOTH WORK TOGETHER AND KEEP
I feel there is an inverse relationship between quality of content and focus. i.e. when I'm fixated (and it happens when I schedule my writing), I cannot write. When I'm not fixated at all (I'm doing something else entirely), the content "comes naturally". So I don't know how I can consistently churn out content. The invisible wall is thick on this one.
Can we talk about marketing? For me, I think of my newsletter the same way I think about growing any business and a big part of that is effective marketing. I know of people using lead magnets (eg book funnel), collaborations, and of course general self-promotion. What are some methods that you have tried and what was the impact it had for your growth? I tam thinking of trying book funnel this year and a few collabs on podcasts.
One further question, my feed is free. But I am an author with books available and I would like to be able to embed a link to my books somewhere on my page. But I have not found a way to do that. Thoughts?
Couple questions. For my 'free' posts, are they visible to anyone other than the 25 people I've put on my email list? And, how can I get more subscribers/viewers?
I already write Pulse, a weekly tech focused Substack, and Iโm interested in starting a Substack in my native language, Persian (Farsi) which is a right-to-left language. Any chance Substack will support RTL languages in the future? Or should I migrate from Substack to accommodate my second newsletter?
Hey there! Kevin from Substack Services here. Thanks for contributing to today's thread. Maggie, Zoe, Kerianne and I are wrapping up here. Any parting thoughts or reflections?
Thanks again for writing on Substack and sharing your feedback, ideas, obstacles, and answers today. Appreciate y'all. ๐
Hey Kevin, loyal member and early adopter to the Substack space - regular poster and published fiction and poetry writer in life - any chance of promoting some of the grinders on the platform such as I and others ??
I would like to read substack posts in .epub format, on a e-reader. I don't know how this could be possible? Of course, Substack supports RSS (yourpublication.substack.com/FEED), but the feed is delivered in a browser. Perhaps there could be a link in the email "download in Epub" similar to "Show in the browser". Anyway, this is not a question or suggestion, I just think an e-reader is a better place to read than an email app.
โข To include the section title in the email as it appears in the browser, above the title. And this to be a link to the section archive.
โข Keep the section title, art and description when you click " See all" and load the section archive. This will make it clear that we are still in the section instead of the main publication archive.
โข Wordcount would be nice to have in the editor.
Often in doubt often confused -- perhaps I should make this my substack newsletter name oh dear. While I take forever to pin my wheels and get this thing up and running, can anyone clarify a couple of things about the pay piece? Can you make everything free? If one does and then asks for money is it likely it will be all the news content I now refuse to pay for before I used to get it for free? Do you have to charge $5 a month or can you do a lesser amount? Again, if so then if you want to increase you may lose subscribers. Finally how do coupons or offers of free subscriptions work and has anyone had any experience with this?
I've been writing consistently since last April. I've done a ton of promotion on social media. I get picked up by big outlets. I still don't see a breakthrough in getting enough sign ups or readers to motivate me to publish more.
It would help a lot to have references from Substack for PR, marketing, graphics, podcast producers, etc because I hate that whole business part of independent writing. I would like to pay for these services so I don't have to try to do them myself and keep failing at them or procrastinating.
I'd like Substack to advertise and market the concept of newsletter subscriptions to the public. I"m constantly getting told on social media, "Why would I pay?" I try to explain myself-- there are no advertisers, you get exclusive content, etc. but it's so distasteful to ask for money and sell myself. Since the paid newsletters are new to most people, I think Substack (and their competitors) need to do the heavy lift of getting the public to understand why they are paying for journalism that they thought was "free."
In case it's helpful to any of the writers who liked Emily's comment, are a few independent designers/small agencies that our team has seen work with Substack writers on a variety of visual elements:
Thanks for sharing, Emily. I definitely want to think about what you've suggested here. It's helpful to hear what you mentioned about seeking references to contractors and other professionals you could work with to improve/extend your publication.
Ideally, Substack would vet vendors like graphics, copy edit etc and give writers a list of approved ones at different prices. But as a less heavy left, start a thread where writers can share who they use for these things so others can use too. I've gone 10 months without getting a logo or email header etc because I'm daunted by fiverr and such massive databases.
What I find frustrating is the Click Rate. Apparently it counts the links which I click in Test emails. I wish to count only the clicks after the post has been sent.
I was thinking about starting a podcast and transcribing some of the audio into a newsletter to send out.
Can anyone recommend a good software that will do this for me? I've done some research, but of course everyone promises the best solution ever. I'd rather hear from fellow writers and people that have actually used it.
I also HIGHLY recommend descript. It is more expensive but extremely powerful because it allows you to edit the audio via the text transcript it creates. It also will remove filler words, identify different speakers, and has features to export clips for social media.
Hi there! In addition to Otter, which Drew mentioned below, https://www.rev.com/ offers both transcription by humans thatโs 99% accurate, as well as a machine generated option if you don't need a perfect transcription.
We use otter.ai to do this. The transcriptions are not perfect and will require some cleaning but I'm happiest with Otter after trying a few different transcription platforms.
Anchor is a terrific app. Also, NPR published an entire book on the best techniques for podcast production, available on Amazon and Audible. If you're looking for perfection, it's intimidating. For example, people speak with many uhhhs and ummmms and ya-know-what-I-means. Easy to edit out but soooo time-consuming. Lazy podcasters leave them in.
For my most recent post, I decided to try the podcast feature of Substack by uploading a recording of my post. I ended up frustrated that I couldn't embed the Substack hosted file in my newsletter. Rather I had to get it in a directory (Spotify) and THEN I could embed the audio in my post. The vision is for readers to be able to "listen to the article" for increased intimacy and to provide another option for subscribers.
Is this user error? If not, please consider making this an option.
Hey Kamea. Cool to hear that you're trying out the podcast feature. When you record/upload a recording to your post the audio player shows up at the top. Currently you're not able to embed the audio in a different location (great suggestion) but the audio should be available in the post!
I've blogged via wordpress, wrote articles on Medium, backed up websites and ultimately there's no feeling that one website or platform will ever be the stable place to house my work. My novel is sitting in the cloud, in a long google doc waiting for me to divvy it up into posts on Substack, but the jaded side of me sits here thinking; in 1 or 2 years will there an acquisition and will I have to pay a bigger cut to have subscribers here. Or will there be an unexpected cost. I LOVE the subscription model and delivering directly to my readers, and it's good to know I have those emails and people that have subscribed.
I once wrote a book in a google doc! The Google Doc got very slow after ~100+ pages... Yes, with Substack you have the emails of your readers/subscribers. You built those relationships, you should own them.
A previous comment regarding a way to know if someone has actually read an article inspires me to suggest something like a simple 5-star "rate this" feature.
I don't use Audible but yes to using this feature on Amazon. Only, rating products feels different. Even rating books feels different. At least authors have book contracts and are published. Rating someone's blog when folks are struggling to produce good content and increase their audience with little or no payoff... that has larger implications. Heck, even on Airbnb I have struggled with this. But that's me.
I don't think of Substack writing as a "product," but rather as writing. As a reader, you either respond to the content and style or you don't, on a spectrum between 1 & 5, for example. It is your personal judgment. As a writer, I'd like to know 1) if people are starting and finishing a post, and 2) if they got something out of it.
oh I agree - writing is not a product but things sold on Amazon are. I would love to know the same things you mention. I'm just not sure I understand how we would know that with a five-star rating system. Isn't that what the heart and comments are for?
5 stars feels like a grading system which takes away from the intention. some folks (like me) would be inclined to rate based on the writing skill not just the content. And since that's how I'm programmed but don't want to hurt someone's feelings, I would then not rate or reply at all. Whereas with the heart and comment section, even if I don't think something is written well, I can still comment on something that clicked for me, something I can relate to in the piece.
Are podcasts done on Substack available on other platforms? Right now I record on Anchor and it gets uploaded to Spotify and 5 other platforms. Of course, I want to do it all on substack but if it doesn't load to Spotify then it doesn't make sense for me to switch.
Thank you for your question, Jan! There are a few main directories you'll probably want to submit your podcast RSS feed to. Choose one of the links below to find out how to submit your podcast:
Once youโre approved by Apple, listeners will be able to find your podcast in pretty much any podcast directory, because most podcast apps just scrape from Apple.
Thank you for this, Zoe. My podcast (which is the same name as my Substack newsletter) is already on Spotify and a few others. So if I start recording on Substack there would be a duplication problem, right? The great thing about Anchor is that it automatically submits your podcast to several platforms - I didn't have to do a thing. Apple didn't pick it up but 6 platforms, including Google and Spotify did.
Maybe I'm stuck now. Unless I were to change my name, which I don't want to do.
Hi Jan! Podcasts done on Substack can be distributed elsewhere but you have to do that distribution yourself. Took me maybe an hour to get my Substack podcast set up on Apple, Spotify, Google and Amazon. I've been podcasting for a long time and do podcast production for others so take that for what it's worth. Even if you're not sure how to do it it isn't too difficult to learn and you really only have to do it once. Two quick tips. Put YOUR email address in the podcast RSS feed here on Substack (its in the podcast settings), then create accounts at podcastsconnect.apple.com and podcasters.spotify.com.
Thanks, Drew. much appreciate this info! here's another question for you: My podcast on Spotify (and 5 other platforms but not Apple) is the same name as my newsltter on Substack: Finding Home. Same logo. I don't understand enough about production. If I starting podcasting from Substack now and want it to appear on Spotify, won't there be a problem as I already have an account there that pulls from Anchor? (does that make sense?)
It wouldn't necessarily be a technical problem since your Substack RSS feed URL is unique, but that would mean that there would be TWO podcasts called Finding Home with the same logo on those platforms. That would be confusing for sure. My primary everything is The Anxious Truth, so I decided that my Substack (which is daily rather than weekly) newsletter/podcast would be called The Anxious Morning. You might have to look at a similar strategy.
ahhh!! yeah, that's what I feared. I've put a lot of time into branding "Finding Home" so I'm not quite ready to let that go yet. But thank you so much for the clarification!
To echo Elizabeth's comment re designers - I agonize over the smallest things - does my banner work? Did I choose the right colours? Have I put together my substack header properly? I would love to speak with a substack designer to ensure my page/newsletter looks welcoming and reflects my personality. Does this service exist on substack?
Hi Your Black Friendโapart from the design guidelines that Zoe shared, we don't have a service like that yet on Substack. Here is a shortlist of a few independent designers and small agencies that our team has seen work with Substack writers on a variety of visual elements. Perhaps there's someone here you could hire/collaborate with!
Hello! Thank you very much for your feedback and so glad that you've joined today's office hours. Please see our guide to design best practices for your Substack: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-3
Wonder if there is any way to insert short VIDEOS into posts ( via Vimeo or YouTube ) and have them end and go back to text of post without continuing to other Vimeo / YouTube material?
I don't know yet. Too easy to go through YouTube. You could try creating a vid in iMovie, for example and experiment. Substack support should be able to answer this. The think about YouTube embeds is that unless I pay for ad free, my reader gets ads on the vid. I don't have many readers yet so it's not a priority.
Me too. Also, if I make a YouTube channel and set it to private, will people clicking on the embedded video be able to view it (because it's from a private channel)?
@Mike I *think* that if you set a YouTube video to private, then it cannot be viewed by others when embedded. However, if you set the video to "unlisted" it should be viewable when embedded.
I write weekly but am still posting most of the same material to another Wordpress site b/c that site includes an index where you can find posts associated with themes. As an academic, this is an important feature for me. Any chance Substack will add these features? Otherwise, this really feels just like a blog - no matter what you call it.
Hi Jan. Currently, you can create 'categories' that show up on the web version. You can add your posts based on these categories. If you see my comment below, you'll see a little more info about that and something I'm asking for. This isn't exactly an Index, but it's a start. Hope that helps.
Do you mean the "Community Links" (aka Blogroll) sidebar? This is a helpful start (and it looks like you're making good use of it on your Substack!) but I think OP is looking for something closer to tags on a blog, which can used to filter and sort posts by topic. I'm currently using Airtable as a free work around for this. Substack is a great program, but I agree that detailed tags or something similar would be a huge gain for folk who want a bit more of a robust archive.
Wow! How were you able to code your page so that you could even add that magnifying glass to your main page and the search page it leads to? Did you just go directly into the code of your page and do that? It's very cool! Maybe do a post about how to do that and share it with the rest of us!
Hi Cindy. We all have the magnifying glass and search feature. I just checked your newsletter and see that it's not showing up on yours. I think (not positive) that the reason it's not showing up yet is because you only have 2 posts, so there is no need for a reader to be able to search. You might check with support (support@substack.com) and ask them. It's not a feature that we need to code into our newsletter. Welcome to Substack! ๐
Gotcha! That makes sense as to why that may be true for mine. And I'm ok if that is the case. As long as it eventually shows up for my blog as well. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond and let me know that most blogs automatically have them! I really appreciate it!
Thanks, Michael. Yes, tags and categories. My only other experience is Wordpress and they make this so easy so maybe it's not fair to compare. I'll look up Airtable...
Oh! I like how you're using this feature too. AND in looking at yours, I JUST NOTICED the search feature. oh my. Totally embarrassed I never noticed that little magnifying glass before! lol
Thanks. It does. Currently I use this feature to link to my other blog and my podcast on Spotify and my professional website. I hadn't thought about using it as an index.... as you imply, it's a bit clunky for that. But it is something!
Generally, I'm really grateful for the Substack platform. I don't have to mess with email providers or maintaining a site (although I have one lol). I've been using Substack since April, 2021, so I've learned a lot, but still have so much more to learn (just for context). Here are a couple things that would help:
1. Add the functionality to upload a pdf into the Welcome letter. I want to give new sign ups something (a pdf) and have it go out automatically when they sign up.
2. Provide the ability to create/save a template for our newsletter. I am doing a work around now by creating a 'draft' template and then each week copying each piece into a new post. It really takes a long time, especially since images don't just copy/paste into the new post from the old draft.
3. In the subscriber stats, allow us to manually update the field showing where the subscriber came from. When I enter a subscriber manually, the field is blank. When I get a subscriber from The Sample, it shows Direct.
4. Give us the ability to add an image that can be aligned with the text or placed in front or behind - the way you can format a picture in Word. This would also allow us to have several images next to each other.
5. Give us the ability to embed videos. I've been using YouTube, but I'd like to make my own and upload to my Substack. This would be so helpful.
6. Let us set up a Category on the web version without having a post to put under it. Right now you can only set up a category if you also have a post to link to it. It would be helpful to be able to set up a framework of categories and then add posts as they are created.
7. Add the 'underline' feature in the editor. You can add a line, but you can't underline a word.
Having categories is really important to me as well.
And being able to underline - except that right now the underline is the "link" feature. I wish we could add color to text or have better formatting (like centering or right alignment). In general, the features are pretty basic compared to WordPress.
Oh, colored text, that would be nice! And more formatting. I'm probably a little less picky about some things, primarily because I really like Substack, especially the fact that they send out emails for us!
I'd love to have the ability to embed short video clips. I write about food and I'd love to be able to include very short clips (10 seconds or so) that demonstrate a technique. I am planning to produce YouTube and similar videos but I'm not there yet. Some things are difficult to explain with still pictures.
One of the things that holds me back from writing consistently in my Substack is, a) that it's free, which is fine for the moment and I don't want to change it to paid because I don't think anyone will really spend the money, but more importantly, b) there's no way to be accountable to just myself. Editors are helpful for me, in part, because they're expecting your work when they're expecting it. There are deadlines. Plus, they're another set of eyes on a piece, can ask you questions about it and bounce ideas off and help tighten up the writing or the ideas. An editor might help me break up what I think is one newsletter into two or three or four. They could help me figure out a publication schedule and topics ahead of time.
What would really help to go independent as a writer is getting the kind of welcome Substack showed to all the people they lured away from other media publications - i.e. a salary or a grant that actually supported them monetarily as they got their newsletter up and running and accumulated an audience. But I'm not harboring any delusions that such support will be open to the non-chosen. But, you asked, and the truth is it's just very difficult to be a working independent writer when you have no guarantees of income!
"No way to be accountable to just myself?" Well, that's the problem with being a creative. If you can't find a way, then you simply won't produce, money or no money. I'm having this problem myselfโnot getting paid for writing when I did before. I'm calling on a little faith that if I keep at it, someone will see value. On the other hand, perhaps they won't. Most artists don't actually sell. At least Substack gives us a shot.
I mean, of course. Of course we have to find ways to stay motivated by ourselves. My comment is very much about the way I use Substack, which isn't for my fiction. I'm not trying to extrapolate or assume anything about anyone else's reasons for using this platform or what they put on here.
Just getting started on Substack. I want to start my format as a "Storyteller" with my new novel which I also narrated into an audible. Not sure how I start out. Can somebody help?
I'm just starting out too. For me, reading the Substack tutorials and watching the embedded videos was helpful. There are still so many details and specific questions I have, though. I've decided the best thing to do is start and just tweak things as I learn more as I go along. Good luck!
I've been struggling with deciding how best to go about taking on some kind of 'Digest' format for my output, which spans writing/audio/visual media.
I produce voluminously and daily, and could easily post multiple times a day, but obviously do not want to overwhelm recipients' inboxes.
I do however worry about the potential loss of an audience if an additional click-through is required, in addition to pettier concerns re: stats/metrics.
Not sure what it would do to your click-throughs and stats, but you can definitely post online without sending an email. So, if you wanted, you could post every day without emailing anyone, and then send weekly digest emails with summaries and links to your daily posts.
When you paste a link of a previous substack post into a new post, I'd much prefer that it reproduce the curated social media summary and graphic that shows up when you paste into Twitter or Facebook than the random opening sentences of the older post, which are often greetings/setup rather than the main content. I find myself screenshotting from social media and repasting as a workaround.
To clarify what the services team has the tools to help with, they are thinking less about features we would build into the software product (like ways to discover your writing) and more about tactile services like - legal defense, health care, editors, designers or design tools, transcription tools for podcasters, Getty Image or Unsplash access. The things you need outside of Substack's software to succeed at building a writing business.
This thread is a great place to share ideas like that with them.
any chance of a feature Bailey? been in the Substack streets grinding for approaching a year now, podcast, fiction and poetry, could do with the boost!
Getty images would be game changer. I didn't realize until you said it, but I dread the part of the "production" to publish a post. I do the writing and then think, ugh, I have to do all those buttons and find photos and format, etc and it's so time consuming. If there were stock photos in the system, it would help so much to the barrier to hitting publish. Also, if there was a way to make a template so I didnt have to add back in the buttons and headers each time, that would make it much faster. Thanks, Bailey!
I wrote almost the same thing above, so agree with all these ideas! Also does your designer friend do freelance? I still haven't made a header logo in 8 months because I dont know where to go to hire to do it.
Hey Emily and co! Here are a few independent designers/small agencies that our team has seen work with Substack writers on a variety of visual elements:
Hey, my husband and I run a small online marketing agency. We do social and web graphics and general management for other creatives... maybe it would be good to have a chat and see if we can help? Let me know if you would be interested in that. Hereโs my LinkedIn in case you want to learn more about me and my work: www.linkedIn.com/in/nikkofujita
In that spirit, I would love transcription services. I donโt have a podcast associated with my newsletter yet, but I am considering adding one, and the ability to easily generate a transcript would be a big help.
I didn't know that Anchor did transcripts! One of my sundry sidelights is a podcast, and we use Anchor for our hosting. One of my co-creators manages that end of the process, but I will have to ask her if we can get transcripts for our current show over there. Thanks for the insight!
I find that it is not easy to get discovered on Substack. The algorithm does not favor content from smaller publishers or start-ups. Another element I encountered is that articles that are light and have more gossip nature to them tend to have more exposure thatโs deeper and more contemplative pieces.
I would love to see more of an ability to focus on geographic regions on Substack. That would help with both discoverability by readers and potential collaboration with other writers, which would help me write more consistently, better, etc.
I am trying to focus relentlessly on the Ozarks in my work here, and I have to periodically do a search for "Ozarks" on Substack to see if anyone else has started a newsletter that's also focusing on the region. Even then, I sometimes have my doubts about the accuracy of the search results. Happily, just yesterday I discovered a new newsletter by L Mari Harris that way!
I am sure that others are writing a newsletter with a similarly specific geographic focus. It would be great if readers and other writers could sort newsletters by geography.
Great idea. I'm Northern California-centric, writing about water issues. Readers in S. Cal should be interested since so much of their water comes from the north, but really, I doubt it. So many other sources.
Yes - I like this idea too. I write about food and cooking and while it hasn't been much of an issue as of yet, the idea of "seasonal" is extra relevant to people in roughly the same geographic area (though I definitely don't want to be limited in any way!)
I never know if people are actually reading my work. It's not like things go viral all the time, and I'm aware that even if someone reads my work (as it is the same for me) they don't always respond to it by clicking "like" or "heart" button or sharing it or telling me how much they liked it. There's a clear disconnect between reading and response, and I wish I could find out somehow other than through email opens. I think just because someone opens your email doesn't necessarily mean that they read it all the way through. Also, even if someone likes your work, they don't always share it. They may keep it as a reference, though, like I do. I know I'm guilty of this. I run into great writing all the time and have failed to share or like, so I'm working on that this year as a writer - to show them I appreciate the hard work they've put into writing their piece. I'm hoping to build a community around writing and sharing great work.
I write consistently, but much less than when I started. What holds me back from doing more is my full-time job. What prevents me from going independent is the inability to financially support myself. With only a couple of hundred people on my mailing list, I am light-years away from being able to make a living from my Substack. I wish my Substack was my full-time gig, but it's financially impossible. And because I have to maintain a full-time job, I am limited in my ability to work on my Substack. Kind of a catch-22!
I agree with several of the commenters about discoverability, or perhaps a recommendation algorithm like Netflix, but one that would push out smaller publications (like mine) at least occasionally. Another thing that would be helpful, in terms of answering the final question about going independent, maybe some sort of scholarship/grant that one could apply for. It doesn't have to be large, but a small boost would be helpful.
I'm really thankful for Substack and I appreciate the staff creating these types of threads.
@Israel, we offer programs on an application basis throughout the year. We'll announce our next opportunity at on.substack.com this month - stay tuned!
I was writing mainly on Medium for several years. I was able to build up a pretty good audience over the years (a little over 13K followers). Since a few months, I decided to focus my efforts on Substack and I'm trying to migrate my audience to my newsletter. It's not easy to convince readers to come and discover a new platform, but I'm patient, and it's happening little by little.
Beyond that, I think Substack could help improve the discoverability of newsletters on their platform to help us get exposed to more potential readers.
But overall, I'm more than happy with Substack, which is why I've decided to make it my number one platform from now on.
I'm a different person who moved from Medium to Substack, and I had far fewer followers, but for me the last straw with Medium was when they went through another phase of re-imagining their platform in a baffling way, coupled with some attempts to quash unionization of their employees (not trying to start an argument on the merits of unions, I'm just a big supporter of organized labor and won't knowingly work with a company that's in an active labor dispute).
Not sure if this is the right place but ... on the last thread I wrote I had several comments. I responded to comments but my responses were shown out of order with the subscriber's comments. Trying to read the comment section became very confusing with everything out of order. Why would this happen?
It would really help if Substack could improve discoverability on the internet. And also if Substack would be more transparent about how it chooses featured publications, and how publications are ranked in search.
Lack of analytics was the main thing, which makes me tired.
I couldn't know how many readers are reading my emails completely or partially. I couldn't know how the recent audience behaving when compared to older audience. I couldn't know what is the peak time for my email. I couldn't know how many people seeing my welcome email and moving my newsletter to Primary tab. I couldn't know how users reacting after initial subscriptions days.
What I'm having is a very basic dashboard which only tells about Open rate and activities and I have to check with every individual email to know their activities. Nothing more; nothing less. This make me reluctant to invest more in my content.
Sure it's been said a thousand times, but honestly I believe the biggest problem holding back smaller writers looking to support the platform is discoverability. I don't have an easy fix for it but it's something I hope to see more of in 2022!
What is up with that black box that keeps popping up: "Your changes were synced..."?! It is incredibly annoying to have it invading my eyeline every time I write a sentence. Can I switch it off?
I need help getting started on Substack
A system search tool that'll allow a writer to search his/her own newsletter would be hugely useful. Thanks... and keep up the good work!
Thanks, Mike! Best of luck to you, too!
It's a big demotivator for me as a writer living in South Africa to not be able to earn on Substack through paid subscriptions simply because SA is not on Stripe's supported county list and it's the only payment [rocessing option on Substack.
It takes time, effort and energy to create content and as much as I love writing, like anything else you do it's all worth it when your efforts are rewarded financially. Especially if it is your plan for freelance writing to be a major source of income for you.
I cannot understand why Stripe is the only payment processing option. There must be many other options, like PayPal to mention just one, out there and it flattens me as to why there is only one option.
There are so many writers out there like me who cannot be paywalled on platforms because of this Stripe issue.
Same here in India. Stripe being the only option is limiting. I wish Substack supported UPI payments (Google Pay, PayTM etc.) which is really a big thing in India.
100% Tarun!
AT THIS POINT OF TIME , I HAVE TWO UNIVERSITY DEGREES AND A DIPLOMA IN EDUCATION AND BEING AWARDED THE VERY PRESTIGIOUS UNIVERSITY BOOK PRIZE AND WITH VERY HARD WORK , I WROTE MY BOOK IN PDF FORMAT READY TO BE GIVEN ON A WORLD WIDE SCALE AND WE BOTH WORK TOGETHER AND KEEP
IN TOUCH WITH MY PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESS OF geof22@yahoo.com
Thanks
I feel there is an inverse relationship between quality of content and focus. i.e. when I'm fixated (and it happens when I schedule my writing), I cannot write. When I'm not fixated at all (I'm doing something else entirely), the content "comes naturally". So I don't know how I can consistently churn out content. The invisible wall is thick on this one.
Is substack available in search engines for author visibility?
Can we talk about marketing? For me, I think of my newsletter the same way I think about growing any business and a big part of that is effective marketing. I know of people using lead magnets (eg book funnel), collaborations, and of course general self-promotion. What are some methods that you have tried and what was the impact it had for your growth? I tam thinking of trying book funnel this year and a few collabs on podcasts.
I wish I did not have to spend so much time promoting my Stack. I would like to focus much more on the writing process.
One further question, my feed is free. But I am an author with books available and I would like to be able to embed a link to my books somewhere on my page. But I have not found a way to do that. Thoughts?
Couple questions. For my 'free' posts, are they visible to anyone other than the 25 people I've put on my email list? And, how can I get more subscribers/viewers?
A way to get an RSS feed for a private, or paid only content would be great! Thanks
Hi team,
I already write Pulse, a weekly tech focused Substack, and Iโm interested in starting a Substack in my native language, Persian (Farsi) which is a right-to-left language. Any chance Substack will support RTL languages in the future? Or should I migrate from Substack to accommodate my second newsletter?
Hi there -
These are all good ideas - and thank you for sharing them. What are your plans to extend them beyond the US?
I already write from Bulgaria in Bulgarian (Cyrillic) language.
Hey there! Kevin from Substack Services here. Thanks for contributing to today's thread. Maggie, Zoe, Kerianne and I are wrapping up here. Any parting thoughts or reflections?
Thanks again for writing on Substack and sharing your feedback, ideas, obstacles, and answers today. Appreciate y'all. ๐
Hey Kevin, loyal member and early adopter to the Substack space - regular poster and published fiction and poetry writer in life - any chance of promoting some of the grinders on the platform such as I and others ??
Thanks for being here!
Thanks Substack, keep on writing everyone.
happy new year!
I would like to read substack posts in .epub format, on a e-reader. I don't know how this could be possible? Of course, Substack supports RSS (yourpublication.substack.com/FEED), but the feed is delivered in a browser. Perhaps there could be a link in the email "download in Epub" similar to "Show in the browser". Anyway, this is not a question or suggestion, I just think an e-reader is a better place to read than an email app.
I have a few miner suggestions:
โข To include the section title in the email as it appears in the browser, above the title. And this to be a link to the section archive.
โข Keep the section title, art and description when you click " See all" and load the section archive. This will make it clear that we are still in the section instead of the main publication archive.
โข Wordcount would be nice to have in the editor.
Is there a simple way to enable a new subscriber to see a list of previous posts ( with thumbnail image) ? Seems like its difficult ....
Often in doubt often confused -- perhaps I should make this my substack newsletter name oh dear. While I take forever to pin my wheels and get this thing up and running, can anyone clarify a couple of things about the pay piece? Can you make everything free? If one does and then asks for money is it likely it will be all the news content I now refuse to pay for before I used to get it for free? Do you have to charge $5 a month or can you do a lesser amount? Again, if so then if you want to increase you may lose subscribers. Finally how do coupons or offers of free subscriptions work and has anyone had any experience with this?
I've been writing consistently since last April. I've done a ton of promotion on social media. I get picked up by big outlets. I still don't see a breakthrough in getting enough sign ups or readers to motivate me to publish more.
It would help a lot to have references from Substack for PR, marketing, graphics, podcast producers, etc because I hate that whole business part of independent writing. I would like to pay for these services so I don't have to try to do them myself and keep failing at them or procrastinating.
I'd like Substack to advertise and market the concept of newsletter subscriptions to the public. I"m constantly getting told on social media, "Why would I pay?" I try to explain myself-- there are no advertisers, you get exclusive content, etc. but it's so distasteful to ask for money and sell myself. Since the paid newsletters are new to most people, I think Substack (and their competitors) need to do the heavy lift of getting the public to understand why they are paying for journalism that they thought was "free."
In case it's helpful to any of the writers who liked Emily's comment, are a few independent designers/small agencies that our team has seen work with Substack writers on a variety of visual elements:
https://www.omnibrand.co.nz/substack-kits/
https://laurasinisterra.github.io/portfolio-site/
https://williesmith.design/work
https://adamming.com/about
https://www.nicolespiteri.com/
https://emery.com/
Thanks for sharing, Emily. I definitely want to think about what you've suggested here. It's helpful to hear what you mentioned about seeking references to contractors and other professionals you could work with to improve/extend your publication.
Ideally, Substack would vet vendors like graphics, copy edit etc and give writers a list of approved ones at different prices. But as a less heavy left, start a thread where writers can share who they use for these things so others can use too. I've gone 10 months without getting a logo or email header etc because I'm daunted by fiverr and such massive databases.
What I find frustrating is the Click Rate. Apparently it counts the links which I click in Test emails. I wish to count only the clicks after the post has been sent.
Omg ... what is click rate and do I have to learn to use it before I start?
Not at all. It shows if the readers have clicked any links and how many. I find it to be a useful feedback.
I was thinking about starting a podcast and transcribing some of the audio into a newsletter to send out.
Can anyone recommend a good software that will do this for me? I've done some research, but of course everyone promises the best solution ever. I'd rather hear from fellow writers and people that have actually used it.
Thank you!
I also HIGHLY recommend descript. It is more expensive but extremely powerful because it allows you to edit the audio via the text transcript it creates. It also will remove filler words, identify different speakers, and has features to export clips for social media.
Hi there! In addition to Otter, which Drew mentioned below, https://www.rev.com/ offers both transcription by humans thatโs 99% accurate, as well as a machine generated option if you don't need a perfect transcription.
https://www.temi.com/ is another machine generated transcription service.
We use otter.ai to do this. The transcriptions are not perfect and will require some cleaning but I'm happiest with Otter after trying a few different transcription platforms.
Anchor is a terrific app. Also, NPR published an entire book on the best techniques for podcast production, available on Amazon and Audible. If you're looking for perfection, it's intimidating. For example, people speak with many uhhhs and ummmms and ya-know-what-I-means. Easy to edit out but soooo time-consuming. Lazy podcasters leave them in.
For my most recent post, I decided to try the podcast feature of Substack by uploading a recording of my post. I ended up frustrated that I couldn't embed the Substack hosted file in my newsletter. Rather I had to get it in a directory (Spotify) and THEN I could embed the audio in my post. The vision is for readers to be able to "listen to the article" for increased intimacy and to provide another option for subscribers.
Is this user error? If not, please consider making this an option.
Hey Kamea. Cool to hear that you're trying out the podcast feature. When you record/upload a recording to your post the audio player shows up at the top. Currently you're not able to embed the audio in a different location (great suggestion) but the audio should be available in the post!
I've blogged via wordpress, wrote articles on Medium, backed up websites and ultimately there's no feeling that one website or platform will ever be the stable place to house my work. My novel is sitting in the cloud, in a long google doc waiting for me to divvy it up into posts on Substack, but the jaded side of me sits here thinking; in 1 or 2 years will there an acquisition and will I have to pay a bigger cut to have subscribers here. Or will there be an unexpected cost. I LOVE the subscription model and delivering directly to my readers, and it's good to know I have those emails and people that have subscribed.
I once wrote a book in a google doc! The Google Doc got very slow after ~100+ pages... Yes, with Substack you have the emails of your readers/subscribers. You built those relationships, you should own them.
A previous comment regarding a way to know if someone has actually read an article inspires me to suggest something like a simple 5-star "rate this" feature.
On Medium "claps" are used, but this may not produce the same effect.
hmmm... I'd have a hard time rating other's work like that.
Have you seen reader reviews on Audible and Amazon? Same thing.
I don't use Audible but yes to using this feature on Amazon. Only, rating products feels different. Even rating books feels different. At least authors have book contracts and are published. Rating someone's blog when folks are struggling to produce good content and increase their audience with little or no payoff... that has larger implications. Heck, even on Airbnb I have struggled with this. But that's me.
I don't think of Substack writing as a "product," but rather as writing. As a reader, you either respond to the content and style or you don't, on a spectrum between 1 & 5, for example. It is your personal judgment. As a writer, I'd like to know 1) if people are starting and finishing a post, and 2) if they got something out of it.
oh I agree - writing is not a product but things sold on Amazon are. I would love to know the same things you mention. I'm just not sure I understand how we would know that with a five-star rating system. Isn't that what the heart and comments are for?
5 stars feels like a grading system which takes away from the intention. some folks (like me) would be inclined to rate based on the writing skill not just the content. And since that's how I'm programmed but don't want to hurt someone's feelings, I would then not rate or reply at all. Whereas with the heart and comment section, even if I don't think something is written well, I can still comment on something that clicked for me, something I can relate to in the piece.
Are podcasts done on Substack available on other platforms? Right now I record on Anchor and it gets uploaded to Spotify and 5 other platforms. Of course, I want to do it all on substack but if it doesn't load to Spotify then it doesn't make sense for me to switch.
Thank you for your question, Jan! There are a few main directories you'll probably want to submit your podcast RSS feed to. Choose one of the links below to find out how to submit your podcast:
โApple Podcastsโ: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com
โSpotifyโ https://podcasters.spotify.com/
โStitcherโ https://partners.stitcher.com/join
โTuneInโ https://help.tunein.com/contact/add-podcast-S19TR3Sdf
โPocket Castsโ https://pocketcasts.com/submit
Once youโre approved by Apple, listeners will be able to find your podcast in pretty much any podcast directory, because most podcast apps just scrape from Apple.
Thank you for this, Zoe. My podcast (which is the same name as my Substack newsletter) is already on Spotify and a few others. So if I start recording on Substack there would be a duplication problem, right? The great thing about Anchor is that it automatically submits your podcast to several platforms - I didn't have to do a thing. Apple didn't pick it up but 6 platforms, including Google and Spotify did.
Maybe I'm stuck now. Unless I were to change my name, which I don't want to do.
Hi Jan! Podcasts done on Substack can be distributed elsewhere but you have to do that distribution yourself. Took me maybe an hour to get my Substack podcast set up on Apple, Spotify, Google and Amazon. I've been podcasting for a long time and do podcast production for others so take that for what it's worth. Even if you're not sure how to do it it isn't too difficult to learn and you really only have to do it once. Two quick tips. Put YOUR email address in the podcast RSS feed here on Substack (its in the podcast settings), then create accounts at podcastsconnect.apple.com and podcasters.spotify.com.
Thanks, Drew. much appreciate this info! here's another question for you: My podcast on Spotify (and 5 other platforms but not Apple) is the same name as my newsltter on Substack: Finding Home. Same logo. I don't understand enough about production. If I starting podcasting from Substack now and want it to appear on Spotify, won't there be a problem as I already have an account there that pulls from Anchor? (does that make sense?)
It wouldn't necessarily be a technical problem since your Substack RSS feed URL is unique, but that would mean that there would be TWO podcasts called Finding Home with the same logo on those platforms. That would be confusing for sure. My primary everything is The Anxious Truth, so I decided that my Substack (which is daily rather than weekly) newsletter/podcast would be called The Anxious Morning. You might have to look at a similar strategy.
ahhh!! yeah, that's what I feared. I've put a lot of time into branding "Finding Home" so I'm not quite ready to let that go yet. But thank you so much for the clarification!
To echo Elizabeth's comment re designers - I agonize over the smallest things - does my banner work? Did I choose the right colours? Have I put together my substack header properly? I would love to speak with a substack designer to ensure my page/newsletter looks welcoming and reflects my personality. Does this service exist on substack?
Hi Your Black Friendโapart from the design guidelines that Zoe shared, we don't have a service like that yet on Substack. Here is a shortlist of a few independent designers and small agencies that our team has seen work with Substack writers on a variety of visual elements. Perhaps there's someone here you could hire/collaborate with!
https://www.omnibrand.co.nz/substack-kits/
https://laurasinisterra.github.io/portfolio-site/
https://williesmith.design/work
https://adamming.com/about
https://www.nicolespiteri.com/
https://emery.com/
Hi Kevin, thank you!
Hello! Thank you very much for your feedback and so glad that you've joined today's office hours. Please see our guide to design best practices for your Substack: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-3
Wonder if there is any way to insert short VIDEOS into posts ( via Vimeo or YouTube ) and have them end and go back to text of post without continuing to other Vimeo / YouTube material?
Create your vid, then click share. Gives an option to copy link, and when you paste it in, the video will appear.
Can I do this without Vimeo or YouTube ??
I don't know yet. Too easy to go through YouTube. You could try creating a vid in iMovie, for example and experiment. Substack support should be able to answer this. The think about YouTube embeds is that unless I pay for ad free, my reader gets ads on the vid. I don't have many readers yet so it's not a priority.
Wait, that's my question lol! Would love to create a video without Vimeo or YouTube and embed it into a Substack post.
Me too. Also, if I make a YouTube channel and set it to private, will people clicking on the embedded video be able to view it (because it's from a private channel)?
Hmmm, I'm having a 'duh' moment! No idea!
@Mike I *think* that if you set a YouTube video to private, then it cannot be viewed by others when embedded. However, if you set the video to "unlisted" it should be viewable when embedded.
I write weekly but am still posting most of the same material to another Wordpress site b/c that site includes an index where you can find posts associated with themes. As an academic, this is an important feature for me. Any chance Substack will add these features? Otherwise, this really feels just like a blog - no matter what you call it.
Hi Jan. Currently, you can create 'categories' that show up on the web version. You can add your posts based on these categories. If you see my comment below, you'll see a little more info about that and something I'm asking for. This isn't exactly an Index, but it's a start. Hope that helps.
Do you mean the "Community Links" (aka Blogroll) sidebar? This is a helpful start (and it looks like you're making good use of it on your Substack!) but I think OP is looking for something closer to tags on a blog, which can used to filter and sort posts by topic. I'm currently using Airtable as a free work around for this. Substack is a great program, but I agree that detailed tags or something similar would be a huge gain for folk who want a bit more of a robust archive.
Wow! How were you able to code your page so that you could even add that magnifying glass to your main page and the search page it leads to? Did you just go directly into the code of your page and do that? It's very cool! Maybe do a post about how to do that and share it with the rest of us!
Hi Cindy. We all have the magnifying glass and search feature. I just checked your newsletter and see that it's not showing up on yours. I think (not positive) that the reason it's not showing up yet is because you only have 2 posts, so there is no need for a reader to be able to search. You might check with support (support@substack.com) and ask them. It's not a feature that we need to code into our newsletter. Welcome to Substack! ๐
Gotcha! That makes sense as to why that may be true for mine. And I'm ok if that is the case. As long as it eventually shows up for my blog as well. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond and let me know that most blogs automatically have them! I really appreciate it!
Of course. We're all learning! Happy Sunday!
Yes, I agree. I would very much like the option of tags.
Tags would be really useful and more robust. Could be in addition to the Community Links.
Thanks, Michael. Yes, tags and categories. My only other experience is Wordpress and they make this so easy so maybe it's not fair to compare. I'll look up Airtable...
Oh! I like how you're using this feature too. AND in looking at yours, I JUST NOTICED the search feature. oh my. Totally embarrassed I never noticed that little magnifying glass before! lol
Thanks. It does. Currently I use this feature to link to my other blog and my podcast on Spotify and my professional website. I hadn't thought about using it as an index.... as you imply, it's a bit clunky for that. But it is something!
Generally, I'm really grateful for the Substack platform. I don't have to mess with email providers or maintaining a site (although I have one lol). I've been using Substack since April, 2021, so I've learned a lot, but still have so much more to learn (just for context). Here are a couple things that would help:
1. Add the functionality to upload a pdf into the Welcome letter. I want to give new sign ups something (a pdf) and have it go out automatically when they sign up.
2. Provide the ability to create/save a template for our newsletter. I am doing a work around now by creating a 'draft' template and then each week copying each piece into a new post. It really takes a long time, especially since images don't just copy/paste into the new post from the old draft.
3. In the subscriber stats, allow us to manually update the field showing where the subscriber came from. When I enter a subscriber manually, the field is blank. When I get a subscriber from The Sample, it shows Direct.
4. Give us the ability to add an image that can be aligned with the text or placed in front or behind - the way you can format a picture in Word. This would also allow us to have several images next to each other.
5. Give us the ability to embed videos. I've been using YouTube, but I'd like to make my own and upload to my Substack. This would be so helpful.
6. Let us set up a Category on the web version without having a post to put under it. Right now you can only set up a category if you also have a post to link to it. It would be helpful to be able to set up a framework of categories and then add posts as they are created.
7. Add the 'underline' feature in the editor. You can add a line, but you can't underline a word.
Thank you for the gift of Substack. ๐
SO MANY GREAT IDEAS! And the downloadable PDF would be a HUGE help for marketing purposes.
You can add a pdf into a post, just not into the Welcome letter. Just an fyi.
Hi Heather! I like some of these ideas.
Having categories is really important to me as well.
And being able to underline - except that right now the underline is the "link" feature. I wish we could add color to text or have better formatting (like centering or right alignment). In general, the features are pretty basic compared to WordPress.
Oh, colored text, that would be nice! And more formatting. I'm probably a little less picky about some things, primarily because I really like Substack, especially the fact that they send out emails for us!
I am extremely grateful for Substack as well!!
I'd love to have the ability to embed short video clips. I write about food and I'd love to be able to include very short clips (10 seconds or so) that demonstrate a technique. I am planning to produce YouTube and similar videos but I'm not there yet. Some things are difficult to explain with still pictures.
Yes this! I also write about food and teach cooking skills. Video helps capture nuance and engage visual learners.
Noted! Love the idea of short clips that demonstrate a food prep/cooking technique. Sometimes the written instructions don't capture everything.
Yes, this would be awesome. Even for things outside the world of food.....although that's a yummy world!
One of the things that holds me back from writing consistently in my Substack is, a) that it's free, which is fine for the moment and I don't want to change it to paid because I don't think anyone will really spend the money, but more importantly, b) there's no way to be accountable to just myself. Editors are helpful for me, in part, because they're expecting your work when they're expecting it. There are deadlines. Plus, they're another set of eyes on a piece, can ask you questions about it and bounce ideas off and help tighten up the writing or the ideas. An editor might help me break up what I think is one newsletter into two or three or four. They could help me figure out a publication schedule and topics ahead of time.
What would really help to go independent as a writer is getting the kind of welcome Substack showed to all the people they lured away from other media publications - i.e. a salary or a grant that actually supported them monetarily as they got their newsletter up and running and accumulated an audience. But I'm not harboring any delusions that such support will be open to the non-chosen. But, you asked, and the truth is it's just very difficult to be a working independent writer when you have no guarantees of income!
Thanks for sharing your honest thoughts Ilana. Helpful to hear.
"No way to be accountable to just myself?" Well, that's the problem with being a creative. If you can't find a way, then you simply won't produce, money or no money. I'm having this problem myselfโnot getting paid for writing when I did before. I'm calling on a little faith that if I keep at it, someone will see value. On the other hand, perhaps they won't. Most artists don't actually sell. At least Substack gives us a shot.
I mean, of course. Of course we have to find ways to stay motivated by ourselves. My comment is very much about the way I use Substack, which isn't for my fiction. I'm not trying to extrapolate or assume anything about anyone else's reasons for using this platform or what they put on here.
Just getting started on Substack. I want to start my format as a "Storyteller" with my new novel which I also narrated into an audible. Not sure how I start out. Can somebody help?
I'm just starting out too. For me, reading the Substack tutorials and watching the embedded videos was helpful. There are still so many details and specific questions I have, though. I've decided the best thing to do is start and just tweak things as I learn more as I go along. Good luck!
Read the Substack tutorials.
I've been struggling with deciding how best to go about taking on some kind of 'Digest' format for my output, which spans writing/audio/visual media.
I produce voluminously and daily, and could easily post multiple times a day, but obviously do not want to overwhelm recipients' inboxes.
I do however worry about the potential loss of an audience if an additional click-through is required, in addition to pettier concerns re: stats/metrics.
Any thoughts?
If you have that much energy, you could also add a second publication for posts that might appeal more to a different audience.
Not sure what it would do to your click-throughs and stats, but you can definitely post online without sending an email. So, if you wanted, you could post every day without emailing anyone, and then send weekly digest emails with summaries and links to your daily posts.
This was a helpful answer, ty!
When you paste a link of a previous substack post into a new post, I'd much prefer that it reproduce the curated social media summary and graphic that shows up when you paste into Twitter or Facebook than the random opening sentences of the older post, which are often greetings/setup rather than the main content. I find myself screenshotting from social media and repasting as a workaround.
Great suggestion, Robert.
How do I delete a draft?
Hey there!
To clarify what the services team has the tools to help with, they are thinking less about features we would build into the software product (like ways to discover your writing) and more about tactile services like - legal defense, health care, editors, designers or design tools, transcription tools for podcasters, Getty Image or Unsplash access. The things you need outside of Substack's software to succeed at building a writing business.
This thread is a great place to share ideas like that with them.
any chance of a feature Bailey? been in the Substack streets grinding for approaching a year now, podcast, fiction and poetry, could do with the boost!
Getty images would be game changer. I didn't realize until you said it, but I dread the part of the "production" to publish a post. I do the writing and then think, ugh, I have to do all those buttons and find photos and format, etc and it's so time consuming. If there were stock photos in the system, it would help so much to the barrier to hitting publish. Also, if there was a way to make a template so I didnt have to add back in the buttons and headers each time, that would make it much faster. Thanks, Bailey!
Hi Bailey (and services team)! A few thoughts:
- A bank of designers experienced w/ Substack best practices we could hire for our publications.
- Group discount access to Getty images or (in my dreams) news publications/research sources.
Does this help?
If you could hire a designer, Elizabeth, what would you ask them to work on for your publication?
Agree with Elizabeth on having someone look at my publication and tell me what I could improve!
Great question! (Full disclosure: I have a friend who's a designer so I'm working w/him but know not everyone is that lucky.) Some thoughts:
- Header image
- Quote cards
- Templates to customize for each issue (like a frame I could put an image in. The frame would give it a cohesive look and feel)
- Social image library
- I'd also ask someone if they could just look at my publication and tel me what I could improve.
I wrote almost the same thing above, so agree with all these ideas! Also does your designer friend do freelance? I still haven't made a header logo in 8 months because I dont know where to go to hire to do it.
Hey Emily and co! Here are a few independent designers/small agencies that our team has seen work with Substack writers on a variety of visual elements:
https://www.omnibrand.co.nz/substack-kits/
https://laurasinisterra.github.io/portfolio-site/
https://williesmith.design/work
https://adamming.com/about
https://www.nicolespiteri.com/
https://emery.com/
Hey, my husband and I run a small online marketing agency. We do social and web graphics and general management for other creatives... maybe it would be good to have a chat and see if we can help? Let me know if you would be interested in that. Hereโs my LinkedIn in case you want to learn more about me and my work: www.linkedIn.com/in/nikkofujita
Thank you!
In that spirit, I would love transcription services. I donโt have a podcast associated with my newsletter yet, but I am considering adding one, and the ability to easily generate a transcript would be a big help.
I believe Anchor produces a transcript as well. Also really easy to use for podcasts and providing audio for your written work. Easy to embed too.
I didn't know that Anchor did transcripts! One of my sundry sidelights is a podcast, and we use Anchor for our hosting. One of my co-creators manages that end of the process, but I will have to ask her if we can get transcripts for our current show over there. Thanks for the insight!
Nice. I hear you, John. I've heard of some writers having success with generating transcripts with services like https://www.temi.com/
I love temi and otter.
Thanks! I will check it out when I'm ready to add a podcast component to my newsletter.
I find that it is not easy to get discovered on Substack. The algorithm does not favor content from smaller publishers or start-ups. Another element I encountered is that articles that are light and have more gossip nature to them tend to have more exposure thatโs deeper and more contemplative pieces.
I would love to see more of an ability to focus on geographic regions on Substack. That would help with both discoverability by readers and potential collaboration with other writers, which would help me write more consistently, better, etc.
I am trying to focus relentlessly on the Ozarks in my work here, and I have to periodically do a search for "Ozarks" on Substack to see if anyone else has started a newsletter that's also focusing on the region. Even then, I sometimes have my doubts about the accuracy of the search results. Happily, just yesterday I discovered a new newsletter by L Mari Harris that way!
I am sure that others are writing a newsletter with a similarly specific geographic focus. It would be great if readers and other writers could sort newsletters by geography.
Great idea. I'm Northern California-centric, writing about water issues. Readers in S. Cal should be interested since so much of their water comes from the north, but really, I doubt it. So many other sources.
Yes - I like this idea too. I write about food and cooking and while it hasn't been much of an issue as of yet, the idea of "seasonal" is extra relevant to people in roughly the same geographic area (though I definitely don't want to be limited in any way!)
Love this idea! Geographic regions is a nice niche and a great way to discover people who do the same things around your local area.
I never know if people are actually reading my work. It's not like things go viral all the time, and I'm aware that even if someone reads my work (as it is the same for me) they don't always respond to it by clicking "like" or "heart" button or sharing it or telling me how much they liked it. There's a clear disconnect between reading and response, and I wish I could find out somehow other than through email opens. I think just because someone opens your email doesn't necessarily mean that they read it all the way through. Also, even if someone likes your work, they don't always share it. They may keep it as a reference, though, like I do. I know I'm guilty of this. I run into great writing all the time and have failed to share or like, so I'm working on that this year as a writer - to show them I appreciate the hard work they've put into writing their piece. I'm hoping to build a community around writing and sharing great work.
It is one of those things that is out of our control, just keep writing and good things will happen.
Thanks!
I write consistently, but much less than when I started. What holds me back from doing more is my full-time job. What prevents me from going independent is the inability to financially support myself. With only a couple of hundred people on my mailing list, I am light-years away from being able to make a living from my Substack. I wish my Substack was my full-time gig, but it's financially impossible. And because I have to maintain a full-time job, I am limited in my ability to work on my Substack. Kind of a catch-22!
I agree with several of the commenters about discoverability, or perhaps a recommendation algorithm like Netflix, but one that would push out smaller publications (like mine) at least occasionally. Another thing that would be helpful, in terms of answering the final question about going independent, maybe some sort of scholarship/grant that one could apply for. It doesn't have to be large, but a small boost would be helpful.
I'm really thankful for Substack and I appreciate the staff creating these types of threads.
@Israel, we offer programs on an application basis throughout the year. We'll announce our next opportunity at on.substack.com this month - stay tuned!
Thank you so much, Kelsa! I was not aware of this. I'm certainly going to be looking out for it.
That has been my experience as well
I love your idea of a recommendation algorithm for smaller publications and focusing on them regularly.
and another thing is substack didn't recognise the writers and our newsletters like youtube does for the video creators.
Substack not yet offered anything like,
1. Bluetick (or some other verify mechanism to differentiate quality newsletters),
2. No local dashboards or ranking system to show how my newsletter is popular in my region compared with others or to know where I'm standing.
3. No visibility in google as very low SEO factors.
I wrote this piece for all creators (especially substack writers) because I needed to motivate myself and keep going strong. https://youtopianjourney.substack.com/p/why-create
Keep at it, write like hell, and you will see growth, opportunities, and rewards. The world needs you now more than ever.
I was writing mainly on Medium for several years. I was able to build up a pretty good audience over the years (a little over 13K followers). Since a few months, I decided to focus my efforts on Substack and I'm trying to migrate my audience to my newsletter. It's not easy to convince readers to come and discover a new platform, but I'm patient, and it's happening little by little.
Beyond that, I think Substack could help improve the discoverability of newsletters on their platform to help us get exposed to more potential readers.
But overall, I'm more than happy with Substack, which is why I've decided to make it my number one platform from now on.
Thanks for putting in the work to make the move, Sylvain!
I'm curious why you made the move. That's a lot of followers! What are the advantages of Substack over Medium?
I'm a different person who moved from Medium to Substack, and I had far fewer followers, but for me the last straw with Medium was when they went through another phase of re-imagining their platform in a baffling way, coupled with some attempts to quash unionization of their employees (not trying to start an argument on the merits of unions, I'm just a big supporter of organized labor and won't knowingly work with a company that's in an active labor dispute).
I definitely think that improved discoverability would be a big help.
Not sure if this is the right place but ... on the last thread I wrote I had several comments. I responded to comments but my responses were shown out of order with the subscriber's comments. Trying to read the comment section became very confusing with everything out of order. Why would this happen?
It would really help if Substack could improve discoverability on the internet. And also if Substack would be more transparent about how it chooses featured publications, and how publications are ranked in search.
Lack of analytics was the main thing, which makes me tired.
I couldn't know how many readers are reading my emails completely or partially. I couldn't know how the recent audience behaving when compared to older audience. I couldn't know what is the peak time for my email. I couldn't know how many people seeing my welcome email and moving my newsletter to Primary tab. I couldn't know how users reacting after initial subscriptions days.
What I'm having is a very basic dashboard which only tells about Open rate and activities and I have to check with every individual email to know their activities. Nothing more; nothing less. This make me reluctant to invest more in my content.
I'm struggling with this as well. I would like to see how many "new" views and full reads.
Sure it's been said a thousand times, but honestly I believe the biggest problem holding back smaller writers looking to support the platform is discoverability. I don't have an easy fix for it but it's something I hope to see more of in 2022!
Thanks for sharing, Art!