Got questions to ask other Substack writers? Want to share tips and insights? Need some emotional support? This thread is for you! If this goes well, we’ll do more in the future. (The Substack team won’t be active in this particular thread.) (EDIT: Turns out Chis was active in this thread!)
1. As per Hamish's advice, I'm writing 85% free stuff and putting the rest behind the paywall in order to grow my free list. Because my free list converts at a high rate, growing this list is the way to go.
2. Instead of asking for "subscribers," I ask for "supporters." This seems to work a whole lot better than asking for a subscription. I pitch it as, if you enjoy this content, please support more work like it.
3. I've created special codes in Stripe for related podcasts to use and pimp to their readers. Certain podcasts will get $40 annual subscriptions instead of $60. I even do a subdomain for each podcast offer on godaddy to make it easier to advertise - such as podcastofferX.whizzered.com.
And now comes the stuff that most of you will find weird.
1. Every paying supporter gets a personal thank you letter from me. Not an auto reply, but an individually written email.
2. I also give each paying supporter my phone number and a special email address only for them. They can use these to text me or call me about gripes, complaints, feedback, etc. I find it creates a strong sense of community. So far, not one single supporter has abused it, but I have received some great feedback.
Thanks for that Jeremy. Some very useful information there. I have noticed that many YouTubers with Patreon accounts ask for support through Patreon. rather then subscription. The idea of supporting someone rather then paying someone is more appealing.
Something I'm trying right now: I created a series of simple landing pages (like this: sept19.whizzered.com), all on subdomains. They all feature a click button to take you to the subscribe page. I'm running FB campaigns to see how they convert and...so far, the results are great.
I would love to see a directory of all substack newsletters (organized by category). That might be a little unwieldy for developers but I’d enjoy discovering new writers. In some little way this feels like a community and I want to poke around. :)
This is what I yearn for too, and I've been nudging them about it for awhile. I think it's on their radar after they get new staffers hired. In the meantime, do you know that you can search the newsletters by keyword? I've found some great writers this way!
I think this is a great idea. Am sure just self submitted categories or even labels may not be enough due to potential for intentional or unintentional abuse. Substack will have to curate and review them imo - at least initially. Am sure they're underwater on just dev and content makers now. But, definitely a great idea Hannah.
Been doing lots of experimentation when it comes to getting new readers, that's the big question these days. I see lots of folks asking about it and reliably one of the best ways has been working with other publishers you enjoy reading, are of similar size and think have similar audiences to swap a plug here and there. If you're interested, don't hesitate to say so and perhaps find other writers, maybe in this very thread here.
I try to be easy to get ahold of so if yall have any more specific questions don't hesitate to get in touch.
Great advice. I write about pop culture, spirituality, life in Los Angeles. And I love to highlight things I found/saw/loved this week. So I'm always happy to plug other newsletters. Feel free to hit me up.
And yeah long story short the people most likely to sign up to read a great newsletter are folks currently subscribed to another, different great newsletter. It's a rising tide lifts all ships situation.
I'm not sure what Substack intends on doing with this thread once it's closed but PLEASE ARCHIVE IT AND DON'T DELETE IT! I intened on going through it in whole when I have time.
I write about technology, software and sometimes its impact on society/culture. Previous topics include how music streaming is changing our listening habits, the rise of Microsoft as a productivity suite leader again and why marketers should act more like journalists.
austin.substack.com I write about how to grow long term wealth investing in public stocks for normal working people (like myself). I share all my returns, trades, portfolio, and research for free and offer the option for people to pay $5/mo or $50/yr if they want to help support it.
The Jungle Gym is a monthly newsletter on topics related to careers (but fairly frequently diverges into much stranger topics...) https://nickdewilde.substack.com/
I'm still experimenting with my topic - what is keeping cinema alive in contemporary times - and currently I'm pondering reincorporating movie reviews into the mix. No paid option yet (still building this monster) but I do plan on podcasting with movie theater programmers and workers sometime soon.
I'd love to see a scheduling tool for future posts (if one isn't already being developed) and an easier to find search engine for discovery. Just my two cents.
This sounds super useful, especially if you have multiple articles in the barrel. I only write one post per week so the current scheduling embedded per post is enough
And helping with the production of this one, by Robert Wright (moved to Substack from Mailchimp last week, new issue tomorrow): https://nonzero.substack.com/
Yours looks great but I can't seem to subscribe unless I use the email I use with substack. I use a different email for every subscription but it looks like I'm locked in here. Might have to sub in a different browser.
I write about cool stuff I'm into: music, movies I've seen, road trips I've been on, interesting things I've read, etc. https://sarahwritesstuff.substack.com/
Thank you for asking! :) I recommend some cool things people around the world are making (writing, music, apps, etc) at https://shivanishah.substack.com/
I have found that readers or at least mine anyway seem to be more interested in supporting a writer they like as opposed to gaining access to extra content but I could be completely misreading it I don't know what I'm doing and running a business sucks.
Like much in life there is always more to it then you think. You start off being a writer, then there is the marketing, and then dealing with your readers and getting them to support you and next thing you know you are running a business. Well as they sat from where I live 'It's a great life if you don't weaken.' 👍😊
Does anyone have tips for quickly building an audience or does it just take a lot of time and hard work? I’m already posting on Medium, have my own website, and have played around with ads (but the conversion rate hasn’t been worth it).
- Yes (as others point out) growth is consistent. Meaning you won't see "virality" ever.
- Growth is all about getting in front of new people who don't know you exist and they choose to subscribe. A few things to unpack, how to get in front of people who don't know you. And how to prove that you've sent awesome stuff.. and will send more relevant stuff later.
- I have a few easy things I do all the time to get subscribers (my readers are working in Influencer marketing)
1. I can easily target them by connection on Linkedin and message them. I started when I had 0 subscribers by asking for advice. This worked wonders as I made changes to content.
1b. I constantly ask for articles from interesting people I'm not connected to by commenting on their Linkedin Post. This turns into subscribers a lot of the time.
2. I produce infographics about meta trends I see like 50 Journalists covering Influencer Marketing: http://influenceweekly.co/journalists/ These are useful for people and they happily share on their LinkedIn.
3. I reach out to podcasts every now and then with some content that I've done. See if they'd incorporate it in their intro or have me as a guest.
Thank you for that, very valuable information there. In my very limited experience running ads, I’ve had several with really good engagement, but ads designed to promote sign up to my newsletter haven’t done as well. I’ll continue to experiment with ads and hopefully I can find a strategy that’s worth it.
I haven't really found any tricks for viral or exponential behavior, but when I consistently promote, I get new free/paid subscribers at a consistent rate.
I’ve promoted posts that have really good engagement, but ads designed to get sign ups haven’t done as well. Have you found that promoting your content leads to indirect sign ups or do you just promote the splash page of your newsletter?
I share a teaser for each new post on Twitter and LinkedIn, and I see that bring in 5-10 free signups per week and 1-3 paid subscriptions per month. FWIW all of my content is free currently, and subscriptions are more of a donation.
Hmmm, that's clever. I make a few word synopsis for Twitter, but maybe a screengrab of a good paragraph to add? That might help conversion. I'll try that for Monday's newsletter!
One thing that works well for me is when I reference something in my post (a person, a company, an organization, whatever) that has a twitter account, I @ them in the tweet. I get a lot of new followers from people being excited that I'm shouting them out. For example: https://twitter.com/everyartisugly/status/1173605964811034625
You could look at marketing funnels. There is a great package on Mailchimp which has a free for the first 2000 contact and they will even show you how to do it.
Hi DC Sorry I did not get back to you sooner. I think you may have to check out YouTube. I thought Mailchimp had posted a course on Skillshare, they do run several courses on there, but when I checked I could not find it. So whether they had one on there and removed it I am not sure. Sorry about that.
This thread has been super useful! I’m brand new to substack but really enjoying the platform. I agonized about starting or not but I’m so glad I did. A few questions:
1. Anyone running multiple substacks? I have so many interests/ideas for subscription revenue models...I’m torn between “don’t spread yourself too thin,” vs. “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”
2. Is anyone running their substack as a component/lead-gen for a larger offering? I def want to monetize my subscription itself, but I’m also interested in starting a larger education/training brand eventually, with courses/video lessons/coaching. Always curious about revenue mix.
I’m writing about business and mindset strategies for freelance writers. Also open to cross-promoting - my audience is meager now, but hoping to build it up the rest of the year! Thanks everybody!
I published two Substack newsletters with paid tiers for awhile. But I gave up one of them largely because it just wasn't feasible on top of a full-time day job and my other responsibilities. (And I got a great new day job recently, so I'm not planning to quit.)
If you have a lot more time and/or are a faster writer than I, though, you might be able to pull it off. You could consider publishing one paid newsletter with a steady publishing schedule, and another free newsletter with a sporadic schedule.
Definitely agree with your points. It’s easy for me to SAY I want to do multiple but obviously posting about it and doing it are different.
I was also told that using multiple emails is the best way to start different newsletters. Not ideal but obviously in these early stages of the company it’s better than nothing.
Hi Raj, thanks for your thoughts. Mine are similar to yours about running multiple Substacks but I think I am a step or two behind you at the moments. Like you I have many interests/ideas for revenue models which I am also torn between. Getting the balance right between spread too thin and not having all your eggs in one basket is something of a quandary but I am sure I will get there.
I am also looking to add education/training brand as well, so, like you, I will be using at least one of my Substacks as a lead-gen.
Peter, thanks for sharing and being honest. It is a real journey and not easy. I’ve had the “thought” to do a newsletter for multiple years. I first heard about substack months ago but only was able to create mine earlier this month on Labor Day. And even then, I only JUST got to the point where I feel comfortable promoting this week.
It’s a process, give yourself time and be forgiving but on the other hand also force yourself to make tangible progress. Otherwise it will be just an idea in your head forever.
Thanks, Raj. Some good advice there. I have given myself a deadline which I will stick to and I plan to launch soon.
I am also making some courses on Skillshare to gain experience. They do not charge for having your courses on there and you get free access to the other courses on there. 👍
I asked about multiple newsletters once and the answer was no, that we’d have to use different email addresses to create different accounts. But I would love to have this ability. Right now I’m experimenting with comedy/memoir here but I have a couple other blogs I’d like to convert to newsletter format.
I've been using substack to only send an audio version of my newsletter: influenceweekly.co and influenceweekly.substack.com Subscribers have to opt into the the audio version. I don't automatically sign them up for it.
Hi Andrew, You could look to include a text version as well for those who would like to read it. There is a YouTube channel called Dottotech which reviewed a site called Rev which is good at converting audio to text. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYQgHSG0fH8 and here is Rev's site https://www.rev.com/
Do you have to pick a niche or subject matter to grow your audience? I started out sharing stuff about NYC and history, but now I generally just share content I’ve enjoyed and want to share with others. My small audience seems to enjoy the weekly letters, but I haven’t seen much growth in the past couple of weeks. Wondering if it’s because I don’t have a niche or hook...
In my opinion if you want it to grow and eventually turn on paid subs it helps to have a niche that you can't get everywhere else, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with the way you're doing it!
I agree with Luke here. I've found it really helpful to have a specific niche that isn't widely available elsewhere. Having said that, I don't see an issue with what you're doing either. If your publication has a paid option, have you tried running a sale? I just did this over the weekend and got some new paid subscribers.
I'm in a similar place too. Most of my subscribers are friends and family, and I'd like to grow a bit. My newsletter is a hodgepodge of things I've found during the week with some personal stories thrown in. Always free; sent on Sunday.
Subbed thanks! Looking forward to getting to know it. Mine is really similar. Stories, moments and links. But from the UK.. https://documentally.substack.com
Same! Mix of content and personal thoughts about what's going on this week (in NYC, the world, my life etc.) Always free; sent on Fridays @ 1pm. Posting here JIC anyone is interested. https://bribri.substack.com
You could look at what existing groups are out there in your niche and join them. You have a ready made audience and possible sources of future material for your newsletter.
This thread is a blessing! Thank you team! I come from Medium, and most of my subscribers come from there. I'm looking for a way to develop my audience to attract readers outside of Medium, it's not easy! If you're ever interested: https://thomas.substack.com/ Having total control over your audience here is ultra powerful. And that requires a lot more rigour in what you write, which is very positive.
One thing I've started to consider is keeping all new posts free, but changing my archives (anything more than a month old) to paid subscribers only. Does anyone do something like this/is it doable on the platform? About half of my content is time-sensitive and half is evergreen.
That's definitely doable - you can go back into the settings of a post and change the audience.
One thing to think about: if you have evergreen stuff that is widely read/linked to, it might be worth leaving some of that free, since you might get continued traffic from the links or from search.
That is a great idea, Martha, and gives me a solution to something I have been considering. I am planning a free weekly newsletter but I was not sure if I would have enough to include a paid newsletter as well. This would solve that. As Substack has introduced the ability to ask for support as well as giving away free subscriptions you could use that as well. If someone supports you you could give away a free subscription covering several months, obviously commensurate to the amount of support you get . You could then ask them to subscribe once the free subscription has elapsed so that they could support you further.
We would love to see more of this! (I'm one of the Substack founders)
I think linking forward and back works pretty well. If you're going to charge, making the first few posts free (and maybe the occasional excerpt) can help.
Apperciate this. Right now I'm doing a freemium model where Patrons get it first and two weeks later I post the chapter publicly on Wattpad. Not happy with a lot of recent moves on the part of Patreon and considering a move so I wanted to see how folks were getting along over here so to say.
There is a post on here where someone has a free newsletter and is looking to add a subscription to their archived material which will apply after one month, Could be worth a look.
My Substack is fiction, though not serialized. One idea: you may want to link back to your first post in the header text of every email, so readers can easily go back and read from the beginning.
I have seen a number of YouTubers do this. They will be covering a subject and then give a link to a previous video which has a connection to the new video.
Just went back to full time teaching and finding time to write while single momming/caregiving is hard. Also, worried that my content is a little edgy for public employee
Hi Chetneet, I have been thinking about this as well. From the research I have done it will expose your newsletter to a much larger audience. Many people like to listen while they commute, it is easier then reading, especially if you are driving, and it fills in the time while travelling. Also many people like to listen to podcasts in the evening. Many podcasts are between 20 and 40 minutes long with the optimum time being 30 minutes which is about the average time for a commute.
You can record you podcast and then get it converted to text. Or you could do voice to text and record your voice for the podcast at the same time. Google Docs allows for voice to text.
Podcasts, as we know, can be added to your newsletter. If you want to also want to publish your podcast separately I would suggest Libsyn which is used by many podcasters.
I forgot to add. Many people who listen to podcasts would not necessarily read your newsletter. This is usually because people enjoy listening rather then reading, which we will get plenty of during the day.
One final thing. Podcasts can be more powerful then text. People usually listen through their ear pods so your words are going straight into their ears and into their brains. It is much more personal then text. They get to hear your voice.
Any time, Chetneet. Not wishing to overburden you but if you could video yourself as well. Many people like watching videos. But if you do video yourself then add closed captions. Some people will watch videos but without the sound and read the captions instead. It usually has something to do with where they are. They may watch a video during work but do not want others to know.
Thank you, no worries, I am little over-ambitions so I was thinking of that too. And I had never ever recorded myself, selfconscious I am. Thinking to start podcast.
He has a lot of very useful information about starting a podcast. One thing he recommends is doing practise recordings to get you used to making recordings and also the sound of your own voice. That way when you start recording for real you are not hung up on what your voice sounds like.
Interested to find anyone writing about music. I'm less than a month young over here: https://happinessjournal.substack.com/ I review music for other publications but wanted a spot where I could casually journal about whatever music had my attention for the moment and not be restricted by editorial or press cycle constraints. hmu! would love to see how others might be making this work!
I don't write about music the way you do, but music often finds its way into my newsletter in one way or another. I've just subscribed to yours - here's mine:
Oh wow, I used to translate Drew and Natalie's comics into Russian when I was a teenager, like 13 years ago. I still have some signed prints from him! Takes me back: https://ru-marriedtosea.livejournal.com/
Since you brought it up: are you guys planning to introduce the ability to @ authors? Seems like a natural step.
And yes, along with putting your publication in your profile, and a bunch of other stuff. We're working on hiring some folk so we can build things faster.
Yes, influenceweekly.substack.com It's an audio version of my newsletter. sometimes I host it alone. sometimes a couple from an agency host it on their own. (easier to balance busy schedules)
Hi, I'm Danica. I publish a newsletter about a niche genre of electronic music: dark ambient. I'm on a brief hiatus at the moment for health reasons, but am working on my next issue. http://endarkenment.substack.com/
If there are any other electronic music writers publishing here whose audiences might overlap with mine - ambient, drone, industrial, gothic, etc. - feel free to contact me about cross-promotion possibilities. I did an in-depth cross-interview with another dark ambient music writer back in January, and that was my most popular post ever.
If anyone else writing about business/personal finance would be interested in working together to increase our audiences (by guest posting/ cross-promoting), let me know!
Hey Daniel, I write about business tactics/mindset tips for freelance writers. Not sure how much overlap there is, and I don’t have a big audience yet, but happy to cross-promote
What medium is best to take a risk on at this stage in the game?
E-book, revisit my blog, try for paperback, newsletter, something else?
I’m looking to publish something for a quick impact with minimal financial payoff to start. I just need some perspective in order to move forward with discipline, intention, and confidence!
One big advantage of the newsletter format is that you get to build an audience that you have more ownership/control over the relationship with.
If you build up a big newsletter audience, but then later on decide to sell a book, or do something else, that audience is a big advantage. (And of course if you use Substack you can choose to charge directly too.)
There is nothing to stop you having a blog and a newsletter. You could use one to support the other. For example you could use the blog to add extra information not included in the newsletter. Or look at something from a different angle using the blog or the newsletter. Also some will come to your blog and find your newsletter.
And turning a blog into an e-book as well as a paperback is not unheard of. Plus the blog/newsletter has already tested the water as to what you audience finds interesting.
Quick question - I asked about it on the last thread like this and didn't see an answer. I'd like to understand SEO related to Substack. Are you guys seeing similar results that you may have from a self-hosted website or blog?
Hi Judd. Thanks for sharing this. Quick question: Do you ever re-post articles you've written elsewhere without emailing? I'm thinking of taking some of my Medium posts that were/are popular and doing this, I'd be curious for your thoughts.
What have you found to be most successful in terms of driving new subscribers + traffic to your newsletter when starting out fresh? (No existing audience on other platforms)
My newsletter started out as a Facebook group, and a bit motivation for the move to Substack was just wanting to get off Facebook. Plus I was noticing some of my most active group members were already jumping ship on the platform! I found that some % of my group members became subscribers but there were a lot of inactive people in the group anyway. Have never dabbled with paid advertising on Facebook because I used it with a previous business venture and didn't really see it convert well.
I left FB in March. Before I left, I asked my FB friends for their emails, and got a couple hundred so was able to start my Substack newsletter with those folks as subscribers. So, yes, FB played a big role in how I've gotten folks to read my work -- but I haven't solved for how to get paid subs! I'm still giving it away bc friends and family...
I ask people to take things to the next level and 'support' and that occasionally works. If I don't push it. I also offer stuff that they can't get in the free one.
Hey luke! I've found that FB algorithmically shows content much less if it contains links - from what I can tell it's their way of forcing you to pay for them to "boost post" to deliver individual posts to your FB page followers
This has been my experience, too. The FB algorithm aggressively increased the number of times I was asked to pay to boost posts in the first few weeks. Your mileage may vary, but I've stopped using it.
I'm convinced that people are finding me directly off Substack, rather than through Medium as I'd initially intended. I don't understand how that's happening?
If your posts gets a few likes it could be showing up on the top posts on the substack.com home page, and people could be finding it that way, I’ve gotten a couple from that. Other than that, no idea.
This is none of the flaws in the current statistics offering. No way to see where your conversions are coming from, and this, no way to know where to focus your efforts. I do however understand the rationale for a minimal backend.
I'm killing two birds with one stone this week, both building my new substack list (ams.substack.com) while also doing hygiene on my years-old, poorly maintained Mailchimp email lists associated with my established blogs (offbeatbride.com, offbeathome.com)
I did a re-engagement campaign sent only to my most inactive Mailchimp subscribers, with a subject line essentially saying "Are you over this blog? (me too)." The email then explained that I'd started a new publication on substack, and invited them to follow me here.
Of course open rates were terrible, but a few folks ported over... and now I have a clear conscience for deleting the remaining inactive folks on the Mailchimp list, because they're truly not interested in what I'm up to these days.
(Mailchimp raising their rates AGAIN is part of what prompted me to take the leap with substack. I was going to be paying $180/mo to send RSS-to-email newsletters? NO THANKS.)
Hi, I'm struggling a bit with what direction I should be taking with my letter; should I narrow my focus and be less general, or should I continue with the current format and try to refine it?
I'd appreciate some advice.
Oh yeah, I'm always late; maybe I should embrace randomness?
Hi JP, The usual recommendation is to find a niche, preferably one with a decent sized audience. That way people who sign up for your newsletter have a good idea what you are writing about and what they are getting.
If you are looking at two or three areas and you think you could get a decent sized audience for each then you could look at a newsletter for each. That way you increase your chances and if one of them does not pan out you could look to drop it while still maintaining the others.
how do I integrate Substack in my already existing blog? Basically, I am planning to switch to it from Mailchimp, but I want to keep Mailchimp and Substack synced to be able to keep sending automation to the readers that signup on certain pages.
I think its really enjoyable to intereact with likeminded people and read their perspective and ideas and in the process write your own, than to just an arbitriary subscribers numbers.
Hello, I am Chetneet, I write at https://lifelonglearner.substack.com where I am planning to share book recommendations and currently it has some book insights. Anyone intrested can join it. I also share thought experiments and mental models. Feedbacks are most welcome :)
How important do you think it is to do, like, a proper newsletter-newsletter, a la Politico/Axios/Reliable Sources/etc alongside the more original content you do? I've thought about it but I dunno if it's something I need to do, unless I can do it in a way that'll grow the free email subscriber-base at least.
But how are we defining original content? That's my question: Should I be doing a Reliable Sources style (not necessarily the media reporting angle if not needed) roundup with my own analysis (and small items I don't otherwise have an outlet for) to boost free signups and build the list, even if it's not my signature deeper dive content?
I haven't been doing this version of a newsletter long, but I've settled on a format that seems to work well. I'm doing a M-F newsletter that covers everything premiering that day on TV. It's probably somewhat similar to a Reliable Sources or Axios format. Which compliments my web site. Although I'm also posting the newsletter in a modified form on my website, b/c the majority of visitors aren't coming once a day & the daily newsletter is a better way to reach them. I'm just beginning to really promote it now that I have the rhythm of writing it down. The new fall broadcast TV season begins Monday & I'm going to use that as a hook to convince people that they need to subscribe. I'm doing a bunch of radio over the next couple of weeks & I hope that will help.
I'm not a massive fan of the term newsletter as it sounds like a marketing ploy more than anything else. I like 'dispatch' or 'email journal'. It's a great place to experiment but I still like to have a loose format and always use my own voice.
Interesting idea there, Christian. I did come across an article where the author pointed out that people were confusing newsletter with emails, especially marketers. Maybe Substack can run another thread where we can discuss alternatives to gain some ideas. Maybe run a poll to see which is most popular.
This is great! I write a *very* niche newsletter on Zen, meditation and being a Stanford biz school grad living at a Zen temple in Hawaii: https://cmoon.substack.com. I'd love some benchmarks for different kinds of newsletters to compare myself against. M&R creates one for nonprofit email performance every year segmented by sector (environment, politics, lgbtq, etc) and types (advocacy, service, etc). Maybe we can crowdsource this info, since Substack is still a pretty small team?
Love the idea of your newsletter. I'm a Catholic priest and write about pop culture and spirituality, also *pretty* *very* niche. Have similar questions. Thanks for posting. (Immediately sub'd!)
I've been having trouble being consistent with the newsletter. Do you find consistency is key or is having something of better quality come out not as consistently better? I recently moved from California to Colorado so it threw off a lot of my normal routine.
Also, are there any other pop culture writers here? I host two podcasts in addition to writing the newsletter and would love to connect! I recently moved over from Revue, but all of my issues wouldn't import so there are only a handful available at the moment. https://welcometogeekdom.substack.com
For what it's worth, I've found that writing at least a rough draft of my newsletter a few days ahead of the publish date is helpful. This accomplishes a few things:
1. It gives me the flexibility to rewrite and edit in the little free chunks of time I have during the days before publishing, often on my phone while standing in line.
2. It gives my brain time to make better connections about what I'm trying to write.
3. Having 2-3 drafts going at once means I can accommodate any crazy life changes. More than once I've woken up 15 minutes early on publishing day, chugged some coffee, made a few edits and added a few sentences to a draft, and sent it out without much effort.
I hope this helps!
For those who are interested, here's mine: One Useful Thing: A weekly newsletter of well-designed and helpful things. https://usefulnewsletter.substack.com/
Happy to help! Another thing that helps me is a publishing calendar. Nothing fancy, just every few weeks I look at my list of ideas and drafts and schedule some on upcoming publishing dates. That way I can think about and work on issues ahead of time.
I used to do the same thing when I had an assignment when I was university. I would split it up and work on it pieces then gradually bring it all together.
I think consistency is really important. I used to send my newsletter weekly, but couldn’t sustain it. So I switched to every other Sunday. It’s much better, and readers know when to expect it.
Yeah I might have to do that, too. I was aiming for every Friday, but the last one fell on a Tuesday to coincide with the release of the book I was reviewing. I'll have to work out a new schedule and stick to it.
I've been having that problem as well! I try to focus on having a specific date that I send newsletters out, usually helps to have a goal in mind. What's been working lately is spending a little time each day writing a bit of each newsletter, so I'm not writing it all in one sitting. I also write about pop culture at https://theanchor.substack.com/ would love to collab or chat about what's been working / not working!
Would love that! Enjoyed your MoviePass article. I was also lured in by them, but thankfully switched to AMC A-List once more problems started popping up with MP. What would be the best way to get in touch to collab/chat further?
Any tips on growing your audience? I have a free, weekly newsletter and I had great signups when I started and no one new in three months. I promote the newsletter on Twitter and I'm happy with the readers I have, I'm just curious.
Twitter has worked well for me. As has google so make sure you’re seo friendly and adding links. Also the subscribe button widget from substack has been very helpful. I always include it.
Medium, Reddit, Hacker News have worked for me. Twitter as well. I wrote on psychology, strategy, and business.
My newsletter is free as well (plug: https://coffeeandjunk.substack.com/). Many have come through WOM. Nothing has gone viral. So every new person comes after a weekly grind.
Next I plan to give a few talks in local conferences. That might help. I'm not sure if these mediums would help you. Completely depends upon your audience. Many have leveraged Instagram as well, but my content is not at all relevant there.
Quick question - any of you have experience with affiliate offers? Example - my newsletter is geared towards Youth Baseball Parents and Coaches...it's FREE for now, and I'm up to 450 free subscribers. At some point I plan to offer a paid version, but not yet. In the meantime, I'd love to be able to suggest certain products, however it's my understanding Amazon Affiliates doesn't allow affiliate links in emails. Since it's the winter time, I'm about to send an email about offseason training. It would be a great opportunity to link to a product if I'm going to be mentioning it. Any ideas?
On the Substack search page (https://substack.com/search) when I enter either of the key words in the title of my newsletter — "tech" and "talk" — my newsletter does not show in the results. Other newsletters with the same words in their title DO show up in the results, however.
Can you explain how your search engine works so I can be assured that keywords like this cause my newsletter to be shown in critical searches?
Hi Substack, sorry if this is repetitive and already covered in the past but ... will there ever be the capability to (a) list article title only and (b) tag articles? I don't have a major issue as my newsletter is new but I can see that as articles pile up (on the website) readers will want to be able to quickly navigate through a list of articles and/or be able to sort by tags? If this is on your radar, what is the general timeframe (weeks vs months vs quarters) for roll out? If it's not on your radar, can you briefly share the thoughts behind it? Realize the platform in heavily email disty centric but it seems like the website is still pretty important. Thanks in advance for this great platform for writers. I'm really enjoying it so far.
A couple of things I've done:
1. As per Hamish's advice, I'm writing 85% free stuff and putting the rest behind the paywall in order to grow my free list. Because my free list converts at a high rate, growing this list is the way to go.
2. Instead of asking for "subscribers," I ask for "supporters." This seems to work a whole lot better than asking for a subscription. I pitch it as, if you enjoy this content, please support more work like it.
3. I've created special codes in Stripe for related podcasts to use and pimp to their readers. Certain podcasts will get $40 annual subscriptions instead of $60. I even do a subdomain for each podcast offer on godaddy to make it easier to advertise - such as podcastofferX.whizzered.com.
And now comes the stuff that most of you will find weird.
1. Every paying supporter gets a personal thank you letter from me. Not an auto reply, but an individually written email.
2. I also give each paying supporter my phone number and a special email address only for them. They can use these to text me or call me about gripes, complaints, feedback, etc. I find it creates a strong sense of community. So far, not one single supporter has abused it, but I have received some great feedback.
This is great! By the way, we took a crack at making that special offer functionality a bit easier to do:
https://on.substack.com/p/new-on-substack-self-serve-special
I used the new special offer feature and it works great.
Glad to hear it!
Thanks for that Jeremy. Some very useful information there. I have noticed that many YouTubers with Patreon accounts ask for support through Patreon. rather then subscription. The idea of supporting someone rather then paying someone is more appealing.
What do you consider a high convert rate?
On my free list, I think I'm converting between 15-20% to paid on average. Some posts I've done much higher - in the 50's.
Something I'm trying right now: I created a series of simple landing pages (like this: sept19.whizzered.com), all on subdomains. They all feature a click button to take you to the subscribe page. I'm running FB campaigns to see how they convert and...so far, the results are great.
I will have to try that..
Really great stuff here! Thanks!!
I would love to see a directory of all substack newsletters (organized by category). That might be a little unwieldy for developers but I’d enjoy discovering new writers. In some little way this feels like a community and I want to poke around. :)
This is what I yearn for too, and I've been nudging them about it for awhile. I think it's on their radar after they get new staffers hired. In the meantime, do you know that you can search the newsletters by keyword? I've found some great writers this way!
https://substack.com/search
I had no idea - thank you so much!!
I think this is a great idea. Am sure just self submitted categories or even labels may not be enough due to potential for intentional or unintentional abuse. Substack will have to curate and review them imo - at least initially. Am sure they're underwater on just dev and content makers now. But, definitely a great idea Hannah.
Hey, I'm Walt I write numlock.substack.com ,
Been doing lots of experimentation when it comes to getting new readers, that's the big question these days. I see lots of folks asking about it and reliably one of the best ways has been working with other publishers you enjoy reading, are of similar size and think have similar audiences to swap a plug here and there. If you're interested, don't hesitate to say so and perhaps find other writers, maybe in this very thread here.
I try to be easy to get ahold of so if yall have any more specific questions don't hesitate to get in touch.
^ This man knows what he is talking about
Great advice. I write about pop culture, spirituality, life in Los Angeles. And I love to highlight things I found/saw/loved this week. So I'm always happy to plug other newsletters. Feel free to hit me up.
Haven’t tried doing that yet but that’s great advice. If you’re that Walter Hickey, I love 538!
I am! They're a great team.
And yeah long story short the people most likely to sign up to read a great newsletter are folks currently subscribed to another, different great newsletter. It's a rising tide lifts all ships situation.
Don’t know if you’ve heard this before, but I’m star-struck!
I haven’t thought about doing that before, thanks for the great advice!
I'm not sure what Substack intends on doing with this thread once it's closed but PLEASE ARCHIVE IT AND DON'T DELETE IT! I intened on going through it in whole when I have time.
Thank you!
It will stay here for, like, ever. It'll always be in the Substack Blog archive.
Yay!!
I'd love to check out all your Substack pages but I can't seem to get there by clicking on your avatar or name. Bug?
Want to link it in a reply?
Hey Christian, Chris went and added that feature for you. So, now you can click on a profile pic and see the person's publication.
OMG, thats some live user feedback and implementation I just witnessed, thank you.
Thank you!!! You guys are so awesome
Amazing! Was just thinking about this.
One Useful Thing, a weekly newsletter of well-designed and helpful things. https://usefulnewsletter.substack.com/
Great initiative.
https://jamesonstartups.substack.com
I write about technology, software and sometimes its impact on society/culture. Previous topics include how music streaming is changing our listening habits, the rise of Microsoft as a productivity suite leader again and why marketers should act more like journalists.
YEAH!
I use gifs to review books: booksongif.substack.com
How fast do you finish a book? What's your whole process like? Sorry, I've got no idea about book reviewing. But I like the idea.
What a cool concept :)
Cruel Summer Book Club is about grief, loss and heartbreak, and how we all get through it: https://cruelsummerbookclub.substack.com/subscribe
thanks for this, I have subscribed to many wonderful newsletters :)
austin.substack.com I write about how to grow long term wealth investing in public stocks for normal working people (like myself). I share all my returns, trades, portfolio, and research for free and offer the option for people to pay $5/mo or $50/yr if they want to help support it.
Than you Jasraj! I actually know Chris R. He’s a great person and investor.
And yes, such an honor to work at Lambda School.
The Jungle Gym is a monthly newsletter on topics related to careers (but fairly frequently diverges into much stranger topics...) https://nickdewilde.substack.com/
Subscribed!
Hey everyone!
https://thecinema.substack.com
I'm still experimenting with my topic - what is keeping cinema alive in contemporary times - and currently I'm pondering reincorporating movie reviews into the mix. No paid option yet (still building this monster) but I do plan on podcasting with movie theater programmers and workers sometime soon.
I'd love to see a scheduling tool for future posts (if one isn't already being developed) and an easier to find search engine for discovery. Just my two cents.
Many thanks!
This sounds super useful, especially if you have multiple articles in the barrel. I only write one post per week so the current scheduling embedded per post is enough
I'm writing this one (just published a new post half a minute ago): https://nikitapetrov.substack.com/
And helping with the production of this one, by Robert Wright (moved to Substack from Mailchimp last week, new issue tomorrow): https://nonzero.substack.com/
What's yours though?
Thanks. Mine is https://Documentally.substack.com
Forgot to mention it's 'Thought provoking social commentary and technological adventures'. :-)
Yours looks great but I can't seem to subscribe unless I use the email I use with substack. I use a different email for every subscription but it looks like I'm locked in here. Might have to sub in a different browser.
You seem to have succeeded :)
I used Tor :-)
Don’t want to be spammy, but since you asked so nicely: https://timeandmoney.substack.com
Not at all spammy I did ask :-)
Here's mine https://theweeklyhuman.substack.com all about remote work, tech and psychology.
https://elbowup.substack.com/ - newsletter for youth baseball parents and coaches!
I write about cool stuff I'm into: music, movies I've seen, road trips I've been on, interesting things I've read, etc. https://sarahwritesstuff.substack.com/
Thank you for asking! :) I recommend some cool things people around the world are making (writing, music, apps, etc) at https://shivanishah.substack.com/
subscribed!
(Just asking, are you from India too?)
Thank you. Yes, I am.
Thats wondeful. (Loved your post on chai, haha)
I write at https://lifelonglearner.substack.com
Being a reader and just started writing. Sharing book insights and whatever I find valuable. https://lifelonglearner.substack.com
I have found that readers or at least mine anyway seem to be more interested in supporting a writer they like as opposed to gaining access to extra content but I could be completely misreading it I don't know what I'm doing and running a business sucks.
Like much in life there is always more to it then you think. You start off being a writer, then there is the marketing, and then dealing with your readers and getting them to support you and next thing you know you are running a business. Well as they sat from where I live 'It's a great life if you don't weaken.' 👍😊
Great insight!
Does anyone have tips for quickly building an audience or does it just take a lot of time and hard work? I’m already posting on Medium, have my own website, and have played around with ads (but the conversion rate hasn’t been worth it).
A few things to note:
- Yes (as others point out) growth is consistent. Meaning you won't see "virality" ever.
- Growth is all about getting in front of new people who don't know you exist and they choose to subscribe. A few things to unpack, how to get in front of people who don't know you. And how to prove that you've sent awesome stuff.. and will send more relevant stuff later.
- I have a few easy things I do all the time to get subscribers (my readers are working in Influencer marketing)
1. I can easily target them by connection on Linkedin and message them. I started when I had 0 subscribers by asking for advice. This worked wonders as I made changes to content.
1b. I constantly ask for articles from interesting people I'm not connected to by commenting on their Linkedin Post. This turns into subscribers a lot of the time.
2. I produce infographics about meta trends I see like 50 Journalists covering Influencer Marketing: http://influenceweekly.co/journalists/ These are useful for people and they happily share on their LinkedIn.
3. I reach out to podcasts every now and then with some content that I've done. See if they'd incorporate it in their intro or have me as a guest.
This is great, Andrew. Thank you!
I'm biased, but I believe this research is worth looking at on that topic: https://membershippuzzle.org/articles-overview/smart-investment
Thank you for that, very valuable information there. In my very limited experience running ads, I’ve had several with really good engagement, but ads designed to promote sign up to my newsletter haven’t done as well. I’ll continue to experiment with ads and hopefully I can find a strategy that’s worth it.
I haven't really found any tricks for viral or exponential behavior, but when I consistently promote, I get new free/paid subscribers at a consistent rate.
I’ve promoted posts that have really good engagement, but ads designed to get sign ups haven’t done as well. Have you found that promoting your content leads to indirect sign ups or do you just promote the splash page of your newsletter?
I share a teaser for each new post on Twitter and LinkedIn, and I see that bring in 5-10 free signups per week and 1-3 paid subscriptions per month. FWIW all of my content is free currently, and subscriptions are more of a donation.
Hmmm, that's clever. I make a few word synopsis for Twitter, but maybe a screengrab of a good paragraph to add? That might help conversion. I'll try that for Monday's newsletter!
One thing that works well for me is when I reference something in my post (a person, a company, an organization, whatever) that has a twitter account, I @ them in the tweet. I get a lot of new followers from people being excited that I'm shouting them out. For example: https://twitter.com/everyartisugly/status/1173605964811034625
Ah, good idea.
Twitter has been effective for me too but I haven’t tried LinkedIn so far. I will look into it! Thanks!
I ran google ads for a while and got some free signups, but the return didn't seem worth it.
You could look at marketing funnels. There is a great package on Mailchimp which has a free for the first 2000 contact and they will even show you how to do it.
"they will even show you how to do it" - Could you drop a link to that? I'm on Mailchimp but haven't seen their advice on marketing funnels. Thanks.
Hi DC Sorry I did not get back to you sooner. I think you may have to check out YouTube. I thought Mailchimp had posted a course on Skillshare, they do run several courses on there, but when I checked I could not find it. So whether they had one on there and removed it I am not sure. Sorry about that.
This thread has been super useful! I’m brand new to substack but really enjoying the platform. I agonized about starting or not but I’m so glad I did. A few questions:
1. Anyone running multiple substacks? I have so many interests/ideas for subscription revenue models...I’m torn between “don’t spread yourself too thin,” vs. “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”
2. Is anyone running their substack as a component/lead-gen for a larger offering? I def want to monetize my subscription itself, but I’m also interested in starting a larger education/training brand eventually, with courses/video lessons/coaching. Always curious about revenue mix.
Finally, my substack is at https://proseagoge.substack.com/
I’m writing about business and mindset strategies for freelance writers. Also open to cross-promoting - my audience is meager now, but hoping to build it up the rest of the year! Thanks everybody!
I published two Substack newsletters with paid tiers for awhile. But I gave up one of them largely because it just wasn't feasible on top of a full-time day job and my other responsibilities. (And I got a great new day job recently, so I'm not planning to quit.)
If you have a lot more time and/or are a faster writer than I, though, you might be able to pull it off. You could consider publishing one paid newsletter with a steady publishing schedule, and another free newsletter with a sporadic schedule.
Definitely agree with your points. It’s easy for me to SAY I want to do multiple but obviously posting about it and doing it are different.
I was also told that using multiple emails is the best way to start different newsletters. Not ideal but obviously in these early stages of the company it’s better than nothing.
Hi Raj, thanks for your thoughts. Mine are similar to yours about running multiple Substacks but I think I am a step or two behind you at the moments. Like you I have many interests/ideas for revenue models which I am also torn between. Getting the balance right between spread too thin and not having all your eggs in one basket is something of a quandary but I am sure I will get there.
I am also looking to add education/training brand as well, so, like you, I will be using at least one of my Substacks as a lead-gen.
Thanks and good luck
Peter, thanks for sharing and being honest. It is a real journey and not easy. I’ve had the “thought” to do a newsletter for multiple years. I first heard about substack months ago but only was able to create mine earlier this month on Labor Day. And even then, I only JUST got to the point where I feel comfortable promoting this week.
It’s a process, give yourself time and be forgiving but on the other hand also force yourself to make tangible progress. Otherwise it will be just an idea in your head forever.
Thanks, Raj. Some good advice there. I have given myself a deadline which I will stick to and I plan to launch soon.
I am also making some courses on Skillshare to gain experience. They do not charge for having your courses on there and you get free access to the other courses on there. 👍
I asked about multiple newsletters once and the answer was no, that we’d have to use different email addresses to create different accounts. But I would love to have this ability. Right now I’m experimenting with comedy/memoir here but I have a couple other blogs I’d like to convert to newsletter format.
Thanks for that, Hannah. I am also looking at multiple newsletters and would prefer an all in one solution.
Looks like now there is support for multiple newsletters. https://substack.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037824371-Can-I-create-multiple-publications-under-the-same-account-
Oh thank you! I would not have noticed this if you hadn't pointed it out - I really appreciate it.
I've been using substack to only send an audio version of my newsletter: influenceweekly.co and influenceweekly.substack.com Subscribers have to opt into the the audio version. I don't automatically sign them up for it.
Hi Andrew, You could look to include a text version as well for those who would like to read it. There is a YouTube channel called Dottotech which reviewed a site called Rev which is good at converting audio to text. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYQgHSG0fH8 and here is Rev's site https://www.rev.com/
Hope that is of is of help
Do you have to pick a niche or subject matter to grow your audience? I started out sharing stuff about NYC and history, but now I generally just share content I’ve enjoyed and want to share with others. My small audience seems to enjoy the weekly letters, but I haven’t seen much growth in the past couple of weeks. Wondering if it’s because I don’t have a niche or hook...
In my opinion if you want it to grow and eventually turn on paid subs it helps to have a niche that you can't get everywhere else, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with the way you're doing it!
I agree with Luke here. I've found it really helpful to have a specific niche that isn't widely available elsewhere. Having said that, I don't see an issue with what you're doing either. If your publication has a paid option, have you tried running a sale? I just did this over the weekend and got some new paid subscribers.
I'm in the exact same boat as you, my friend.
Well ...it’s good to know I’m not alone!
What's yours, Brian? I want to check it out! I'm passingfair.substack.com.
Book recommendations? NICE.
https://bribri.substack.com thanks in advance for checking out. Returning the favor now!
I'm in a similar place too. Most of my subscribers are friends and family, and I'd like to grow a bit. My newsletter is a hodgepodge of things I've found during the week with some personal stories thrown in. Always free; sent on Sunday.
https://librarianguish.substack.com
Subbed thanks! Looking forward to getting to know it. Mine is really similar. Stories, moments and links. But from the UK.. https://documentally.substack.com
I've subscribed to yours as well. I'm interested in the goings on in the UK - my husband is from Bradford.
Subscribed!
Likewise!
subscribed :)
Thank you!
Same! Mix of content and personal thoughts about what's going on this week (in NYC, the world, my life etc.) Always free; sent on Fridays @ 1pm. Posting here JIC anyone is interested. https://bribri.substack.com
You could look at what existing groups are out there in your niche and join them. You have a ready made audience and possible sources of future material for your newsletter.
This thread is a blessing! Thank you team! I come from Medium, and most of my subscribers come from there. I'm looking for a way to develop my audience to attract readers outside of Medium, it's not easy! If you're ever interested: https://thomas.substack.com/ Having total control over your audience here is ultra powerful. And that requires a lot more rigour in what you write, which is very positive.
One thing I've started to consider is keeping all new posts free, but changing my archives (anything more than a month old) to paid subscribers only. Does anyone do something like this/is it doable on the platform? About half of my content is time-sensitive and half is evergreen.
That's definitely doable - you can go back into the settings of a post and change the audience.
One thing to think about: if you have evergreen stuff that is widely read/linked to, it might be worth leaving some of that free, since you might get continued traffic from the links or from search.
Good to know!
That is a great idea, Martha, and gives me a solution to something I have been considering. I am planning a free weekly newsletter but I was not sure if I would have enough to include a paid newsletter as well. This would solve that. As Substack has introduced the ability to ask for support as well as giving away free subscriptions you could use that as well. If someone supports you you could give away a free subscription covering several months, obviously commensurate to the amount of support you get . You could then ask them to subscribe once the free subscription has elapsed so that they could support you further.
Any advice for folks wanting to do something like a fiction serial via substack?
We would love to see more of this! (I'm one of the Substack founders)
I think linking forward and back works pretty well. If you're going to charge, making the first few posts free (and maybe the occasional excerpt) can help.
Here is an example: https://taibbi.substack.com/p/authors-note-and-preface-the-business-secrets-of-drug-dealing (and here is a post explaining the motivation: https://taibbi.substack.com/p/why-im-serializing-a-book-on-substack)
Apperciate this. Right now I'm doing a freemium model where Patrons get it first and two weeks later I post the chapter publicly on Wattpad. Not happy with a lot of recent moves on the part of Patreon and considering a move so I wanted to see how folks were getting along over here so to say.
Cool! You could definitely do that same model on Substack (or experiment a bit.)
If you do decide to do it, please post it here so we can check it out :)
Well do! Apperciate the support and insight.
There is a post on here where someone has a free newsletter and is looking to add a subscription to their archived material which will apply after one month, Could be worth a look.
My Substack is fiction, though not serialized. One idea: you may want to link back to your first post in the header text of every email, so readers can easily go back and read from the beginning.
Thank you for this. Also nice to see fiction writers represented on here!
I have seen a number of YouTubers do this. They will be covering a subject and then give a link to a previous video which has a connection to the new video.
Just went back to full time teaching and finding time to write while single momming/caregiving is hard. Also, worried that my content is a little edgy for public employee
I have this problem too so I don’t post my name anywhere but it makes it hard to share. I work for gov by day so in a similar boat. (Fistbump!)
Could you use a pen name instead.
What are Internet points?
Post the "audio" version of your written content as podcasts? What is your perspective?
Hi Chetneet, I have been thinking about this as well. From the research I have done it will expose your newsletter to a much larger audience. Many people like to listen while they commute, it is easier then reading, especially if you are driving, and it fills in the time while travelling. Also many people like to listen to podcasts in the evening. Many podcasts are between 20 and 40 minutes long with the optimum time being 30 minutes which is about the average time for a commute.
You can record you podcast and then get it converted to text. Or you could do voice to text and record your voice for the podcast at the same time. Google Docs allows for voice to text.
Podcasts, as we know, can be added to your newsletter. If you want to also want to publish your podcast separately I would suggest Libsyn which is used by many podcasters.
Hope that helps
I forgot to add. Many people who listen to podcasts would not necessarily read your newsletter. This is usually because people enjoy listening rather then reading, which we will get plenty of during the day.
One final thing. Podcasts can be more powerful then text. People usually listen through their ear pods so your words are going straight into their ears and into their brains. It is much more personal then text. They get to hear your voice.
THANK YOU for your insight. Appriciate it a lot. I listen to it too, lol.
Any time, Chetneet. Not wishing to overburden you but if you could video yourself as well. Many people like watching videos. But if you do video yourself then add closed captions. Some people will watch videos but without the sound and read the captions instead. It usually has something to do with where they are. They may watch a video during work but do not want others to know.
Thank you, no worries, I am little over-ambitions so I was thinking of that too. And I had never ever recorded myself, selfconscious I am. Thinking to start podcast.
A little over ambitious. I can tell you are a kindred spirit. 😊👍 Check out this YouTuber, I have found him very helpful with regards to podcasting https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=shanman
He has a lot of very useful information about starting a podcast. One thing he recommends is doing practise recordings to get you used to making recordings and also the sound of your own voice. That way when you start recording for real you are not hung up on what your voice sounds like.
Interested to find anyone writing about music. I'm less than a month young over here: https://happinessjournal.substack.com/ I review music for other publications but wanted a spot where I could casually journal about whatever music had my attention for the moment and not be restricted by editorial or press cycle constraints. hmu! would love to see how others might be making this work!
I don't write about music the way you do, but music often finds its way into my newsletter in one way or another. I've just subscribed to yours - here's mine:
https://librarianguish.substack.com
Cheers!
Thanks Anne! Subscribed
Add me to the “for the love of god how do I get more readers?” group. What has actually worked for people?
(Following - I need this too!)
Got a feeling that could be a very big group.
Thanks! Enough.substack.com
Your photography is great. I look forward to reading more of your work.
Anybody doing podcasts with Substack? I'd love to check out some links.
Check out https://www.garbagebrainuniversity.com
(This makes me wish I could @ Drew the author...)
Oh wow, I used to translate Drew and Natalie's comics into Russian when I was a teenager, like 13 years ago. I still have some signed prints from him! Takes me back: https://ru-marriedtosea.livejournal.com/
Since you brought it up: are you guys planning to introduce the ability to @ authors? Seems like a natural step.
Cool!
And yes, along with putting your publication in your profile, and a bunch of other stuff. We're working on hiring some folk so we can build things faster.
Nikita!!! I remember you! That's amazing. And people really liked your translations!
They did! I even had a little love affair because of them once :)
Also https://shtpost.substack.com
Yes, influenceweekly.substack.com It's an audio version of my newsletter. sometimes I host it alone. sometimes a couple from an agency host it on their own. (easier to balance busy schedules)
I am but just for paying subs.
Hi, I'm Danica. I publish a newsletter about a niche genre of electronic music: dark ambient. I'm on a brief hiatus at the moment for health reasons, but am working on my next issue. http://endarkenment.substack.com/
If there are any other electronic music writers publishing here whose audiences might overlap with mine - ambient, drone, industrial, gothic, etc. - feel free to contact me about cross-promotion possibilities. I did an in-depth cross-interview with another dark ambient music writer back in January, and that was my most popular post ever.
I love Substack, and I'm here for the long haul!
If anyone else writing about business/personal finance would be interested in working together to increase our audiences (by guest posting/ cross-promoting), let me know!
Hey Daniel, I write about business tactics/mindset tips for freelance writers. Not sure how much overlap there is, and I don’t have a big audience yet, but happy to cross-promote
What medium is best to take a risk on at this stage in the game?
E-book, revisit my blog, try for paperback, newsletter, something else?
I’m looking to publish something for a quick impact with minimal financial payoff to start. I just need some perspective in order to move forward with discipline, intention, and confidence!
Any input? :)
One big advantage of the newsletter format is that you get to build an audience that you have more ownership/control over the relationship with.
If you build up a big newsletter audience, but then later on decide to sell a book, or do something else, that audience is a big advantage. (And of course if you use Substack you can choose to charge directly too.)
So true, and to be honest, i like the newsletter format/mindset better than a blog. It’s more essay-like. Thank you!
There is nothing to stop you having a blog and a newsletter. You could use one to support the other. For example you could use the blog to add extra information not included in the newsletter. Or look at something from a different angle using the blog or the newsletter. Also some will come to your blog and find your newsletter.
And turning a blog into an e-book as well as a paperback is not unheard of. Plus the blog/newsletter has already tested the water as to what you audience finds interesting.
Substack is a blog as well as a newsletter. I treat it that way. I’ve posted a good deal of content straight to the web and never emailed it
Quick question - I asked about it on the last thread like this and didn't see an answer. I'd like to understand SEO related to Substack. Are you guys seeing similar results that you may have from a self-hosted website or blog?
Hi Judd. Thanks for sharing this. Quick question: Do you ever re-post articles you've written elsewhere without emailing? I'm thinking of taking some of my Medium posts that were/are popular and doing this, I'd be curious for your thoughts.
Thanks for that, Judd. Substack is providing to be all singing, all dancing.👍
What have you found to be most successful in terms of driving new subscribers + traffic to your newsletter when starting out fresh? (No existing audience on other platforms)
Twitter for me.
Anyone got advice on how to best use the analytics? Do you supplement with any other tools? Also: hi! (Booksongif.substack.com)
I'm not a FB user but am constantly told I need to dabble there in order to grow my subscriber base. Anyone ignoring facebook and doing fine?
My newsletter started out as a Facebook group, and a bit motivation for the move to Substack was just wanting to get off Facebook. Plus I was noticing some of my most active group members were already jumping ship on the platform! I found that some % of my group members became subscribers but there were a lot of inactive people in the group anyway. Have never dabbled with paid advertising on Facebook because I used it with a previous business venture and didn't really see it convert well.
I left FB in March. Before I left, I asked my FB friends for their emails, and got a couple hundred so was able to start my Substack newsletter with those folks as subscribers. So, yes, FB played a big role in how I've gotten folks to read my work -- but I haven't solved for how to get paid subs! I'm still giving it away bc friends and family...
I ask people to take things to the next level and 'support' and that occasionally works. If I don't push it. I also offer stuff that they can't get in the free one.
The image of FB has become somewhat tarnished of late.
lol yea.
Facebook is very bad at actually showing substack links to anyone in my experience.
Hey luke! I've found that FB algorithmically shows content much less if it contains links - from what I can tell it's their way of forcing you to pay for them to "boost post" to deliver individual posts to your FB page followers
This has been my experience, too. The FB algorithm aggressively increased the number of times I was asked to pay to boost posts in the first few weeks. Your mileage may vary, but I've stopped using it.
They also do not like you clicking away from FB
Anyone else writing fiction on Substack?
I'm writing one called Adventure Snack. Imagine D&D meets Choose Your Own Adventure books, but micro-sized. https://adventuresnack.substack.com/
Not as the main thrust (mine's more science and politics) but I did write some microfic: https://badastronomy.substack.com/p/ban-87-perspective
I'm convinced that people are finding me directly off Substack, rather than through Medium as I'd initially intended. I don't understand how that's happening?
If your posts gets a few likes it could be showing up on the top posts on the substack.com home page, and people could be finding it that way, I’ve gotten a couple from that. Other than that, no idea.
This is none of the flaws in the current statistics offering. No way to see where your conversions are coming from, and this, no way to know where to focus your efforts. I do however understand the rationale for a minimal backend.
I have also had an influx of new signups but have little idea where they came from.
I wonder how much time writers spend per week on their newsletters. What's a minimum number of
posts per week that would keep interest of readers?
One week per post I guess.
Oh I mean One post Per Week. lol
Very keen on learning more from other Substackers. My newsletter is about book marketing and a little demystifying of the book business. https://empoweredauthor.substack.com/publish?utm_source=menu
Checking yours out :)
I'm killing two birds with one stone this week, both building my new substack list (ams.substack.com) while also doing hygiene on my years-old, poorly maintained Mailchimp email lists associated with my established blogs (offbeatbride.com, offbeathome.com)
I did a re-engagement campaign sent only to my most inactive Mailchimp subscribers, with a subject line essentially saying "Are you over this blog? (me too)." The email then explained that I'd started a new publication on substack, and invited them to follow me here.
Of course open rates were terrible, but a few folks ported over... and now I have a clear conscience for deleting the remaining inactive folks on the Mailchimp list, because they're truly not interested in what I'm up to these days.
(Mailchimp raising their rates AGAIN is part of what prompted me to take the leap with substack. I was going to be paying $180/mo to send RSS-to-email newsletters? NO THANKS.)
Hi, I'm struggling a bit with what direction I should be taking with my letter; should I narrow my focus and be less general, or should I continue with the current format and try to refine it?
I'd appreciate some advice.
Oh yeah, I'm always late; maybe I should embrace randomness?
https://hackett.substack.com/
Hi JP, The usual recommendation is to find a niche, preferably one with a decent sized audience. That way people who sign up for your newsletter have a good idea what you are writing about and what they are getting.
If you are looking at two or three areas and you think you could get a decent sized audience for each then you could look at a newsletter for each. That way you increase your chances and if one of them does not pan out you could look to drop it while still maintaining the others.
Hey Peter, thanks for the feedback. I'm going to take a day or two to work it all out, but I will take your advice.
how do I integrate Substack in my already existing blog? Basically, I am planning to switch to it from Mailchimp, but I want to keep Mailchimp and Substack synced to be able to keep sending automation to the readers that signup on certain pages.
There is no may to automate it, but you can always manually import subscribes fro Substack into your Mailchimp audience, or vice versa.
I think its really enjoyable to intereact with likeminded people and read their perspective and ideas and in the process write your own, than to just an arbitriary subscribers numbers.
Hey, umm, the developers, please decline the offers from big tech (especially Facebook), just like Snapchat did.
Actually I am pretty confident about your policy of "Principles over principal". :)
Thank you for making this independent newsletter possible.
Hello, I am Chetneet, I write at https://lifelonglearner.substack.com where I am planning to share book recommendations and currently it has some book insights. Anyone intrested can join it. I also share thought experiments and mental models. Feedbacks are most welcome :)
Subscribed - cheers!
thank you so much.
How important do you think it is to do, like, a proper newsletter-newsletter, a la Politico/Axios/Reliable Sources/etc alongside the more original content you do? I've thought about it but I dunno if it's something I need to do, unless I can do it in a way that'll grow the free email subscriber-base at least.
I thinks it’s an advantage to do as much original content is possible. It drives list growth and exposure
But how are we defining original content? That's my question: Should I be doing a Reliable Sources style (not necessarily the media reporting angle if not needed) roundup with my own analysis (and small items I don't otherwise have an outlet for) to boost free signups and build the list, even if it's not my signature deeper dive content?
I haven't been doing this version of a newsletter long, but I've settled on a format that seems to work well. I'm doing a M-F newsletter that covers everything premiering that day on TV. It's probably somewhat similar to a Reliable Sources or Axios format. Which compliments my web site. Although I'm also posting the newsletter in a modified form on my website, b/c the majority of visitors aren't coming once a day & the daily newsletter is a better way to reach them. I'm just beginning to really promote it now that I have the rhythm of writing it down. The new fall broadcast TV season begins Monday & I'm going to use that as a hook to convince people that they need to subscribe. I'm doing a bunch of radio over the next couple of weeks & I hope that will help.
I'm not a massive fan of the term newsletter as it sounds like a marketing ploy more than anything else. I like 'dispatch' or 'email journal'. It's a great place to experiment but I still like to have a loose format and always use my own voice.
or connector-to-readers-directly.
Interesting idea, Chetnet, but maybe something a bit shorter and that does not need explaining when it's used.
Interesting idea there, Christian. I did come across an article where the author pointed out that people were confusing newsletter with emails, especially marketers. Maybe Substack can run another thread where we can discuss alternatives to gain some ideas. Maybe run a poll to see which is most popular.
This was a great idea. Thank you!
This is great! I write a *very* niche newsletter on Zen, meditation and being a Stanford biz school grad living at a Zen temple in Hawaii: https://cmoon.substack.com. I'd love some benchmarks for different kinds of newsletters to compare myself against. M&R creates one for nonprofit email performance every year segmented by sector (environment, politics, lgbtq, etc) and types (advocacy, service, etc). Maybe we can crowdsource this info, since Substack is still a pretty small team?
Love the idea of your newsletter. I'm a Catholic priest and write about pop culture and spirituality, also *pretty* *very* niche. Have similar questions. Thanks for posting. (Immediately sub'd!)
Tips on growing subscribers? I just started publishing and I’m keeping it free. Already reached out to fam and friends.
By the way; I’m at pithy.substack.com
Would appreciate any critique!
Just subscribed. Only read two posts and really like them!
Thank you!!
I've been having trouble being consistent with the newsletter. Do you find consistency is key or is having something of better quality come out not as consistently better? I recently moved from California to Colorado so it threw off a lot of my normal routine.
Also, are there any other pop culture writers here? I host two podcasts in addition to writing the newsletter and would love to connect! I recently moved over from Revue, but all of my issues wouldn't import so there are only a handful available at the moment. https://welcometogeekdom.substack.com
For what it's worth, I've found that writing at least a rough draft of my newsletter a few days ahead of the publish date is helpful. This accomplishes a few things:
1. It gives me the flexibility to rewrite and edit in the little free chunks of time I have during the days before publishing, often on my phone while standing in line.
2. It gives my brain time to make better connections about what I'm trying to write.
3. Having 2-3 drafts going at once means I can accommodate any crazy life changes. More than once I've woken up 15 minutes early on publishing day, chugged some coffee, made a few edits and added a few sentences to a draft, and sent it out without much effort.
I hope this helps!
For those who are interested, here's mine: One Useful Thing: A weekly newsletter of well-designed and helpful things. https://usefulnewsletter.substack.com/
Love this advice! I'll definitely try this out.
Happy to help! Another thing that helps me is a publishing calendar. Nothing fancy, just every few weeks I look at my list of ideas and drafts and schedule some on upcoming publishing dates. That way I can think about and work on issues ahead of time.
Yes! I've started brainstorming some ideas in advance. Just need to lay it all out and stick to it.
Awesome! Just subscribed. Looking forward to what you come up with :)
I used to do the same thing when I had an assignment when I was university. I would split it up and work on it pieces then gradually bring it all together.
I think consistency is really important. I used to send my newsletter weekly, but couldn’t sustain it. So I switched to every other Sunday. It’s much better, and readers know when to expect it.
Yeah I might have to do that, too. I was aiming for every Friday, but the last one fell on a Tuesday to coincide with the release of the book I was reviewing. I'll have to work out a new schedule and stick to it.
I review books too! Good luck!
Thank you! I'll definitely be checking out your newsletter.
Drop the link to yours too. Would love to check it out!
I've been having that problem as well! I try to focus on having a specific date that I send newsletters out, usually helps to have a goal in mind. What's been working lately is spending a little time each day writing a bit of each newsletter, so I'm not writing it all in one sitting. I also write about pop culture at https://theanchor.substack.com/ would love to collab or chat about what's been working / not working!
Would love that! Enjoyed your MoviePass article. I was also lured in by them, but thankfully switched to AMC A-List once more problems started popping up with MP. What would be the best way to get in touch to collab/chat further?
Any tips on growing your audience? I have a free, weekly newsletter and I had great signups when I started and no one new in three months. I promote the newsletter on Twitter and I'm happy with the readers I have, I'm just curious.
Twitter has worked well for me. As has google so make sure you’re seo friendly and adding links. Also the subscribe button widget from substack has been very helpful. I always include it.
Thanks! Also, your newsletter looks amazing and I just subscribed.
Thanks! I hope you enjoy it!
I've just subscribed too! Looks like a great newsletter.
Thanks so much! Let me know what you think. Enjoy!
Medium, Reddit, Hacker News have worked for me. Twitter as well. I wrote on psychology, strategy, and business.
My newsletter is free as well (plug: https://coffeeandjunk.substack.com/). Many have come through WOM. Nothing has gone viral. So every new person comes after a weekly grind.
Next I plan to give a few talks in local conferences. That might help. I'm not sure if these mediums would help you. Completely depends upon your audience. Many have leveraged Instagram as well, but my content is not at all relevant there.
Hope this helps :)
Does post/email frequency have much or any connection to free and paid signups?
Yes! As a general rule, and within reason, posting more often helps.
Anyone doing newsletter in languages other than English?
Yes! I am brazilian and I publish in Portuguese about Data Analytics and Social Media
I would love to exchange some thoughts when you have some time. Btw, I'm Brazilian too.
Claro, vamos trocar e-mail? gabriel@atlasmedialab.com.br
natasha.madov@gmail.com
I wish I could scale my images and gifs in my Substack editor :(
I use Photoshop for that. GIMP is free and is great, too!
+1 on the GIFs... most show up too tiny and don't look nice in the flow...
Quick question - any of you have experience with affiliate offers? Example - my newsletter is geared towards Youth Baseball Parents and Coaches...it's FREE for now, and I'm up to 450 free subscribers. At some point I plan to offer a paid version, but not yet. In the meantime, I'd love to be able to suggest certain products, however it's my understanding Amazon Affiliates doesn't allow affiliate links in emails. Since it's the winter time, I'm about to send an email about offseason training. It would be a great opportunity to link to a product if I'm going to be mentioning it. Any ideas?
How many times a week or month do writers post on substack for their subscribers on average
https://erlenddahlen.substack.com
How a Robotics student understands the world.
not sure what i’m doing here yet...but i’m doing it at deej.substack.com
“i’m like forest gump if he was from Queens” is how i describe what it will be. come, run beside me across country.
Recommendations would be great too!
On the Substack search page (https://substack.com/search) when I enter either of the key words in the title of my newsletter — "tech" and "talk" — my newsletter does not show in the results. Other newsletters with the same words in their title DO show up in the results, however.
Can you explain how your search engine works so I can be assured that keywords like this cause my newsletter to be shown in critical searches?
My newsletter, by the way, is: https://techtalk.substack.com
Hi Substack, sorry if this is repetitive and already covered in the past but ... will there ever be the capability to (a) list article title only and (b) tag articles? I don't have a major issue as my newsletter is new but I can see that as articles pile up (on the website) readers will want to be able to quickly navigate through a list of articles and/or be able to sort by tags? If this is on your radar, what is the general timeframe (weeks vs months vs quarters) for roll out? If it's not on your radar, can you briefly share the thoughts behind it? Realize the platform in heavily email disty centric but it seems like the website is still pretty important. Thanks in advance for this great platform for writers. I'm really enjoying it so far.