So good to see Terrell mentioned there. He is both the nicest of writers on Substack and is also creating great work.
As for my approach - last year, between seasons of my newsletter, to keep my list warm I republished a dozen "reruns" of my best-performing stuff from the first two years of my newsletter, accompanied by a discount offer if anyone wanted to sign up to paid before the break was over. I did this expecting hardly anything to happen, because I'd just run an end-of-season discount. But over those six weeks, well over a hundred free readers upgraded to paid.
The lesson for me there was: your newsletter archives are *living assets*, especially the stuff that worked really well the first time round, so we should be looking for ways to put them in front of the eyeballs of our newest readers, and not just passively assuming they'll find them on their own.
I do! It's a new newsletter, with the contents of the old one copied & pasted over, then edited. I was also sending these reruns only to my free list - but I got feedback from some paid subscribers that they'd also like to receive them, so I might do things differently next time (I just didn't want to do my "please upgrade" marketing to my already-upgraded readers).
Almost all of my best ideas come when I'm in the shower or in the car - neither are convenient but both prove that we're so much more creative when we're not forcing it. Thank you for sharing such a lovely post, I'm a particular fan of guest articles when people are on holiday (or in general) - it's exciting to find new writers!
I'm planning on taking most of July off. We have a very clear publishing schedule. The publication is also relatively new, so I'm working on getting things written and ready to be published ahead of time. Ideally, most of our articles would be (mostly) ready a month ahead of time anyways, so working to get everything ready for July before July is a helpful target.
Don't know about taking time off, but here is what i've learned about expanding your readership:
The best way for you to grow your subscriber base (turbo-charge your distribution) is to comment and share your work everywhere you can (subscribe to a bunch of substacks that interest you, and when you're notified of a new article go in there with something wise to say in the comments and put a link to one of your relevant articles). This serves three key purposes:
1) People see you saying insightful things relevant to the topic at hand and they head to your stack to check out your work. If they like it they'll usually subscribe for more
2) This is probably the most important thing you can do as a writer: the second purpose it serves is that you will strike up conversations with those who reply to you, and the creative process goes into overdrive as you consider a response and supply it. Probably more than half of my articles began their life as a reply in a comment section and then polished and expanded. People would stimulate a line of thinking and my insightfulness often went into overdrive
3) You learn so much from other commentators and their own insight and supplied links
Very true. I’ve deliberately tried to be more active on Notes and commenting on individual Substacks over the past 6 weeks. It seems to be making a difference to the total subscriber number at least.
...commenting is so much better than pressing the big ol' thumb heart...process your learning and share your connection with those who you read/interact...
When I take time off, I try and give some forward guidance to help my paying subscribers while I'm gone. I also try and give a short email when I can. I have found that any writing I do helps solidify the value that I provide. For me being a stock market writer, it's important to stay current so writing too far in advance is not something I can be comfortable with.
Most of my writing ideas came while I wasn't busy thinking about them, in situations like riding my bike, taking my dog for a walk, and even on holidays.
What is this concept of "time off"? I'm not familiar with this phrase.
In all seriousness, if you're doing something you love, you don't mind doing something related to it every day. That being said, taking a step back to look at the broader picture is important and it can be difficult to see the forest for the trees as they say.
I don't take time off from my Substack, save for a sick day or mental health break here and there. When I travel, I either still post during a quiet moment, or a schedule some posts ahead of time.
I always communicate with my subscribers when I'm taking time away, as well.
I am all for paid time off and I would happily keep paying for subscription of a favourite writer/Substack, though I do wish you guys find some solution for writers from India to earn from your platform — the Stripe limitations for individual creators in India means we can't put any of our posts behind paywall.
I’m wondering about saying on my substack somewhere that I publish weekly except December and August. I’m thinking of publishing fortnightly those months. What do you think? In my experience people are not very interested in healthy-gut eating or focus those times of year.
In August my stack will be two years old, and I have not yet taken a vacation. I post one day on and four days off, and I keep to that schedule. I think my readers have grown to expect it. I also think they would accommodate my time off. I don’t want to chance it. Maybe I am as dependent on the regularity as they perhaps are.
I've always been upfront to my community members about my scheduled breaks. I write to my kids' school terms, which means I typically write for ten weeks (Thursdays and Sundays) and then take two weeks off. I also take six weeks off over summer. I've never received any negative feedback on this, usually the opposite, where people tell me it gives them permission to look at their own lives to see where they might be able to take a break.
We're not machines, and people who care about our work aren't either. We're all just looking for permission to be human and I think the more we make this idea accessible (while delivering big-time when we are working) the more we're going to — for want of a better word — *normalise* our humanness.
My ideal plan is to have an stock of few post unpublished and post it while I’m resting or sick, or busy with family issues until that to post in advance that you aren’t available, when people is paying is best to put since the start of the subscription that condition.
So good to see Terrell mentioned there. He is both the nicest of writers on Substack and is also creating great work.
As for my approach - last year, between seasons of my newsletter, to keep my list warm I republished a dozen "reruns" of my best-performing stuff from the first two years of my newsletter, accompanied by a discount offer if anyone wanted to sign up to paid before the break was over. I did this expecting hardly anything to happen, because I'd just run an end-of-season discount. But over those six weeks, well over a hundred free readers upgraded to paid.
The lesson for me there was: your newsletter archives are *living assets*, especially the stuff that worked really well the first time round, so we should be looking for ways to put them in front of the eyeballs of our newest readers, and not just passively assuming they'll find them on their own.
Archives as living assets, love that framing.
When you re-post an old article, do you leave up the original as well?
I do! It's a new newsletter, with the contents of the old one copied & pasted over, then edited. I was also sending these reruns only to my free list - but I got feedback from some paid subscribers that they'd also like to receive them, so I might do things differently next time (I just didn't want to do my "please upgrade" marketing to my already-upgraded readers).
❤️❤️❤️ my friend!
Love this framing!
Of course. Why not? Writers are human too. Readers take vacations. You should too. Have a great time.
Almost all of my best ideas come when I'm in the shower or in the car - neither are convenient but both prove that we're so much more creative when we're not forcing it. Thank you for sharing such a lovely post, I'm a particular fan of guest articles when people are on holiday (or in general) - it's exciting to find new writers!
I'm planning on taking most of July off. We have a very clear publishing schedule. The publication is also relatively new, so I'm working on getting things written and ready to be published ahead of time. Ideally, most of our articles would be (mostly) ready a month ahead of time anyways, so working to get everything ready for July before July is a helpful target.
Don't know about taking time off, but here is what i've learned about expanding your readership:
The best way for you to grow your subscriber base (turbo-charge your distribution) is to comment and share your work everywhere you can (subscribe to a bunch of substacks that interest you, and when you're notified of a new article go in there with something wise to say in the comments and put a link to one of your relevant articles). This serves three key purposes:
1) People see you saying insightful things relevant to the topic at hand and they head to your stack to check out your work. If they like it they'll usually subscribe for more
2) This is probably the most important thing you can do as a writer: the second purpose it serves is that you will strike up conversations with those who reply to you, and the creative process goes into overdrive as you consider a response and supply it. Probably more than half of my articles began their life as a reply in a comment section and then polished and expanded. People would stimulate a line of thinking and my insightfulness often went into overdrive
3) You learn so much from other commentators and their own insight and supplied links
Very true. I’ve deliberately tried to be more active on Notes and commenting on individual Substacks over the past 6 weeks. It seems to be making a difference to the total subscriber number at least.
...commenting is so much better than pressing the big ol' thumb heart...process your learning and share your connection with those who you read/interact...
Great tips for the summer break! Thank you for sharing! ❤️🙏🏼
When I take time off, I try and give some forward guidance to help my paying subscribers while I'm gone. I also try and give a short email when I can. I have found that any writing I do helps solidify the value that I provide. For me being a stock market writer, it's important to stay current so writing too far in advance is not something I can be comfortable with.
👏 Can totally relate.
Most of my writing ideas came while I wasn't busy thinking about them, in situations like riding my bike, taking my dog for a walk, and even on holidays.
Perhaps this is the way intuition works. :-)
What is this concept of "time off"? I'm not familiar with this phrase.
In all seriousness, if you're doing something you love, you don't mind doing something related to it every day. That being said, taking a step back to look at the broader picture is important and it can be difficult to see the forest for the trees as they say.
Agreed!
I don't take time off from my Substack, save for a sick day or mental health break here and there. When I travel, I either still post during a quiet moment, or a schedule some posts ahead of time.
I always communicate with my subscribers when I'm taking time away, as well.
Nice to see the busiest of writers taking vacations and maternity leave. I’m curious if they pause their paid subscriptions.
Now that's funny 😅
I am all for paid time off and I would happily keep paying for subscription of a favourite writer/Substack, though I do wish you guys find some solution for writers from India to earn from your platform — the Stripe limitations for individual creators in India means we can't put any of our posts behind paywall.
I’m wondering about saying on my substack somewhere that I publish weekly except December and August. I’m thinking of publishing fortnightly those months. What do you think? In my experience people are not very interested in healthy-gut eating or focus those times of year.
You could repost some of your older articles. At least some of your readers probably haven't seen them.
That's a great idea!
Thank you that’s a good idea re the newer readers 🙏
Yes, put it on your about page.
I'll do that. Thank you
That's very true. Skipping those two months is a great idea, especially December
In August my stack will be two years old, and I have not yet taken a vacation. I post one day on and four days off, and I keep to that schedule. I think my readers have grown to expect it. I also think they would accommodate my time off. I don’t want to chance it. Maybe I am as dependent on the regularity as they perhaps are.
I've always been upfront to my community members about my scheduled breaks. I write to my kids' school terms, which means I typically write for ten weeks (Thursdays and Sundays) and then take two weeks off. I also take six weeks off over summer. I've never received any negative feedback on this, usually the opposite, where people tell me it gives them permission to look at their own lives to see where they might be able to take a break.
We're not machines, and people who care about our work aren't either. We're all just looking for permission to be human and I think the more we make this idea accessible (while delivering big-time when we are working) the more we're going to — for want of a better word — *normalise* our humanness.
I really like your terminology, of “normalising our humanness”
My ideal plan is to have an stock of few post unpublished and post it while I’m resting or sick, or busy with family issues until that to post in advance that you aren’t available, when people is paying is best to put since the start of the subscription that condition.