Personally, I love knowing *when* I should expect a post from a specific Substack. It's enjoying to think "oh, it's Monday, XX's latest is coming later tonight!"
Sometimes, I spend 5 or 6 weeks on one of my articles. I write Poetry too, maybe good filler...? I thought to try a daily blog post...? Don't know...this is all new to me...
"Things that don’t matter: your design, your title, your strategy, your growth plan, vision . . . most things. Things that matter: quality, consistency." Amen, Lenny.
Agreed. Your house is only as good as its foundation. All else is ornamental, which might appear enticing to potential subscribers, maybe even get a few to subscribe, but your designs and intentions won't keep people reading.
I appreciate the post is trying to help but I find it lacking substance or detail, so I'll share my findings (as it's about enlarging the share of the pie for everybody):
1) Use data from free email unsubscriptions to determine if you're publishing 'too frequently' (it is also a warning flag for low quality content). I've found that publishing once every three days (for my style of content) minimises the rates of unsubscription. In contrast, I found publishing daily drove a spike in unsubscriptions because the email notifications are seen as spam.
2) Use data from free email subscriptions to determine how long an article should 'stew' for. If an article is popular and you keep seeing additional free subscriptions, *don't* publish a new article, as the new article "bumps off" the older one. Instead, observe for when the free subscriptions start to 'peter out' and *then* publish.
As an analogy, it's a bit like a comedian who tells a joke. If the audience laughs, let them finish laughing before you tell the next joke. If you try to force the next joke, they either don't hear it, or you interrupt the laughter. If, however, the audience doesn't laugh... you need to tell a new, better joke quickly!
3) Don't affix yourself to a specific time. International audiences will have crazy different timezones. So your 3am publish might be their late evening. I've tried to datamine best time of day... it seems to be *for the audience* their best time of day is either early morning or late evening... but because of timezone differences, you won't be able to "hit" that mark most cases, so don't worry.
4) Don't affix yourself to a specific day. Unless you're writing something that is synchronised (say you analyse the DOW or you need to publish a report before XYZ event)... don't worry because readers will get notified. Yes, you could publish weekends only, but people will want to go outside, relax and do other things, where as, during weekdays, they might sneak a read at your Substack during work.
Quality of feed and an even pace (but not too frequent) seems crucial.
5) Oh... and market your Substack in places where it is relevant and people will be interested. If your Substack is based on knitting, suggest it to knitting groups. If it's based on flowers, suggest it to flower groups. Don't try to throw it out at random; find targeted interest groups first.
I'm not as big as other Substackers, but I am one that is built from the ground up.
Great advice, thanks. Really useful. I particularly get the point about time zones. I aim (just to give myself a certain working rhythm) to post early on Fridays. But as I'm in Tokyo, that actually means Thursday evening in the US. And nighttime in Europe. So there seems little point in fretting over timing.
BTW for planning my content (which are essays that need some research) I use Notion, which comes with ready-made templates for content publication.
RE: 4) the only thing you could do is to look at the highest number of subscribers for one region and time it for morning or evening for those, but to be honest I think that over time if you build a good audience then they will make time to read your content, be it upon immediate delivery or in the immediate days after.
I have only been on here for 7 weeks posting, and somehow got notified I was in the top 24% of posters for consistency! Think about that for a minute...
Nearly 80% of people don’t post weekly. Consistently posting every week is a great way to stand out from the herd.
I don't know how Substack can say they are promoting quality, long-form content but then also recommend a weekly publishing schedule? A good long-form piece will take most people at least 20 hours. That's impossible to keep up for anyone that isn't already doing Substack full time.
But you can have both. Part of what I took away is that you can be working on a long form piece and still engage your readers with quick updates or interesting links you’ve found while writing or even ask readers about something if you’re stuck. It’s about engagement, not slopping out content.
Write when you are inspired and have something to say. Don’t listen to this crap. Schedules are for jobs and the morons who you have to work for. One excellent piece is better than ten piles of crap.
Agree with your last sentence ... however, I moved from a blog of 14 years where I published when and what I wanted ... to Substack where I'm on a regular schedule. IMHO, my writing has made a leap forward and the idea flow is now gushing. There's something about always being "on" and looking. Of course, individuals are different and what works for me might not work for others. I do know as a reader that consistency is important.
That is fine. Everyone is different. I care about the reader but I don’t. I am not writing to please readers or provide them with things to read. I write when I am inspired to write and I have something to say. That’s it.. If no one reads it or likes it I am disappointed of course, but I really don’t care. I know that what I have done is high quality. And if no one recognizes this or appreciates it - that is not my problem. I just don’t care.
That's the lovely part about Substack. It is a long tail with room for all of us. I love that it's giving us a place to hear voices we might never hear otherwise. Keep on keeping on!
And an experienced writer says inspiration comes to writers only when and if they are working. So a regular working schedule helps.
But inspiration may happen while driving or after midnight or taking a shower; all inconvenient times - and will the writer remember it well enough by the time the keyboard or pen-and-notebook are to hand?
I think a routine helps, and some flexibility helps, too.
Everyone is different. My writing is part of and a product of my life. I believe the best writers are great thinkers whose pot boils over occasionally and their writing spills out for the world to see. I feel when my pot begins to be full and I then wait for inspiration or the moment when the words start emerging. This could be a week or a month. It really doesn’t matter to me. I CAN NOT force this process. I will not force this process. So a “schedule” or a time I must write or need to write is completely alien to me. If I did set up a schedule “to write” I would probably do everything I could to avoid writing at that time. So this is why I say; only write when when you are inspired and when you have something to say.
That's really interesting, Lawrence. And I agree. Those moments of inspiration are very special. And I find inspiration doesn't always happen when I'm at my desk. So I use the 'ho hum' times at the desk doing the other aspects of writing - which I find important - the editing the checking; typos, grammar, relevance, layout and formatting. Research, too. And hope the notes of ideas occurring at other times are good enough to work with. It's complicated at times, isn't it?
Thank you for your comment on this. For me, at the desk inspiration just doesn’t happen. The inspirations just happens to me during “regular” life experiences. They are like pop ups of feelings that seem to actually drag me to start writing them. So normally (not all the time) I write as a man possessed with lots to get out before it passes into oblivion. Yes it does get complicated and sometimes overwhelming. I have literally dozens of poems that are unpublished and lying in the cracks and corners of my many devices. I am going to get them together (I think) once I get my current project done. I will be announcing it soon to all the subscribers. It is a major undertaking. I am compiling 38 of my SubStack posts with the comments into a book. The formatting and transfer of the comment threads is a nightmare. I have worked out how to do it and have 5 posts done so far. I literally got a cramp in my mouse hand last night from working on it. Anyway I will be sending something out soon to announce it and get feedback on it. I don’t think anyone has done this before. And I may lose my mind before it is done.. it is terminally boring work but it is turning out really nice. So… nice to talk to someone who writes and understands the process of writing.
I schedule for my ghostwriting/editing business but rarely have to meet some minimum requirement. I just set a timer and see what comes. But when it comes to my newsletter, I keep a long list of ideas that usually come to me when I'm doing or reading something else. Having committed to posting once per week gives me the motivation to sit down and develop it.
Good for you. For me when it becomes "work" I am done with it. But then I don't have business of writing and editing. 50 years of being a wage slave has pretty much turned me off to anything that resembles a job. But that is me.... "I am just sitting here doing time... watching the wheels go round and round" (from John Lennon).
I love the advice here, and although I fell off this summer, the thing that has helped my substack the most is consistency. When I publish consistently, my readers show up and I get new subscribers.
Excellent advice. I’ve been writing The Bus since April 2022, publishing twice-weekly on Monday and Thursday. I’ve not missed an issue yet - mostly because I take advantage of the schedule publishing option when travelling and I know I won’t be able to work. Consistency is key - but it can be demanding. A schedule and calendar is essential - and it helps to have a very understanding family!
While I appreciate the intent of this post, there’s a lack of information and detail which makes me cringe. I’ll just keep posting at my own pace because it seems to be working for myself and subscribers. If it doesn’t work for them, they can unsubscribe. I think the answers are different for each writer, based upon audience and subject matter. I’m finding the writer comments here far more helpful.
I can vouch for all of these concepts. One thing to add: a lot of folks assume that having a routine means being boring, but I couldn't disagree more. My mind is focused on everything that's important since my day's activities are more or less identical from day to day, so hopping in to write first thing every morning isn't really a decision; it's automatic.
Make your routine automatic, so you can focus on the things you're passionate about!
Agreed. There is nothing as easy as a habit, so if you're serious about writing you should make it into a habit. I think that for most writers, the hardest thing is to get started. Once writing becomes habitual, it's less difficult to get into your flow.
Agree with the POV that "it depends." It takes your gut, plus your life, plus feedback from readers, plus data, plus guessing, and not being afraid to experiment.
Imho, it's most important to be authentic, consistent (however that applies to your situation), and enjoy the process. If there were a one-size-fits-most formula, it would be easy.
Relax, listen to some music that fits your purpose from project to project, and remember that in the really big picture, we're just people doing our best not to lose our bits and pieces!
I appreciate your problem. It is written in the runes they are hiding behind my essays under the sands of time and space. When I started 64K was a lot of memory now everything is lost in the clouds. It is said my forefathers were Celts not Semites when they fled the Basque country in 1492 when Columbus sailed the Oceans finding new peoples to slaughter in the name of Jesus.
I watched this often as I need a laugh to escape the American media. Enjoy! It is less than three minutes but it is still great comedy after almost two hundred and fifty years.
I have a consistent weekly schedule. When I post more often, I just use web-only and then link the post from my weekly mailing. (Can’t say that gets good click through though.) I can’t get past worrying people will unsubscribe if email lands more than once a week.
Feature request - I wish I could choose web-only with app notification and NOT email as a publishing choice. I think app readers aren’t always the same as email readers (and maybe have a higher frequency tolerance before unsubbing).
I’m shocked to hear there isn’t a “best day/time” to publish based on external data. I’ve been using my views to better determine when to post a note during lulls between publishing.
Should writers let the views guide publishing decisions knowing that current content schedules may potentially skew popular days/times readers are viewing the content?
I'm not shocked at all. It reminds me a lot of the harrumphing I used to see when I was hanging out on the eBay seller forum, with people confidently asserting (or just going along with whatever conventional wisdom they'd read) that there was a single best time of day or day of the week to start auctions, knowing that you get the most attention in the last 24 hours. Or that you shouldn't end auctions on major holidays or Super Bowl Sunday. Almost all of it was humbug. There are just too many other variables involved in an auction's success, and patterns change over time. Whatever works works, until it no longer works.
I am even more skeptical about Substack, because email is such an important part of distribution. Email can literally be read at anytime, at the recipient's convenience. If you're really that interesting, your reader will always find time for you, even if that time is not right away.
posting at erratic, schizo times is underrated
i sometimes make a point of posting at 3am, or like not for a week, and then three times in three days
always keep your readers on their toes
Thank you. I’ve been over thinking the times I should and shouldn’t post, but now I feel seen.
Hahahah this is relatable content.
This is also how I work 😂 when in a creative surge #cantstopwontstop
I’m going to steal schizo time and use it as my own, thanks!
I was awake at schizo o’clock this morning, so I opened my laptop and started writing. I don’t know who I am anymore.
One of the most successful substacks is about American politics and publishes after midnight because she has a day job. It's still very popular.
I’m subscribing just cuz this comment
Yes to this
This is the way
I'm leaning towards this idea as a newbie to substack. Are you getting growth in subscribers using this method?
Heh, not sure I could cope with that 😅
Personally, I love knowing *when* I should expect a post from a specific Substack. It's enjoying to think "oh, it's Monday, XX's latest is coming later tonight!"
Sometimes, I spend 5 or 6 weeks on one of my articles. I write Poetry too, maybe good filler...? I thought to try a daily blog post...? Don't know...this is all new to me...
LMAO this is the way 😅
"Things that don’t matter: your design, your title, your strategy, your growth plan, vision . . . most things. Things that matter: quality, consistency." Amen, Lenny.
This is excellent advice from beginning to end.
Agreed. Your house is only as good as its foundation. All else is ornamental, which might appear enticing to potential subscribers, maybe even get a few to subscribe, but your designs and intentions won't keep people reading.
I think the vision ultimately keeps you motivated on quality and consistency.
I appreciate the post is trying to help but I find it lacking substance or detail, so I'll share my findings (as it's about enlarging the share of the pie for everybody):
1) Use data from free email unsubscriptions to determine if you're publishing 'too frequently' (it is also a warning flag for low quality content). I've found that publishing once every three days (for my style of content) minimises the rates of unsubscription. In contrast, I found publishing daily drove a spike in unsubscriptions because the email notifications are seen as spam.
2) Use data from free email subscriptions to determine how long an article should 'stew' for. If an article is popular and you keep seeing additional free subscriptions, *don't* publish a new article, as the new article "bumps off" the older one. Instead, observe for when the free subscriptions start to 'peter out' and *then* publish.
As an analogy, it's a bit like a comedian who tells a joke. If the audience laughs, let them finish laughing before you tell the next joke. If you try to force the next joke, they either don't hear it, or you interrupt the laughter. If, however, the audience doesn't laugh... you need to tell a new, better joke quickly!
3) Don't affix yourself to a specific time. International audiences will have crazy different timezones. So your 3am publish might be their late evening. I've tried to datamine best time of day... it seems to be *for the audience* their best time of day is either early morning or late evening... but because of timezone differences, you won't be able to "hit" that mark most cases, so don't worry.
4) Don't affix yourself to a specific day. Unless you're writing something that is synchronised (say you analyse the DOW or you need to publish a report before XYZ event)... don't worry because readers will get notified. Yes, you could publish weekends only, but people will want to go outside, relax and do other things, where as, during weekdays, they might sneak a read at your Substack during work.
Quality of feed and an even pace (but not too frequent) seems crucial.
5) Oh... and market your Substack in places where it is relevant and people will be interested. If your Substack is based on knitting, suggest it to knitting groups. If it's based on flowers, suggest it to flower groups. Don't try to throw it out at random; find targeted interest groups first.
I'm not as big as other Substackers, but I am one that is built from the ground up.
Great advice, thanks. Really useful. I particularly get the point about time zones. I aim (just to give myself a certain working rhythm) to post early on Fridays. But as I'm in Tokyo, that actually means Thursday evening in the US. And nighttime in Europe. So there seems little point in fretting over timing.
BTW for planning my content (which are essays that need some research) I use Notion, which comes with ready-made templates for content publication.
All very good points.
RE: 4) the only thing you could do is to look at the highest number of subscribers for one region and time it for morning or evening for those, but to be honest I think that over time if you build a good audience then they will make time to read your content, be it upon immediate delivery or in the immediate days after.
Thank you! Very interesting, especially 1 and 2.
Great advice! Also, advice that actually makes sense!
I have only been on here for 7 weeks posting, and somehow got notified I was in the top 24% of posters for consistency! Think about that for a minute...
Nearly 80% of people don’t post weekly. Consistently posting every week is a great way to stand out from the herd.
Way to go
Congrats Ben!
Congratulations Ben!
Thank you for sharing this, Ben!
Way to go, Ben!!
that's incredible, congratulations!
I don't know how Substack can say they are promoting quality, long-form content but then also recommend a weekly publishing schedule? A good long-form piece will take most people at least 20 hours. That's impossible to keep up for anyone that isn't already doing Substack full time.
But you can have both. Part of what I took away is that you can be working on a long form piece and still engage your readers with quick updates or interesting links you’ve found while writing or even ask readers about something if you’re stuck. It’s about engagement, not slopping out content.
Touché
I try to post at least once a month. So far I'm doing great!!!
Write when you are inspired and have something to say. Don’t listen to this crap. Schedules are for jobs and the morons who you have to work for. One excellent piece is better than ten piles of crap.
Agree with your last sentence ... however, I moved from a blog of 14 years where I published when and what I wanted ... to Substack where I'm on a regular schedule. IMHO, my writing has made a leap forward and the idea flow is now gushing. There's something about always being "on" and looking. Of course, individuals are different and what works for me might not work for others. I do know as a reader that consistency is important.
That is fine. Everyone is different. I care about the reader but I don’t. I am not writing to please readers or provide them with things to read. I write when I am inspired to write and I have something to say. That’s it.. If no one reads it or likes it I am disappointed of course, but I really don’t care. I know that what I have done is high quality. And if no one recognizes this or appreciates it - that is not my problem. I just don’t care.
That's the lovely part about Substack. It is a long tail with room for all of us. I love that it's giving us a place to hear voices we might never hear otherwise. Keep on keeping on!
Sorry Bud! that is pure D BULL CRAP!
ccc
I am 73 with a bad heart - waking up is a great thing. So… I don’t care about much of anything but my dog anymore.
And an experienced writer says inspiration comes to writers only when and if they are working. So a regular working schedule helps.
But inspiration may happen while driving or after midnight or taking a shower; all inconvenient times - and will the writer remember it well enough by the time the keyboard or pen-and-notebook are to hand?
I think a routine helps, and some flexibility helps, too.
Everyone is different. My writing is part of and a product of my life. I believe the best writers are great thinkers whose pot boils over occasionally and their writing spills out for the world to see. I feel when my pot begins to be full and I then wait for inspiration or the moment when the words start emerging. This could be a week or a month. It really doesn’t matter to me. I CAN NOT force this process. I will not force this process. So a “schedule” or a time I must write or need to write is completely alien to me. If I did set up a schedule “to write” I would probably do everything I could to avoid writing at that time. So this is why I say; only write when when you are inspired and when you have something to say.
That's really interesting, Lawrence. And I agree. Those moments of inspiration are very special. And I find inspiration doesn't always happen when I'm at my desk. So I use the 'ho hum' times at the desk doing the other aspects of writing - which I find important - the editing the checking; typos, grammar, relevance, layout and formatting. Research, too. And hope the notes of ideas occurring at other times are good enough to work with. It's complicated at times, isn't it?
Thank you for your comment on this. For me, at the desk inspiration just doesn’t happen. The inspirations just happens to me during “regular” life experiences. They are like pop ups of feelings that seem to actually drag me to start writing them. So normally (not all the time) I write as a man possessed with lots to get out before it passes into oblivion. Yes it does get complicated and sometimes overwhelming. I have literally dozens of poems that are unpublished and lying in the cracks and corners of my many devices. I am going to get them together (I think) once I get my current project done. I will be announcing it soon to all the subscribers. It is a major undertaking. I am compiling 38 of my SubStack posts with the comments into a book. The formatting and transfer of the comment threads is a nightmare. I have worked out how to do it and have 5 posts done so far. I literally got a cramp in my mouse hand last night from working on it. Anyway I will be sending something out soon to announce it and get feedback on it. I don’t think anyone has done this before. And I may lose my mind before it is done.. it is terminally boring work but it is turning out really nice. So… nice to talk to someone who writes and understands the process of writing.
I schedule for my ghostwriting/editing business but rarely have to meet some minimum requirement. I just set a timer and see what comes. But when it comes to my newsletter, I keep a long list of ideas that usually come to me when I'm doing or reading something else. Having committed to posting once per week gives me the motivation to sit down and develop it.
Good for you. For me when it becomes "work" I am done with it. But then I don't have business of writing and editing. 50 years of being a wage slave has pretty much turned me off to anything that resembles a job. But that is me.... "I am just sitting here doing time... watching the wheels go round and round" (from John Lennon).
I love the advice here, and although I fell off this summer, the thing that has helped my substack the most is consistency. When I publish consistently, my readers show up and I get new subscribers.
Art isnt scheduled.
The creation of such isnt regulated by the fluctuating frequency of cesium atoms.
It is as Buk put it- Poetry is a hot beer shit.
This is more spammy crap from substack-
Art isn't scheduled, but showing up is. Odd comment for something that was given to you for free.
Made you look didn't I... Kind of a sucker game. Ain't it?
Don't feel bad. It's not the first time you've been trolled. You voted for Trump so you trolled yourself.
Excellent advice. I’ve been writing The Bus since April 2022, publishing twice-weekly on Monday and Thursday. I’ve not missed an issue yet - mostly because I take advantage of the schedule publishing option when travelling and I know I won’t be able to work. Consistency is key - but it can be demanding. A schedule and calendar is essential - and it helps to have a very understanding family!
While I appreciate the intent of this post, there’s a lack of information and detail which makes me cringe. I’ll just keep posting at my own pace because it seems to be working for myself and subscribers. If it doesn’t work for them, they can unsubscribe. I think the answers are different for each writer, based upon audience and subject matter. I’m finding the writer comments here far more helpful.
I can vouch for all of these concepts. One thing to add: a lot of folks assume that having a routine means being boring, but I couldn't disagree more. My mind is focused on everything that's important since my day's activities are more or less identical from day to day, so hopping in to write first thing every morning isn't really a decision; it's automatic.
Make your routine automatic, so you can focus on the things you're passionate about!
Agreed. There is nothing as easy as a habit, so if you're serious about writing you should make it into a habit. I think that for most writers, the hardest thing is to get started. Once writing becomes habitual, it's less difficult to get into your flow.
Agree with the POV that "it depends." It takes your gut, plus your life, plus feedback from readers, plus data, plus guessing, and not being afraid to experiment.
Imho, it's most important to be authentic, consistent (however that applies to your situation), and enjoy the process. If there were a one-size-fits-most formula, it would be easy.
Relax, listen to some music that fits your purpose from project to project, and remember that in the really big picture, we're just people doing our best not to lose our bits and pieces!
I continue trying to figure out how to post essays. I wrote an introduction several days go and I cannot find it. Did it disappear into the ether?
See your drafts.
You posted a Note. Sign up as a subscriber to your newsletter to know when you succeed in posting.
Thank you! Yep, I found it under "Notes". Now to the next step! 😂 Not the fastest learner on these things.
Just so I am clear: I must subscribe to my own Substack in order for my commentaries to be posted and read by others?
No.
I appreciate your problem. It is written in the runes they are hiding behind my essays under the sands of time and space. When I started 64K was a lot of memory now everything is lost in the clouds. It is said my forefathers were Celts not Semites when they fled the Basque country in 1492 when Columbus sailed the Oceans finding new peoples to slaughter in the name of Jesus.
I watched this often as I need a laugh to escape the American media. Enjoy! It is less than three minutes but it is still great comedy after almost two hundred and fifty years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsC-Aumx4dk&t=7s
I have a consistent weekly schedule. When I post more often, I just use web-only and then link the post from my weekly mailing. (Can’t say that gets good click through though.) I can’t get past worrying people will unsubscribe if email lands more than once a week.
Feature request - I wish I could choose web-only with app notification and NOT email as a publishing choice. I think app readers aren’t always the same as email readers (and maybe have a higher frequency tolerance before unsubbing).
I’m shocked to hear there isn’t a “best day/time” to publish based on external data. I’ve been using my views to better determine when to post a note during lulls between publishing.
Should writers let the views guide publishing decisions knowing that current content schedules may potentially skew popular days/times readers are viewing the content?
I'm not shocked at all. It reminds me a lot of the harrumphing I used to see when I was hanging out on the eBay seller forum, with people confidently asserting (or just going along with whatever conventional wisdom they'd read) that there was a single best time of day or day of the week to start auctions, knowing that you get the most attention in the last 24 hours. Or that you shouldn't end auctions on major holidays or Super Bowl Sunday. Almost all of it was humbug. There are just too many other variables involved in an auction's success, and patterns change over time. Whatever works works, until it no longer works.
I am even more skeptical about Substack, because email is such an important part of distribution. Email can literally be read at anytime, at the recipient's convenience. If you're really that interesting, your reader will always find time for you, even if that time is not right away.