I love recommendations but please take them out of the subscribe flow - I find the UX of this awful - when I subscribe to someone I want that to be as quick and simple as possible. If I subscribe and love this person then I will look at their recommendations... IMHO anyway!
Totally agree. I also don’t like that I can’t customize my tiers more. I do not want every feature listed in every tier. It’s too much text and I want different text. Also would like tiers to be different colors and have added pictures.
yes, or perhaps an option to switch to a question for the new subscriber: "click to view 3 of this author's recommended substacks" or something like that.
When you are using someone else’s platform, you are the sheep. 🐑 and take what they give you. 😄 but adding any new tint feature takes time and costs hell lotta money, even a like button.
YES — this isn't instagram, you need to take time with each publication before you can decide if you want it in your inbox. This is not a quick check-mark add on in a shopping cart flow.
It feels a bit of a hustle. I like to give a few fair reads before writing recommendations., Capturing "scenes," is it? I mean, it seems friendly enough, but could be overwhelming.
That's very interesting. I can only assume they're hoping it will work like Netflix, where it just shows you a bunch of shows when you join and you add them to your watchlist. But you're right, people are very unlikely to do that on a site like this, and just click on a dozen subscriptions or so, when they need to know exactly what the content is like first. They're even more unlikely to click them straight away if they're publications that have to be paid for... 😎
I agree - it does seem to promote tit for tat rather than honest and authentic recommendations. It will turn into the meaningless connections on facebook.
Yes, I agree. Everything else leads to overwhelm. Substack could also allow writers to decide for themselves if they want to add their recommendations to the subscriber flow.
I slowed down both my subscribing and recommendations in order to not overwhelm readers. Substack has great stuff, but no one has time for it all. I moved towards restacking and commenting on good writers in Notes. Especially the newest readers need to be able to do good searches, and be able to opt into recommendation pages and recommendations, rather than opt out. I have noticed that people are very afraid to give out their email address due to overwhelm. That's why there are alias email services springing up all over.
Yes! When I am subscribing to a new publication, other publications are not where I want to go in my mind. It takes more than just three new blogs flashing in front of my eyes to get me to subscribe, and I'm not going to get sidetracked by that when I'm in the middle of my own new discovery. Recommendations in the middle of the subscribe flow are an obstacle and a nuisance. Thank you, Richard!
Came here for this — I rage-smash through the recommendation flow without looking at any of it. I'd much rather have a way to view recommendations as a page within the nav — give the author some control over laying it out and blurbing the recommendations. They are an ongoing resource that can be referenced and promoted in notes instead of this ham-handed approach as a forced flow.
That is a much better idea, yes. If it was part of the actual publication, and you could browse through it at leisure with some commentary from the person reccommending them, that would be very valuable and would drive a lot more subscriptions... 😎
Agreed. A friend of mine just set up a Substack account last evening and was immediately overwhelmed by the subscribe flow. The subscribe flow also seems to have a bug; despite my friend's deselecting everyone whom she did not want to subscribe to, it subscribed her anyway. She had to go through her subscriptions and unsubscribe to each one individually. This might turn away new readers, if they have to do this each time they subscribe to a Substack.
I'm wondering if that's what it means by 'scene' and 'bundle'. Maybe if you Subscribe to one it does then Subscribe you to them all? That definitely doesn't sound like a good way forward, as people need much more control over what they're reading... 😎
I recently subscribed to someone and the flow felt never-ending. Screen after screen that I couldn’t bypass. Here’s an idea: why not make the welcome part of the actual subscribe process instead of it being a whole other thing that gets sent to the inbox? I rarely ever open those emails. Would be great if I could specify a separate email address where I’d like to receive Substack newsletters instead of it just being my account email address.
Yes, please, make it simpler. And keep reminding yourself that Substack is loved for sending newsletters, and protecting us from doom scrolling! Don’t get down the Follower rabbit hole please!
One of my new subscribers was quite irritated at having inadvertently signed up for the 3 recommended publications that came up when she signed up. She, as many, was rushing through the process and didn’t register that she needed to opt out. I have, in consequence, removed all my recommendations until the subscribe process is changed.
Thanks for your response in here. I’m happy to follow up privately on my feedback (made elsewhere in Notes) on this subject! Would love to see improvements made.
Just another person pleading with you, Substack, to please make the subscribe flow quick and painless. There are so many people I send my Substack to who aren't in the StackVerse and they're like, "WHOA, I feel like I'm contracting away my first born after all that!"
I agree. I'm always "skip skip skip" because I'm here for that writer alone at first. It feels overwhelming to be presented with three, let alone e.g. 15.
I agree that the process of subscribing should be as quick as possible. If, after reading some of the person's articles and getting a sense of their values, I feel I can trust their judgement, I will then visit their "Reads" tab to see what other Substacks might interest me. It's like making friends—doing it properly is a process that takes time.
Agreed, I’d like to see deferred Discovery experiences outside of the subscribe flow. Discovery Queue pages that roll-up our recommendations across all connections. Discovery emails post-subscription and in weekly digests (opt-out available), etc.
There’s also not enough context to make a Follow or Subscribe decision in the recommendation flow today. To me, it’s not something to be diluted and toggled on en masse without even reading the authors work.
This is highly dependent on the level of understanding with the substack platform and app. While I agree with you that it is clunky, you are making the assumption that substack readers and passive users know about and where to find the recommended section of a writers page. For example I’m an active writer and I don’t really know where this stuff is. I just happen to stumble on it.
21K of my 38K readers have come from Recommendations. It is one of the features that makes Substack an exponentially powerful connection engine, so I am happy to see you guys are continuing to develop this strength.
Something I requested a long time ago but I suspect slipped through the cracks is the addition of a page in the menu (with Notes, About, etc.) called Endorsements or something to that effect. This would then be populated with blurbs from your recommenders. Since we are only permitted to use 3 blurbs on the homepage, this would enable people to share all of the wonderful blurbs currently collecting dust on the Recommendations shelf. (Note that we should have the ability to toggle off individual endorsements if a more curated approach is desired.)
Another cool page could be Recommenders, and people could see at a glance who recommends you. This could get a bit cumbersome (e.g., 307 Substackers currently recommend my Stack), but if it's a simple list of linked Stacks similar to what our own list of recommended pubs looks like, it should be manageable.
Glad I found you here, Margaret. Your work is so important and so needed (just signed up) and your numbers are truly exciting 😇. So how do new writers get recommend by the bigger players? Any advise? And how do you choose whom to recommend?
Good questions. For the first, I would say it varies depending on the bigger player :-) I think some of them are likely too busy to search out lesser-known Substackers so focus on fellow big names, but others read and research more voraciously (like me—although it’s been impossible for me to keep up with all of the Stacks I follow, and I’ve had to make peace with getting 100K+ newsletters behind).
Here is the advice I give all writers/creators/artists as I can’t beat what Seymour tells Buddy in Salinger’s “Seymour: An Introduction”:
“Do you know what you will be asked when you die? … I’m so sure you’ll get asked only two questions. Were most of your stars out? Were you busy writing your heart out? If only you knew how easy it would be for you to say yes to both questions. If only you’d remember before ever you sit down to write that you’ve been a reader long before you were ever a writer. You simply fix that fact in your mind, then sit very still and ask yourself, as a reader, what piece of writing in all the world Buddy Glass would most want to read if he had his heart’s choice. The next step is terrible, but so simple I can hardly believe it as I write it. You just sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself. I won’t even underline that. It’s too important to be underlined.” (https://substack.com/@margaretannaalice/note/c-48942224)
So first you create the best content you can, and then you share it with likeminded individuals with similar passions and interests (via comments, Notes, and replies as well as off-Stack on social media and through publications that publish work similar to yours). Don’t bombard people with links indiscriminately—it needs to be relevant to the conversation. And just making valuable contributions to the discussion may pique people’s interest, and they’ll look up your Stack if they are intrigued by your comments, Notes, etc.
I probably recommend way too many people, but I don’t want to unrecommend anyone and hurt their feelings 😹 I tend to focus on writers who cover similar topics because I know that’s what my readers will be interested in. Anyone who makes me laugh *and* think gets bonus points, so CJ Hopkins, Jeff Childers, and Jenna McCarthy come to mind as top contenders in that category.
I also like to support smaller writers who do wonderful work but don’t get as much attention for some reason. And because I link to so many external sources to substantiate the statements in my content, I tend to recommend people who have proven themselves diligent researchers, data analysts, scientists, doctors, medical professionals, and observers.
Quality matters way more than quantity, and honestly, I prefer fewer newsletters given how overwhelmed I already am!
I’m way past my bedtime so need to turn in now, but that should be enough to get you going :-)
My readers tend to be highly engaged in terms of reading, liking, and commenting, but the level varies depending on the particular posts.
Open rate ranges from around 34% to 48% (the latter for the exceptionally popular posts) and up to 55% for the paid content since that’s going to a much smaller and more committed audience.
Interesting. I always heard ppl say that the referrals were not great bc they are lower engagement usually. This seems pretty solid. Thanks for sharing.
The more you develop your product the less I believe you're doing it for writers (stopped believing this a long time ago). Subscriptions? Followers? Influence? PLEASE JUST GIVE US A MOBILE EDITING SUITE. The fact that you seem to think writers are people who only write when they are sitting in front of a computer makes me believe you are very out of touch with your target audience. Even more concerning is that you're using your role to make us more concerned with clout over content. It is sinister. Please make it easier for us to create by giving us the tools to play with our creativity, starting with writing on mobile, and then give us whatever you want.
I have found that if I login to my Substack account via Chrome on my phone, I am able to access the platform just as I would on the computer. I have written, edited, added photos, and posted from my phone. I realize it's not the same as a dedicated app, but it does the trick.
I do this all the time, too. It would still be nice to have dedicated writing tools in the app, but it's serviceable on mobile Chrome (and I assume other browsers).
My computer died yesterday and I had to take a sick day from work and couldn't even work on my substack because there was no mobile option. Learned the hard way how much my ability to function in society is reliant on a laptop.
It’s so surprising isn’t it? You think we live in a mobile-first world, and yet… Most of my ideas come to me when I’m out and about, so I do most of my writing on the fly. Now that I’ve made Substack my home as a writer (on the basis of their earlier promises as a platform for writers, before they pulled a ta-da-gotcha as a social media platform), it’s debilitating not to be able to write *on* Substack when my ideas come to me. Considering how much they are obviously investing in their mobile product, it’s colossally disappointing every time they roll out a feature that *isn’t* for writing.
Besides writing in mobile, try opening chat GPT. Dictate the article. It will correct grammar and other minor mistakes as it goes. When you're done, copy and paste that in for the article.
A product at growth stage, is always confused. It’s a stage where they not sure what direction to take and they look around at other product features and they feel like they wanna offer the same features to their users too. It can be rather exhausting for a new startup. Been there.
I’ve been a product manager at a startup. A Series B company isn’t confused, it’s picked a strategy and knows exactly where its funding is going. Its go-to-market strategy was to position itself as a writers’ platform, offering a better solution than the competition which had already sold out to subscription models. That's how it onboarded its users, before it went in another direction; I imagine this was less of a pivot than it was the strategy all along. I understand very well that they’ve got VCs to answer to and that’s exactly what this looks like: prioritizing revenue over vision and mission. Yes, there's pressure for a startup to deliver ROI; it is exhausting. But that can also mean they choose investors over users. Those two truths often co-exist.
How about also adding the option NOT to show the recommendation screen to new subscribers? I've had complaints from people who felt pushed, and also from people who felt misled into subscribing to things they didn't want because they didn't understand the system, and those complaints are legitimate.
I'd like to be able to have the option to bypass ALL of the pre screens entirely and just have people land on the actual substack and make decisions based on content, not sales tactics.
Echoing this suggestion. I was looking for this feature everywhere in the settings only to find out it doesn't exists. The writer I recommend are pretty great but I don't want to make new subscribers first impression of them annoyance that they have to click past multiple screens I have no control over.
There are the "recommended" stacks for a free sign up and the "suggested" stacks the first time someone logs in. That may often be after they create a paid account.
When someone wants to "login" for the first time (as paid members will), they are actually logging in to Substack and will be recommended services I have never endorsed.
This is a huge issue. Substack just recommends huge services to help them growth.
I want a spot on my site for listing substacks I recommend, but I don't want an extra screen in the sign up process. I'm considering alternatives for hosting because I don't get to control the sign up process for a customer.
Checking and unchecking is great, but will a new subscriber be able to click on the pages recommended in the popup so they can decide if they’re interested before adding, or will it still be a static list? I’ve tended to ignore the recommendations during the subscribe process because I want to look at them first, but there seems to be no way to do that in the moment.
I agree with this. I need to first look into the recommended publications, because my inbox is already overflowing with all the interesting publications out there :)
Can you speak to general subscriber retention metrics for those that came through a recommendation and how long they remained a subscriber vs. those that came direct? "Choice overload", "default effect", "click through blindness", or whatever we call it, is a real usability concept. I'm curious if you're exploring direct connections from within posts instead of during sign up? For example, choosing to include a recommendations widget at the bottom of my posts that allows a subscriber to make a proactive engagement instead of reacting during sign up?
Second that! I would rather recommend a publication at the end of a post/newsletter. It seems a more meaningful and insightful option. Especially if that publication was relevant to what I was writing about in that post (although not always necessary).
I can't prove this, but I feel the dozen or so subscribers I lose each time I publish a piece are people who had impulsively subscribed because my newsletter popped up in a group of recommendations. It is a great feature, no doubt, yet I wonder if its success is a mirage.
Not a great feature, can't even review the various stacks before choosing yes or no. I had to learn early on to automatically hit no thanks, otherwise I'd be subscribed to many hundreds of stacks by now, rather than 30 or so.
It's rarely the case that a writer's recommendations coincide with my interests. Just because I subscribe to a writer doesn't mean I'm going to slavishly adopt their reading tastes and interests. That's the inherent, and wrong, assumption behind the list. It's also presented at a point when the reader is interested enough to subscribe, but hasn't yet developed trust in the writer.
I think you've nailed a major issue with unsubscribes, many probably are the accidental subscriptions, they weren't your readers to begin with, at least a proportion of them were mistakes.
Most of the writers who recommend my newsletter write very different stuff than I. I can't imagine anybody automatically liking my work because they like another writer's. It's very strange. I'm sure many people who unsubscribe from my newsletter do so because they don't like me or liked one thing I wrote and then hated the next. Some people find me annoying. I get it. But I do believe a chunk of my unsubscribes come from the prompted recommendations.
This looks like an awesome opportunity for writers to support writers and creators to the benefit of each other and the readers. Also a great way for me mess with setting and avoid my work at all costs.
Readers coming from recommendations should count towards someone’s Referral count. I.e. if I recommend X, and bring X 5 new subscribers, then I should be able to earn the referral reward for 5 referrals (e.g. one month free subscription to X).
That way recommenders have an extra incentive (on top of just being nice and a fan of your work) to recommend a substack - they can also gain free access to it if they’re recommendation brings in new subscribers
As a new writer I am already overwhelmed by all the email newsletter I signed up for and the many others which come with the one I am truly interested in. I am afraid this all will lead just to another social network of followers. And at some point we have to compete for the attention of our own subscribers again as they just have signed up for too many things. Recommendations also lead to overload which in turn will lower engagement as inboxes get too full and become just another doom scrolling field where I need to compete with all other voices. I would like to see Substack addressing this.
I think we are already there. This is my reservation when it comes to engaging too much on Substack. I have tried to set a manageable frequency and rhythm in terms of when I publish, when I post and how often I browse and restack others' work. Notes in particular have been disappointing. Longer residents on here urge patience. (I am only in my third month and publish fortnightly so I can't ignore their advice.)
Instagram and blogs were offering diminishing returns for medium to longer-form pieces. I came here to find a readership and share appreciation of writing (particularly around arts and culture). But is it a case of same problem, different platform?
The folly of the internet is having too much information and too many options available within a few clicks (and usually for free). Few people have enough discipline to be highly selective about what they subscribe to or open in tabs. We overwhelm ourselves, engagement wanes and with it enthusiasm to read.
I'm not sure what the answer is. Tighter communities bound by niche interests is a good starting point.
It would be great if all subscribers who arrive through recommendations are also sent a welcome email just like direct subscribers - otherwise they may not realise they have subscribed to your Substack through the flow process and think they are being spammed/cold emailed.
It would also be v. interesting to see retention statistics i.e. how many subscribers through recommendations stick around after receiving their first email/how long they remain subscribed. My guess is the turnover of unsubscribes is pretty high...
Ok but the recommendations feature is not user friendly at all. I see a list of writers/publications but can’t even click on them to be directed to check them out and see if I even want to subscribe. It’s just a simple checkbox and the assumption that because someone recommended them I too will like them. Otherwise I have to go to the search function independently and find the publication.
So annoying and such a simple fix that seems pretty obvious. 🙄
1. The subscribe flow needs to be super quick and painless. Don't frustrate a reader who finally decided to officially subscribe.
2. I read a LOT of different types of writers and I wouldn't necessarily want my subscribers to face such a wide array of stuff. Feels overwhelming and invasive in a way.
3. At the very least, let us opt out of this new feature.
4. Adding/Using the Recommendations experience needs an upgrade. Just yesterday I was trying to figure out how to:
A. Write a blurb recommendation—something I've done plenty of times and I still feel like I'm going through the seven rings of hell to find it.
B. Figure out how to show blurbs more obviously so new folks can see those juicy reviews.
Neither of these are writer-friendly or reader-friendly. Someone here mentioned "endorsements" which would be front-and-center — love this idea.
I love recommendations but please take them out of the subscribe flow - I find the UX of this awful - when I subscribe to someone I want that to be as quick and simple as possible. If I subscribe and love this person then I will look at their recommendations... IMHO anyway!
Agree! The subscribe flow has way too many steps.
Substack is kinda confused. They want to be everything for everybody. That’s when a product dies.
Exactly - and it puts people off
Totally agree. I also don’t like that I can’t customize my tiers more. I do not want every feature listed in every tier. It’s too much text and I want different text. Also would like tiers to be different colors and have added pictures.
Agreed! At least give authors the option to take it out
yes, or perhaps an option to switch to a question for the new subscriber: "click to view 3 of this author's recommended substacks" or something like that.
When you are using someone else’s platform, you are the sheep. 🐑 and take what they give you. 😄 but adding any new tint feature takes time and costs hell lotta money, even a like button.
I actually find it conceptually annoying:
How could I POSSIBLY recommend a publication before I even have the chance to check it out???
What would work, is asking me after I read at least a dozen of the posts.
NOT BEFORE
YES — this isn't instagram, you need to take time with each publication before you can decide if you want it in your inbox. This is not a quick check-mark add on in a shopping cart flow.
100% agree!
It feels a bit of a hustle. I like to give a few fair reads before writing recommendations., Capturing "scenes," is it? I mean, it seems friendly enough, but could be overwhelming.
That's very interesting. I can only assume they're hoping it will work like Netflix, where it just shows you a bunch of shows when you join and you add them to your watchlist. But you're right, people are very unlikely to do that on a site like this, and just click on a dozen subscriptions or so, when they need to know exactly what the content is like first. They're even more unlikely to click them straight away if they're publications that have to be paid for... 😎
That's exactly what I was thinking, Zork (the) Hun.
I agree - it does seem to promote tit for tat rather than honest and authentic recommendations. It will turn into the meaningless connections on facebook.
Yes, I agree. Everything else leads to overwhelm. Substack could also allow writers to decide for themselves if they want to add their recommendations to the subscriber flow.
That's a good option.
I slowed down both my subscribing and recommendations in order to not overwhelm readers. Substack has great stuff, but no one has time for it all. I moved towards restacking and commenting on good writers in Notes. Especially the newest readers need to be able to do good searches, and be able to opt into recommendation pages and recommendations, rather than opt out. I have noticed that people are very afraid to give out their email address due to overwhelm. That's why there are alias email services springing up all over.
🙏
Yes! When I am subscribing to a new publication, other publications are not where I want to go in my mind. It takes more than just three new blogs flashing in front of my eyes to get me to subscribe, and I'm not going to get sidetracked by that when I'm in the middle of my own new discovery. Recommendations in the middle of the subscribe flow are an obstacle and a nuisance. Thank you, Richard!
Came here for this — I rage-smash through the recommendation flow without looking at any of it. I'd much rather have a way to view recommendations as a page within the nav — give the author some control over laying it out and blurbing the recommendations. They are an ongoing resource that can be referenced and promoted in notes instead of this ham-handed approach as a forced flow.
That is a much better idea, yes. If it was part of the actual publication, and you could browse through it at leisure with some commentary from the person reccommending them, that would be very valuable and would drive a lot more subscriptions... 😎
Rage smash hahaha!! YES.
Yes please! I would love to have a recommendations page I could curate, and would love to brows recommendation pages from newsletter i love!
Yeh - I agree - a page for recommendations under your space
Agreed. A friend of mine just set up a Substack account last evening and was immediately overwhelmed by the subscribe flow. The subscribe flow also seems to have a bug; despite my friend's deselecting everyone whom she did not want to subscribe to, it subscribed her anyway. She had to go through her subscriptions and unsubscribe to each one individually. This might turn away new readers, if they have to do this each time they subscribe to a Substack.
I'm wondering if that's what it means by 'scene' and 'bundle'. Maybe if you Subscribe to one it does then Subscribe you to them all? That definitely doesn't sound like a good way forward, as people need much more control over what they're reading... 😎
I recently subscribed to someone and the flow felt never-ending. Screen after screen that I couldn’t bypass. Here’s an idea: why not make the welcome part of the actual subscribe process instead of it being a whole other thing that gets sent to the inbox? I rarely ever open those emails. Would be great if I could specify a separate email address where I’d like to receive Substack newsletters instead of it just being my account email address.
This is good feedback. We know the subscribe flow has gotten too complex over the years and we are actively prioritizing make it simpler. Stay tuned.
Yes, please, make it simpler. And keep reminding yourself that Substack is loved for sending newsletters, and protecting us from doom scrolling! Don’t get down the Follower rabbit hole please!
One of my new subscribers was quite irritated at having inadvertently signed up for the 3 recommended publications that came up when she signed up. She, as many, was rushing through the process and didn’t register that she needed to opt out. I have, in consequence, removed all my recommendations until the subscribe process is changed.
That's great to know Sachin!
Thanks for your response in here. I’m happy to follow up privately on my feedback (made elsewhere in Notes) on this subject! Would love to see improvements made.
Just another person pleading with you, Substack, to please make the subscribe flow quick and painless. There are so many people I send my Substack to who aren't in the StackVerse and they're like, "WHOA, I feel like I'm contracting away my first born after all that!"
I agree. I'm always "skip skip skip" because I'm here for that writer alone at first. It feels overwhelming to be presented with three, let alone e.g. 15.
I agree that the process of subscribing should be as quick as possible. If, after reading some of the person's articles and getting a sense of their values, I feel I can trust their judgement, I will then visit their "Reads" tab to see what other Substacks might interest me. It's like making friends—doing it properly is a process that takes time.
Yeah this is a super important point. I feel like subscribing takes time and consideration. You need to read their stuff first, at least 😅
I already shared this with them but nothing was done so far. Agreed. Some of the UX on Substack needs fixing
Agreed, I’d like to see deferred Discovery experiences outside of the subscribe flow. Discovery Queue pages that roll-up our recommendations across all connections. Discovery emails post-subscription and in weekly digests (opt-out available), etc.
There’s also not enough context to make a Follow or Subscribe decision in the recommendation flow today. To me, it’s not something to be diluted and toggled on en masse without even reading the authors work.
Really hope substack listens to this.
This is highly dependent on the level of understanding with the substack platform and app. While I agree with you that it is clunky, you are making the assumption that substack readers and passive users know about and where to find the recommended section of a writers page. For example I’m an active writer and I don’t really know where this stuff is. I just happen to stumble on it.
21K of my 38K readers have come from Recommendations. It is one of the features that makes Substack an exponentially powerful connection engine, so I am happy to see you guys are continuing to develop this strength.
Something I requested a long time ago but I suspect slipped through the cracks is the addition of a page in the menu (with Notes, About, etc.) called Endorsements or something to that effect. This would then be populated with blurbs from your recommenders. Since we are only permitted to use 3 blurbs on the homepage, this would enable people to share all of the wonderful blurbs currently collecting dust on the Recommendations shelf. (Note that we should have the ability to toggle off individual endorsements if a more curated approach is desired.)
Another cool page could be Recommenders, and people could see at a glance who recommends you. This could get a bit cumbersome (e.g., 307 Substackers currently recommend my Stack), but if it's a simple list of linked Stacks similar to what our own list of recommended pubs looks like, it should be manageable.
I like the endorsement idea 🤔 similar to LinkedIns version.
Glad I found you here, Margaret. Your work is so important and so needed (just signed up) and your numbers are truly exciting 😇. So how do new writers get recommend by the bigger players? Any advise? And how do you choose whom to recommend?
Aww, thank you, Almut, and welcome!
Good questions. For the first, I would say it varies depending on the bigger player :-) I think some of them are likely too busy to search out lesser-known Substackers so focus on fellow big names, but others read and research more voraciously (like me—although it’s been impossible for me to keep up with all of the Stacks I follow, and I’ve had to make peace with getting 100K+ newsletters behind).
Here is the advice I give all writers/creators/artists as I can’t beat what Seymour tells Buddy in Salinger’s “Seymour: An Introduction”:
“Do you know what you will be asked when you die? … I’m so sure you’ll get asked only two questions. Were most of your stars out? Were you busy writing your heart out? If only you knew how easy it would be for you to say yes to both questions. If only you’d remember before ever you sit down to write that you’ve been a reader long before you were ever a writer. You simply fix that fact in your mind, then sit very still and ask yourself, as a reader, what piece of writing in all the world Buddy Glass would most want to read if he had his heart’s choice. The next step is terrible, but so simple I can hardly believe it as I write it. You just sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself. I won’t even underline that. It’s too important to be underlined.” (https://substack.com/@margaretannaalice/note/c-48942224)
So first you create the best content you can, and then you share it with likeminded individuals with similar passions and interests (via comments, Notes, and replies as well as off-Stack on social media and through publications that publish work similar to yours). Don’t bombard people with links indiscriminately—it needs to be relevant to the conversation. And just making valuable contributions to the discussion may pique people’s interest, and they’ll look up your Stack if they are intrigued by your comments, Notes, etc.
I probably recommend way too many people, but I don’t want to unrecommend anyone and hurt their feelings 😹 I tend to focus on writers who cover similar topics because I know that’s what my readers will be interested in. Anyone who makes me laugh *and* think gets bonus points, so CJ Hopkins, Jeff Childers, and Jenna McCarthy come to mind as top contenders in that category.
I also like to support smaller writers who do wonderful work but don’t get as much attention for some reason. And because I link to so many external sources to substantiate the statements in my content, I tend to recommend people who have proven themselves diligent researchers, data analysts, scientists, doctors, medical professionals, and observers.
Quality matters way more than quantity, and honestly, I prefer fewer newsletters given how overwhelmed I already am!
I’m way past my bedtime so need to turn in now, but that should be enough to get you going :-)
That is wonderful advice. Thanks for sharing all that... 😎
thank you Margaret!
Quoting "Seymour: an introduction" is another big point on my scoreboard for you 😎
😹👊
Great advice. Thx for taking the time. 🙏
I second the last question 😊
How many actually engage? And what is your open rate?
My readers tend to be highly engaged in terms of reading, liking, and commenting, but the level varies depending on the particular posts.
Open rate ranges from around 34% to 48% (the latter for the exceptionally popular posts) and up to 55% for the paid content since that’s going to a much smaller and more committed audience.
Interesting. I always heard ppl say that the referrals were not great bc they are lower engagement usually. This seems pretty solid. Thanks for sharing.
Omg YES!!! Endorsements!
That’s amazing. Great to see it working for you.
These are both excellent ideas — huge value add for new people on the platform and huge value to authors.
See my points above ....
The more you develop your product the less I believe you're doing it for writers (stopped believing this a long time ago). Subscriptions? Followers? Influence? PLEASE JUST GIVE US A MOBILE EDITING SUITE. The fact that you seem to think writers are people who only write when they are sitting in front of a computer makes me believe you are very out of touch with your target audience. Even more concerning is that you're using your role to make us more concerned with clout over content. It is sinister. Please make it easier for us to create by giving us the tools to play with our creativity, starting with writing on mobile, and then give us whatever you want.
I have found that if I login to my Substack account via Chrome on my phone, I am able to access the platform just as I would on the computer. I have written, edited, added photos, and posted from my phone. I realize it's not the same as a dedicated app, but it does the trick.
Thanks Steph, I’ll try it! I’ve only tried it via Safari and have found the mobile browser experience to be awful. Appreciate the tip!
You're welcome! I hope it works out for you!
I do this all the time, too. It would still be nice to have dedicated writing tools in the app, but it's serviceable on mobile Chrome (and I assume other browsers).
Thanks!
Need one “clout-chase” free media platform….
It's time for writing on mobile. Please make it happen.
My computer died yesterday and I had to take a sick day from work and couldn't even work on my substack because there was no mobile option. Learned the hard way how much my ability to function in society is reliant on a laptop.
It’s so surprising isn’t it? You think we live in a mobile-first world, and yet… Most of my ideas come to me when I’m out and about, so I do most of my writing on the fly. Now that I’ve made Substack my home as a writer (on the basis of their earlier promises as a platform for writers, before they pulled a ta-da-gotcha as a social media platform), it’s debilitating not to be able to write *on* Substack when my ideas come to me. Considering how much they are obviously investing in their mobile product, it’s colossally disappointing every time they roll out a feature that *isn’t* for writing.
I personally want "sandboxes" where writers of the same style and focus can collaborate, but that's a pretty ambitious ask.
Mostly I'm trying to avoid "advice" that is actually someone selling their self-help guides.
It is possible to write from your phone. Just go to Substack via Chrome on your phone, rather than the app. It's not perfect, but it does work.
ooooooooooooooooo. yerrrssss
Besides writing in mobile, try opening chat GPT. Dictate the article. It will correct grammar and other minor mistakes as it goes. When you're done, copy and paste that in for the article.
Second the possibility to write on mobile.
A product at growth stage, is always confused. It’s a stage where they not sure what direction to take and they look around at other product features and they feel like they wanna offer the same features to their users too. It can be rather exhausting for a new startup. Been there.
I’ve been a product manager at a startup. A Series B company isn’t confused, it’s picked a strategy and knows exactly where its funding is going. Its go-to-market strategy was to position itself as a writers’ platform, offering a better solution than the competition which had already sold out to subscription models. That's how it onboarded its users, before it went in another direction; I imagine this was less of a pivot than it was the strategy all along. I understand very well that they’ve got VCs to answer to and that’s exactly what this looks like: prioritizing revenue over vision and mission. Yes, there's pressure for a startup to deliver ROI; it is exhausting. But that can also mean they choose investors over users. Those two truths often co-exist.
How about also adding the option NOT to show the recommendation screen to new subscribers? I've had complaints from people who felt pushed, and also from people who felt misled into subscribing to things they didn't want because they didn't understand the system, and those complaints are legitimate.
I'd like to be able to have the option to bypass ALL of the pre screens entirely and just have people land on the actual substack and make decisions based on content, not sales tactics.
It can be quite stressful for a new user, agreed.
Echoing this suggestion. I was looking for this feature everywhere in the settings only to find out it doesn't exists. The writer I recommend are pretty great but I don't want to make new subscribers first impression of them annoyance that they have to click past multiple screens I have no control over.
This is a massive drawback to me of substack.
There are the "recommended" stacks for a free sign up and the "suggested" stacks the first time someone logs in. That may often be after they create a paid account.
When someone wants to "login" for the first time (as paid members will), they are actually logging in to Substack and will be recommended services I have never endorsed.
This is a huge issue. Substack just recommends huge services to help them growth.
I want a spot on my site for listing substacks I recommend, but I don't want an extra screen in the sign up process. I'm considering alternatives for hosting because I don't get to control the sign up process for a customer.
Upvote ⬆️
Checking and unchecking is great, but will a new subscriber be able to click on the pages recommended in the popup so they can decide if they’re interested before adding, or will it still be a static list? I’ve tended to ignore the recommendations during the subscribe process because I want to look at them first, but there seems to be no way to do that in the moment.
But I do think having the follow option is helpful here—less of a commitment, so requires less looking into.
I agree with this. I need to first look into the recommended publications, because my inbox is already overflowing with all the interesting publications out there :)
yes, this increases the risk of not reading the 30 emails wating in my inbox already
Can you speak to general subscriber retention metrics for those that came through a recommendation and how long they remained a subscriber vs. those that came direct? "Choice overload", "default effect", "click through blindness", or whatever we call it, is a real usability concept. I'm curious if you're exploring direct connections from within posts instead of during sign up? For example, choosing to include a recommendations widget at the bottom of my posts that allows a subscriber to make a proactive engagement instead of reacting during sign up?
Second that! I would rather recommend a publication at the end of a post/newsletter. It seems a more meaningful and insightful option. Especially if that publication was relevant to what I was writing about in that post (although not always necessary).
I can't prove this, but I feel the dozen or so subscribers I lose each time I publish a piece are people who had impulsively subscribed because my newsletter popped up in a group of recommendations. It is a great feature, no doubt, yet I wonder if its success is a mirage.
Not a great feature, can't even review the various stacks before choosing yes or no. I had to learn early on to automatically hit no thanks, otherwise I'd be subscribed to many hundreds of stacks by now, rather than 30 or so.
It's rarely the case that a writer's recommendations coincide with my interests. Just because I subscribe to a writer doesn't mean I'm going to slavishly adopt their reading tastes and interests. That's the inherent, and wrong, assumption behind the list. It's also presented at a point when the reader is interested enough to subscribe, but hasn't yet developed trust in the writer.
I think you've nailed a major issue with unsubscribes, many probably are the accidental subscriptions, they weren't your readers to begin with, at least a proportion of them were mistakes.
Most of the writers who recommend my newsletter write very different stuff than I. I can't imagine anybody automatically liking my work because they like another writer's. It's very strange. I'm sure many people who unsubscribe from my newsletter do so because they don't like me or liked one thing I wrote and then hated the next. Some people find me annoying. I get it. But I do believe a chunk of my unsubscribes come from the prompted recommendations.
I like that idea!
Love this! I’ve found so many great writers through recommendations.
That is true, too.
This looks like an awesome opportunity for writers to support writers and creators to the benefit of each other and the readers. Also a great way for me mess with setting and avoid my work at all costs.
One suggestion that comes to mind:
Readers coming from recommendations should count towards someone’s Referral count. I.e. if I recommend X, and bring X 5 new subscribers, then I should be able to earn the referral reward for 5 referrals (e.g. one month free subscription to X).
That way recommenders have an extra incentive (on top of just being nice and a fan of your work) to recommend a substack - they can also gain free access to it if they’re recommendation brings in new subscribers
As a new writer I am already overwhelmed by all the email newsletter I signed up for and the many others which come with the one I am truly interested in. I am afraid this all will lead just to another social network of followers. And at some point we have to compete for the attention of our own subscribers again as they just have signed up for too many things. Recommendations also lead to overload which in turn will lower engagement as inboxes get too full and become just another doom scrolling field where I need to compete with all other voices. I would like to see Substack addressing this.
That's why I like following 🙂 you can still read people's substacks but you aren't inidated with a ton of emails
I think we are already there. This is my reservation when it comes to engaging too much on Substack. I have tried to set a manageable frequency and rhythm in terms of when I publish, when I post and how often I browse and restack others' work. Notes in particular have been disappointing. Longer residents on here urge patience. (I am only in my third month and publish fortnightly so I can't ignore their advice.)
Instagram and blogs were offering diminishing returns for medium to longer-form pieces. I came here to find a readership and share appreciation of writing (particularly around arts and culture). But is it a case of same problem, different platform?
The folly of the internet is having too much information and too many options available within a few clicks (and usually for free). Few people have enough discipline to be highly selective about what they subscribe to or open in tabs. We overwhelm ourselves, engagement wanes and with it enthusiasm to read.
I'm not sure what the answer is. Tighter communities bound by niche interests is a good starting point.
Would you PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE implement private messaging? I have to go to another platform to do this. Seems like you woulda had it here already.
🔜
DMs are in beta. This feature will come soon ☺️ I feel you
It would be great if all subscribers who arrive through recommendations are also sent a welcome email just like direct subscribers - otherwise they may not realise they have subscribed to your Substack through the flow process and think they are being spammed/cold emailed.
It would also be v. interesting to see retention statistics i.e. how many subscribers through recommendations stick around after receiving their first email/how long they remain subscribed. My guess is the turnover of unsubscribes is pretty high...
I didn’t realize they don’t currently receive a welcome email. That seems odd
I have tested it a few times with publications I have subscribed to through Recommendations and each time I received no welcome email.
Retention Stats - great idea !!
Why not give the same recommendation screen to "free" subscribers? Any downside?
Excited to try it out!!!
Couldn’t have made it here without you all 😃
AYNI ❤️🙏🏼
Ok but the recommendations feature is not user friendly at all. I see a list of writers/publications but can’t even click on them to be directed to check them out and see if I even want to subscribe. It’s just a simple checkbox and the assumption that because someone recommended them I too will like them. Otherwise I have to go to the search function independently and find the publication.
So annoying and such a simple fix that seems pretty obvious. 🙄
Same!
1. The subscribe flow needs to be super quick and painless. Don't frustrate a reader who finally decided to officially subscribe.
2. I read a LOT of different types of writers and I wouldn't necessarily want my subscribers to face such a wide array of stuff. Feels overwhelming and invasive in a way.
3. At the very least, let us opt out of this new feature.
4. Adding/Using the Recommendations experience needs an upgrade. Just yesterday I was trying to figure out how to:
A. Write a blurb recommendation—something I've done plenty of times and I still feel like I'm going through the seven rings of hell to find it.
B. Figure out how to show blurbs more obviously so new folks can see those juicy reviews.
Neither of these are writer-friendly or reader-friendly. Someone here mentioned "endorsements" which would be front-and-center — love this idea.