Migrating to Substack: A guide for TikTokers
Migrating to Substack: A guide for TikTokers
Tips for video makers migrating to Substack and taking back control of their audience
With robust community tools, audio and video tools, beautiful themes, DMs, improved search, and more, Substack is quickly becoming a home for video.
When you’re ready to build a better version of what you do, follow the steps below to get started.
Step 1: Create your Substack
The first step is setting up your Substack. You’ll be prompted to claim your publication URL and name. Your followers will likely search for “[Your name] + Substack,” so make it easy for them to find you by picking a memorable and searchable name.
Customize your Substack. You can customize your Substack by choosing different colors for your publication background, selecting from a variety of fonts, changing the publication layout, and adding an About page and publication description. When logged in to your Substack account, head to your publication’s Settings page and click “Basics” in the left-hand navigation bar. Then click on “Customize” next to Site Design.
Turn on payments. Moving to Substack means the ability to monetize the content you work hard to create and gaining full ownership of your audience. While creating your Substack, you’ll want to set up a Stripe account so you can start receiving payments. This should only take a few minutes, and all of the steps are outlined for you here. Add subscriber benefits to let your people know what they can expect from you as subscribers.
Learn more: How do I set up my Stripe account to start receiving payments?
Step 2: Craft your first post
Now that you’ve set up your Substack, you’ll want to create a post for new subscribers to land on when they visit your Substack. You can promote this post at launch to give people a flavor of what to expect and increase the chance of subscribers signing up.
Substack provides a great opportunity to grow and connect directly with the community you’ve cultivated, so share what this new endeavor means to you. Your followers know you from TikTok; tell them what brought you to Substack and what they can expect from you in this space.
Create a new post by selecting “New post” from your writer dashboard, where you’ll choose between a written, audio, or video post.
Step 3: Let your followers know
Now it’s time to spread the word! You’ve likely invested a lot of time in building your TikTok following, so make it seamless for followers to join you in the space you are creating on Substack.
Post to TikTok. Post a video to TikTok announcing your Substack. You can even give a preview of your first post to entice your followers to subscribe.
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—shelbiHQ by @shelbihq, TikTok @shelbihq
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—Bobbi Brown by @bobbibrown, TikTok @justbobbibrown
Link to your Substack on TikTok. To help your followers find you more easily, add a link to your Substack in your TikTok bio and video captions.
Ask your audience what they want to see from you on Substack. Substack allows you to connect directly with your audience in a more intimate way. You will no longer be limited by what an algorithm wants from you, so it’s worth talking directly to your followers to understand what kind of exclusive content they’d like to see from you on Substack.
Launch with Chat. The best way to engage directly with your audience is by using the chat feature. Chat is a subscriber-only community space for Substack publications. Creators can host conversations with their subscribers or allow subscribers to talk in an open forum.
Chat works great for weekly challenges, live chats for events, subscriber introductions, and more. Invite your subscribers to join you on Substack to take place in these community discussions.
Publications that launched with a Chat strategy garnered total subscriber numbers that were 10% higher than those that did not. Learn more
“I really wanted a way for my community to become a community for each other. I mean, we all like the same things! So I started a group chat on Substack for all of us to share fun things we’re cooking, tips, new discoveries, and, most recently, Cookbook Club. We pick a book each month and then agree on a day to make something from it. We go around the circle, introduce ourselves, share our fave midnight snacks, and then send pictures of the process and final results. It makes me unexplainably happy and now I’m crying.”
—Katie Zukhovich of the sunday stack, TikTok @babytamago
Step 4: Keep growing your community
Now that you’ve set up your Substack, crafted your first post, and let your followers know you’re on Substack, it’s time to take advantage of the Substack network and expand your community.
Post on Notes. Within your first week of launch, start posting to Notes. You could share a quote from your first post or post a welcome video introducing your publication to the Substack community. The more you interact with people on Notes, the further your reach will be within the network of subscribers. Ask connections who are already on Substack to restack and engage with your note to give you a boost. Learn more
Keep going. Set a goal for how often you want to publish on Substack. Your subscribers want to hear from you! Whether they’ve found you through TikTok or the Substack network, they’ve made their way to your corner of the internet because they’re interested in you and the content you make. The best way to keep them engaged and grow your audience is to publish consistently.
Learn more: How to create a consistent writing habit
Promote your Substack on TikTok. You’ve already announced the launch of your Substack on TikTok. As you publish on Substack, continue to promote your posts on TikTok to help grow your subscriber base.
Make a video previewing one of your posts or reading it out loud, and invite your TikTok followers to subscribe to your Substack to read the full post. Let them know that Substack is where they can go for exclusive, more in-depth content from you.
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—@longlive of Long Live, TikTok @erikaveurink
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—happy, pretty, busy by Jade Beguelin, TikTok: @jadebeguelin
Ready to start your Substack? Take a quick look at our launch checklist for video makers—your first post is just a few clicks away:
Are you a video maker and want to apply to be one of 10 fellows in our Substack Creator Studio? You still have some time to apply. Read more here and apply below:
Got suggestions for items missing from our TikTok migration guide? Tell us and your fellow writers in the comments.
Migrating to Substack: A guide for TikTokers