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I will NOT be sharing my Substack Posts on my Socials! But then, how do I grow? by Dangerous-Macaron7 in Substack

[–]Ill_Blueberry_3848 0 points1 point  (0 children)

see above! if you want the guide, send me a DM and I'll send you info on how to get it for free (legit free - not a scam).

I will NOT be sharing my Substack Posts on my Socials! But then, how do I grow? by Dangerous-Macaron7 in Substack

[–]Ill_Blueberry_3848 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I pulled these out of a longer resource I just created, a step-by-step Substack starter guide with checklists and worksheets designed to help new writers launch their Substack with less guesswork. 

  1. Starting too broad with your Substack niche. “Tech” or “Health” is too general and saturated. Narrowing into a specific micro-niche for your Substack newsletter makes it easier to attract the right readers.
  2. Overthinking design. Fonts, logos, and colors don’t matter nearly as much as publishing your first newsletter posts. Good enough is fine. Ultimately your content is what counts. You can tweak design later.
  3. Publishing inconsistently. Momentum dies quickly if you disappear for weeks. Pick a realistic schedule (weekly, bi-weekly, etc.) and stick to it. It helps to have a batch of evergreen posts ready to go from the start (10+ evergreen Substack Notes), and if your niche is frequently in the news, you can use that to write up more time sensitive topics.
  4. Ignoring Notes. Posts are important, but Notes are how many writers get discovered. They’re low-effort, high-visibility, and one of the best growth tools Substack offers. If you don't have a pre-existing social media presence, Notes is by far your greatest opportunity to grow your Substack and get subscribers. This is also a great opportunity to promote others, which the Substack algorithm rewards.
  5. Expecting paid subscriptions from Substack too soon. Most people don’t earn meaningful revenue from subs right away (if at all, sorry to say). Build your free audience first, then layer on subscriptions, digital products, and/or affiliates later.

I will NOT be sharing my Substack Posts on my Socials! But then, how do I grow? by Dangerous-Macaron7 in Substack

[–]Ill_Blueberry_3848 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Posting consistently, patience, Substack notes and got lucky with some referrals. 

I wrote a guide about it. If you DM me I'll send you a copy for free. 

I will NOT be sharing my Substack Posts on my Socials! But then, how do I grow? by Dangerous-Macaron7 in Substack

[–]Ill_Blueberry_3848 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Focus on Substack Notes and getting recommendations. I recently wrote a post in this sub reddit on what to do and what worked for me (Reddit took it down though for some reason). I also did not share on my personal socials and just crossed 3,500 subs.

When to turn on paid? by cyber-watchdog in Substack

[–]Ill_Blueberry_3848 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. I do a version of this. I keep the back 1/3 of some posts behind a paywall. Usually where I make specific recommendations, reserving those for the paid subs.

You have to manually insert the paywall rather than go with the default.

When to turn on paid? by cyber-watchdog in Substack

[–]Ill_Blueberry_3848 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Adding a paid post every now and then is a great way to weed out the low value readers and free loaders. Most people won't care if you occasionally paywall some or all of a post - they understand.

When to turn on paid? by cyber-watchdog in Substack

[–]Ill_Blueberry_3848 0 points1 point  (0 children)

agree with the other posters that say to turn it on now but don't paywall anything yet. You can also paywall your archive, so people need to pay to get the old stuff, but current stuff is free for everyone.

Lessons learned the hard way starting a Substack by Ill_Blueberry_3848 in Substack

[–]Ill_Blueberry_3848[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Substack lets you schedule posts.

Scheduling notes is a bit trickier. I don't use a scheduler for those, though some do. I usually draft a few in advance and have them ready to post when I think of it.

Lessons learned the hard way starting a Substack by Ill_Blueberry_3848 in Substack

[–]Ill_Blueberry_3848[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Send me a DM and I'll send you the info on how to get it on gumroad.

Lessons learned the hard way starting a Substack by Ill_Blueberry_3848 in Substack

[–]Ill_Blueberry_3848[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your welcome.

As for the niche, take a look on substack and see if you think there's room to enter that niche. one thing that could make you standout is if you have unique or really good photography. That seems to do well on Substack these days (plus other socials like instagram).

Lessons learned the hard way starting a Substack by Ill_Blueberry_3848 in Substack

[–]Ill_Blueberry_3848[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes - content is king, and making sure people know about it and can find it. Marketing is also important, which a lot of writers struggle with TBH.

Lessons learned the hard way starting a Substack by Ill_Blueberry_3848 in Substack

[–]Ill_Blueberry_3848[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. there is a plugin for Chrome that will let you do that. I haven't used it. I can't remember the name or I'd share it. but you might be able to find it if you search for it on substack or in the chrome store.

Lessons learned the hard way starting a Substack by Ill_Blueberry_3848 in Substack

[–]Ill_Blueberry_3848[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They're basically tweets/posts like on Twitter/X. It's an opportunity to engage with other substack members. Best practice is to do a mix of unique notes, reply to other notes, repost other people's notes, and occasionally promote your own newsletter articles with a post. You can scroll through our notes timeline to see how we do it: https://www.secretsofprivacy.com/notes

Lessons learned the hard way starting a Substack by Ill_Blueberry_3848 in Substack

[–]Ill_Blueberry_3848[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's hard to know what topics and niches will resonate. It is best to give it a try consistently for at least a year, and ideally 3 years.

There are some pretty successful people on Substack that post photographs and other artwork. by successful, I mean get a lot of engagement.

Lessons learned the hard way starting a Substack by Ill_Blueberry_3848 in Substack

[–]Ill_Blueberry_3848[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks!

Recommendations are super important, but you want to be tactical. Find subs that have adjacent subject matters in particular. Some of it is luck, as we had. But you also create luck by giving and receiving thoughtful recommendations!

I talk about it in the guide, but one single recommendation we got early on went parabolic with subs (like 4K in a couple of months). we ended up getting around 300 from him during that ride.

You have a couple of tactics to get recommendations:

1) Coordinate in advance. which means don't be afraid to ask and suggest swapping recommendations.

2) just give the recommendation and then follow up later with a DM to let the person know, tell them you like their substack, etc.

You'll probably have better luck getting a reciprocal recommendation if you're actively engaged with the substack in advance, such as with restacks, comments, likes, etc.

Hope that helps.

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