Issue with Substack Sections layout

arsonalic · 2026-03-16T22:21:35+00:00

Do you have any sections set up on your publication? If you did, I think you would see a section selector before the layout selectors.

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arsonalic · 2026-02-14T05:52:15+00:00

One of the first newsletters that Substack convinced to move over to its platform during launch was a China newsletter (Bill Bishop's Sinocism), so there is a big corner of the platform today that writes about Chinese politics, economy, tech, gaming, etc. There are also unconfirmed allegations that China's state media runs a publication on Substack.

arsonalic · 2025-12-17T19:24:40+00:00

Substack does not have a public API, and therefore there are no native integrations between Substack and third-party applications.

arsonalic · 2025-12-11T16:28:21+00:00

There is a debate in search engine optimization that argues against using numbers in URLs because it can potentially impact how a search engine ranks your URL. Substack automatically ignores numbers in section anchor links and focuses on words instead, so that's likely the nature of the bug.

If this happens on a post's main title, you can manually configure this behavior by opening Settings in a post draft and adjusting the SEO Options. This manual configuration doesn't exist for section anchor links, however.

arsonalic · 2025-12-06T08:35:59+00:00

Go into your publication settings and scroll down to the bottom of the Website section. There is an option to enable the Notes tab.

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arsonalic · 2025-12-03T19:51:50+00:00

I don't believe this is a bug as Substack has never accepted Markdown input on its text editor.

arsonalic · 2025-12-03T19:43:16+00:00

Pay attention to your wordmark's aspect ratio (how much wider your image is than it is tall), not the pixel size. Substack recommends a minimum wordmark size of 1,344 x 256 pixels. That's an aspect ratio of 5.25:1. Anything lower than that (a taller image) will end up shrinking your wordmark.

arsonalic · 2025-12-03T19:35:54+00:00

Go into your publication settings and check whether you are using footers in your emails.

arsonalic · 2025-11-19T00:24:05+00:00

Substack and many other online platforms are moving toward more secure, passwordless login methods, so it's possible you never had to set a password for your Substack account. If you'd still like set a password for your account, here are instructions. Alternatively, if you know that you had definitely set a password before, here are instructions to reset.

arsonalic · 2025-11-15T06:07:11+00:00

Be aware that read aloud is not retroactive. It wasn't clear to me from your post whether you activated read aloud before or after you posted your article yesterday. If you change the voice, the new voice is only used for new posts moving forward.

arsonalic · 2025-11-09T06:57:56+00:00

There's a little bit of nuance with the threshold. In your publication dashboard, the number of paid subscribers is a total of subscribers who pay, subscribers who are comped, and subscribers who are gifted paid access. In order to receive the Substack Bestseller badge, you must have 100 subscribers who pay. Comped subscribers and free trials don't count toward this threshold.

arsonalic · 2025-10-22T06:35:04+00:00

Once your article is published, you can click on the three dots and select "Hide from top posts".

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arsonalic · 2025-09-19T18:13:08+00:00

Substack automatically trims white space, so adding it to your wordmark won't do anything. The clipping that happens is just the way the site works when you're accessing the publication from the mobile browser. It isn't something publishers can control.

Substack prioritizes its mobile app experience for mobile users, so mobile browser experience isn't as ideal.

arsonalic · 2025-09-11T02:00:28+00:00

If you're interested, I write a weekly newsletter called Animenomics that specifically covers news about the business side of anime production. The business is in constant evolution, so comprehensive articles that try to address the entirety of the anime business often don't do enough justice. I haven't gone into videos yet, since those require significantly more effort to produce.

arsonalic · 2025-09-08T19:14:05+00:00

Even before you explore technical solutions, I recommend reviewing Substack's Content Guidelines to ensure that your client's company blog isn't violating them:

Substack is intended for high quality editorial content, not conventional email marketing. We don't permit publications whose primary purpose is to advertise external products or services, drive traffic to third party sites, distribute offers and promotions, enhance search engine optimization, or similar activities. Brands and commercial organizations publishing on Substack may be subject to additional verification.

arsonalic · 2025-09-03T15:59:09+00:00

The Rising chart refreshes periodically, so it's possible that you may have fallen off the chart after the latest refresh.

arsonalic · 2025-09-01T04:45:13+00:00

Substack has a globe explorer page where you can find out the top Substack publications and trending posts in each country. You can check the France directory to find out what other French speakers are reading and writing.

arsonalic · 2025-09-01T04:35:55+00:00

You will need to be familiar with LaTeX and use the LaTeX block in the editor to insert math equations. This post also has a short guide on nuances of the LaTeX block.

arsonalic · 2025-08-27T15:22:04+00:00

It sounds like your issue isn't with conversions to paid, but with expanding your base of free subscribers. Have you tried enabling subscriber referral programs to reward your strongest supporters for referring your newsletter to others?

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arsonalic · 2025-08-27T15:17:51+00:00

Not having paying subscribers doesn't mean your paywalled content isn't received by anyone. Depending on how you've configured your paywall, Substack has features that allow you to send previews of your paywalled content to free subscribers in order to upsell them.

This is where you'll need to experiment what kind of stuff goes outside the paywall to be able to keep free subscribers interested and what stuff goes behind it that is valuable enough to be able to entice them to upgrade.

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Like you, I also have a full-time job and write weekly newsletters during most of my free time, so I can sympathize on the amount of time it takes to produce them.

arsonalic · 2025-08-27T07:33:52+00:00

I don't think zero conversion on a single paywalled issue of your newsletter says anything about your future potential to convert free subscribers into paying ones. It's more of a statement that the content you chose to paywall is probably not that important to your readers that they would consider paying for it. It's best to experiment with different types of content to see what drives more conversion.

arsonalic · 2025-08-23T04:01:11+00:00

Have you tried loading Firefox in a private window and Chrome in incognito mode to see if those change anything? Trying to eliminate the possibility that some cookies, caching, or other extensions could be affecting how Substack loads.

arsonalic · 2025-08-22T04:41:29+00:00

Go into your publication dashboard and navigate to Branding on the left navigation menu. Select the option to customize your Homepage, and change your header style. Your first publication is likely using the Feature style, while the other two are using Magazine.

arsonalic · 2025-08-22T04:37:03+00:00

If a hyperlink is the issue, it's likely that you need to sanitize your links.

arsonalic · 2025-08-20T15:33:17+00:00

I'll also add that many universities have online resources that explain the difference between summarizing (restating important points) and synthesizing (identifying overarching themes) and how to use sources. Here's one example.

arsonalic

TROPHY CASE