4 Substack Things People Get Confused By
No-one can promise you'll be successful here or anywhere for that matter
Substack was super simple when I signed up in 2019. That was part of the appeal actually.
A blank page to write. Hit publish and email out to subscribers. Easy-peasy.
Now, it’s a steeper learning curve for writers.
Many of the changes are great. DMs I’m not so sure was a good move.
There’s a lot to learn and I’ve seen the confusion in notes and in the comments. Today I’ll address a few of the common sticking points.
What I’m not going to do ‘cause it’s gross and annoying
I’m never going to give you some perfect formula for being successful here. Or anywhere for that matter. We all get sick of that style of posting. I read one yesterday, not really realizing what it was until I’d already read most of it.
The first third looked useful. Then it turned vague.
What do you think the final third was about?
You guessed it. “Join my Masterclass for Substack Success. How to grow to over 4K subscribers in just X months!”
Ugh.
No-one can promise you success no matter how much money you throw at them.
Some tips certainly help. There are good growth strategies out there—like engaging in Notes. But a lot of it comes down to you.
They don’t know…
the popularity of the niche you pick.
how you’ll connect with your audience.
your writing style.
whether you bring an audience here from other places like Instagram.
and, honestly, there’s a bit of luck involved.
I know that’s not super encouraging, but I actually hope it puts the control back in your hands.
Instead of investing in someone else’s multi-marketing scheme, you can invest in yourself. Learning to use the platform. Getting better at headlines, formatting, writing, picking topics…
All good things you can learn for FREE. You know what you need to learn.
And we can help each other, too at BYW. The best way to do that is by asking questions. If you have a question and we find the answer together, it helps everyone improve.
With that said, here are some of the questions you’ve been asking this week:
4 things I’ve noticed writers getting confused by on Substack:
1) Can you make money here or is Medium better?
Which writing casino do I play in? It does feel a bit like that, doesn’t it.
On the surface, Medium and Substack are similar. A platform to write whatever—your favourite eggplant recipe or the latest neuroscience research. Or that time you deep fried a turkey at Uncle Bob’s and it exploded…
But you can’t think of Medium and Substack in quite the same way when it comes to payouts.
It’s possible on Medium to publish one essay, immediately go viral, and get a big payout. Hold up. I’m not saying it’s common. But it’s possible.
It’s also possible to publish 1000 articles there and get a miniscule trickle of coins in your monthly payout. Like a cheap slot machine in the back of a shady bar.
There are ways to win more often on Medium—writing quality articles with great headings certainly helps—but payouts are based on reads, not audience size.
A writer with 100K followers can still have a $2.05 flop.
On the flipside, a writer with 3 followers can have one-hit-wonder earning $2K in a week.
Substack isn’t like that. It’s a long game based on connecting with your audience. Less like a casino and more like placing your hat out for donations after doing street theatre.
Some writers may never earn much. Some don’t even put out a hat.
Others gather a solid paid subscriber base and can quit their day jobs. I’ll be interviewing on of our BYW family whose done very well on Substack in the next couple of weeks.
There are also ways to earn with affiliate payments, sponsors, or by selling products and services. (Just please—for all our sake—don’t sell How to Succeed on Substack Masterclasses.)
2) What’s the difference between Notes and Posts?
Lets switch to a food metaphor—it’s nearing lunchtime here in New Zealand. Imagine a post is your protein-based meal. It’s generally longer, more substantial, and can be emailed out to the readers who subscribe to you directly.
Posts are your tasty newsletters.
Notes you can think of as your snacks. They’re the “Tweets” (when that was a thing). People who “Follow” and “Subscribe” to you might see your Notes. They also might not.
Posts are a dinner party with invited guests, but snacky Notes can be shared more widely, and might be shared with people outside of your subscriber list.
This is important to understand because it makes them a good way to find new readers. A viral note can bring in a whole crowd of brand new friends to your newsletter party.
Let’s get into some specifics.
How often?? Because they’re not being emailed out, you can send out as many Notes as you like. Up to you how many. Consistent note making gives you more chances for a viral note, but there are no rules.
I wouldn’t recommend sending out a ton of Posts. You’ll flood your subscribers inbox and they won’t thank you for it. Anywhere between 2 a week to 1 per month seems to work well.
How long?? I have noticed some people write post-length notes. I can’t tell you yet if that’s an effective strategy or not. Time will tell. Experiment with different types of notes and see what works for you.
I can tell you one thing.
You need to do more than restack if you want to attract readers.
Use your own ideas. Be original and personal. Share your expertise. Share notes that make other people want to restack you! Go check out Notes (under your home page) and see what’s working for other people and get inspired.
3) What’s with Followers vs Subscribers?
There are two options for readers. They can follow you, where they’ll see your notes in their home page feed. Or they can subscribe to you, where they’ll see your notes in their feed AND get any posts you send out.
There are suggestions of people to follow in your home page feed.
Or you can click on someone’s profile.
Next to “Subscribe” and “Message” there are three dots. Under the drop down menu, you can Follow them, like one of our amazing BYW writers
who I’ve enjoyed chatting to this week.I already follow Rebecca so now the dropdown says “Unfollow”.
You can also block, mute, and report people which can be handy. Ultimately, you want your followers to turn into subscribers. (Which is where good notes come in!)
4) To have a publication or not?
You don’t have to have a publication. It is possible for people to subscribe directly to you, which might be a good option if you write on a wide range of topics or if you haven’t settled on a niche yet.
Why would we need to create a publication at all?
Well, unless you’re a celebrity, it’s more likely people will subscribe to a topic they want to read regularly.
Let’s take Lucy and her publication
as an example:
Lucy posts about single mothering in her publication. Her description and title make it very clear what we’ll be getting if we subscribe. Readers find that appealing—knowing what they’re getting.
It’s about valuing our readers time and part of that can be done through creating a clearly defined publication.
Again, there are no rules. Everyone has different goals and motivation behind writing on Substack, so do what works for you.
That’s all for today. As always, the comments are open to everyone, so ask anything else you need and I’ll try to get to as many as I can.
Happy writing!
Kelly
Thank you, Kelly :) It is a well-timed article in my case. I'm introverted to the bone, I've come out of my shell to share my art and thoughts but interacting in the 'Notes' section is still foreign to me. I tend to post a note, and run away :)
This sounded so peaceful when I read, "A blank page to write. Hit publish and email out to subscribers. Easy-peasy." It brought me to a place I would like to live and plant a seed. Though Substack has changed since you started writing here, do you still find it a favorite place to write?