3 Quick and Easy Tips for Substack Success

Stop punishing yourself and implement these today

Hi,

Thank you for being a subscriber of Pubstack Success, where I share what I have learnt as a successful Substack publisher. 👩 This is me. 👩

Today I was reminded of three simple ways to improve your newsletter, for your readers and for yourself.

1. Make use of all available real estate

Real estate? I’m talking about on-page space. When we write a newsletter we naturally focus on the content of the email or post. But readers see more than just the post content when your email hits their inbox.

Headers and footers are important parts of every email. Headers provide an important introduction/reminder about why your email is in your reader’s inbox. Footers are a great place to ask your readers to take action (marketers call this your CTA, your Call to Action).

Improving your header and footer is a great way to improve your publication. I saw a major jump in free-to-paid conversions after re-writing the headers and footers shown to my free subscribers.

Use your headers and footers to show off your unique ‘voice’, remind readers about your mission, tease upcoming content and ask for shares, likes and comments.

To edit headers and footers, go to the Settings section of your publication dashboard, then type ‘header’ into the search bar.

2. Tweak your About Page

Who the hell are you, and why should I care? Your About Page is your chance to ‘pitch’ your publication to your readers. Make it good.

No matter how wonderful your About Page, there is always room for improvement. Review and update it regularly. Your aim is to let potential subscribers see what they are signing up for. Think of it like a book cover and description… you are trying to entice people to read.

Make sure your About Page includes:

• The mission of your newsletter;

• The benefits of being a subscriber;

• What subscribers can expect from you, such as your frequency of publishing, types of posts, day(s) of the week;

• Who you are;

• Why you created your newsletter;

• A sample of your best posts.

Take a look at these About Pages for inspo (thanks to Alex from Both Are True)

• https://refactoring.fm/about

• https://chrishedges.substack.com/about 

• https://emilyrnunn.substack.com/about

• https://robertreich.substack.com/about

• https://www.webworm.co/about 

3. Find a sustainable writing rhythm

All successful newsletters have a regular publishing schedule. Readers love predictability. With a predictable, reliable frequency readers know what to expect, and can look forward to your emails hitting their inbox each week.

My successful newsletter (not this one! 😊) is published once per week, at Monday lunchtime in my local time zone. For most of my readers, that means the email is sitting in their inbox when they start their working week. They tell me they love easing into work mode by reading my email cover-to-cover. The email content is ‘work’ but it’s enjoyable and stimulates their professional mind so that by the time they finish reading they are ready to tackle the challenges that lie ahead.

The publishing time is good for my readers. And it’s great for me. I get to start my week with a big rush of deadline, which stimulates my writing and keeps it urgent, fresh and candid. I do all my preparation, choosing topics and collating newsfeed content on Friday, and/or the weekend, which suits my lifestyle perfectly.

Whether or not your newsletter is weekly, monthly or some other frequency, it needs to be sustainable for you. Choose a frequency that works for you (first) and then your readers. Your readers are important, but if you can’t deliver when promised, your publication will falter, so it’s more important to look after yourself first.

Recommendation: choose a publishing time and frequency that works for you (first) and then your readers.

Substack recommends that you consider alternating content types to avoid burnout. For example you could do discussion threads where readers talk to each other, instead of reading a long email from you. You can approach other writers for guest posts, or occasionally deliver a short voice memo or video instead of a text-based post.

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No matter where you are on your Substack journey, it’s always worth reviewing your headers and footers, your About Page and your frequency of publication. This will help subscribers and potential subscribers to see your newsletter more clearly, and can increase your sign ups. Reviewing and perhaps changing your publishing frequency, or format, can help reduce your risk of burnout, so you can keep enjoying the process.

Have a great Sunday.