Hey Substackers, happy New Year!
If you’re keen to up your game this year, here are the top 4 things you can do to get closer to your Substack goals in 2025.
But first, by popular demand, I’m delighted to announce the launch of my first Substack Power-up Workshop, which starts on 30th Jan. It’s going to be a close-knit group of Substack writers who are ready to kick off their growth in 2025 together, with my expert guidance (it costs money). Learn more about the workshop here
Okay, pitch over, what are my top recommendations for kicking your Substack into a higher gear in 2025?
1. Seek (and give) recommendations
Recommendations are a top Substack superpower and one of the main reasons established creators are flocking to Substack from other platforms like ConvertKit, Wordpress and Beehiv.
I’ve gained more than 2,000 subscribers from recommendations in the past 2 years, with (almost) zero effort.
The recommendations feature allows Substack creators to publicly recommend each other’s work. Recommendations from other writers give your publication authority and help you grow. It’s not uncommon for a Substack publication to get more than one-quarter of its subscribers from recommendations.
Know those pesky extra publications Substack encourages you to join when you sign up to a new publication? That’s the recommendations feature in action.
Recommendations also appear on welcome pages in the form of testimonials.
Recommendations are particularly powerful if your ideal reader is already hanging out on Substack already. If that’s you then recommendations are probably the single biggest thing you can do to super-charge your growth in 2025.
Recommendations might be the single biggest thing you can do to super-charge your growth
The key to unlocking the power of recommendations is to create real connections with other creators. The most powerful recommendations come from creators who have a similar audience demographic to your publication but many more subscribers.
How to get recommendations
The best way to get recommendations is to create top-quality work that other Substack creators enjoy and want to share (sorry, no short-cut-y hacks here). Of course, you need them to discover your work first.
One way to get noticed by other creators is to comment on their work and start meaningful conversations with them on the platform.
Another way is to recommend their publications. It goes without saying that you should only do this if you truly value them and think they would be a good fit for your audience. Readers easily sniff out insincerity and will quickly lose faith if they suspect you are engaged in a recommendation freebie swap-fest.
Top tip: When you recommend someone else’s publication, always include a one or two-sentence reason. The creator can add it to their welcome page, which is a valuable form of social proof to help them convert casual readers into subscribers.
Recommendations are a way to ‘pay it forward’ and build supportive relationships with other creators on Substack. Creators you have recommended are more likely to recommend you and this could be the start of a powerful collaboration.
Publications that have smaller numbers of subscribers than you will particularly appreciate a recommendation. And who knows, maybe one day they will become huge and send thousands of readers your way.
To recommend a publication click ‘Manage’ on the recommendations tab in your dashboard.
Publication Dashboard > Recommendations (tab) > Manage (button) > + Add recommendation (button)
2. Update your About page and Hero post
Been publishing on Substack for a while? You’ve become a better writer, I guarantee it. That means you can do a better job with your About page and Hero post now than when you wrote them a few months (or years) ago.
About pages and Hero posts generate more subscriptions than any other pages on my publications. They exist to answer readers’ questions about who you are and inspire readers to support you in your mission to deliver great content each week.
Updating them is seriously worth the hour or two it will take. You’ll enjoy extra growth and as a bonus, the process will likely leave you feeling reinvigorated about your mission too!
3. Use better CTAs
CTAs - calls to action - are an oft-overlooked element of all online creations. Some Substack writers treat CTAs as if they are a dirty stain on their creative ventures and shy away from using them to their full potential. Their thinking: salesy-sounding phrases make their publication seem spammy or make them appear like they are a sell-out.
If you’re hesitant about calls to action, and not using them as often as you know you should, you’re doing yourself a serious disservice. Effective calls to action will absolutely change the trajectory of your Substack, bringing you more subscribers, more shares and more paying readers.
So what is an effective call to action? It’s not just a request for your readers to do something, it’s also an offer of something valuable in return.
When you ask your readers to do something - for example, subscribe or upgrade to paid - you are also offering them something in exchange. If they become your subscribers or your supporters, you will be helping them with your knowledge, or making their lives better with your beautiful creations, or giving them the joy of rewarding an artist they appreciate.
The trick is to make that exchange explicit in your CTAs. So rather than asking your readers to take an action, tell your readers to take an action and describe the valuable thing they will get from you in return.
Example:
Not “Subscribe for free to get my emails”
But “Subscribe for free to get insights from the best writers on the planet every Friday”
Example:
Not “Upgrade to paid”
But “Become a paying subscriber and support independent, ad-free journalism”
If you craft every call to action with the value explained in plain language, you will be able to help more people more easily. And you can stop feeling like every CTA is a spammy sales request.
You don’t have to sell your soul at the door to ask your readers to do something that will make their lives better.
4. Join a group of like-minded creators
If working on your About page and CTAs all by yourself sounds like hard work, why not do it as part of a small group? Small groups are a great place to learn together, brainstorm to unlock new ideas, and meet other creators for collaborations.
You might even find another creator to recommend your publication.
I’m hosting a workshop for 10 creators starting on 30th January, and you can join us if you get in early.
Learn how to join the group here
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Okay, that’s it for this week. Thanks for being here with me as we start 2025 on Substack together.
See you next week,
Karen
Thank you for all the great advice! Just yesterday I finished updating my About page and the hero post, and will update those regularly. Thank you!
Some great tips, thanks. I tend to forget the importance of recommendations, for example. Another email tagged for deep ler attention 👍