7 Habits of Highly Effective Substackers

Unlock the secrets of exceptional newsletters

Image created with DALL-E

In my years on Substack, I’ve noticed a definite pattern among people who are new to the platform. Some new creators succeed, but many are doomed to fail. According to Substack’s team, 84% of people who start a Substack don’t make it to 14 weeks. Wow. 

An effective Substack creator is someone who builds a newsletter publication that grows, attracts new subscribers, and delivers benefits to both the creator and their audience consistently over time. 

Effective Substackers have certain character traits that help them create and grow newsletters without giving up too early or overthinking the process. Each character trait is supported by daily habits, which reinforce the trait and make it easier to write, publish and promote a newsletter. 

Here are the seven most important character traits for Substack creators, and the habits that support them. 

1. Commitment

Effective Substack creators have committed to publishing consistently. Consistent posting is a cornerstone of success on Substack: no newsletter can succeed without it.

Committed creators promise themselves they will write and publish to a certain schedule for a certain number of weeks or months. And keep the promise. 

Habit for commitment: priority-setting. Make sure your newsletter has a high enough priority in your week that you will find the time to write and publish. 

2. Reader focus

A reader-focused creator can draw new readers in each week, and keep their current subscribers excited to open every newsletter. 

Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, includes the habit “Seek first to understand, then to be understood”. This habit is key to crafting a consistently interesting and useful newsletter. 

Effective Substack creators have a habit of constantly asking themselves “What do my readers want to experience when they open my email this week?” 

Habit for reader-focus: Every time you write, ask “What do my readers want from me? How can I deliver that today?”

What do my readers want from me this week?

3. Comfortable with imperfection

If posting consistently is the cornerstone of a successful newsletter publication, then perfectionism is the enemy of success. 

An imperfect post is better than no post. 

To publish an imperfect post, creators must be comfortable with sometimes shipping imperfect work. To trick to becoming more comfortable with imperfection is practising the habit of self-compassion. 

Creators who can publish an imperfect post without beating themselves up have a better chance of building a successful Substack.

Habit: self-compassion.

4. Self Knowledge

Effective Substackers know what they can realistically deliver each week, and choose their newsletter format accordingly. This is crucial to preventing burnout. 

For example, if you have a job with long hours and are raising a young family, you probably can’t produce twice weekly 5000-word essays without a major struggle. If every post is a struggle, there is a high risk of burnout and failure.

Creators who have the ability to set realistic work goals for themselves are more likely to succeed because they can post consistently and avoid burning out. 

Habit: Check (and re-check) creator goals against other life priorities

5. Courage

It’s scary to promote your work to strangers. Effective Substackers have the courage to put themselves and their publication out into the world every time they post. 

Substack publications that don’t get seen by new readers every week won’t grow and thrive, so courage is necessary for promotion and growth. 

Courage can be cultivated through practice. Every time a new creator promotes their work (no matter how scary it feels), the process or promotion gets easier. 

Habit: Practice putting yourself out there, share every post.

6. Good writing

High-quality content is a must for any successful Substack publication. If content is not high quality, readers won’t become subscribers and subscribers won’t stick around. 

Good quality writing clearly conveys ideas to readers; one idea per paragraph and with a mix of short and long sentences. Spelling must be perfect (use an app), and grammar must be good enough to support easy reading. 

Habit: Ruthless editing. Get in the habit of editing ruthlessly, cutting out unnecessary words and sentences.

7. Adaptability

The final trait of every effective Substack creator is adaptability. As a publication grows and finds its audience, it will need to change and adjust. 

Adaptable creators review and tweak their offers (their promises to readers) constantly: their About pages; their welcome emails; even the format of their publications. 

Some creators even pivot, making big changes to their publications to serve their audience better, or to better fit their lifestyle. 

Habit: Review your publication often, looking for areas to improve.

Final thoughts

Effective Substack creators use daily habits to support their goals and work. To build a thriving newsletter, practice setting priorities, focusing on your readers; being kind to yourself; checking your workload; promoting your work relentlessly; editing ruthlessly and reviewing your publication often. 

Building a successful publication is not easy, but it is possible. 

What about you? Which habits do you excel at? Which are a struggle for you? 

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