Hard Questions to Ask As a Substack Creator

5 reasons your publication might be failing to thrive

Hiya,

Hope you’re doing great. Today’s post was inspired by something I saw on Notes recently. It is also the final part of my series Your publication needs work (but where to start)? If you missed the earlier posts in the series, you can find them in my tutorials playlist.

Substack Notes is not somewhere I hang out much, but I do enjoy checking it out every now and then. Recently, I saw a post on Notes that was witty and kind of sad.

The author of the note celebrated how he had reached 0 paying subscribers - yes zero (hashtag #winning) - by shutting down his paid offer and refunding any remaining subscriptions.

Why? Because he was spending too many extra hours creating paid content that only a handful of people would ever see. Arp. No one wants that.

The answer for him was to get rid of paid subscriptions, which got him 20 hours of time back in his week and reduced his stress levels. That’s smart. Smart and sad, because he was obviously hoping for a better outcome.

To read the whole post, click the preview below, which will open Notes.

There are a lot of super-talented writers who just don’t find their way when it comes to monetising their talents on Substack. And often they are doing ‘everything’ right. Except things don’t quite work out.

… which brings me to the topic of today’s post.

I’m going to ask you some hard questions about your publication.  They get right to the heart of what you are doing on Substack and what you think you can achieve with it. They are also an important part of my popular Substack audits and self-guided audits.

These five questions go beyond typical Substack advice like posting high-quality content and instead explore some of the less obvious reasons that publications don’t succeed, starting with one about your ‘offer’.

They are designed to get you thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of your Substack publication and show you possible tweaks that might help with growth and success.

1. Is your offer solid?

Your offer is what you are giving to your subscribers, both free and paid. A solid offer is one that your readers understand and value. If your offer is not solid you will struggle to convert casual readers into subscribers and free subscribers into paying subscribers.

A solid offer solves a problem for a specific group of people. If you can’t describe exactly what your publication does for its subscribers you might have an offer problem.

Good news: offer problems are easy to fix. Discover how to review and refine your offer in this post:

The Offer (This is the Biggest Mistake I'm Seeing Substack Creators Make Right Now)

2. Are you clear about your mission?

Why are you here on Substack? Do you want to help people? Make friends with other creators? Earn serious money from subscriptions, or promote other products and services?

It’s impossible to make good decisions about your publication if you aren’t clear on your mission. And your befuddlement can be sensed by readers too. Getting clear about your mission will help you know what to write about each week, how long to make your posts, and how hard to push for paying subscribers.

Tip: If you’re on Substack to ‘play around and practice writing’ your publication probably won’t become a bestseller. Successful publications have their reader’s needs at the heart of their mission.

So what is your mission, for yourself and for your readers? If you aren’t clear on that, take a moment to figure it out. Then write it down and stick it to your screen. Make sure it’s clearly described in your About page and Hero post too.

3. Are you delivering on your promise to your readers with every email?

Delivering on your promise is how you build trust with your subscribers. Without trust your subscribers won’t want to take the next step with you, whether that’s buying your book or signing up to a coaching session or upgrading to a paid subscription.

Your promise is what you tell readers they will get if they subscribe to your publication, whether that’s inspiration or relaxation or weekly tarot readings or hot investment tips.

My promise is to help you by sharing everything I’ve learned on my way to building a $20K per year publication. That means I have to give you something helpful in every post. If I don’t deliver on that promise you’ll soon lose trust in me and unsubscribe.

If you’re losing a lot of subscribers each week, you might have strayed from your original promise to readers. Take time to review and readjust.

4. Are you trying to do too much with your publication?

The creator who wrote the note I mentioned at the start of this post might have been trying to do too much. Spending twenty hours per week on paywalled content that only a few people ever saw is not smart. I’m glad he pulled the pin on it.

So are you trying to do too much? It might sound crazy but some struggling publications I’ve reviewed are trying to solve too many problems for too many people. It’s best to find one problem your readers have and try to solve that each week.

For example, I’ve seen productivity publications with leadership advice, job boards, video sessions and lists of curated links. Chances are their creators are running themselves into the ground to deliver ‘extras’ that their readers don’t care about. Many of the most successful Substack newsletters just do one thing well, keeping it simple.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or burned out, your posts might be losing their spark for readers. Is there something you can cut back on to keep your posts more fun and focused? If you give your readers less instead of more, they might thank you for it!

5. Is your audience too small or too hard to reach?

This question is for you if you are struggling to find readers who are interested in your work. For most of us, the challenge of getting new subscribers is related to how we promote our work to get it in front of new people every week.

However, even with the best promotional efforts, some publications fail to grow. Here are some less common reasons that your publication might not be thriving:

• There are not enough people interested in your topic;

• the people interested in your topic aren’t interested in email newsletters; or

• the people interested in your topic would like your newsletter but you can’t reach them online.

For example, if your newsletter is for people who want to relocate to Malaysia, there might only be a potential total readership of a few thousand people world wide. This makes it difficult if you want to monetize - fewer readers means less earning potential.

Do you know how many people are interested in your topic and where to find them? Do you need to broaden your topic or switch to one that has readers who are easier to reach?

Final thoughts

There are so many fabulous newsletters on Substack that are failing to grow and thrive. In this post I’ve tried to go beyond typical Substack advice about posting high-quality content and instead explore some of the less obvious reasons that publications don’t succeed with a series of questions you can use to review your publication.

What have you discovered as you’ve read this series of posts? What is the best thing about your publication?  Is it the passion you have for your topic or your raving fans?  Is it how consistently you post or the quality of your content? 

What about its weaknesses? Perhaps you’ve discovered that you are getting enough traffic but that visitors just aren’t signing up - is it because they don’t know they can?  Are your headlines letting you down, or is your audience too hard to reach?

These are tough questions, but they can help you unlock the next phase of your Substack journey by showing you where you can tweak or even pivot to get closer to your goals.

If want an outside perspective, consider joining a Substack community where you can ask other creators for feedback. Such communities are usually very gentle and supportive, - after all, we’re all experiencing the same challenges with our publications. Try

Kristina God

’s Online Writing Club or

Sarah Fay

’s Substack Writers at Work.

Or get a personalised deep dive from me.

Okay, it’s time for me to sign off.  Thank you for trusting me to help with your Substack journey. See you next time.

Cheerio!

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