Should You Make a Substack Homepage Like This?

This Substack is making use of ALL their on-screen real estate

Hi there, fellow writer,

I hope you are having a good week.

Today I want to share a very hard-working Substack homepage and see what we can learn from it.

This homepage has 13 tabs across the top. Thirteen! Most have just three.

I heard about this Substack, AI Supremacy, from Kristina’s Newsletter . Kristina’s latest post said that AI Supremacy has almost 12,000 subscribers and 358 paying subscribers.

The newsletter is making about $20,000 revenue per year. So its owner, Michael Spencer, is obviously doing something right! Let’s break it down.

1. The homepage makes the newsletter looks active and multi-faceted. In fact, it doesn’t look like a newsletter at all, but like a thriving website and community. There are lots of very recent posts and the tabs have names like ‘A.I. Jobs’ which feel like a collection of valuable resources for readers.

2. The page aesthetics are great. Every post image has a similar style and colour palette. The image colours match the publication’s Substack theme colour (buttons and links).

   

   AI Supremacy’s homepage

3. The Homepage Links section is much bigger than most Substacks, with a section called ‘Join the Community’ that contains post titles like “Introduce Yourself - Sign the Guestbook” and “How Am I Doing? (Creator Updates)”.

AI Supremacy has lots of homepage links

4. The homepage is using ‘Magazine’ layout, which arranges content in columns when viewed on a landscape-shaped screen.

What’s Working Well (Ideas to Borrow!)

This publication is making the most of all its available onscreen ‘real estate’ to promote the value of the newsletter, its community and its content. The high number of tabs and large homepage links section take up a lot of space. It uses this valuable space to explicitly encourage readers to become paying subscribers, by exhorting readers to ‘Upgrade to Paid’, and ‘Join the Community’.

Having images of a similar style and colour palette gives a unity to the homepage, which makes it feel professional and authoritative.

The large number of tabs across the top of the screen make the newsletter seem packed to the brim with interesting and useful content - like you could spend all day exploring this site.

AI Supremacy’s long list of homepage links lets curious readers learn more about the newsletter, its community and the writer. There’s even a link for potential advertisers. It’s a great way to promote all the benefits of a paid subscription right on the homepage. And because there are so many links, readers get the impression that there are lots and lots of benefits.

The small sprinkling of emojis in post headings and subheadings add movement and interest to the page.

What Might Not Work For You

If you don’t have a lot of posts, or if your images don’t have a degree of uniformity, then the magazine layout might not look as good as the ‘Default’ layout for your publication.

Note that magazine layouts put the homepage links lower down the page (‘below the fold’), so they are less likely to be seen by a casual browser.

If you want a clean and minimalist look and feel to your newsletter, the magazine layout might not be the best choice for you.

Homepage links that don’t add value aren’t doing you any favours. Some of the homepage links on AI Supremacy direct to empty or almost-empty comments threads and this wasn’t a positive experience for me as a reader. Make sure your homepage links point to content that is truly helpful to your reader.

Homepage links that take a reader away from your Substack probably aren’t the best idea. You want potential subscribers to hang around, enjoy your writing and sign up, not click through to a different website.

This newsletter has a ‘default’ layout so the homepage links are above the fold (near the top of the page). Use your homepage links to help your readers understand the value of your work.

What to Do Now

1. Visit your Substack homepage (click the name of your publication at the top of the screen when in your dashboard).

2. Ask yourself if you are using enough on-screen real estate to showcase the benefits of your newsletter and its best content. To use more real estate, add more Tabs (‘Navigation Menu’) and homepage links.

3. Add Tabs from the ‘Style’ section of your publication settings by clicking the ‘New Link’ button in the Navigation bar settings.

4. Add homepage links from the ‘Publication details’ section of your settings. Link to posts that explain how to get the most out of your publication or that explain its benefits or that showcase your best work. Avoid linking to external sites unless you have a clearly defined goal for sending your hard-won readers there.

5. Consider switching out the images from old posts to ones that have a similar style and colour palette.

6. Try using occasional emojis in your post headlines, to jazz up your homepage. Don’t overdo it!

7. Experiment with the magazine layout to see if it suits your newsletter. It’s easy to switch back if you don’t like the results. Change the layout from the ‘Edit Theme’ section of your publication settings.

I really enjoyed checking out the dynamic-looking homepage of AI Supremacy, and I’m grateful to Kristina God for the introduction to that newsletter.

What do you think of that busy homepage? Do you like it or do you prefer a more gentle look for your publication? Let me know what you think in the comments.

Karen