Hello creator!
Hope you’ve had a great week.
In this post, I’ll be sharing my guide to Substack etiquette: what to do and what not to do to make life on Substack better for everyone. It will help you avoid making awkward mistakes and make it easier to make friends with other creators.
Let’s dive in.
What not to do on Substack
1. Don’t self-promote in comments
It’s fine to promote your own work on Substack. But don’t do it in the comments of other people’s posts.
Especially avoid jumping into another creator’s comment thread to promote your own products or services if they compete with the original creator’s.
Yep, it happens. Shockingly, I’ve had a creator promote her workshop in a comment she left on one of my posts… a post in which I was talking about my workshop. Wowsers! Pitch to your own crowd please, don’t squat like a filthy derro1 in the audience I’ve worked so hard to build.
Don’t pitch to another’s audience unless invited
2. Don’t introduce yourself with an unsolicited link
Direct messages are a great way to start a conversation with other Substack creators. Don’t start the conversation by dropping a link to your latest post.
Unbelievably, I get direct messages each month that are nothing but a link to a post from someone I’ve never interacted with before. Not even a “Hello, could you check out my work please?”, just a link to their post. Sigh.
3. Avoid dropping links in comments
When you are interacting with other people’s posts, adding thoughtful comments is a great way to gain visibility. However, don’t drop links to your own posts in comments unless they are genuinely related to the topic and you know they will genuinely add value to the conversation.
Month after month, I see new Substackers jumping into the comments of my popular posts and dropping links to their posts - no introduction, no thoughts about the post, no unique insights, just a raw link.
Seriously, don’t do that!
There’s no need to drop links to your publication either. Everywhere you show up in Substack, whether that’s in Notes replies or comments or direct messages, you are accompanied by a link to your profile and (often) a link to your publication too.
This means there is no need for you to constantly drop links everywhere, like you would on other socials.
4. Don’t request recommendations from people who don’t read your posts
I regularly get asked to recommend publications I’ve never subscribed to. Wow.
Don’t ask a creator to recommend your publication unless they’ve expressed an active interest in your publication already.
Use this test to know whether to politely request a recommendation:
Is the person subscribed to your publication?
Have they been a subscriber for at least 4 weeks?
Has the person commented on at least 3 of your posts?
Has the person restacked, quoted or liked your posts?
(ideally) Have you had a two-way conversation, either in Notes, comment threads or by direct message?
Are you already recommending their publication and has this generated subscribers for them? Not optional.
If you can’t answer yes to these questions, then you’re not ready to request a recommendation from that person. Find another creator who is showing genuine interest in your work and ask them instead.
How to be a good Substack-izen
1. Showcase and shoutout other people’s work
Read a post that moves you? Restack it to Notes.
Likes are nice but restacks are way more helpful to the writer because it gets their work in front of new people, especially if your audience is larger than theirs.
Restack by clicking the circular arrows icon at the bottom of a post or by highlighting a small section of text and clicking the restack icon in the box that appears.
2. Click the heart on notes you love
When you like something in Substack Notes by clicking the heart icon, people who follow you will see the note too. This does two awesome things:
It gives the other creator more exposure
They get notified of your like, and this is a way for you to become known to them.
3. Recommend other publications (and always write a blurb)
Take the time to recommend publications that you admire, even if they are completely different from your own niche. And always add a few sentences about why you’re recommending.
Recommendation blurbs are incredibly valuable to creators because they can be used on the welcome page. Who knows, the person you recommend might even return the favor one day.
4. Answer questions your readers ask
Every comment a reader adds to one of your posts is a tiny gift to you. If they have taken the time to ask you a question in a comment, return the favour by responding.
There’s no need to react to every single comment people write on your posts, but it is good etiquette to answer questions posed by readers. Your answer will not only help the person who asked, but also everyone else who finds the post and has the same question.
The easiest way to view comments is in your activity feed. Access that by clicking the bell icon on your Substack dashboard or homepage.
By the way, if you think this sounds like way too much work when you hit the big time, you should know that this publication has 6K+ subscribers and lots of traffic to older posts and I only need around 20 minutes per week to answer comments on posts.
5. Tune your Notes feed
Make your Notes feed nicer by unfollowing or muting creators whose notes you don’t enjoy. Muting allows you to stay subscribed to someone’s publication but not have to see their notes.
Why include this advice in an etiquette list? Because if you have an enjoyable Notes feed, you’ll be more likely to meet Substackers whose work resonates with you. And that means more time celebrating and supporting good writing, instead of scowling at (yet another) formulaic, one-sentence per paragraph Tweet recycled from 2019.
Final thoughts
Substack is growing fast, with new readers and writers flooding in from all over the internet. If those of us who’ve been here for a while do our part to maintain a culture of good interactions, Substack will continue to be a lovely place to hang out. And that’s something I reckon we all want.
Thanks for being a wonderful bunch of readers. See you next week.
A “derro” is Aussie slang for a homeless person with a shabby appearance (short for ‘derelict’).
Thank you. And I would like to add that if you read a post or comment, heart it.
I see that lots of people read my posts, but lots of them don't heart it. I always do for every single one I read, if only because I know the work and fear to share so many have. I want to build confidence and let them know they are important to the family too. 💖🦋
LOL those first few were solid. The people who drop unsolicited links or ask for recommendations in DM 🙄 I hate being in the awkward position of having to explain to them why their etiquette sucks.