The Super-Annoying Substack Default You Need To Know About
Thinking of making a Substack newsletter? You need to read this
Hey there, Karen here,
Just a very quick note for:
anyone thinking of starting a Substack publication, and
anyone who’s just started and found everything just a bit (a lot!) confusing.
Earlier this week, while helping a new Substacker in a one-on-one help session, I discovered that Substack has changed the way new publications are created.
It is so confusing. So annoying.
What’s up?
In a nutshell, Substack used to let you easily create a publication (a newsletter + website) with a different name, look and feel from your user account.
Reminder: Substack has a ‘personal’ universe where you can post Notes, read newsletters and collect followers, and a ‘publication’ universe where you can run a newsletter and publish posts that are sent to your subscribers’ inboxes.
Things have changed, and Substack no longer makes it easy for new users to create a publication with a different name, look and feel from their personal profile.
Yes, that’s right, the default ‘publication’ now seems exactly like the user’s personal profile, with no obvious way to differentiate the two and no easy way to distinguish between personal posts and publication posts. Wowsers.
Background
My client - let’s call him Greg - needed my help because he had set up a publication in Substack and found his first post hadn’t worked as expected. “No problem”, I thought, “I can help, I’ve been Substacking for more than 4 years, with more than 900 posts published across multiple publications and thousands of coaching hours under my belt. Easy-peasy.”
Since Greg was feeling a little lost inside Substack, I began his session with a guided walk-through of the user menus and settings while he screen-shared.
But things didn’t look quite right to me. I could see that Greg did indeed have a publication because he could get to his ‘Dashboard’ (this is the webpage from which you manage a Substack publication). But strangely, when I tried to view the publication’s website, Substack just kept directing me back to his personal profile.
Worse still, for some reason, when we changed his personal profile name, it somehow also updated his publication name, without any field to change it back. No place to edit the publication name in Settings?
What the actual ferret.
The problem turns out to be…
At first, I thought what I was seeing on Greg’s screen was a Substack server update delay. Then I decided it was an error - a bug in the software. Ultimately, however, it turned out to be the result of Substack’s new default settings.
That’s right. Substack has implemented a new default setting that makes the platform even more incomprehensible for people who want to create a fully-fledged newsletter. Stunning.
Aside: Perhaps this is good for my Subtack coaching service? Maybe. But honestly, I’d much rather help new Substackers get their strategy, cadence, growth levers and workflows sorted instead of spending time guiding confused creators through an increasingly impenetrable labyrinth of settings menus.
On the upside, for Substack account owners who just want to hang out on Notes and read other people’s newsletters, the new default is probably an improvement.
The solution
There is a way for new users to create a publication that looks like a ‘real’ Substack newsletter with its own name, description, website and logo - something that is different to, and well-separated from, their personal profile.
And once you know the process, it’s relatively simple to make it happen.
But is the process intuitive? It is (emphatically) not.
The solution is connected to an almost invisible setting called ‘Match profile’ tucked inside the website theme settings.
The ‘Match Profile’ option is what makes new publications look exactly like the author’s personal profile and removes the ability to change the publication name and description, among other things.
To switch off ‘Match profile’ and gain the ability to make a ‘normal’ Substack publication, follow the path below to find and deselect the default. Deselecting ‘Match profile’ will activate ‘Custom theme’ (which sounds scary but isn’t).
Publication dashboard > Settings > Website > Match profile [button + dropdown arrow] > [deselect ‘Match profile’] > Select ‘Custom theme’
Important: If you already have a publication website that looks different from your personal profile, don’t switch from ‘Custom theme’ to ‘Match profile’: you could lose all your website customizations in a single click!
Once you have deactivated ‘Match profile’ and activated ‘Custom theme’, you will be able to change the name of your publication to a name of your choosing (instead of your author name), add a description, and have a ‘normal’ Substack website that looks different to your personal profile page.
Hooray!
Sanity check
The screenshots below show the difference between the two website customization options; ‘custom theme’ and ‘match profile’, for a new publication. Use them to check you have got the setting you want.
Final thoughts
Key takeaway 1
If you’re new to Substack and confused about why your publication (=newsletter + website) doesn’t seem to exist or looks exactly like your personal profile or seems to redirect visitors to your personal profile…
… Or if you’re new to Substack and you thought you’d written a newsletter post but it just ended up looking like something in Notes…
… then the reason is probably a setting called “Match profile,” which is now the default setting for new publications.
Key takeaway 2
Substack’s help system is genuinely helpful (if you can find it). It’s a chatbot, but it’s pretty good, and it helped me solve this issue for my client.
The help bot has recently moved (naturally!) and now lives near the bottom left of the publication dashboard page, inside a menu item called ‘🗨 Help’. Click that menu item to open the chatbot conversation pop-up.
Key takeaway 3
Substack user-interfaces, settings and back-end systems are in a constant state of flux. That means this post could be completely out of date by the time you read it. If in doubt, ask the chatbot to assist, and let me know if this post needs updating.
Okay, that’s it for today,
Have a great week on Substack,
Karen
P.S. Want a guided Substack walk-through and personalized tutorial with me? I’ll guide you through your dashboard, help you optimize your settings and get you set up right. Or, if you’re already set up and confident, I’ll give you a backstage tour of my $26K dashboard and strategies for swiping - your choice.
Get 60 minutes of my undivided, honest attention here: Substack Strategy Session (60 min) | Zoom Call with Karen
Cover image: Wayhomestudio on Freepik
I always feel in capable hands w/ you Karen. Hopefully I don't need to fret about this--but in case I do, I'll come back to this post!! Thanks!
Hi Karen. I just went through this exact experience yesterday, and somehow figured it out by searching Reddit and YouTube. I’m in the process of launching a new publication under a separate user profile to this one. Reading your post was the ultimate act of validation. Thank you!!!