Your Publication Needs Work: But Where To Start?!

Roll up the sleeves, lads and lasses, it's time to audit your Substack newsletter

Hey everyone,

How are you all? Did you have a good week?

I’ve had another fabulous one. Because I created something marvelous for you!

I was struggling to meet the demand for my super-popular Substack audits - that’s where I help creators find fixes and solutions when their publications are stuck, using everything I’ve learned in the 500+ hours I’ve spent studying successful publications (and building my own).

Don’t get me wrong, I love doing audits, but I just don’t have time to do as many as I want, so I was constantly having to limit their availability in my store.

How to help more creators with all the goodness of a Karen Substack audit when they are always sold out?  

Lightbulb moment!  I’m gonna teach you how to audit your own publication. 

I created a program where you can get all my insights and expertise while following the exact method I use to discover the strengths and weaknesses of the Substack publications I audit.

In the program I walk you through my entire Sstack audit process, step by step, giving you the tools and knowledge to review your own publication, to find out what’s working and what’s not.

At each step I describe what best practice looks like, red flags to watch out for, and what sorts of numbers and metrics you should expect at different stages of your Substack journey.  This is the exact process I follow with the audits I do. 

Best of all, the program includes my special action list - the most popular part of my audits. This gives you a clear framework for next steps. so you know what to do AFTER the audit - where you should focus most urgently, and which parts of your publication are just fine as they are. That way you don’t waste time and energy working on things that won’t move the dial for you and your publication. 

The program runs for 173 minutes (shorter than a Speilberg movie) and costs $97. By the end you’ll have a snapshot of where your publication is right now, how it compares to others on Substack and a prioritized ‘to do’ list that you can use to make your publication better and really unleash its full potential. 

If you’re not getting the traction you want and you know you need to make changes to your publication, but don’t know where to start, my self-guided audit is for you.

Don’t want the program? Here’s my best advice to get you on the right track

Over the next month, I’ll be sharing a series of posts that will help you review and tweak various parts of your Substack publication to make sure it has the best possible chance of succeeding.

Today, I want to describe two key areas that are important to get right and - great news! - that are easy to fix if you find a problem.

In the next post we’ll talk About pages, and in the following weeks we’ll explore other areas where I commonly see problems - problems that can really hinder growth - and I’ll show you how to discover if your publication is affected.

2 elements to check today (with easy fixes)

• Publication description

• In-post context and CTAs

Description

One area of Substack publications that is often neglected is the description. As a publication owner, you almost never see the description, so it’s easy to overlook. However, it is seen by a huge proportion of new readers… readers you want to turn into subscribers. It’s hard to convince people to subscribe if your publication has a lacklustre description. 

The description is the mini-blurb that appears on your welcome page to people who haven’t subscribed. To see your welcome page open your homepage in an incognito browser window (in-private window).

Your description needs to succinctly show readers why they would want to subscribe. 

Audit time! Review your description now and ask yourself these questions: Does your description…

• show people what they will get if they subscribe; 

• give them a sense of who your publication is for, who you are, and (optionally) how often they can expect to hear from you? 

If not, add those elements today. It may not look perfect at first, but you can always improve it later.

For more details about description writing, including best practices, examples and a simple formula to follow, check out my post: How to Write a Good Description For Your Substack Publication

In-post context

The second element to review today is in-post context and CTAs. Every post that will be seen by new readers must contain a short introduction so they know they are viewing a newsletter which they can (should!) subscribe to.

I explain why in-post context is important in this post: In-Post Context: An Overlooked Strategy for Getting More Substack Subscribers

Audit time! Do all your posts contain context and calls to subscribe? If not, start adding those elements to your very next post.

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Okay, that’s it for this week.

Hope you found some quick wins.

Have a super week,

Karen

P.S. If you’re curious about the Self-guided Audit Program and have any questions, send me a DM through Substack.