A-Z of Substack Tips
Your (incomplete) A-Z of Substack Tips.
Let me know if you have any to add! I’d love this to be a community curated resource!
I had fun with this one…
Add your Substack to google console which means it’s more like to show up in google. Read this article and index your Substack;
Think about your ‘about’ page and the fact if someone is reading in the app it’s the ONE place to link to your most brilliant articles and other things. Connect with
about writing your about page! She’s brilliant!Be brave and publish your first post - send a friend a preview first if you’d like. Boost - make sure this is turned on in your settings!
Comment on other people’s work - spend time replying to your comments too. Factor those slots in they are super important. A co-created experience pushes our limits and takes us out of the echo chamber and our own heads into the real world of where our work is landing!
Devote some time to filling in the bits and pieces in your settings! Try 20 minute slots a few times over a month and you’ll soon have it all done.
Evolve as a writer, as a creator as a co-creator, as a person! Substack and the world its created has a lot to teach us about humanity, privilege and taking up space in the world in a place that allows us space and doesn’t choke our words with an algorithm.
Find your flow… it can take a little while but stay creative with that process… don’t give up. Work at your pace but don’t abandon yourself - what you have to share and say is important!
Go Paid! Check out my resources here;
Going (and staying) paid on Substack
·Have fun here - we can throw away the rule book of social media and start again - thank goodness!!! Yes there are Headers and Footers - if your people are reading in the app they won’t see these so I use them as an invite to join Substack. I’d also say stay honest about how it’s all feeling, what your struggling with, what you are questioning - not only is that a clear path to your intuition but there’ll be someone to help if you shout about it…
Import - your emails, your old blogs - bring your old content and your existing subs here to start the Substack snowball effect. ☃ ❄️
Join
Open Office Hours - read the comments, chip in, support your fellow writers here.Keep going - settle into a cadence that works for you! This took me months and months but I get it now. One less decision to make = more time to write!
Leave space for reading other Substacks. Be of service to your community.
Make space to learn.
has tonnes of Substack workshops you can re-watch.Notifications - turn off unsubscribes - thank me for that one later! Keep it manageable. We are not meant to be responding to notifications left, right and centre - it upsets our nervous systems and our dopamine levels.
Open your emails! If you need to subscribe to less turn on ‘smart notifications’ and read in the Substack app instead.
Podcast - Substack HOST your podcast and you can pull the RSS feed through to other spaces like Apple Music and Spotify. More here;
How I made my podcast(s) in Substack and how you can too!
·Question your reason for creating/ writing here - what’s your why and what’s your long term why? My favourite set of questions to ask myself and stay clear on - creating in congruence is like setting your creativity on fire - do this exercise and report back or join my paid community here where we go deep into this stuff and support each other.
Recommend the Substacks you LOVE to read! Spend a little time each month writing the blurbs for other writers. You can use the ‘refferal’ button to ask folks to refer folks to your Substack. If you refer 2 people here you get a free month!
Re stack and add you own?
Stats - you’ll get a monthly stats email but also head here to check what is working for you in promoting your publication and where in the world folks are reading it. & Sections - make sure you tick to ‘add all your existing subs’ if you start a new section - they can take themselves out later.
Send sparkles everywhere you go - let’s keep this a positive, inclusive and welcoming space!! ✨ Use Substack’s inbuilt social media/ network ‘Notes’… watch my video on it here.
True - be true to yourself - grow into this space, take up space, “create the thing you wish existed” and take your community with you. There are no rules so don’t seek them out - just create!
Understand growth takes time. Viral-ity is a thing that happens to people - you don’t have to strive for that. Read this article for more of my thoughts on growth;
Visit
, and for more tips, advice and support on Sparkling up your Substack experience!! And remember Substack have a HELP article on EVERYTHING!!!Write, just write and make it feel good. Get rid of everything that gets in the way of your writer. Make friends with your Writer Dashboard! Spend some time with your welcome page - this is a lovely article on welcome pages by Sara Tasker;
eXclude anything that doesn’t make you feel good - we don’t need a popularity contest or to collect publications here - make sure you curate this space as you would a beautiful garden party for your favourite person’s birthday! More on that here;
Y - ask questions - can I get away with that for ‘Y” in a writers platform? 😉 Check what your subscribers are reading and who your top commenters are… get to know what’s resonating - it’s all in the back office for you to see.
Zzzzz - someone is awake somewhere in the world on Substack - and we’re done!
Thanks for reading my A-Z on Substack.
For more Substack Resources, Writer-y Groups and Art on Substack click through to read. I created these as pages rather than posts because Substack lets you do that!
Sending sparkles for your day ahead,
Claire x
PS - Join my Membership Sparkles here where we work on our Substacks together! I have my chat open for member questions every Monday, twice monthly workshops and ‘coffee and creativity’ sessions (on zoom) where we problem solve and work on our Substacks.
I share my screen so we can talk through all the back office and opportunities for you in there. There are also other resources you might like too like a canva template with 108 page break designs and a walk through video on settings.
Lastly, here’s a 14 point check list I made for Substack newbies to help you work through setting up your Substack at your pace. We have time, there is so so much time.
