My curiosity led me back to Substack. The product is simple. Yet, it's extremely easy to misunderstand what it is.

I thought if you have an email list and use email software like CovertKit, then Substack is a waste of time. I made a mistake.

Some of these new thoughts I have learned from Substack employees. Some of this I have learned from content creators on Substack. Nothing is absolute. What you're about to learn will give you the best chance at understanding and getting the most out of Substack.

I'm going to change how you think about Substack entirely.

Why are content creators drawn to Substack?

Simple: Creative freedom.

You can write whatever you want on Substack. You can use an outlandish image. You can indulge in a naughty clickbait headline. You can write an intro promising the world. You can use lots of memes. You can make every paragraph one sentence long.

The only rule with Substack is to be yourself.

Most importantly, you can publish behind closed doors if you want. You can prevent your boss, family, or those close to you from seeing what you publish. This has an appeal for some people. (Not for me though.)

The contents of your paid letters can't be googled. A person would have to buy a subscription to see your secrets, and for most, that is way too much friction.

Substack keeps your vulnerability safe while you cultivate it quietly.

What is Substack really?

These three lines changed my thinking:

Substack is a platform to send letters. You can publish free letters. This is your free rock concert. You can publish paid letters. This is the backstage pass to your concert.

Subscribers are the superfans. Roughly speaking, through my research, 10% of your free audience will convert to a paid membership.

A quote from one of my research conversations:

"Readers are receiving letters from a thinker whose consciousness they want to follow."

Why does the audience pay for a Substack subscription?

This is another part I got wrong. I assumed you had to add a tonne of value to sell people content via Substack. That's not the case.

Substack paid subscribers are superfans. They just love the content you create and want a tiny bit more. They pay you because they like you. They pay you for a tiny bit of access.

Access on Substack is the ability to have a content creator reply to your comment. Or the occasional letter dedicated to the superfans, that feels like they are talking directly to you.

The free Substack strategy

This tip blew my mind. Most of your Substack letters (emails) should be free.

"Your best content should remain free, and open to all" was the advice I was given. This is counter-intuitive. Normally you are told to put your best content behind the paywall. Not with Substack.

Your free content is how you build your audience. Your free content helps readers fall in love with who you are and your view of the world. Once they love you, they will happily pay you to see 10% more of you.

Here's another way to think of success on Substack that was given to me: "All you need for a super successful Substack Newsletter is 10–15% of your total subscriber list to switch to paid."

Repurposing content doesn't work on Substack

My first thought was to take my existing blog posts and share them on Substack. This is the worst advice according to the experts I spoke to.

The content you publish on Substack should only be found there. It's rude to charge readers for content they can find in exactly the same format for free elsewhere on the internet. How would you feel if you'd been paying for something that was free elsewhere? Terrible.

Big problem

This is where things went bad for me. Writing on Substack means a chunk of time each week to just write there. It means you may have to give up your time without any guaranteed ROI to see if it works for you. I already spend a lot of time writing. I'm not sure I have time to write on Substack.

Genius solution

I asked an Aussie mate for advice. Here's what they said:

Take the time you waste building bullshit followers on social media (while building their business you don't own), and channel it into Substack.

Freaking brilliant, mate.

You waste so much time on platforms like Facebook. You publish content on Facebook so they can get user's attention and sell them ads. You make virtually nothing out of it. Zuckerburger walks away with another Lambo and yet another one of his neighbor's homes to keep him away from us beautiful normies.

The time you waste on social media is better spent building a tiny audience on Substack.

The stunning beauty of Substack

You can start without an email list. Wait…What?

"Say that again." My jaw dropped to the floor when I heard this. "You don't need to bring an audience to Substack." *Mind blown*

I always assumed you had to have an email list and bring it to Substack. Substack currently has no discoverability. There is no algorithm of broken viral dreams, newsfeed, followers, or any of that.

Most Substack content creators start with zero subscribers. They announce their Substack newsletter on social media and that's how they build it from nothing without a single subscriber.

Here's what the announcement of a Substack newsletter looks like (copy):

Substack newsletter launch

  • When launch day comes, do this the day before: Post an announcement of your Substack newsletter on every social media platform you are on. Highlight the mission of your newsletter, what readers will get, and the topics you will cover.
  • Explain your first story is coming tomorrow and it's one people do not want to miss.
  • Let your newsletter stay on free for at least four weeks. The longer your newsletter is free the better (I kept my content free for years).
  • Post a summary of every newsletter as a Twitter Thread. Make the last tweet of the thread a link to your Substack.
  • Include a preamble in every newsletter that explains it's something the audience can subscribe to.

The audience is the same as 7-Eleven customers.

Social media is a library full of content you can't find. Substack subscribers pay for convenience. They want the best of you in one place and they will pay for the convenience, the same way you pay 25% more to buy a soft drink from 7-Eleven because it saves you wasting time and walking to Walmart.

Don't underestimate the value of convenience.

Social media doesn't help you know what to pay attention to.

Do this. Open the Tik Tok app. Start scrolling. You're about to lose a lot of time. You'll have so much to pay attention to. It's a minefield. Your dopamine addicted brain will take you from Madonna classics to puppies falling over stray logs in the middle of a forest.

The problem with social media is it's impossible to know what to pay attention to. There is a firehose of content being sprayed at your face. You can barely see what you're reading and where you're going.

This is why people pay for Substack. They cut through the noise and endless wannabes, to be led to a selection of content creators they can trust. It cost subscribers money but it helps them save hours and hours of time unconsciously searching for content.

Every hour of your day has value. At my current rate of pay, I value my time at $200 per hour. This means I will gladly pay $20 to have a painful task done for me that saves me time. Readers are no different when it comes to saving time looking for content.

$10 a month for a Substack subscription is a steal compared to two hours a day being drunk on Tik Tok.

The audience on Substack is completely different

Traditional followers love you once and leave you on the couch with no pants.

Substack subscribers are not one-hit-wonder fans. They pledge allegiance to your cause with their debit card. Substack subscribers are loyal for as long as you keep showing up to talk with them in private and improve their life.

The audience wants individuals, not groups or publications.

"An email from Nick Cave" WOW! — that's personal — it's a treat — that's the feeling you get with Substack," says one insider. (The musician, Nick Cave, apparently has an awesome newsletter by the way — see here for inspiration.)

These are your choices with Substack:

  1. You create a publication.
  2. You collaborate with other content creators and create a group newsletter.
  3. You create a newsletter centered around your own name.

I learned the most successful strategy for Substack is to publish under your name. I didn't know this before. I was confused. I thought you had to create a publication, like a magazine.

While there are some group newsletters, the audience mainly wants to subscribe to individuals.

Formatting tools are crucial

Substack has a simple user interface. Compared to email platforms like ConvertKit, you don't get frustrated with formatting. This is huge. When you write, you just want to write without friction.

When I write my current newsletter in ConvertKit, it makes me want to burn down my apartment by the end. Traditional email platforms aren't designed for content creators. They're designed for techies, which I'm not.

The Golden Rules of Substack

Frequency and consistency

This advice was drilled into me. The most important strategy for Substack is to show up frequently and be consistent. This knocks out a lot of traditional writers who seek viral hits.

"Write a lot."

"Write every day."

This is the cliche advice many content creators ignore, and it's why they fail. Nobody will pay for your Substack newsletter if you don't show up regularly and give them the value they paid for. It's that simple.

The beauty with Substack is you have leverage on yourself. When people are paying you to write a newsletter for them, you feel guilty when you take their money and then don't publish. Guilt is excellent motivation.

The formula for consistency

My in-depth research produced this formula: Publish 2–3 times a week to build an audience on Substack and make money. Start with once a week to build your content creation muscle.

The niche is you

Writers told me the first time I researched Substack to pick a niche. Writers told me choosing a niche was a must. I write about personal finance, self-improvement, productivity, entrepreneurship, and Lambo shaming.

Choosing a niche is feels like life or death. I can't do it. I won't. This one decision held me back from starting a Substack newsletter. Then a friendly person at Substack said "The niche is you."

WOW. This is how to succeed on Substack and I had no idea.

One word followed by your name is the best brand

Choosing the name of your Substack newsletter feels like choosing the name of your autobiography, twenty years in the making. The most successful Substack newsletters are one word, followed by the content creator's name. "Bizarre by Tim Denning" is one example.

Paid Substack subscribers follow people not publications.

Writers perform best on Substack.

Publications screw writers. Substack is the rebellion against publications. If you hate your job at Elle Magazine, as an example, then Substack is for you. This explains why publications don't do as well on Substack.

I wondered at the start of all this research whether other types of content could succeed on Substack. I quickly learned Substack is built for writers. The people who make the most money on Substack are writers. The product roadmap for Substack is for writers.

Ideal letter length

Gmail shortens long emails. The best length of a letter is less than 20,540 characters.

Frequency of letters determines your audience growth

All data points I was given lead to this fact. The more letters you send over time, the quicker your audience will grow, and the more money you will make.

There are no shortcuts in life other than putting in the work. Everything else is growth hacking which causes you to cheat yourself, get terrible results, and be left wondering, "why the freaking hell did this fail?"

How to market your Substack Newsletter

I assumed there is a complex way to market your Substack newsletter. I pictured hours and hours of studying the platform to learn how it works.

Substack's marketing strategy is dumbed right down. The key is word-of-mouth marketing.

Your audience does the marketing.

How?

They forward your emails.

Most people start with zero subscribers. They announce it on social media and that's how they build it. People forward the newsletter to have it marketed by fans.

That's a marketing strategy anyone can follow. All you have to do is do the writing. Any additional marketing efforts you utilize are a bonus, not a necessity.

Discoverability is coming to Substack

The next step for Substack is going to be discoverability. This means writers and readers will have another way to find each other, go on a few dates, and see if they want to cement their relationship with a debit card.

My guess is it will be a simple feature that can't be gamed. Time will tell.

Verdict: Should you get started on Substack?

I've changed my opinion somewhat based on these new insights:

  • Writers want creative freedom.
  • Most Substack content should be free.
  • A Substack newsletter is the rock concert. A paid subscription is the backstage pass.
  • Paid subscribers are after access and a personal experience — not paid content.
  • Your niche on Substack isn't a topic. It's you.
  • You can start with zero email subscribers and be successful on Substack.
  • Write a lot and be consistent applies to Substack too.
  • Your newsletter grows based on frequency and quality.

So my opinion on Substack has changed. I would strongly suggest you take a closer look at Substack as a way to make money. Remember: if you write emails or send text messages, then you are already a writer. And Substack is designed for writers like you.

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