Substack Growth Tips for People Who Hate Substack Growth Tips
The best Substack growth tips of the month (June 2024)
I’ve been deep into learning about Substack since I got going recently. In my reading, I’ve come across a number of bestsellers who’ve been kind to share their learnings, and I’ve started pulling them together in monthly recaps.
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The theme of this month’s round-up of best Substack growth tips is: Substack growth tips for people who hate Substack growth tips.
There’s been a lot of snarking on Substack about learning about Substack, which I find utterly predictable, as per the above.
It’s a funny thing when you start a social media platform. (Hi
and ! Good job on the doing!)First nobody knows you. But then, if you’re lucky, you get your first 1,000 fans. The ride or dies. The ones who abide by your fail whale and your 30-day-turnaround on Jira tickets, and the sense of general mayhem you thought you were successfully hiding just below the surface.
If you’re lucky, your tiny little startup then starts to grow the hell up. And, if the wind is in your sails, with product-market-fit at your back, you turn on growth.
And then, something switches.
Some of those original 1,000 true fans, the folks who were there when no one was there, just. won’t. abide.
The changes!
The famous people!
The new bells and whistles!
I’ve seen a lot of that lately on this platform. I was an early employee at Twitter, and I was an LinkedIn influencer long before the LinkedIn reply guys took over, so I’m familiar with this movie.
And it’s a sad one.
Sometimes, when I see another true fan in the Substack death throes, I want to throw out a life raft. It’s okay, I want to say. Change can be a good thing.
In the spirit of change (growth is, by definition, change) here are some of the best Substack growth tips of the month.
The Latest Tips for Going Paid
Don’t wait to go paid… or at least, unpack your fear
wrote a retrospective post on what it was like taking her newsletter paid. Her tips?
Don’t be too scared to go paid. Or, be scared, but do it anyway!
Turn paid subscribers on and off as you please. Willy-nilly is A-OK.
Keep it fun!
Alternately, don’t go paid at all…
I loved this note by
. What a fresh perspective.Her tips?
Just write!
Let people pay if they want!
Keep it that way and let people know: forever eva!
The Latest Tips for the Changing World of Notes
Notes is changing. (The app is too.) Have you heard? (Also, stats!)
Become Notable on Notes
has a piece on the value of becoming notable on Notes.His tips?
Embed your notes in your posts to get more visibility to them (especially if one of them is doing well)
Share previews of upcoming articles as notes
Format your Notes well to make them stand out. (If you’re used to Twitter, where you can’t do that, this is a boon.)
Use Notes, but Without Links
wrote about , and how they grew their Substack by 480 subscribers in 1 month. Her tips?
Say something smart/funny/weird.
Don’t self-promote with a link!
Go viral;)
(I say the last tip tongue-in-cheek, but that’s basically what it comes down to. Kristi wrote some good notes that went crazy and, well, yeah. For a discussion of the alternate perspective: aka why you shouldn’t try to go viral, see the first chapter of one of my books: Social Media Success for Every Brand.)
Post Your Pet. The End.
Substack Success Story of the Month:
Cool Substack tip: How to post to Substack without emailing your subscribers
Very useful!
Cool life tip: Listen to your values, on Substack, and everywhere
I loved stumbling across this piece.
Her tips?
Fave Substack-y Read of the Month
hit 10,000 subscribers, and Lyndsey wrote a powerful post about her journey. I loved this one, and can’t recommend her Substack enough. Take aways?
Asking for people to pay is…weird. Especially when you likely haven’t ever done it before!
The goal post is always moving when it comes to success on the platform. 10,000 today…20,000 tomorrow.
It can be lonely to grow alone. (Lyndsey felt jealous when reading about the author’s business partner in this recommended book.)
Jealousy is a part of the journey.
A good month of content, all around.
From my desk to yours: Hang the hell in there, coffee in hand, per always.
Claire
This is a great piece, thank you! Here's my current simple SS strategy that seems to be working:
Weekly:
1 newsletter emailed to subscribers weekly
1 best of the week / favorite substacks and simple life update as a post, not emailed, and shared in notes
Daily:
5 notes
5 restacks of my favorite reads of the days with a sentence or two
How:
Take all the time you are currently spending on IG, FB, YT, X, (where the F ever you are currently doomscrolling), and use it to read and create on Substack.
I think it can be that simple.
How did you know I was just thinking that!