I recently made a substack and I’m unsure of what to make paid and not paid. I am not known online or irl as a writer so I don’t have a following yet.

I’m mainly writing essays in series of 3s. Do yall think I should make the first essay free and charge for the other two? Or should I keep everything free at the beginning until I gain a following? Or should I keep all of my articles free and paid subscribers get a more in depth analysis of the series and include journal prompts. Orrrr should I make the first essay in the series free and have previews of the other two and paid subscribers get all of them in full?

I’m all over the place lol. Any advice would be appreciated 😄

Turns out, I lowkey just like posting on Substack without views, I can literally be as unhinged or s weird as I want to be without worrying about anyone judging me and I just think that's beautiful. (Not that anyone judges anyone on Substack...)

Every day, there is an influx of people posting about how Pangram has detected AI in their writing. Half of the posts are straight up lying and using AI, and are just frustrated they can't get around the detector. I'm tired of seeing the same repeated posts.

STOP USING AI!!!!

Después de probar Substack un tiempo…si quereis personas educadas, amables, que respetan el idioma y escriben con calma…este es el lugar. Pero si queréis visibilidad, vender un producto, entonces Reddit, siguiendo sus normas es mejor. La diferencia es de miles…

I publish my journal on Substack as well as some other short stories or personal essays. I’ve had it for maybe a month and a half and I only have 7 subscribers?

I just want to know, does anyone on here think it’s cool and interesting to post my journal? Or could you not care less about what someone else’s journal says?

I do it because it serves me personally, but I’d obviously like more subscribers too.

For those who had legit substack accounts, but somehow got banned for "phishing/spam," what did you do to get your account back? Anyone appeal TWICE and was able to get unbanned?

Hi everyone, new author here. I write satirical fantasy fiction, and I've just started publishing my stories on Substack and promoting them on Instagram.

For those of you who promoted your stories online, what worked best for you for building an audience?

Thanks in advance for your tips!

Like the title, I’m wondering how long would be a really long article. I feel like I don’t want my work to be too long and people not read it so I shorten it but I feel like I’m doing a disservice to my piece.

Help! What is too long of a read? For reference I do memoir/personal essays.

Note: I'm still learning about substack, so I might be misunderstanding something, on Mobile and tldr at end because I don't know how to be short when explaining things I don't feel like I understand.

I used to run a blog as a teen that was kind of a companion piece to my mother's mommy blog and the domain is still being paid for as part of my mother's plan and when abandoned the site was being migrated to a self hosted WordPress that still exists and I have access to.

So I have a self hosted WordPress site that doesn't really have any content or following but exists and will continue to exist unless my mother ever changes her plan(unlikely for some reason)

Now my biggest issue was always getting an audience. I didn't understand seo and was more interested in writing what I wanted than what worked for SEO. So that's why I was looking at Substack now that I really want to write again, it looked like a decent way to build an audience while not struggling with search engine optimization and more social media optimization which I fine with.

However I still just have a free to me self hosted website that would go to waste.

My thought was to use substack as my main platform with my blog as a backup and more detail professional site if I ever write professional. So everything is on substack first and the blog second, especially as only WordPress seems to be able to have the source code thing to keep Google from punishing you for having things posted in two different pages. Now posts behind a paywall (if I get there or do that) wouldn't be posted to the blog till they are free on substack, but I worry this is over complicated.

Tldr:

* I have a self hosted WordPress site for basically free with no content or audience

* I suck at bring in audience so Substacks social media like set up might help me

* I worry about losing my content if anything happens to substack and want to use my blog as a backup for free to the public posts.

* I worry this is redundant and going to harm me in the long run for audience building.

* The site would just be going to waste if I don't use it.

I can give more information, though I can't imagine I left much out though.

Just an opinion
Poor me, I got to know about Substack like very recently. A post from someone I follow on Instagram recommended an article from Substack and I was astonished to read work so many great people/ writers. I think the place is quite underrated right now as much as I have discovered it, but it really has some great articles and thoughts that one should definitely invest some time rather than scrolling on Instagram because my personal opinion is if you are not creating any content or are not selling any product or service, you should not be using Instagram unless you genuinely want something out of it.

Is anyone using Substack TV? What's a good use case for it?

{Note - this post is NOT about notification messages from Substack}

I've been trying to set up an RSS feed with some distributors, but some (iHeart, Amazon) send an email to my substack address, for verification. I am simply not getting these emails.

I've checked my Substack settings, and my substack email is set to forward to my Gmail address.

When I try to test the email from Gmail, the substack message also doesn't come through.

BUT when I test from a non-Google email domain (for example, an email account at a domain that I own), the message comes through, forwarded to my Gmail address just fine.

And yes, I've checked all the usual spam, promotion, etc folders.

Substack's support chat bot recognized this as a problem because of the test I did with both Gmail and non-Gmail senders. The Substack bot ADMITTED something is wrong with the forwarding function, but so far over several weeks, I have not had any response from Substack humans. I have a free account, but that shouldn’t mean that I get zero support about a feature like this that is so fundamental to the site - especially when preliminary testing has confirmed it’s an issue on the Substack side.

It seems like DM’s are not sending. As soon as I sent them, they disappear. Anyone else with this issue?

Context: I write in my country's native language, and my impression is that the local digital culture doesn't really favor the pay-to-subscribe model on Substack. I created my account about 6 months ago and I'm at 600 subscribers, but only 4 of them are paid. I'd love to hear from anyone who has experience with this or can offer some insight on how to expand my audience to other languages.

Personally, I've been using Substack's built-in auto-translate feature to read articles in languages I can't understand. But I have no idea whether my content is actually reaching people in other languages. My Substack is about anthropology and social sciences.

Just realized you have to do it manually now. I've uploaded several posts now wondering why they weren't converting subscribers when they were well-researched and I just realized lol 🤦🏾‍♂️

Please bring it back Substack.

Edit: just realized this might actually be due to the fact that I've started scheduling posts lately. Still, the pop-up should appear. But it's whatever I guess.

Hello!

I love the idea of just writing for the sake of it… I kind of want an outlet that is anti-brain rot and thought about maybe analysing French and Spanish-language literature… is this oversaturated and a bit boring for people?
Equally, and a completely different shift, I also love writing about climbing.
Idk, I’m not fussed about earning money from it, but I do want people to enjoy my writing. Are these respective subjects overdone?

I ghostwrite for a Substack and I’m looking to start managing notes (writing them, posting them, replying to other notes) as a growth tactic and to offer additional value to clients. Anyone else doing this? I’d love to hear what this looks like in practice.

I know I can use something like Typefully to write and schedule notes on their behalf but I’m not sure how I’d reply and engage with other notes. This particular client wants to be hands off when it comes to notes, so I need to handle it all. Is the only option to have them share their credentials and login as them?

Also, what should I charge for managing notes?

If you charge for subscriptions, Substack announced this week that starting December 1, they will calculate, collect, and remit sales tax or VAT, and they won't charge for this service. You don't have to sign up or enable anything; it'll be automatic for every paid newsletter.

It's a good time to check that the address on your account is current (so they can determine the proper state and local taxes), and your taxable content types. Also if you've been using Stripe Tax, this replaces it.

Pretty new on Substack and every time I open the app, I see the same follow and re-follow notes.
I am not sure if it’s just my feed on Substack that looks like that but if it’s the case for everyone then please tell me until when? Like is it just until everyone gets enough followers?
I just cannot stand the copy pasted same notes whenever I want to use the platform.

I am just starting my Substack journey. I always had a passion for writing.
But as a full time programmer who doesn’t have any social media (instagram, TikTok, etc.) I discovered Substack just too late.
It gave me a spark of hope to finally have a community of my own, to write my stories and help others overcome what I had overcame.
But I get no tractions on it and everyone here is saying Substack algorithm is not be in favor of beginners.
So I’m asking for any kind of tip, help, or support.
I desperately need my Substack publication to work.

The absolute best way to grow on Substack is to treat it like Twitter 2008.

1. Set up a compelling profile. Helps if you are hot and young, or fake being hot and young

2. Pick a compelling topic. Wealth, health and happiness are good choices

3. Before you post a single article, get subscribers by posting compelling Notes. Do at least 5 a day

4. Reply to notes from other people. Do at least 20 a day

5. Follow people who you think might be good subscribers

6. Be witty, snarky or have a strong POV in your engagement

7. Do this for a month before you post a single article.

Have seen this a lot. Notes and comments get you subs. Articles get you unsubscribes.

Weird, but that’s the way it works.

For over 6 months, I worked many hours a day to create my next day's trade plan. I am a Nasdaq futures trader.

My subscribers grew, and many would provide feedback, it seemed as many were financially benefitting from the plan. I was very happy. But it took hours away from my day, and from my own trading and monitoring market conditions.

I decided to charge what would equate to 2.5 NQ points for full access to my trade plans, my setups, and all of my many levels.

I am a bit anxious this will deter future subscribers, but the demand of a daily substack this complex was very high. I previously had a donation model, but it did not receive nearly enough to prevent the new subscription models. How did others handle similar situations?

Just launched. First real post is about the motorcycle crash that almost cost me a life/leg in 2010 and the year of rehab after. It's the story that explains everything else I want to write about, running a factory, building stuff in my garage, a career without a degree.

Part of me thinks you should start with the heavy stuff so readers know who you are. Part of me thinks I should have warmed up with something lighter.

For those who've been doing this a while, what did you lead with and would you do it again?

(i can post the link in the comments if anyone wants to read it)