How's your Substack going?

i gave up on it. i find it too much manual work to compile a newsletter and the fact that they don't support markdown sucks ass.

I'm launching The MVP Sprint article #1 today!

Would love any feedback from the Substack pros in the group.

Why I'm starting it
I just started working full-time as a solo Indie Hacker. I'm starting to dive into a new startup idea and wanted to document the journey. After reading The Sprint Book about GV's Design Sprint, I wanted to adapt their methodology to starting a startup.

Sharing in public helps keep me accountable and gets me real-time feedback from users.

How will I grow it?
I'm planning on pulling out the most useful (non-self-promotional) pieces and using them to engage in startup communities - Reddit, Indie Hackers, Twitter, Hacker News.

I'm going to try syndicating to Medium at least for a few posts. Has anyone had success with that as a channel?

Looking forward to this post! I avoided substack when I started Software Ideas, as 10% fees felt way too high for a paid newsletter. I'm up to $7,500 MRR and I can't imagine having to pay $750/month just to get my newsletter out!

I saw yesterday that a new Substack competitor with fair pricing is about to be launched by a bootstrapper, I'd be curious to hear if people have any objections in using a software like that over Substack!

I launched my second Substack a week ago. It has 45 subscribers. I am now looking at ways to grow my subscriber base and ship content 2x weekly.

I'm 14 issues into Alternative Assets and it's going really really well so far.

What are you using it for?

• I use Substack as a vehicle for sending out emails for free. That's it. I use Memberful for my paid packages, and don't plan on ever using Substack for that. I keep my content on Substack for a week after publishing, then port each article over to my own domain where it lives forever.

How are you growing it?

• Word of mouth, sponsoring other newsletters, and Facebook ads

How is it going?

• Far better than expected. The name, idea, and content is resonating. I feel like I have "Newsletter-Market Fit." I had sponsors coming to me before I was even ready for 'em. After 14 issues I've sold out all my ad inventory through next February.

Are you making money through subscriptions or ads?

• Both. I just created my first paid package (a Data-as-a-Service package called Traffic Opportunities) and am seeing 2.5% conversion rate after just a few days.

Is it hard to show up on a regular basis?

• Hell no! I love this world, and am constantly thinking/writing about it anyways. It was a match made in heaven. (Plus, here in Melbourne we've been in lockdown for months. Not much else to do 'cept start writing!)

Newsletter: https://workspaces.substack.com/

What are you using it for?
With so many people WFH right now I thought it would be fun to curate some of the amazing workspaces people have been working from. I curate one inspiring workspace each week and the feedback has been great!

How are you growing it?
I share each featured workspace on Twitter. The featured guest also shares or retweets the post to all of their followers. This has been where the majority of the list's growth has come from.

How is it going?
After 30 workspaces the list has grown to 250+ subscribers with a consistent 70% open rate each Sunday.

Are you making money through subscriptions or ads?
I'm currently not making any money with the newsletter. I have had a few people reach out to advertise but it didn't seem like the right time. I am open to advertising but would need to be aligned with the product/service being offered. In the meantime, I am focusing on growing the newsletter and curating the best workspaces I can find.

Is it hard to show up on a regular basis?
Not at all! I have multiple workspaces saved in the backlog at all times. Sometimes I wish I could send out a workspace ahead of schedule but don't want to invade everyone's inbox! Once a week seems like a good fit for what the newsletter is.

Feel free to ask any questions!

Just shipped issue #9 of Small Tech Business this week!

What are you using it for?
Sending out a weekly curated newsletter for people looking to start their own small internet business. I really like how simple it was to get started on Substack. Some secondary goals include improving my writing skills and building an audience around indie startups.

How are you growing it?
I've been experimenting with various options. As a curated newsletter, I've struggled to figure out the best way to find people explicitly looking for curated content.

What I've tried:

• Sharing on twitter and tagging authors of featured content. Their audiences are the closest thing to my ideal target audience I think.
• Posting to various newsletter directories
• Sharing on a few forums/subreddits

Are you making money through subscriptions or ads?
Nope, I am not really planning to. I'd consider a small sponsorship section in the future, but not currently in my plans to monetize.

Is it hard to show up on a regular basis?
Definitely haha, sometimes things come up during the week and you just don't have as much time as you hoped. I've found planning ahead and working on my issues in bits and pieces has been helpful to make the final push to finish an issue a lot easier.

By the way, Substack is now allowing writers to use custom domains for a $50 one-time fee. Props to them for doing this, here's why:

• As writers, you can now build SEO for your own brand instead of just adding more SEO value to Substack with your substack.com subdomain
• There's a lot of brand value in being able to host your newsletter on your own domain - this is what Ghost has been doing for years.

This might seem like a subtle feature update but it's definitely a game-changer in the newsletter industry.

I'm using Substack for my Product Ideas Newsletter that I launched to accompany a recent launch of mine.

So far, I've done no promotion except for mentioning it once on Twitter. The only other way to find it is through the small link in the navigation bar of the product mentioned above. Nevertheless, the newsletter is growing much quicker than I had expected.

So far I enjoy writing the newsletter as it's a completely new medium for me and I'm feeling like a learn a lot. And I'm not making any money so far.

i have a question concerning the pricing page of substack. I'd like to push people straight from my website to the pricing page of substack with the monthly/yearly/free tier. The problem is that you only see this after putting in your email address when not subscribed. Any developer skills to go straight to it? or is the emailaddress linked to it?

• I've been building Blogging Guide on Substack. I am using it to help writers monetize their content and help creators better understand the changes occurring in the digital publishing landscape.
• I've published a list of tips for growing your Substack newsletter paid subscriber base, and these are the primary methods I continue to use today.
• It is going well. I recently published my one year review of publishing on Substack.
• I am making money through subscriptions. I have received many offers to share sponsored content or ads in my newsletter, but I have rejected all of them. I will include the occasional affiliate link if the product mentioned is something I utilize on daily basis.
• It is hard to keep publishing on a regular basis. My guess is that in about a year we will see a large amount of Substack newsletters fold or pause their publishing, as it is actually very hard to run a subscription-based newsletter. Especially, if you are like me, and have to generate content for 3-4 other platforms on a regular basis in addition to Substack.

I started iOS By Night a few weeks ago, and it's going okay. I write about freelancing, iOS development, and productivity. I only have a couple of posts out, focusing on quality over quantity.

I just started to see some subscribers that aren't people I know IRL, so I supposes that's a milestone! I haven't started any monetization yet, I'm curious, what size should I be before considering a paid tier?

I am using Substack to talk about the intersection of Product Management, No Code and champion a diversity a thought at jayyoms

I am growing it slowly and organically by dotting share buttons.

I regularly share it on Twtitter because that is where my main audience is, but I have started posting relevant posts as replies to meaningful conversations in FB groups

I am loving it. It's not making me money, but I'm having a blast and it's grown 49% in the last 3 months

"How's my Substack going??"

Dismal!

Still trying to understand how it works and be way to use it. In due time I guess 😅

Substack newsletter: https://www.buildwithusers.com

What are you using it for?
We're interviewing cool startups that have a user community. Partly to learn ourselves, partly to share these learnings and build an audience around community building for software startups since we believe that's the future of creating software.

How are you growing it?
Sharing issue on personal social channels & in some product communities. The interviewee also shares on their Twitter which is often very helpful. We got some well-known names (like Typeform co-founder David) so that helps to spark interest.

How is it going?
We started out earlier this month, now ~100 subscribers.

Are you making money through subscriptions or ads?
Nope. We hope to eventually build a community of highly interested folks in this topic. The newsletter could be a top-of-funnel way to find these people. Maybe that community can have a paid element or we'll create paid tools around the topic.

Is it hard to show up on a regular basis?
5th issue releases tomorrow (with Linear's co-founder Tuomas 🎉), so we're not far in but consistency is not a problem. It does cost a a couple of days every week to write out the interviews and get new guests.

I'm using Substack to nurture and grow a community for Chief Best Friends, a podcast helping women succeed in work and business through meaningful friendships. The Substack is called BFFs, a play on words but is essentially about business, friendship, and funds. You can view it here at https://bffs.substack.com/

How are you growing it?
Currently, I'm growing it through word of mouth and social media (organic and paid). I have experimented in paid classifieds on other newsletters but it's a hit or miss. I was featured on a couple of media articles and that gave me a few bump in traffic. For now, it's really organic word of mouth that really drives growth.

How is it going? Am I making money?
Managed to grow it to ~250 subscribers in the past six weeks. I'm currently not monetising it though that's something I'm thinking about but have no immediate plan yet.

Is it hard to show up on a regular basis?
Sometimes but normally I have a lot of resources to share so I'm super pumped to write about it and send it out into the world.

I have zero (0) subscribers, but I might be posting this on the wrong forum. https://chronofeelings.substack.com/

Substack: https://thestartup.substack.com

Use case: to structure my thoughts and note lessons from experience surrounding entrepreneurship, indie-hacking, etc... Also, an excellent way for me to consolidate the best ideas and book extracts!

Growth: LinkedIn & Twitter, mainly. Documenting progress on Indiehackers has been helpful for some growth. The occasional Reddit posts. Organic shares are starting to pick up slowly too!

Progress: So far, so good - learning to appreciate the process. I just hit 200 subscribers after three posts so pushing on. The Substack feels like a startup in and of itself.

Money: Not charging yet, I'm probably keener to build an audience than charge. However, I have been thinking about it because I want to meet up with and help people who are willing to pay subscriptions. As for ads, referrals, etc. I've started getting a few things to come through, but not sure anything has been the right fit just yet!

Showing up: Yes! Every week, I've considered pushing a post back a week lol.

Hello - thank you for the chain. I look forward to learning from others here or hearing any feedback. My substack is here If curious based on the responses below: newsletter.butwhatfor.com

What are you using it for?
I am using it to generate a subscribe list without the goal of every charging for the newsletter - at least for the foreseeable future. I am writing about books and the takeaways you can glean from them to improve your life - so this is mainly something I enjoy, but I want the expectations of readers to force me to think about what I read as opposed to just reading and forgetting.

How are you growing it?
Just through word of mouth / sharing with people I know. If anyone had any advice here, I would greatly appreciate it.

How is it going?
Going well - but only recently pass 150 subscribers. Had two articles get 7k+ views via social media that helped. These were the Stoic Philosopher in a Hanoi Prison and On Old Age by Cicero articles.

Are you making money through subscriptions or ads?
Not charging subscriptions - making money through Amazon Affiliates. I like the way that aligns incentives... I only get paid if readers find something interesting enough to learn more by buying a book. That means I created value to the reader, I believe.

Is it hard to show up on a regular basis?
It is very hard - but I find getting a schedule to post is helpful. This creates a deadline that your readers expect. Say that you post every Sunday and Tuesday. This helps you be consistent because you know someone is waiting. If you randomly post whenever you feel like it, then it’s easy to now show up.

Hi Rosie,

I'm using it to build an online community of think tank experts, Policy People. I've started by creating a biweekly newsletter that gives readers updates on think tank events and job opportunities in the industry. I've grown to 2,000 subscribers (free) in three months using mostly LinkedIn direct marketing.
I'm happy the way things are going so far. I'm very consistent and have a nice workflow setup to make sure it gets posted each week.
The next big thing is the transition to a paid version. Ideally, I'd like to issue a Pro version with more content (more job posts) for my readers, but if this doesn't work out I may end up charging tanks for listings (i've seen that elsewhere on substack, (https://weekinethereumnews.com/).

Any ideas on how I should go about launching the paid version. I haven't mentioned it to my readers yet. Still in the planning phase going over pricing/how to market it, etc.

Does anyone else have any experience with what would be the best way to transition ? Is some kind of launch with CTA like a 20% discount for the first week or something the normal way to go or do most people just quietly introduce the paid version with little fanfare and just let it gradually grow ?

Paid subs are scalable, but you need to optimize Sponsored Ads we well to grow a thriving media business.