Episodes
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* We want devoted readers, listeners, viewers, and/or clients (depending on your category and what you do)âa.k.a. âsuperfans.â (Donât love that term, but you get the idea.) But Substack doesnât offer a clear path on how to find and keep them. You have to pave that road yourself, which is what this workshop will help you do.
Highlights:
* What and who are your devoted readers, a.k.a. âsuperfansâ
* How to give them the highest quality writing even if you donât think of yourself as a writer
* The 2 types of âgreat writingâ on Substack
* How to pitch other Substacks to get your exceptional writing out into the world
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Iâm absurdly excited to bring you my interview with Miller Coffey. Miller is a digital marketer who helps established authors start a Substack. Heâs also incredibly genuine and real and smart andâŠI could go on. Miller is the president of the marketing firm Bellflower Media, a trans and queer-owned business thatâs dedicated to equity and social justice.
We discuss everything from what every Substack should have to what he does for his clients to which social media platform writers should be on to branding and logos.
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For you: A 15-minute pep talk for those who may feel like thereâs a lot of noise on Substack.
The amazing Claire Venus and I guide you through my top, top Substack tip of all time: Donât subscribe to or follow a bunch of Substacks that talk about how to be on Substack.
For those who may not know Claire, sheâs the mastermind behind Sparkle on Substack and Creatively Conscious. Sheâs a creative who also writes and a Substack enthusiast. She describes herself as being powered by sustainability, slow living, big dreams, and quiet ambition.
Claire is the real thing. Sheâs a Substack educator I often recommend, especially for creatives.
Sparkle on Substack is âa bespoke space to help you stay creative on Substack with co-working, workshops, weekly posts, chats, a podcast, and all the tools to help enhance your journey to growth on Substack in a joyful sustainable way.â
We encourage you to follow/subscribe to one Substack guide (two max) for a year. Sure, itâs great to get lots of perspectives and ideas, but when you listen to everyone, you risk not hearing yourself.
Some of you do well with noise. Blessings.
For those who donât, listen to or watch this conversation with Claire.
Subscribe to Sparkle on Substack here.
Subscribe to Creatively Conscious here.
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.writersatwork.net
To upgrade to listen on Apple, go to www.writersatwork.net/subscribe.
What we cover:
* The 3 types of Substack audio and how they work (voiceover, memos, and podcast/audio posts)
* Substack audio in 3 easy stepsâincluding the editing tool for writers
* Voiceover-artist top tips
* The best (and least expensive) equipment to use
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The magic of your Substack About page.
I love it when people ask me if their Substack About page matters.
* Does anyone really look at it?
* Donât some successful Substacks have, like, nothing there?
* Why bother?
Well, we donât know for sure because Substack doesnât give us those stats, but Iâll give you two reasons why I think it does:
* Itâs prominent on the app.
* People donât freely give out their email addresses and certainly not their money for a paid subscription without checking out the source.
Join us to learn more..
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Workshop replay | Just 30 minutes
If youâre on Substack to find a loyal readership, earn an income, or be creative and grow into a better writer, you need to manage your time.
Period.
**Below is the workflow I use for posting and my weekly calendaring process for you to make your own.
What we cover:
* A Substack schedule that helps you be more creative and effective
* An easy workflow that helps you produce quality posts that fuel your creative energyâincluding what the three must-dos on Substack (vs. nice-to-dos)
* The right mental outlook to achieve your goals
Free to all paid subscribers.
Get this workshop and all Substack Mastery Workshops by becoming an annual paid subscriber.
Or join the Substack Growth Cohortâthe only 1-year program to achieve your Substack goals to get everything in the paid membership, monthly Mastermind Cohort Calls with other Substack writers, the Substack Growth Blueprint, monthly Strategizing Workshops to earn an income, produce your best work, and get subscribers.
You and your Substack are worth it.
Workshops referenced and available to watch at your convenience:
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.writersatwork.net
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How to boost your growth on Substack?
Make your Substack essential.
People donât unsubscribe from Substacks they feel are essential.
What youâll come away from this Strategy Session with:
* Awareness of how to make your Substack essential so people wonât unsubscribe
* An action plan to communicate that to subscribers
Whether youâre experiencing a slowdown in paâŠ
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On the go? Listen to this on the Substack Writers at Work podcast here!
This is the best fifty-two minutes you can spend. This Q&A with the amazing Sophia Efthimiatou, Substackâs Head of Writer Relations, will fill you with inspiration, optimism, and a true appreciation for Substack and how much itâs doing for us.
Sometimes it can feel like weâre just writing on a platform, but Substack is made up of real people, many of whom are writers themselves. They believe in giving us the professional opportunities we deserve. Here, weâre part of a community.
Become a member of the Substack Writers at Work community. Join 11,000+ Substack writers. Annual members get everything. I encourage you to commit to your Substack with my guidance for a year and get the discounted annual subscription. You, your Substack, and your work are worth it.
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Thereâs so much talk about overwhelm and burnout that it feels like itâs starting to create overwhelm and confusion. No longer.
Itâs up to us to make Substack the place we want it to be. If that means loads of notifications for you, go forth! If youâd rather quiet it down a bit, managing your notifications is essential.
Hereâs how to adjust chat notifications on the Substack app.
This is a public episode. If youâd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.writersatwork.net/subscribe -
Sara Tasker and Keeley Rees are the force behind The Substack Soiree. When Substack started pivoting slightly (very slightly) away from being solely a platform âfor great writingâ to an âeconomic engine for culture,â Sara and Keeley brought their combined gifts to the platform: Sara's magic in growing online audiences and running a business that doesnât burn you out with Keeleyâs professional experience in storytelling, copywriting, brand design.
The Substack SoirĂ©e focuses on how the visual element of our Substacks can complement our writing. They offer free branding bundles and The Substack SoirĂ©e classâa supportive group program for anyone looking to start, grow or expand their Substack presence. It guides Substack writers to find their voice and the stories theyâre here to tell with support, accountability, and a gathering of like-minded people.
Find out more about the class starting March 18 hereâbut listen to the interview first because these two make branding heart-filled to even the most branding-averse, cynical people. Itâs not branding; itâs visual storytelling.
Sara and Keeley have spent decades in the online and social media spaces, particularly audience growth, online marketing, writing, and storytelling. Saraâs business is Me & Orla. Sheâs a creative business coach, writer, photographer, iTunes #1 business podcast host, bestselling author, and self-described Instagram nerd. Keeleyâs areas of expertise are vast: writer, visual storyteller, email marketing expert, designer and content producer, copy coach, filmmaker, voice-over artist, and more.
They each have a Substack in their own right. Saraâs Entre Nous is âslow living, online business, and personal growthâfor creative souls and dreamers.â Itâs a glimpse into her life, including the French house sheâs currently renovating, and her insights into creating a business, being on social media, marketing, and selling âwhile being a human with a heart.â Keeleyâs Secret Gardens is a space for her personal narratives and insights into what it means to be a creator (which she would define very broadly) today. You can read her excellent post âVisual Storytelling: AKA the Case for Brandingâ here.
Enjoy!
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Ah, sections. If youâre like me, youâve unknowingly gone down this dangerous road. Ill-advised.
To group posts on your homepage, so they appear by topic rather than in chronological order, you want groups, not sections.
Sections are only if you want to create an entirely separate newsletter within your newsletter. Theyâre a nightmare for you and your subscribers. Find out why in this video.
Thanks for the suggestion to do this tech video, Mitch.
Hereâs Substackâs guide to setting up sections.
ⶠJoin our community. Get the support of thousands of paying members and benefit from my expert guidance to help you grow your Substack fast.
Paid members, weâre here to support you. Need help with your headlines? The members-only headline hub chat is where you get expert advice on how to headline your posts to draw readers in. 24/7. Go here, tell us a bit about what your post is about and the headline youâre considering, and weâll give you suggestions:
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PDF with the slides and prompts is below!
Weâve never been given an opportunity like this to earn an income, build a community of loyal subscribers, be creative, and get exposure for our work.
But how do we do it in a way thatâs relatively free of overwhelm, doubt, stress, and frustration?
Enter your editorial calendar.
Part of my genius working with people 1-to-1 as a private Substack consultant is that I listen to their goals, spot exactly what they love to write, and help them set up an editorial calendar that serves them and their subscribers.
In this workshop, you get a taste of that.
What youâll do:
* Revisit your goals, what you most enjoy posting, and which posts resonate with your subscribers
* Determine how often and how much you really need to be posting
* Set up strategic editorial and content calendars that improve your life and your Substack
BONUS: How to repurpose content on Notes without feeling lame
*Even if youâre satisfied with your posting schedule, itâs always good to check in.
âš Get access by becoming part of the Substack Writers at Work community, the most supportive, connected network on Substack.
If you prefer not to subscribe, you can purchase this workshop separately.
It's a deep dive into strategizing your editorial calendar on Substack. If any of it feels too high-level, come back to it when you're ready.
Note: I reference two other Substack Writers at Work workshopsâ
* The Key to Growth on Substack: Your Expert Guide to Notes workshop
* Get Discovered on Substack: Alt Text and SEO Workshop
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How to Write an Opinion Piece on Substack
On Substack, most people doing any form of personal writing use three modes:
* rumination,
* narrative, and/or
* opinion.
Your posts may be a mix of all three, but to write Substacks that draw readers and create engagement, we need to know which mode weâre in and how each works.
Opinion writing may be one of the hardest:
* How do we do it without being moralizing, reactionary, or trite?
* How do we establish authority?
* How do we write something important to readers, not just ourselves?
By the end of this workshop, youâll know the four keys to opinion writing online:
* The difference between a hot take, a think piece, an opinion piece, and an op-ed
* The ideal structure for an opinion piece that doesnât come out dull, sloppy, or disjointed or harangue the readerâbrought to us by the great
* How publishing an opinion piece on Substack can perhaps take a different approach than writing an op-ed for a mainstream media outlet
* The 10 keys to a successful op-ed
Substacks to read for examples of opinion writing:
* Jessica de Finoâs
* , Culture Study
* , The Honest Broker
You can purchase the workshop separately if you prefer not to subscribe. As Substackâs Farrah Storr says, we do these workshops in good faith that people wonât sign up for the link and then unsubscribe.
The promptâthe opinion writing formulaâis below for you to use to put this into practice.
I loved this from , who shared her expertise writing op-eds during the workshop:
âI think the terrifying part about writing online, self-publishing, Substack, etc., although you do get some feedback, is you donât have an editor and you donât have all the infrastructure around publishing that creates a certain amount of discerning of what's newsworthy and what isnât, and whatâs a valuable or interesting or fascinating or insightful opinion to more readers than what we ourselves think.
And we donât have that second set of ears and eyes and that other pressure to create something thatâs reader-centric.
And opinions, I think, are particularly dangerous that way.
Just a warning to folks that not everything you think is something people want to read and this from a very opinionated person so Iâm throwing the stones at myself as quickly as anyone.â
Watch the replay to learn more about how to write an opinion piece without being a jerk.
âš Become a paid subscriber to get access to this workshop and all the guidance you need to be the writer you want to be. You get all the workshops in the How to Write on Subsatck series, including the other two forms: writing the personal essay and the narrative essay.
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Hereâs a breakdown of the three ways to collaborate with other Substack writers: guest post, cross-post, or interview (print, audio, video). Enjoy!
You can find people to collaborate with on the Substack Writers at Work Office Party.
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I donât think Iâve ever met someone who said they really liked being on social media. The general sentiment among the people I know is that we use it, itâs a necessary evil, and thatâs that.
Except itâs notânot to Kat River, who is one of the most expansive, heart-filled women Iâve ever met. Sheâs all truth and authenticity. And sheâs made a place for social media in her life, not in a begrudging way but in a how-can-I-show-up-and-open-myself-to-this? way.
In this interview, she teaches us how to embrace (yes, embrace) social media. Our conversation is full of so much wisdom. Itâs a must-listen.
Hereâs a taste from Kat:
âItâs important to come back to your intention on social media. Because everyoneâs going to have a different intention. What is your intention? And then just be clear with that.
If itâs connection, show up and truly connect. Go out of your way to engage and you will see the return of that. And then youâll feel like youâre building connections. Itâll feel more fulfilling.
If itâs just to do business, then go and read some books about doing business on social media and sales and actually go learn those skills.
If youâre going to be on there anywayâ Because you donât have to be. Thatâs also an option. Thereâs an option to jump off social media and just go be an epic fairy out in nature and not be connected to it. (I fantasize often. I wonât lie.) But if youâre going to be there anyway, you may as well learn the rules and play the game so that it can be a more thriving experience for you.
And you may as well go and question, What are my beliefs around this? Are they actually serving the experience I want? Or are they just fueling this narrative that isn't actually going to be in support of my dreams?
And notice that gap and then close that gap. Thatâs our job, you know.â
If youâve read Katâs Substack, you know how alluring it is in the âpowerfully interestingâ sense of the word. You start reading and just canât stop. Itâs like listening to someone speak through written words ordered just so on the page, which is what all writing should be but Kat does it differently. Speech. Ordered. Just so.
Kat is a mother, maker, and mysticâmuch like many of her readers. The short version is that she entered the entrepreneurial and personal development world very young, became an entrepreneur in the online spaceâco-creating live events, online programs, heart-centered community, and six-figure businesses with her husband Tully, alongside her creative pursuits, and also making art for artâs sake.
Please enjoy my interview with the powerful and amazing Kat River.
And for those of you who still feel like, âNo! I canât do social media,â thereâs an upcoming mini-course with the excellent Substack writer . Astridâs Substack supports women in business. She has a very cool Marketing Without Social Media four-month course starting in March.
Sheâs lovely and an outstanding teacher. The program is aimed at helping small business owners, freelancers, and creatives create their marketing blueprint without relying (exclusively) on social media. A considerable chunk of the people she works with are writers and artists and they seem to be especially attuned to marketing in a slower, more intentional (yet highly effective) way.
Learn more here.
âš Get more great interviews like this one, plus two writing-and-Substack mastery workshops a month, the two keys to success on Substack, and the most up-to-date tips to succeed on Substack by becoming a paid subscriber to Writers at Work. You, your writing, and your Substack deserve it.
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.writersatwork.net
What we cover:
* What âgoing viralâ means
* What counts as âviralâ
* The 4 reasons a post goes viral
* What prevents a post from going viral
* The 5 things that make long-form posts go viral
* Viral posting strategies
* A deep dive into one Substack writer's viral post
* The one thing we know a post definitely needs to go viral
* A writing exercise to help you write your next (viral) post
As Substackâs Head of Writer Relations Farrah Storr puts it, we do these workshops in good faith that people wonât sign up for the link and then unsubscribe. Weâre here to build a community of writers who will come together to grow. If you prefer to purchase the workshop, you can do so here:
This is part of the Craft of Writing on Substack series, where we take the best creative writing techniques and make them work for us on Substack.
Time to write your viral essayâŠ
NOTE: Revision of what makes long-form go viral #4: Speak to a specific group/belief & oppose another
++A couple more examples of posts that went âviralâ on Substack. In the workshop I mentioned that viral long-form posts often take a stand, agree with one group, and oppose another.
But the emotions that also cause people to share are joy, awe/surpriseâpositive. Check out this from @Jeannine Ouellette
Also, taking a stand doesnât have to be political. I wrote this in favor of writing fewer words:
https://www.writersatwork.net/p/write-less-please
(I think itâs best to think in terms of viral for each of us, i.e., particularly widely shared and restacked, rather than putting a number on it.)
Please read Kirsten Powersâs essay âThe way we live in the United States is not normalââsuch a good example. No surprise it went viral.
Hereâs the annotated version with my notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tsqAP7s42KJt9mhkpzY0u8Aw3U50zIOKY7jENr41h3I/edit?usp=sharing
âš Become a paid subscriber to become a better writer on Substack with How to Write Online workshops like this one. Paid subscribers also get access to the Headline Hub chat (so you can write headlines that go viral) and more to help you achieve your goals on Substack.
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00:03 Navigating Your Profile Page
00:12 Understanding Your Posts and Notes
00:27 Finding Other Users' Notes
00:35 Locating User Profiles
00:59 Exploring Other Users' Notes
Transcript
Hereâs how to find someone else on Notes.
Navigating Your Profile Page
If you go to your profile picture and click on your profile. This is your profile page.
Finding Your Notes
This is where your bio is and your short description, but you'll notice down here. All your posts are listed hereâyour Notes, your likes, and everything that you read all listed down here. This is true for everyone on Substack.
Finding Other People's Notes
So anytime you're looking for someone's Notes and to see when they've posted. You click on Notes under their profile.
Finding Other Peopleâs Profiles
But how do you find their profile? You can do it via their handle.
That's what this is. Or you can find them. And then go to their page. This is Laura McKowen, so great. And then go down to About. Scroll all the way down to people and that will take you to their profile page.
Here are their [00:01:00] Notes. So you can like, restack, and support all of their Notes.
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The Key to Growth on Substack: Your Expert Guide to Notes
Substack's Notes is the key to growth on Substack. If thereâs one piece of advice I can give youâand all of our readersâitâs donât miss out on Notes, Substackâs internal social media network. Here's your expert guide.
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Iâve worked one-to-one with over 250 peopleâhelping them succeed on Substack. That means Iâve been behind a lot of dashboards and mentored a lot of different peopleâwith different interests and goalsâto
* double and triple and quadruple and septuple their subscribers,
* substantially increase their revenue,
* build a readership with real engagement, and
* be Featured Substacksâthe pinnacle of quality on the platform.
Personalized guidance is the fastest, most efficient way to start and grow on here. I love strategizing and figuring out how a personâs talents, interests, and expertise will work best on the platform.
Notice I didnât say you can write âfor yourselfâ and expect to be paid. You have to show up like a pro and serve your readers.) Thereâs nothing better than helping someone see how amazing they are and how Substack can help them have the life and career they want.
Iâve learned and know a lot about Substack. Some of it also comes from building my own bestselling, Featured Substacks with over 9000 subscribers in eight months and guiding over 7000 subscribers here at Writers at Work.
Here are seven things I hope will bring you growth and joy on Substack in 2024.
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Listen now to my interview with Russell Nohelty. Hear about how to succeed as a self-published author on Substack and how to use crowdfunding and other approaches to further your career.
Writers at Work
Grow. Your. Substack.
Book a Substack 1-to-1
If youâre interested in succeeding on Substackâi.e., want to focus your Substack, accelerate your growth as a writer, and attract subscribersâbook a meeting! Find out exactly what your Substack needs, how your talents and expertise can be expressed on the platform, and how to produce work that subscribers (and agents and editors) really want to read and keep reading.
You leave with meticulous notes of our meeting that give you a step-by-step action plan, a clear content strategy, a better understanding of Substackâs features, ways to publicize your Substack and draw subscribers and more.
Iâve helped hundreds of writers and creatives. Their Substacks have doubled and tripled in subscribers, seen a sharp increase in revenue, gotten real engagement, and been Featured Substacksâthe pinnacle of quality on the platform.
Get real guidance. Everything I share with you is based on the advice Substack gave me.
This is a public episode. If youâd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.writersatwork.net/subscribe - Show more
