How To Make Sense Of Substack: A Guide For The Absolute Beginner
When I started Substack, I found it difficult to understand at first, so here is a guide for the absolute beginner. First, let’s look at what it can do.
● One is to send out newsletters (this was its genesis). Writers create posts and readers can subscribe, either for free or for a monthly/annual fee. Posts appear both as emails to the subscriber and in their Substack feed (aka Home).
● Following is an alternative to subscribing. If you follow a writer instead of subscribing, their posts appear in your feed but are not emailed.
● Notes are like a short version of posts. They only appear in the feed; they are not sent as emails. They make Substack into a better version of Twitter with formatting tools and no character limit.
● Interaction is an important part of Substack. You can like posts and notes; comment on them; put them on your feed (“restack” them), with or without a comment; put an excerpt from a post on your feed. Your restacks and excerpts will appear in the feeds of people who follow you. By interacting in this way, you gain subscribers and followers, and people will restack your notes and posts.
● There are also chat, video, recommendations and podcasts.
The Substack interface is not very intuitive. When the orange Substack chevron is showing at the top left, you’re reading Substack. The icons at the left are Home, Subscriptions, Chat, Activity, Search, then Orange-Plus to write something. Here is the home page with annotations. Click on the image to expand it.
The activity button gives details on who has liked, followed, subscribed, commented, and more. Here, I have 5 notifications I haven’t read.
To work on your account, click the gray “Dashboard” button near the top right. The icon at the top left changes to your personal icon (or the one Substack has chosen for you). The dashboard has a bunch of tabs: Home, Posts, Subscribers, Stats, Podcast, Chat, Recommendations, and Settings. Go to Settings to control how your site behaves:
Click on the top-left icon or the title at the center to see your “public” page.
Getting back to the Substack Home page is not very obvious. Click on your avatar at the top right and choose Home.
I have been describing the interface as seen by a browser. It is different on a phone, and I recommend sticking with the browser until you know your way around.
How to get rich and famous more than two subscribers
When you start Substack, you are automatically subscribed to on.substack.com which has a lot of useful help for beginners. There are approximately 4 million people writing about how to be successful on Substack; I would say their advice boils down to:
● Choose a niche.
● Publish regularly.
● Write notes as well as posts.
● Network! Like, comment, and restack. Follow and subscribe. Think of this like the Golden Rule: do as you would be done by.
Good luck!