"How often should I post on Substack?" It’s an age-old question that’s sent many a Substacker into spirals of doubt. Doubt as in Did they unsubscribe because I’m sending too many posts? Am I bothering them? Am I not growing/has my growth slowed because they need more? less?
It’s all hogwash. I do my thing. Every damn day. I’m not chasing visibility nor an algo. I AM providing a service. When I take my intention away from that, then I’m just whistling in the wind. My subscribers are told in a welcoming email to expect to hear from me every day. Short. Brief. Inspirational missives. In our troubling political climate for them to receive a daily uplifting email is responding to a collective desire among the critical mass to feel something good.
I was posting twice a week last year and scaled back to once a week in January. It takes time to write, review, edit so it makes me wonder how some people are able to post so much and whether it affects the quality of the posts.
Thank you, this was very helpful to me. I'm not a writer, but I'm embarking on a journey of writing about my photos on substack. The "4 wrong answers" were especially helpful to me as I get started.
Good read. Thanks for putting that together! A quick question for you: do you know if there’s an actual difference between doing a post with a voiceover and a podcast episode? I’m inclined to polish and invest in quality voiceovers, and I’d like them to be more than just a read of the post, but I’m unsure if Substack would send it to my readers the same way as it does with a post. Do you know the difference? Thanks! ✌️
I'm so glad I found your Substack (and that it was recommended to me). I launched just a few days ago (with about 30 subscribers from an early attempt at this a few years ago). I'm trying to figure out how to best pace myself, so your post was super helpful.
As I launched, I got started by posting (not emailing) summaries of some of my work that appeared in other publications (Forbes, NYTimes, Washington Times, etc.)., I wanted to build a backlist, so I didn't have an empty page. As I did it, though, I realized I might be emailing people too frequently. I've been thinking about doing a "round up," but like you said, that's 6 steps for readers.
One thing I wish Substack had was the option for readers to get a "digest" once a week. Or maybe that feature exists, and I just don't know it.
I wrote down your suggestions. Thanks for this post.
We only traditionally email our shop newsletter subscribers
2x monthly and aiming to get to 4. I have customers who walk in our shop and thank me for the emails. They love reading the content. It absolutely warms my heart. I know that if we were too frequent, I wouldn’t get that feedback. That said, our emails don’t quite convert to sales. I think they offer a very strong showcase of what we do, but I’m not quite sure how to move our readers to buyers via email. On this platform, I’m really just wanting to connect and be part of community in order to create more visibility for the emerging and independent artists we support. Looking forward to figuring out our flow here. My first post the other day was on community building via creative placemaking. My second post today is an interview with one of our artists. If you’re still with me, I hope you’ll give them a read and a like and maybe even a comment or two. 🤩
This is something that really resonates with me. I think a lot of us came up in the blogging email newsletter world, where we were taught that any email you send with a link to your site to drive traffic was an email worth sending. But the magic of Substack is that being here allows us to *skip* the stress of driving traffic away and just enjoy being here, writing.
Thanks for this. I went through these questions and it helped me clarify some questions I had. Putting myself in my readers’ shoes was helpful. I currently provide a weekly newsletter, and at times, when the mood and inspiration strike, I’ll send out a random post. I’ve debated on whether or not to just post on Substack or also send to their inboxes, for the exact reasons you stated. I have been sending these to their inboxes, but I’ve also been engaging frequently with my readers, and have seen exponential growth. I’ve tried another test of posting these random articles to substack only and linking to the post in my weekly newsletter. That method received less views, but maybe the ones that viewed it actually read it. I don’t think there’s a way to know that level of data.
Great post! Thank you, Sarah.
It’s all hogwash. I do my thing. Every damn day. I’m not chasing visibility nor an algo. I AM providing a service. When I take my intention away from that, then I’m just whistling in the wind. My subscribers are told in a welcoming email to expect to hear from me every day. Short. Brief. Inspirational missives. In our troubling political climate for them to receive a daily uplifting email is responding to a collective desire among the critical mass to feel something good.
Nah I do it almost every day the market is open
since 2021
I was posting twice a week last year and scaled back to once a week in January. It takes time to write, review, edit so it makes me wonder how some people are able to post so much and whether it affects the quality of the posts.
Fucking love this one!
Thank you, this was very helpful to me. I'm not a writer, but I'm embarking on a journey of writing about my photos on substack. The "4 wrong answers" were especially helpful to me as I get started.
Good read. Thanks for putting that together! A quick question for you: do you know if there’s an actual difference between doing a post with a voiceover and a podcast episode? I’m inclined to polish and invest in quality voiceovers, and I’d like them to be more than just a read of the post, but I’m unsure if Substack would send it to my readers the same way as it does with a post. Do you know the difference? Thanks! ✌️
I’m just going to post when I want and if people want to follow along, great. If they don’t, that’s totally fine. 🤷🏼♀️
This post is still a gem 💎
I'm so glad I found your Substack (and that it was recommended to me). I launched just a few days ago (with about 30 subscribers from an early attempt at this a few years ago). I'm trying to figure out how to best pace myself, so your post was super helpful.
As I launched, I got started by posting (not emailing) summaries of some of my work that appeared in other publications (Forbes, NYTimes, Washington Times, etc.)., I wanted to build a backlist, so I didn't have an empty page. As I did it, though, I realized I might be emailing people too frequently. I've been thinking about doing a "round up," but like you said, that's 6 steps for readers.
One thing I wish Substack had was the option for readers to get a "digest" once a week. Or maybe that feature exists, and I just don't know it.
I wrote down your suggestions. Thanks for this post.
We only traditionally email our shop newsletter subscribers
2x monthly and aiming to get to 4. I have customers who walk in our shop and thank me for the emails. They love reading the content. It absolutely warms my heart. I know that if we were too frequent, I wouldn’t get that feedback. That said, our emails don’t quite convert to sales. I think they offer a very strong showcase of what we do, but I’m not quite sure how to move our readers to buyers via email. On this platform, I’m really just wanting to connect and be part of community in order to create more visibility for the emerging and independent artists we support. Looking forward to figuring out our flow here. My first post the other day was on community building via creative placemaking. My second post today is an interview with one of our artists. If you’re still with me, I hope you’ll give them a read and a like and maybe even a comment or two. 🤩
I needed to hear this. Definitely caved to the pressure to write more in November and it did not go well 😅
This is quite possibly the biggest worry I have as a writer. Thank you for this!
This is something that really resonates with me. I think a lot of us came up in the blogging email newsletter world, where we were taught that any email you send with a link to your site to drive traffic was an email worth sending. But the magic of Substack is that being here allows us to *skip* the stress of driving traffic away and just enjoy being here, writing.
Thanks for this. I went through these questions and it helped me clarify some questions I had. Putting myself in my readers’ shoes was helpful. I currently provide a weekly newsletter, and at times, when the mood and inspiration strike, I’ll send out a random post. I’ve debated on whether or not to just post on Substack or also send to their inboxes, for the exact reasons you stated. I have been sending these to their inboxes, but I’ve also been engaging frequently with my readers, and have seen exponential growth. I’ve tried another test of posting these random articles to substack only and linking to the post in my weekly newsletter. That method received less views, but maybe the ones that viewed it actually read it. I don’t think there’s a way to know that level of data.
Just wanted to say I am so happy I found your substack. I really enjoy it and I love the fact that you have audible...I love listening : )