Insights from Publishing 300 Articles on Substack Over 14 Months
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Chapter 1: Effective Growth Features of Substack
Substack is making significant advancements in its platform and tools for creators, yet many individuals remain unaware of the potential benefits it offers. Over the past 14 months of writing on Substack, I’ve witnessed the introduction of several transformative features aimed at enhancing the writer's experience. Here’s what I've discovered from publishing more than 300 articles.
1. Substack’s Integrated Growth Features Are Effective
Substack has developed remarkable built-in growth tools for writers. In the last 90 days alone, my Substack has attracted 160 new subscribers, with 43% of them coming through Substack’s promotional tools, such as the leaderboard and recommendations.
This aspect of Substack is often overlooked, but with a large sample size from my 300 articles, I can confidently affirm its effectiveness in helping writers expand their audiences.
2. A Dual Platform: Blog and Newsletter
Take a look at the homepage of Category Pirates, created by Nicolas Cole.
It resembles a typical blog, yet Substack also functions as a newsletter. Each post can be sent to email subscribers, although you have the option to publish without sending an email.
Here’s a glimpse of my email engagement stats.
When publishing on Substack, you’re essentially managing both a blog and a newsletter simultaneously.
3. Potential for Search Ranking
Substack is unique within the newsletter domain in that your content can achieve visibility in search engine results. Here’s a look at my traffic sources over the past few months.
Several articles I’ve published have started appearing in search results on Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo, adding to the excitement of writing on this platform.
4. Rapid Podcast Growth
Substack enables you to host your podcast, integrating episodes into your blog and distributing them to subscribers. Here are my podcast stats.
In just 90 days, I’ve achieved nearly 600 downloads, a remarkable feat for a podcast that started from scratch. Substack offers a unique opportunity for podcasts to grow rapidly by leveraging an existing audience.
5. Managing a Private Community
Recently, Substack introduced "Substack Chat," a feature that allows creators to build their own private social media communities. This space is tailored for writers, enabling them to dictate the discussion topics and maintain control over the community dynamics.
If you're feeling disillusioned with the current social media landscape, creating your own private community on Substack could be the solution.
Many users remain unaware of what Substack has to offer. Given that it can take time to gather sufficient data from your publications, it's important not to abandon the platform prematurely. Based on my experiences and the data from over 300 articles, I can affirm that Substack truly works.
I’ve launched The Online Writing Guide on Substack, where I plan to share insights on writing online and eventually feature guest posts from other writers sharing their experiences.
You should definitely subscribe!
Chapter 2: Lessons from My Writing Journey
The first video offers insights on lessons learned from a year of writing on Substack, particularly for those who may lack confidence in their writing.
The second video explores valuable takeaways from experimenting with 14 different paid writing platforms, providing insights for aspiring writers.