Join us this Friday! We’ll be there to help answer your questions about Substack and Instagram: using the two together, how to transition your work to this space and whatever other questions you may have! 

When? Friday 19th April, 12 Noon BST, 9pm AEST (Timezone woes? Check out World Time Buddy here.)

Where? Over on Instagram at @me_and_orla (look for the ‘live’ circle around Sara’s profile picture when it starts.) If you have questions please bring them along!

join now

Can’t make it and still have questions? No problems! Submit your questions here, and/or catch the replay which we’ll upload here after the fact.

Back to today’s episode, in this Q&A from last year Sara tackles questions like:

• How can I use Substack to market my business? Is that even allowed?

• Can I just use it instead of staying on Instagram?

• What if I don’t have much of an audience yet?

• Can I use Substack if I’m not much of a writer?

• What about my existing blog and mailing list?

And much more.

• Episode 2 with and Helen’s Instagram

• ’s Substack publication: Girl With Antlers and Instagram

• The Substack Soirée class

• World Time Buddy

• Sara’s Instagram for the live Q&A (more details below.)

• Google form to submit your questions

As we mentioned in the episode, we’re getting ready to start the very first Substack Soirée class for the year. Join us for a deep dive into the craft, the magic and the strategy of making Substack the online home for your work and creativity. We kick off April 22nd, and would love to see you there! Click here to find out more and lock in your place.  

In the meantime, we’re both looking forward to chatting live very soon!

Sara & Keeley

“Such a brilliant experience.”

Sara and Keeley are so encouraging and inspiring and it's been a pleasure to be part of their community. The resources in the Substack Soiree are beautifully presented and practical - there are short tasks and steps you can put into practice straight away to start and grow your Substack community. Their advice in the coaching calls was so useful whether it was in answer to a question I asked or one that someone else brought along. I've watched the replays of the classes again and taken notes and I enjoyed the co-working calls for some extra accountability too. I really can't recommend it enough, especially if you're new to Substack and are feeling overwhelmed or not good enough to write here - this class will help you get organised, gain confidence and create a plan for your newsletter that's right for you and what you'd like to offer.

Charlene Storey ~ Haver & Sparrow

“It’s honestly the best course I’ve ever done!”

The Soirée has given me some wonderful ideas on how I can begin to move forward with my publication. Everything was so beautifully designed and laid out in a way that was easy to understand and work through in your own time. I couldn’t be more grateful and I loved the calls too! A huge thank you to both for putting on this wonderful course and allowing us all the room to grow on this platform.

Jenna ~ Magic & Musings

“Think of this as an up-to-date digital communication refresh, underpinned with a precious modern marketing approach, delivered by two warm-hearted and extremely knowledgable hosts.”

I can't recommend the Substack Soirée highly enough. Sara and Keeley have created an extremely well-crafted and beautifully curated offering that has got me wanting to write write write. Some of the lessons can be applied to areas outside of Substack too. Enjoyed every minute. It would be impossible not to apply the skills learned to other arenas and I'm so pleased to say I feel my general "toolkit" has expanded exponentially.

Emily Chalmers ~ Caravan Column

S & K

x

☆ 90min co-writing session

☆ LIVE Q&A

☆ The first soirée for the year!

This is a super special co-writing session. We don’t like to give too much away, but just know a prompt (or two) will be provided on the day so you don’t need to bring anything except semi-reliable wifi if at all possible, a can-do attitude and a blank Substack post, ready to go. 

When? Monday April 15th, 8pm BST  

Where? On Zoom, all you have to do is just click this magical button to join the call on Monday. 

Next Friday the 19th April, we’re hosting a live Q&A to tackle all your Questions about Substack and Instagram: using the two together, how to transition your work to this new space and whatever other questions you may have! 

When? Friday 19th April, 12 Noon BST

Where? Over on Instagram at @me_and_orla (look for the ‘live’ circle around Sara’s profile picture when it starts.) If you have a question please bring them along!

Can’t make it live but have a Question? No problems! Submit your questions here. 

We’re getting ready to start the very first Substack Soirée class for the year. Join us for a deep dive into the craft, the magic and the strategy of making Substack the online home for your work and creativity. We kick off April 22nd, and would love to have you join us! Click here to find out more and lock in your place.  

In the meantime, we’re both looking forward to seeing you live very soon!

Sara & Keeley

Hello, hello! Something different for you today, as we’ve decided to share the audio from one of our live Application Calls from inside our class, The Substack Soirée. We chose this call in particular because there were a few great questions asked and all things we felt would be relevant to many. From dealing with imposter syndrome, to what’s the best way to share our work, merging blogs over to Substack and more, it is our hope this episode is helpful and encouraging to you. And if you would like some more hands-on help and feedback for your Substack journey, we’d love to see you inside the next round of the class!

• Should I have two separate Substack publications?

• What’s the best way to merge my blog and publication?

• What do I do now I have a new (exciting and delicious) visual direction for my publication?

• Am I an imposter? Or worse…boring?

• How do I format my posts so they can be interesting to my readers?

And more!

Martine writes about the intersection between productivity and well-being. We love how she puts it so beautifully: “To do well, you need to be well.” Read more and subscribe to Notes from Martine here.

Caroline is the host behind Book Alchemy and her award-winning podcast: The Secret Library. Her publication is like a cosy room to curl up in, read, swap book recommendations or ‘write the ones that don’t exist yet’. Read more and subscribe here.

Also a huge thank you to our other guests who remain anonymous but their questions have been so helpful to others.

• The Substack Soirée class

• Kate Watson Smyth

• Jon Ronson

• Hidden Potential by

• Pi app.

Throughout the class we host weekly opportunities to meet together on Zoom and answer questions, review pages, give feedback, offer encouragement or chat through things that might be blocking your creativity.

It’s one of our favourite things about the class and is a much-loved and appreciated by the community within the soirée.

The Substack Soirée is for anyone looking to start, grow or expand their Substack presence. This class combines our decades of wisdom and insight into audience growth, online marketing, writing and storytelling with the factors we believe matter the most: community, compassion and creativity. Our mission is to guide you to find your voice, the stories you’re here to tell, the work the world needs from you and the best way to get it all seen.

The Soirée opens its doors for pre-class drinks and refreshments* April 18th, 2024 and class begins officially the following Monday.

Say you’ll join us?

*By drinks and refreshments, we mean of course, you will have the opportunity to wander about the Soirée grounds, review a few set up pieces we have prepared for you, meet the other guests and so on before class kicks off. The type of beverage and snacks (or lack of) you have beside you as you do this, is, as ever, up to you.

The answer is of course, it depends. While Substack does offer some of the functionality available in an external email service provider, it is limited and depending on your business, goals and audience, Substack alone may not be sufficient for you. Alternatively, you may find yourself with both a platform like Flodesk and Substack and feel like you’re holding the equivalent of two left shoes—either could work—but using both at once is not only unnecessary but potentially problematic.

While it’s not a right/wrong, black/white answer, in this conversation we attempt to provide a way forward that’s easy to follow and hopefully create some clarity around the topic. Plus, we offer some ideas on how to make the most of both traditional emails and Substack.

In essence, we break down the answer into two categories:

Category one: doesn’t need both.

Category two: might find both Substack and a traditional email service provider useful.

We go into more details about which category you and your business might fall into and why in the episode, so give it a listen and let us know what you think?

If you’ve been waiting for the next round, we’re thrilled to let you know the wait is over. The first day of class kicks off on April 22nd and we’ll open up the doors a few days earlier so you can get settled and meet your fellow guests. This will be our first class for the year so if you want to make Substack the big, warm beating heart of your online endeavours then please know you’re invited and we’d love to have you join us. Click below to find out more!

• Hello Funnels

• ‘Let’s talk about welcome emails’

• Substack Soirée class (we start in April!)

• Sara’s post: How to automatically add subscribers to Mailchimp, Flodesk etc.

There was mention of the next round of our class starting in March, however due to health issues, moving house, general #lyfe adventures between the two of us, we’ve moved the starting date to the 22nd April. You can read all about the class and sign up right here.

If you’ve mentally nodded away to any or all of the above, it might be a great time just to tune back in to what really matters to your creativity. We have a few guiding principles here at our Soirée, and while this could be our own manifesto of sorts, we hope you might find encouragement and timely reminders below. (Then feel empowered to get right back to your glorious work. The other stuff can wait.)

Let’s start with one of our favourites:

This is a principle we’re deeply committed to, and lies at the heart of all that the both of us do.

Your creativity does not take a backseat to strategy, or to audience-pleasing. It’s a trap we can all fall into, as we gradually begin to create based on what our readers are responding to or asking for, not we are inspired to create, and we risk boxing ourselves in or falling into the trap of audience capture.

We of course want to find a balance with being strategic and responsive: we look at data, we listen to what readers are saying, we market and promote our work, but we don’t make decisions at the expense of our creativity.

Especially when you land on a new platform, it can be easy to head straight to Google and ask: What are the tips and tricks and strategies to grow? And while it’s no secret we believe in collaborating with both strategy and intention, but on Substack in particular, (although we would say anywhere) we want to be known for the quality of our work.

You want to grow an audience because your work deserves it, not because you were in notes every day, tagging people and scrambling to entice people over to your publication. Even if that approach did bring quick initial growth, it’s not going to create an audience that will stick around.

You want an audience that's there because your work speaks to them.

Let your content be the magic that helps you grow.

Especially when you’re just starting out, you can’t be too generous or give too much away. There’s no need to write from a defensive or people-pleasing place. So, when you face a kind of crossroads in your work, or you’ve come up against fears of scarcity or panic, check in and ask: ‘What’s the generous response here that shows appreciation for my audience?’

This has been our mantra throughout the entire creation of The Substack Soirée. In any of the work we’ve created together, we’ve chosen not to rush anything out, or make decisions in fear but to lean in to the generous answer. It hasn’t lead us astray.

As creatives we often swing from a desire to create from a space of complete freedom, with no restrictions or considerations on how or what we should post. But also we want to be told what to do: ‘How often should I post?’ ‘Should I use this format?’ ‘Where do the buttons go?’ We’re just trying to protect ourselves and prevent mistakes, or find the shortcuts to the good stuff. While there are always data-led answers to questions like these, the only way to collect meaningful data is to begin creating and figure out what works for you and your audience. The truth is, there is no wrong unless it's not serving you or your creativity.

Stories can be told by both words and pictures. We know this, we see it all throughout the planet: Sculpture, music, artwork, photography, dance, theatre, are all unquestioned forms of storytelling.

Writing and telling stories, even here on Substack are not limited to the written word. Which is amazing news for people new here and wondering if there’s a place for them if they’re not “a real writer”. Yes. There is.

While Substack began as primarily a platform for writers, they’ve been expanding the platform to include and welcome a wider range of creatives and artists, offering storytelling forms like video, images, gallery, audio, podcasts, and more.

If long form writing isn’t your preferred way to tell your story, you get to choose how you package it.

We also have curated a post with 10 ideas for Substack posts that aren’t heavily reliant on words if you’re looking for inspiration.

Value on Substack is not about frequency, word count or time. It’s about what the reader gets to take away.

Sometimes too much content or jam-packed posts can feel like homework or lose their impact. Someone may get more value out of one clear idea you share in a simple paragraph than in a 5000 word essay. Don’t underestimate what you have to offer or feel like you need to stretch content or offers out for the sake of it seeming more valuable.

For some writers and creatives, the lack of value exchange for their work means they have to find work elsewhere and no longer have time to create. And then? The artist misses out on making and sharing gorgeous things and people miss out on value.

Don’t withhold what you have to give if you are able to offer it. Share it with us. Promote it, tell us about it, we don’t want to miss it.

Just as great creative work deserves to be seen.

It’s why we’re here, after all, isn’t it? Posting on the internet instead of confined to the pages of some leather-bound journal. Most of us want our work to be noticed, enjoyed, read and shared.

While ‘if you build it they will come’ is a heartwarming principle, it’s not always the most reliable strategy when we’ve got bills piling up on the countertop. So alongside support for your craft and creativity, we’re here to talk about strategy too.

And yes, the make-or-break deciding factor of any Substack’s success is, of course, its content. If the writing’s kind of crummy, no amount of strategy or branding is ever going to hook in a readership. Dazzle us with brilliance, though, and we’d happily read it off of a toilet wall. It’s important to keep sight of this fact whenever we start to delve into the strategy side of things.

For those of us who want to create and be paid—(so we can keep creating)—we have to be a little bit savvy too. We love that Substack’s goal is for writers, and more increasingly so, creatives, to be paid for their work. For many of us that means we have more opportunity than ever to explore the best of both worlds: Write, create, be paid. Repeat. 

But we also believe there’s a way to do that without hustle, hacks or any marketing tactic that makes us go: ‘ew’.

No manipulation. No sacrificing your values. No having to pretend that you’re somebody you’re not. Just honest, authentic marketing, to the people who genuinely want what you’re offering to the world.

Excellence looks different in the varying seasons of our lives and businesses.

School holidays, chronic illness flare up or personal stress will mean our level of excellence will look different.

We are big believers in ‘the MVP’. We’re all for minimum viable products over unachievable yet alluring perfection, iterations and what we like to call: living documents. There’s always the chance to come back and make tweaks or overhaul. The pivot is real and its existence disempowers the need for perfection.

We all love to know we’re not alone. That other people are as weird (or weirder) than us. As creatives and writers, we want to be supported, encouraged, uplifted, inspired, moved, enchanted, delighted… and we hope to do that for others too. 

Writing can be so solitary and insular, but it's also a very vulnerable and personal act. By sharing our work with others we can also build a community of like-minded people who understand and appreciate our work. We can get instant feedback, ideas and inspiration, motivation, support and growth. And in return, our audience gets better and better content - more of us showing up in the way that we always wanted to.

Good online communities are a meeting place for like-minded souls and a place to be seen and heard. We can make friends there, learn new things there, and feel more connected to ourselves in the process.

Yes, we’ve said this before but it’s a big one. Every single one of these principles here are about helping you figure out how to be as “you” as possible and show up that way.

Because as easy as it sounds, it's actually one of the hardest things to do in a world that's constantly telling us to be somebody else and to do things differently and that who we are isn't right or good enough.

So ‘you do you boo’ is a simple sentence but a difficult thing to do.

Consider all that we share here a challenge to your unique brand of creativity. Choose what works, leave what doesn’t, and at all times, make room for fun, curiosity and play.

If you’d like to hear more about how you can show up in a way that feels right for you, have a listen to this podcast episode: 10 “Commandments” for an Amazing Substack

Anything here jump out to you at just the right time? Leave a comment and let us know, we love hearing from you.

Please welcome our guest for today’s episode: The Brand Stylist, Fiona Humberstone.

Just between us, she was one of the first guests we knew we had to ask onto the podcast, before we’d launched a single episode.

Fiona is an entrepreneur, designer and brand stylist, known for her work empowering heart-led businesses to express themselves through their brand.

This is THE episode for the brand-curious and brand-phobic alike. Her masterful approach to ‘finding your magic’ and showcasing it might just turn what you think you know about branding on its head. Creators and writers all over the Substack-o-sphere can glean from her wisdom to tell and share their very best stories with confidence.

• Branding for beginners, the brand-curious and the brand-phobic.

• Why your Substack branding is already saying a lot about you, whether it’s intentional or not!

• How to establish your own brand identity, and why it’s about more than just a logo.

• The simple ways you can up-level your Substack visuals to help it support your work’s messages.

• Re-branding branding - it can be just another fun expression of your creativity and opportunity for storytelling.

• How to keep your work consistent and recognisable across all your different online platforms (hint: it’s about branding! Surprise!)

• Sara’s growing Sylvanian Families/Calico Critters hotel empire. (It’s a whole thing.)

• Instagram

• The Brand Stylist on Substack

• Fiona’s blog

• Website

• Elevate program

• Fiona’s courses

• The Substack Soirée

• The Substack Branding Bundle

As always, this stuff is all optional! We always encourage you to take what you like and need from our episodes, and leave everything else. (Please see point #10 on this episode here if you’d like us to embellish further.)

In the intro, Sara mentions that The Substack Soiree class is now in session. This was true at time of recording, we’re now gearing up for our first class of 2024! You can join us here!

Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us , it was lovely to chat with you!

Catch the replay here!

I’m going to be hosting a live Q&A over on my Instagram tonight at 8pm GMT tackling all things Substack and social media!

If you’re here on Substack I’m guessing you’re already pretty sold on this place, but we still hear allll kinds of questions from people here every day. Things like:

• How can I use Substack to market my business? Is that even allowed?

• Can I just use it instead of staying on Instagram?

• What if I don’t have much of an audience yet?

• Can I use Substack if I’m not much of a writer?

• What about my existing blog and mailing list?

• What about GDPR??
  

If you’d like to chat with me about these, or any other burning Substackish questions you have on your mind I’d love you to come along!

How to join:

WHERE: Over on Instagram at @me_and_orla (look for the ‘live’ circle around my profile picture when it starts")

WHEN: Tonight, Saturday 25th November at 8pm GMT

join now

Can’t make it and still have questions? Add them to the comments below, and/or catch the replay which we’ll upload here after the fact.

Looking forward to chatting!

S xx

Leave a comment

Please join us in welcoming our first ever super duper special guest to the podcast: Helen Stephens, Illustrator and Author, sensational human with flair and really cool flags, plus she’s the genius behind the Substack Featured publication: Pencil Pals.

This conversation was such a joy and filled with wisdom on finding our way to a fun, easy, doable creative life that co-exists with subscriber growth, engaging with a thriving community and earning an income through Substack.

As Helen says, we have to be willing to waste time, stay flexible and be unattached to the outcome, allowing ourselves to play, experiment and mess about.

Plus, we talk about that time she thought there was a volcano in her kitchen and we're *still* waiting on her world-famous cheese scone recipe.

So. Pop that kettle on, have a cuppa with us and let’s chat…

• Approaching ideas without attachment to the outcome.

• How experimenting and ‘wasting time’ is crucial to the creative process.

• Not getting caught up in planning everything out and just taking action and moving on to the next thing.

• Style and how it can connect us to our own creative voice and unique styling.

• Approaching branding as an illustrator and why they have a head start.

• Growth strategies that are sustainable and bite-sized.

• Helen is super generous with her numbers of both subscribers and Substack income.

• Advice for illustrators wanting to join or use Substack.

• Future plans for Pencil Pals and Substack

• Her Sunday House Chat post. (Bodies, volcanoes, sink holes, etcetera.)

• The Logo post.

• Our free Substack Branding Bundle

• Helen’s Pro-create e-book

• The Good Ship Illustration

• Home by Lisa Post

• The Substack Soirée class, starting on Monday!

• Here’s my Substack, Pencil Pals

• Check out my website

• Let’s be friends on Instagram

Thank you Rory for working your editing magic as always.

And of course, thank you to . (Whenever you’re ready, that recipe’d be great. Ta.) xx

Just a couple of days now until our festive soirée begins!

If you want to make Substack the most fun, free and far-reaching platform out of all of your online work then come and join us in The Substack Soirée.

We'll be digging into everything from growth, monetisation, writing habits, themes, topics, branding, copy, the works—and all by the twinkle of fairy lights. It’s an amazing community space to support each other, get guidance, advice, feedback, have a few laughs. (Plus a festive party thrown in for good measure.)

If that sounds like something you could do with right now, then we'd love you to come and check it out right here.

Until next time,

S & K x

Subscribe now

Leave a comment

CUE JAZZ HANDS & HIGH KICKS etc!

Truthfully, we hadn’t planned on running a second class this year. We kind of thought we’d just bask in all of our incredible feedback and then kick things off again sometime in the new year.

But it turns out that we’re not very good at just sitting still. We missed the magic: the calls, the collaboration, the community. The incredible creativity of it all.

And with so many enquiries from so many of you, it seemed like a lot of others might be craving that too.

And really… what better way to wrap up 2023 in a big, shiny bow?

And so, we are delighted to invite you, once again, to join us in our immersive and supportive Substack experience.

Welcome to The Substack Soirée.

This will be our first ever Christmas Soirée (think, fairy lights, little bonus surprises and a fun and festive online ‘Christmas do’..)

We begin Monday, 27th November with an extended run time allowing for 2 weeks of creative retreat from the 22nd December before coming together again in early January.

This means, not only do you get a supportive nudge for all of your holiday content, but also, a rocket-launched start to your Substack for 2024! Help, guidance, strategy and accountability, all packaged up in a gentle and supportive group experience.

So, that’s our invitation: you, us and the incredible soirée community, all taking action on our dreams and schemes for 2024.

Not vague resolutions, but clear, crisp vision for what we want from our publications here, and the exact steps to make it come true.

If you missed out last round, or you just could do with a bit of magic this time of year, we’d love to have you along.
Spaces are limited to keep the class small and if you’re reading this post on the day of publication, you have less than a week to enrol!

✨And, for a super limited time window, we have a crazy-good early bird bonus to sweeten the deal!✨

Check out all the details over on class page, here.

We’d really love to see you there.

With love,

S & K

PS: There’s opportunity to upgrade to a VIP package and get direct private support from both of us! Spaces are limited, so make sure you check it out soon. All the details are here.

PPS: Just to encourage you with how powerful this time together can be, have a read of some of these *glowing* words from some of our wonderful guests at the first ever soirée.

x

The Substack Soirée is here to support you in showing up as the creator, writer and artist you want to be. Here on the podcast, we offer you a mix of insights and stories from guest interviews with a wide range of writers and creators on Substack, as well as our own (nerdy) reflections and things we know you'll love.

We thought we’d start our first ever episode together by sharing how we met, The Substack Soirée’s origin story and how that all became reality thanks to one very helpful random generator robot. (We love that guy.)

But more importantly, we’re sharing our foundational principles—our 10 commandments, if you will—for navigating Substack. 

Obviously, we’re not commanding you. You get to choose which (if any) of these apply to you and leave what doesn’t.

Our hope is that these prove to be useful ways to frame your creativity and explorations on Substack... 

• Putting our creativity first, even when we’re trying to do the “right” thing.

• Exploring generosity as a creative in a loud marketplace.

• Navigating through fear and learning not to be led by it. 

• How creating a space on Substack is helping to shape the future of creativity and paid creative work.

• Why #10 is probably the most important one.

And much more.

Which “commandment” resounds with you the most? Leave a comment and let us know!

Leave a comment

This Visual Essay  by

How to Write Without Words post

The Substack Soiree Class (On sale now for our Christmas Soirée!)

*Now if one of us sounds like we’re calling in through a tin can and string, it would absolutely be because one of us is in Australia, and *not* because we had a tech hiccup. That never happens. Especially not to us 👀

**We will upgrade to TinCan&String V11 for the next episode. Promise.

Subscribe now

You know what we’re talking about.

Inspiration starts to evade you; self doubt and procrastination slowly tiptoe in. You’re overwhelmed, over-scheduled and overthinking it all.

It’s especially true with the world in such crisis. In the face of so much overwhelming sadness and conflict it can be harder than ever to see the point of it all. And that’s before we even delve into the current pressure to show up on social media as if we have all the answers that are impossible to find.

If you’re feeling all or any of this pressure, we’d like to invite you to set it aside for a while.

Give yourself permission to create for nothing more than the magic of making new things. Write in order to just hear yourself think. Share for the people who might need exactly whatever you’re making right now - however simple, frivolous or soft.

World events don’t trivialise our contributions, we do.

It doesn’t matter if your next post won’t change the world. It’s enough if it makes one person’s day fractionally better. Or if it helps you navigate another day in this messy and complicated world.

So! Join us both for a (free) 90 min co-writing session? It’s all happening this Thursday, hosted live on Zoom.

We’re saving some of the details to surprise you, but just know you don’t need to prepare an idea or topic to write about. Just bring yourself, your heart and your writing mojo. (Actually, no mojo required, you can borrow some from the energy of the Zoom Room.)

A note on timezones

The best way to get the right time is to use World Time Buddy. If you’re not sure what AEDT is or PDT is, use London, UK (GMT)) as your starting point. Then add in wherever you are and you’ll get the right time for you. This way it’ll take into account daylight savings changes and there’s less room for error.

Subscribe now

With the two of us both being excessively nerdy about both online marketing and user behaviour, we know there are two key elements that can optimise the number of people who will actually click any button to engage.

The first is a direct and explicit call to action (aka, what you want them to do)

The second is to give it an eye-catching design.

Substack already has great built-in options for both of these elements, but we thought we could go one better on that.
We wanted to make our ‘call to action’ buttons stand out more, bring in more subscribers and reflect our values and our writing voice too. How?

Enter, our newest freebie: the button bundle!

A free, editable batch of animated, colourful buttons that you can use in all of your Substack posts. Buttons like the one you see below… (which works, btw, for anyone who isn’t yet a subscriber here… 😉)

And here’s the regular (and perfectly lovely) built-in Substack button, for comparison.

Subscribe now

A little less grabby, perhaps? A little easier to scroll on by.

Customised buttons for your Substack

Use these souped-up little numbers anywhere you would usually add a Substack button - Subscribe, Leave a Comment, Share - anything from that whole dropdown list of options you see when you click “button” in the post editor.

And we’ve made sure to still keep them looking Substack-coded so people will still automatically understand what they are for, and what they need to do .(This is important - good buttons are like a universal symbol for ‘click here now, human’, and we don’t want to mess with this!).

Changing the button text has been possible with ‘Custom Button’ but now you can make yours that extra bit fancy and eye-catching - change the colours, change the movement, as well as the text!

While we’re on that, the wording is important for that first part mentioned above - the direct call to action. “Leave a comment” is fairly self explanatory, but depending on your voice and your readers, it could also become “tell me below”, or “confess all your secrets”, or “join the discussion”.

Likewise, the option to “share this post” might get a little more traction if it calls on your readers to “tell all your friends!” instead.

‘Subscribe’ might become something like…

Or

(but seriously - are you Subscribed to us yet? 🙊)

Have fun with it and get creative. Just don’t do anything spammy, mislead your readers or make it hard for anyone skim-reading to find the button they need.

And as always, this little customisation is completely unofficial and entirely optional - we’re not here to add any pressure or expectations for anyone. We just love Substack, love branding and love how many ways the simple functionality here lends itself to so much freedom and fun ❤️

Grab the button bundle HERE and go to town.

But wait! We’ve got another gift for you!

The Branding Bundle

Yes, we already shared this once, but we know that the tech gremlins conspired against many of you accessing it all.

Subscribed but never received it? Received it but couldn’t get the Vimeo robots to play nice? Well, good news! The Branding Bundle, both templates and walkthrough video are now both available to all, without even needing to subscribe. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for you all to get access to it, so you’ll now find it at the page linked below.

Click HERE or on the image above to be taken straight to the branding bundle.
Click HERE to get the new snazzy button bundle too.

And if you want more magic freebies like these from us in future, click the button and make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got a whole lot of exciting and creative things coming up very very soon…

Some days you can write, and some days you jst cnat/.

It happens to the best of us. And while Substack represents, to many here, newfound freedom from the tight restrictions of algorithmic social media, our brains still love to impose a few random rules: Like, all of my content must be utterly perfect. And, I have to write a whole Pulitzer-worthy essay every time I want to post.

It’s a lot of pressure to put on ourselves. Sometimes, it might work and nudge us into greatness, but most of the time, it only inspires paralysis. We sit spinning, waiting on the the words, on a voice we’ll like more than the one that we have.

It’s such an easy lie to get swept up in: Substack make no secret of their founding mission statement of making writing pay for writers, and is overflowing with incredible literary skill. What if you don’t even really consider yourself to be a writer, as such? I mean, writes on here, for Pete’s sake! How is anyone supposed to match that?

Of course, the answer is, we are not supposed to.
The only real mission is to keep showing up as ourselves.

If you sometimes feel like you’re ‘not a writer’ enough, take comfort in this: it is not the words and sentences that make your readers fall in love. Yes, great writing can definitely help with that, but in the end it’s really just the packaging - for our ideas, for our stories, for our thoughts.
Even Margaret Atwood, if she pivoted to writing exclusively (albeit beautifully) about plumbing supplies might find herself struggling for an ongoing readership.

If you regularly find yourself struggling to create content, it might be time to revisit the secret rulebook you’ve given yourself. A post can be anything, after all. Maybe you’re more of a talker; maybe you struggle with Dyslexia, or need to write in a language that doesn’t feel natural for you. Whatever your reasoning, you are allowed to use whatever form of delivery best suits your brain, your skills and your message. And it isn’t a compromise; it’s a strength.

Some of the the most magical Substack posts do not hang on the writing. In fact - sometimes they don’t include any words at all, like this gorgeous Video Montage by.

So if you sometimes find yourself snagging on the syntax or getting tangled up in type - or if you just want to mix up your posting and vary the pace a little - here are 10 alternative things you can post to your Substack that should lighten the load.

Want more help in getting your writing to an audience?
Subscribe to The Substack Soiree for our free resources and posts.

1. A Photograph, (with or without a short caption)
   In fact, if you’re missing Instagram, why not utilise your Substack as a slow, immersive ‘Substagram’ feed and send out these simple posts to your Subscribers every time you share? I’d follow it from my favourite creatives, and it would be such a delight to curate.
   
   Inspo from the wilds of Substack: This collection of images from , This Picture of Everything shared by

2. A Considered List
   Lists are some of the quickest ways to get high-value content out to your audience, with no great literary flare required. I’m not talking Buzzfeed-esque ‘top ten fast food fails’ type nonsense here, but instead, a gathering of your audience-specific thoughts, recommendations or likes. Your top 10 favourite podcasts; 6 movies you love to watch on a rainy day. The books you never managed to finish. The phone apps you most swear by for managing your life. Lists work really well as a regular feature, too; links to things you’ve seen in the news or on social media recently. New buys or bargains that your audience will love. In-season foods for the month, or nature finds to get out and hunt for. You get the idea.
   
   Inspo from the wilds of Substack: ‘s Unlikely Podcast for Illustrators, and ’s 10 Things Worth Sharing This Week.
   

3. A Recipe
   Tried something new for dinner this week? Finally ready to share your Grandma’s secret to the perfect Victoria sponge? Maybe your work is tied to nature and you can share something seasonal each month based on what food is in bloom. Maybe you’re learning to cook, and can share a contrast between expectation (Martha Stewart’s lasagne) and Reality (a cheesy lump of something brown).
   Or you could be a little less literal here: ‘a recipe for a truly terrible first date’. The recipe format is just packaging, really - you can put anything you like inside.
   
   Inspo from the wilds of Substack: ‘s Recipe for Disappointment (and rice pudding) and ’s Recipe for Salted Lemon Shortbread.
   

4. A Question.
   For now, Substack still has differentiation between Threads and Posts (the difference it negligible, and I suspect the two will be blended at some future point). The idea of a Thread is that the comments are the content; the conversation, the community engagement, the space to be seen and heard. Prompting people to leave comments is something of an art-form (it’s time consuming! It requires us to do more than stare passively at a screen!) so choose open, compelling questions that make readers feel drawn to reply. Eg, ‘What do you wish somebody had told you about parenting?’. ‘Does anyone have any stories about losing out on a dream house?’. Or something fun and silly, like ‘the last picture you saved to your camera roll defines your personality. Show me yours’.
   If you’re stuck for ideas, try browsing popular posts on sites like Reddit to see what’s getting people talking the most.
   
   Inspo from the wilds of Substack: ’s weekly Open Threads ’s open call to ‘Write a Wild Poem With Me’ . Or this Trivia Post from on celebrity pet names.
   

5. A ‘Joy Snack’
   My late friend and colleague Su used to send out what she termed as ‘joy snacks’ to her lucky friends and family; short, delightful bits of content that she found, made or forwarded on. They could be anything: a screenshot of a funny tweet; a quick and shaky video of the tide coming in. A handful of rainbow skittles. A snippet of overheard conversation on the bus.
   
   Inspo from the wilds of Substack: This picture from the Inspiration Folder of or or gorgeous Mood Board here from

   ---

   

   Want more support, insights and strategy to make Substack the home of your online audience? Our brand new class, The Substack Soiree, is enrolling now!
   
   Click here to see all the details!

   

   ---

6. A Playlist or song
   Substack lets you embed media from Spotify, Soundcloud, BandCamp, YouTube and Apple Podcasts directly into a post, meaning the recommended content is immediately visible on your page to your audience. Share the tracks you love to run to, or the podcasts that start your day. Curate a list of 90s nostalgia. Lean into your niches and inside jokes; ‘10 songs for my fellow dramatic bitches’. ‘A playlist for when your deadline is an hour away’.
   
   Inspo from the wilds of Substack: live from Madison Sq Garden; Annotated Playlist by who creates a playlist for every book she writes. This Meditation Music by
   

7. A Voice Note
   I’ve seen people use these for nice little messages of support and affirmation, but of course the possibilities reach far beyond this. Chat to us over your morning coffee; take us along on your dog walk each day. Bring us to your home renovation site or to your production line and let us hear some of what’s going on. Ask for reader questions and answer them verbally, if that’s more your jam.
   Sit in a meadow and describe the sights, scents and sounds. Send out a 3-minute meditation that we can lock ourselves in the bathroom with to re-centre, while the kids shout outside the door. Check in as you would with friends over WhatsApp or iMessage - noise in the background, dog barking, occasionally losing your train of thought.
   

   Inspo from the wilds of Substack: Madam Luna and the Acrobat Mice, read by the author ,; Snail Mail poem/voice message by
   

8. Your Recent IRL Creative Work
   Illustrations, sketchbooks, ceramics, jewellery, knitting, interior design… Sometimes the urge to pad out our sharing of our more visual creative work with words comes down to a secret fear that it might not be enough on its own. Let it shine. Add some context, as needed - share the story, if it helps. But be willing to let your work do the talking sometimes, and trust that people will appreciate it too.
   

   Inspo from the wilds of Substack: This Fairytale by Grant Snider of ; Title Cards from , The Jellyfish Picture Book Process by ,

9. A Quote, Prompt or Affirmation

   So often, the most effective messaging is short, sharp and simple. And sometimes, it’s already been said by somebody else! As an obsessive hoarder if impactful quotes I would sincerely love to sign up to a curated Substack of well-sourced quotes to give me pause and fresh thoughts at semi-regular intervals. Or, perhaps you’ll send out a prompt of some kind: a daily photo challenge, a new word to try and use in a conversation (I hope not sporadically!). Maybe you’ll send out a word a day for people learning a language, or a gentle thought of self-love for people whose brains might be struggling to offer one for themselves.
   Even when the words are hard, we can write a sentence, right? And then maybe, we can build from there.
   

   Inspo from the wilds of Substack: A simple quote with image from ; Love Notes from
   

   ---

   

   This one’s a bit longer… click here to see how it ends!

   ---

10. An Informal How-To

    If it’s the creative side of writing that’s tripping you up at the moment, turning to the solid and fact-based word of tutorials might be just the way in. Taking your readers through a step by step walk through of a skill, task or technique you use regularly is so incredibly valuable, and because we all just want to get to the finished result quickly, there is zero requirement to get fancy with words. You still can, if you want to, obviously - but you can trust that the wisdom you’re sharing will be more than enough.
    
    Inspo from the wilds of Substack: ’s ‘A Picture With Your Eyes’, complete with a downloadable viewfinder, this wonderful advice on Photographing Fog by

Do you have some creative, less-verbal posts on your Substack?
Got recommendations for some more brilliant examples we can share?

We’d love to hear all about them in the comments below!

Want more support, insights and strategy to make Substack the home of your online audience?
Our brand new class, The Substack Soiree, is enrolling now! Click here to see all the details!

Friends! We have been utterly overjoyed to see so many wonderful humans snapping up their tickets to join our inaugural soirée. September cannot come soon enough!

There has been much happy-dancing and virtual cheers-ing happening here, behind the scenes. Both of us are truly so very excited and energised to come together and properly meet with you all: from artists, photographers, writers, therapists and makers to coaches, knitters, journalists and more - we can’t wait to hear all that you all have to share. From day one we’ve been committed to making this class the very opposite of a clunky one-sized-fits-all-formula, so it’s really beautiful to see a range of creatives that can really reflect that.

We can’t wait to catch up screen-to-face with you all, forming firm friendships and lasting community together. (Two people who met in The Insta Retreat ended up being bridesmaids for one another, so that’s the score to beat!)

Speaking of which! We’re announcing the live call times (find them below ⤵) where we’ll be able to mingle with these fine folk, AND we have some news about the early bird discount…

Early Bird Extension

The launch of any new venture in business and creative work is always an experiment, and we worked to keep our hopes and expectations low as we introduced our shiny new group offering to you earlier this week. But. Well. Suffice to say, this was one experiment where the safety goggles were most definitely necessary! 🎇

Amongst all of your dazzling explosions of love and support there were, of course, a few tech gremlins in the mix - tearing at cables with their teeth, presumably, and generating weird checkout error codes whenever they saw fit.

And so, to make sure nobody missed out, we’re extending our Early Bird discount by an extra 24 hours. The discount will now end on Wednesday 23rd August at 11:59pm BST.

EDIT: Early bird is now finished, but you can still join this class!
Enrolment closes on Sunday 10th September 2013 at 11:59 BST.

If you’d like to join us, enrol before the clock runs out using any of the payment plan options on this page.
And if you’ve absolutely no idea what we’re talking about here, then head on over to this page to read all the deets!

This special discount is for the first round only and expires in just over 24 hours. We recommend that you run, don’t walk, to avoid disappointment!

Live Call Times

Now that we know who our first early birds are we’ve been able to finalise our call times, too. So far we’ve had sign-ups from all over Europe, from Australia, the UK, right across the US as well as Brazil, Canada, New Zealand and Japan. (Alas, still nobody from Antarctica. What gives, Antarcticans?)

With this in mind we’ve tried to set our live times to maximise compatibility with as many people’s timezones as possible.

As well as our weekly Table Gathering sessions (think: mindset coaching, feedback opportunities and help making your Substack sing), we’re offering two opportunities each week to join us for an hour of focussed writing. You’ll see this reflected below, every Monday; feel free to choose whichever Co-Working session best fits your schedule (unless you are a never-sleeping bullfrog or a dolphin, in which case you are welcome to attend all of the calls).

As always - if the call times don’t work for you, please reach out so we can look at making changes and make sure you can still access direct support.And also, a gentle reminder here that there is truly so much value in re-watching the live Table Gathering without being the person directly receiving feedback, whether live or via the call replays each week. It’s always easier to have clear perspective on someone else’s issues from a distance, and you’ll be amazed at just how many parallels and lessons there are for you to uncover in hearing about other people’s struggle points.

Check out the calendar below, or follow this link to convert to your local timezone.

September class call times:

★ Co-working sessions

A dedicated hour to write for your Substack and complete class assignments
Mondays at 8:30pm BST and/or 2:30am BST (that’s 10:30am AEST)

★ Application Calls

Group class calls to get mindset coaching, copy help or feedback on wherever you’ve got stuck
Wednesdays at 12pm BST (that’s 9pm AEST)

More free goodies on their way soon!

Not here for our paid resources? We have SO many juicy freebies coming your way in the next few weeks too, so keep your drink topped up and feel free to mingle (nor not!)

Launch Party Invite & time announced

We know not everyone will be able to make it live, but if you can, we would love to see you there! (Keeley's crowd will be doing mimosas at 6:30am on the Sunday because that's the way we like it. Right? Right?) However! Please do not stress if you can't be there, we will have other opportunities to catch up live & we'll have a replay available to make sure you don't miss a single thing. 

This Zoom event is an excuse to say hi to you & meet you screen-to-face before we kick off! We’ll be there with our beverage of choice to hang out and celebrate the launch, throw around a bit of digital glitter, answer any questions and give you the first glimpse of what’s to come! (Zoom link will be given before the day in our private channel, to be shared soon!) 

Dress code: fancy as you like. Full disclosure, some of us will most likely be there in our PJ's.

Leave a comment

Does it ever feel like you missed the boat a bit when it comes to social media?

Perhaps you joined Instagram a little too late, or put your time into Twitter only to watch it get… well. Elon-ified.

Maybe you’ve always felt a few steps behind as you watched those magic waves of momentum sweep other people up, and found yourself left on the shore, feeling alone, and perhaps a little helpless.

Worried you might have left it all too late.

Well then - we have good news for you, my friend.

This time, you’re early for the party.
This time, the boat is still sitting in the dock.

And that party boat is right here, on Substack. We’re already on deck, hoping you’ll jump aboard before we lift the anchor, light the lamps and drop the disco ball. (More on all of that in a moment…✨)

Substack is a place for creativity, where you can share anything you choose. No rules or churning algorithms and zero preconceived notions of how anything is supposed to look. Just a sandbox, a playground, a party for friends.

So our question for you is: what kind of party do you want to throw? And would you like a little help in pulling it all together?

What’s that? You thought we’d never ask? Well, without further ado…

Together with our love of storytelling, obsession with the internet, general love of (most) humans and unapologetic nerd-dom for strategy, we cordially invite you to our next Soirée, beginning on Monday, the 22nd of April, 2024.

The Substack Soirée is a supportive group programme for anyone looking to start, grow or expand their Substack presence.

This class combines our decades of wisdom and insight into audience growth, online marketing, writing and storytelling with the factors we believe matter the most: community, compassion and creativity.

You get to be your whole human self here.

Our mission is to guide you to find your voice, the stories you’re here to tell, the work the world needs from you and the best way to get it all seen. We believe good writing deserves to be read and our focus is always on both: the very best content reaching the perfect people online.

Whether you’re here to build a small, quiet following or to shake up the entire world, we’ll help sail you to your dream destination, guided by same core elements that have worked for us on every single platform we’ve used: Solid, heart-led strategy, really brilliant content and a big-hearted love for the whole joyful shebang.
Nail these three - really and truly - and watch how everything expands for you online.

No cheap tricks, no sell-out sneakiness. No compromising your voice just to appease the baying crowd. The growth, reach, impact and - yes, even income - you seek is possible without any of that.

During the course of the program, we’ll cover everything from Substack optimisation and subscriber growth, to sales, self-promo and community, but also, what to write about, how to get out of your own way, and how to love what you share. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all guidebook, or a stack of rules, but a ‘choose your own adventure’ novel.

We’re all living different stories, and that’s where the magic lies.

The Substack Soirée is a 5 week live programme that we work through together in a group, right here on Substack our VIP guest area. Through a combination of written and audio lessons, video tutorials, live coaching sessions and nurturing co-working calls, we’ll guide you through everything from effective Substack set-up to evergreen audience growth to creating a publication and a voice that is uniquely your own.

By the end of class you’ll have a Substack presence that feels like home and an intimate connection to exactly what you want to show up and share. No more wondering what on earth to write next, or floundering over whether things are good enough - instead, you’ll have a committed creative practice and an audience that loves you and cheers you along. And—if you want it—you’ll have all the tools and strategies set for your own paid Substack launch, so you can make back the cost of this class together, and so much more.

Know this is for you? Ready to join us? Click below to join!

• Post all the time, even when I have nothing to say? A: Never. The opposite, in fact!

• Stick to a rigid writing schedule that feels like a chore? A: Yuck! Hard pass on that.

• Focus on growth for the sake of growth? A: Have we met? Absolutely not.

• Make a slick, professional publication when all I really want to do is write? A: Nope! We’re here for the same: content first, always. But if you choose to spruce things up a bit, we can help with that too.

The Substack Soirée is all about quality over quantity, with space for playfulness, curiosity and fun. It’s about getting really mindful on how we want to share our magic with the world, so we can foster connection and community, build a committed audience and get paid for doing the work we love, at a pace we can handle. We believe in seasons in business and life and know that reality, relationships and health are woven into every successful and sustainable venture. We practice what we preach on this, and we want it for you, too.

But we also don’t believe it has to be one or the other. It’s not:

• Relationships OR creative work

• Creativity VS Profit

• Integrity VS Growth

None of these are opposing forces. You get to blend them all however you choose.

We can’t fit all this goodness into your inbox, so it’ll be cut off. Click here to access the full post in all its Substack beauty.

Named as one of the UK’s most influential entrepreneurs, Sara Tasker is a leading UK Instagram and social media expert and a certified mindset coach. She’s written a bestselling Instagram book and her podcast dedicated to using the internet to make your dreams a reality has repeatedly hit #1 in the iTunes business chart. Her own paid launch here on Substack was the UK’s fastest ever super-launch. And not to brag or anything, but Luke Actual Skywalker once sent her a Twitter DM at 3am.

The Substack Soirée is for Substack what The Insta Retreat has been and continues to be for thousands of people using Instagram to express their creative self, grow their community and expand their business. The Substack Soirée was created as a collaborative response to the countless requests Sara receives for support with a Substack-specific focus. We believe this platform is the future, and we want you to be a part of it too.

Keeley Rees has a bag packed full of creative tricks thanks to over 10 years in the film & television industry, a Bachelor of Writing & Media Communications, and working as a copywriter, creative director & content producer. Her time in the media world gave her opportunities to create her own short films, as well as write, direct and produce a couple of TV commercials. For the past few years she’s specialised in email marketing and creative direction for heartfelt brands. Before collaborating with Sara, Keeley was the Digital Content Producer for Hello Funnels and a Copy Coach for creative entrepreneurs and coaches. Keeley believes stories are the most powerful thing in the world. She also hates talking about herself in third person, but will absolutely do so if it means she might get the chance to connect with you in the soirée. Fun fact: she also acts and does voice-over work on occasion and loves writing to a background of rain sounds.

What is it that you most want for your Substack?

A playful creative outlet?
A loyal readership of like minded friends?
A decent monthly payout in exchange for your work?
Or maybe just a place to be seen and heard?

It is all available to you here.

We know how hard it can be to do it all alone. As much some of us might crave the solitude of introversion, as humans we are wired to connect.

Our low-key soirée is the perfect place to find your way through this next step in your creative journey, with support, accountability and a gathering of like-minded people who are in the trenches with you. It’s hard to over-state the importance of surrounding yourself with the people who get it and see all the same possibilities as you.

Say you’ll join us?

We have some questions of the frequently asked variety right here.

Want to hear what our guests are saying? Read some of their glowing words here.

❤️ Need a custom payment schedule? Get in touch.

“The Substack Soirée is magic.”

I knew this was the medium for me, but I wasn't aware quite how much until I completed this course. It has all the elements I love about Substack: community & kindness, experimentation & play and the emphasis on writing above all else. I’ll be returning to the materials again and again as I work on my publication. Huge thanks to Keeley and Sara for creating such a welcoming and supportive space.

Claire Fitzsimmons ~ More Good Days

“It’s honestly the best course I’ve ever done!”

The Soirée has given me some wonderful ideas on how I can begin to move forward with my publication. Everything was so beautifully designed and laid out in a way that was easy to understand and work through in your own time. I couldn’t be more grateful and I loved the calls too! A huge thank you to both for putting on this wonderful course and allowing us all the room to grow on this platform.

Jenna ~ Magic & Musings

“Such a brilliant experience.”

Sara and Keeley are so encouraging and inspiring and it's been a pleasure to be part of their community. The resources in the Substack Soiree are beautifully presented and practical - there are short tasks and steps you can put into practice straight away to start and grow your Substack community. Their advice in the coaching calls was so useful whether it was in answer to a question I asked or one that someone else brought along. I've watched the replays of the classes again and taken notes and I enjoyed the co-working calls for some extra accountability too. I really can't recommend it enough, especially if you're new to Substack and are feeling overwhelmed or not good enough to write here - this class will help you get organised, gain confidence and create a plan for your newsletter that's right for you and what you'd like to offer.

Charlene Storey ~ Haver & Sparrow

“I now have a publication I am proud of and feel brave enough to keep developing. You gave me a really clear pathway to create my own unique voice. Everything about it was beautiful, from the visual imagery to the words and support in the live calls. You are both magic.”

Honestly, I had no idea what to expect as I was so new to Substack. But I had known Sara for a while and had also checked out Keeley’s beautiful words, so I knew it would be a fabulous way to meet like-minded souls. What I experienced were the most magical connections and methods to give my Substack that all important personal touch. I found the words to put into my about, free subs and paid subs. I received encouragement to write from my heart through prompts and co working classes, and gained practical step by step guides that have given me clarity and enabled me to create my ‘series’ right here on Substack. They gave me the gentle nudges when my self doubt kicked in. I feel at home on Substack and a sense of belonging on Substack now, before their class I felt a little lost. The connections of the other soirée members has also been really special.

Lisa Post writes ~ Home 

Anyway! It’s all a welcome reminder of just how important these little emails are.

Mills Baker (Head of Design here at Substack) agrees, responding to the pesky robot* mischief:

Did you catch that? Not 1, but 3 exclamation marks. Which means he really, really, really means it.

And we most definitely agree.

So today, we thought we’d share some ideas and pointers to give your Welcome Email that irresistible sparkle. To make it work as hard as you do at your writing. To create a reader/writer love affair from the very first inbox ‘ding’.

🌱 Tip: Looking to update your welcome email? It’s hiding in your settings menu, under ‘Basics’, where you can click ‘edit’ to open the editor page.

Why is a welcome email worth 3 exclamation marks?

Start how you mean to go on…

This automated email is our first chance to welcome our reader into our world. To deepen the connection. It’s our earliest opportunity to delight and inspire. The welcome email sets the stage for all of our future inbox interactions with our subscribers. It tells them what to expect.

Secondly, future emails have more chance of being opened.

We know from the swathes of research published on email marketing over the last couple of decades that getting readers to build a habit of opening your emails is an art all by itself. There’s a certain knack to being one of the fortunate few landing in your reader’s inbox that they immediately open and read.

One basic recommendation for helping a readership build a habit of opening our emails is consistency - not leaving it too long between updates, lest they forget who we are. If we currently publish to Substack say, twice a month, a brand new subscriber today could feasibly be two solid weeks away from getting their first real-time email from you to unwrap. In the meantime we might be pinging out Chat posts or ad-hoc event reminders - valuable content, for sure - but perhaps not the ideal introduction for somebody brand new to our work. A really good welcome email bridges this gap perfectly. It’s the glowing first impression we can never quite make in real life. And, it gives us a really good shot at being memorable…

New email, who dis?

If, like us, you ever go down a Substack rabbit hole and end up subscribing to a whole bunch of writers, you’ll know that it’s easy to forget who they are. Why did we sign up for this again? What was the hook? We want to be smack-them-in-the-face memorable. But like, in a friendly, good-vibes way.
Taking the time to craft a thoughtful welcome email that genuinely connects with our readers means there’s less chance of being forgotten later on. (More ideas on how to do this in the next section, below.) And if we do slip their mind, our email should help jog their memory along.

🌱 Tip: Some simple visuals will also help email readers connect your inbox words with the webpage they signed up from. Just a consistent colour, image or font is enough to cue people in. Our free Substack Branding Bundle for Canva can help with this!

All of this starts with the welcome email and yet for most of us, it’s simply an automated blurb. So let’s **fix that, shall we?

⭐️ Side note: The welcome email is currently the only email we can send automatically to every new subscriber, so it’s worth making it count. Our money is on Substack changing this soon enough; multi-email nurture sequences for new subscribers just make so much sense, especially when it comes to converting free subs to paid. Hint-hint, nudge-nudge.

Ok, cool. But where do we start?

We could spend forever getting super nerdy here, but all we really need are some of the following tweaks:

#1: A snappy title

Here on Substack it’s called the title, but in the email world it’s a subject line, and in an inbox, we’re just one of many. We want to stand out and get our reader’s attention, which makes them want to open the email. Something that captures their curiosity. If this feels like a big ask, don’t worry, it kind of is. Subject lines are one of the last things to be written by copywriters for this reason. So just know an amazing subject line falls from the sky for almost no-one and it can take a little crafting. Pay attention to the emails that make us want to open them. What caught our interest?

Some thoughts to get started:

• ‘Welcome to [publication title]’ here is fine, but erryone is going to be using that line so it doesn’t help us pass the ‘stand-out’ test.

• Something like ‘You’re here! Let’s get to it…’ might jump out more. Better yet, a subject line that addresses our reader (not by name, we don’t have that feature here) but calls them out: ‘You magical creature you. Let’s talk about XYZ’. (Or if your publication is for mothers, creatives, photographers, or slow-seekers etc, you can call them out, make them feel seen: e.g: ‘Hey slow-seeker, come in, put your feet up.’)

  

  (A lovely warm welcome Sara received from )
  

#2: Set the tone

The goal is to welcome our new subscribers with excitement and delight. Often we feel the need to start by expressing our overwhelming gratitude, which is very polite, but not always what our reader is most excited to know. It helps to remember this: They’re not doing you a favour by following your Substack. Sure, adding subscribers to our publications does help expand our work and any businesses we might be on here to grow, but that’s not why they’re signing up. They’ve seen something they want in their life, the value we offer and they’re excited to dive in with us. So we get to be excited with them! This is the start of a beautiful new friendship!
Of course, this doesn’t mean we can’t express gratitude (especially if they are joining a paid subscription). It’s just a subtle shift in energy. Less ‘Thank you SO much for giving me a chance to share my work with you…’ and more quietly confident: ‘You are SO in the right place. Look at all the good stuff you can dive into…’ It lands differently. It keeps the enthusiasm high.

#3: Step this way…

We've made it to their inbox. They’ve opened our welcome email, they’re reading it…

…Now what?

Let’s give them an open invitation to walk further into our world and get lost with us down the rabbit hole…

Traditionally this is known as a call-to-action, but ew. This isn’t a corporate marketing campaign; it’s our writing, our work. So instead, we like to think of it as being more like a tray of delicious cakes. We don’t want to leave our best baked goods sitting on the counter; we want to pick up that tray and offer it out to our guests.

Setting out our cake tray gives our new reader ways to dig deeper.

If your publication is brand new and you don’t have much of an online presence yet, your call-to-action-cake could simply be asking them to reply to you and tell you something about themselves. If you do have work you can share, lead them to a popular post or work you’re proud of. (And then still ask them to say hi or reach out. This one is always a good idea. We want to get that personal engagement early on if we can.) Just don’t leave them hanging by the door like a wallflower.

🌱 TIP: Once you turn on payments, you’ll also see the option to edit the welcome emails received by Paid and Founding members, too. What do these members need to know? Perhaps a signpost to some paid-only content, upcoming event details or how to access their perks? Remember, members who upgrade from a Free subscription will have already received your main (free) welcome email in the past.

Share

Leading with generosity

Especially when we’re just starting out, we really can’t give away too much value in the beginning. Creating from generosity, not fear or scarcity is always the way to go in our book. Of course, we don’t need a gift or a lead magnet to lure in subscribers - ultimately, we want our content to do that. In fact, too much emphasis on freebies can end up drawing the wrong crowd entirely - but we do want to give the right people who have already found us a gentle, loving nudge to open that very first email: A question that we promise to answer with that first automated send. A discussion point that we invite our new subscribers to hit reply on and sent back to us. Something ready-made we can delight them with: A playlist, a printable, a recipe card, a private link to a podcast episode, a free training, a joke. We love to approach this by asking, ‘what would feel like a gift to my audience right now?’ and then create a welcome email from that generous place.

Ready to revamp your welcome email?

Co-working session: Tuesday August 8th 10am BST // 7pm AEST (convert here)

We know that half the struggle of putting all of this into action is finding the time, headspace and motivation to get to work. So, we’re here to do it with you - literally, in a live group drop-in session with the two of us on Zoom, next Tuesday 8th August, 10am BST // 7pm AEST
Come along to ask questions, get unstuck or just work with the group in the warm glow of focused and companionable silence.
This co-working session is totally free and totally optional, (and you’re also welcome to just come along and lurk with your camera and microphone off).

See you next Tuesday?

But wait! That’s not all!

Anything static needs periodic review. Subscribe for free to The Substack Soirée and we’ll also remind you when it’s time for us to check back in on your welcome email and maybe give it an occasional spruce. Yep, we’re running quarterly co-writing sessions to keep everything fresh: about pages, welcome screens - anything that is evergreen and worth an occasional refresh.
No cost, no catch, no need to put it on your to-do list. Just look out for your quarterly invitation and we’ll handle the rest!

PS: Permission to not? Granted.

Finally, a reminder: it’s ok to not set this - or anything - up straight away. Or ever! A welcome email will not make or break your publication on Substack. Your content does that. One of our founding principles here at the Substack Soiree is that good writing deserves to be read, so in posts like this we’re just sharing some tips and insights that we know can support you with that.

We all have lives, and dogs and children and businesses and washing that just keeps needing to be done. (Who is wearing all of these clothes?) So, in all seasons of our work there are priorities. And while our welcome email is important, it’s not urgent. Personally, neither of us had our welcome emails set up for our individual publications for weeks, even months after joining Substack.
And if/when ‘write welcome email’ does get its moment to shine on your to-do list? Well, this resource will be here for you.

Any of our evergreen pieces (welcome emails, about pages, yes, even our imagery etc) are like living work. There will always be evolutions, so the first one doesn’t have to be blow-us-away-amazing. It’s just a start. A shitty first draft, as Martha Beck would say. An iteration. We can elevate it and add to it any time we want in the future (including at our quarterly refresh-together calls, if you’d like some support! ❤️)

If the provided automated blurb email suits you just fine and you feel zero inclination to change it, we love that for you. We completely support you, your work and release you from any invisible shackles thrown over you by reading this post. Most of all, we you offer you this eloquent, timeless adage: You do you boo.

Nevertheless, for those interested, please see the following disclaimers:

* ‘Twas not actually robots. They switched off the welcome emails for…reasons. But it’s back to normal now.
** (*if you don’t want to or see the need to “fix” it, no problem! Please see our final point above.)

Subscribe now

PS: Thank you to , and the team for wrangling robots etc to get this sorted out! We love the support and transparency here!

We had the BEST weekend hanging out with you & seeing your creations. Just between us, we’re pretty blown away by all the love, support & shares. We haven’t yet even properly announced it in the posts we were planning for our own publications, so this thing just bounced around Substack on its own because you were sharing it. So, thank you. Looks like a lot of people needed this and we’re thrilled to see it helping people show up and making something feel less overwhelming, and at times even fun.

(Unrelated: Do we need to apologise here for the Canva-hours-bingeing this weekend or are we all good?)

A couple of things to share with you!

The internet robots are causing mayhem and mischief in the form of:

Delaying the welcome email.

We have no idea why this is happening, but if you subscribe and you don’t receive the welcome email with your bundle inside, give it 24hrs and let us know if it doesn’t reach you within that time. Sorry that’s happening, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.

Glitching out the Vimeo link.

If the video link isn’t working for you, don’t stress it’s not just you and you’re not doing anything wrong. Both links are right, this one’s on the Vimeo robots. Try refreshing a couple of times, or opening it in a new tab, or incognito or in a new browser. If that doesn’t work, try turning around 3 times, throwing salt over your shoulder and try again. It’ll work eventually. (Again, sorry. The Robots have their reasons.)

Keep sharing your designs with us!

Tag and we’ll do our best to come say hi & check out what you’re working on. Because honestly, few things bring the warm and fuzzy feelings more than seeing something we made be transformed into something you made and the magic circle of creativity spiral out into the world. Thank you for trusting us to be a little part of your Substack adventures.

PS: We’re working on something new, non-Canva related (& free) to share with you soon!

PPS: If you’re reading this & you haven’t subscribed yet, then TREAT YO SELF & do that right here:

Subscribe now

Share The Substack Soirée

Ready to get writing but not sure where to start?
Looking to grow your audience here in a sustainable, intentional way?
Want to build a community of like-minded, wholehearted supporters?

Then you’ve come to the right place!

The Substack Soiree is the ultimate guide to creating your own online gathering place. Coming in September 2023.

Subscribe below to access the Substack Branding Bundle, totally for free!

Subscribe now

Grab your free branding bundle & make your Substack shine ✨

Ready to get writing but need some help setting up?
Want your Substack to be a little more styled, but not sure where to start?

It’s all fun and games setting up a new publication until you realise how many little graphics and elements you need, and there are zero ready-made Substack templates, or even blank canvases out there to use…

Until now.

From your wordmark to your email header to your very own customisable Substack icon & MORE, we’ve created a blank canvas for everything you need to get your publication looking beautifully on brand.

No need to faff about finding the right dimensions or creating 7 different versions while you try and get it to work (Wait, was it SubstackBannerFinal3.jpg or SubstackBannerFinalFINAL.jpg that you just edited?). We’ve got a good-to-go canvas for it all, each easily editable and completely customisable with a free Canva account.

Plus, we’ve created a walkthrough video too, showing you how it all works with ideas and inspiration plus a sneak peek of what’s coming up next from us both.

Plus, it’s completely free!

The Branding Bundle, both templates and walkthrough video are now both available to all, without even needing to subscribe. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for you all to get access to it, so you’ll now find it at the page linked below.

Click HERE or on the image above to be taken straight to the branding bundle.
Click HERE to get the new snazzy button bundle too.

And if you want more magic freebies like these from us in future, click the button and make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got a whole lot of exciting and creative things coming up very very soon…

I WANT THAT. SIGN ME UP.

We can’t wait to see what you create!
With love,

(yep, that nifty little signature GIF is included in the free bundle too!)

P.S. New here and wondering who we are? Click here to get to know us more