Sparkle on Substack

On setting up a clear and good navigation bar for your Substack website - “Don’t use confusing language. Speak to the thing. Talk it out as if you were speaking to someone in real life. Write it down like I did, and you’ll get there in the end.”

NB - the screen sticks in the first section so maybe scroll past as I get it working after that!

Ai summary for Substack navigation bar thanks Claude

Substack Expert Claire Venus runs a live Substack tutorial on the new navigation bar dropdown feature, but the real teaching is strategic — think carefully about who you’re designing your nav for before touching any settings.

Two audiences, two priorities:

* New visitors → keep it simple, guide them to subscribe

* Existing paid members → give them easy access to what they’ve paid for

She live-edits her own Substack nav bar, debates naming options out loud, wrestles with screen-sharing tech, and lands on the same advice she started with: write it out on paper first, use plain language, and don’t overwhelm people with too many choices.

Key quote:

“Think about your ideal reader, who you want to subscribe — speak to that person first.”

SEO reminder: your nav bar label names double as search signals. “Substack tips,” “make money on Substack,” “Substack strategy” — the plain, specific language Claire kept reaching for is exactly what search engines reward too. Don’t get too creative with the labels!

"I'm obsessed with the moment with when a writer surprises themselves on the page."

Lindsay

A few months ago I sat down with Lindsey and Matt at London Writers' Salon and had the cosiest conversation. I find them both (and what they’ve created SO inspiring).

I’m obsessed at the moment with this quote;

“People don’t forget how you made them feel”

…and as you’ll hear in the episode, when I guested for LWS (during my Substack book launch), I was overwhelmed with how LOVELY they’d made their online space. 💖

It’s just the nicest place to hang out and write and there are so many opportunities to meet other writers and go deeper with your writing practice.

Hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did recording it.

Claire

💫

P.S - If you are writing a book this year and want to write with me and the 12 Chapters gang live, you can join us twice a month - it’s free! Sign up here.

"We just created a structure, a container that people can rely on — almost like treating it like a yoga class... you book in, you show up, you get your writing work done."

Matt

Ai summary thanks Claude

In this episode of Sparkle on Substack, host Claire Venus sits down with Matt and Lindsay, from London Writers’ Salon and its Substack publication, Writers’ Hour Magazine.

Matt and Lindsay explain how the Salon grew from small in-person London gatherings in 2019 into a thriving global online community during the pandemic.

At its heart is Writer’s Hour — daily, silent, hour-long writing sessions held four times a day, Monday to Friday, attended by up to 1,000 writers worldwide. Rather than relying on willpower alone, the sessions give writers a reliable structure — like booking a yoga class — so showing up becomes a habit.

The conversation explores the profound sense of community and belonging the Salon fosters. Lindsay shares her own moving story of joining as a shy freelance copywriter and finding her place. The idea of “believing mirrors” — being witnessed in a usually solitary creative process — runs as a thread throughout.

They also dig into Writers’ Hour Magazine on Substack, where a new 500-word creative writing prompt is published weekly, attracting 300–500 submissions, judged by guest writers and authors. The constraint of a short word count and surprise prompts is framed as a joyful creative permission slip.

The discussion turns candid around monetisation, growth, and sustainability — how to balance creative expression with audience-building, how to avoid burnout, and how to stay clear on the intention behind a publication. Matt and Lindsay are also teasing a new Substack project that aims to bridge personal creative expression with community service.

London Writers' Salon here on Substack ⤵️

* 🌎 londonwriterssalon.com

* LWS Membership — community.londonwriterssalon.com/membership

* IG - https://www.instagram.com/londonwriterssalon/?hl=en

“Subscriber churn, people moving on, is just part of emailing. Especially if you use Substack’s direct email function. It’s not personal. If it is personal, they’re not your right people for right now - they’re just not.”

The post I mentioned…

Ai Summary

This is an impromptu live stream recorded during an evening dog walk in rural Northumberland. Claire shares her thoughts on email unsubscribes, prompted by being mid-launch with a 50% off anniversary sale.

Her core message is that unsubscribes are a normal, healthy part of email marketing — not a personal rejection. She’s been writing newsletters since 2017 (starting with MailChimp, moving to Substack in 2022) and reflects on how four years of mindset and nervous system work have helped her feel completely calm about subscriber churn during this launch for the first time.

She also touches on the practical mechanics of Substack’s direct email function, the importance of regularly bringing new members into a community (not just for revenue but so existing members have people to connect with), and her enthusiasm for long-form writing over performance-driven social content. She wraps up with a gentle nudge to invite replies and build real connections with readers.

“We literally can’t consume anymore.

We’ve consumed all of the internet, guys. We win. We win a medal. We know what to do on Substack Notes, we don’t have to over think it and we don’t have to share our breakfast.”

Hi folks,

Thanks for joining me for my impromptu live yesterday. I wanted to break down the importance of jumping on this WONDERFUL opportunity of scheduling your notes this month. Drop me an emoji in the comments if you’re going to try it out?

I’ll pop back in on a live at the end of the month ahead of our Notes engagement thread.

Ai Summary - thanks Claude.

This is an impromptu live session hosted by Claire (of Sparkle on Substack), aimed at her community of Substack writers — particularly women who want to write and grow online without burning out.

The session covers three main areas:

1. Curating Substack Notes for Your Wellbeing Claire opens by urging viewers to aggressively mute and block content on Notes that feels overwhelming or news-heavy. She frames Notes as a space that should feel like a creative retreat, not a doom-scroll. She emphasises that the algorithm learns your preferences quickly, so liking and muting deliberately shapes what you see.

2. Content Buckets & Ideal Reader Before diving into scheduling, Claire explains her approach to editorial planning. She uses 2–3 “content buckets” — broad theme categories that all her writing fits into (e.g. Self-Seed Your Business, Wholehearted Living). She ties every piece of content back to a clearly defined ideal reader: what they feel on the inside, what they think on the outside. The goal isn’t to force topics, but to develop an embodied sense of what that reader needs.

3. Scheduling Notes (the Practical Demo) Claire walks through Substack’s new Notes scheduling feature, showing how to draft, save, and schedule notes in advance — useful for holidays, busy periods, or reaching audiences in different time zones. She advises putting links in the comments rather than the note itself (for better reach), tracking which notes convert to subscribers (not just likes), and not obsessing over vanity metrics. She plans to experiment with scheduling notes overnight to reach international audiences.

“We don’t need to go viral. We need to be connecting with the one human — this person — who isn’t already subscribed to our work and would love to be.”

Her Story Towards the end, Claire shares her personal origin story: she started her Substack in 2020 during postpartum, with three hours of childcare a week, while her husband was seriously ill. Writing was her lifeline, and she describes discovering a raw, poetic voice she didn’t know she had. Three people paid in her first week.

Sparkle on Substack 💎Diamond membership tier is available with a £50 discount expiring April 3rd, and you are invited to our free book writing group, 12 Chapters Club!!

Key Quotes

“On Substack Notes, you need to be imagining that you are walking into a retreat that is gonna fuel your creativity — who’s there, what have they got to say, what’s on the wall, are there fresh flowers, is the coffee good... That is the best environment for our creative practice. Don’t consume stuff that is going to upset you.”

“We don’t really need the vanity metrics. Like we don’t need the likes... The purpose really with notes is discoverability — for new people to find our work.”

“I always connect everything I write back to the audience. And I hold the audience that I know in my head.”

“It’s not about blueprints — it’s about what feels really good to you. That’s how we don’t burn out. It’s not a job, it’s a response to a calling guys!”

“People are constantly making judgements and constantly deciding in their nervous systems whether you’re the right person for them.”

“We can ditch all the social media stuff about hooks and grabbing attention and just know that the right people will seek us out. We just have to kind of fly our flag a little bit.”

Top tips

If you put a link in a note, it doesn’t do as well. Like it isn’t shown to as many people. So put the link in the comments below.

✨

Helpful screenshots on how to schedule Notes (desktop) ✨

Join 💎Diamond Membership, get my eyes on your Substack for a whole year - payment plans available!

* Work on your Substack goals and strategy with a wonderfully supportive community. Get accountability and eyes on your blind spots.

* Align your Substack home with your business and content ecosystem across all platforms and your website!

* Get Access to my updated Substack 0-$10k framework and run through it live with us in June! or jump into our telegram chat group NOW!

* Live Monthly coaching and mentoring calls. (These are either 9.30am or 3pm UK time - I tend to alternate month on month). I hot seat your Substack so we can peer learn together!

* Access to masterclass replays, guest teaching replays and advanced Substack tutorials to convert more free subs to paid subs and set up a home here you are SUPER proud of.

* An annual Substack audit with me where a kind and supportive critical friend (that’s me) for your Substack and we work on new strategies and design to increase free and paid subs and align with your wider writing and visibility goals!

Join us, comment below or dm me, email [email protected] with any questions.

Hit reply if you have questions, I love hearing from you.

Claire

✨

(Members - don’t forget - Get it DONE (on Substack) Weeks - by Claire Venus 💫 is happening live this week and our welcome sequences membership class is tomorrow)

Are memberships dead? Ai is making us all redundant! Do we all have subscription fatigue now? Are paid subs the first thing to be cut from budgets? I don’t know about you but I feel like people want to constantly rain on our parade just as we’re gearing up to throw more sparkle.

Don’t listen!

Guess what love - the internet has WOKEN up - we have digital migrants and natives all in this mix here on Substack and beyond - if you you want to build something it’s not too late and you have time.

If you feel called to create, thank goodness because creativity is an infinite resource. If you feel called to share your voice - thank you because I need to stand with other strong spirits as we navigate this next chapter and model new ways of working and dismantling systems for our kids together.

I LOVED this live chat with my mentor Leonie Dawson - she is always so generous with her time (and clear with her boundaries) which is why she’s been able to deliver subscriptions programmes for 10+ years - wild!

“I’ve been able to create a membership that doesn’t feel like it’s another thing for me to mother. It’s something that is there and nurtures me and supports me and has been able to hold me through some of the most challenging times of my life.” — Leonie, on designing her business around flexibility and her own wellbeing as a neurodivergent person.

That’s sustainability for you right there!!

Leonie’s Academy Closes again in just a few days and we’re all starting the million dollar memberships programme together next week - come join us over there? (*)

I wrote a whole post about how much I’ve learnt from Leonie Dawson in the last five years and why I think everyone should be in the academy.

You can read it here…

Ai summary - thanks Claude

Leonie shares her origin story selling art online from 2002, launching her first e-course in 2008, and eventually creating a membership model that now has around 3,000 members, 80% annual retention, and generates roughly a million dollars a year all while working roughly 10 hours a week.

The conversation covers pricing strategy (she’s moved her membership from $99 to $495 and back to $99 again), how to tune out internet doom and gloom about AI, subscriptions being “dead,” and trust recessions.

A recurring theme is the importance of building something sustainable that doesn’t “brutalize your spirit” — including taking four months off and structuring the business so she doesn’t have to answer every DM.

“If you want the basic b***h result, AI is for you. But if you want extraordinary results, you need to learn from people like the ways that they’ve been able to create those outsized results.” — Leonie, on why AI won’t kill well-run e-courses built on genuine expertise.

Thank you Sally Ekus, Kate Harvey, mary beth kaplan🪶, Margaret Williams, MS, ACC, Colleen | 3rd Act Field Notes, and many others for tuning into my live video with Leonie Dawson! Join me for my next live video in the app. (*) aff link.

More here folks -

Come to class - https://www.creativelyconscious.co.uk/substack-0-10k-live-masterclass-and-replay?coupon=SPARKLERS

Thank you Christina Bieber Lake, RAJ KAUR, mary beth kaplan🪶, Jennifer Zarin, LCAT, Margaret Williams, MS, ACC, and many others for tuning into my live video with Emilia Ferreira! Join me for my next live video in the app.

“Biohacking is the art of controlling your biology — and you are the mastermind. You can control your environment from inside and outside, but that needs to be an individual journey. We have so much more control than we think we have. Right now I am 41, about to be 42, and my biological age is 25. The reason why I say that is because I don’t do too much and that still has a huge impact.” - Emilia, on the power of simple, consistent biohacking

Thank you Rebecca Mack ☕, Julie Schmidt, Abigail Thomas, and many others for tuning into my live video with Vicki Willden-Lebrecht! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Ai Summary - thanks Claude

Here’s a summary of the conversation, which is a Substack live chat between a host and Vicky Wilder-Librett, founder of the Bright Agency (founded 2003), a literary and illustration agency with offices in London and New York.

Why Vicky joined Substack

Vicky’s decision grew from a December reflection exercise she does annually — looking back at trends and forward to the year ahead. She posted on Instagram asking: if she were setting up Bright today, could she do it the same way? Her concern was that she built the agency entirely through in-person relationships — book fairs, conferences, launches — and wondered whether that was possible in an increasingly digital world.

“If you had relationships, you could take a relationship online. Fine, no problem. If you didn’t have a relationship with someone, could you make a relationship online?”

Substack felt like a natural answer — a place to recreate those conversations.

“It’s almost like this is the conference, this is the party, this is where we need to go.”

Who the Bright Substack is for

Vicky sees it as broader than just illustrators and authors — it’s for anyone wanting to understand or work in the creative industry.

“I don’t think creativity is about drawing. I think creativity is about the way we think and the way we problem solve.”

She’s keen for the content to be responsive rather than pre-planned, mirroring how she networked in person: “You wouldn’t trot in with your ‘I’m going to talk about these things to people’... I would just be talking to people about what they’re interested in.”

The National Year of Reading

Vicky welcomed the government’s backing but was candid that it’s both exciting and alarming that such a campaign is even necessary.

“It’s a really scary time in publishing that the decline in reading, the fact that it is so needed.”

She was dyslexic and had ADHD, and credits her mother’s advice — “if you’re interested in something, read around the subject” — as formative. She’s passionate about physical books specifically for brain development:

“A book just allows the brain to rest, but still absorb... We are not robots yet. We have souls and heartbeats and brain rhythms.”

On World Book Day, she was gently critical: “From working in publishing, I get slightly irritated that it becomes fancy dress day.”

Bright’s approach to licensing and growth

Vicky was clear that licensing at Bright isn’t about merchandise — it’s about audience building and discoverability.

“Licensing for us is not about putting it on a lunchbox and a tea towel. It’s really not what we’re about at all. What we’re about is growing the readership.”

She explained that children now discover books through films, stage shows, and events rather than libraries or bookshops — and that licensing is how you meet them where they are. Even Netflix, she noted, wants pre-built audiences.

Vicky’s personal Substack: Notes from a Creative Founder

Her own Substack is about the messy reality of building a creative business — not a polished success story, but the journey, mistakes, and recovery.

“It came from making loads of mistakes. And it was about how you bounce back from them and how you grew from them... accepting that no one’s life is perfectly going to plan.”

She said she’s never felt ready to share her story before, but now feels the time is right:

“I feel in a place where I’m happy to share my war wounds.”

Her goal is to help others trust their instincts: “If they don’t believe in themselves, no one else is going to come knocking on their door and say, ‘Hey, you know that idea you’ve been thinking about — share it.’”

Subscribe to Vicki Willden-Lebrecht here

and to The Bright Agency here

💎 My Diamond Member Portal for business owners who want to use Substack as a key part of of their online home is re-open for a limited time. This isn’t just Substack - this is audience development, platform congruence and business alchemy. If you have a business and need to get right to the heart of how to utilise this wonderful platform my annual audit and monthly hot seat mentoring calls will give you clarity, community and momentum as you build. If you have questions reply to this email or shoot me a dm here or on IG.

Hi folks,

How are you? It was fool’s Spring yesterday so that was nice. Our heating system also broke down so we got our log burning stove going. 🔥 I finished work late last night and I’m still working out how much energy I have to do that at 44!

Transitioning from that into my daughter’s wild full moon energy at bedtime. I feel fragile today. As I emerged from the tussle at 9.15pm, my son guided me into the kitchen;

You’ve got to see this mum!

It was Venus - the planet - it’s our planet mum look at it, it’s incredible. (Yes Venus is our real name) And it was, really really incredible, twinkly in the centre of a jet black sky - it made me feel really small and really powerful all at the same time.

You and the beautiful network of STARS around you…

I dug this class out of the archive because it’s SO important for you all to watch if you are building here on Substack, you’re semi confused about how Substack can plug into other places (email lists, social media, search engines) and you want to get unstuck on all of that.

How your business and other online spaces fit with Substack can feel like a tricky conundrum. A puzzle to solve.

- Why would people pay for a newsletter you’ve been sending for free

- How can you move your community over from socials

- What about if you already have an email list?

- Are we blogging too?

Digging it out from the archives was inspired by this Substack Note about online ecosystems

If you’re new to Substack this class is great for beginners but I also made you a Quick Start Guide. All members get access to my four week long drip fed beginners course too.

Other bits and bobs to tell you

* I’ve just wrapped up my live Audience Alchemy programme where we’ve spent 8 weeks streamlining out audience development ecosystem… It’s been THE most fun - I have loved spending time with the wonderful women in the course and leaning into hear more of their true voices and what they are here to do. Some of them met up in real life too! 🌟

* If you missed it, I went live with Veronica Llorca-Smith to chat more about how we use Substack with other platforms and we both got super transparent about the subscriber plateaus and member churn. Listen in your pod app or here.

* I’m mid way through my experiment using IG and Substack Notes in tandem with specific outcomes. I’ll share more on IG as I go and ultimately write an article on it. Follow me over there?

* Last call to write a piece for International Women’s Day this weekend and have us share it. All the details are here.

* Members out ‘Get it Done Week’ is focussed on our welcomes to new subscribers - we will spend the week doing simple tasks like tidying up our welcome email, re-writing an impactful hero post, making a video to help folks understand Substack and drafting drip funnel emails.

What’s your flow for this wonderful platform with other online spaces you have?

How does it sit with other email newsletter platforms, social media, search engines? Need some help in the comments?

I also made a written summary of class here so you can read over it if you don’t have time to watch today.

Claire

✨

P.S - I’m speaking at the Soulful Sales Summit next week - my session is around using audio here on Substack to grow your ‘know, like and trust’ factor with your audience and ultimately convert more readers to paid subs. I know audio isn’t for everyone but along with the other 47 speakers there’s a tonne of great stuff to lean into and choose from. It’s hosted by Ruth Poundwhite who I really respect. Grab your free ticket here.

P.P.S - LAST chance to join my LIVE class teaching you how to set up your own affiliate links for places like bookshop.org and other products and services you love. It’s live next week and the replay and accountability month is included. Affiliate links brought over £3000 into my business last year and I started when I had a very small audience - it compounds over time with many links bringing recurring income.