Substack Live Podcast

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For you: A 15-minute pep talk for those who may feel like there’s a lot of noise on Substack.

The amazing Claire Venus and I guide you through my top, top Substack tip of all time: Don’t subscribe to or follow a bunch of Substacks that talk about how to be on Substack.

For those who may not know Claire, she’s the mastermind behind Sparkle on Substack and Creatively Conscious. She’s a creative who also writes and a Substack enthusiast. She describes herself as being powered by sustainability, slow living, big dreams, and quiet ambition.

Claire is the real thing. She’s a Substack educator I often recommend, especially for creatives.

Sparkle on Substack is “a bespoke space to help you stay creative on Substack with co-working, workshops, weekly posts, chats, a podcast, and all the tools to help enhance your journey to growth on Substack in a joyful sustainable way.”

We encourage you to follow/subscribe to one Substack guide (two max) for a year. Sure, it’s great to get lots of perspectives and ideas, but when you listen to everyone, you risk not hearing yourself.

Some of you do well with noise. Blessings.

For those who don’t, listen to or watch this conversation with Claire.

Subscribe to Sparkle on Substack here.

Subscribe to Creatively Conscious here.

To upgrade to listen on Apple, go to www.writersatwork.net/subscribe.

What we cover:

* The 3 types of Substack audio and how they work (voiceover, memos, and podcast/audio posts)

* Substack audio in 3 easy steps—including the editing tool for writers

* Voiceover-artist top tips

* The best (and least expensive) equipment to use

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The magic of your Substack About page.

I love it when people ask me if their Substack About page matters.

* Does anyone really look at it?

* Don’t some successful Substacks have, like, nothing there?

* Why bother?

Well, we don’t know for sure because Substack doesn’t give us those stats, but I’ll give you two reasons why I think it does:

* It’s prominent on the app.

* People don’t freely give out their email addresses and certainly not their money for a paid subscription without checking out the source.

Join us to learn more..

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Workshop replay | Just 30 minutes

If you’re on Substack to find a loyal readership, earn an income, or be creative and grow into a better writer, you need to manage your time.

Period.

**Below is the workflow I use for posting and my weekly calendaring process for you to make your own.

What we cover:

* A Substack schedule that helps you be more creative and effective

* An easy workflow that helps you produce quality posts that fuel your creative energy—including what the three must-dos on Substack (vs. nice-to-dos)

* The right mental outlook to achieve your goals

Free to all paid subscribers.

Get this workshop and all Substack Mastery Workshops by becoming an annual paid subscriber.

Or join the Substack Growth Cohort—the only 1-year program to achieve your Substack goals to get everything in the paid membership, monthly Mastermind Cohort Calls with other Substack writers, the Substack Growth Blueprint, monthly Strategizing Workshops to earn an income, produce your best work, and get subscribers.

You and your Substack are worth it.

Workshops referenced and available to watch at your convenience:

To upgrade to listen on Apple, go to www.writersatwork.net/subscribe.

How to boost your growth on Substack?

Make your Substack essential.

People don’t unsubscribe from Substacks they feel are essential.

What you’ll come away from this Strategy Session with:

* Awareness of how to make your Substack essential so people won’t unsubscribe

* An action plan to communicate that to subscribers

Whether you’re experiencing a slowdown in pa…

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There’s so much talk about overwhelm and burnout that it feels like it’s starting to create overwhelm and confusion. No longer.

It’s up to us to make Substack the place we want it to be. If that means loads of notifications for you, go forth! If you’d rather quiet it down a bit, managing your notifications is essential.

Here’s how to adjust chat notifications on the Substack app.

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Sara Tasker and Keeley Rees are the force behind The Substack Soiree. When Substack started pivoting slightly (very slightly) away from being solely a platform “for great writing” to an “economic engine for culture,” Sara and Keeley brought their combined gifts to the platform: Sara's magic in growing online audiences and running a business that doesn’t burn you out with Keeley’s professional experience in storytelling, copywriting, brand design.

The Substack Soirée focuses on how the visual element of our Substacks can complement our writing. They offer free branding bundles and The Substack Soirée class—a supportive group program for anyone looking to start, grow or expand their Substack presence. It guides Substack writers to find their voice and the stories they’re here to tell with support, accountability, and a gathering of like-minded people. 

Find out more about the class starting March 18 here—but listen to the interview first because these two make branding heart-filled to even the most branding-averse, cynical people. It’s not branding; it’s visual storytelling.

Sara and Keeley have spent decades in the online and social media spaces, particularly audience growth, online marketing, writing, and storytelling. Sara’s business is Me & Orla. She’s a creative business coach, writer, photographer, iTunes #1 business podcast host, bestselling author, and self-described Instagram nerd. Keeley’s areas of expertise are vast: writer, visual storyteller, email marketing expert, designer and content producer, copy coach, filmmaker, voice-over artist, and more.

They each have a Substack in their own right. Sara’s Entre Nous is “slow living, online business, and personal growth—for creative souls and dreamers.” It’s a glimpse into her life, including the French house she’s currently renovating, and her insights into creating a business, being on social media, marketing, and selling “while being a human with a heart.” Keeley’s Secret Gardens is a space for her personal narratives and insights into what it means to be a creator (which she would define very broadly) today. You can read her excellent post “Visual Storytelling: AKA the Case for Branding” here.

Enjoy!

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Ah, sections. If you’re like me, you’ve unknowingly gone down this dangerous road. Ill-advised.

To group posts on your homepage, so they appear by topic rather than in chronological order, you want groups, not sections.

Sections are only if you want to create an entirely separate newsletter within your newsletter. They’re a nightmare for you and your subscribers. Find out why in this video.

Thanks for the suggestion to do this tech video, Mitch.

Here’s Substack’s guide to setting up sections.

✶ Join our community. Get the support of thousands of paying members and benefit from my expert guidance to help you grow your Substack fast.

Paid members, we’re here to support you. Need help with your headlines? The members-only headline hub chat is where you get expert advice on how to headline your posts to draw readers in. 24/7. Go here, tell us a bit about what your post is about and the headline you’re considering, and we’ll give you suggestions:

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PDF with the slides and prompts is below!

We’ve never been given an opportunity like this to earn an income, build a community of loyal subscribers, be creative, and get exposure for our work.

But how do we do it in a way that’s relatively free of overwhelm, doubt, stress, and frustration?

Enter your editorial calendar.

Part of my genius working with people 1-to-1 as a private Substack consultant is that I listen to their goals, spot exactly what they love to write, and help them set up an editorial calendar that serves them and their subscribers.

In this workshop, you get a taste of that.

What you’ll do:

* Revisit your goals, what you most enjoy posting, and which posts resonate with your subscribers

* Determine how often and how much you really need to be posting

* Set up strategic editorial and content calendars that improve your life and your Substack

BONUS: How to repurpose content on Notes without feeling lame

*Even if you’re satisfied with your posting schedule, it’s always good to check in.

✨ Get access by becoming part of the Substack Writers at Work community, the most supportive, connected network on Substack.

If you prefer not to subscribe, you can purchase this workshop separately.

It's a deep dive into strategizing your editorial calendar on Substack. If any of it feels too high-level, come back to it when you're ready. 

Note: I reference two other Substack Writers at Work workshops— 

* The Key to Growth on Substack: Your Expert Guide to Notes workshop 

* Get Discovered on Substack: Alt Text and SEO Workshop

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How to Write an Opinion Piece on Substack

On Substack, most people doing any form of personal writing use three modes:

* rumination,

* narrative, and/or

* opinion.

Your posts may be a mix of all three, but to write Substacks that draw readers and create engagement, we need to know which mode we’re in and how each works.

Opinion writing may be one of the hardest:

* How do we do it without being moralizing, reactionary, or trite?

* How do we establish authority?

* How do we write something important to readers, not just ourselves?

By the end of this workshop, you’ll know the four keys to opinion writing online: 

* The difference between a hot take, a think piece, an opinion piece, and an op-ed

* The ideal structure for an opinion piece that doesn’t come out dull, sloppy, or disjointed or harangue the reader—brought to us by the great

* How publishing an opinion piece on Substack can perhaps take a different approach than writing an op-ed for a mainstream media outlet

* The 10 keys to a successful op-ed