The Substack Success Podcast

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Watch the replay to

* Craft a customized, effective Notes strategy with viral potential

* Create a calendar that gets you results on Notes in less time

* Break out of your Substack bubble and attract new subscribers

Watch now—or listen in the app or on Spotify or Apple podcasts.

Join the only all-in-one membership where you get subscribers, build a platform, and earn an income on Substack: www.writersatwork.net/subscribe

I had the opportunity to sit down with Hamish McKenzie, co-founder of Substack. I’m so happy to bring you our conversation. It was really illuminating and feels like the best thing I can give you as a Substack writer or creator.

Many people don’t understand or know who the people behind Substack are. Hamish and all the people who work at Substack are some of the best, most idealistic people I’ve ever met. That goes across the board, everyone who works at Substack.

I’m very happy to bring Hamish to you today.

If you don’t know Hamish, he’s a New Zealander living in the Bay Area. He’s the co-founder of Substack and also a writer in his own right—like many people who work at Substack. He’s an incredible writer, author of Insane Mode: How Elon Musk's Tesla Sparked an Electric Revolution to End the Age of Oil, which came out in 2018. Before that, he was a journalist, the former lead writer of Tesla, and a reporter for the tech blog PandoDaily. He’s written for publications around the world on technology, business, pop culture, and politics.

So please enjoy my interview with Substack Co-founder Hamish Mckenzie.

HIGHLIGHTS:

On Substack’s origins:

“The core realization [was] that you needed to make the reader the customer instead of the product…Substack’s real product is the Substack model... undergirding the entire ecosystem.”

On the idealism behind Substack:

“[We thought] maybe we can build something here that could be an alternative to that other system that we think is corroding trust and corroding goodwill in society.”

On Substack’s current vision:

“The vision is as pure as it was the day it was born.”

On the power of small, engaged audiences:

“Even if it’s fifty people.. it can be nourishing and rewarding where you really feel like you’re writing to real people who are really reading your stuff and engaging.”

On the Substack model vs traditional social media:

“This more genuine, deeper connection where the economics can be productive with lower numbers is transformative in itself.”

Advice for new Substack writers with an existing platform:

“Tell people that you’re doing your work over here. Consolidate your work here.”

Advice for new Substack writers without an existing platform:

“Don't overthink it. Just start publishing, get feedback from people. Don’t panic if you’re writing to a small audience for a while.”

On the current media landscape:

“This is the best time there's ever been to start a one-man or one-woman media empire, or even just like your ongoing serial publication.”

03:20 Hamish’s time at Tesla and his book

07:34 Substack’s origin story

12:41 Substack’s vision and model

25:03 Advice for aspiring Substack writers

Get more expert interviews like this one from the Substack team by joining the Substack Writers at Work membership:

Join the only all-in-one membership where you get subscribers, build a platform, and earn an income on Substack: www.writersatwork.net/subscribe

Today we’re going to stop begging for paid subscriptions. I’m going to give you six smart call-to-action strategies. Don’t worry if you don't know what a call to action is—we’ll get to that. Six smart CTA strategies to convert paid substack subscribers.

Stop Begging for Paid Subscriptions

01:28 Understanding CTAs: What and Why

02:36 Strategy 1: Limit Your CTAs

03:42 Strategy 2: Focus on the Subscriber

07:16 Strategy 3: Customize Your CTA

08:22 Strategy 4: Experiment with Wording

09:58 Strategy 5: Avoid Begging

10:55 Strategy 6: Make Subscribers' Lives Easier

11:28 Conclusion: Recap and Next Steps

If you really want to achieve your Substack goals, subscribe to Substack Writers at Work: www.writersatwork.net/subscribe.

In this episode, we talk about how to paywall on Substack. Randomly placing annoying paywalls in your posts isn’t the way to go about it.

* To be effective, it has to be done intentionally and with a generous spirit. 

* And you need a paywalling strategy (that’s the intentional part) and to think less about some abstract idea of “producing quality content,” which is relative and vapid, and instead more about connecting with your subscribers.

We talk about all this and more.

To watch or listen to the full workshop, become a member of Substack Writers at Work, the only all-in-one membership to grow your Substack. No cheap tricks. No marketing "hacks" that don't work. Real expert guidance: www.writersatwork.net/subscribe.

This workshop is so, so good.

Watch or listen to get exercises to define your Substack niche, develop a profile of your ideal subscriber, and articulate the specific problem your writing addresses.

The goal is to help you better understand your readership, which will inform your content strategy, strengthen reader connections, and make Notes and publicity much, much easier.

Join the Substack Writers at Work community to create a Substack that grows and earns an income: www.writersatwork.com/subscribe

This is great to listen to while driving, walking, cooking, etc. Someone else’s questions are likely your own.

And I just love the Substack Writers at Work community. Such wonderful people here—like you!

Timestamps:

(00:00:34) - Targeting a niche for your Substack

(00:09:38) - Incorporating a community aspect into your Substack

(00:12:41) - Defining your audience for your Substack

…

Welcome to the Substack Writers at Work membership!

Today, we're talking about the 9 reasons people pay to subscribe on Substack. I give you clear steps on how to give people what they need.

This episode, "9 Reasons People Pay to Subscribe on Substack and How to Deliver," is for paid subscribers, so do become a member: www.writersatwork.net/about

Substack Writers at Work is your all-in-one membership for expert Substack strategies to build a platform and earn an income | A top-5 bestselling, Featured Substack | Brought to you by the leading Substack expert

9 Reasons People Pay to Subscribe on Substack and How to Deliver

00:13 The Importance of a Paid Strategy

00:35 Challenges Faced by Substack Writers

02:07 Steps to Making Money on Substack

02:43 Monetization Strategies

03:33 The Nine Things Subscribers Pay For

05:01 Understanding Subscriber Needs

11:39 Access and Community Building

14:44 Practical Exercises and Conclusion

If you’re struggling to grow your subscribers in the sea of Substacks…

Just know that you don’t need to be “great” writers to succeed. You don’t.

» All you need is a distinctive voice. Your voice.

This workshop is an opportunity to refine how you express your uniqueness, helping your writing resonate more deeply with your readers.

* Free subscribers, get ac…

Subscribe to Substack Writers at Work: www.writersatwork.net.

I’m so pleased to bring you my interview with Laurie Stone. She writes the literary Substack Everything Is Personal. In this conversation, we talk about how she grew her Substack so quickly—plus her writing process, her approach to “marketing,” Notes, publishing, the nature of narrative, and how she seduces the reader.

She also shares her checklist for writing posts and Notes that resonate with her readers:

* Start in the middle,

* fail to arrive,

* remember to love something,

* make the reader hot,

* make the reader laugh.

She was a longtime writer for the Village Voice (1974-1999), which comes up here. She’s also the author of six books, most recently Streaming Now, Postcards from the Thing that is Happening (Dottir Press, 2022), long listed for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. She writes for The Paris Review, Evergreen Review, and Galerie. 

You can join her monthly Zoom conversations on writing craft by contacting her at [email protected]. 

Subscribe to Everything Is Personal here: https://lauriestone.substack.com/

Timestamps:

00:15 Laurie’s Substack success

02:14 Narrative techniques

04:39 Using Notes and social media

05:51 Teaching and workshops

09:41 Laurie’s writing process

17:37 Building a sustainable Substack

25:47 What’s next for Everything Is Personal

* Become a paid subscriber to listen to the replay: www.writersatwork.net

Are you feeling confused, overwhelmed, or pretty much lost on Substack?

Get clear, feel at ease, and feel confident that you belong on the platform.