The Explosion of Substack (including this one)

And how its writer-centric design is changing publishing and the internet

Substack is the best thing to happen to my career in some time. Free from the confusing AlGoRiThMs of social media, a departure from the decline of traditional spaghetti-at-the-wall blogging, and quite literally designed to work for writers, Substack is here to change the game. I’m convinced. Let my Substack’s growth over the last six months explain why in the graphic below:

1. On March 26, I started my Substack. I was just a few days away from the end of my eight week sabbatical and wanted a place where I could write from the heart. Something that could be my little corner, just me. I’d been a subscriber to a few other Substacks and was really impressed with how it worked. Essentially Substack is a blog, that can automatically send every post to subscribers as an email, with tons of features to help writers get their work out there and grow their community. I had a feeling the community I’d built would like to join. And you guys blew me away on day one. Many Substack writers launch with a fully-free strategy (with plans to add a paid option later). Having been a writer (of books or on the internet) for 15+ years, I was ready to cultivate a paid subscription right off the bat. I believe in the work I create and I know how much goes into each post. I was met with a little resistance (not much, but a little) on Instagram (because I’d been creating free content for so long) but that quickly subsided as time went on. I believe people (women, especially — because we do so much thankless work) should be compensated for their work. I’m beyond grateful for everyone who supports mine. It means I get to do what I love and I will never take that for granted.

2. On April 2 I published a post entitled We saved $1,154 last month. Here's how. I have always been a very nosy person when it comes to how other people live their actual lives. I love an inspirational story too, but like… tell me exactly what you put in your kid’s lunchboxes. Bryan and I were revamping our finances to meet some big goals and I was knee-deep in the nitty-gritty making little changes that added up to a whole lot. I had a gut feeling my readers would be into this type of “peek behind the curtain” too. I was right. That post generated 236 paid subscriptions and 135 free subscriptions. (It was with this post that I realized how robust Substack’s features for writers were — the platform automatically generates shareable images with text snippets and an image from the post. Shareable graphics take content creators hours. This is still one of my favorite Substack features).

3. On Wine and Women made a big growth splash in late April. I love to dig into important topics that make me a little itchy. Typically that’s a sign people will also be interested. I’ve been sober curious for about a year now. Sharing my personal experiences resonated in enormous ways. So many women (!), post-pandemic, are re-evaluating alcohol. I didn’t expect this post to become the hit it was (and still is). This raw-honesty generated 423 subscriptions (some paid, some free) and an enormous conversation in the comments (for paid subscribers) with 106 likes and 87 comments. More than these stats though, the genuine feelings shared were really fascinating to me. I hope to write more on this topic as time goes on.

4. In early August, I published a post (on a whim really) called Anatomy of Our Annual Family Meeting. A few years ago, we started getting our kids together to discuss back-to-school goals, after-school-sports, chores, etc. Basically we covered “how this new school year was going to work.” This year, however, my kids were a little older, and a little less interested in talking logistics. So, I whipped up a cute invitation I text to them all, made a fancy “agenda,” grabbed a bunch of snacks, and made it fun. It was a HUGE hit in our home. Such a huge hit, I just knew I needed to share it here so readers could borrow what might work for them. In this post, I shared the templates for my invitation, agenda, and chore charts. Everyone loves a bonus freebie! To date, this post is responsible for about 25% of the revenue this Substack brings in annually. I call these posts (and books, and products) unicorns. They’re magic (always made of authenticity, genuine real-life-stuff, and transparency). I dream of landing on them again and again! (It had a 73% open rate, which is enormous, and generated 543 subscriptions — paid and free).

5. The most recent jump in growth happened with a post entitled Meeting of the Mom Minds. This post happened exactly like Anatomy of Our Annual Family Meeting happened. Something cool happened in my life and I thought… “hey, my Substack community could really get a lot out of this in their own lives.” And it really resonated with you! I shared about the get-together three of my closest mom-friends and I have, where we share our recent Amazon purchases, what we’re making for dinner on busy weeknights, and what’s always on our grocery list each week. We all have kids around the same age, so it really is so very helpful. We send the kids off with the guys, set out a bunch of charcuterie, bring all our favorite notepads and planners (Simplified, of course!) and just chit chat all night long! It’s seriously so much fun and so helpful.

A few other features Substack readers have loved:

• Voice-overs: Substack offers a way for me to read each post to you (in case you’re in the car or on a walk and unable to read it on a screen). I have podcast equipment, so sometimes I use the fancy mic but most of the time I just record on my phone! This most recent one was really popular. Excuse me getting all choked up.

• Chats: Chats are reserved for paid subscribers only. Having a safe space for people who genuinely want to be part of this community is really cool. Instagram and blogs are awesome, but there will always be trolls there. This chat about the “most boring fact about you” had me rolling. I could read these for hours!

• Reader Referrals: I love that Substack offers this. Subscribers can invite friends to subscribe and get their subscription comped.

Substack is truly changing the way writers write. I’ve seen so many incredible writers (like Liz Gilbert, Cup of Jo, and Elizabeth Holmes) join Substack. I’ve also seen bloggers I love to follow start to move their writing to Substack (like Grace Atwood). Substack has also introduced me to writers I never knew about and now subscribe to. Burned out creators are finding Substack to be a breath of fresh air. Not only are we being compensated for our work, but we’re finding a direct connection to our audiences. I’ve always heard that using social media to reach your audience is like “renting.” Using email (one way Substack gets posts out) is like “owning.” With social media, we’re at the mercy of the ever-changing algorithms. With Substack, we’re able to show up for people who want to find us in a simple, easy way. I think Substack is just getting started and is truly changing content creation and writing for the better.

Here are a few things I learned about this Substack in particular writing this article:

• My audience loves real-life stuff: the good, the hard, the tricky.

• We love the tactical. Give me the how-to, the link, the template, the blueprint.

• Substack makes creating and consuming good content more… simplified. And you know how we feel about that. :)

In the comments, I’d love to know what questions you have about Substack and how it works. And if you have any post requests, I’ve got a slew of drafts ready to go and can always add to them! I’m here for the long haul! Thanks for being here with me.

xo,

Emily