Ten steps to a middling Substack
An amateur's journey to reaching 1,000 subscribers
Begin on impulse because, OMG, YOU NEED A PLATFORM!
Auto-subscribe the 98 people already on your email list and email them: “Welcome to my Substack! “I’m sorry. You can go. Please stay.”
Post once a month and share to a Facebook group where members can complain about your shameless self-promotion.
Change the name. What were you even thinking?
Turn on paid, as advised by
. If you don’t have a paid subscriber option, you only prevent people from giving you money.1Increase posts to twice a month, then weekly. Sure, you have no content plan and no time to pee or eat as you scramble to meet your self-imposed Tuesday deadlines, but why not add more content to your to-do list? It will be fine.
Turn off paid. Your content is shit, and frankly, you’re a little embarrassed. In fact, why not take a break for a few months? No one will miss you.2
Change the name because it worked so well the last time.
Discover NOTES. Start reading your comps—that is, who is writing for the same audience as you. Tap the heart, comment, restack, and grab the oil can. Your creaky mind gears are beginning to turn.
Hitting the pause button
Before the miracle of Step 10, there is brain work to do.
Since my marketing career experience is embedded in planning, I returned to the Value Propositions, GoalPOSTs, and Messaging templates of my former work life, and—two years and nearly 400 subscribers since launching my Substack— I started from scratch with a different approach.3
Finding your Why
Following are excerpts from my planning document.
Amid Life Strategic Brief
August 2024 ← REMEMBER THIS DATE!
Top Line
Amid Life is a Substack about reinvention for (and by) resilient, restless, and rebellious women writing a new chapter. With personal stories, journaling prompts, researched essays, and lessons born of real-world experience, this weekly newsletter aims to make midlife women’s voices heard and its readers “feel seen.”
Backstory
My three midlife reinventions:
At 45, I created a Match.com profile
At 50, I bought an old farmhouse in rural Vermont
At 56, I left a 30-year career without a plan
At 60, I started a Substack
My Why
This newsletter is a key part of the new, creative chapter I’m writing for myself.
I want to create something of value, connect with readers, and enjoy doing it.
Goal
Hone my voice, find my audience, and build a pipeline of future book buyers.4
Objectives
Thousands of subscribers
Network of influencers, contributors, and writers
Weekly publication and engagement growth (comments, shares, restacks, likes)
And now, the miracle
Post something viral on NOTES — because “going viral” is totally within your control. Bwahhaaaahahhaaaa. No, no, it’s not. You got lucky. And besides, what is “viral” anyway?
For me, it was an off-the-cuff post lifted directly from the planning document I’d been working on.
Picture me in my little office under the eaves of a 19th-century farmhouse. It’s late summer, and there is no A/C upstairs. From my tiny window, I can see thunderclouds peaking like meringue over the hill. Goldenrod and timothy grass stirs with the hint of a breeze in the meadow.
Fuck it.
Copy, paste, insert random photo.
Remember, I said “middling” Substack. The notifications chimed. New subscriber after new subscriber — some 700 within a few weeks.
These may be middling virality results, but for me, they were truly exciting, if not a little random.
Random! But not coincidental.
The term authenticity has come to feel cliche, but it does matter. When I posted my WHY from a for-my-eyes-only planning document, readers connected.
My five biggest Substack lessons
In no particular order
Go slow to grow fast
Know your why
Be yourself
Don’t overthink it — any of it
Keep going
Share your top Substack lessons in the comments.
P.S. AMID LIFE readers, please take 3 minutes to help me continue to improve and grow this newsletter.
Thank you for your continued support and readership.
Work hard. Be brave. Believe
Catherine
She wasn’t wrong. Friends and family are always the first to show their support. BONUS: Sarah’s note about my refreshed approach drove a few dozen new subscribers.
Fact. I took a 3-6 month break and didn’t lose a single subscriber. Lack of familiarity has its upside.
This includes way too many hours on Canva designing a new logo/wordmark — and clearly, I am no designer. Next time, I’m hiring a professional the likes of
I am writing my first book—a memoir of midlife reinvention.
Catherine, THIS IS NOT ONLY FUNNY, but brilliant. You role model you! I feel that my Maine move (from CT) talks to your VT move, and all the rest too. Onward!
Congratulations! I'm having difficulty getting my best friends to read my stack. Sigh. They're too busy to read! But I have met many other wonderful writers/readers here who have made it worthwhile. I would love to make a thousand subscribers.