✏️ Welcome to Substack 101
This 4-part series will help you finally start the newsletter you’ve been thinking about for months! Whether you need more insight about Substack as a platform, advice on how to brand your publication without a niche, or inspiration for your first few posts, this series has you covered 🤝
In part 1, we’re covering WTF Substack even is, how it’s different from other newsletter platforms, and why you (as a creative weirdo who’s constantly disgruntled by IG) should take advantage of it.
🎧 Rather listen to this instead?
Substack 101 is already live on our podcast! Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
Why is everyone flocking to Substack?
Substack is a platform that combines the best of blogging, email newsletters, and social media. It’s a place where you can carve out your own corner of the internet, dive into the topics that light you up, and even get paid by your most loyal readers.
And before you disqualify yourself — no! it’s not only for writers!
Creators of all kinds (artists, musicians, business owners, deep thinkers) can use it to publish their ideas and connect with people who are on the same wavelength.
Beyond just hosting your content, it's a social platform with an algorithm that helps people find you.
It’s like TikTok in 2020: if you have a unique POV and create engaging content, the algorithm gets your work in front of the right audience.
But Substack isn’t just the latest platform to chase while the algorithm’s good, it’s a place where you own your Internet audience.
Unlike Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, your audience subscribes with their email, and that list is yours to keep. If Substack disappeared tomorrow (which it won’t, but if it did), you’d still have access to your list and could move it elsewhere — something you can’t do on other platforms.
How is Substack different than other email marketing platforms?
No, Substack isn’t a direct replacement for traditional email marketing tools like Flodesk or Mailchimp.
If you’re running a business that depends on automated funnels, Substack might not be the only tool you need. But if you’re a creative with a million ideas and you want a platform to experiment outside your business niche, Substack is perfect for that.
Think of it as your creative playground.
It lets you create without the pressure to monetize right away, and it’s an ideal platform for someone like you — the creative who has a lotttt to say and wants to build a personal brand that’s not confined to a specific niche or business.
What happened after we moved our newsletter to Substack
The reason we’re so hot on Substack right now? It’s made an enormous impact on our podcast, business, and personal brands of the creatives behind the scenes —
and me, .Substack has completely reshaped how we think about content, marketing, and audience growth.
We hosted the
newsletter on both Flodesk and Beehiiv before we ever considered Substack. While Flodesk built beautiful emails and Beehiiv had decent blogging features, it lacked the social algorithm we needed to growwww. We were also tired of begging people to subscribe via Instagram stories… which, let’s be real, no one wants to do.After years of struggling to grow to 3,000 subscribers, we moved to Substack and doubled that in just 6 months.
This completely broke our brains, our flabbers were ghasted.
We were so shocked by this growth that we launched a second publication, this time with a paywall. And in LESS THAN A YEAR,
has surpassed 12,000 subscribers!This kind of growth isn’t possible on platforms focused solely on email marketing.
We’re no longer shackled to freebies and funnels, and it’s freeing as f*ck.
Why Substack is great for creatives who don’t care about ~growth~
If you couldn’t care less about fitting into a niche or pleasing an algorithm, and you’re perpetually disgruntled by Instagram, Substack is perfect for you.
Don’t you miss the early Internet? Where you could share your most niche interests without worrying about follower count, whether you’re on trend, or if your weird relatives would see it?
Don’t you miss MySpace? Where you could have an entire ecosystem that’s dripping in your personality, rather than a shallow feed of content that looks like everyone else’s?
That’s exactly what Substack can give you.
It’s a place for anyone who wants to publish their weird musings to the world wide web, whether or not they care about growing their audience.
Over time, your Substack becomes a portfolio of your work, proof of your creative development, and your very own corner of the Internet.
If this sounds like something you want for yourself, but your strategy-obsessed mind won’t let you dive in without a plan — we made something for you:
Substack School for Creative Overthinkers
We made this 2.5-hour audio class made for people like you: creative weirdos with a million ideas and zero interest in fitting into a neat little box.
Inside Substack School, you’ll learn how to design a thriving personal newsletter without losing yourself in a niche.
It will help you finally get out of your head and start your damn newsletter — without spiraling about your topics, brand, or color scheme.
Inside, you’ll learn how to:
Brand your publication in a way that feels like you (all of you!)
Write consistently (even when you’re busy)
Grow your list without playing the algorithm game
Actually enjoy writing again (yes, really)
You’ll learn how to navigate both the technical questions and mental hurdles stopping you from hitting publish — and it’s only $89.
If you’ve never quite felt at home on short-form platforms or if you’re overwhelmed by trying to be everything to everyone on Instagram, Substack School was made for you!
That’s all for now (unless…!)
Thanks for reading! We’ll be back next week with part 2, where we go deeper into the benefits of having a newsletter as a as a artist, business owner, or fellow ADHD creative.
If you’re hyped up and want part 2 right now, Substack 101 is already live on our podcast!
👉 Here’s the landing page with links to the episodes
And if you’re ready for more advanced support to finally get your publication off the ground, Substack School is ready when you are :)
Take it easy,
Writing Club paid subscribers get access to our live writing sessions every Monday & Saturday — start your 7-day free trial!
Great post MJ! This is the best case for Substack I've read, and I've written my one myself that was published in the local newspaper. Love the name btw😉 Happy Writing!🤠🤙
The biggest advantage that nobody talks about is Substack posts get indexed by Google fast. So you're building SEO authority and at the same time growing your email list. Two wins from one piece of content!