That’s a little catchphrase I came up with: When you hit send, it’s not the end. Maybe I invented it, maybe someone else did—but it’s true either way.

Right now, it’s summertime—open rates are down, comments are down, “likes” are down. But when you hit send, that doesn’t mean you’re done. Especially if you’re on Substack, you have the direct URL for every post you send. Sure, it lands in inboxes, but that’s just the beginning.

Take that link and bring it somewhere else. And I don’t just mean posting it on Twitter or Facebook and hoping the algorithm does you a favor—because honestly, it probably won’t. Be direct. Send that link to someone. Maybe it’s someone you haven’t talked to in a while, or someone you connected with through your newsletter.

Pick up your phone—text it to them. Drop it in a message. Make a quick Loom video talking about it and share that. Post it to your YouTube channel, your Facebook, wherever. Talk about what you wrote. Give it more life.

Don’t feel weird about sharing something you published five days ago—or five months ago. What’s old to you is new to someone else. When you hit send, it doesn’t end. Keep that post alive.

Print it out if you want to. Repost it. Put it in new places. And don’t fall for the social media trap of posting a link and just hoping for the best. That’s pulling the slot machine handle—it might work, but probably won’t.

But if you send that link directly to ten people—email it, message it, share it in a Discord—five or six of them will actually read it. That’s a 50–60% open rate you created yourself.

So try it. When you hit send, it doesn’t end. Keep working it.