Category: SubstackCategory: Substack

If you go by this post, “How Instagram creators are bringing their followers to Substack,” there are so many ways to get your Instagram followers to subscribe to your Substack newsletter! Video! Images! Text! Get creative!

In reality, however, your Instagram followers are likely very content to stay on Instagram.

Consider that best selling author Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat Pray Love) has 1.2M Instagram followers, but just 203,000 subscribers. Sure, 203,000 email subscribers is great, but it’s still less than 20% of her following on Instagram.

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Artist David Speed from today’s Substack Live:

“From all of these brilliant minds that I’ve had on (the podcast), the overwhelming thing that comes through is just keep making stuff. Because through the things that you will make, you will process the world around you. You will learn what resonates with people and what doesn’t. You’ll find your niche. You’ll find your groove. You’ll find your people. And you’ll get better at what you do. So just keep making stuff. I think make is the most important word that we have. And it is my mission on this planet to encourage people to make stuff. Make as many things as you can. Leave behind a legacy of beautiful things that you’ve made. Make, make, make.”

Listen to the full interview to hear us talk about:

• How 3K email subscribers is mightier than 160,000 Instagram followers
• Small in-person events build trust
• David’s monthly free studio paint sessions in London
• Start a podcast (and listen to David’s Creative Rebels Podcast)
• Plant flags everywhere
• AI slop makes people want to get back to real human-created work

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Substack began as a place to send newsletters to email subscribers.

Substack has since become its own bustling social media space, complete with the communal unease and tension of trying to “win” on the platform. This gets people complaining about a lack of likes or comments on their posts.

We have to remember, though, that not everybody reads newsletters in the Substack app, or on the Substack website, which is the only place to “like” a post or leave a comment.

To do either, readers must visit the Substack website or open the Substack app, a platform optimized to increase paid memberships, whether yours or someone else’s publication.

Substack needs eyeballs, and every writer sending a newsletter is how they get ’em.

Today I did an hour long “Office Hour”, and we got into doing Substack Lives, how to show up for the people who already read your work, why lives aren’t an audience-growth hack, building community, running Zoom calls, starting tiny email circles, ditching Instagram/TikTok, and creating offerings for your audience.

I warned that we shouldn’t think of Substack Lives as an audience builder, but rather a way to let your existing audience get closer to you.

“Use Substack Live to show up for the people who already know you — not to chase new subscribers. Don’t treat it like some growth hack or algorithm play. Think of it as getting closer to the folks who are already here, the ones who actually read your work. Show them your vibe, how you talk, how you think. That’s where the trust comes from — not trying to perform for a crowd that isn’t even watching.”

When setting up a Substack Live, you’ve given the option to send an email to your subscribers to let them know. Someone asked if I do that or not.

“Send the email. If people get pissy about it, bye. Hit the road. I’m doing things, and I’m going to tell people about them. You’re either along for the ride or you’re not.”

On building offers when you don’t really know what your audience wants:

“Stop overthinking your offers. Don’t send a giant survey asking people what they want — most won’t fill it out anyway. Just say, ‘Hey, I’m doing this. Come along if you want.’ If no one shows up, cool. You didn’t waste time building a whole thing no one needed. Show up, do the work, and let people join or not.”

Did a surprise Substack Live today on a whim. Just me, a webcam, and my cat (Blue) losing his mind in the background. OBS melted down half the time (I have no idea what I’m doing), but here’s some threads worth pulling out:

Serving the people who already showed up

I keep saying this because it never stops being true: Notes is just social media. Chasing the feed means a few winners and everyone else shouting into the void. The only sane move is making your best work for the folks who already subscribed, not every stranger on the internet.

Why I nuked every platform except substack

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn — all deleted. The only “social” thing I use now is Substack Notes, and even then it’s more of an on-ramp to my newsletter.

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