Recommendations Roundup

Let's recommend each other!

It was such a joy to meet some of you during our Midstack Welcome Meetup on Monday. While we spent most of the time talking about Substack, providing an overview of Midstack and answering questions, I also discussed Recommendations, a powerful growth tool that allows writers to publicly recommend each other on Substack.

Today I want to talk a little bit more about Recommendations and then give you a chance to find new publications for you to recommend (and, of course, for others to find you).

I want us to harness the power of our midlife voices to support each other’s writing and publication goals. Recommendations are another one of those wonderful Substack features that allow us to grow together.

What Are Recommendations?

Recommendations are a cross-promotion feature of Substack that allows you to publicly endorse another publication. You choose a number of Substacks to recommend to your readers, and the writers of those publications get notified and (maybe?) recommend you back.

Many writers find that a sizable percentage of their new subscribers come from Recommendations from other publications. (At this point, about one-third of our Midstory new subscribers come from Recommendations.)

You can find the list of publications you recommend and those that are recommending you through your Dashboard.

I can guarantee that you will not get an immediate influx of new subscribers when you start recommending other publications. Recommendations are not a quick growth hack. They’re more of a long game that will eventually lead to consistent and sustainable growth.

Where Do Recommendations Appear on Substack?

The publications that you recommend show up in several places:

1. A blog roll list on your publication’s homepage.

2. Your publication’s welcome page can feature blurbs from publications that recommend you. (The welcome page is different than the homepage; the welcome page is the page a reader sees before they subscribe to your publication.)

3. When a reader subscribes to your publication, they are shown a random selection of publications that you recommend and can choose to subscribe to any or all of them.

4. At the footer of your homepage is another list of Recommendations that readers can click on.

5. Substack’s digests. Substack can send out emails to your subscribers if you recommend another publication.

You can opt out of a few of these places (recommendation digests from Substack, recommendation lists on your homepage, for example).

To control these options, go to your Dashboard. Then click on Recommendations. Next click on “Manage” at the top of the page under the menu.

From this page, scroll to the bottom and find your Recommendations settings.

What To Do Today

Find 3-5 new publications to recommend. (I recommend including at least 10 total publications on your Recommendations list.)

Where can you find these new publications to recommend?

1. In the comments of this post.

2. Our Midstack Directory: a list of almost 200 publications by and for midlife women.

3. Publications whose audiences overlap with yours. Substack finds some of these for you and provides a small list of those publications. (A note: from my experience these are generally bigger Substacks with huge subscriber numbers. These are fine to recommend but you probably shouldn’t expect that they’ll recommend you in return unless you develop a relationship with them over time.)

   To find this list: Go to your Dashboard. Then click on “Stats” in the top menu. Then click on “Subscriber Report.”

Then scroll down to Audience Insights.

Which Publications Should You Recommend?

Find publications that are writing to the same general audience that you are. They might be:

• speaking to the same struggles or problems as your readers

• have a mission or description similar to yours

• have similar content or format

To Participate in Our Recommendation Round-up, post (in the comments):

• a short description of your Substack and your audience, the URL of your publication

• find a few publications to recommend on your own Substack and post them

• let the authors know in the comments that you have recommended them