What I Learned From Reading 150+ Substacks in Two Weeks

And how Midstack can help

Midstack includes a directory of Substacks for and by midlife women, but will also be a resource and community for writers who want to reach their goals on Substack.

In order to create the directory, I read through dozens and dozens of Substacks submitted to us during the past weeks. This process of looking closely at each Substack was simply a delight. I’m amazed by the creativity, diversity of experiences, wisdom, and potential of these publications.

I know many of you will (hopefully) join our Midstack community because you want to grow your Substacks — you want more readers! you want more engagement! you want more subscribers! — and you are probably focusing a lot on what your Substack still needs to do and how it can improve.

But first I want to tell you that you are all amazing, just as you are. You are doing and writing about amazing things. You are talented and unique and have so much to give to your readers.

It was a genuinely moving experience to read such a diversity of publications from midlife women. We are wise, generous, playful, and engaging, and we can’t wait to connect you to each other.

Midstack will be primarily about using community and collaboration to help us grow our publications. I’ll also share insights and instruction, on everything from your Substack dashboard to using Substack’s built-in engagement tools, such as Notes and Chats.

So today I want to share 5 observations from reading through all of these Substacks submitted to us for inclusion to our Directory. I made notes as I read and started to notice several small but important features many publications were missing or were undeveloped: a description, About page, Recommendations, Branding, and Free Content.

1. A One-Sentence Description

What Is It: Your one-line description of your Substack is one of the first chances you get to show potential readers who you are about, what you offer them, and why you are unique. It’s your tagline.

When new readers click on your URL, this is the description that greets them.

Your potential readers may decide to explore your Substack, to become a subscriber, and to want to know more about you on the basis of this short summary.

Many writers who submitted their publications had vague and broad descriptions and didn’t answer the questions: What is this publication about? What do you offer readers? Why might you be different than other Substacks?

Here’s a one-sentence description that I loved:

From this description, a reader can learn the publication’s format (a newsletter), topic (midlife women’s health), and unique spin.

2. About Page

Many of the Substacks submitted to us were missing a personalized About Page.

Make sure to replace the default About Page content with your own discussion of your Substack. Your About Page will be one of the most visited parts of your Substack. It’s a crucial opportunity to share what your publication is about and what you’re offering.

Want to see a great one from a midlife writer? Check out

Moving Through

by

Heather Johnson Durocher

.

➡️ Not sure how to do this or what to include/not include? Please attend one of our workshops as a paid subscriber. About Pages will also be a topic of a coming post in October.

3. Recommendations

You can and should recommend other Substack writers. For most of us (small-ish and small) Substacks, Recommendations will be a critical aspect of our growth. At Midstack, we’ll host many opportunities for you to find other publications to recommend, and for them to find you.

4. Graphics and Branding

Many of the Substacks I read through were missing important graphic elements, such as logos. You don’t need to be an artist or graphic designer to create a Substack that is visually appealing to readers.

5. Free Content

Which posts should be free? Should you have a paywall for some of your posts?

Those are hard questions with no quick or easy answers. What I saw when I read through these dozens of midlife Substacks is that many writers are paywalling nearly everything, and a new reader would find it impossible to tell if this publication is for them or not.

I have strong opinions about subscriber-only posts, and for right now I’ll just quote Anne from

Anne Byrn: Between the Layers

in her On Substack interview:

“Free content is the main stage, paid content is the backstage pass.”

Your best stuff should be (usually) be free to readers; your paid content is for “insiders,” your most committed followers who want more. (There are exceptions to this approach of course.)

What’s Next

Do you want to learn more about Substack? Share your own? Find out about opportunities for collaboration through Midstack?

Come to our first workshop on September 30th at 1 p.m. Eastern! This first workshop will be open to everyone — paid and unpaid subscribers. We’ll present an overview of the types of collaborations we plan to organize on Midstack and discuss your Substacks. Sign up HERE.