Need a Substack Power Hour? Here are all the details!

Claim Your POWER Hour

Okay, this is going to be a fun one! And THANK YOU to the lovely for basically commanding me to write this post 😁

This week, we’ve got a new video tutorial, but bear in mind I am just discovering this tool RIGHT NOW as I write this…so if I fumble around a bit, I’m taking one for the team!

What are Substack Perks, anyway?

This is a brand-new feature designed to help you offer exclusive benefits to paying subscribers, including promotional codes, digital downloads, and access to live videos on Substack.

You might be wondering how this differs from regular paid subscriber benefits.

I think the biggest difference is how we can display them on a dedicated PERKS page that could potentially look like this, depending on what your perks are:

Here’s a link to her actual perks page so you can see it in real life vs a screenshot.

And these are the types of perks you could potentially offer:

• Discount or promo code: a code you’ve created for an external site

• Digital download: a file up to 700 MB that subscribers can download (PDF, ebook)

• Community invite: a link to a private space, such as Discord

• Link: a link to an online resource, such as a Zoom session

• Substack Live video: a link to a future live video for paying subscribers

Something to note is that perks pages are only visible on desktop versions, NOT in the app. This seems to be the usual case for any new feature rollout.

One more thing…you MUST have payments enabled in your Substack dashboard to see the Perks feature in your settings.

Below is a video walkthrough of how to create a perk and what it all looks like behind the scenes. And remember, this is my first time! I can’t promise my (fake) perk will look good but I’ll get you there regardless! 😁

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🟧 The Substack POWER HOUR 🟧

Sometimes you don't need another course...you just need one focused hour to brainstorm, troubleshoot and untangle. Grab a Substack Power Hour and let's knock a few things off your list.

Let's Do It!

This is a repost from two years ago, when I had a whopping 16…yes, SIXTEEN subscribers. 😆 Now there are nearly 6000 of you.

The original version of this post was blocked off with a paywall, but below is the whole shabang, absolutely FREE, because everyone needs to hear this message!

Nobody knows what you’re offering!

I used to subscribe to a particular newsletter that was very helpful in pointing out the obvious. One of the biggest takeaways it offered was that people don’t know what you do, what you offer, or what you want from them.

This could be for many reasons.

Maybe they’re too busy to notice, or maybe they don’t care. But there’s also the possibility they simply don’t have a clue because you’ve never come right out and asked them to notice you.

Once upon a time, a fellow writer had tagged me on Facebook, telling me I should write for a particular publication.

The thing is, I already had. Many times!

I joked with her that she clearly didn’t read my work, or else she would have known. But the truth is, we can’t assume anyone knows anything about what we do unless we’re bold enough to point it out and go for the ask.

Here’s a great example: When I sent out a survey to my entire email list a few months ago (again…nearly 6000!!!), almost HALF of the respondents had no clue that I actually work with Substackers one-on-one. Like, it’s my real-life job.

That means they thought that all I do is sit here writing this newsletter. 😐

Here's what I ACTUALLY do

Knowing that, here’s a challenge for you:

If you want people to know what your Substack offers, make it obvious.

If you want them to buy something from you, ask for it.

If you want them to read something you’ve written because it may be helpful, ask them to.

Move in for the kill.

Don’t assume what you want is obvious to everyone.

We’re all wrapped up in the spin cycle; we have no idea what’s going on outside of our own machines.

The worst that can happen is they ignore your ask, and that’s fine. They were basically ignoring you anyway—statistics make that pretty clear. We can’t please all the people, all the time….we are not bacon.

But the best that can happen is you make someone aware of what you actually want….and they take you up on your offer.

Did you know the following??

1. I offer monthly workshops for paid subscribers. Here is upcoming workshop info.

2. I offer FREE monthly coffee chats for ANYONE ON SUBSTACK to attend. This is what’s coming up.

3. I have a growing video vault full of Substack tutorials for you to learn from.

4. I have a business website that highlights everything I do for Substackers.

So, what’s YOUR next big ask going to be? 😉

Leave a comment

Who’s currently Julying (a.k.a. running from responsibilities like wasps at a BBQ)?

🐝🐝🐝

We hold Substack Ask Anything days on the first Friday of each month; this is the July 2026 edition. To check out previous Ask Anything days, see them here. You never know… maybe your burning question has already been asked!

Here’s how it works:

AA days are one of many paid subscriber perks. To participate, simply upgrade your subscription.😊

After that, you’re free to fire away your questions in the comments below, and I’ll check in throughout the weekend to answer each one as best I can.

Comments will stay open all weekend. After that, they are turned off until the next Ask Anything day on the first Friday in August.

And don’t forget to read through all the AMA comments below. There may be questions you hadn’t thought of that trigger big A-HA moments for you!

Leave a comment

Now, before everyone goes full rainbow unicorn and starts decorating newsletters like an elementary school scrapbook, let’s talk strategy.

Used sparingly, these tools can help guide a reader’s eye through your content.

You can draw attention to important takeaways, highlight key quotes, emphasize action steps, or simply break up large blocks of text in a way that feels more intentional and visually appealing.

Think of it like decorating a room. A bright orange couch can look fantastic, but 19 bright orange couches crammed into the same room? Less fantastic.

In the video below, I’ll show you a few simple ways to use text highlighting and text color without turning your publication into a circus. A tiny bit of visual emphasis can go a long way when it comes to readability, branding, and helping readers focus on what matters most.

As with most design choices, the goal isn’t to use the feature because it’s there. The goal is to make your writing easier (and more enjoyable) to read.

Here’s a quick 5-minute run-through of the text color and highlighting features, with live examples of how it can benefit us…in living color!

By the way, if you've ever looked at publications like Homebody(ish) Magazine and wondered how everything seems to fit together so beautifully, that's exactly the kind of thing we'll be exploring inside my Substack Branding Bonanza next month (July).

Over four weeks, we’ll work on the pieces that make a publication feel like you — your visual identity, your voice, your vibe, and the little details that help readers recognize your work before they even see your name attached to it. Because strong branding isn’t ONLY about logos and color palettes. It’s about creating a publication that feels intentional, memorable, and unmistakably yours.

If your Substack currently feels more like a collection of posts than a cohesive publication, I’d love to have you join us.

Learn More About our Branding Bonanza

Have you been exploring these little branding tweaks in your posts lately? If not, will you start now?

Leave a comment

This post is part of the Unstack Substack Video Vault—a growing library of simple, practical tutorials you can come back to anytime you need to set up, fix, or fine-tune your Substack. Video Vault content is one of many fabulous paid subscriber perks.

Claim Your Perks!

Of all the things that can make or break a Substack post, images are definitely in the top five.

Thumbnails are the first thing visitors see when they land on your homepage. Then, after they’ve clicked through to your post, their eyes are naturally drawn toward your in-post photos.

It helps knowing what to actually do with them to maximize their usefulness.

Substack gives us just enough tools to make things look great…and just enough mystery to make you second-guess every click.

Somewhere out there, I hope a confused writer stops rage-clicking “align left” or learns how to resize their 8000-pixel headshot because of this post. 😁

The following video tutorial is my “no stone left unturned” walkthrough of using images in every possible way in your Substack posts.

Today, we’re talking about:

• Image placement

• Resizing

• Captions

• Galleries (multiple photos in a pretty grid)

• Thumbnails (to make your homepage visually appealing)

• Alt text (make visual content accessible to the visually impaired by allowing screen readers to read the description aloud)

• Hyperlinking (click an image to take you somewhere else, like perhaps your Amazon book page)

• Watermarks (for branding and copyright)

• And little behind-the-scenes tweaks that make your posts feel polished instead of pieced together.

Whew! That felt like a lot!!

This one lives inside the Video Vault for paid subscribers because it is very robust and covers a LOT, but let me say this upfront:

I am NOT precious about access. If you upgrade and binge this tutorial, get exactly what you came for, then cancel and head back out into the world a smarter Substacker…we’re good!

My goal with the following tutorial is to make sure you finally understand how to use images without guessing, Googling, or wanting to throw your laptop across the room.

Read more

This post is part of the Unstack Substack Video Vault—a growing library of simple, practical tutorials you can come back to anytime you need to set up, fix, or fine-tune your Substack. Video Vault content is one of many fabulous paid subscriber perks. This one is a FREEBIE…for now 😉

Claim Your Perks!

If you find yourself typing the same things over and over again on Substack, the Templates tool might become your new favorite feature.

Templates allow you to create reusable blocks of content that can be inserted into any draft with a couple of clicks. That could be a preamble, a disclaimer, a call-to-action, a section introduction, a signature block, affiliate disclosures, and…you get the picture.

Once you’ve built a template, you simply save it, give it a name, and pull it into future posts whenever you need it.

I use templates in my other publication, Homebody(ish) Magazine. Each section of the publication has its own introduction, so instead of rewriting the section descriptions every time I publish, I simply insert the appropriate template. It keeps everything consistent, saves time, and eliminates the little bits of repetitive work that quietly steal your writing energy.

Here’s a screenshot of one of my section intro templates, highlighted in orange:

The real benefit of templates isn’t just speed. It’s consistency. When readers see the same style of introductions, calls-to-action, and formatting throughout your publication, your Substack feels more polished and intentional.

Templates help you create that experience without relying on memory or copying and pasting from old posts.

Here’s another screenshot with an example of how you could use a post-footer template. “Home Away” is a tag that takes readers to a summary page of all posts using that tag.

By the way, to access ANY tag summary page, use your URL and then /t/tag name, like so: https://unstackit.substack.com/t/substack-video-tutorials

In the following 9-minute video tutorial, I show you how to create, save, organize, and insert templates so you can spend less time rebuilding the same content and more time writing the parts that actually need your attention.

That’s it for this week!

Have you set up and used your own templates using this tool yet? If not, will you get started now?

Leave a comment

JUNE: The month where office coffee turns into iced lattes, and we all feel a slight urge to slack all the way off. 😉

We hold Ask Anything days on the first Friday of each month; this is the June 2026 edition. To check out previous Ask Anything days, see them here. You never know… maybe your burning question has already been asked!

Here’s how it works:

AA days are one of many paid subscriber perks. To participate, simply upgrade your subscription.😊

After that, you’re free to fire away your questions in the comments below, and I’ll check in throughout the weekend to answer each one as best I can.

Comments will stay open all weekend. After that, they are turned off until the next Ask Anything day on the first Friday in July.

And don’t forget to read through all the AMA comments below. There may be questions you hadn’t thought of that trigger big A-HA moments for you!

Read more

Before we dive in, here is the Substack Summer 2026 workshop and event schedule, in case you haven’t seen it yet:

Take Me to the Schedule!

I recently asked in a chat thread what some of your burning Substack desires are, and the topic of welcome emails came up multiple times. So, I’ve put together this post with as much knowledge and personal opinion as possible to help Substackers create a compelling welcome email.

First things first…

If you didn’t even know you could customize a welcome email for new subscribers, this is where to find it.

Go to your dashboard » settings (bottom left corner) » and then locate ‘Emails’ in the left sidebar:

Once you’ve clicked on ‘Emails’, it’ll take you to the Welcome Emails section of your settings, highlighted in the big black box above. This is where you’ll see options to edit your welcome emails for free, paid, and imported subscribers.

NOTE: If you don’t have a paid subscription tier, you won’t see the welcome email option for paid subscribers.

When you click on the edit button (highlighted in the red box above), you’ll be taken to what looks like a post draft with Substack’s default welcome text. You’re free to delete all the default content and spice up your welcome email with your own copy.

Your welcome messaging can and should take your new subscribers on a journey…ESPECIALLY if your goal is to have them upgrade to paid eventually. So, below is my entire welcome email to free subscribers so you can see I’m telling them exactly where I’d like them to go:

Your Saturday mornings just levelled up!

Unstack Substack emails will touch down in your inbox on Saturday mornings. Each email includes a high-value tip relevant to your Substack journey.

Sometimes these tips end up becoming Substack hall-of-famers, like these few posts:

🟧 How To Stop Feeling Awkward About Asking Readers To Pay You

🟧 No Thanks. I Don’t Want To Read Your Substack

🟧 Substack Has Just Given Us One More Way to Stand Out

🟧 Don’t Be Surprised When People Aren’t Supporting Your Work

Here’s what paid subscribers are saying:

My main purpose here at Unstack Substack:

It is to help everyday Substack writers clean up their dashboards, improve their visual experience, and create content people actually love reading!

You now also have access to our FREE monthly Substack Sounding Board chats. These are live coffee sessions where we share ideas, inspiration, and yes…sometimes frustrations. 😁 You’ll be notified when the next one is on deck!

In the meantime, I highly encourage you to follow the arrows below for a robust description of everything you’ll find here…

That was my welcome email to free subscribers in its entirety.

You can see that I directed new subscribers to 4 post links almost immediately. Those posts are among my highest-performing of all time, and at least two of them are behind a paywall.

Next, I included two of many paid subscriber notes as social proof that people are enjoying my paid content. This hopefully encourages new subscribers to upgrade.

NOTE: If you’re wondering where to get those beautiful orange blocks with paid subscriber testimonials, Substack does that for you! Here’s where to find them ⬇️⬇️

And finally, in the closing paragraphs of my welcome email to free subscribers, I give them one more tidbit about what they get, then direct them to my hero post (also known as a welcome post). If you don’t have a hero post, you can direct them to your About page.

What should you put in your welcome email to PAID subscribers?

They just paid you for your writing/knowledge/skills. The VERY first thing should be a massive THANK YOU.

Then you can provide a brief recap of what their paid benefits include, or redirect them to where they can find a recap, as I have done in mine, pasted below:

A huge THANK YOU is in order!

Your support means EVERYTHING to me. A community without people is just ME standing here waving an orange flag to nobody. 😂

First things first…

For a recap of all your paid subscriber benefits, please visit our START HERE post.

I want us all to realize our wildest dreams here on Substack. This is my reason for fostering this rapidly growing community of 5900+ incredible writers! And now you’re IN IT with full access!

There are a multitude of reasons one might need help on this platform:

1. You don’t know how to run Substack to its fullest potential.

2. You hate technology and you’re just here to write!

3. You simply don’t have the time to care about all the bells and whistles behind the scenes because you have a life!

Save this email or bookmark MY WEBSITE if you think you might want to work together in the future.

In the meantime, happy (un)Stacking!

WHEW!!! That was a LOT of information, I know. And you do not HAVE to do any of this if you’re happy living a simple Substack life. There’s room on this platform for all kinds of simplicity among the complications.

Please don’t stress yourself out if you have a basic welcome email!!

And finally, here are a couple more resources I’ve already written about little tweaks you can add to a welcome email. Again, not necessary but always useful!

Now that I’ve completely overwhelmed you, I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions in the comments below.

Also, if you’ve already written a killer welcome email, share what’s been working well for you!

Leave a comment

This post is part of the Unstack Substack Video Vault—a growing library of practical video tutorials you can come back to anytime you need to set up, fix, or fine-tune your Substack. Video Vault content is one of many fabulous paid subscriber perks, along with monthly workshops and Ask Anything days!

The next HOMEPAGE DESIGN workshop is on May 30.

The next Ask Anything day is June 5th.

Claim Your Perks!

You know when you spend hours creating an email with a special offer for your readers? Then, you send the offer as a regular newsletter, and the response is underwhelming. You check your email stats and find that less than half of your readers opened it. Boooooo. 😠

However, there is a way to reach ALL of your subscribers and ensure open rates are as high as possible for your special offers and announcements, which may include discount subscriptions, Zoom links for upcoming workshops, and more.

If you have a special announcement to send to your subscribers, do it in a direct email…NOT as a regular published newsletter.

Why? Because so many Substackers have their emails turned off and they’re only receiving your goods through push notifications on the app.

When you send a direct email, it’ll actually arrive in your subscribers’ inboxes.

Here’s a real-life case study from this Substack:

The first screenshot below shows a workshop announcement I published as a regular post, and the second screenshot shows an email sent to subscribers but NOT published. There is always a significant difference in open/read rates when you send an email as opposed to publishing a post.

(NOTE: The heart and comment icons will always be ZERO on direct emails because they’re not published anywhere.

This quick video walk-through shows you how to send a direct email to your people:

It also highlights how to filter subscribers, enabling you to send to ONLY free, ONLY paid, ONLY comps, etc.

This is the best way to send an announcement and reach the most people. We all want the most when we invite people into our spaces, right?!

Read more

This post is part of the Unstack Substack Video Vault—a growing library of simple, practical tutorials you can come back to anytime you need to set up, fix, or fine-tune your Substack. Video Vault content is one of many fabulous paid subscriber perks.

Claim Your Perks!

Substack has officially entered the year 2007 and introduced dropdown menus 😆

Meanwhile, the rest of the blogging internet is over in the corner whispering, “You guys are just getting dropdown menus NOW?”

In fairness, this is actually a pretty useful update. If you’ve been wishing you could make your publication feel more like an actual website and less like a digital junk drawer, this tool helps.

I’m glad Substack finally paid attention because this is one of those small features that makes a publication feel way more polished and easier to navigate for readers.

So I made you a quick 5-minute walkthrough (below) showing exactly how to set it up. And I’m leaving this video vault tutorial FREE for all subscribers.

You’re welcome 😌

Read more

This post is part of the Unstack Substack Video Vault—a growing library of simple, practical tutorials you can come back to anytime you need to set up, fix, or fine-tune your Substack. Video Vault content is one of many fabulous paid subscriber perks.

Claim Your Perks!!

A surprising number of Substack users have NO IDEA that you can customize your navigation bar with your own links. Most people assume the top menu is just…there. Fixed and untouchable, like a decorative plant in a hotel lobby. 🪴

But nope. You can actually add all kinds of useful links to your publication navigation including sections, tags, outside websites, YouTube channels, podcasts, shops, resources, and more.

In this 11-minute video tutorial, I’ll walk you through exactly how to set it all up step-by-step so you can Marie Kondo your main navigation.

This also pairs beautifully with the new dropdown menu feature because once you understand how to create navigation links properly, you can start organizing your content in much smarter ways.

This tutorial is a paid perk of my Substack Video Vault, which is slowly becoming an underground library of “why didn’t Substack explain this better (or AT ALL)?” tutorials.

Read more

It was a wonderful opportunity for viewers to submit their questions in real time and have us answer, with some screen sharing to walk you through the steps.

In today’s live, we covered topics such as SEO, thumbnail images, custom domains, a few homepage design topics, and the new drop-down menu option in our navigation bars! I will have to put together a video tutorial for that one.

Adrienne and I are already planning the next Coffee with the Coaches for sometime in June, so stay tuned! And in the meantime, you can also subscribe to her Substack for additional great info.

Enjoy!

Leave a comment

Reminder: On Saturday, May 23rd at 2pm EST, and I are doing a FREE coffee chat about collaboration for growth on Substack. Full details and registration are right here:

Coffee & Collaboration on Substack

Here's how to do it

But recently, the opposite question has come up a few times.

The answer is yes, and I’ll show you how. It’s super simple. But first, I want to tell you WHY this might be useful in certain instances.

Reason #1

Maybe you want to publish a welcome or start here post and pin it to the center of your homepage. But you don’t necessarily want to email that pinned post out because it’s not a newsletter; it is just meant to serve as a roadmap to your publication.

I’ve outlined my ‘Start Here’ post in black below, as a visual example. I never emailed that post; I just published it and pinned it to the center as a guide for new visitors.

Reason #2

Let’s just say you have a resource library and you want to publish resource content to populate your library, but not send them out. A great example of this is my tutorial video vault.

I published a brand-new video tutorial there the other day, but I didn’t want to send it out because it's meant to serve as a resource in the vault.

Now, here’s a video showing how to publish posts without sending them:

And there we have it! A super simple and quick Substack tool that might come in handy for you down the road.

Leave a comment

As with all video tutorials, this one has been added to our growing video vault of Substack how-tos. The video vault was created so you can clean things up, fix what’s not working, and actually feel in control of your Substack publication.

Here’s the latest from the video vault:

This post is part of the Unstack Substack Video Vault—a growing library of simple, practical tutorials you can come back to anytime you need to set up, fix, or fine-tune your Substack. Video Vault content is one of many fabulous paid subscriber perks.

Claim Your Perks!

It’s fair to say that Substack has introduced SO many new features that it’s easy to forget we can still accomplish everything we want while staying at basic levels here.

Today, I’m highlighting a couple of ways we can offer content best served in the order of your choosing, rather than Substack’s default: reverse-chronological order.

Examples could be:

• A table of contents,

• A mini course library,

• A series of chapters,

• A content library, etc.

Whatever you wish to sort out for your readers in a particular order, the following 17-minute tutorial video will help you get the job done! 😊

Read more

Did you know you can reach out and get FULLY CUSTOMIZED assistance and support with your Substack publication?

Here's How...

Let’s get this out of the way first:

Yes, there’s data out there but no, it’s not magical and definitive. You are not missing out on massive success because you published at 2:17 PM instead of 8:03 AM.

That said…there is some helpful data floating around, and it gives us a solid starting point for experimentation rather than throwing darts at the calendar.

Across blogs, newsletters, and content platforms, the same pattern shows up again and again: midweek mornings win. Think Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday…ideally sometime before lunch.

Why? Because humans are predictable creatures.

By Tuesday morning, people have shaken off Monday energy and they’re back in productivity mode. They’re checking emails, reading things they “should” read, and pretending to work while actually consuming content. It’s a beautiful window of opportunity.

Most email data backs this up too. Open rates tend to peak mid-morning, especially between 9 AM and 11 AM, and especially on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Now let’s talk about what doesn’t work as well.

Weekends feel like a bit of a graveyard in my experience. Ask me how I know—this newsletter is published on Saturdays.

Engagement drops, attention is scattered, and people are generally out living their lives with less intention of reading your beautifully crafted Substack.

Friday is also questionable. Not terrible, but people are mentally checking out by midday. If your post lands too late, it gets buried in the “later” file in their brain, which is basically the content equivalent of being ghosted.

If I consider my own reading habits, I 100% sip coffee and scroll for an hour before I start my workdays. But on the weekends? I have the luxury of TIME. I don’t need to stuff it all into a morning coffee sesh. I walk my dog longer, dip into mindless Facebook reels, etc.

So if you want a clean, ‘no-overthinking it’ starting point?

Aim for Tuesday morning. Somewhere between 9 and 11. It’s the most boring, data-backed, reliable answer on the internet. I have been publishing my other newsletter on Tuesdays for YEARS.

Having said all this….

The real best time to publish is when your people expect you.

Consistency beats timing.

If you show up every Sunday morning with something people love, guess what? Sunday morning becomes your “best time.” If you train your audience to look for you on Saturday nights, congratulations, you’ve just broken the rules of convention and it still works.

I believe habits beat algorithms. What you tell your subscribers in your welcome email becomes what they expect.

Also, your audience is not a generic blob of internet users; they are your people. Their routines, time zones, and attention spans matter more than any global study ever will.

Which brings me to the least sexy but most accurate advice in this entire post:

Use these data suggestions as a starting point, not a finish line.

Start midweek, mid-morning and see what happens. Then adjust accordingly. Your open rates, your comments, and your vibe will tell you more than any study ever could.

And one last thing, because I know someone needs to hear this:

A mediocre post sent at the “perfect” time is still a mediocre post. A great post sent at a random time? Still great.

Timing helps, BUT content is king. 😉

When are you most likely to read newsletters?

Have you experimented with different days and times to find out what works for you?

Leave a comment

And since we touched on your welcome email and what it tells readers, here’s a post you may have missed:

⬇️⬇️⬇️

MAY is supposed to be the gateway to summer, yet there’s still snow on the ground where I live 😐 But can you believe we’ve already officially entered the second quarter of 2026??

We hold Ask Anything days on the first Friday of each month; this is the May 2026 edition. To check out previous Ask Anything days, see them here. You never know… maybe your burning question has already been asked!

Here’s how it works:

To participate, simply upgrade your subscription.

After that, you’re free to fire away your questions in the comments below, and I’ll check in throughout the weekend to answer each one as best I can.

Comments will stay open all weekend. After that, they are turned off until the next Ask Anything day on the first Friday in June.

And don’t forget to read through all the AMA comments below. There may be questions you hadn’t thought of that trigger big A-HA moments for you!

Read more

This post is part of the Unstack Substack Video Vault—a growing library of simple, practical tutorials you can come back to anytime you need to set up, fix, or fine-tune your Substack. Video Vault content is one of many fabulous paid subscriber perks.

Claim Your Perks!

Let’s talk profiles…because nobody ever does!

Our personal profiles are one of the most underused assets on Substack. We create a profile because every user has to have one, but then we forget all about it because we’re laser-focused on getting our publications done right.

Your profile is a fantastic piece of real estate on Substack, and more people look at it than you might think.

So, we should definitely spend a few minutes customizing it to work FOR us, rather than just letting it sit there collecting dust.

Below is a 10-minute video tutorial that walks you through all the fun bells and whistles behind the curtain of your profile.

After you’ve watched it, if you have questions, pop them into the comments below, and I’ll do my best to answer as I see them.

Enjoy the tutorial along with several wonderful examples of profile banners….

Read more

“Can we schedule our notes to publish at a later date?”

I always hated being the one to have to burst bubbles and say no. But those days are over because now we CAN schedule our notes to publish on a day and time of our choosing!

Before I dig into the tutorial part, below are several reasons the scheduling feature packs a bigger punch than you may realize:

1. You can finally act on inspiration without babysitting the app.
Before, if you had a good idea at 10:47pm, your choices were: post it immediately (hello, three people online) or forget it exists by morning. Now you can capture the thought in the moment and send it out when actual humans are awake.

2. It lets you show up consistently without being “always on.”
Substack growth, whether we like it or not, leans heavily on showing up in Notes. Scheduling means you can batch a handful of posts and drip them out over a few days instead of popping in like a chaotic raccoon whenever inspiration strikes.

3. You can time posts around your emails (which is huge).
There’s a whole publishing ecosystem available to us now:
Write a Note before your post goes out (giving “something’s coming” energy)
Schedule one right after it publishes (traffic driver)
Schedule a follow-up later that day (second wave of eyeballs)
That’s suddenly a strategy instead of a one-and-done post.

4. It makes batching actually possible (and sane).
Sit down once, write 5–10 thoughtful Notes, and you’ve bought yourself breathing room for the week.

5. It helps you test and figure out what actually works.
You can experiment with timing way more intentionally. Morning vs afternoon. Weekday vs weekend. Reactive vs reflective. When you remove “I happened to be online,” you start seeing patterns.

And the list goes on. I’m sure you can come up with your own benefits related to your personal content strategy.

Now, here’s how to schedule your Substack Notes:

Find your orange “Create” button from whichever screen you’re on, and select Note.

Then, create your note, and click the calendar icon at the bottom. Choose your publishing date and time on the calendar pop-up, then hit SAVE, as shown below. Super simple!

Another little feature - if you want to see a list of your scheduled notes, you can click on the “drafts” link in the top right corner of your note draft and a list will pop up.

If you change your mind about any of your scheduled notes, you can click on the 3 little dots to the right of each, and you’ll see an option to delete that note.

And that’s it! A tiny new tool that can make a huge impact on your time and growth strategy! Scheduling Notes turns Substack from “post when you remember” into something you can actually steer intentionally, without turning into a full-time content hamster.

Have you been waiting for a notes scheduling tool to up your Notes game? Do you intend to use this new feature?

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I have not met a single person who knew the purpose of tags when they created their publication. Hence, they’ve used them incorrectly from day one, not knowing how much heavy lifting PROPER tagging could have been doing for them all along.

The most important thing to know about Substack post tags:

Their sole purpose is to organize and categorize your content. They function just like categories in the traditional blogging world.

They are NOT like social media hashtags, and they do nothing for your discoverability on the greater worldwide web. Period.

If you didn’t know this and you’ve not been using them accordingly, this workshop is absolutely for you. Let’s tackle this issue once and for all…TOGETHER! Because I love an excuse to chat with you all face-to-face!

The ‘Transformation with Tags’ Spring Workshop

You knew it was time for another workshop, didn’t you 😉 Especially since I mentioned spring cleaning last week.

In this LIVE session, we’re going to completely redefine how your Substack works by properly implementing and using your tags. We’ll cover:

• What tags are actually used for, and why you don’t need hundreds of them

• Using tags to overhaul your homepage appearance, both for content groupings and navigation bar tabs.

• Using them to direct readers to specific content without having to share individual post links.

• Using them to create content libraries and summary pages to make the reader experience MUCH smoother.

• And how to get rid of the dozens of extra tags you created that you’ll no longer need after you attend this workshop (the mega spring cleaning part 😬)

We’ll be gathering LIVE on Zoom on Saturday, April 18th at 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Central, please check your local overseas time).

We’ll spend 90 minutes together while I show you all these hot tips and tricks, with plenty of time for Q&A. This session will be recorded and sent out in case you can’t make it live.

Here are two options for access to our workshop:

Paid subscribers can attend at no additional cost. I’ll send a separate registration link to paid subscribers next week.

Become a Paid Subscriber

Or, you can purchase one-time access to the workshop, no paid subscription required. The cost is $28.00 USD (the price at checkout shows in CAD and converts to approx. $28.00 USD)

Purchase One-Time Access

Everyone who registers will receive a recording afterward.

If you don’t like workshops:

You can try tackling tags on your own. Below are links to several posts I’ve written about it in the past. PLEASE NOTE: Some of the screenshots in these posts may be outdated because Substack changes the platform faster than a Jamaican sprinter runs.

NOTEWORTHY:

The last thing I wanted to share with you is that I’ll be revamping paid subscriber benefits very soon, and it’ll include MORE LIVE ACCESS to me on a regular basis.

Dozens of you attended our fabulous coffee chat a few weeks ago, and it was clear that most of you value ACCESS when it comes to Substack support.

Stay tuned for an official announcement later this month. In the meantime, I hope to see you at the workshop!

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This is especially true in my online spaces, and I see the same thing happening on the surface of many Substacks.

It’s not a bad thing, it’s just a little messy in ways that are hard to pinpoint. You’re showing up and doing the thing but your Substack isn’t quiiiite pulling the weight you want it to pull.

So, if you’re in a spring cleaning mood, here are a few things worth a quick look today.

Open your Substack like you’re a brand new visitor.

Pretend you’re landing on your homepage with no context or backstory and ask yourself, “What is this and who is it for?”

If the answer feels fuzzy, your future subscribers are feeling that too.

Click into your About page. Is it clear, specific, and welcoming? Or is it kind of vague, a little outdated, or missing altogether?

Now check your welcome email. If someone subscribes today, what experience are they walking into? You’d be shocked at how many welcome emails I see that still use the Substack default text 😬 Are you guiding your new subscribers anywhere, or just dropping them into the middle of your content and hoping they figure it out?

And finally, scroll down your homepage. Does it feel intentional or does it feel like a bit of a junk drawer? Have you seen other homepages that have you secretly envious but you don’t have a clue how to change yours? (Here’s how, BTW)

None of this means you’re doing anything wrong!

It just means your Substack might not be working as hard as it could be. For me personally, when I land on ANY website, if I can’t find an easy way to get around and find what I want, I feel like leaving because I don’t know what I’m supposed to do there.

We must always try to organize our content in a way that others can navigate because, guess what? 99% of you don’t know how to search someone else’s Substack for precisely what you’re looking for.

(Here’s how to search specific topics and keywords on someone else’s Substack, by the way)

This organizational chaos is the kind of thing that affects everything…including growth, conversions, how people perceive your work, whether they stick around or disappear without a trace.

It will REALLY serve you to do an intentional audit of your Substack. Because if you can’t figure it out, neither can your readers.

This is the exact kind of thing I do when I work with Substackers. Not growth hacks or “just post more content!” I go into the actual structure of your Substack and clean it up so it makes sense, feels good to land on, and actually supports the writing you’re already doing.

If you’ve been meaning to fix things but haven’t gotten around to it, this is your sign. Springtime is the best time to clean house!

“I had the pleasure of working with Kristi after asking her to audit my Substack, and I could not be more satisfied with the experience. She is highly skilled, an excellent communicator, and an all-around wonderful person to work with. The feedback she provided was insightful, easy to understand, and just as easy to implement. I would highly recommend Kristi to anyone looking to take their presence on Substack to the next level.” - @ Man Down

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I have some time in April to show up for half a day with my magic mop! We can sit down together and go through your Substack in real time, and make sure everything is actually working the way it should.

Working with me is focused, practical, and by the end of it, you’ll feel and SEE a very real difference.

If you’re not ready for that level of hands-on help, I also offer custom Substack audits. I’ll go through everything from front to back in your Substack and send you a detailed breakdown of what’s working and exactly what to fix first.

Either way, you don’t have to keep guessing.

If your Substack has been feeling a little “off” lately, this is a really good time to reset it before you head into a new season of content.

🔶 You can book a Half-Day Session here

I only book a small number of sessions each week, and once they’re filled, they’re filled.

🔶 Or start with a Custom Audit here

Whether we work together or not, at the very least, take 20 minutes this weekend and look at your Substack with fresh eyes. You might be surprised at what you notice.

When was the last time you self-audited your Substack through the eyes of what your reader might experience when they land?

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In case you missed it yesterday, watch the replay of not one but TWO Substack coaches covering plenty of tips and tricks related to Substack!

Here’s a tip you can implement TODAY!