Your Friday Email (& Podcast) - Stay Creative on Substack

Let’s do some of it (but not all of it) all of the time?

Ok so this week it’s a combination of both audio and written Substack tips from me - both hold different information and different thoughts.

The audio speaks to some of my thoughts on hosting a membership here rather than just writing behind a paywall and also answers a question from a subscriber on frequency of posting and on how much to show up and how they might feel about setting up the paid for option here. The written tips are all about the different functions we can use and our and our reader’s user experiences.

I’m reverting to sending these Substack Tips monthly from here on in now I’ve covered off the big changes they’ve made here and a lot of the things I’ve learnt being here for a year.

There’s already tonnes of tips in these posts so do check them out.

(NB - my Substack Tips posts are locked to paid subscribers after a month of being published)

I SO appreciate you supporting me and my creative work. These posts take a long time to put together and my membership and founding members and my passion help pay for my time to do that for the wider community here. I see you and I’m so grateful to you.

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So to Substack and all it’s many beautiful and distracting portals

Again, I’ll make the point that we can throw away AND create our own rule book here on Substack. I wanted to share my experience of using all of the functions on my terms here over the last month or so and some questions/ prompts for you as you decide what’s right for you and how much time to spend here…

When I go to write something I’m already plugging into a plan I made at the start of the year for Substack and how it fits into my business. It’s purposeful and fits together and it puts you the reader at the heart of the experience. 💜

Let’s rattle through the main portals (ways to connect with folks) here…

1. Chat 🥉

In my opinion chat is the least well functioning part of Substack. The issue with chat for me is I can’t keep a chat at the top of my feed to stay up to date with the conversation. I’ve actually stopped checking it and I’ve taken the tab off my home page too.

The way it works which is different to say a ‘whatsapp chat’ is that the chat disappears as soon as another one appears. I’d like my own chat to be at the top of my feed and one for paid and one for free subs so I can actually chat with them through the month more easily. As it is I have to start a new chat with them instead of continuing the old one.

It’s also a bit frustrating to open chat and see lots of invites to locked to paid members chats for other substacks because that’s noisy and I just want to archive them to tidy up but I can’t. Tagging

Substack Writers

so they see my suggestions… perhaps you agree or perhaps it’s working well for you?

Photo by Fiona Smallwood on Unsplash

I’m trying this month to just have ONE chat space with my members here and use the other functions of the platform for other elements of my creative writing and work.

If you’re a member here at Creatively Conscious and you missed our intention setting chat it’s here. Feel free to jump in.

2. Notes 🥈

I’ve written about Notes before here and here but what I’d say over a month down the line is that I really like Notes but I can’t ‘do’ notes and another social media platform - it’s more ‘like’ social media than other places on Substack so for me I show up in very intentional ways there and that’s it.

I loved this thread - it’s so beautiful and a really unique way to connect with community here.

3. Posts 🗝

We know what posts are here but we also kinda need to think about the web, email and app versions of posts as they all present slightly differently. I have smart notifications turned on so I don’t get any posts via email, I read them all in the app.

I keep an eye on who is reading on app and who is reading in email etc which you can see in writer dashboard. Ultimately I’m being gentle with myself because that’s a whole heap of content from just one post/ email.

I’ve seen some other writers talk about open rates - I don’t obsessively check mine but I do find it interesting. This is a relatively new section so I wouldn’t expect the folks who signed up to my list years ago to read it. Having said that it does reach a lot of people within Substack and that’s magic isn’t it.

I find it so beautiful that some writers choose JUST to use posts - just to write a weekly newsletter and draw a boundary saying that’s it - that’s the content. I love a firm boundary don’t you…

4. Restacks 🛎

Ok so I have lots of love for restacks. In an ideal world I write a comment and restack a part of the post I adore. Double the love.

I want to have the conversation on the post and I’m happy to have it in notes too but then it disappears and new people finding the post won’t see it. On the desktop this week I wrote a comment on

Haver and Sparrow

and ticked the button to publish it to Notes thinking I was giving it permission to pull through if Charlie restacked. Actually what happened was my comment ONLY went to Notes and it felt a bit weird there… because well it was a comment - part of a conversation with Charlie and the community. Confused? Me too!

5. Podcasts 💌 📮

We can record directly into the web browser here and that’s what I do for my podcast here. The new podcast I’m recording with my pal

Laura Oldfield

over at

Company of Two

will be recorded on zoom with microphones and uploaded here as well as on other platforms and that’s because we are recording together, it will be edited with music and an intro/ outtro and we want a certain type of listening experience.

6. Video 🎁

I applied for video here on Substack (not available to everyone yet) so I use it to share video chats with my members, I don’t plan to include video more generally but I might next year we’ll see… I recorded one this week about bringing our vision board to life in our black and white actions - it’s a GOOD one and goes out Saturday morning!

OVER TO YOU

Zooming out to zoom in on YOUR space here…

• If you zoom out and think about your Substack a year from now how do you want to be using it and building community?

• What would feel good to be sharing and how much - how much depth of connection have you got space for?

• How about 5 years from now and 10 years from now?

• Do you enjoy using all of the functions within the platform and the app? You can do whichever parts fit for you…

I love using Notes at the start of the week and catching up with replies as the week goes on. At the weekend I use Notes to remind people about posts of mine they might have missed. This ‘Cosy round the Fire’ intro post is nearing 200 comments and that’s because I’ve shared it multiple times on Notes. It feels like REAL community and that’s what it’s all about for me.

Ways to work with me

I made a video sharing what I love about Substack a year on - I’m trying to get better at showing up in multiple ways and me and my husband really want to start a youtube series for our Soil project so we need lots of practise - if you want to watch it’s here.

Want more support with Substack? I have an hour long masterclass ‘Get Creative on Substack’ and 4 week course ‘Stay Creative on Substack’ you can find here.

I love to support creatives with their substack strategy and growth making space for your quiet ambition and big dreams.I’d love to build a bigger container for you and support you. I’ve doubled my mailing list here since November ‘22 and although it’s not all about the numbers it’s really a sure way of knowing the work I’m doing is working.

My holistic mentoring focusses on your creativity and is 90 minutes over zoom together with a week long email follow up exchange.

Let me know what you’ve discovered or are discovering about yourself here on Substack this week?

Claire x

PS - New on Substack this week

I have to shout out to Bex from

Bramble & Fox

who I know from instagram and has started the most beautiful space here as an extension of her Slow Lived and Hyggee lifestyle. Bex is an old soul and a beautiful one too.

I discovered A Sourdough Story this week and this is one niche I’ve definitely here for!

I also discovered lots of new content and writers through this post from Jess;

Substack Posts I’ve Loved Lately (Vol.6)

And not new to me but I really wanted to shout out to the ‘depth’ in creative practise Tanya talks about here - it’s really inspirational.

800+ days consecutively

I also wanted to shout out to Sophie at Simple and Calm who wrote a beautiful piece articulating some of our fall out with instagram which for me doubled as a piece about hope in connection here on Substack.

The downfall of Instagram