The Substack Strategy
How and why we use Substack
Friends,
Many readers have reached out asking if they should have a substack because we have one. Actually, we have a few. The primary publication has a paid tier, but this one does not. Most people are asking about the paid publication, which is $10 a month or $97 a year - wondering if it’s a good strategy for them.
The answer is simple:
It depends.
It depends on your overall strategy, the resources available, and your capacity to look at things pragmatically.
The biggest risk, in my opinion. is failing to realize what’s going on, why it’s going on, and making decisions that crush your time and attention later. Take The Generalist, for example. A couple of years ago, they moved their publication off of substack. Last year, they moved it back. What gives?
First, it helps to know why they moved off of Substack to begin with. According to their founder, Mario, one reason is because they wanted more control over the experience - a brand play. Another, which probably carried the most weight in the decision-making process, is the 10% substack takes right off the top of revenue.
Mario has hinted at it in the Generalist update articles, and I believe the biggest reason they made the move is loss aversion. Fortunately, The Generalist has shared all of this openly, so you can go find all of this archived on their substack
Remember, it’s been well established that a loss hurts more than equivalent gain feels good. That means that if he got 10% more business from Substack and they took 10% of the revenue, It would be a wash but he would still be sitting at an emotional loss. In fact, he could be getting 30% more business from them and still feel like giving 10% is a loss.
Logically, we know that’s not a loss.
But decisions are rarely driven by logic - they’re driven by emotion.
One of Substack’s greatest strengths, in my opinion, is also one of the aspects that makes it difficult to make logical decisions - which I’ll touch on shortly. First…
There are a few reasons or circumstances where I would recommend NOT having a substack.
The platform doesn’t have advanced tagging, segmentation, and workflows. If you’re looking for a direct response tool, this is probably not the optimal choice. If you’re susceptible to loss aversion, deciding to grow your revenue through a Substack subscription it’s important to realize that the more your revenue grows the more Substack “takes” since it’s percentage-based
.
Here’s how I look at this whole thing. Substack is essentially a blog with email functionality or email software with blog functionality - you could make an argument for either. Newsletters and newsletter platforms like this one are getting better at combining the two but emails and blogs are fundamentally different.
Email is a version of forced consumption. It shows up in your inbox as unread and takes up space until you open it, and choose to ignore or delete it. Done well, it shows up in your personal space because you invited it in - it’s more personal than a blog or a website. An email is generally read around the time it was sent if at all.
A blog is different. It is not forced consumption. Email shows up in your space on the sender’s schedule, a blog shows up in your space on your schedule - when you actively navigate to it for some reason. Email is more personal and the writer has more control. A blog is less personal, the reader has more control and a higher level of intent.
Substack has uniquely combined them both. And they’ve done it in a way that fits our strategy well. Substack serves two primary functions in our ecosystem:
Reference Guide
Concentric Growth
As a reference guide think of Substack as a giant repository of YouTube videos we can reference - just in writing. We even use it to house videos and audio we reference.
Concentric Growth. Substack has built an incredible network. Over on the paid publication, almost 30% of our paid subscribers have come directly from the Substack Network. Those are all paying members who likely would not have found us had we hosted our reference guide on our website.
Features like the publication recommendations make it easy to collaborate with other great creators - which is another thing we like to do.
And that’s it.
It’s really that simple. It’s a function-over-form thing. (See, this is me referencing something else on substack)
Reference Guide
Concentric growth
Collaboration
It serves those functions for us and has become an income stream. I don’t mind paying 10% to substack because 1) they make everything so easy 2) it’s not a primary source of income - it’s income only coming in because of the substack 3) the Substack network alone has brought in at least 30% of the paid subs.
Does Substack make sense for you? I have no idea. It depends. Here are some scenarios where I recommended someone consider it
If you have an archive of written content already - whether it’s in Google Docs or a blog living somewhere else. I would consider moving it over to Substack simply for the network effects.
You like to write and want a simple way to publish stuff.
Substack provides one of the easiest ways to gate articles, videos, or audio. On the video side, I would guess YouTube gets more concentric growth/reach but Substack would be a consideration for paid gating.
Keep in mind that these things can be layered. For example, if you have a direct response process that works well, don’t replace it with a substack. You could use the network effects of a platform like this to get more people into your already-proven process. If you do well with video on YouTube or Instagram, don’t swap it all over to another platform - use the thing that already works to move people to a platform like this.
One of the most powerful exercises a business owner can do is called “The Rearview Mirror”. It’s powerful because we have such a propensity to stop what is working to try something new instead of figuring out how to integrate the new thing with what is already working.
If you think Substack will work for you, give it a try. Just know what it is and what it isn’t. You can see the ones I follow by following
(that’s me), , . It’s not a bad idea to see how has set up or how is setting up .The Substack network is enormous. Download the app and see if you jive with it - it’s a pretty cool experience in my opinion.
If you don’t find anything that fits your style, maybe this isn’t the place to hang.
If your strategy is focused on direct response or heavy segmentation, maybe this isn’t the place to hang.
If you’re looking to make a lot of videos and get reach with those videos, something like YouTube and Instagram is probably better for that.
Think function over form - what are you trying to accomplish? Use whatever tools is most likely to help you accomplish it.
The Data
Here’s what the data looks like for five publications, including mine. Note: The Guardian Academy is the only publication with a paid tier.
Takeaways:
The Substack Network is powerful. While we could bitch and moan over them taking 10% of revenue, it would be silly not to realize that 26% of paid subscribers came from being on Substack. No bitchin’ and moanin’ here.
Commandment One is not integrated into our recommendations yet. It’s surprising to see it still picks up subscribers from someone else’s recommendations.
The Gray Wolf gets almost all of its traffic from recommendations - and that’s by design. There are very few links outside of Substack pointing to the Gray Wolf.
My personal Substack is probably the most surprising of all, to be honest. Followed by the Guardian Academy. They were the first two and kickstarted the recommendations for everything else. I would have expected them to benefit from the LEAST from the Network because they get their traffic AND send subscribers to other publications as recommendations.
It’s a small data set, but I wouldn’t be surprised to this pattern continue. If so, the data leads me to believe that the more you share, the more you get in return.
Don’t be stingy with the recommendations.
The Gray Wolf data makes a strong argument for creating a publication even if you’re not writing consistently. It seems that a list can grow passively utilizing a network like this. Of course, it’s helpful to have other publications recommending it.
Hope that’s helpful.
Live to learn. Give to earn.
Nic
PS. You can see how we’re using Medium to amplify the Substack Strategy right here.
Our “Out Of Print” Business Development Books and Letters are available by clicking here for Guardian Academy paid subs. A lot of marketers try and resell this stuff, just get it here.
Social Media: Check out the Guardian Academy Instagram for aesthetically pleasing stuff and exclusive video clips. Twitter (Or X) for more frequent updates and insights.
Forthcoming Event and Experience Dates can be found by clicking here. Nothing compares to being in the right room with the right people. It doesn’t have to be our room with us - just get yourself in proximity to the right people, places, and things for you.
 | A guest post by
|