32 Comments

Brilliant to hear you both talk about your processes!

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Thanks, Claire. We have a lot of fun and a lot of aha moments recording these chats!

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Really enjoyed this episode and conversation. Interesting to hear how you are both 'bedding' down with substack. Your enthusiasm with, and comfort and confidence in this platform came across really well x

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Thank you! I honestly think we could talk about Substack endlessly! I'm genuinely so pleased that you're thinking of starting up here too x

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I agree with everything Claire says. I think lots of us worry about ‘bombarding’ people but actually your readers love to hear from you. Plus they can always get the app so they don’t see them as emails. Think about what you want to do, how many is comfortable for you to send and be guided by that rather than trying to second guess your audience. Some of my favourite substackers post twice a week.

P.s congratulations on setting up your page!! That’s fantastic! 🧡

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This is so reassuring to hear, thank you!

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I absolutely love this series of episodes! I was thinking of starting a Substack this year but putting it off through fear. Hearing from the two of you about the start of your journeys has given me the shove I needed and I set up my page last week!

I can't quite get my head around how to integrate my Substack with my existing newsletter though. I have always sent out my newsletter once a month and never more - I don't want to suddenly bombard my subscribers with weekly posts on Substack but I also don't want to have to run two separate newsletters! If this is something you have navigated, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it?

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I'm in a similar place Jude. I already have an established newsletter on another platform. Although I think I want to switch over to Substack, as this seems a good place to be, the logistics of transferring over my current subscribers has deterred me a little.....

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In the long run, I do feel like it will be worth it. In terms of actually transferring details of subscribers over, I haven’t actually managed to make that work! 😅 But, once I’ve got that done, I’m now thinking it might be best to send an email out to all my subscribers just explaining the change. At least then they’re informed and, if they really hate the idea (which I’m not sure many will really) they can always unsubscribe 😬

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Which newsletter platform are you currently with, Jude?

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I’ve been using Mailerlite for the past year to send out a monthly mailing list and then posting blog posts on my own website and sharing them on Instagram. (Such a piece-meal system!)

To be fair, I’ve actually found Mailerlite to be great, but I think Substack will give me the chance to reach a wider audience and bring my blog and newsletter together.

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In Mailerlite there should be a system to export your subscribers. This saves them to your computer. Then in Substack you import them (via settings).

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Apologies if you already know this!

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I think it's quite straightforward to move them over, Angie.

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You've got this Angie! I think Substack would be a great place for your blog/newsletter content, I really do! (Happy Claire face!) x

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Hi Jude, so please you enjoyed it and that we've spurred you on to give Substack a go! Helen will be better on newsletter integration as I came without an existing newsletter and so circumvented that bit of techy headscratching!

I'd say send as many newsletters as you'd like to write! If you like your monthly pattern there's no need to do more, and plenty of Substackers post at that rate. If you want to go for weekly then do it. Your existing subscribers might love hearing from you more often! And obviously this is something you could play with paid subscriptions when you feel ready––one free a month and more regular newsletters for paid subscribers.

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Thank you, this is probably one of those issues where fear has made it more complicated than it needs to be! I’ll set myself the challenge of posting my first Substack this week and just go for it 😁

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👏🏻👏🏻 Look forward to reading it!

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Had to come back and say I thoroughly enjoyed listening! It's great to hear the dual perspectives - from you both being at slightly different stages in your Substack journeys, and interesting to hear Claire navigating things that I am too (being about 1 month in) - value, schedules, subscriptions - all interesting. Thank you!

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So pleased it resonated, Jess! When we came up with the idea to document our year (through the medium of chatting!), we hoped that being in two different stages of the journey would be interesting.

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So pleased you enjoyed it! Claire and I have a lot of fun recording it!

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Very, very true! x

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Loved listening to this thankyou Claire and Helen.

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So glad you enjoyed it!

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So many insights in this podcast - thank you Helen and Claire!

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I've very recently taken the plunge. . . Everything you say you're going to discuss sounds interesting to me as a newbie - so I look forward to carving out some time to listen!

Saved and ready :)

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That's so exciting. Good luck, Jess!

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Thank you!

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Enjoy Jess! I've found it such a supportive place to write so far (as a fellow newbie), and I think being able to discuss and share our experiences rather than trying to figure it out in isolation really makes a difference.

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Thank you, I have found the same so far - a lovely community!

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Love chatting Substack with you, always!

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