Benable — create shareable lists of things you recommend!
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Get Started on Substack: Everything You Need to Set It Up Right
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items Starting a Substack is easy. Setting one up so people understand what you do, subscribe, stick around, and eventually buy from you takes a little more intention. These are the tools, resources, and shortcuts I recommend for building your Substack fou...
Affiliate Disclosure: Some links in this list may be affiliate or referral links, which means I may earn a commission if you join or make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. I only recommend communities and resources I believe offer genuine val...
Affiliate Disclosure: Some links in this list may be affiliate or referral links, which means I may earn a commission if you join or make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. I only recommend communities and resources I believe offer genuine val...
Map
Sections
6
Substacks for Getting Started
Build the Foundation
Create Your Substack Brand
Create the Content
Get People to Actually Find Your Substack
Turn Your Substack Into a Business
Substacks for Getting Started
These are publications of some of the best Substack guides on the platform
Yana just hit 1000 paid subscribers! She has lots of great advice both paid and for free
Yana G.Y.
Wes escaped the cubical and built his audience with Linkedin. He share how he did it.
Escape the Cubicle
Ana grows her Substack while caring for a young baby and share her secrets.
How We Grow Today
Derek is so down to earth - he is building his plane as he is flying it for sure!
The Irresistible Writer By Derek Hughes | Substack
Build the Foundation
Substack gives you your publication, email list, posts, Notes, podcasting, paid subscriptions and community tools in one place. You can start free and build from there.
It's where you get started. Open an account and we'll go from there
Substack
Come join us and share what you're doing to raise the global frequency
Hart Life Coach
My $5/month community for people who want help actually USING Substack, not just opening an account and wondering what to do next. Includes training, visibility resources and live Q&A.
substack setup intensive about
If you want to get your publication built correctly without spending weeks trying to figure out every setting, section and little Substack quirk, this is where I walk you through the entire setup.
Substack Setup Intensive | You World Order
Create Your Substack Brand
You do not need an elaborate brand to start a Substack. You do need a recognizable look that helps people know they are in the right place.
Use Canva to create your Substack wordmark, publication graphics, featured images, social media graphics, and simple brand assets. It is one of the easiest tools for creating a polished visual identity without needing to be a designer.
Canva
Coolors is a simple tool for creating a cohesive color palette. If you are not sure which colors work well together, this is a great place to experiment until you find a combination that feels like you.
Coolors
Adobe Color is another useful option for building a color palette and exploring complementary colors. It is especially helpful if you already have one brand color and want help finding colors that work with it.
Color Palettes & Themes | Adobe Express
Google Fonts is a great place to explore font combinations and get a clearer sense of your brand style. Substack itself has limited font choices, but knowing your preferred fonts helps you create consistent graphics, lead magnets, and promotional con...
Google Fonts: Browse Fonts
👈Crystal did my image remotely! Your headshot is part of your brand, especially on a platform where people are subscribing to you and your ideas. Choose a clear, current photo that feels approachable and reflects how you want people to experience yo...
📸 Photography by Cristal
You do not need a complicated logo. A clean wordmark using your publication name can be enough to make your Substack feel intentional and recognizable.
Wordmark Logo Design: A Beginners Guide (With Examples)
Keep a simple reference with your main colors, fonts, image style, and logo or wordmark. It does not need to be fancy. The goal is consistency so you are not reinventing your visual identity every time you publish something.
50 of the best brand style guides to inspire you
Create the Content
Now your products fit beautifully, let's create some content!
For the person staring at the blank page thinking, “I know what I want to say, but how do I turn it into a post people actually want to read?”
Substack Post Builder
A powerful brainstorming, outlining, editing, and repurposing partner for Substack creators. I especially like it for turning rough ideas into clearer posts, generating angles for Notes, and helping you reuse one piece of content in multiple ways wit...
ChatGPT
For people who prefer drafting outside Substack.
Google Docs
A helpful final polish before you hit publish. I use tools like Grammarly to catch typos, awkward phrasing, and little grammar issues that are easy to miss when you’ve been staring at your own writing too long. It’s especially useful for Substack pos...
Grammarly
Get People to Actually Find Your Substack
Publishing is only the beginning. If you want your Substack to grow, people need ways to discover your work beyond your existing audience. These are some of the tools and strategies I recommend for helping your content get seen.
Notes are one of the best built-in discovery tools on Substack. They give you a way to share short-form ideas, start conversations, connect with other writers, and lead people back to your publication without creating a full post every time.
Introducing Substack Notes
My tool for turning one idea into stronger Substack Notes without spending all day trying to figure out what to post. It helps you create more visibility from the ideas you already have.
Substack Notes Alchemizer
A simple resource for understanding how to use Notes more intentionally so you can increase your visibility, connect with more readers, and create more opportunities for people to discover your publication.
Substack Starter Space🔥
Pinterest can give your Substack content a much longer life. Instead of relying only on the initial burst of attention after you publish, you can turn your posts into searchable pins that continue leading people back to your content over time.
Pinterest
Use this tool to turn content you have already created into Pinterest ideas designed to help people find your work. It is especially useful for Substack posts, podcast episodes, offers, and evergreen content you want to keep working for you.
The Intentional Pin Tool
Turn Your Substack Into a Business
A Substack does not have to be just a place to publish. It can become part of a larger business ecosystem that helps you build relationships, create offers, generate recurring revenue, and attract clients.
Substack allows you to offer monthly, annual, and founding subscriptions directly inside your publication. Paid subscriptions work especially well when you have something valuable to offer consistently, such as premium posts, deeper teaching, private...
Subscriptions
You do not have to wait until you have a huge audience or a full course to start monetizing your ideas. The Mini Offer Creation Engine helps you turn something you already know into a simple paid offer your readers can actually buy.
Mini Offer Creation Engine
Once your Substack exists, the bigger question becomes how it fits into the rest of your business. Client Acquisition for Coaches is where I help coaches connect visibility, content, offers, and invitations so their audience has a clear path toward b...
Client Acquisition for Coaches
Want the finished publication without becoming a Substack setup expert? The Substack Amplifier is my done-for-you option for established coaches who want their Substack structured, branded, and built to support their business without having to figure...
The Substack Amplifier