Growth, (online) engagement, and the diamond ring
10x growth on Substack in just over a year with Claire Venus
If you want to learn more about Substack growth, here are a few other resources that pair nicely with this article.
A Sustainable Substack by Satya Robyn
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Hi friends,
I met Claire Venus soon after I joined Substack, and have followed her journey closely since then. I forget who got their checkmark first, but it was around the same time for both of us.
Even though she had 1,500+ subscribers and I had 20,000+, we were on similar paid subscriber journeys. She has far fewer subscribers than I do, but the engagement she gets in her community is bonkers. While I have a respectable 2% engagement on my most popular posts, she regularly pulls 20% in her community. Her articles are filled with 200+ comment articles, and it boggles my mind.
I have hired Claire to help boost engagement in my own community, and we’ve been testing a lot of her concepts over the past couple of weeks. Her ideas make me very uncomfortable, but she is an engagement genius. I enthusiastically support her Sparkle Audit, which will pull you out of your comfort zone in the best ways possible. She also provides a free 5-day course you can get here.
I love her Sparkle on Substack publication. Lots of her work is behind the paywall, but I highly suggest you check out this one.
Hi, I’m Claire. I’m an Engagement Consultant and Mentor based in the UK. I live under dark skies on the Northumberland Coast with my husband, two children and 5 pet chickens.
I write over on Creatively Conscious and I teach Substack over at Sparkle on Substack. My artistic practise is rooted in co-creation. That’s to say, I never create alone. I’m delighted to be here!
Thanks, Russell for hosting my words and nuanced thoughts about growth, engagement, and the spaces of being human in-between online and real life.
✨
Let me tell you a story about building an audience from scratch
Everyone knows someone who knows someone right? But what if you want to start from zero? Or build your writing and creative craft as you grow with new people seeing your work?
What if you also want to reach inboxes all over the globe? All times of the day and night?
With Substack you can and I did! For the very first time in my 20-year career.
I began my journey with Substack in April 2022. I wrote a little, dug around, read some pieces from some great (and slightly intimidatingly brilliant writers).
I got to know the platform, the team who made it, the ethics behind it. It quickly started to feel like home.
In December of the same year, I removed all other ‘social apps’ from my phone, showed up at Substack Writers Open Office Hours and read every single comment.
I was fascinated by how people saw the platform, its plus points and limitations, and by the questions they had. I chatted a little with people there; they were warm and friendly. I was surprised. Lots of them subscribed to my publication. I saw the spikes on my subscriber graph the next day.
Later that same year, I brought my mailing list of 300 over from MailChimp and then grew my spaces to 3000 by the following summer (2023).
Here’s the breakdown of that period with as much as I can remember. I’m an open book here about Substack so please do let me know if you have questions by writing them in the comments…
April 22 - influenced by my husband David Venus who is an ‘early adopter’ of tech I started a Substack, wrote on Substack, and turned on the option for folks to pay to read my paywalled content. People paid. I decided I better write something behind a paywall.
April - September - got curious about what Substack is, read a lot of US Substacks from writers I’d never heard of and some UK ones including Emma Gannon and Things Worth Knowing with Farrah Storr. People kept referencing Heather Cox Richardson - I noted she was the highest-selling Substack.
Summer - started to see ‘writer/ influencer names’ coming over to the platform. Perhaps Substack was supporting them or they had a gang together? They were instantly ‘good’ at using the platform. I could learn from them. They kept coming and I kept learning.
September - moved my mailing list here (x300 people). I explained I would now send their monthly email from Substack and other posts too.
November ‘22 - started to see checkmarks next to writers’ names.
September - Feb ‘23 - wrote consistently and started to make some contacts and friends here on Substack. Switched up my Instagram to talk about my Substack (3500 followers)
Feb ‘23 - first viral post - ‘Is Substack a Side Hustle?’
March - taught a webinar/ masterclass ‘Get Creative on Substack’ online on zoom.
April - launched a second Substack and a ‘slow grow’ community for mothers and a podcast with Laura Oldfield over at Company of Two
May - Started a YouTube playlist called Joyful Growth on Substack to teach some of what I was learning here.
April - July - wrote a (pretty much) weekly ‘Get Creative on Substack’ post to help my artist pals I’d brought over and to stop all the whatsapp and email questions. 😵💫 Experimented with audio. Noted I had less than 1000 subscribers but more than 600 listens to my audio pieces.
July - launched a new publication; Sparkle on Substack and a paid members community for folks who wanted to ‘Stay Creative on Substack’ and get Substack education from me. Embedded a podcast as part of the space. Hit 2000 subscribers.
October - got Substack bestseller badge (100 paid subs).
November - podcasted with Russell Nohelty, hit $10k gross annualized revenue on Sparkle. Added that to the revenue on Creatively Conscious and realized it was $12.5k gross annualized revenue.
December - celebrated steady growth of 500 subs a month across both publications (Sparkle x 400, Creatively Conscious x 100) for four months in a row. Almost at 4500 subscribers and 190 paid overall.
🎉
This isn’t a post about my highlights reel although it is meant to inspire of course.
I want to talk to you about depth of connection, inspiration, storytelling, and meaningful engagement.
Why?
Because that’s where the growth actually is. That’s what was really going on behind the scenes of the timeline above. I was writing AND building community. That’s the USP of both of my publications and that’s my ‘unfair advantage’.1
Generosity breeds growth. It’s that simple. I could write you more tips and I will but if you remember this one you’ll fly. I guarantee it.
So are you ready to be generous with your words, your reading time, and your interactions? Who’s publication might you start with? How about right here? ✨
Showing up as an embodied creative…
When I imported my subs from MailChimp, I had reason to show up, reason to write, and reason to be of service. As far as I know, none of the people from Mailchimp were using Substack but I didn’t need them to be. I just needed a place for my words to land, a place to tell my stories. We all need that but we all started somewhere; from one. Write for one person and you’ll soon write for hundreds.2
I read the names of my subscribers often, some of whom I knew in real life. None of them were my commissioners, lots of them were my colleagues, some were my husband’s clients, some knew me through artist residencies, and some I’d met on Instagram.
Subscriptions but not as we know them?
In March 2023, I ran a masterclass called; “Get Creative on Substack”. I charged £15 for it and over 50 people bought it. I was genuinely so excited about Substack and my sector using it. Guess what happened and here’s the important part…
After the class, the majority of the participants came right over to Substack and started playing around.
They already knew how to use the platform and supported my work and my Substack instantly. Remember; I was already generous with my likes and comments… and so I taught them to do that too. It’s not a hack, it’s a belief system…
They asked for more tips on writing and generosity, on creativity and authenticity. I gave them what they wanted in more posts about Substack and how I was using it. In those posts, I shared the creativity of how others were using it too.
My subscribers on Substack, especially those who pay are not passive followers of my work. They are (for the most part) cheerleaders of it and I of theirs (where I can be).
De-mysifying Substack is part of our job if we want success here. It’s not unique to me; we all have to do it because it’s a complex platform and people think they know ‘social media’ and newsletters. They might do but they don’t know Substack. It’s different here.
You want your subscribers to reply to your Substack Notes, get involved in your Substack Chats, write comments on your posts, listen and share your audio. That’s the goal.
I know my subscribers well; they hunt out my email, write to me and ask for more advice or to work with me 1-2-1. They are on my LinkedIn group, they aren’t afraid to ask questions.
Most of my paid subscribers are (nearly) my friends. 😉
I’ve met a handful of them in real life. It’s worth noting that your “online persona” has an energy all of its own which lacks nuance because it’s a hologram in your reader’s mind. The bits they build up of you matter.
I’ve cultivated a community that wants to ride the snowy slopes of Substack Mountain alongside me. They’ll use their binoculars to see what’s on the horizon and they are NOT waiting for someone to give them a free ride or to go viral!
They are here to explore, to discover and rediscover their craft. To get creative here, to be in the community. I can be an expert with them but I can also be an ally.
Curiosity is key to growth. Leaning into it, fascinating in it, getting to know yourself and your readers better. There are so many ways to do that here.
One of the best ways I’ve found is to share a little piece of your heart with every single post! To tell your story, your real story (in part) every single time you write…
💓
Pausing for Northumberland story time…
I love real, relatable stories so I need to pause to reference the congruence in all of this otherwise, it’s just an un-relatable growth post where you say; “yes Claire that’s all very well and good for you but what about me?”
So here’s what really happened. As well as everything else I’ve talked about in the article. Here’s the real stuff, the visceral, tangible world of my life.
In 2020, my whole world turned upside down when my husband got gravely sick in the last weeks of my pregnancy with my second child. The doctors didn’t know what was wrong and we were on the long list for a hospital referral in a pandemic while he couldn’t leave our bed. The week I was due to give birth, we got Covid. Then his turned into Long Covid and more darkness than we have ever known.
At that time, I showed up online in the messy and complex world I was in.
On the glossy perfectionist-driven world of Instagram, people turned away when I showed up wild-eyed and talked about the pressure of having a newborn and a sick husband. On Substack, people leaned in, asked questions, and held me in it.
I wrote about (some of it) on Substack. The people who knew me then (online) at
Creatively Consciouswere even more supportive of my launching an online teaching space over at Sparkle on Substack on Substack 14 months later. They were in awe of me, proud of me and here’s the important part; genuinely happy for the success it brought. They were like that because I was honest and transparent in my writing.
This matters.
It matters because it was a time of tension on Substack and will be again.
Jealously often comes from not understanding the whole human in a success story. If we are jealous we withhold our support. I had the opposite. I had an outpouring of support and some of it fiercely so.
There are multiple educators now but at that time there were just a few and many many opinions about that. It was BOLD to say I’m starting a second Substack and it was even bolder to set out that it was dedicated teaching space from an unpublished writer (me) on a platform set up for writers. 🙋🏽♀️
I was still showing up unmasked and complicated over at Creatively Conscious and I honestly believe the reason I’m supported and celebrated here at all is because one person started.
One person understood enough to see what a bold move it was and they told some friends and they invited their friends who then invited their colleagues and that’s why I am growing the way I am.
The people who ‘knew me’ chose to support me and my work not once, but every single time they saw it.
The time is now my friends. Are you coming with us? There’s space for you, I promise. Before you do…
🌍
Let’s zoom out and go back, way back… If all the world is (really) a stage…3
Shakespeare wrote ‘As You Like It’ in 1599.
That’s 423 years ago. Over four centuries of human evolution and possibility and learning about creativity. The internet came to be in my last year of secondary school. I mostly ignored it and now I spend my working days on it. I’d recommend Shakespeare to anyone…would you?
Substack has invited us to take up space in a way other platforms have never managed it. More than that, the culture of the platform keeps making the same invite day in, day out until we take it, until we put our words to the page, until we make our heart fuelled creations real.
Anyone can start a Substack. It’s a storytelling tool, not a marketing tool; that’s its main job. That’s what some people miss when they start here.
I don’t know if Shakespeare worried about what people thought of his art, of his words, of his way of seeing the world before he released them. Perhaps the words flowed through him and he like some of us knew he was guided to write them by a force bigger than himself.
Let Substack set your stage; there’s really not much difference between Shakespeare and Substack; they were just born at different times.
They are both vehicles for creativity, admiration, enjoyment, fandom, and community. They both set the stage for us and are open to interpretation.
I often wonder if Substack built their model of generosity with great artists and word crafters in mind…I’d recommend Substack to anyone. Would you?
The thing you have to do here is to know that your readers are coming and that your supporters are ready… it just takes a little time. Shakespeare wasn’t an overnight success and you don’t have to be either but you do have to use the recommendations tool here on Substack!
✏️
Waiting for the invite…the duality of being a human online
On Substack, I’ve felt as wise as an elder and like a toddler in a tantrum.
I’ve been both the cool kid and the one who sat alone at parties.
In my career, I’ve got the dream job and never even gotten a callback. I’ve turned heads in the street and been cheated on by multiple ex-lovers.
All the worlds of a shapeshifter are also true on Substack, because (and here’s the kicker); humans are intrinsically complex and Substack is the first platform to make space for that and cheerlead it at the very same time.
You can show up as your authentic self here and if you choose not to people see that lack of congruence a mile away.
Let me explain and we can get practical at the same time…
Notes but give it some depth…
When Substack Notes launched we all saw our publications grow if we used it. I rode that wave and I still show up there every single day. People will have pressed the mute button and that’s fine.
At the end of March ‘23, my publication sat at 541 subscribers. At the end of May ‘23, it had 878 subscribers. That’s 337 extra subs. I’ll take the unsubscribes and the mutes in the mix.
This is all from using Notes. It took me six years to grow 300 email subscribers and on Substack using Notes for six weeks I grew the same amount.
It’s worth saying that the week Notes launched I got a note featured by Substack Reads.
I hunted out the note for you. The focus is on conversation and building community;
I did one with a similar invite recently;
And another;
There are 3 strands to my intention with Substack Notes; creative community building, visibility (for my publications) and play.
They are unique to me and the way I create but you can borrow them if you like?
You do not have to be good…4
Making space for rejection and the tumbleweed of a post with no ‘likes’ or ‘comments’ is hard. But if you cultivate support here first, the support for your work comes naturally.
You can’t sit and wait for the invite here, you’ve got to get out there and cheerlead and support others. You have to build community and find common threads with others. Collaborate, chat, reply. People have to know who you are and what you’re about.
The first time I had a post ‘do well’ it was about Substack. It was this one;
It brought more likes and comments than I’d ever known. It was like a rapturous applause - I felt it in my cells; it felt nice.
Here’s the stats for it. I suspect Substack featured it somewhere like Staff Picks because it was before Notes existed.
My biggest lesson this year is that I don’t have to be liked by everyone. I come back to the words of Mary Oliver in her poem Wild Geese and I keep showing up multiple times a week for the people who find my words, my classes, my tutorials an act of service.
It’s enough.
Our sacred creativity is a portal into our wisest self, people want that. They are here for it. They crave connection to the tribe we’ve lost online or otherwise.
I know because I am them.
My 5 top tips to increasing engagement for your Substack publication
Read other Substacks you are genuinely interested in - be generous, let people know you’re there. Feel compelled to like, reply or reply to someone else’s comment? – do it! Don’t hesitate, start conversation, keep going, dedicate time to this - be authentic not like an awkward AI robot.
Be abundant in your support in sharing what’s working for you here, generous in your intention, and gently curious in your challenges. Don’t boss anyone about. 😉. We are all experimenting and learning from each other all the time.
Read the room then write on Substack Notes with your writer name. Don’t use “Kitty365” or a complex publication name – no one will remember you. Use your name and feel the replies. Start conversations there. Chime in with others, have fun! Notes is a 24/7 conversation, not a bulletin board; use it that way….
Use polls in posts and look at the results; reflect the results back to a handful of your readers privately and ask again. Get into conversations with your top readers… you can find this information in your subscribers tab. Every single article they have opened and read is there for you to geek out over.
Cross Pollinate and know you won’t be for everyone and in that people might actively turn against your work, you might trigger them– it’s all ok. It’s not your job to convince people to love you or your work. That’s coming anyway! Use the recommendations tool wholeheartedly and be generous in your blurbs there.
🐝
Words mean something
There are multiple stories about the origin of an engagement ring, but I like the one about why we wear it on our left finger.
It was thought this finger had a direct line to the heart. In being engaged and wearing a ring as a symbol of that; we were more connected to our heart space, to love.
Ask yourself – could you bring more of your heart through your hands as you type your work, write your replies, support others…
As you are sharing your words, you get to think about where they will land.
Mind, body and soul…
Of course, not everyone will come to your word in an embodied and calm state BUT ask yourself how do you want them to feel opening up your Substack?
Intrigued?
Held?
Curious?
Creative?
Soothed?
Educated?
Part of something special?
How can you be a diamond in someone’s day? That’s what we strive for.
I ask myself; will this piece, this work, this part of my heart send a prism of rainbow light through my reader’s day?
Will it make their heart dance with creative possibility? Will it blow their mind? Will it blind them temporarily in a breathless pause? Will they feel connected, cherished, and safe with me? Will they feel compelled to reply here or in another online portal? Will they feel less alone?
Will we be friends?
No one wants to be alone, being alone is as close to the edge as we can be.
Online is real and loneliness is tangible online, that’s why people stop. That’s why they stop sharing their heart, their words, their creations.
That’s why people complain about likes (or lack thereof) and compare themselves to others. If you don’t want to be alone/ to feel alone you have to help others to feel less alone first. You have to engage.
Press the heart here for me, for Russell so others follow in your footsteps. It will be a wicked cool experiment for The Author Stack if you’re willing?
💖
Sending sparkles to you for your day ahead,
Claire
✨
What did you think? I love everything she has to say about engagement, even if being that open fills me with all sorts of feelings. As I mentioned above, I enthusiastically support her Sparkle Audit, which will pull you out of your comfort zone in the best ways possible.
She also provides a free 5-day course you can get here. If you want to learn more about Substack growth, here are a few other resources.
A Sustainable Substack by Satya Robyn
If you liked this one, please consider becoming a paid member. You’ll have access to over a dozen novels, comics, and nonfiction books behind the paywall. Plus, you will help support articles like this one. You can start your journey with a 7-day free trial, or give us a one-time tip.
Book - The Unfair Advantage
Probably…
All the world’s a stage - Shakespeare’s ‘As you Like It’.
Wild Geese by Mary Oliver - a video interpretation I liked except the last bit - TMI.
Thanks for inviting me to write here at The Author Stack! Would love to talk more to anyone who’s super interested in expansive craft and joyful growth here! ✨
Wow. This was so good! In Claire's writing, I feel warmth, friendship, hot apple cider with cinnamon and a cozy fireplace. Slow, intentional growth based on genuine connection feels possible and I feel so seen and so home.