How to Start Writing on Substack: The Complete Guide

I want to talk about Substack.

Specifically, I want to teach you how to start writing on Substack.

This platform is making waves in the writing community — and for good reason. You can build your newsletter without dealing with a complicated email marketing service. It’s free, you have full editorial control, and you keep 90% of your income from paying subscribers.

Oh — and the best part? You technically own your audience. If (when) you leave Substack, you can export your audience and upload them to your own email provider like Mailchimp, Klaviyo, etc.

Sounds pretty enticing, right?

And in just a few minutes you’ll be ready to get started building your first Substack newsletter post and following in the footsteps of the early Substack writers making a living on the platform.

First — what is Substack writing, exactly? Here’s an introduction to the platform if you’re unfamiliar.

What is Substack Writing?

Substack is a newsletter platform that lets independent writers publish directly to their audience and get paid through subscriptions. It combines a blog, a newsletter, and a payment system into one place, so you can focus on writing while they take care of the…