Stacky Speaks: Substack Secrets Revealed

Believe me, everything's better with blurbs

Credit: ‘Stacky’ is a rubber stamp character developed by

Kent Peterson

, who generously gave my idea for this feature his ‘stamp’ of approval.

Welcome to my new feature - a series of shorts about how to use Substack. **STOP** I know what you’re thinking. Heavy sigh + eye roll = ‘Not another post about how to use Substack. I already know how to use Substack. Write something interesting why don’tcha.’ Hear me out.

Just to prove a point, I stalked 20 authors to whom I subscribe, a small portion of the 500, and NOT ONE of them was using blurbs. Blurbs are the 1-2 sentences a recommender writes about your substack when they recommend you. Hardly anyone does this. While your profile sentences show on the recommender’s website (if they have the feature turned on), you yourself can display their blurbs on your Welcome page. They look like testimonials. Cool, right? If you can keep your game paused for ~150 more seconds, I can show you how it’s done AND you can optimize your growth through recommendations, WITH blurbs.

Did you know that hitting the ❤️ icon above or below, and sharing this post makes it easier for people to find this newsletter? It also shows your appreciation for my work.

Kristina God

shared some of the deets from Substack’s spring announcement of the new recommendation engine:

As Substack reported in their official announcement:

“Early data show that this approach to Recommendations increases both the number of subscriptions that Substacks enjoy and the number of followers that individuals get, helping them amass large audiences that serve as a base for ultimately finding new paid subscribers.”

In Kristina’s case, she grew 53% faster with recommendations.

Two simple steps will get the ball rolling for you.

1. Ask for recommendations

2. Ask for those who already recommend you to include a blurb in their recommendation

Here’s how to write a blurb for someone, because giving is the perfect path to also receiving.

Go to your substack site - not your newsletter, but you.

Choose Dashboard, Recommendations, Manage (gray text next to ‘invite a writer to substack’). This is where you can add recommendations and, using the three dots, write a blurb about the author. Here is a sampling from the list of 22 writers I currently recommend, including the first however many words of their blurb that show on the screen. Without the blurb, what would show is however many words it allows of their profile description.

And, drumroll please, here’s the real magic. I’m assuming everyone reads me LOL, so all y’all will see this post and see the blurbs I’ve written about you. I’ve displayed the blurbs others have written about me on my Welcome page. So far I have 2 blurbs. One I asked the recommender to write, after sharing the blurb I wrote about her substack with her, and the other one was written by a new Bren’s Buzz subscriber unsolicited (thank you

Good Humor by CK Steefel

and

Charles Huckabee

). And, it’s a mutual love fest because a link to each of their sites is included with the blurbs that Substack shows on my page. To turn this on go back to Recommendations, Manage, and scroll down to Settings, Recommendations on Welcome Page, Manage.

Let me be clear. 22 substacks recommend me, from which I have garnered 10 subscribers. However, I recommend 16 substacks, with blurbs, and between them they’ve gotten 100 subscribers. I’m almost certain that possibly maybe blurbs are HIGHLY EFFECTIVE! Get to work people. Go write some blurbs, then ask your writing pals to write some for you. Now get outta my office and have fun storming the castle!