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Own Your Substack Distribution

3.5 Min Read

Yesterday I announced a daily writing practice. A few souls showed interest in joining, but I noticed a disturbance in the force that I needed to share.

Many creators are posting with only the intent of consistency. But I also want to apply emphasis on publishing evergreen bodies of work that are worth coming back to and re-distributing often. Not just daily posts rooted in repetition— full-blown resource hubs and conversation threads.

That’s why I created The Org after all.

Before I explain more, come with me on a small tangent.

Things Are Changing Here

Saw this post yesterday and whilst I didn’t want to fully agree with it, there’s no denying that the app is getting noisier and there are gonna be some mixed updates knowing that substack recently got a round of VC funding.

Utilize a Custom Domain

I’m attaching dantoruno.com to my publication and going all in on treating it like my personal website.

I see great long term benefits of this seeing how people like Austin Kleon use Substack. (he has a personal site too, but it just mirrors and points to his Substack where real community conversation is happening)

Utilize your personal substack domain instead of the app links.

❌ https://substack.com/@dantoruno/p-170279159

❌ https://dantoruno.substack.comp/stop-lying-to-yourself

❌ https://open.substack.com/pub/dantoruno/p/stop-lying-to-yourself

☑️ https://dantoruno.com/p/stop-lying-to-yourself

Substack App Has 5 Extra Layers of Noise

If you don’t utilize a custom domain, your substack URLs will force open inside the mobile app experience, which is noisier, and the content is nerfed.

One final great benefit of not notifying your audience via substack is if you make tweaks to your letters. The initial outdated email with the errors won’t be permanently in your audience’s inbox. (In my case the base body of work)

If you’ve ever heard the term “We’ll fix it in post” this is peak that.

I can publish my writing and beautify it later. Add fine details, add greater context to the story. And since this is my personal website I’ll put extra love into it.

That’s the whole point of this after all… To Create Art is it not?

You may not know this, but that “Read In App” Button on Desktop doesn’t do anything. It is just an ad for substacks mobile app. It’s not the end of the world, though most of your readers are reading on mobile anyway but here’s how we take control of the flow.

Leveraging Gumroad Automations

If you don’t already know, Gumroad has a very generous and robust email marketing suite built in their free platform. So not only will you have more power over redistributing your work, now you have a New Sidequest to complete that Lead-Magnet you’ve been putting off via Gumroad.

How Do We Apply This?

• Release your work without hitting the notify button.
  You Want to schedule it out via Gumroad instead.

  • You can use an image or experiment with different hooks to get the email reader to view the full post on your substack domain…

  • Or include the whole post right in Gumroad. I can’t stop you.

• Create Emails with a button CTA that opens on your publication in its website instead of the app

• Set Email Up Flows to Automate Sharing Your Best Work to Anyone That Downloads Your Lead Magnet at an Intentional Interval.

• My Current Idea Is to Have Two Flows

  • First One is for your evergreen promotions. A Flow that recycles your best work on a recurring basis.

    • I’d probably schedule these out for the whole month at the start of every month.

  • Second One is an Intentional User Journey that your reader is put into after downloading your primary lead magnet that shows them your best work in the specific order of context.

    • I don’t have enough of these yet so I’m gonna stick with that first flow to post this newsletter.

Evergreen Post Ideas

With the distinction being made from Reps to Formats & Evergreen Bodies of work. Here are some example resources that you can produce to create redistributable bodies of work that work for you in the long run.

• Reading List — Self-Explanatory

• Your Stack — Fav Tools & Affiliates

• Start Here — Share Your Story/Mission

• Offerings — A Pinned Post w/ All Your Offers

• Mentors List — Defining Your Brand Inspirations

• Content Formats — Define a Recurring Letter Format

Thanks for Reading

Have a great one.