Everything You Need to Know to Start and Grow a Business on Substack
No experience needed.
Starting a business on Substack is one of the most approachable ways to build something meaningful on the internet today. You don’t need a fancy funnel, paid ads, or a huge following to start earning real income from your ideas.
But it still helps to have a shortcut.
Substack Shortcut exists to make building a business on Substack simpler, faster, and more profitable.
Whether you’re just getting started or you’re ready to scale, Substack Shortcut is packed with clear strategies, tested frameworks, and behind-the-scenes insights from someone who’s done it.
I’m Casandra Campbell. I’ve spent years turning ideas into income online and even helped scale Shopify to record growth. During my tenure as Managing Editor of the Shopify Blog, my data-driven approach helped increase email subscribers by 417% and customers acquired through the Shopify Blog by 278%.
Now I’m sharing everything I know about building a sustainable business on Substack.
Playbooks, guides, templates, research and analysis, and one-on-one support to help you start and grow a business on Substack.
Really Good Business Ideas is here to cut through the noise and share straightforward, research-backed, actionable advice you can’t find anywhere else.
Inside the Substack Shortcut section, you’ll find:
Actionable strategies to grow your audience and revenue on Substack.
Real examples and breakdowns from successful Substack creators.
Deep dives into features like Recommendations, Notes, and custom domains.
Templates, checklists, and monetization playbooks for Substack.
Bonus content on staying consistent, avoiding burnout, and building a long-term writing habit.
Unique insights from original Substack research and analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
Table of Contents
Here’s every Substack Shortcut article, organized so you can find what you need quickly.
🎁 Premium Subscribers: Scroll to the end to access bonus resources like Substack datasets packed with insights, and Substack templates and blueprints to help you be more effective and grow faster!
📝 General
My introduction post on why I started Really Good Business and what to expect as a subscriber. Includes a voiceover :)
Details on all the Really Good Business Ideas Premium perks and how to access them.
Share feedback or make suggestions anytime using the digital suggestion box.
Manage your subscription and control what emails you receive here.
💻 Using Substack
How to email a segment of your subscribers and why you should.
Specific Substack segments you should email and how to find them.
How to write the perfect Substack short description for your publication with examples to inspire you.
How to add a table of contents to your posts and why it’s a good idea.
Top Substack tips for new publishers from Substack bestsellers.
How and why to use a custom domain with Substack.
Why “cleaning” your Substack email list might do more harm than good.
Tactics and strategies for brainstorming content ideas your audience will love.
How to add tables to your Substack posts (without screenshots).
How Substack’s pricing works and how you should think about pricing your own publication.
🚀 Substack Growth
How you can double your Substack’s distribution by republishing on Medium.
Why your about page is an important conversion tool and how to write a great one quickly.
Six ways you can increase traffic using already published evergreen content.
How to use your network to launch your Substack with a bang.
A deep dive on Substack Notes.
10 Substack projects that are perfect for taking advantage of the summer slowdown.
How to use Substack’s headline a/b testing effectively, especially if you have a smaller or mid-sized publication.
📈 Substack Strategy & Analysis
Why Substack publications are a great opportunity and why 2024 is the perfect time to start one.
Analysis of which Substack publications charge the most and why they can charge so much.
Analysis of which Substack publications have the most subscribers, and we can learn from them.
Analysis of which Substack publications make the most money and what’s driving their revenue.
A list of specific new Substack publication opportunities.
A detailed comparison of Substack vs Medium and my recommendation for which to use.
How to determine the best publishing schedule for your publication.
Why a platform-wide Substack subscription fee is unlikely.
An analysis of the average paid subscriber conversion rate on Substack.
An analysis of 45 Substack publications likely earning more than $1M in ARR.
An analysis of which Substack categories have the highest revenue potential and how much the top ten publications in each make.
An analysis of the 34 publications with more than 500K subscribers.
🧰 Substack Tools & Resources
A big list of the best tools and resources for Substack publishers.
All the directories you can list your newsletter in for discovery, backlinks, and to find partners and sponsors.
The step-by-step process to create logos in Canva quickly and easily.
How to use Ahrefs for keyword research.
How I use Google Search Console with my Substack publication.
A guide to optimizing your content with Search Console.
A list of publications that pull back the curtain and share expert Substack advice.
A big list of websites that offer free stock photography.
A detailed comparison of which AI image generation tools create the most realistic images.
A cheat sheet with 135 proven hooks that work for any content.
🎁 Premium Resources
Really Good Business Ideas Premium members can access these resources after the paywall at the bottom of this post.
Substack Datasets
8K+ paid Substack publications with category information and subscriber and revenue estimates.
75+ reports of paid subscriber conversions, with total subscribers and paid subscribers details.
Revenue estimates and publication data for the top 10 publications in every substack category.
Details about the 34 most popular Substack publications, each with more than 500K subscribers.
Substack Toolkit: Templates, Frameworks, and More
A model for estimating Substack revenue based on different inputs.
A checklist of everything you need to do before launching your Substack.
A set of testimonial request templates that you can modify as needed.
135 hook templates that can be used in any content.
A prompt swipe file to uncover fresh content ideas by exploring new angles, uncovering insights, so you can get unstuck without letting AI take over your voice.
A 30-day action plan to build your audience using the Friend-of-a-Friend Framework.
🎰 And That’s Not All!
I’m just getting started. Be sure to subscribe to receive access to all new Subsack playbooks, guides, analyses, and research-backed ideas as soon as they are released.
To endless possibilities,
Casandra
PS. If you found this guide helpful, please tap the ❤️ below. It helps me out a lot! And if you know someone who could use help getting started on Substack, please share this article with them. It will help them out a lot :)