10 Substack Summer Projects to Take Advantage of the Slow Period ☀️
Turn the quiet season into a growth engine with these behind-the-scenes upgrades.
Summer is slow on purpose.
Your readers are offline. Your open rates dip. And frankly, you deserve a breather, too. But that doesn’t mean your Substack has to stall. In fact, the summer season is the perfect time to work on your publication instead of just in it.
While everyone else is coasting, you can quietly set the stage for your best growth yet.
Here are 10 smart summer projects that will pay off when things pick back up again.
1. Grow Your Network 👋
Summer is quieter on Substack, which means your engagement stands out more. With fewer people posting and commenting, this is a great opportunity to grow your network. Thoughtful replies, kind DMs, and simple “love your work” notes go further right now than they will during the busy fall rush.
These small connections often lead to collaborations, shoutouts, cross-promotions, or just having a few more friendly faces in your corner.
Try this:
Comment on 3 Substack Notes or posts per day from writers in your niche.
Share 1 post you read every week with a personal note about why it resonated.
Send 1 “just saying hey” email or DM each week.
These relationships compound; today’s casual connection could be tomorrow’s biggest growth driver.
2. Fix Your Business Bottleneck 🧱
Every business is built on three core pillars: audience, offer, and distribution. If one is weak, it holds everything else back. Summer is the perfect time to zoom out, figure out where you’re stuck, and work on the one thing that will unlock growth across the board.
Start by identifying which business building block needs the most attention. Is your offer clear? Is your distribution consistent? How well do you understand your audience?
Try this:
Take my Business Bottleneck Quiz to find your weakest link.
Get your free, personalized 4-week action plan by email.
Work through the action plan to fix your bottleneck.
This kind of behind-the-scenes work might not feel urgent, but it’s the stuff that turns a shaky newsletter into a real business. And summer is the perfect time to do it.
3. Do a Traffic Audit 📊
Where are your readers actually coming from, and where are they dropping off? A quick traffic audit can reveal surprising insights about what’s working and what’s not. This is the kind of high-leverage task most creators skip during busy seasons, but summer gives you space to dig in.
Look at your top-performing posts, referral sources, and conversion points. What can you double down on? What’s no longer worth the effort?
Try this:
Check your Substack stats or Google Analytics account for top traffic sources.
Make a list of your most visited posts and top-performing channels.
Develop a plan to scale your best-performing channels and strategies based on what you learn.
Small insights can lead to big shifts in how you grow. This kind of analysis sets you up to be intentional, not just busy, in the fall.
4. Do a Content Refresh ♻️
You don’t always need to create something new to get more attention. Sometimes, the smartest move is updating what you already have. Search engines (and AI tools that surface content) reward freshness, so refreshing your best posts can give them new life and visibility with very little effort.
Look for content that performed well but could use updated stats, a stronger headline, better formatting, or a clearer CTA. Even small tweaks can improve engagement and discoverability.
Try this:
Use Google Search Console or Google Analytics to Identify posts that used to bring in search traffic but have dropped off.
Optimize your content with updated information, improved visuals, a fresh hook, and a cleaned-up structure to make it feel fresh and relevant again.
Build new internal links to and from refreshed posts to boost visibility and keep readers engaged.
This kind of cleanup feels small, but it’s very high leverage, especially for SEO and AI-powered discovery tools that prioritize recent, relevant content.
5. Create a Digital Product 💾
Summer is the ideal time to package what you know. If you’ve been publishing consistently, you already have the raw material for a great digital product—whether it’s a PDF guide, mini-course, email series, or template pack.
You don’t need to build something huge. Start small: a paid resource that solves one specific problem for your readers can be enough to unlock new revenue and deepen your authority.
Try this:
Audit your past posts to see what topics resonate most with your audience.
Turn it into a digital product with exclusive strategies and actionable takeaways your free content only hints at.
Sell it on Gumroad or use it as paid subscriber perk on Substack.
The goal isn’t perfection, it’s momentum. A lightweight product created this summer can become a steady income stream all year.
6. Update Your Evergreen Assets 🧹
Your welcome emails, About page, and pinned posts are often the first things new readers see, but they’re easy to forget about once they’re set up. Summer is the perfect time to revisit these assets and make sure they still reflect who you are, what you offer, and why readers should stick around.
Even small updates can improve conversion, clarity, and trust.
Try this:
Re-read your welcome email: does it feel warm, clear, and current?
Update your About page or pinned posts to reflect your latest focus.
Add links to best-of content so new readers have somewhere to go next.
These evergreen assets work for you 24/7. Make sure they’re pulling their weight.
7. Learn a New Skill 🧠
Summer is the perfect time to expand your toolkit without the pressure of immediate implementation. Whether it's brushing up on design, exploring AI tools, improving your writing flow, or finally figuring out how search engine optimization works, this is your season to experiment.
Choose one skill that feels exciting and useful to your Substack long-term. Don’t overthink it. A single new skill can level up your workflow, make your posts pop, or help you stand out from the crowd.
Try this:
Pick one new skill you want to develop this summer.
Follow one new creator who teaches the skill you want to learn.
Dedicate 30 minutes a week to learning and practicing, without worrying about perfection.
Small upgrades now can lead to big leaps later, especially when things pick up in the fall.
8. Do a Financial Deep Clean 🧼
Summer’s a great time to catch up on the unsexy but essential stuff like organizing your books, cleaning up your transactions, and making sure you’re ready for tax season before it sneaks up on you.
If you’ve been putting off setting up a simple system, now’s the time. Good bookkeeping isn’t just for accountants; it helps you make smarter decisions, stay stress-free, and treat your Substack like the business it is.
Try this:
Categorize and tag your past expenses (even if it’s just in a spreadsheet).
Reconcile payouts from Stripe.
Set up a basic bookkeeping system (I use Puzzle).
Tidy books = peace of mind. And your future self will definitely thank you at tax time.
9. Experiment With a New Format 🎙️
Summer is the perfect time to try something fun, low-stakes, and different. Maybe it’s a short podcast episode, a casual video, or even a vibe-coded tool: a playful, useful resource that feels more like a gift than a product.
These creative experiments can refresh your energy and give your audience a new way to engage with your work.
Try this:
Record a short podcast or video version of a post your readers loved.
Create a vibe-coded tool: a quiz, calculator, or interactive checklist that solves a reader problem.
Treat summer like a creative lab: experiment with formats, observe results, and note what you’d bring into the fall.
You don’t need to commit forever. Just test what feels fun, and pay attention to what resonates.
10. Take Time Off 🏖️
Rest is productive. Your creativity needs space to breathe, and your best ideas often show up when you're not staring at a screen. If things feel slow right now, it’s not necessarily a sign that you should push harder. It might be a signal to press pause.
Stepping back doesn’t mean you’re falling behind. Paid time off exists for a reason and you’re allowed to take it even as a creator. Let your audience know what to expect, queue up what you can, and then give yourself permission to truly rest.
Try this:
Let your subscribers know you’re taking some time off (they’ll get it).
If you want, set up a scheduled post before you log off.
Keep a low-stakes idea journal while you’re away.
You’ll come back with more energy, sharper ideas, and maybe even a new perspective on what you want to write next.
Bonus: Do a Mid-Year Check-In 📆
Summer is a natural midpoint and the perfect time to pause, reflect, and re-align before the busier fall season kicks in. A quick check-in can help you spot what’s working, what’s not, and where to focus your energy next.
You don’t need a fancy dashboard. Just carve out time to zoom out, reconnect with your goals, and make a plan for what you actually want the second half of the year to look like.
Try this:
Revisit your goals from January. Are they still the right goals?
Update your goals for H2 and figure out what the path looks like for you to achieve them.
Identify what to let go of so you have space for what matters most.
Use this quiet time to reset your direction. There’s still plenty of time to make real progress and end the year strong.
Less Hustle, More Leverage ⚖️
The summer slowdown doesn’t have to mean standing still. Whether you use this time to refresh your content, test a new format, organize your finances, or simply rest, every small move adds up. These projects aren’t just about staying productive; they’re about laying the groundwork for long-term growth.
You don’t need to tackle all 11. Just pick one or two that feel energizing. It’s not too late to make this your most focused, creative, and profitable season yet (if you want to).
Need help turning these ideas into action?
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To endless possibilities,
Casandra
Love these great ideas! Thanks for sharing :)
Loved this!!!