How to Introduce Yourself the Right Way and Stand Out on Substack
There are many places to promote yourself, let me help you sort them out
I started my Substack in May last year with no following or experience. Six months later, I’m earning $1,500/month. If you want to start earning from your writing in 2025, let’s do it together.
How to Introduce Yourself on Substack
Substack offers many ways to let people know who you are and what you write about.
Today, I want to share where you can find each of these features, which ones are most important, and how to make the most of them. As always, I recommend using your laptop for setting up Substack, as it’s easier to navigate and the mobile app lacks some features available on the desktop version.
To make things clear, here’s a short Substack dictionary ;):
Publication: Your personal Substack newsletter homepage with your posts, links to products, and anything else you want to include (like your own blog).
Posts: Long-form texts that can be sent out as a newsletter and are usually placed in your publication (think of them as blog posts).
Notes: Short-form texts, similar to tweets, that can be shared. At the moment, Notes are tied to you as a person rather than a publication. This means that even if you have multiple publications, Notes can only be posted from your personal profile, not specific to a particular publication.
Homefeed: A homepage where you can see all Notes, posts, and categories from everyone.
Threads: Comments under a Note, post, or chat.
My last post covers this a bit as well:
How to START on Substack
I started my Substack in May last year with no following or experience. Six months later, I’m earning $1,500/month. If you want to start earning from your writing in 2025, let’s do it together.
1. Your Profile
How to find it: Clicking on your profile picture or circle in the upper-right corner and then clicking your name in the window that pops up will take you to your profile page (e.g., for me: https://substack.com/@claudiafaith).
How to access your profile: Once you’re on your profile, focus on the upper part, which you can edit by clicking on “Edit profile” just underneath it.
Why your profile matters: Your personal profile is important because it’s the first thing people see when they click on your profile or hover over your name in the Substack home feed after seeing a note or comment from you.
What your personal profile should do:
Give people an idea of what you write about.
Explain why you are the RIGHT person to write about your chosen topics.
Build credibility and trust.
It can essentially be a condensed version of the one-liner from your more detailed “About” page.
2. The About Page
Every publication automatically has an “About” page enabled. You can choose whether or not to display it on your page. Here’s how to access it:
Go to your dashboard and navigate to your settings (only accessible via computer, not the mobile app). Scroll down to Website, where the “About” page is the first option listed. Here, you can edit it.
If you want to disable it, scroll to Navigation bar links, still under the Website section. Click the eye icon next to the “About” page to enable or disable its visibility on your publication.
Why the About page matters: The About page is your opportunity to share more about yourself and your story. It’s a great way to let readers get to know you better. However, don’t make it too long, overly detailed, or too specific. Most people skim it, and not many will visit it regularly.
Your one-liner is more important: Your profile one-liner will be seen FAR more often, so make sure it’s concise and impactful.
Pro tip: Some writers draft their About page first to help themselves refine their profile one-liner.
3. Your Publication Short Description.
In your settings, under the Basics section, you can write a short description of your publication.
Why this matters: The publication description is visible when people hover over your name in the homepage feed.
Tips for a strong description:
Clearly state what your newsletter is about.
Focus on the VALUE you’re providing to your readers.
Make it about the newsletter, not about you.
Let readers know exactly what they can expect when they subscribe.
Make it clear and concise: Your description should be easy to read and understandable in seconds. Ideally, your personal background should also align with your newsletter’s topic, creating a seamless match between your personal profile and your publication description.
Voila! These three sections are great ways to introduce yourself on Substack and help people discover your amazing writing.
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There is a ton of information here! I have saved this post so I can come back to it when I can really dig into all of it.
Just what I needed to know. Very clear, very helpful. Thank you so much, Claudia.