You clicked “New” on Substack and found yourself staring at options that don’t explain themselves.

Post.
Note.
Chat.
Live?

Some send emails, some don’t. Some show up in your feed. And some disappear forever unless you know where to look. Most people hit this point, exhale, and quietly close their laptop, muttering something about “maybe this was a dumb idea.”

We'll, it wasn’t. You got this.

And this post is for you. Bookmark it and come on back after your walk, breathing exercises, or coffee refill. When you’re ready to make sense of this drudgery, keep reading.

Remember: the goal isn’t to become a platform expert… it’s just to hit publish.

That’s so doable. We’ll walk through each of your options for new post formats, what they do, and when to use them.

Notes

Substack’s short-form feed.

Notes show up in the Substack feed, much like how “posting” works on other social media platforms. Your Notes feed can be viewed from the app and on the web.

Since Notes don’t get sent via email, your subscribers won’t get notified. They might not even have a Substack account. So, they probably won’t see the Notes you’ve posted. And people can follow you without subscribing to your newsletter. Which means Notes can reach a wider audience, especially if you’re an active Substack user.

Notes are most commonly useful for:

• Quick ideas

• Very short stories

• Quotes from Posts

• Observations

• Updates

• Links

If you’re looking for the Substack publishing format with the most visibility, Notes are the best tool on the platform. They’re not meant to be as polished as a newsletter. In fact, they usually get better engagement when they’re not.

You’ll also want to know that the algorithms favor those who post frequently, and whose accounts interact with other accounts regularly. It’s like building a spider web—you have to draw lines of connection between your profile and others on the platform. Think likes, comments, replies etc… you have to give engagement to get engagement.

Posts

This is your newsletter.

If you’re sending something via email and want it to live on your Substack site, this is the format you’re using. Most likely, that’s a “Text Post.” You’ll write your post, set the title and subtitle, and decide whether it goes out to all subscribers, just paid subscribers, or published but not delivered.

Posts are the meat of a Substack publication. When you hit “publish,” Posts will be delivered via email, unless you deselect the option for email delivery.

It’s important to know that Posts you publish on Substack are intended to fall within editorial content, not marketing content. You agreed to this in the terms and conditions of creating your account.

Substack can suspend your publication for violating these terms.

Posts usually consist of long-form content like:

• Essays

• Announcements

• How-to’s and guides

• Artistic commentary

And really anything you want, that someone has consensually agreed to receive from you.

Post formats vary between the following:

1. Text Posts

2. Video Posts

3. Audio Posts

Chat Threads

This is a group chat with your subscribers.

They happen inside the app. But they’re not the same as direct messages. Confusing, I know.

As the author of a publication, you can start a conversational “Chat Thread.” Your subscribers can reply. It feels a little like a group text, but with threaded replies. New Chat Threads will always appear within the same “message window,” unique to your publication.

You’re also able to update visibility settings for new threads, between free and paid subscribers.

You might use a Chat for:

• Updates about your publication

• Ongoing group discussion

• Quick prompts or polls

• Event reminders

You don’t have to use Chats. Plenty of creators don’t. If you’re interested in building a community, or already have one, this is a way to deepen connection.

If this feels like a ton of work or something you’re not excited about, it’s ok to steer clear.

So… which ones should you actually use?

That depends on what you’re building and on how far along your setup is.

Most people don’t get stuck because they don’t know what to create… they get stuck because they don’t know which method of communication to pick for the content they want to create.

Remember: the goal wasn’t to become a platform expert… it was just to hit publish.

And you’re ready.

Want to simplify your settings before your next post?

Your work deserves to be seen without tech getting in the way.

Let’s make sure your setup isn’t slowing you down. The 5 Ps Setup Checklist gives you the system I wish I’d had.

→ Download your checklist ←

onward.

-Derek

P.S. If you want hands-on help getting set up, join the next Substack, Simplified cohort.

Note: this publication, the concepts described, and any resources shared here are not affiliated with Substack.

The first time you start setting up your Substack, it’s easy to skip through the settings.

You signed up to write.

And yet, you’re 30 clicks deep in more than one menu you didn’t know existed until 5 minutes ago. You’re not alone in that. But if people are going to read what you write, they need to be able to find it. Which means you have to make it easy for them to do.

A lot of writers never revisit the backend of their Substack site after they hit publish—as long as nothing breaks. So, for most, it isn’t the newsletter writing that feels hard… it’s making sure it sent properly and is where it’s supposed to be.

Signing up for Substack is easy.

Setting up a functional publication on Substack is harder.

Not just the cosmetic stuff, either. There are three places you’ll want to pay close attention to. Because they shape how people will discover your work. And when you’re not second-guessing what your posts will look like in an inbox compared to the desktop or the app, writing feels easier.

A few small tweaks will help your publication go from “I’m new here” to “Hey look, you made it!”

These are the settings that actually matter.

3 Key Substack Settings To Double Check:

1. Your Profile

2. Your Publication

3. Your Posts

1. Your Profile

• Your ‘@’ username.

• Your pen name.

• Your bio.

Your handle, name, and short bio live here. Which are different than your private account details and preferences for logging into Substack.

This is what the public sees when they click your name on a post or find you through the app.

These details don’t need to be clever. Actually, clear is better. Your name should show up the way you want it to be viewed by others. This space is less about taglines and more about accuracy. So, your handle should be something people remember when they try to find you again. Using your name usually makes that easier.

2. Your Publication

• Write a short description.

• The text on your “welcome page.”

• Your subscriber confirmation email.

This is your homepage, not your profile.

You can add a description of what you’re writing, and customize the text new readers will see when prompted to subscribe on your welcome page.

Nothing here needs to be perfect.

You can always come back and make changes. But if someone lands on your Substack and sees placeholder text, they’re more likely to click away. Making a few small edits helps people feel curious about what you create, rather than if your account is even active. That’s also why updating your new subscriber “welcome email” is a good idea. It’s automatically sent to them after signing up.

You’ll want to double check that your profile is set as the owner of your publication(s), too. It’s easy to miss, but you can find it in your account settings (not profile settings).

3. Your Posts

• Update your email display name

• Set your email header & footer

• Understand post link “preview”

Each post you publish includes a few behind-the-scenes details. You’ll want to be aware of how your emails look when they show up in someone’s inbox. Things like your email display name, your headers and footers, and your post preview appearance.

This all lives in your publication’s dashboard settings.

Your sender name is easy to customize.

So is your email header and footer.

These small changes only take a few seconds, but they make a big impact. This way, when someone opens your post, it’ll sound like it’s coming from you… not a random brand they forgot they subscribed to.

Oh, and keep in mind: your post title is also the subject line of the email sent to subscribers. And the subtitle is the preview text they can see before deciding to open it or not.

You don’t need to figure all of this out at once.

Once this stuff is set up, you’re free to think about what to write instead of “is this right??” The 5 Ps Setup Checklist can help you keep track as you go.

You can also start by reading How To Set Up Your Substack Account Without Getting Stuck, which walks through the stuff to prioritize and things you can ignore for now.

Trying to take on the settings menu by yourself is exhausting. And pressing publish feels a lot easier once this stuff is set up and taken care of. Save yourself the time and the headache.

→ Download Your Checklist ←

onward.

-Derek

P.S. If you want hands-on help getting set up, join the next Substack, Simplified cohort.

Note: this publication, the concepts described, and any resources shared here are not affiliated with Substack.

No one tells you that joining Substack means building your own website.

You signed up so you could write. And then sipping your coffee turned into troubleshooting. With a dashboard that you’re pretty sure you’re supposed to magically understand. Now your morning writing time dragged you into a menu you couldn’t find again if a book deal depended on it.

Well, you’re not the only one.

And you’re in the right place.

This post isn’t about what to say, but it’ll help you get back to writing without troubleshooting.

Finding your footing on Substack without second-guessing every setting is totally doable. I’ll walk you through the setup process using the 5 Ps Framework, which I use to help people make sense of convoluted systems.

For example, you might not realize your account, user profile, and your publication are three different things. Or that changing your publication name doesn’t automatically update your publication’s URL.

We’ll make a few small changes that’ll give your Substack a bit of structure and stability, so publishing feels like mission accomplished, not mission impossible.

The 5 P’s of Substack Setup

1. Platform

2. Profile

3. Publication

4. Posts

5. Performance

1. Platform

This is where your end up if you go to substack dot com. It’s also where you get to your account preferences, notifications, and home feed.

It’s a part of Substack settings that most people overlook, but interact with every day. The pieces to pay attention to are hidden in plain sight.

• Get familiar with the tabs inside the main dashboard

• Adjust what types of emails you want to receive

• Decide what you want to show up publicly

This isn’t where you’ll hit publish, but when something feels off, it’s where you can go to “reset the circuit breaker” so to speak. It’s worth 2 minutes of poking around now to avoid frustration later. Trust me.

2. Profile

This is what readers see when they click on your name.

It’s separate from your account.

And from your publication.

You’ll want to update these key details.

• Your handle (‘@’ username)

• Your name

• Short bio

Keep it simple. Use the name people know you by. This is less about branding and more about making it easy for someone to recognize you. And follow your work.

You can always make changes later, but “some is better than none” goes a long way here. This is what helps the stuff you create feel like it came from a person, not an abandoned account. Or worse, an over-engineered, big, shiny brand.

These tiny details are the difference between staying lost and getting found.

3. Publication

This is your actual newsletter homepage... the place where what you create gets displayed.

Don’t skip steps here.

The biggest mistake people make is not swapping out the placeholder text in stuff like subscriber confirmation emails. As a result, it can look like your publication isn’t active. You also risk looking overly novice, even if you’re publishing regularly.

The placeholder text sounds exactly like… placeholder text.

So, you’ll want to update:

• Your publication’s name.

• Your publication’s short description.

• Your automatic email sent to new subscribers.

• Your welcome page where readers can subscribe.

You don’t need to come up with the perfect words you think will sound professional. Just let readers know they’re in the right place.

Also: double check that your user profile is connected to your publication as its owner. And that your publication is set to “public” visibility, if you want it to be. It’s a small detail, but it’ll help avoid confusion.

4. Posts

This is where you’ll personalize the small stuff that shapes how your work shows up when you hit “publish.”

First, make sure the sender name that appears in your subscriber’s inbox is what you want them to see.

Then, do the same for the header and footer that get added to your emailed posts. These show up in readers’ inboxes, but not in the version of the post that appears on your website.

This all lives in your publication settings, not inside the post editor.

The stuff that you will find in the post editor include the title, subtitle, and display preview. Triple check them before sending a post, because Substack uses your title as the subject line of the email version and your subtitle for the preview text.

This stuff is the difference in whether someone clicks to read or scrolls past.

You work incredibly hard on what you create, take the few extra steps to make sure it sounds like it actually came from you. Or no one will see it.

5. Performance

Substack makes it easy to see some stats right from the Posts page. There’s also a separate, Stats page to go a bit deeper.

When getting started, you’re more than covered if you just focus on:

• How many people opened the email delivery of your post

• How many people, in total, viewed what you posted.

• How people found your post and from where.

You don’t need to be a data analyst or marketing guru.

Skimming your post metrics and subscriber activity periodically is plenty. Checking on this gives you a clearer picture of what’s resonating with readers, and what might be worth a closer look.

These are ways to see what’s working without driving yourself nuts.

Next step: Make things easier for yourself.

You don’t have to remember all of this.

The 5 Ps Setup Checklist will help you track what you’ve done and what’s left. You can move through it at your own pace, and come back to it whenever you need a reset.

Once these three areas are all set, you can return to your coffee and quiet. And your digital writing gallery should feel a bit more like you.

→ Download Your Checklist ←

onward.

-Derek

P.S. If you want hands-on help getting set up, join the next Substack, Simplified cohort.

Note: this publication, the concepts described, and any resources shared here are not affiliated with Substack.

You joined Substack! You’re ready to create—

But then you got stuck trying to make sense of your publishing settings.

Which is a pretty big bummer.

You’re meeting lovely people. You start forming great connections. Only later do you discover, they’re confused, too! They were just too embarrassed to talk about it. Kinda like you…

No one tells you that joining Substack means building your own website.

But that’s exactly what it is—whether you’re ready for it or not.

Let’s play this out for a minute—

You heard about this new social media platform thing. Maybe a friend told you about it. Or someone sent you an article from one of the many talented Substack writers out there. So you signed up to take a look.

“Just what is all this hype about??” you think to yourself.

Luckily, it’s very easy to make an account. And that’s what gets you excited. But just as quickly, you got stuck... Because setting up your Substack site is not like creating a Facebook page, Instagram account, or LinkedIn profile...

On Substack, you suddenly become:

• a performance marketer.

• a UX design strategist.

• a website admin.

That's... well c’mon, that's a lot! And then you still have to write the stuff you came here to publish.

Welcome to Substack, Simplified!

No, this isn’t another writing course.

If you’re here, you probably want to create. And getting things set up is just not as easy as you’d thought. Well, you’re certainly not alone.

We’ve all spent hours clicking through menus, settings, and tabs. Some of us published something, and couldn’t figure out where it went—talk about frustrating. You might even be one hidden setting away from calling it quits…

But maybe you don’t have to do that just yet.

Because you’re in the right place.

This space is for writers who want to hit publish without worrying about their settings.

And there are a few things you can do to get started.

Read for free.

No catch. No hacks.

Download the 5 Ps checklist (free).

Here’s your map. It’ll walk you through the five key areas of setting up your Substack.

→ Get your free checklist

Join the Substack Simplified Cohort (totally optional).

If you want help walking through setup with your 5 Ps map, I run a live program that gets your Substack up and running in under 30 days.

What it looks like:

• Week 1: Substack Profile, and Publication Setup.

• Week 2: Your "Welcome" Sequence & Post Settings.

• Week 3: Building Your Newsletter Format & Workflow.

• Week 4: Mastering Your Substack Stats.

→ Learn more about the cohort

About me

I’m Derek, a former wilderness guide turned systems consultant. For the past 15 years, I’ve helped hundreds of marketers, writers, executives, and industry leaders figure out the messy tech side of email software so they can create and publish without worrying about their settings.

I don’t teach writing.

I help simplify your tech setup.

So you can focus on what you’re actually here for.

Questions?

This space is designed to be simple, clear, and useful. Want to know more? Reply to a post, or reach out directly.

Glad you’re here.

onward.

-Derek

P.S. If you’re into systems thinking and doing meaningful work without burning out, check out my main publication, .

It’s a great next step once you’re set up here.

Note: this publication, the concepts described, and any resources shared here are not affiliated with Substack.

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