If I Moved My Entire Business to Substack, Here’s Exactly How I’d Do It

A simple, scalable plan to build a full-time business as a writer

Substack is not just a publishing platform. It’s a whole business ecosystem.

It’s where you can publish content, get discovered, grow organically (for free) engage with others and form connections, collaborate, have a free and paid newsletter, monetize in many other ways, build your brand, and go live.

I can’t compare it to anything else right now, it’s a unicorn in the creator economy. And I don’t know how long it will stay this way, and whether it will always be this accessible (and free!), but I know that now is a good time to get on board and start that publication if you haven’t already.

That’s what I did this year, and in this second publication you’re reading right now - The $1K Newsletter - I’m documenting my Substack growth journey and talking about what works and what doesn’t on the platform as I learn more about it and experiment.

What really excited me recently is the realization that Substack itself can be where your whole business lives, and my mind quickly started coming up with ideas on how to do that.

Now, please don’t take any drastic measures, I’m not either. Your own blog and email list are still massive assets, and it’s a platform and audience you own. Substack is still rented land. And yet, a lot can be done if you leverage it.

So, if I was to move my whole business here, here’s how that would look like.

Step 1: Leave social media.

Social media channels like Instagram and TikTok aren’t working for most writers and we don’t really enjoy spending time on them anyways.

So what if you just stop using them? Instead, you use Substack for connecting with others.

I actually sort of did that. Since I’ve been really active on here and seeing some progress, I have zero motivation to post on IG and TikTok.

I hear many other writers feel the same.

Now, if you were getting some real traction elsewhere, and can use that channel to get traffic to your Substack publication, great. Keep doing it.

But it you were just posting without a real strategy and getting no real results on other visibility channels, you aren’t really losing anything by leaving them behind.

That would lead to more time and mental space to invest in Substack instead of switching between apps and trying to please different algorithms.

One channel I keep posting on is LinkedIn, but that’s because I republish my Notes and share my Substack posts there. So it doesn’t cost me any extra energy.

Step 2: Post long-form content mostly on Substack.

The next step of this project would be to post long-form content on other platforms less, and instead publish it on Substack so it can get the attention it deserves.

In my case, that means not writing many articles for my main blog, Let’s Reach Success, simply because on here, they can get way more traction.

It’s about choosing the Substack algorithm over that of Google.

For that, I’d have a publishing schedule and stick to it.

I currently have 2 publications and am creating content for them often.

Step 3: Replace my email list with my Substack newsletter.

Next, I’d import my email subscribers (from Flodesk - my email marketing tool) to Substack, and stop using my email list (+ save a few hundred dollars a year by cancelling the tool).

That’s extreme, so please don’t just do it. I’ve been building that list for many years and cherish my relationships with the people on it.

I’m just exploring the idea here, and showing you that Substack can be a standalone business.

Step 4: Build a sales funnel.

Next comes the sales funnel.

So far, it might have looked like this outside of Substack:

• People find your blog posts through search engines, Pinterest or another channel;

• They like what they see and sign up for your newsletter to grab a freebie;

• Then they are enrolled in an automated welcome email sequence, where you introduce yourself, provide some more value, and make them an offer (a paid product or service);

• From then on, you keep sending them the weekly newsletter and launch a new product every now and then, run campaigns on existing ones, or affiliate campaigns.

Moving all this to Substack could look like this:

• You start a publication;

• You turn on paid subscriptions at some point and post exclusive content.

• You show up here daily, engage, post Notes, collab with others and grow organically every month;

• This is also a newsletter that’s running without you having to do anything else other than publish new articles.

• Selling your products can happen in the usual ways (mention them inside articles/newsletters, share discounts, launch new products, etc.)

Step 5: Diversify.

Now you offer paid subscriptions and sell digital products on Substack.

You can also do affiliate marketing and work with brands on sponsored content.

Step 6: More content formats

If you have a podcast, you might as well move it here too.

If you were posting videos on YouTube, keep doing that as it’s a great place to grow an audience, but also publish them here.

The result: You run your business from one place.

Basically, Substack becomes the place where you publish and distribute content, connect with people, grow your audience, build your brand, establish your expertise, sell your products or services, and monetize in other ways (paid subs, brand deals, affiliate marketing, etc.)

It’s all in one place.

What do you think? Would you do that?

PS, Again, even if you go for all this, I’d suggest you don’t delete your email list or cancel your email marketing tool or web hosting (if you own a website). Still, Substack is rented land, your actual email list is truly yours.