Just want to say that I think you're doing a good job at turning this into a service that's more than just 'paying to see some dude's blog posts' and I think if you keep fostering a community w/ stuff like the book club it will be good for keeping subscriptions locked in and/or moving this project somewhere else if substack collapses or whatever.
I gathered after a few months that this would be a Substack without a lot of pay content but stuck around as a subscriber anyway to "support the project." Did not realize comments were subscriber only, and that is almost worth it alone. This is a very high quality comments section. Almost a throwback to the earlier days of the internet.
I don't fully understand the "I get too many emails from Freddie" thing but I also forget that I rules and filters setup in my email boxes. So, as a PSA, if you're annoyed Freddie (or anyone) is clogging up your inbox, simply:
In Gmail, create a filter that any email from (whatever account these come from) Skips Inbox and goes to folder named "Freddie deBoer" or "Substacks." You can do the same in Outlook merely by clicking "Rules" on the navigation ribbon while you have the email open. Then your Substack emails will not end up in your inbox but will sit in a folder for you to access at your leisure.
If you really want to get weird and wild, in Gmail do the same thing but for any email that has the word "unsubscribe" in the body. You've essentially created something between your Inbox and your Spam folder. It will occasionally grab something that's not automated, but for the most part will save your inbox down to only things you want to see.
Agreed, this comments section is fantastic. I'm an extremely infrequent commenter, but feeling the burning impulse to leave a short and insignificant comment on a single post is what finally drove me to subscribe (which, as with so many other things, I'd been "intending to do" for months).
Anyway, reading the comments here is always great, which I guess shouldn't surprise me -- thoughtful writing should ideally attract a thoughtful readership -- but it does. This is the internet, after all.
I'm finding I *do* want to get weird and wild with my Gmail, so thanks for the helpful tutorial!
Very thoughtful of you to provide this guide. I like the lots of content, but still useful to learn about the substack options, even if I'm not using them right now.
I'm mostly paying for the commenting privileges. This Substack's got a great commenting community, and it's nice to poke my head in and be a part of that when I have something worth saying.
> just my subscriber-only content outpaces that of many other newsletters in word count.
It's true. We are spoiled rotten with the amount of content per dollar.
Lately, every blue check has a Substack, but a lot of writers weren’t prepared for the time commitment and it shows. They're asking $10 per month for a fraction of the content you get from those doing this full-time. I’ll be curious to see which ones are still around next year.
Thank you for giving us the option to subscribe to book club emails! I appreciate it.
How did you separate the different kinds of content you produce into separate subscriptions on your end? Is there an option for this somewhere on the Substack dashboard that I'm missing?
If you go to the settings menu there's a search bar and you can put "sections" in. You can add new sections there and decide if they're opt-in or opt-out
Just want to say that I think you're doing a good job at turning this into a service that's more than just 'paying to see some dude's blog posts' and I think if you keep fostering a community w/ stuff like the book club it will be good for keeping subscriptions locked in and/or moving this project somewhere else if substack collapses or whatever.
I gathered after a few months that this would be a Substack without a lot of pay content but stuck around as a subscriber anyway to "support the project." Did not realize comments were subscriber only, and that is almost worth it alone. This is a very high quality comments section. Almost a throwback to the earlier days of the internet.
I don't fully understand the "I get too many emails from Freddie" thing but I also forget that I rules and filters setup in my email boxes. So, as a PSA, if you're annoyed Freddie (or anyone) is clogging up your inbox, simply:
In Gmail, create a filter that any email from (whatever account these come from) Skips Inbox and goes to folder named "Freddie deBoer" or "Substacks." You can do the same in Outlook merely by clicking "Rules" on the navigation ribbon while you have the email open. Then your Substack emails will not end up in your inbox but will sit in a folder for you to access at your leisure.
If you really want to get weird and wild, in Gmail do the same thing but for any email that has the word "unsubscribe" in the body. You've essentially created something between your Inbox and your Spam folder. It will occasionally grab something that's not automated, but for the most part will save your inbox down to only things you want to see.
Agreed, this comments section is fantastic. I'm an extremely infrequent commenter, but feeling the burning impulse to leave a short and insignificant comment on a single post is what finally drove me to subscribe (which, as with so many other things, I'd been "intending to do" for months).
Anyway, reading the comments here is always great, which I guess shouldn't surprise me -- thoughtful writing should ideally attract a thoughtful readership -- but it does. This is the internet, after all.
I'm finding I *do* want to get weird and wild with my Gmail, so thanks for the helpful tutorial!
Very thoughtful of you to provide this guide. I like the lots of content, but still useful to learn about the substack options, even if I'm not using them right now.
I'm mostly paying for the commenting privileges. This Substack's got a great commenting community, and it's nice to poke my head in and be a part of that when I have something worth saying.
> just my subscriber-only content outpaces that of many other newsletters in word count.
It's true. We are spoiled rotten with the amount of content per dollar.
Lately, every blue check has a Substack, but a lot of writers weren’t prepared for the time commitment and it shows. They're asking $10 per month for a fraction of the content you get from those doing this full-time. I’ll be curious to see which ones are still around next year.
Thank you for giving us the option to subscribe to book club emails! I appreciate it.
How did you separate the different kinds of content you produce into separate subscriptions on your end? Is there an option for this somewhere on the Substack dashboard that I'm missing?
If you go to the settings menu there's a search bar and you can put "sections" in. You can add new sections there and decide if they're opt-in or opt-out
Dang, I haven’t thought about Danger 5 in a minute. That series was dope.