Newbie News
Herrrrrre newbie, newbie. Finally, the community where knowing nothing means you're the star of the show.
Mayday, Mayday
Help, I’m New!
Anyone out there who is new to Substack and feeling a bit lost?
Writing your heart out and barely anyone is reading it let alone engaging with likes or comments so that you know you aren’t speaking into a void?
Reading every ‘how-to-Substack’ article you can get your hands on but coming away feeling overwhelmed or hopeless as to how you will ever do all this?
Have you tried posting your questions in Notes and got nothin’ but a bunch crickets?
Yep, same.
If any of this resonates, you are in the right place. ❤️
Since I’ve been wishing I had a cozy little corner where the Newbies could hang out, and I couldn’t find what I was looking for, figured I’d create one!
This is intended to be a place where we can share what we have learned so far, ask questions, and encourage one another!
A place where we can create some community, share our new posts with one another and share our jitters after we hit that big ol’ PUBLISH button!
The Mission
Our Motto: No Substacker Left Behind!
Our Mission: Ensure that every new Substacker has a safe space to ask their Newbie questions and to be encouraged to… just keep going, one day at a time!
What we are Not: You’ll find tons of amazing extremely experienced Substackers offering courses and amazing content… this is not intended to replace those! (Instead, consider this like a supplement. A safe place to come home to!)
Your Assignments
Assignment 1 - Take the Poll!
Assignment 2
Part 1
First, don’t fret.
Next, use the comments section below to share your burning Newbie questions!
This can be anything from basics like
Tips on how to do your initial setup?
Ask advice on how to get more people to read your posts?
Ask if anyone else is working on the same type subject material as you
Ask if anyone is local to you?
Ask about if or how others are integrating their work here with other platforms:
These are just examples, this is your space so ask away!
Part 2
Then, stay engaged in the discussion!
Do you have answers to other peoples questions? Advice? An encouragement? Confirmation that you have the same question? A good potato salad recipe?
Then PLEASE share it in the comments! This will only work with YOUR involvement!
And whatever you do, don’t worry if no one has your answers yet! If I see common questions going unanswered I’ll take note of them and will come up with a way to find answers! Perhaps we will be able to find one of the old timers to come in and give us a guest post… or who knows! Let’s just get this show on the road and we can grow it organically as we need to.
Newbie Lesson of the Day
I figure it might be fun to share things as we learn them! I just learned about Sections today. Super quick tutorial below!
Sections
Newbie News is created as a “Section”. You can learn all about Sections in this Guide to Publication Sections.
So the hierarchy works kinda like this →
This publication is called Read The Instructions (RTI). Following this link will take you to the RTI publication home page
Newbie News lives as a Section inside of the main RTI publication.
You can navigate to Newbie News by using the same RTI publication home page and then selecting "Newbie News" tabat the top of the page!
So if you’ve been wondering how to break out several topics in your publication, use handy dandy this Guide to Publication Sections and go make your own!
FAQ’s
Q: Is it ok if I post more than one question in the comments?
A: The more the merrier!! This is our space, and the more questions or comments you make the more you’ll be helping others around you!
Q: It looks like people here have only been on Substack for a month. I’ve been here for 8 months, am I still welcome here? (OR vice versa!) Or, I’m a wise old Substack sage, but I’d like to help. Am I welcome here?
ALL are welcome. If you need this kind of community, then you are in the right place. Let’s help each other. And to you wise sages, um, YES, you are welcome here - and thank you for your service.
Q: Is it OK if I post my latest article and so some self promotion in the comments?
Yes, its totally fine to do - but note that I will use the very next Newbie News article release to focus on that exact thing! So don’t feel pressured to try to do everything at once!
Wait Just A Second, I’m Not New!!!
Current/Original RTI Subscribers, READ THIS
If you had already signed up as a subscriber for Read the Instructions, first of all - THANK YOU!!!! And Welcome!! I can’t do this without you and you have no idea how much I appreciate your subscription.
If you are a Newbie and you’d like to see where this Newbie News takes us, then you don’t need to read any more of this section.
But, you aren’t a Newbie, or simply aren’t interested in receiving emails from Newbie News - that is no problem!! It’s super easy to opt out! And this won’t affect your RTI subscription at all!
Simply follow this link to your account, and toggle the switch OFF next to where it asks if you want to receive emails for Newbie News. That’s it! Seriously.
And if you would like to be really thorough you can even remove any hint of this Newbie News from your home page. Just follow Dashboard → Settings → Sections → Newbie News → And check the box next to “Hide posts from homepage” And you’re done! Again, this doesn’t change anything with your general RTI subscription.
The full official article with all of these instructions is here.
Newbie News Origin Story
For those who are interested:
This group was inspired by the fact that there were so many people interacting or reaching out due to this Note who seemed to feel exactly the same way that I did!
I originally planned to create a group chat for us Newbies, but then I discovered that you can’t exactly create a group chat here on Substack the way I was hoping (see, toldya I’m a Newbie) so I created Newbie News instead!
loving this :)
RE: focus -- Robert Reich has, in my opinion, the best Substack of political analysis. If you want to know what's going on, read him. BUT, intermixed with those political posts are highly personal posts, such as him dealing with a genetic disorder that left him very short (4'11") and the bullying he got in school, and just today, on losing old friends, something us boomers are going through. Point -- maybe focus isn't so important for Substack, although it might be for a book.