Celebrating One Year on Substack (And How I Just Ranked #1 on Google)
My Exact Set-Up That Drives Endless Leads & Subscribers
I clearly remember the conversation I had with my best friend, “I’ve tried following all the advice on LinkedIn for building a personal brand and all this ‘getting paid to exist’ shit but it’s not paying the bills.”
“What are you going to do?” she asked, “didn’t you just quit Family Dollar?”
“Yes, and I don’t even know anymore. I’m thinking about just teaching people how to use apps and tech I guess. I’ll do something I don’t care about,” my plan was to make money with zero emotional investment. I was worn thin from rejection and it seemed like a sound plan.
My best friend suggested Substack, she writes here as the director of a non-profit, and she thought it might be a nice change of scenery for me after my UGC nightmare. That it would help me get my sea legs for the jobless ocean I found myself adrift upon.
I sure didn’t foresee what was coming next.
How I Grew My Business & Substack
Week One
The first article I wrote on Substack was:
Yes, that’s the grand entrance I made as a writer on Substack. 😂 It’s had less than 100 views in a whole year. My first week I wrote 5 articles, all about tech apps, along with some Notes nobody saw.
Week Two
I figured out how to solve a problem on Substack that I saw people asking questions about in OP’s comments (yes, I lurked in comments to find things to write about). They were complaining about not being able to sell digital products directly from Substack. All the posts I could find recommended using Gumroad and linking out to the product.
I spent the weekend figuring out a friction-free work around that doesn’t give a cut to a 3rd party and I wrote article #6 to demonstrate it.
This is the article that started my growth. I shot up over 200 subscribers overnight with a how-to article that also had a digital product attached to it.
I sold my first digital product on day 10.
Weeks Three & Four
My first coaching client came on day 17 after someone read my post on how to set up Substack if you’re a coach.
I closed out the first month with 260 subscribers and 11 articles. I also started posting videos on YouTube, and that’s where things got interesting.
Month Two
I continued to write about apps, async coaching, building digital products and sharing the Substack problems I had solved. My growth was steady and I ended the month with 350 subscribers.
Month Three
This is where things really popped off. My 12th video on YouTube went viral. It’s a 5 minute rant about losing my job and the extremes it took to make money in my 50s. This video added 500+ Substack subscribers in just a few days.
Months Four-Eleven from 500 to 5000 Subscribers
It didn’t take me long to understand that YouTube was bringing in way more qualified leads than Substack’s native discovery. In other words, I stopped wasting time on Notes and doubled down on my YouTube-Substack loop.
YouTube is your discovery engine that runs 24-7.
I just hit 21,000 subs, broke 500,000 views and YouTube has contributed 40% of my total Substack subscribers, 55% of my paid subscribers and 75% of my one-on-one clients.
Did you catch that?
55% of my paid subscribers on Substack are coming from YouTube + Google search, not Substack. And they’re joining as paid, not upgrading from free.
75% of my coaching clients are coming from YouTube + Google search, not Substack. Very few Substack native subscribers ever convert to a coaching client. I need you to really soak that one in, because it’s the fatal mistake most Substack publications are making. This platform is not the source of revenue it was two or three years ago. The number of subscribers you have means nothing, it’s the number of buyers you have that matters.
Unbelievable Traffic — You Can’t Even Pay for This Anymore
YouTube isn’t just providing a ton of traffic, this traffic is converting at 3-4x the rate my Substack content alone does.
Over the weekend, I Googled “Substack for beginners over 40” to see where my content landed in search.
I’m top of page ONE with a video I just published 2 weeks ago.
I ranked on page one without a blog post or a website being mentioned or linked. This is a fundamental shift in the way search results are served. YouTube is how you hit above the fold.
In just two weeks, this video has added over 500 subs to my YouTube channel and sent 94 new subscribers over to Substack - 5 of whom joined as paid (that’s a 6% conversion rate).
This is the power of YouTube + Substack.
A single video contributed $90 in ad revenue, $604 in annual subscriptions here on Substack and 4 discovery calls in its first 14 days. And unlike social media, this video will keep making money for years because it’s driven by search rather than the recommendations of the algorithm.
YouTube is disproportionately providing my revenue compared to all other sources of growth — including Substack itself. I get an average of 8-10 inbounds every week that begin, “I found you on YouTube and I’d like to work with you.”
This video brought in so many new clients, I had to temporarily close my calendar to catch up!
YouTube Will Change Your Business
I don’t care if you’re a coach, consultant or an author, YouTube will change your business. It does two very specific things for you as a creative trying to earn a living:
it provides real time information on what people (and businesses!) are really looking for
it allows you to show up in search with the answer exactly when they need you most.
Any Genre, Any Niche, Any Client
YouTube videos outrank text based search results on Google almost every single time. The YouTube search bar is the 2nd largest search engine in the world, right behind a straight-up Google search.
This strategy works for every genre, niche or client type. If your “perfect buyer” is asking questions, YouTube wants to be the top source providing the answer. They’re handing you a golden ticket if you’re the creator who makes the first, or best, video answering the questions people (and businesses) are actually searching for.
Build a Playlist, Don’t Just Make a Video
My video would not have ranked that fast without the playlist it’s sitting on. It’s one of 12 videos I’ve made in the last year explaining Substack to people over 40 who want to make money as a writer or coach.
You can’t just throw up one video and think you’re going to instantly rank — but put up several videos and by the 4th or 5th you will. You’re building a library that converts every video into another brick in your wall of authority.
Do Not Over Optimize
Use caution taking your title recommendations from VidIQ, Claude/ChatGPT/etc.
They recommend the same titles & optimizations to everyone in your niche, and that’s why everyone’s titles/thumbnails all look the same.
This video has an unoptimized thumbnail that scored 27/100 on VidIQ. They called it “too cluttered,” but I like it. I used a boring title that accurately reflected the promise of an answer instead of a “click worthy title.” Some videos only get 200 views, others will get 20K, but I know they’re all reaching the right viewer.
30 Views on YouTube is Worth More Than 30,000 Followers
Social media is not worth the time IMO and can even hurt your business by diluting your efforts. Focus on the places people search for authoritative answers: Google, YouTube and even Pinterest (if you’re a consumer/solo creative facing brand).
Your goal is to connect with the person (or business) at a desktop/laptop searching for answers to PROBLEMS YOU CAN SOLVE, not scrolling for inspiration on Instagram.
My goal is connecting with people who are actively working on writing books, making videos and building digital products — but they’re stuck in the messy middle. They have problems I know how to solve.
What’s yours?
But, Shannon...YouTube is Scary
So was going to work every day. But you did it for like, ever. You survived working with the public, the coworker who microwaved hairy fish (you know who you are!) and even the times you were passed over for someone less qualified.
You’re a freaking workforce warrior and you’re worried about being on video?
Let’s take your objections one by one.
The Comments Will Be Mean
I’ve gotten thousands of comments across half a million views. I can count on one hand how many of them were rude. The majority of comments are appreciative, heartfelt and build community on the channel. YouTube also provides amazing settings to protect your space, so bullies get banished at the click of a button.
I Don’t Have the Equipment
You don’t need thousands of dollars of equipment or tons of software. Your phone, a lapel microphone and a tripod is just fine to get started, like $20 total on Amazon or Walmart.
If you want to get a fancy mic, grab the Rode USB PodMic ($100ish) or the analog version that I use, Rode XLR PodMic ($200ish bc you’ll also need a sound board, I use a Behringer X1204 USB straight to my computer).
I Can’t Figure Out Editing Video
You can edit inside YouTube Studio (free), use CapCut (free-ish), Filmora (paid), Davinci Resolve (free) or similar. These options all use the timeline approach to editing (you clip out your mistakes from the video itself). These are the types of editors that frustrate users. I don’t use these at all.
Transcript based editing is your best friend. It allows you to edit your videos just like a Word document.
Descript (paid, this is an aff link)is my favorite, Riverside FM (paid, this is also an aff link) is the runner-up that’s quickly closing in and Davinci Resolve Pro is an option I haven’t tried (no free trial on the transcript editing and it costs $299).
I Don’t Look Good on Camera
Do you hide your face when you meet someone you don’t know in your everyday life? You look the same on YouTube as you do on Facebook, at work, the grocery store, church, out to dinner or any other public event you attend. It’s no different — and you’re the voice your aligned viewer has been waiting to hear.
Where Will You Be a Year from Now?
I can hardly believe it’s been a whole year already! It feels like just a few months — and what a wild ride — I’ve gone from working at Family Dollar for $11 an hour to #1 on Google for helping people over 40 make money writing on Substack & yapping on YouTube. It blows my mind.
Every so often I work with someone who tells me, “I started at the same time you did, how have you done this in a year?” My answer is the same every time — I treat this just like I did all my jobs.
When I was working as a project manager in corporate America, I didn’t sit at my desk dreaming about doing the work that would bring my paycheck at the end of the week — I did the work to get the paycheck.
Earning as a solo creator is no different. I go to work every day whether I feel like it or not. I make the video, write the post, nurture the conversation and work with individuals AND businesses because that’s what brings me joy and a paycheck at the end of the week.
And, I might add, it brings a hell of a lot more satisfaction than employment ever did.
Here’s a preview of the video I made for the members of Second Act Studio showing exactly how I’d start a YouTube channel today to land clients, grow a membership and sell products. It’s the first video in the new module on Starting & Growing a YouTube Channel.
If you want to bounce some ideas around or you want to work with me one-on-one, send me a message, I’m happy to help.
I ran across this video over the weekend while I was working on "optimizing" my youtube channel - thank you for permission to not use the generic vidiq headlines and thumbnails. I struggle so much with those
I wondered about this. I noticed that more subs were coming from Instagram (that I rarely post in) than from substack. I am just started, very slow growth. I have not been using my youtube for a year but it has more peeps follwing it than anything. I need to start posting there. Thank you for the heads up!