How do you automate any flows with Zapier or similar tools given Substack doesn't have a public API?
I have found a workaround for dynamically displaying substack posts on an external website but not a solution for anything involving subscriber management.
This looks very scary yet very much true! Losing your years of hard work and precious data is dangerous nightmare noone wants to see! My takeaway is simple - once you grow up to 1000+ subscribers here, Build your own website and handle everything there - including subscribers, payments and digital products too. Because noone knows when (read how often) such platforms change their policies without realising how bad it may hurt to creators.
Thanks for sharing your interesting advises for archive the subscribers emails... For my consideration I don't have to do that because I remember my list..
Yup! Another two things you should definitely do to protect your publication:
(1) Your second email address? Don't just make it a subscriber, promote it to an admin for your pub. That way if you ever get locked out of your main email account and can't access your Substack account with your main email address you'll still be able to get in and keep the show running until full access is restored.
(2) Add a trusted friend as a team member with Contributor status. That way, if you get run over by a bus* she can send an email to your subscribers letting them know what happened and ask Substack to pause/cancel payments.
(I wouldn't give admin rights unless your friend is very cybersecurity savvy as there's a lot of $$ at stake with a high-earning publication and plenty of chances for cyber-breaches)
(3) Back up your welcome emails separately as they don't get exported when you export your posts.
*is that a weird expression? We use it in Australia all the time but I don't know if it's just an Aussie thing...
Thank you for the tip about making your second email an admin! You never know what can happen with your publication, and having an alternate way to log in is a non-negotiable.
Oh gonna feature you with this Karen later today when I share the live with Noemi. Think the team member thing is really important. Need to add my hubby.
Also wanted to add my two cents to your latest post. I think your growth with subs had nothing to do with the tags. As I'm seeing lots of backends and get screenshots, many were seeing this as the platform grows and also with the recommendations.
April was my best month ever.
I'm tagging since day one. Still think it's good for Substack algo as discussed.
Also you see the tag cloud and check what you're writing about, the most popular topics etc.
Hi Kristina, thank you for calling attention to this and sharing more resources and intel! Since I've been tagged, I do want to provide a little clarity around the circumstances that I experienced when this happened to me last month:
I lost 6 months worth of video posts, as the direct result of trying to set up a podcast feed on Substack for the first time. I think it's hugely relevant that these losses seem directly linked to the podcast infrastructure on Substack.
I set up the podcast feed on 17th April and had some trouble getting it to work how I wanted, so I decided to delete and try again, on the same day. There was an “are you sure you want to delete this podcast” danger zone warning. I WAS sure I wanted to delete the podcast feed - there was no reason to believe that a feed I had only just created and never used or published to would have automatically imported video posts never intended for podcast purposes, and somehow overrode the original location of those videos on my platform. To my knowledge, no subscriber data was wiped for me - this is a particularly devastating and urgent issue for Lucy and I hope it gets the attention it deserves.
In my case, the Substack team responded rapidly once I emailed them (the AI help bot was not helpful), and I’m super grateful that they were communicative and able to recover a handful of posts (only 5 out of about 30, but better than absolutely nothing, I suppose!).
Sadly, it seems there is a platform-wide structural issue around how content and publication data is linked to podcasts that I’d love to see tended to.
Here’s what I’m doing in the meantime: Exporting all Substack data on a monthly basis - I’ve got a recurring date in my diary. Saving video/audio files and drafts of all written content in my personal cloud. Saving comment notification emails. The Shuffle podcast is set up as a separate section now, rather than linked to my publication as a whole, and I’ll certainly be doing a mass export and consulting Substack in advance if I decide to delete it at any point.
Mentioned you and your response in my live with Noemi. Gonna share it later. Thanks so much. Gonna feature you in a few hours, Chelsey. It helps to know Substack is still by our side helping us.
With Noemi I discussed their TOS and this was helpful to understanding how this platform ticks and to see it's not the only tech platform.
How do you automate any flows with Zapier or similar tools given Substack doesn't have a public API?
I have found a workaround for dynamically displaying substack posts on an external website but not a solution for anything involving subscriber management.
Super informative! I backed everything up right now.
This looks very scary yet very much true! Losing your years of hard work and precious data is dangerous nightmare noone wants to see! My takeaway is simple - once you grow up to 1000+ subscribers here, Build your own website and handle everything there - including subscribers, payments and digital products too. Because noone knows when (read how often) such platforms change their policies without realising how bad it may hurt to creators.
That more than a great advise!! 🙏
Thanks for sharing your interesting advises for archive the subscribers emails... For my consideration I don't have to do that because I remember my list..
.😁😅
omg that's so scary - and a good reminder to back up my work!
Yup! Another two things you should definitely do to protect your publication:
(1) Your second email address? Don't just make it a subscriber, promote it to an admin for your pub. That way if you ever get locked out of your main email account and can't access your Substack account with your main email address you'll still be able to get in and keep the show running until full access is restored.
(2) Add a trusted friend as a team member with Contributor status. That way, if you get run over by a bus* she can send an email to your subscribers letting them know what happened and ask Substack to pause/cancel payments.
(I wouldn't give admin rights unless your friend is very cybersecurity savvy as there's a lot of $$ at stake with a high-earning publication and plenty of chances for cyber-breaches)
(3) Back up your welcome emails separately as they don't get exported when you export your posts.
*is that a weird expression? We use it in Australia all the time but I don't know if it's just an Aussie thing...
Thank you for the tip about making your second email an admin! You never know what can happen with your publication, and having an alternate way to log in is a non-negotiable.
Oh gonna feature you with this Karen later today when I share the live with Noemi. Think the team member thing is really important. Need to add my hubby.
Also wanted to add my two cents to your latest post. I think your growth with subs had nothing to do with the tags. As I'm seeing lots of backends and get screenshots, many were seeing this as the platform grows and also with the recommendations.
April was my best month ever.
I'm tagging since day one. Still think it's good for Substack algo as discussed.
Also you see the tag cloud and check what you're writing about, the most popular topics etc.
Looking forward to do a next live with you.
Hi Kristina, thank you for calling attention to this and sharing more resources and intel! Since I've been tagged, I do want to provide a little clarity around the circumstances that I experienced when this happened to me last month:
I lost 6 months worth of video posts, as the direct result of trying to set up a podcast feed on Substack for the first time. I think it's hugely relevant that these losses seem directly linked to the podcast infrastructure on Substack.
I set up the podcast feed on 17th April and had some trouble getting it to work how I wanted, so I decided to delete and try again, on the same day. There was an “are you sure you want to delete this podcast” danger zone warning. I WAS sure I wanted to delete the podcast feed - there was no reason to believe that a feed I had only just created and never used or published to would have automatically imported video posts never intended for podcast purposes, and somehow overrode the original location of those videos on my platform. To my knowledge, no subscriber data was wiped for me - this is a particularly devastating and urgent issue for Lucy and I hope it gets the attention it deserves.
In my case, the Substack team responded rapidly once I emailed them (the AI help bot was not helpful), and I’m super grateful that they were communicative and able to recover a handful of posts (only 5 out of about 30, but better than absolutely nothing, I suppose!).
Sadly, it seems there is a platform-wide structural issue around how content and publication data is linked to podcasts that I’d love to see tended to.
Here’s what I’m doing in the meantime: Exporting all Substack data on a monthly basis - I’ve got a recurring date in my diary. Saving video/audio files and drafts of all written content in my personal cloud. Saving comment notification emails. The Shuffle podcast is set up as a separate section now, rather than linked to my publication as a whole, and I’ll certainly be doing a mass export and consulting Substack in advance if I decide to delete it at any point.
Mentioned you and your response in my live with Noemi. Gonna share it later. Thanks so much. Gonna feature you in a few hours, Chelsey. It helps to know Substack is still by our side helping us.
With Noemi I discussed their TOS and this was helpful to understanding how this platform ticks and to see it's not the only tech platform.