The essential Substack setup checklist

Everything you need so you can concentrate on the writing!

Setting up a Substack properly doesn’t have to take long if you know what you’re doing.

But, I appreciate, lots of people don’t. After all, it’s not the most exciting aspect of running a newsletter, is it? It’s easy to miss important bits and pieces, skip certain settings and forget customizations.

This checklist has been made to fix that problem. It covers every meaningful setup task, from your About page to your email footers. And it’s a straightforward checklist so you can tick everything off as you go.

I work with lots of Substack creators who miss some of these steps. They still have the generic welcome page, the boilerplate welcome email, About pages with nothing in them. But first impressions matter, and a good setup is important for building a serious foundation.

What’s inside?

• All the pages and settings you need to configure before you publish

• Welcome email templates for both free and paid subscribers (with the generic text stripped out)

• Branding and design elements that make your newsletter look intentional

• Optional features you can add once the essentials are done

You’ll need to make a copy of the document first. That way you can tick boxes as you go, print it if that’s your thing, or keep it open in another tab while you work through Substack’s settings.

This isn’t just for pre-launch, either. If you’re missing anything, this checklist will help establish what you need to refine.

The link is below for paid subscribers.

Get it done once so you can concentrate on the writing!