How can I recommend other publications on Substack?

Recommendations enable writers to promote and support one another. You can promote the Substack you recommend to your audience, and the writers of those Substacks are prompted to recommend you back.

How do I recommend Substacks?

Head to your Substack's Settings page and click Details in the left navigation bar. Next to "Recommend other Substacks," select "Start recommending."

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On the Manage Recommendations page, you can:

  • Add or remove recommendations
  • Write a blurb explaining why you recommend that Substack
  • Manage settings such as whether to display it on your publication's homepage or include it in recommendation digests.

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Where do recommendations appear?

Recommended Substacks are shown to your new readers in three places:

1. In the subscribe flow, your recommendations are presented to readers after subscribing to your Substack.

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Readers are presented with the option to follow the writers behind all the Substacks you recommend, as well as subscribe to a handful of publications.

2. On your publication's homepage. 

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3. On your publication's Recommendations page.

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Note: You can find a link to this page in the footer of your publication's homepage.

4. In Recommendations digest emails, we send your subscribers when you make a new recommendation.

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Readers can unsubscribe anytime from this digest email, which won’t affect their subscription to your publication. 

Learn more here if you'd like to opt out of being included in this digest.

How are recommended writers notified?

Recommended writers will receive an email notification letting them know that you are recommending their Substack.

If you recommend a writer who subscribes to your Substack, they’ll receive the email within an hour.

If the writer isn't subscribed to you, they'll receive the notification later when the recommendation has resulted in some new subscribers.

Tip: If you write a "Why I recommend" blurb, it'll appear in this email.

Where can I see the impact of my recommendations?

The Recommendations tab shows who is recommending you, who you're recommending, and the number of free subscriptions each recommendation has generated.

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Tip: If you see an "Inactive" status on your Recommendations stats page, this means that this publication stopped recommending your publication or you've stopped recommending that publication. Any traffic will be displayed here regardless.

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