If you’ve been building your Substack and wishing you had a room full of brilliant, opinionated writers to think with —

This is that room.

Welcome to our monthly 🧪 Substack Lab — a live Zoom session exclusively for Founding Members of 💡 Sutoscience.

💡 become a founding member

Think open office hours meets writer’s workshop meets the best writerly conversation you had but didn’t want to end.

💡 Join Our Monthly Substack Lab and Get Feedback on Your Substack from Fellow Writers

📅 When: Saturday, June 6th from 10am PT / 1pm ET - 11:30am PT / 2:30pm ET

💻 Where: Live on Zoom (link below the paywall, Founding Members!)

✍️ What to bring: Your Substack, your questions, your half-baked ideas, your “is this too niche?” spirals — all of it welcome.

Here’s how it works:

🔍 Bring a specific question or something you’re stuck on

💬 Get live feedback from me and the group

🔁 Come back every month and keep the momentum going

Not a founding member yet? ✨ The Substack Lab is just one of the perks waiting for you on the other side of an upgrade. Founding Members get exclusive access to monthly Labs, the 6 Week Substack Sprint, a 1:1 60 minute Substack Audit with me, and everything I’m building out for the writers who are serious about making this work.

👇 Ready to join us? Upgrade to Founding Member here.

Read more

If you’ve been building your Substack and wishing you had a room full of brilliant, opinionated writers to think with —

This is that room.

Welcome to our monthly 🧪 Substack Lab — a live Zoom session exclusively for Founding Members of 💡 Sutoscience.

💡 become a founding member

Think open office hours meets writer’s workshop meets the best writerly conversation you had but didn’t want to end.

Show up. Ask anything. Leave more inspired than you arrived.

📅 When: TODAY, Saturday, May 2nd at 10am PT / 1pm ET

💻 Where: Live on Zoom (link below the paywall, Founding Members!)

✍️ What to bring: Your Substack, your questions, your half-baked ideas, your “is this too niche?” spirals — all of it welcome.

Here’s how it works:

🔍 Bring a specific question or something you’re stuck on

💬 Get live feedback from me and the group

🔁 Come back every month and keep the momentum going

No polish required. No dumb questions. Just writers helping writers.

Not a founding member yet? ✨ The Substack Lab is just one of the perks waiting for you on the other side of an upgrade. Founding Members get exclusive access to monthly Labs, community, and everything I’m building out for the writers who are serious about making this work.

👇 Ready to join us? Upgrade to Founding Member here.

Read more

If you’ve been building your Substack and wishing you had a room full of brilliant, opinionated writers to think with —

This is that room.

Welcome to our monthly 🧪 Substack Lab — a live Zoom session exclusively for Founding Members of 💡 Sutoscience.

💡 become a founding member

Think open office hours meets writer’s workshop meets the best writerly conversation you had but didn’t want to end.

Show up. Ask anything. Leave more inspired than you arrived.

📅 When: Saturday, May 2nd at 10am PT / 1pm ET

💻 Where: Live on Zoom (link below the paywall, Founding Members!)

✍️ What to bring: Your Substack, your questions, your half-baked ideas, your “is this too niche?” spirals — all of it welcome.

Here’s how it works:

🔍 Bring a specific question or something you’re stuck on

💬 Get live feedback from me and the group

🔁 Come back every month and keep the momentum going

No polish required. No dumb questions. Just writers helping writers.

Not a founding member yet? ✨ The Substack Lab is just one of the perks waiting for you on the other side of an upgrade. Founding Members get exclusive access to monthly Labs, community, and everything I’m building out for the writers who are serious about making this work.

👇 Ready to join us? Upgrade to Founding Member here.

Read more

This past Monday night, I was invited as a panelist to speak at ’s amazing Women + AI event here in San Francisco.

I was on the panel sharing my experience as a founder, as I’ve just recently launched CozyJobs, a project I’ve been vibecoding with my fiancée for the past 10-ish weeks. It was such a lovely night and I had some life-giving conversations with some very creative women in that room.

But I left the event thinking about how the title “founder” still feels a little lopsided to me at times. I don’t know exactly what would replace it — my preferred title of “creative person who likes making stuff” is a bit wordy.

On paper, my work resembles being a founder pretty closely: I’ve built six- and seven-figure businesses and have been freelancing as a memoir ghostwriter for the past decade.

When I lived in LA, I even ran an in-person events company called Kingdom of Pavement where we hosted open mic nights and secret shows spotlighting local creatives, writers, and musicians.

When 2020 arrived and disrupted our show schedule, I pivoted the company into producing scripted podcasts with our community of actors and musicians, and we produced my show The Last Station and Kyle’s show The Horror at Martin’s Beach with an insanely talented cast and crew.

That’s just a few of the projects I’ve been doing for the past chunk of time, and yes they’re business-shaped even if they all have some sort of creative heartbeat at the center.

Even CozyJobs.ai has a little lo-fi player at the bottom right of the screen that plays lo-fi music made by Kyle to help de-stress your job search.

But even if I hadn’t made any of those things and I was a writer on Substack as my sole focus, I’d still claim the title of “founder.”

✍️ if you write on Substack, you’re a founder

I do a sprinkling of Substack audit sessions for writers, Founding Members here in Sutoscience, and interesting startups that I like, and in one of my conversations with a founder I shared something I think you’ll find relevant.

Writing on Substack isn’t just about learning a platform — it’s about understanding how to capture someone’s attention.

How do you structure a post that a reader feels joy scrolling through? How do you write a headline that makes someone want to click in and read?

For many of us, writing on Substack means we are running a one-person media business. We set prices, run discounts, do our own art direction (maybe with the help of a hired designer!), and write the copy of our welcome emails.

Founders are people who do similar strategic thinking. They ask themselves “what will my target audience get value from?” and run experiments. They create a hypothesis and then create milestones to test their theories.

Writing on Substack is an art and a science, and that’s why some writers can feel a bit conflicted here: art, science, and commerce are almost always at odds in some way.

🎨 protecting your art while making money

I wrote an entire book on this topic, but the fundamental error in logic us creatives make is that when we focus on commerce, our art suffers.

In reality, thinking like a founder allows you to build a better buffer around your creative time.

By being strategic with my finances and business structures, I get to have more open creative time.

By optimizing my SEO and Substack landing pages for paid subscriptions, I get to chill out and enjoy the writing process more since my systems are bringing in subscribers on autopilot while I spend too much time on a chapter of my new fiction novel.

I used to stick my tongue out at thinking like a bUsinEsS pErSOn, but then I realized that being a “founder” doesn’t mean kowtowing to venture capitalists or being on Zoom calls all day. In fact, I don’t have to operate like any of the founders I see on the internet — I can rewrite the rules to fit my no-alarm-clock life.

Instead, being a “founder” is just a cap I put on from time-to-time to make my world better so that I can then go back and do my creative work undisturbed.

✨ the rule is this: the person having the most fun wins

Not all money is created equal.

There were freelance assignments where founders or companies were throwing money at me — but I ended up walking away from those projects because I just couldn’t stomach another day doing something that I didn’t feel passionate about.

When I discovered memoir ghostwriting, I felt like I stumbled on a huge secret. Are you telling me I get to write people’s stories and be a detective in their lives? I get to travel to exotic locations and get to know their culture and families and business partners? I get to see inside the lives of the rich, famous, and accomplished and learn from them? Hell yeah, sign me up. I’ve spent a decade being a ghost, and it’s still some of the most fun I’ve had as a writer.

Discovering Substack also was one of those moments. In 2024, I found myself sitting on the floor of our traditional Japanese home with a powerpoint on the screen of the small TV telling my fellow digital nomad friends that they all needed to get on Substack, stat.

I wasn’t making much money on Substack back then, but at the time it was enough to fund my travels and give me a place to share my writing and ideas.

These days, I make quite a bit more than I did then, but my passion for Substack is not just about the money. I’m more excited about how the business model frees up creatives to do more of what they love (and less admin work!)

When I think about what brings me the most joy in my career so far, I know that I have the most fun sharing what I’ve learned, teaching others the things I wish I’d known earlier, writing books for people, building stuff, and writing my own fiction and nonfiction.

Because I do what I love, work doesn’t feel like “work” to me, which means I can do much more of it, and do it at a higher level. That’s my advantage — and the advantage of anyone who is having fun.

So if you want to think like a creative AND like a founder, here are two questions for you:

• What would you have the most fun doing?

• Now how can you get paid to have fun and do more of what you love?

Leave a comment

💡 more ways to think like a founder here on Substack

My most popular post is all about this, and if you’re a Founding Member I hope to see you in our May Substack Lab next week! These group workshops on Zoom have been lots of fun and also it’s cool to see the breakthroughs happening in real time.

And if you haven’t already taken the 6 Week Substack Sprint, you can revisit these 6+ hours of classes by me at any time if you’re a Founding Member. I’ve also reopened my 1:1 Substack Audits for new Founding Members for limited time.

But even if you don’t take a look at any of these things, I’d love to offer you this last idea.

• Think like a founder when it’s time to be efficient and measure what needs to be managed. How much money do you need to make for your ideal creative life? Since not all money is created equal, what types of things do you want to do to make it? (i.e. freelancing, Substack, self-publishing).

  • How do you track conversions/create business structures that can work while you sleep?

  • How do subscribers and readers find and enjoy your work?

  • What do you charge for and what do you give away for free?

• Think like a creative when it’s time to make the art itself. Find the fun and shut everything else down. Don’t let doubt or worry creep into your safe space. It doesn’t belong there!

It can sometimes be easy to give into the existential dread that lurks in the shadows, but I’ve found that instead finding the lightness in the delusional optimism is actually way more “productive” and life giving!

And as a bonus, the times that I’ve believed that everything was going to just work out actually did indeed work out (sometimes better than I could have every imaged.)

So how can you create more spaces of play in your life? What do you need to do strategically to protect those spaces?

And remember: the only rule is that you need to be having fun in this life.

We only get to live it once, after all.

Sending you good creative vibes,

-Amy

Hey writers,

🌸 Want to actually grow your Substack this spring — not just think about it?

✨ Now’s a very good time to jump into my 6 Week Substack Sprint. When you become a Founding Member, you unlock 6+ hours of recorded classes plus all the bonus material — the full system, start to finish.

💡 get access to the sprint

📚 The 6 Week Substack Sprint is everything I’d hand you if you said, “I want this writing and creating career to work — for real.”

And one more thing…

📅 I’m reopening my calendar for 1:1 Substack Audits — 60-minute, high-impact sessions where we cut through the noise, pinpoint exactly what’s holding your growth back, and uncover the missed opportunities hiding in plain sight.

✨ The focus of these 1:1 sessions is simple: support your Substack growth and surface the blindspots most writers miss, including:

• Your welcome email (and whether it’s actually converting)

• About page optimization (aka your first impression)

• Category selection (so the right readers can find you)

• How you’re monetizing your Substack — or why it’s not clicking yet

💡 become a founding member

You’ll leave with sharper positioning, smarter growth levers, and a clear plan for what to focus on next — so you’re not just posting… you’re building something that actually moves.

My calendar for new Founding Members has been closed for the past two months — and I’m now opening a limited number of spots of 1:1 Substack Audits for:

• New Founding Members

• Current Founding Members who haven’t had their 1:1 Substack Audit yet

• Plus — for current Founding Members who’ve already had their 1:1 Substack Audit, I’m rolling out new discounted rates on additional sessions, including follow-up audits and weekly accountability check-ins

If you want personalized, no-BS feedback on what’s working, what’s not, and how to turn your Substack into your main thing this year — this is your window.

👇 Links to book your 1:1 session are below the paywall.

💬 Testimonials from Writers Who Have Taken the 6 Week Substack Sprint

Here are some testimonials from writers who have taken my 6 Week Substack Sprint:

“Just when I think I couldn’t learn more from Amy Suto, she does it again. The 6-week Substack Sprint was the best way to start 2026 on a high note. I’ve doubled my subscriber count in a month, converted free subscribers to paid (without feeling gross or salesy), and provided content I believe in with a newfound confidence and purpose. I didn’t think there could be a more helpful Substack than ✍️ Make Writing Your Job… until I committed to 💡 Sutoscience. If Amy tells me to jump off a bridge, I’ll have already jumped: that’s how powerful her advice and insights are.”

- Alison Lau, writer of the Monkey Girl Substack

“Amy’s 6-Week SubStack Sprint was beyond helpful, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has a SubStack or is interested in starting one. Each of the six classes focused on a specific element of successfully launching, running, and scaling a SubStack that is not only fulfilling for the creator but also actually gives readers something they want. All of Amy’s ideas and advice come from her own journey of building a successful publication, and she so generously shares all of the secrets she’s uncovered from years of trial and error. Without her 6-week SubStack Sprint, I don’t think I’d have the confidence or understanding to take the leap and launch my own publication-- I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to participate.”

-Lizabeth Yandel, writer of the Songs to Save Your Day Substack

“The 6 Week Sprint with Amy was a game-changer. My mind is still swirling from all of the goodness I learned, and I’m starting to apply to my newsletter. I was nervous at first since I was rebranding and bringing over my subscribers from my previous try on Substack. With Amy’s generous sharing of her wise tricks and tips, I’ve gained 20 more subs in the month of January since I posted my first piece. I feel focused, energized, and excited to have a plan for this year. I also have new writer friends who were also in the Sprint with me. We are so supportive of each other! Amy genuinely wants writers to succeed, and that vibe was felt throughout! Best thing I’ve signed up for in a really long time!”

- Kathleen Majorsky, writer of the Love and Lit Substack

“The 6 Week Sprint exceeded my expectations by far because I not only learned how to start and grow my Substack but I so appreciate the community that was also formed with the other members of the Sprint.”

- Amy Benavides, writer of the Red Purse of Justice Substack

👩‍💻 Book Your 1:1 Substack Audit Now to Get Personalized Support

Upgrade now and become a Founding Member to get access to…

• My recorded 6 Week Substack Sprint (over 6+ hours of videos guiding you through creating and optimizing your Substack!)

• Access to our monthly Substack Lab workshop series (get live feedback on Zoom from me + our community of awesome Substack writers!)

• A 60-minute 1:1 Substack Audit with me, where I’ll dive into missed opportunities and different strategies to monetize and grow your Substack

• All of my articles on how to grow on Substack, including my most popular post on How I’d Turn a Brand New Substack Into $100,000+ in 12 Months

💡 become a founding member now!

Ready to book your 1:1 session? 👇 Links are below the paywall! Upgrade to a Founding Member now to book and start your Substack growth journey:

💻 1:1 Substack Audit Links

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If you’ve been building your Substack and wishing you had a room full of brilliant, opinionated writers to think with —

This is that room.

🌱 Our April Substack Lab went great (thanks to everyone who showed up and contributed!), so here’s the invite for the next one in May!

Welcome to our monthly 🧪 Substack Lab — a live Zoom session exclusively for Founding Members of 💡 Sutoscience.

💡 become a founding member

Think open office hours meets writer’s workshop meets the best writerly conversation you had but didn’t want to end.

Show up. Ask anything. Leave more inspired than you arrived.

📅 When: Saturday, May 2nd at 10am PT / 1pm ET

💻 Where: Live on Zoom (link below the paywall, Founding Members!)

✍️ What to bring: Your Substack, your questions, your half-baked ideas, your “is this too niche?” spirals — all of it welcome.

Here’s how it works:

🔍 Bring a specific question or something you’re stuck on

💬 Get live feedback from me and the group

🔁 Come back every month and keep the momentum going

No polish required. No dumb questions. Just writers helping writers.

Not a founding member yet? ✨ The Substack Lab is just one of the perks waiting for you on the other side of an upgrade. Founding Members get exclusive access to monthly Labs, community, and everything I’m building out for the writers who are serious about making this work.

👇 Ready to join us? Upgrade to Founding Member here.

Read more

If you’ve been building your Substack and wishing you had a room full of brilliant, opinionated writers to think with —

This is that room.

Starting TODAY, I’m launching our first monthly 🧪 Substack Lab — a live Zoom session exclusively for Founding Members of 💡 Sutoscience.

Subscribe now

Think open office hours meets writer’s workshop meets the best conversation you had at a conference but didn’t want to end.

Show up. Ask anything. Leave more inspired than you arrived.

📅 When: TODAY Saturday, April 4th at 10am PT / 1pm ET

💻 Where: Live on Zoom (link below the paywall, Founding Members!)

✍️ What to bring: Your Substack, your questions, your half-baked ideas, your “is this too niche?” spirals — all of it welcome.

Here’s how it works:

🔍 Bring a specific question or something you’re stuck on

💬 Get live feedback from me and the group

🔁 Come back every month and keep the momentum going

No polish required. No dumb questions. Just writers helping writers.

Not a founding member yet? ✨ The Substack Lab is just one of the perks waiting for you on the other side of an upgrade. Founding Members get exclusive access to monthly Labs, community, and everything I’m building out for the writers who are serious about making this work.

👇 Ready to join us? Upgrade to Founding Member here.

Read more

If you’ve been building your Substack and wishing you had a room full of brilliant, opinionated writers to think with —

This is that room.

Starting this upcoming Saturday, I’m launching our first monthly 🧪 Substack Lab — a live Zoom session exclusively for Founding Members of 💡 Sutoscience.

Subscribe now

Think open office hours meets writer’s workshop meets the best conversation you had at a conference but didn’t want to end.

Show up. Ask anything. Leave more inspired than you arrived.

📅 When: Saturday, April 4th at 10am PT / 1pm ET

💻 Where: Live on Zoom (link below the paywall, Founding Members!)

✍️ What to bring: Your Substack, your questions, your half-baked ideas, your “is this too niche?” spirals — all of it welcome.

Here’s how it works:

🔍 Bring a specific question or something you’re stuck on

💬 Get live feedback from me and the group

🔁 Come back every month and keep the momentum going

No polish required. No dumb questions. Just writers helping writers.

Not a founding member yet? ✨ The Substack Lab is just one of the perks waiting for you on the other side of an upgrade. Founding Members get exclusive access to monthly Labs, community, and everything I’m building out for the writers who are serious about making this work.

👇 Ready to join us? Upgrade to Founding Member here.

Read more

Congrats on finishing the 6 Week Substack Sprint!

Just in case you missed a class or a resource, I’m linking them all below:

Week 1: Architecture: How to Build the Foundation of a Successful Substack

Bonus Tutorial: Your Substack Settings Walkthrough

Bonus Tutorial: How to Go Live on Substack Live

Week 2: Building Your Content Engine

Bonus Article: Substack Notes 101

Week 3: Creating Your Growth Engine

Bonus Tutorial: How to Repurpose Your Substacks to Social Media Posts

Bonus Article: How to Get Millions of Google Impressions and Grow Your Substack

Week 4: Conversion and Monetization

Week 5: Community and Retention

Bonus Event: Substack Growth Office Hours Session

Week 6: Scale Your 12 Month Roadmap

Bonus Resource: High-Converting Templates for Your Substack’s About Page and Welcome Emails

You can continue to dive into Substack how-to advice in my Make Substack Your Job article category here as well.

Even though the 6 Week Substack Sprint is over, more is coming to the community here at 💡 Sutoscience!

Happy writing,

-Amy

As we wrap up the 6 Week Substack Sprint, I wanted to send one more bundle of practical resources your way.

Below, you’ll find templates you can use to strengthen your About page, refine your welcome emails, or email your existing subscribers when you’re ready to turn on a paywall and start charging for your work.

These are the highest-converting formats I’ve seen work — both for my own publications and across the Substacks I’ve audited — but think of them as scaffolding, not scripts. Please customize them to fit your voice, your tone, and the world you’re building.

My hope is that this makes the “okay, now what?” phase feel clearer, calmer, and a lot more doable.

Here they are:

1. Welcome Email — Free Subscribers

Goal: Make people feel seen, grounded, and curious — then invite them into a 7-day free trial.

Subject: Welcome — I’m glad you’re here

Hi there —

I’m really glad you’re here.

I’m [Your Name], and this is [Publication Name] — a space I built for [who this is for] who are tired of [core pain point] and ready for [desired outcome].

Here’s the short version of why this newsletter exists:

You’re probably here because you’re feeling [frustrated / stuck / overwhelmed / curious / ambitious] about [topic or situation].

I’ve been there. I built this publication to help you [solve that problem] — without gatekeeping, posturing, or pretending there’s one “right” path.

What you’ll find here:

In your inbox, you can expect:

- [Type of content #1] that helps you [result]

- [Type of content #2] that breaks down [thing that feels confusing]

- [Type of content #3] that’s honest, practical, and actually usable

The transformation I’m aiming for is simple:

You start here feeling [before] — and over time, you feel [after].

Start with these reader favorites

If you want a good feel for the work, these are some of the most-loved posts:

- [Popular Post #1]

- [Popular Post #2]

- [Popular Post #3]

Want to go deeper?

Paid subscribers get:

- [Benefit #1 — tangible]

- [Benefit #2 — access or depth]

- [Benefit #3 — community / archive / support]

If you’re curious, you can try the paid experience free for 7 days — no pressure, no weird tricks.

👉 Start your 7-day free trial here [button]

Thanks for being here. Truly.

And if this helps you even a little — I’m doing my job.

-[Your Name]

P.S. If you ever upgrade to the Founding tier, that’s where things get especially personal — early access, deeper conversations, and helping keep this whole thing alive. Totally optional. Always appreciated.

2. Welcome Email — Paid Subscribers

Goal: Celebrate the upgrade, orient them quickly, then introduce the Founding tier as a natural next step — not a hard sell

Read more

I shared…

• How to plan your Substack content to take advantage of seasonal spikes

• How to troubleshoot when you’re not getting the results you’re looking for

• Strategies for growth without burnout

Share

Read more

Here is the replay of yesterday’s office hours — keeping it all below the paywall and with no free preview to keep it cozy for Founding Members only!

💡 upgrade to founding

In addition to brainstorming ideas for each others’ publications, we talked about the mechanics of Substack growth today.

Welcome emails, Start Here pages, About pages, video walk-throughs, content cadence, and all the subtle ways you can turn a curious passerby into someone who actually sticks around.

👇 More behind the paywall for Founding Members:

Read more

Subscribe now

This looks like…

• Learning how to make the most of Substack’s features

• What it takes to build a thriving community

• How your work can spread with word of mouth

And how to work smarter — not harder! — with how to get your Substack out there.

Share

Read more

Confession: I used to think SEO was for people who own three monitors… and feel joy when a Chrome extension updates.

(You know the type. They say “top of funnel” like it’s foreplay.)

And then… it quietly became one of the most human tools I’ve ever used.

Because SEO — and now GEO (the way your work shows up inside AI answers) — isn’t really a marketing skill.

It’s a time-protection skill.

It’s how you stop building a business that only works when you’re working.

It’s how you wake up on a random Tuesday and think:

“Oh. The internet is doing its job without me.”

Which is… honestly? The dream.

Subscribe now

💻 The Moment It Clicked For Me

I didn’t have some cinematic “aha” moment.

It was more like: I opened my stats, expected nothing, and then stared at my screen like it had just texted me “u up?”

Over the last 28 days, Google showed my content 1.07M times:

• 1.07M impressions

• 7.16K clicks

• Average position: 11

• CTR: 0.7%

And yes, those numbers are nice.

But the real thing that hit me wasn’t “wow, big number.”

It was this:

People were finding my work without me having to be online, charming, productive, or doing my hair.

In fact, I rarely post on my website these days (maybe twice per month?), and still get these kinds of numbers.

That’s the kind of growth that changes your nervous system.

⏰ Section 1: Why Your Time is More Valuable Than You’re Treating It

Most creators are stuck in the first two loops:

Loop #1: The Hourly Loop

Time → effort → money

Stop working → stop earning

Loop #2: The Content Hamster Wheel

Post → spike → fade → post again

Miss a week → momentum resets

Burn out → disappear → “I’m back!” (again)

Both loops are exhausting.

Both loops make your life feel like it’s constantly “due.”

Search introduces a third loop — and it’s the one that feels like relief:

Loop #3: The Compounding Loop

Publish → index → rank → traffic → subscribers → revenue

…and it keeps going even when you take a day off.

That’s why people get annoying about “passive income.”

Not because they’re lazy, but because they’re tired. They’re trying to build a system that doesn’t require them to be “on” every day just to survive.

Search is one of the only online channels that can genuinely keep working after your motivation dies.

Which, if you’re human, happens regularly.

🕵️‍♀️ Section 2: Why Search is Different

Social media is like trying to get someone’s attention at a loud party. Search is different. Search is someone walking up to you and saying:

“Hey. Do you know how to solve this specific problem?”

That’s a high-intent moment.

They’re not scrolling. They’re asking.

Which means:

• you don’t need to “hook” them in 3 seconds

• you don’t need to dance for the algorithm

• you don’t need to become a content goblin

You just need to be the clearest, kindest, most useful answer.

That’s it.

SEO only feels scary because people explain it like it’s chemistry.

In reality, it’s more like hospitality.

“Here’s what you came for. I made it easy. Welcome.”

💡 Section 3: If You’re Only Posting on Substack, You’re Building a Cute Boutique with No Signage

I love Substack. Truly. It’s my home base, but Substack alone is not a complete acquisition engine.

It’s like opening the coziest shop in the world… in a back alley… and hoping the right people just wander in. Substack can absolutely grow you — especially through the Substack Network and its internal growth tools.

But the creators who truly build stable growth? They usually have at least one extra door bringing people in through channels like…

• LinkedIn

• YouTube

• Podcasts

• Pinterest

• Partnerships

• Internet/AI Search

Because relying on one funnel is like relying on one friend to introduce you to everyone you’ll ever meet.

Sweet in theory.

Fragile in reality.

The goal isn’t “pick one platform and pray.”

The goal is: multiple doors.

👩‍💻 SEO’s Younger Cousin: GEO (aka “Search in Full Sentences”)

If SEO is “what people type,” GEO is “what people ask.”

• Old version (SEO): “remote writing jobs”

• New version (GEO): “Where can I find legit remote writing jobs, and how do I know they’re not scams?”

People are still searching. They’re just doing it in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity… wherever. So when someone says “SEO is dead,” what they often mean is: “Search is changing.”

Yes. It is. But the bedrock hasn’t changed:

If you want to be found, you need content that answers real questions.

AI didn’t erase the need for good writing. It raised the price of being vague.

⚡️ My Substack Growth Stats (and The Human Meaning Behind Them)

Here’s what my traffic sources looked like recently behind-the-scenes in my Substack growth dashboard:

• Direct: 25,309 (45.33%)

• Direct to App: 13,360 (23.93%)

• Substack (Network): 6,163 (11.04%)

• LinkedIn: 4,095 (7.33%)

• Email clicks: 2,938 (5.26%)

• amysuto.com: 1,960 (3.51%)

• Google: 1,937 (3.47%)

And new subscribers:

• Substack: 4,899 (73.79%)

• Direct: 687 (10.35%)

• LinkedIn: 490 (7.38%)

• amysuto.com: 258 (3.89%)

• Direct to App: 164 (2.47%)

• Google: 79 (1.19%)

If you’re looking at this thinking, “Google is small compared to Substack,” yes.

And also:

Google is the channel that compounds the longest.

Substack’s network can spike you.

Google can quietly feed you forever.

You want both.

Because spikes are exciting.

But “quietly feeding you forever” is the thing that makes you feel safe.

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🏡 Substack is the Relationship. Your Site is the Welcome Mat.

Here’s the simplest way I can explain what changed everything for me:

• Content is the asset that compounds.

• Substack is where the relationship deepens.

Substack is the living room.

Your blog/website is the welcome mat.

And in my experience, Substack doesn’t always index as cleanly for evergreen search the way a personal site does. Substack behaves like a newsletter ecosystem — weekly cadence, natural half-life.

For evergreen search?

A personal site is often a cleaner container for Google (and now AI tools) to understand and reward.

So if you’re serious about longevity, I recommend:

• Substack = relationship + community + monetization

• Website/blog = indexing + search + long-tail discovery

🙌 Where to Start (Without Turning into a Full-Time “Marketing Person”)

Step 1: Pick One Specific Problem You Solve

Specific is key here!

Broad: “writing”

Specific: “remote writing jobs + pitching”

Specific: “Substack growth without social media”

Specific: “portfolio building for new freelancers”

Step 2: List the Questions Your Audience Already Asks

Not just keywords. Questions.

• “How do I ____?”

• “What’s the best way to ____?”

• “Is it normal that ____?”

• “What should I do if ____?”

Step 3: Write One Clear Answer Per Post

One post = one question.

Use:

• a clear title

• short paragraphs

• simple subheaders

• one next step

Step 4: Lead Them to Substack Like a Normal Person

A soft line at the end:

“If you want more like this, I write here every week.”

That’s enough — you don’t have to get fancy or pushy with your call-to-action.

✍️ If You Want Me to Teach You How to Build Traffic Like This Step-By-Step With Customized Support…

After I finish leading the rest of our 6 Week Substack Sprint, I’ll then be sharing a new workshop series on SEO + GEO for Substack creators — something that makes this feel simple, doable, and (importantly) not like you need to become a full-time marketing person.

If you’re interested, be sure to upgrade to Founding Member here at Sutoscience, as the live classes and workshop materials will only be available to Founding Members. The price is going up this week, so get in before it increases!

💡 upgrade to Founding Member now

And if you want the LinkedIn funnel breakdown too (because yes, it’s another major door), tell me — I’ll write that next.

Because you deserve a system that supports your life.

Not one that consumes it.

-Amy

That’s the question I’m answering in tonight’s 6 Week Substack Sprint, Week 4: Conversion and Monetization.

In this class, I cover…

• Strategies for effective paywalling

• What turns curious readers into emphatic paid subscribers

• Understanding how your content can drive new revenue to your Substack in an authentic way

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Last week on the 6 Week Substack Sprint we went over the key concepts and strategies behind growing on Substack, and in this video I’m walking you through the tutorial putting these theories into practice.

In this video, I share with you…

• How you can spend just 30-40 minutes to create over 15+ high-performing social media posts that build on the concepts of just 1 written Substack article

• The exact frameworks and tools that help me get over 100,000+ and sometimes 1,000,000+ views per social posts

• How to work smarter not harder when it comes to repurposing your existing work

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Hi Sutoscientists,

Substack sells a very specific fantasy.

You write something smart. You hit publish. A thousand discerning strangers instantly recognize your genius. You flip on paid. Stripe starts making that satisfying little ka-ching noise. You retire into a life of artisanal fruit and vibes.

And yet… a ton of writers end up in the same spot: a respectable free list, a handful of sweet replies, and revenue that feels more like “fun money” than “I can pay rent and still buy guac.”

It’s not because you’re doing it “wrong.” It’s because Substack isn’t one game.

It’s more like a gym with four different ways to get in shape — and most people are doing treadmill workouts while trying to train for a powerlifting meet. Then they’re confused why their squat isn’t improving.

So instead of asking, “How do I make money on Substack?” ask the better question:

What kind of income machine am I actually building here?

Before we get into the four ways to earn, let’s set the table: Substack has two main publishing models, which we went over in our first week class for the Substack Sprint, which you can watch here 👇

✌️ The Two Publishing Models (The Container Everything Sits In)

1) Essay-driven: content is the product

This is the classic newsletter archetype. Your writing is the main dish. People subscribe because they like your mind, your taste, your ability to make sense of the world, your research, your voice — the specific way you see things.

In this model, when you’re “doing it right,” the reader finishes your post and thinks:

“I’m glad I read that. I see the world differently now.”

2) Community-driven: membership is the product

This is the one people misunderstand, because they hear “community” and think “comments” or “a chat thread where two people say ‘great post!’ and then disappear.”

Real community is much simpler: people pay to be in a room.

They’re paying for closeness — to you, and to other readers. They’re paying for momentum, accountability, shared language, inside jokes, and that magical feeling of “I’m not doing this alone.”

In this model, when you’re “doing it right,” the reader thinks:

“If I left, I’d miss something.”

Now here’s the important part:

Either model can make a living.

But the way you make money depends on which engine you choose.

And there are four engines.

🍀 The 4 Ways to Make a Living on Substack

1) Paid Membership (Recurring Revenue)

Let’s start with the obvious one — not because it’s the best, but because it’s the one Substack quietly nudges you toward like a waiter gently suggesting the most expensive wine.

Paid membership is the “people pay you directly” model. It works when readers feel like they’re getting an ongoing experience, not a one-time hit of insight.

If you’re essay-driven, the paid version is usually some combination of “deeper, sharper, more specific.” If you’re community-driven, paid is “closer, more interactive, more alive.”

The trick with membership is that your product isn’t just posts. Your product is continuity.

People stay subscribed when there’s rhythm. A pattern. A ritual. Something they’d notice if it disappeared.

A monthly live session. A weekly office-hours thread. A Friday roll-call. A short sprint. Anything with rhythm that makes the membership feel like a place you go, not a button you click.

Here’s a gut-check that never lies:

What happens here that can’t happen if I just read your posts alone?

If the answer is “honestly… nothing,” then you don’t have a membership yet. You have content with a paid toggle.

And again: that’s not bad. It just means you’re trying to earn one way while building another.

🔒 The 3 Other Ways to Make a Living on Substack (And How to Choose the Right One)

If membership is your engine, you already know it. It feels obvious. It feels like your people are gathering around something real.

But if you’re not sure, it’s usually because you’re actually building one of the other three engines—without naming it.

That’s what the rest of this post is: the other three ways people make a living on Substack, what each one really is, and what you should publish if you choose it.

👇 Upgrade to keep reading:

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• How do you drive new readers to your Substack?

• How can you create the magnets that attracts your true fans — without paid ads or making marketing your full-time job?

• What are the systems that can send you traffic — even when you’re not actively posting all the time?

• And my favorite: how can we work smarter, not harder, on growing our Substacks?

I also share frameworks for how to do the things that are more effective on social media, how to get the Substack algorithm to help prioritize your content, and the magic of collaborations on Substack when it comes to gaining social proof and borrowing credibility from other creators to help new audiences find your writing.

And as promised, below is my recommended 30-40 minute reposting strategy to do every time after you post a Substack that I went into in depth on this video.

Here’s the checklist to quickly repurpose 30+ pieces of social media content from 1 Substack post in under an hour:

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If you’re here, I’m going to guess something about you.

You might not even have a Substack yet. You might have zero drafts. Zero plan. Zero “brand.” Maybe you joined Substack because you saw something you liked — some person sharing their favorite journals, or a tiny essay that made you feel understood, or a deep rabbit hole about whether or not pilates is “in” this year or… literally anything.

And a small part of you thought, Wait… could I make something like this?

Then your brain probably did the thing brains love to do. It pulled up the mental image of “a writer.” The cardigan. The quill. The tortured genius energy. The person who’s been writing since childhood and has a secret novel in a drawer.

And you went: Yeah, no. That’s not me.

Good. Perfect, actually. Because I’m not talking to the imaginary Professional Writer With A Capital W.

I’m talking to you — the person at the entry point. The person who’s curious, but doesn’t know what the first step even looks like.

So let me say it clearly:

If you’re reading this, you can write on Substack.

Not “someday when you feel ready.” Not “after you take a class.” Not “if you’ve always wanted to write.”

If you’re reading these words, you’re already qualified.

Because Substack isn’t a writing contest. It’s not a literature gate. It’s not a club where someone checks your credentials at the door.

It’s a platform. Like Instagram. Like YouTube. Like X.

There isn’t one type of person on those platforms, and there isn’t one type of person here either. There isn’t “a Substack writer.”

There are just… people using Substack.

People with jobs. People with families. People who are retired. People who are exhausted. People who are obsessed with weird topics. People who are quietly brilliant and don’t feel like they “count.” People who’ve spent a lifetime being the helper, the behind-the-scenes person, the practical one.

Secretaries. Dental hygienists. Contractors. Teachers. Nurses. Managers. Artists. Accountants. Parents. People rebuilding their lives. People starting over.

And if any part of you has ever thought, I wish I had my own little corner of the internet, that’s what this is.

💻 “But I’m not a writer.”

When people say that, they’re usually not actually talking about writing.

They’re talking about the fear that they’ll sound stupid. Or boring. Or cringe. Or like they’re trying too hard. They’re talking about the feeling of stepping into a room where everyone else seems like they already know what they’re doing.

I get it. Truly.

But here’s what I’ve learned after watching thousands of people publish online: Substack doesn’t reward “writerly.” It rewards real.

People aren’t showing up because your sentences sparkle. They’re showing up because something you said made them feel seen, or made them smarter, or made them laugh, or helped them name a thought they’ve had for years but couldn’t quite articulate.

And honestly? Some of the best Substack writing comes from people who don’t even try to sound like “writers.” They sound like themselves.

That’s the magic.

✍️ You already write. You just don’t call it that.

Let me lower the bar so far it’s underground.

Do you text?

Do you ever send a message that starts with, “Okay so here’s the thing…” and then turns into a full explanation?

Do you ever write a caption that becomes a mini-essay?

Do you ever type something in your Notes app that feels a little too honest to publish?

Do you ever comment on something and think, That was actually a good point.

That’s writing.

And the funniest example is dads because dads are out here doing minimalist writing like it’s an art form.

“Dad, I had a baby.”

👍

“Dad, I got engaged.”

❤️

That is communication. That is meaning. That is a point of view. That is a style.

And if you can send a single emoji that carries an entire emotional universe… you’re not “bad at writing.” You’re just at the beginning of your own format.

In fact, I would absolutely read a Substack called “Life’s Biggest Moments, Summarized in One Emoji.”

🙌 Why This Can Actually Change Your Life

Here’s the part people don’t realize until they start.

A Substack isn’t just “content.” It’s not just you talking into the void.

It’s a way to attract the world you want instead of trying to chase it one person at a time.

I’ve told people for years: it’s easier to put out a net than to target each fish.

When you publish, you stop living in one-to-one mode — constantly explaining yourself, constantly repeating your story, constantly hoping the right people stumble into your orbit.

You become a signal.

You become discoverable.

You become the kind of person who can say, “If you want to know what I’m about, it’s all right here.”

And the people who resonate? They find you.

That’s community. That’s leverage. That’s time returned to you.

Sometimes it leads to friendships. Sometimes it leads to opportunity. Sometimes it just leads to you feeling less alone in your own head.

Sometimes it becomes a hobby that gives your weeks a little shape and meaning. Sometimes it becomes a business.

The point is: it’s a door. And you don’t have to know exactly what’s on the other side to be allowed to open it.

📖 Okay. But How Do You Start When You’re at Absolute Zero?

Here’s what I want you to do: stop trying to “be a writer.” Start trying to be a person who hits publish.

Your first post does not need to be a manifesto. It doesn’t need to be smart. It doesn’t need to be long. It doesn’t need to be perfect.

Your first post just needs to exist.

If you want an easy prompt that doesn’t require any “writing personality,” try this:

Write as if you’re sending a letter to a friend on why you’re starting.

Something like:

“I’m new here. I don’t really know what this is going to become yet. But I’ve been thinking about ____. And I want a place to share what I’m learning / noticing / making.”

That’s a Substack post. Truly.

Then you do it again next week. And the week after that.

And here’s the secret: once you stop treating the blank page like it’s a judgement and start treating it like a practice… it gets fun.

🪶 You Don’t Need a Quill. You Need a System.

A lot of people stall because they assume every post has to be a brand-new performance.

It doesn’t.

You just need a repeatable way to show up.

Maybe every week you share:

• what you’re learning

• one story and what it taught you

• one recommendation and why it matters

• one question you can’t stop thinking about

Your format can be simple. Your style can be simple.

Consistency makes it powerful — not polish.

And if you need help, it’s okay to get help. Writing can look like dictating a voice note. It can look like rough drafts. It can look like talking to AI to get a first draft out so you can edit something there rather than a blank page.

The only thing that matters is that you make it yours.

💫 Writing Can Come From Anywhere and Anyone.

“Anyone can write, but not everyone is a Writer.” - Pretentious Hollywood Writer

Substack is the reverse version:

Not everyone has to be a writer… but great writing can come from anywhere.

Whatever your thing is — building, caregiving, organizing chaos, making people feel safe, keeping a family moving — you’ve got a point of view. That’s the part Substack runs on.

The internet is starving for that kind of writing.

Not fancy writing.

Real writing.

👋 If You Clicked This, You Already Feel It

If you’re still reading, it means something in you is awake.

You’re not here by accident.

You’re here because you can sense that having your own corner — your own signal — your own net in the water… might be meaningful.

And it is.

So please don’t let the imaginary opinion of imaginary critics keep you from something that could genuinely add depth to your life.

They’re loud. They’re not important.

You’re here. You’re curious. That’s enough.

If you’re reading this, you can write on Substack.

🚶🏻‍♀️ Want Me to Walk You Through It?

If you’re at the “beginner level” on Substack — no idea what to write, how to start, how to structure, how to find your people — this is exactly why I created The Six-Week Substack Sprint.

It’s a guided six-week process that helps you:

1. choose a clear starting lane (without overcommitting),

2. create a simple content system (so you always know what to write next), and

3. publish consistently enough to build momentum and attract the right readers.

You can access the Sprint by upgrading to a Founding Membership ($350/year), and you’ll also get replay access so you can follow along on your schedule and revisit any week whenever you need it.

And if you have questions, reply to this, or DM me, and tell me, in one sentence, what you’d want your Substack to be about — messy is fine. Even “I don’t know, but I like ___” is fine.

Because the truth is: everybody starts from scratch.

I started writing before I could even hold a pen. I used to tell my mom stories when I was a tiny little human — and pointed at stickers that felt like stories — and she’d write my ideas down for me.

We all begin with something small.

And now? The world can see your work.

You just have to hit publish.

And I can’t wait to read what’s on your mind.

-Amy

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When I was at USC studying screenwriting, I took a class called Writing to Be Read, and it permanently changed how I write.

Not because it taught me “better writing.”

Because it taught me something more useful: how to write for a reader.

Sure, sounds obvious but most readers are writing for themselves (like a diary) instead of for their readers (like a letter). And reading is a physical experience. It’s eyes moving. Brain scanning. Thumb hovering. Attention negotiating with everything else in your life.

And when your views on Substack go down — or people stop opening — 9 times out of 10 it’s not a mysterious algorithm curse.

You run into problems with growing your Substack when one of these 3 things happen:

1. Value dipped (you’re not helping them like you used to)

2. Entertainment dipped (it’s not as fun to be here)

3. Spark joy dipped (it stopped giving them that feeling Marie Kondo would approve of)

So the mission isn’t “retain everyone.” Nobody does. The mission is: make it easy to start, rewarding to continue, and worth coming back for.

Here are 4 ways to fix that — starting with how your post looks on the page.

👀 Tip 1: Design the Page for Eyes (Before You Ask for Attention)

Most writers think “being read” starts with a good first sentence.

In real life, it starts with a glance.

Someone opens your post and their brain does a lightning-fast scan:

“Is this going to be easy to read… and worth it?”

That decision happens before they really read your words.

This is something I learned back when I was a TV writer: in screenplay/teleplay format, every line needed to be as compact and powerful as possible, as to give the readers the most impact in the fewest amount of words. That practice translated really well to my freelance copywriting in my early years of freelancing as well!

💡 No matter the medium, the truth is this: if you want people to keep reading, you have to think like a reader for 10 seconds before you think like a writer for 10 hours.

📚 The Simplest (And Best) Exercise to Write for Your Reader

Go look at the stuff you actually read all the way through.

Not what you admire. Not what you “should” read. The things you finish.

Pick 3:

• a Substack you never skip

• a post you saved

• a piece you forwarded to someone

Now don’t read it. Look at it.

Ask:

• How fast do I understand what’s happening?

• How often does it give my eyes a break?

• Where are the “little rewards” (bold lines, punchy sentences, mini-takeaways)?

• How quickly does it get to a point?

You’ll start noticing patterns like you’re suddenly seeing the Matrix.

📓 “How to Be Read” Formatting Rules that Quietly Do the Most

You don’t need to turn into a listicle factory. You just need to make your writing breathable.

Make it skimmable (without making it shallow):

• Keep paragraphs short at the top (earn attention first)

• Use clear section headers that say what the section does

• Drop in occasional one-line “anchor” sentences to reset attention

• Bold sparingly — only when it helps someone navigate

A tiny reframe that helps:

• Walls of text feel like homework

• Whitespace feels like an invitation

🖊️ A caveat here is that different types of Substack posts will be formatted differently. A meaty personal essay with a hooky title that builds curiosity will earn the reader’s attention for longer — and they might not mind longer paragraphs. Educational content on the other hand might require more skimmable formats, depending on your audience.

📝 A Mini Template You Can Steal Today

If you want your posts to “feel readable” instantly, try this opening pattern:

• A human line (something real, not “In today’s newsletter…”)

• The promise (what they’ll get)

• The path (what’s coming)

Example shape I used above:

1) Credibility / human origin story (1 line):

I learned this in [place/class], and it changed how I [write/teach/build].

2) Reframe to deepen the hook:

Not because it taught me [thing]. But because it taught me [real thing].

3) Promise and path:

If your [views/opens/reads] are dropping, it’s usually [diagnosis]. Here are [#] ways to fix it — starting with [first lever].

💡 If you attended my 6 Week Substack Sprint Week 2 Class last night, you learned about how to craft eye-catching headlines and how to structure your posts to build your content engine. Be sure to check the replay above to learn more about writing great posts!

If you want the other 3 tips (the ones that move opens, read-through, and “I never miss your posts”), plus the exact “pre-publish” checklist I use to catch drop-off before it happens:

👇 Keep reading with a paid subscription (or start a free trial).

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