Sparkle on Substack

Claire Venus

Stay Creative on Substack with tutorials, teaching, posts, threads, thoughts and tools. Special guest episodes with those who I massively respect and I know will help you sparkle up your Substack and find your true north on the platform! ✨ sparkleon.substack.com

  1. 5d ago

    Move your audience from Instagram to Substack.

    Don’t miss your chance to try this WONDERFUL new tool from one of my mentors and the absolute guru of IG with business Mya Nichol - Grab plug and get paid and get those IG story viewers into Substack subscribers! Yay!! Hello Sparklers, Here’s the replay of today’s live class delivered on Substack live, where we explored how to gently invite your Instagram audience into your Substack world (and how to keep them there once they arrive). Pour a cup of tea, grab a chocolate biscuit, and settle in if you’re catching up? My dms are always open. What we covered 1. Your invite matters more than you think. Social media is a scrolling space, so a quick “read my Substack” on a story sticker often isn’t enough for someone to leap from one platform to another. We practised the coffee shop exercise... imagine telling a supportive friend about your Substack in a busy café, then capture everything you say. That spoken version holds your passion, your why, your cadence and your story, which is exactly what a cold audience needs to hear. 2. Ask yourself “why” five times. This old marketing exercise takes you from “because I want to” all the way down to the life your writing enables. That deeper layer is where your most magnetic invite lives. And tell people when your newsletter lands in their week, so they can picture it arriving. 3. Share more, and share it often. If you post one story slide about your newsletter, try five. People need a reason, a motivation and plenty of repetition before they click. You’re never taking up too much space. 4. The best Substack links for Instagram. We looked at /about (add a subscribe box at the top), /welcome (shows your blurbs as social proof), /subscribe, and individual post links. Remember that paid subscriptions made inside the app can carry Apple fees, and new subscribers will also receive emails from Substack itself, so mention that in your welcome email. Get a friend or colleague to experiment clicking these links from your story (with your own Substack url in place of mine) /subscribe /welcome /about and add the subscribe box button right at the top. 5. ManyChat for automated DMs. I showed you how I use comment keywords to deliver Substack links straight into people’s DMs. Short trigger words or emojis work best, and “press here” on the button makes life easier for everyone. 6. What do you sell in your paid Substack? People pay to be educated, to feel something, to feel part of a community, or to feel activated (and often to support you). Perks, social proof on your About page, and talking about what’s happening behind the paywall all help. 7. Plug and Get Paid by Mya Nichol. I demoed the tool that’s helped my neurodivergent brain turn long-form thinking into Instagram story slides that sell. You plug in your offer and ideal reader, and it builds and analyses your stories for you. Try Plug and Get Paid here: (This is an affiliate link, which means I receive a percentage if you purchase.) Your gentle next step: speak your invite out loud, write down what you hear, and share it on five story slides this week. I know this is a HUGE topic to learn in an hour long class but step by step is always the way. We don’t need to go viral loves - we need the right people to find us and I just know they already can’t wait to hear what it is you have to say. With sparkle for your biggest brightest social media balanced with Substack self.Claire P.S - Thank you Rachel Jefferies, Kendall Marie Platt 🌱, Vera Lúcia, Alex Ritchie | Textile Art, Jo Gray ✏️, Louise Tilbrook and many others for tuning into my live video and being so chatty and supportive! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sparkleon.substack.com/subscribe

    Move your audience from Instagram to Substack.
  2. Sep 8

    What feels different after a summer break and trying on a new Substack for size...

    Thank you Kate Harvey, Kendall Marie Platt 🌱, Claire Machado, Nance Scott, Jenny Karlsson, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. Sparklers... quick summary from my live… I deleted the Substack app the entire summer (still deleted, if I’m honest). I took a break then took Sparkle down to two newsletters a month instead of my usual cadence, same depth of content but flagging the archive more… And I said something out loud I want to say here too. My Substack growth had genuinely slowed to the point where I wouldn’t have had a business if I was relying on it alone. So I made a call - mastered content creation - grew my Instagram by over 2,000 followers this summer, something I’ve never really done before, and leaned into well-aligned summits instead of waiting for the algorithm to catch up adding 500 subs to my list. None of that is a Substack failure story more what building this actually looks like some seasons. If something in your setup feels stagnant right now, whether that’s your cadence, your day, or where you’re putting your energy... you don’t need my blueprint or anyone else’s. Change it? See what happens? Claire ✨ Join our joyful growth to Substack bestseller challenge - on all of this week… Turn the Page Retreat - next weekend… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sparkleon.substack.com/subscribe

    What feels different after a summer break and trying on a new Substack for size...
  3. Jul 16

    Let's audit a Substack live!

    Thank you ✹The Unmasked Woman✹ (Hannah), Vera Lúcia, Rose Wippich, Lisa Conquet, Rita Riebel Mitchell, and many others for tuning into my live video with Bella younger! Join me for my next live video in the app. You can subscribe to Bella here… And I highly recommend following her on IG here…where you can also download the template I mention… * https://www.instagram.com/deliciouslystella * Her book The Accidental Influencer is here… https://www.amazon.co.uk/Accidental-Influencer-Likes-Nearly-Ruined/dp/0008402493 Ai overview thanks Claude What this session was: a live audit with Bella Younger (author, “The Pug’s Ear” on Substack) covering identity/rebranding on the page, the about page, positioning. Old identity, new chapter: Bella’s wrestling with how much to reference her old “Deliciously Stellar” persona. Claire’s take: you can honour a past identity without leading with it; people don’t need to know who we are in the world, we can just be who we are. * The about page is prime real estate: a photo, a book link, and social proof (testimonials) belong there — and most people never find the edit button because Substack keeps moving it. * Subscribe buttons need repeating: one at the bottom isn’t enough. Put one early too, because people get distracted mid-scroll. * Say less than you’ll do: if you might publish weekly, promise two to three times a month instead — it protects you on a bad week and it’s fairer to readers who are giving you their attention. * Pricing is emotional, not just mathematical: low, easy price points (the “cost of a coffee”) bring in more subscribers overall, and subscriptions are often the first thing people cancel when they feel overwhelmed — a cheaper annual plan protects against that. * Momentum beats perfection: scheduling a post before it’s fully finished can be the deadline that actually gets it out the door. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sparkleon.substack.com/subscribe

    Let's audit a Substack live!
  4. Jun 12

    War and Peace - a world wide reading experience & full time job with 46k readers live on Substack

    “It became acceptable. It’s okay to ask people to pay for your creative work... every minute that you spend working on these projects is valued.” Simon Haisell I sat down with the wonder that is Simon Haisell in Spring to chat more about his patron model here on Substack (the one I always use as an example). It was such a precious conversation about the magic of Substack and community. I know you’ll be super inspired. If you’ve not heard of Simon - you’ll be enchanted to meet him - he’s the creator behind Footnotes and Tangents on Substack which is now in year 3. He’s based in the North East of England (like me) and I always adore supporting North East creative minds - this conversation was just an honour. Simon runs slow read-alongs of classic and literary fiction (his flagship being a chapter-a-day of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace across a full year). He started the book club on Instagram before moving to Substack around end of 2023. “You read a chapter (of War and Peace) each day and you’re living the life with the characters rather than racing to the end... it does allow you to make connections with your own life.” The conversation covers his journey from passion project to full-time Substack creator, how word of mouth (including a major Gretchen Rubin (!!) shoutout) drove lots of his growth. We talk about why he uses a “soft paywall” model including complimentary subscriptions for anyone who can’t pay, and how he intentionally stays off the leaderboard numbers to protect the soul of his work. We also touch on how we manage our nervous systems in relation to ‘leaderboards’ and ‘being’ online. The episode ends with exciting news: Simon has just signed with literary agency Curtis Brown and been in conversation with Penguin, directly because of his Substack presence. What a well deserved whirlwind. I can’t wait to see what happens next!! “If I chased the numbers and tried to make the world’s biggest book group, all of the soul would suck out of it very quickly... what comes across in my writing is my love of the books, that’s why I’m here.” Simon Haisell War and Peace Daily - https://footnotesandtangents.substack.com/s/2026-war-and-peace-daily Free Masterclass with me - The four types of monetisation on Substack. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sparkleon.substack.com/subscribe

Ratings & Reviews

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About

Stay Creative on Substack with tutorials, teaching, posts, threads, thoughts and tools. Special guest episodes with those who I massively respect and I know will help you sparkle up your Substack and find your true north on the platform! ✨ sparkleon.substack.com

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