Sport Stackers: Substack Notes & Social Media for Sports Creators & Journalists

Robbin Marx

We help sports creators & journalists stack wins, subscribers, and income! sportstackers.substack.com

  1. How to Stay Creative on Substack Without Burning Out

    3d ago

    How to Stay Creative on Substack Without Burning Out

    I almost stopped. The YouTube channel for Sport Stackers has been pretty flat. No real growth to speak of. And I kept looking at the numbers thinking, I don’t know if I can keep doing this. But here’s what kept me going. The Substack community is close to hitting 1,000 subscribers. People are actually getting value from this. The growth on Substack is compounding in a way I can see in real time. So I kept going. Burnout is real. But a lot of what we call burnout is actually a planning and pacing problem. When I looked honestly at my own situation, I noticed I didn’t have a system. I had momentum, then crashes. I had output, then silence. So I built something to fix that. I call it the P.A.C.E. Method. Four steps. Simple to remember. Hard to skip. P is for Plan Before you create anything, you need to know where you’re going. For me, that means mapping out themes for the week or the month before I sit down to write or record. It means knowing my publishing days in advance. For Sport Stackers, I aim for Monday or Tuesday on the newsletter. Sunday nights, I record the episode, transcribe it, and build out the content from there. Is it a lot on Sunday nights? Yes. But it’s planned. I know it’s coming. My family knows it’s coming. That makes it easier to protect. The trap most creators fall into is reacting. Rushing because something is due. That’s what drains you. Planning doesn’t eliminate the work. It just means you’re ready for it. A is for Allocate Time is the one thing you can’t get back. So what you spend it on matters. Allocating time means your creative work gets a real spot on your calendar. A dedicated block. A recurring time you actually show up for. Every Sunday night at 9pm, that’s mine. I also separate ideation from production. All week, if an idea comes up, I write it in a notebook. Old school. Pen and paper. Or I leave myself a voice memo. Sometimes I just talk into an AI tool and say, save this for me, we’ll come back to it. That way, when it’s time to create, I already have material. I’m not starting from zero. The last part of allocation is treating your blocks like meetings you can’t cancel. If your boss scheduled something for 9am, you’d be there. Your creative work deserves the same respect, especially on Substack where no one is scheduling it for you. C is for Calibrate This is where honesty comes in. Calibrating means checking in on yourself and your content and asking what’s working and what’s draining you. Then adjusting accordingly. I had a podcast called Land The Talk. Interviewed speakers, CEOs, nonprofit leaders, marketers. Genuinely enjoyed it for a good stretch. But I committed to one season, finished it, and then made the decision to stop. Not because it failed. Because I didn’t have the energy to do it well and also pour into the work that actually had momentum. That was the right call. Calibrating sometimes means cutting. I’m even thinking about it now with these web pages I’ve been building for each episode. They take real bandwidth. I use Claude Code to help with the graphics, but injecting my frameworks and making sure everything is tight still takes time. Some of these frameworks, like Robbin’s Hierarchy of Engagement, I built from scratch. That creative work adds up. So I’m asking myself the same questions I’m giving you: What is your why? How much time can you actually commit? Will you still do this if no one is watching? That last one is the one that matters most. E is for Elevate Growth is what happens when you’re consistent long enough to improve. Elevating means taking what you’ve built and pushing it forward with intention. Not just doing more. Doing better. Each month, I try to identify one area to improve. And every dollar that comes in from paid subscriptions, brand partnerships, or consulting, I put it back into tools and skills. If your first paid subscriber on Substack gives you $20 a month, don’t pocket it. Find a tool that costs $20 a month that helps you reach more people. That’s how you compound. The other piece of elevation is celebrating what you’ve already done before you go reaching for the next thing. I didn’t always do this. I’d hit a milestone and immediately look at what I hadn’t done yet. That’s a fast way to feel like you’re never enough. Take a moment. Acknowledge the progress. Then keep going. The Loop These four steps aren’t one-time moves. They run in a cycle. Plan your themes. Lock in your days. Allocate your blocks and guard them. Calibrate weekly, cut what’s draining you. Elevate by improving one thing at a time. Then repeat. I’ve been around long enough to know the creators who stick around aren’t the ones who started with the biggest audiences. They’re the ones who figured out how to keep showing up. Not out of pressure. Out of purpose. When I stopped chasing numbers and started focusing on the people I was actually helping, things started clicking. The Substack community is proof of that for me right now. If you’re feeling the weight of it, take one of these steps today. Start with P. Just plan. That’s where it begins. Robbin Get full access to Sport Stackers: A Community for Substack Sports Creators at sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe

    11 min
  2. Five Lies That Are Killing Your Substack Growth

    Jun 9

    Five Lies That Are Killing Your Substack Growth

    I spend a lot of time on social media. Comes with the territory. And I keep seeing the same pieces of advice recycled over and over again on every platform, from every creator, dressed up in different thumbnails. Some of it isn’t just unhelpful. It’s actively working against you. I’ve been building in this space for 20 years. I started doing social media before most people knew what to call it. I was booking shows for bands on MySpace and didn’t even realize I was carving out a future career. That’s how far back this goes for me. So when I see stuff spreading online that I know is wrong, I can’t just scroll past it. Here are the five lies I see most. And what I actually think is true. GRAB WEBPAGE HERE: regal-moonbeam-7f1843.netlify.app Lie #1: Post More and the Algorithm Rewards You This one travels fast because it removes thinking. More equals more. It’s clean and measurable. You can count posts and feel productive even when nothing is growing. I’ll admit I used to push a version of this myself. Early in my consulting days, I was telling clients to push out obscene amounts of content. Sometimes 20 posts a day. Consistency builds the habit. Value builds the audience. Those are two different things. When it comes to Substack Notes, I talk about the 555 method. Five notes a day. Five restacks. Five comments. But even then, I tell people: do what your bandwidth allows. If you want to do 1-1-1, no problem. The number matters less than the consistency. Pick what you can actually maintain and stick to it. Lie #2: You Are the Niche This one is sensitive because there’s a version of it that sounds inspiring. Just be yourself. Talk about whatever you want. Someone out there will connect with it. I’m not going to completely knock that idea. But it skips over something important. The people saying this usually already have an audience. They spent years writing about one thing before anyone knew who they were. Then they earned the right to just exist out loud online. For a writer who’s just getting started, that advice can cost you months. Substack Notes moves fast. A reader makes a follow decision in about two seconds. If your profile is a mix of personal observations, life updates, and random opinions, they can’t figure out what you’re about. And a confused reader doesn’t subscribe. Your topic earns the follow. Your voice earns the loyalty. You can still be yourself. You just need to give people a reason to follow first. Lie #3: Better Hooks Will Fix Your Notes I’ve been in this space long enough to know that hooks aren’t new. We were talking about headlines and hooks in traditional copywriting before social media existed. But right now, everyone is using the same hooks. Somebody downloads a free lead magnet with 50 hook templates and just swaps in their niche. It’s exhausting to watch. Hook frameworks are easy to sell because they’re teachable. Takes aren’t. The take is the note. The hook just opens the door. Before you write a hook, figure out what the payoff is for the reader. What are they going to get from this thing you’re creating? Once you’re clear on that, the hook usually writes itself. And here’s a simple self-test. If someone else posted this exact note, would you restack it from their account? If the answer is no, it’s not ready. One more thing that’s helped me personally. Try cutting the first two sentences from a note and see if it reads better. A lot of times the real note starts at sentence three. Lie #4: More Followers Equal More Revenue This one feels true because the numbers are visible. You see the count go up and assume everything is working. But misaligned follower growth doesn’t just fail to convert. It actively misleads you. You keep producing content for the audience that showed up, even if that audience isn’t the right one. The gap between your follower count and your paid subscribers gets wider and you can’t figure out why. The right 300 followers beat the wrong 10,000. Build for the reader who would pay. That means being specific about who you’re writing for and what they’re going to get. Chasing a broad audience feels productive. But broad audiences rarely pull out their wallets. Lie #5: You Have to Be Everywhere I hear this one on almost every consultation call I do. People want to know which platforms they need to be on. Do they need TikTok? Facebook? Instagram? YouTube? X? All of it? My answer is always the same. Pick one. Being everywhere looks like working hard. It usually just means being stretched thin and mediocre in a lot of places at once. If you’re new and trying to figure out where to start, I’d say Substack and YouTube. Those two, in some order, depending on what you’re building. And if you’re already on Substack, start with Notes. It’s the highest leverage platform for Substack writers right now. You don’t need to be everywhere. You need to be undeniable somewhere. These five lies spread because they’re easy to say and hard to argue with in the moment. Volume sounds smart. Being yourself sounds smart. Hooks sound smart. Big follower counts sound smart. But when you actually sit with your numbers, the story gets more complicated. I created a full breakdown of all five of these with specific action steps for each one. You can find it linked in the description of the podcast episode this came from. It’s worth bookmarking. I’m truly grateful you’re here. Whether you’ve been with me for a while or just found this, I don’t take lightly that you chose to spend a few minutes with this newsletter. The internet is loud. Your time matters to me. See you next week. Robbin Get full access to Sport Stackers: A Community for Substack Sports Creators at sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe

    18 min
  3. How to Get Started on Substack in 2026 (Unstoppable Framework)

    Jun 2

    How to Get Started on Substack in 2026 (Unstoppable Framework)

    I spent a long time tinkering. Tweaking my format. Rethinking my schedule. Watching other writers pop off on Substack and wondering what they were doing that I wasn’t. I told myself I was being strategic. Honestly, I was just overthinking it. What I needed was a simpler way to think about what I was building. That’s where the SYNC method came in. SYNC is a framework from my book, Social Media SYNC. I’ve been using it for a while now, but recently I walked through how it applies specifically to Substack. Four pillars. Each one fixes a different mistake I see sports writers making every week. Here’s what it looks like. ACCESS RESOURCE HERE: https://sport-stackers-sync-method.netlify.app/ S — Simple One idea per issue. That’s it. I know that sounds obvious. But most writers, myself included early on, try to pack too much in. Three angles on last night’s game. A mailbag. A stat breakdown. A personal story. All in one issue. Your reader clicked because they trust you. Give them one clear idea and make it easy to consume. Write your subject line last. Do it after you’ve finished the piece so it reflects exactly what’s inside. And then ask yourself if someone could read your issue in one sitting without having to dig for the main point. If the answer is no, cut something. Y — Yield to Your Intentions Know why you’re publishing before you publish. This one separates people who grow from people who stall. Reactive posting, jumping on whatever feels hot that week, builds a scattered audience. Intentional posting builds a loyal one. I use something I call a Content North Star. It’s a sentence: “I create for [specific reader] to help them [specific change].” Writing it out forces you to get honest about who you’re actually serving. Pick three content pillars and stay with them. Give it three to six months before you decide something isn’t working. I’ve watched so many sports writers pivot their whole brand every few weeks. That’s not a strategy. That’s impatience. Also: track conversations, not just open rates. Who replied to your last issue. Who recommended you to their own audience. That’s your real reach. I had a creator reach out to me recently about a recommendation swap, and that one conversation opened up more than any open rate ever did. N — Natural Be the human in the room. AI can write sports takes all day. It can’t be you. Your stories, your wrong predictions, your honest opinions after a brutal loss, that’s what Substack readers actually support. If your issue sounds like a press release, rewrite it. Tell the behind-the-scenes story. What surprised you while reporting. What you almost missed. Admit when you got something wrong in your last issue. Readers respect that more than polish. Let your personality show in the opener. That’s what makes them come back. C — Change It Up Variety within a consistent framework. Your readers expect your voice. Surprise them with format instead. Rotate through long analysis, quick takes, Q&A, data breakdowns, interviews. Try a recorded conversation about a game and see what happens to your subscriber count. The 90-day variety audit is worth running. Look at which formats your readers actually engage with. Double down on those. Drop the ones that drain you. Building Your Content Universe Here’s where it gets practical. Think of your newsletter as the sun. Everything orbits it. Your Substack Notes, your posts on Threads or BlueSky, your activity on other platforms, those are the planets. Shorter formats that feed readers back to your main newsletter. Podcasts and live streams are comets. Rare, so they land harder. You don’t need to be on camera. An audio-only podcast still counts and the opportunity there for sports writers right now is real. Meteor showers are timely reactions. Something breaks in the news cycle that lines up perfectly with your beat. You move fast, publish something punchy, and stay on brand. When the Spurs advanced to the NBA Finals last night, that was a meteor shower moment. I used it. You can do the same for whatever team or sport you cover. The 70-20-10 Rule This is how I think about my content mix. 70% of your issues should be core pillar content. Deep dives, analysis, stories that define what your Substack is actually about. 20% should be timely and responsive. Breaking news, reader questions, trending topics in your lane. 10% is experimentation. New formats, adjacent topics, behind-the-scenes looks at your process. Try it, measure it, keep it or drop it. This ratio keeps you consistent without going stale. What This Means for You Pick one of these pillars and apply it to your next issue. Not all four. Just one. Maybe you write your subject line last for the first time. Maybe you write out your Content North Star before you start drafting. Maybe you admit in your opener that you got something wrong last week. Small adjustments stack up faster than full overhauls. The writers I see growing on Substack aren’t doing anything magical. They’re showing up with one clear idea, in their own voice, on a schedule they can actually maintain. That’s it. Thanks for being here. I don’t take it lightly that you’re spending time with this. If any of this connected, bring it into your next issue and let me know how it goes. I read every reply. See you next week. Robbin Get full access to Sport Stackers: A Community for Substack Sports Creators at sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe

    12 min
  4. Maslow's Hierarchy for Social Media | How to Build Real Substack Engagement

    May 18

    Maslow's Hierarchy for Social Media | How to Build Real Substack Engagement

    I’ve been deep in social media for over 20 years. And one word still gets under my skin every time I see it thrown around: engagement. Most advice you’ll find online treats engagement like a metric. Likes, opens, replies, shares. Hit the numbers, grow the list. But that’s not what engagement actually is. Engagement is what happens when a reader starts to feel something about you. And you can’t manufacture that with a call to action. I’ve been thinking about this for a while. What I landed on is a framework I’m calling the hierarchy of engagement. It’s based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Five levels. Each one has to be built before the next one is possible. Here’s what it looks like, from the ground up. GET ACCESS TO THE PRESENTATION https://robbins-hierarchy.netlify.app/ Level One: Trust and Dependability Everything starts here. Before a reader cares about your voice, your takes, or your community, they need to know you’re going to show up. Consistently. On time. With accurate information. This sounds simple. It isn’t. A lot of writers skip this step because they’re already thinking about content quality or monetization. They launch before they have a system. They publish twice in January, disappear in February, come back in March with an apology post. Every missed issue is a trust withdrawal. And trust is slow to build, fast to lose. Reliability is a design choice. It’s not a personality trait. Writers who publish consistently have systems behind them. Editorial calendars. Batched drafts. Pre-publish checklists. They treat the publishing date like a deadline, because it is one. If you haven’t launched yet, write your first four issues before you post the first one. Build the habit before you build the audience. Level Two: Authenticity Once readers know they can count on you, they start paying attention to what you actually say. This is where most sports writers still get it wrong. They write like a press release. They report what happened. They recap the game. They hedge every opinion. Readers are sophisticated. They can tell when someone is performing versus when someone is actually saying something. Your specific voice is the only thing no one else has. There are thousands of sports newsletters. There’s only one written by you, with your obsessions, your history, your way of reading a trade. That’s the product. Write one true, debatable take per issue and defend it. Include something personal, even if it’s only tangentially related to sports. Audit your writing and remove any sentence that sounds like it came from a brand account. Authenticity is what makes readers stay past the first month. It’s also what drives paid conversions. People don’t pay for content. They pay for a person they trust. Level Three: Community and Fellowship This is where things start to compound. Once readers trust you and believe you’re real, some of them will start to feel like they belong to something. They’re not just reading your newsletter. They’re part of the group of people who read your newsletter. That’s a different kind of loyalty. At this stage, your job shifts. You’re not just a writer anymore. You’re building infrastructure for connection. Comment sections. Polls. Recurring features where readers can participate. A Discord or group chat if you’re ready for it. End every other issue with a question and actually respond to the first ten replies. Feature a reader take or prediction in your content. Create community rituals, a weekly pick challenge, a debate of the week, a reader power rankings. When readers are connected to each other, they don’t just follow you. They protect the community. Churn drops. Referrals climb. A reader might skip a post, but they won’t leave the group. Level Four: Validation and Acknowledgement People need to feel seen. Not in a vague, inspirational way. Literally seen. They want to know the writer reads their replies. That their opinion landed somewhere. That they’re more than a number on your subscriber count. When a reader changes your mind, say so publicly. Quote readers by name. Reference a specific reply that added nuance to your thinking. Send a personal thank you to every new paid subscriber for the first 90 days. This level is what separates newsletters people like from newsletters people can’t imagine canceling. When a reader feels acknowledged, canceling starts to feel like leaving a relationship. That’s a different kind of retention than anything a discount code can buy. Level Five: Fulfillment This is the peak. Readers at this level don’t just enjoy your work. They credit it with changing something. A better fantasy decision. A sharper way of watching a game. A new way of thinking about sports media. They evangelize. They gift subscriptions. They tell people about you without being asked. You get there by collecting and sharing those stories. Reader wins. Outcomes. Real-world impact that started with your newsletter. Build a framework readers can actually apply on their own. Write an annual state of the publication, an honest look back and a real preview of what’s coming. Fulfillment isn’t a content strategy. It’s what happens when all four levels below it are solid. You can’t shortcut it. Where to Start Figure out where you actually are in this hierarchy. Be honest about it. If readers can’t count on you to show up, start there. If you’re consistent but writing like a brand account, work on your voice. If you’ve found your voice but readers don’t talk to each other, build the infrastructure. Each level unlocks the next one. Trying to build community without trust doesn’t work. Chasing fulfillment without authenticity doesn’t work. Build the foundation. The rest follows. -ROBBIN MARX Get full access to Sport Stackers: A Community for Substack Sports Creators at sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe

    19 min
  5. The Sports Writer’s Content Ecosystem on Substack

    May 12

    The Sports Writer’s Content Ecosystem on Substack

    I’ve been watching sports writers on Substack grind themselves out trying to produce everything at once. Long-form articles every week. Notes every day. Newsletters on a schedule they set when they were feeling ambitious. Most of them burn out before they get traction. The thing is, you don’t need unlimited hours. You need a system that works inside the time you actually have. Two hours a week is a real number. I’ve tested it. It works when you build the week right. Here’s how to do it. HERE IS THE LINK TO THE RESOURCE https://sport-stackers-ecosystem-guide.netlify.app/ Start With Notes, Not the Newsletter Most writers go straight to the long-form article. I get it. That’s where we feel most like writers. But that’s also why so many people stall. Notes are where the real growth happens on Substack right now. They’re short. They’re fast. And they tell you exactly what your readers actually care about before you spend three hours writing something nobody responds to. Write three short notes early in the week. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday works. Each one is just a quick thought, an angle, a take you noticed mid-scroll. A press conference line that bugged you. A stat that told a different story than the highlights did. Post them. Watch what gets restacks. Watch what gets replies. The note that sparks conversation becomes your newsletter. The other two fade. That’s the whole point. The Writing Framework That Keeps It Simple Once you know which idea landed, you write the article. And when you sit down to write it, you don’t need to overthink structure. Start with a five-second moment. A play. A press conference clip. A number that made you stop. Something small and specific. Pull the reader into that moment first. Then extract the lesson. What does that moment actually tell you about the sport, the player, or the game when the cameras aren’t on? That’s your angle. That’s what makes your piece worth reading instead of the ten others covering the same game. Then connect it. Where does this land for someone who loves the sport or covers it themselves? What do they take away from reading your take on this? That’s the whole structure. A moment. A lesson. A connection. You can write a thousand words around that framework without staring at a blank screen for an hour. Show Your Process, Not Just Your Opinion A lot of writers think readers want hot takes. Some do. But what builds trust over time is showing how you actually think. Write a note about the film you watched before writing your last piece. Share the question nobody asked at the postgame presser. Tell readers what you noticed that didn’t make it into the final article. Use specific openers. “Yesterday I rewatched the third quarter and noticed something.” “After the final buzzer I went back and checked the shot chart.” Real timestamps. Real moments. That’s what separates your work from a thousand other sports opinions floating around. When you show your process, readers come back. They trust you. They start to feel like they’re watching you work, and that’s a relationship worth building. The Part That’s Actually Hardest The human posts are the ones most sports writers skip. I understand why. We got into this to write about the game. It can feel weird to write about anything else. But readers subscribe to people, not topics. Share the moment you fell in love with the sport. The game you watched as a kid. The player whose jersey you wore even though your friends thought it was a weird choice. Your actual opinion, especially the unpopular one. Your life outside the sport matters here too. Family. Music. Whatever you do when you’re not watching film. That stuff is part of who you are. Readers bond with who you are, and that bond is what makes them tell someone else about your newsletter. The Weekly Rhythm That Makes This Work Here’s a schedule that keeps you inside two hours a week. Monday: a sports note that shows your process. Tuesday: a human note that shares something real about you. Wednesday: another sports note, a different angle. Thursday: your newsletter drops, built around whichever note landed. Friday: one more human note, something light, something personal. That’s it. The newsletter almost writes itself because you’ve already tested the idea twice by the time you sit down to write it. You can move things around. Make it fit your sport, your schedule, your style. The point isn’t the specific days. The point is having a rhythm so you’re never starting from zero. What This Changes Most sports writers I talk to feel behind. Like they should be doing more. Posting more. Writing longer. Going deeper. The writers I’ve seen grow on Substack aren’t doing more. They’re doing less, but doing it consistently. They’re showing up every week with something small and real and useful. And over time, readers notice that. Two hours is enough. A note on Monday that becomes a newsletter on Thursday. A human moment on Friday that reminds someone why they subscribed. That’s a complete week. You don’t need a media company. You need a system that works inside the life you already have. -Robbin Marx PS Here’s a $20 Buck Gift from Kalshi and easy way to support the community http://kalshi.com/bleav Get full access to Sport Stackers: A Community for Substack Sports Creators at sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe

    8 min
  6. The 5 Ingredients Every New Substack Writer Needs

    May 4

    The 5 Ingredients Every New Substack Writer Needs

    I was sitting in my kitchen one afternoon thinking about how I explain Substack to people who are just starting out. Every time I try to break it down, it sounds like a lot. And it is a lot. But I realized it’s not that different from learning to cook. You don’t need a hundred techniques. You need a solid recipe. Five ingredients, in the right order, and you’ve got something worth serving. This is that recipe. Ingredient 1: The Base Stock Before you write a single word, spend time just exploring. Go find 10 publications in your niche. Read them. Take notes. What format are they using? How often are they posting? What tone do they write in? You’re not trying to copy anyone. You’re trying to understand the space you’re walking into. Where is there a gap nobody is filling? What are readers looking for that they can’t find? Think of it like walking into a kitchen you’ve never been in before. You’d check the equipment. You’d see what ingredients are stocked. You wouldn’t just start cooking. You’d look around first. Do that on Substack. The writers who last did the research before they published anything. ACCESS THE FREE RESOURCE PAGE HERE https://substack-recipe-sport-stackers.netlify.app/ Ingredient 2: The Secret Spice This is where most writers go wrong. They try to write for everybody. And when you write for everybody, you connect with nobody. The secret spice is your ideal reader. Not a demographic segment. One specific person. I want you to name them. Literally give them a name. Mine is Kevin. He’s named after my late brother (RIP Big Bro). Anytime I sit down to create something, I’m writing for Kevin. Now here’s the part people skip. They stop at the demographics. Age, location, income. That’s fine. But I’m more interested in the psychographics. What does Kevin think about at 2am? What does he scroll for the second he gets in line somewhere? What does he want that he can’t find anywhere? When you know that about your reader, your writing changes. It gets specific. It gets personal. And readers feel that. They feel like the publication was built for them. That’s when things start to move. Ingredient 3: The Signature Dish Nobody else has your combination of experience, perspective, and voice. That’s the one competitive advantage nobody can take from you. So what’s your angle? Not just your topic. Your angle. What do you know about this subject that most other writers covering it don’t? Write it out in one clean sentence. Your publication’s one-sentence promise. For my fantasy basketball community, it’s three words: dominate your league. Simple. Direct. Speaks exactly to the person I’m writing for. Don’t overthink it. The best version is usually the shortest version. And make your publication name just as clear. Skip the clever wordplay. Make it obvious what you do and who it’s for. Ingredient 4: The Prep Station Before you publish anything publicly, have at least four articles written and ready. If you’re planning to post weekly, that’s a month of content in the bank before your first subscriber ever shows up. Most people launch with one piece and spend every week scrambling. That scramble is miserable. It makes writing feel like a chore. It puts you in a reactive, pressured headspace every single week. Write the four pieces first. Get trusted eyes on them before anything goes live. A friend. A family member. Someone in a community you trust. Get private feedback first. Then launch confident, not hesitant. And once you do launch, keep adding to that bank. One or two pieces a week so the reservoir never runs dry. That’s a completely different relationship with your work than most writers have. ACCESS TO WRITESTACK SCHEDULING TOOL bit.ly/writestack Ingredient 5: The Daily Simmer This last one is what actually compounds. * Five Substack notes every day. * Five restacks. * Five comments. That’s fifteen actions a day. Spread them out if you need to. But be consistent. There’s no magic follower count you need to hit before this starts working. It works from day one. Think about a good stew. The longer it cooks on low heat, the more flavor it builds. You can’t rush it and get the same result. This method works the same way. The compounding effect is real and it separates writers who grow from writers who stall. The writers who grow on Substack show up daily. Every day, in the notes feed, in the comments, in other people’s work. That daily presence is what makes the difference. How They Work Together These five ingredients don’t work in isolation. The base stock shapes who you write for. The secret spice sharpens your angle. The signature dish defines what you prep. The prep station sets you up to launch right. And the daily simmer keeps you visible while all of it builds. It’s a full system. Every piece depends on the others. Start with the base stock. Build from there. Don’t rush any of it. I’m genuinely excited to see what you put out. Now let’s cook up! -Robbin Marx Get full access to Sport Stackers: A Community for Substack Sports Creators at sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe

    26 min
  7. Substack Just Changed Its Homepage. Here’s What That Means for You.

    Apr 27

    Substack Just Changed Its Homepage. Here’s What That Means for You.

    Something changed on Substack and I want to make sure you see it. When someone visits a publication on mobile, they’re not landing on an article archive. They’re landing on a notes feed. It looks like an X profile. That’s not an accident. Substack is telling you exactly what they want writers to do. Over the last 90 days, about 32 million new subscribers landed on the platform. That’s not from SEO. That’s not from outside ads. That’s people coming to Substack looking for writers. And the way they’re finding writers is through notes. I think a lot of writers are sleeping on this. The Notes Feed Is Now Your Front Door Think about what it means for your notes feed to be the first thing someone sees when they land on your publication. Your latest articles aren’t the hook anymore. Your notes are. And if you haven’t posted a note in two weeks, that’s what a new reader sees when they show up. Substack’s algorithm is also rewarding consistency here. Writers who post notes daily are getting pushed out to more people. Small input, compounding reach over time. That’s a real thing happening right now on the platform. I’ve seen writers build their subscriber count almost entirely inside Substack through notes. They’re posting consistently, showing up daily, and the platform is doing the distribution for them. No other platforms. No ads. Just notes. Video Is the Part Most Writers Are Ignoring Scroll through your notes feed and count the videos. There are more than there were six months ago. Significantly more. Substack TV just rolled out on certain platforms, and the direction is clear. They want to compete with YouTube. Whether they get there or not, the signal right now is that video gets preferential reach. The platform is actively pushing video creators higher in the feed. Most writers don’t make video. That’s the opportunity. If you’re willing to post even a short, simple video note, you’re standing out in a feed that’s mostly text. You don’t need a studio or an editor. A phone and something real to say is enough. Images outperform plain text too, so if video feels like too much right now, start with a photo or a graphic. Anything that breaks the scroll. The Feature Nobody’s Talking About Here’s the one that I keep bringing up because I think it’s genuinely underused. Chat. Once someone finds you through a note, the goal is to keep them around. And the writers who are best at retention are the ones building actual conversations with their readers. Chat is how you do that on Substack. Most creators online are broadcasting. One direction. Post something, move on. Chat flips that. Readers respond. You respond back. It becomes a real thread. And readers who feel like they’re part of a conversation stick around longer than readers who just consume. If you’re trying to build any kind of paid tier or revenue stream down the road, community isn’t optional. It’s the foundation. People pay to stay in rooms where they feel seen. Starting one chat thread a week is enough. One question. Let people respond. Show up in the replies. That’s the whole thing. Three Things That Actually Move the Needle I don’t want this to feel like a list of homework. But if you’re trying to figure out where to focus this week, here’s what I’d do. Post three to five notes a day. Short, real, consistent. Doesn’t have to be long. A thought, an observation, something from your week. The consistency matters more than the length. Start one chat thread this week. Pick a question your readers actually have something to say about. Reply to every person who responds. That’s it. Find one writer to collaborate with this month. Maybe you swap recommendations. Maybe you do a live together. Maybe you just start a conversation that becomes something. One collab a month is a reasonable pace and it compounds over time. What the Shift Is Actually Saying Substack built the notes feed, prioritized video, and added chat for a reason. They want the platform to be a place people stay, not just a place they visit to read one article. The window feels open right now. I’m watching writers grow faster on Substack than anywhere else, and most of them are doing it by just showing up in the feed every day. That’s accessible. You can do that. Robbin Get full access to Sport Stackers: A Community for Substack Sports Creators at sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe

    7 min
  8. Why Substack Belongs at the Top of Your List Right Now

    Apr 2

    Why Substack Belongs at the Top of Your List Right Now

    I’ve talked to a lot of writers who scroll past Substack every time someone brings it up. They’re already managing Instagram, TikTok, maybe YouTube. Another platform feels like more weight. I get it. But I want to share what changed my mind, and why I keep coming back to this one. You Actually Own What You Build Every platform you’re on right now, the followers belong to the platform. TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. They can ban your account, change the algorithm, or shut down tomorrow. Your audience disappears with them. On Substack, every subscriber hands you their email address. That list is yours. You can take it anywhere. Nobody can touch it. That’s not a small thing. I’ve spent years watching creators pour everything into platforms they don’t own. Substack is the first place I’ve felt like I’m building something that actually belongs to me. It’s Not Just for Writers This is the part people get wrong most often. If you hear “newsletter platform” and think “not for me,” stay with me for a second. Podcasters can host their show directly on Substack. Video creators can embed their content there. Coaches, analysts, journalists, people documenting their lives for their kids. It works for all of them. Substack also has native integration with YouTube and LinkedIn. Your content from those platforms can live there too. It’s becoming a real hub for multimedia work, and most people still haven’t figured that out. Free vs. Paid and Why Annual Matters You set the rules on Substack. Free content builds your list. Paid content builds your income. Some writers keep their newsletter free and put their podcast behind a paywall. Some flip it. It’s your call. Monthly subscriptions get a lot of the attention, at $5, $10, $20 a month. But I’d encourage you to think about annual recurring revenue instead. Here’s a real example. If your monthly rate is $20, and you offer annual access at $45 or $50 total, that’s a deal that’s hard to pass up. Twelve months for less than three months at full price. People take that offer. Stacking value matters too. We give our paid members 555 notes templates from The Creator’s Vault, plus a free entry into The Draftys, our sports writing awards. When someone looks at what they get, the price stops feeling like a decision. Notes Are Where Growth Actually Happens This is the part of Substack most people underestimate. Notes is the built-in social feed. Short posts, reactions, ideas. It runs on its own algorithm and it’s how new readers find you. Not through your newsletter. Through notes. Restacking is a huge part of this. When you restack someone else’s note, you’re sending their work to your audience. When they restack yours, their readers see your name. That’s real growth and it costs nothing. The Money Isn’t Based on Views This one matters more than people realize. On YouTube and TikTok, a bad month means a bad check. Your income moves with your view count. On Substack, your income moves with your subscriber count. Those are very different things. A hundred paying subscribers at $10 a month is $1,000 every single month, whether you went viral or not. Brands are also starting to take Substack seriously. PR agencies are actively looking for newsletter-specific campaigns right now. There aren’t many engaged Substack creators yet. That gap is your opening. A small, loyal list can bring in real sponsorship money, and engaged subscribers are worth more to a brand than passive social media followers. The Timing Is Still Right The best time to start was probably two years ago. The second-best time is right now. Most niches on Substack still have low competition. The people following you on other platforms are already looking for a reason to migrate. They want something more personal, more direct, less noisy. The community energy on Substack is also different from most platforms. People actually support each other. Writers recommend each other’s publications. Lists grow together. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and I’ve been in this space for a while. What This Means for You Pick one topic. Set up your profile. Write your first post and make it free. Show up at least once a week. That’s it to start. The first post doesn’t have to be great. It just has to exist. Every week you wait is a week someone else in your niche gets further down the road. That’s not meant to scare you. It’s just true. Start small. Stay consistent. Build the thing you actually own. -Robbin Marx Join SportStackers.com Get full access to Sport Stackers: A Community for Substack Sports Creators at sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe

    19 min
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