Friday's 3 smartest links
Smarter Substack | Jul 3, 2026
Three quick reads to send you into the weekend a smarter Substacker. Here's what's worth your time today:
📈 Growth
You Hate Substack Lives — Do Them Anyway — Most creators skip Substack Lives because going on camera feels awkward and low-return, so the feature stays wide open while everyone else fights over Notes. This makes the case that Lives are one of the platform’s most underused growth levers, and how to run one without dreading it.
🛠️ Tools & Features
The Perfect Substack Homepage — Your homepage is the first thing a curious reader sees, and a cluttered or generic one quietly costs you subscribers before they read a single word. Timo Mason breaks down what a high-converting Substack homepage actually includes, section by section.
✍️ Writing
Writing People Like vs. Writing People Pay For — There’s a real gap between writing that earns likes and writing that earns subscriptions, and chasing the first can quietly starve the second. Taylin Simmonds unpacks the difference and what to write when you actually want readers to commit.
P.S. Setting up your publication the right way from day one saves months of guessing. Grab the Substack Starter Kit — everything you need to launch and grow.
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