The Bare Minimum Guide to Starting Your Substack Newsletter
Written for perfectionists, overthinkers, and neurodivergent people
I see you there, lurking in the Notes and comments sections.
Clicking through other people’s beautifully designed newsletters.
Telling your friends at brunch, “I’m thinking about starting a Substack!” and then promptly watching another month go by with no Substack to be seen.
Substack can be confusing and overwhelming if you let it.
But, respectfully, you have no business spiraling about the niche, the cheeky name of your newsletter, the logo, and the brand strategy before you’ve published a few articles. Counterintuitive, I know. Stay with me.
Today, we’re gonna fix that.
If you’re a creative overthinker with a Google Doc full of newsletter ideas and zero posts published: this is for you.
In this post, I’ll walk you through the bare minimum setup to get your Substack off the ground. We’re going to focus on two key things:
1. Your Profile – this is you, the writer
2. Your Publication – this is your newsletter
Let’s break it down step-by-step.
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🧑💻 Step 1: Create Your Account
Head to substack.com and click Start Writing.
You can log in with your email or Google account.
Substack will throw a lot of onboarding prompts at you, but you can ignore most of them for now. We’re keeping this simple.
📇 Step 2: Set Up Your Profile
This is who you are across the Substack ecosystem. It shows up when you leave Notes, comment, or collaborate. This is also known as the writer behind the publication we’ll set up shortly.
You’ll be asked to fill in:
Name → Just your real name or pen name.
Handle → Something clean like
@annawriteswordsBio → Keep it casual. One line is plenty.
✍️ “Coffee lover. ADHD. Always reading books in the park.”
Photo → Add a friendly photo or use the one that’s on your Instagram
That’s it. You now exist as a writer on Substack!!!! 👏👏
But as we know, a writer is only as good as the things they have *actually* written lol… soooo let’s get your publication set up!
📰 Step 3: Set Up Your Publication
This is your actual newsletter and the thing people subscribe to. Head to the top of your window where you’ll find a button that says “Start Writing” or it may say “Dashboard”
You’ll be prompted to fill in a few fields on the default substack menu on the main page:
Publication Name → You can just use your name — Anna’s Newsletter is perfectly acceptable. Don’t spiral here.
Short Description → A quick sentence about what you’ll write about. Try something like “Writing about life with ADHD and spending too much time online.”
Logo → Optional. Upload a headshot or keep it super minimal with your favorite emoji or the first letter of your name. Don’t get stuck here—this is not the time to rebrand your entire life.
Once you’ve filled those in, click Save and celebrate: your publication is officially real 🥳 (now you can tell your friends at brunch that you just started a Substack)
⚙️ Step 4: Adjust Your Settings (Just the Basics)
Click your profile picture in the upper right corner → Go to Settings.
Here’s what you might want to tweak:
Display name in emails → This is what shows up in readers’ inboxes. Make it personal.
Example: Anna from Anna’s Newsletter
Welcome Email → Substack gives you a default, but you can customize it.
If you’re a writer, this is a great way to make your tone shine.Theme Settings → Choose a simple color palette that feels good.
Light background + bold accent = easy win.Banner/Header → Optional! You can design one in Canva or just leave it blank for now.
This can be updated any time.
You don’t need to build out About pages, Archive pages, or anything else just yet. Leave those blank. Get a few posts under your belt first.
💌 Optional: Import or Invite
You can import your existing email list or connect Stripe to enable paid subscriptions, but you don’t need to do any of that to get started.
Seriously—skip it for now unless you’ve got a list ready and people who are asking to pay you.
🎨 Reminder: You Can Make It Pretty Later
Once you’ve published a few posts, then you can start playing with:
Custom banners
Fonts and colors
Page layouts
Publishing rhythm
Brand voice
But don’t let that stop you from getting started. Every detail can be changed later.
💭 Want more support?
Substack School for Creative Overthinkers is in session!
If you’ve been wanting to start a newsletter forever, but your brain is a perfectionistic tangle of “what ifs” and “maybe somedays” we made something for you:
If you’re tired of cramming yourself into a niche and don't want to trim down your ideas to fit into 7-second videos, we get it.
There are more sides to you than your grid can show. You have more interests than can possibly fit inside 150 characters of an Instagram bio.
👉 You’re craving depth, creative freedom, a corner of the internet that’s actually yours — where your work gets to *breathe*.
👉 You want a place where you can experiment, expand, and remember why you started making things in the first place.
You don’t need a niche — you need a newsletter.
That’s what we’ll build together inside Substack School for Creative Overthinkers. We'll show you the ropes on how to design a thriving personal newsletter without losing yourself in a niche.
Substack School is for you if:
🎨 You’re an artist, writer, deep thinker, multi-hyphenate, ADHDer, or simply a sensitive creative who wants to build something online without selling out to an algorithm or boxing yourself into a niche.
💭 You’ve *thought* about starting a Substack a million times but can’t land on a name, topic, or direction.
📝 You have 74 half-written drafts, 17 different ideas for a newsletter, and no clue what your “niche” is.
🌿 You’re craving consistency, visibility, and a portfolio for your ideas that can grow with you.
💡 What You’ll Learn
Part 1: How to Brand Your Publication (3 lessons)
How to name, describe, and visually shape your newsletter so it feels like you.
🌀 Define the essence of your brand without boxing yourself in
🎯 Clarify a premise that gives you room to evolve
✍️ Write your bio, welcome email, and about page (without spiraling into self-doubt)
🎨 Pick a look-and-feel without getting lost in the fonts and colors
Part 2: How to Develop Your Style (3 lessons)
Set up a structure you can actually stick to, discover what you love writing about, and build a practice that feels sustainable.
📅 Choose a publishing rhythm that supports you instead of burning you out
🗂️ Decide on a format you can stick with
🔊 Unmask your real voice
🪴 Treat your publication like a creative garden
Part 3: How to Grow Your Presence (3 lessons)
Get readers, build momentum, and make some money without turning Substack into an unsustainable grind.
👀 Package your posts so people want to read them
💌 Use Notes to connect and grow your audience organically
💸 Softly plug your offers, build community, and experiment with monetization
🔁 Keep it fun, fluid, and personal
🎧 What You'll Get
■ 2.5 hours of teaching, broken into bite sized of audio lessons so you can listen like a podcast!
■ A Notion companion with templates, examples, and thought prompts
■ Lifetime access + future updates included
This was super helpful. Thank you!
This is my way. In the first place it is for me to write. If someone else reads, it’s a bonus.