How Cross Posting Is the Best Promotional Tool You Aren't Using

Hello Friends!I’ve just discovered a new trick that I’m excited to tell you about. It’s called cross posting, and you can find the button for it by clicking the three dots right next to share.Note that if you have a “Read only” account, your drop down menu might not look the same as mine. I’ve tried this with somebody else and it didn’t look the same, so please don’t hesitate to send feedback and tell me what you see.But if you have a few followers, you should see the “cross post” option, and it’s pretty cool.Essentially, cross posting allows you to send an article to your email list. Here’s a Substack post that will explain it further. Essentially, it allows you to write some commentary at the top and then email the article out to your subscribers.Why is that important?Well, there are all sorts of sharing mechanisms available on this and every other platform. If you hit the share button, you get the following:Clicking on “share” allows you to send a link to places like notes, Facebook, Linkedin, Bluesky, and X. That’s helpful, but at the same time all that content is subject to the whims of the algorithm. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate any kind of share, but I get the impression that most social media sites ban me.The exceptions are Bluesky and Notes. if you are going to share anywhere, make it one of those two places.You also get these buttons:That’s like, comment, and restack. Restack is essentially the same as “Share to Notes.”If you restack, a post is sent to Substack’s feed. That’s useful and wonderful but it goes away pretty quickly.With cross-posting you can send the article to the inbox of your subscribers. I believe that’s a much better way to get a lot of eyes on information that you think is worth sharing.Those of you who read my work know that I spend a lot of time on Notes.Notes is a wonderful growth tool, but there are times that you write something and it absolutely languishes.Here’s a recent one:Here are the stats:115 clicks is pretty nice, but as of now this post isn’t getting me much visibility.I get a lot of emails from wonderful people who tell me they’d love to sponsor me, but they just can’t afford to right now. I completely understand that. We’re facing severe economic headwinds because of the current regime. More subscribers are always, always needed and welcome, but never take food off your table to support me.Comments, likes, and shares are always welcome. I’d also really love to see a few more people using the cross-post function. I always knew it was out there, but I haven’t really thought about it much until recently.Now, I write so much that I would never expect anyone to cross-post everything I write. But if there’s one article a week or a month that really speaks to you, that’s the best way to get it out to your followers and get some discussion started. Again, the tool allows you to write an introduction to the article so your audience isn’t confused.When I first started on Substack, I was fearful that I would “overload” my list with too much content. The Mouthy Renegade Writer showed me that you could write 3 posts a day as a viable growth mechanism, and I’m grateful for that.Cross-posting could be a wonderful way to offer some content if you want to give yourself a little break (I don’t know if you can schedule a cross-post or not—I’ll have to look into that). It’s just another great way to make the most out of your subscriber list.If you’ve experimented with cross-posting, please let me know! I look forward to doing more with this tool!You all make this newsletter happen! Thanks for your sponsorship! I have payment tiers starting at as little as twenty dollars a year.Upgrade at 30% offUpgrade at 40% offUpgrade at 50% offUpgrade at 60% offI'm so happy you're here, and I'm looking forward to sharing more thoughts with you tomorrow.My CoSchedule referral linkHere’s my referral link to my preferred headline analyzer tool. If you sign up through this, it’s another way to support this newsletter (thank you).I'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe