The Substack Distinction That Trips Up New Users
Understanding the difference between your profile and publication
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We often talk about setting up, starting, or creating “A Substack”, or maybe we talk about Substack with a friend and tell them that we are “on Substack” and maybe they should join us.
But what do we mean when we say “A Substack”? Are we referring to our profile or our publication?
“Aren’t they the same thing? I only have one Substack!”
This is one of the most common questions that comes up in discovery calls and leads to a lot of confusion and fear of “doing it wrong”.
Substack differentiates between You: author, reader, writer, creator, and your publication: the home or container in which your content lives. These two items have distinct roles on Substack and are not interchangeable.
Your Profile
This is you on Substack. It is your author byline, whether on your own publication or as a guest post on someone else’s Substack publication. Setting up your profile on Substack is establishing your identity on the platform. This is the identity that you’ll be using as an author, but also with all of your interactions on the Substack platform.
Your activity feed is linked to your profile: every post you write, every comment you make, every like, subscribe, restack and share. When you create a note on Substack Notes (the social media side of Substack), while it may be about the content that lives on your publication, it is from you, personally.
Other users can follow your profile, seeing everything you post to Substack Notes before they choose to subscribe to your Substack publication and actually have your content delivered to them in the app or their email inbox.
With your profile, you do have some editing options, and the ability to create a really nice profile page.
Your publication
“If you’re seeing all of your posts living under your profile instead of a publication homepage, you’re not alone, this is a confusion, and it’s easily fixed with one setting.
While your profile is your identity on Substack, your publication is your home. Think of it as the container that holds all of your content.
Creating a publication allows you to have a Substack website, which by default has a homepage for your content to live, an archive of your posts and an about page for readers.
Your Substack Publication is what users subscribe to, and the content of your publication is what lives here. This is where you can establish your branding, set up a beautiful layout using tags and sections, and create custom pages to share more content or custom offers. Your publication functions as a blog-focused website, plus a newsletter, and can also contain your podcast and/or videos.
A lot of confusion between the profile and publication happens when new Substack users are wanting to share their “Substack link”. Do they share their Profile link or their Publication link and what is the difference?
A profile link looks like this: substack.com/@substackcoach and you’ll want to share this with friends and other authors whom you hope will follow you and connect with you personally on Substack.
Your publication link looks like this: adriennecoach.substack.com and it is the link you give out to people who you would want to subscribe to your publication and receive your content.
All of this is not to say that your Substack profile and publication are not linked together. If you are the publicly listed owner of your publication, the publication is linked with your profile wherever your name appears on Substack.
If you want more guidance on your Substack publication, check out these posts when you’re ready:
When you’re new to Substack, it’s completely normal to feel disoriented by the difference between profiles and publications. Substack doesn’t explain this distinction particularly well, and the interface supports a surprisingly complex system underneath.
That complexity is intentional. Separating your profile from your publication allows Substack to support long-term growth: clearer branding, better organization, multiple publications, pen names, subscriber flows, and even the ability to transfer a publication in the future. What feels confusing at first is actually what gives the platform its flexibility.
If this distinction has tripped you up before, nothing has gone wrong. You don’t need to rebrand, memorize the interface, or fix everything at once. You just need a clearer mental map. Once you understand that your profile is you and your publication is where your work lives, the rest of Substack tends to make a lot more sense.
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To add to the confusion, you can subscribe on someone's profile. Additionally, profiles and publications are classified as the same in your user settings, under "publications"
I want to say you can treat your profile as a publication, but there are fewer features available in terms of branding and user experience.
I am SO glad you have written this Adrienne! This issue comes up so much that I wonder why it's even an option on Substack lol. I share this link with lots of people, thank you!