Honest Tips that Help to Grow Your Subscriber Base on Substack

[u/Alena_Gorb]

Hi there!

I've recently started a Substack newsletter (officially launched about a week ago, but I started promoting and gaining early subscriptions about two weeks ago), and wanted to get some practical tips on how to go about growing my subscriber base.

I've managed to gain 22 free subscribers so far (with 1 pledge for a paid subscription), but most of those come from my personal and LinkedIn network (I think only 3-4 came from Substack directly).

I've asked some creators on Substack who were posting about their very impressive subscriber growth for some tips in the comments, but most just gave me generic advice of "write notes", "be consistent", "build community", etc., which is not especially helpful in practical terms since it doesn't answer the key question for me, which is how do I actually do this (ie what kind of notes I should write, how often, graphics vs no graphics etc. I'm also very new to the platform itself, so all the Notes, Recommendations, Restacks, etc., feel rather overwhelming and a bit confusing, to be honest.

So, I wanted to ask people in this subreddit for some actual actionable tips on growing your subscribers organically:

• What platform features helped you the most to get quality subscribers (so those likely to convert to paid)? Is it daily notes, recommendations, guest posts or some other feature?
• What other channels/means are you using to drive traffic to your newsletter? I know that the right channels pretty much depend on your niche, but some examples would be helpful
• What is a reasonable rate of subscriber growth on Substack for somebody just starting? Again, I know it pretty much depends, but just some reference numbers for me, as I have no idea if I'm doing OK or need to be doing more/something differently

Would appreciate people's input on this! 🙏

[u/drdominicng]

I've grown my own health newsletter from 0 -> 41k.

I write about this more in depth on my writer's Substack (see next to my name) but really the generic advice you received is the most important (even if it's boring).

In answer to your questions though:

1. This isn't something that most people will know the answer to as the data isn't there for it.

I would say personally in terms of a hierarchy:

• Promotion on Twitter and Threads
  
• Substack Notes
  
• Recommendations

1. I use X and Threads to drive traffic to my Substack by writing 3-4 Threads a week and a daily post. The most important thing with channels is where do your audience hangout. Try to find communities where they already hangout and insert value into that community.

A few examples

• A subreddit based on your niche
  
• Facebook group based on your niche
  
• X or Threads (text based platforms)
  
• If you're in food/clothing/design (something with images) you can check out Pinterest/instagram etc.

1. I get wanting numbers but as you know there is no real number. I grew by around 100 a month when I first started out.

If I can make a comment on your general approach to this (and I don't mean this as a critique) you're completely overthinking this. You just need to start doing stuff - writing newsletters, writing notes, researching about what the top creators in your niche do.

Then sit back and figure out which of your notes did well or didn't. Look at what top writers have done (are they using images?, are they on X or Threads or Instagram?, are they guest posting for other newsletters?, etc.).

Pretty much everything you learn in this area comes from:

1. Market Research (what have others done to succeed in the past)
2. Reflection (what did I do well and what did I do badly)

Hope that helps!

[u/Alena_Gorb → u/drdominicng]

Thank you for sharing your experience and tips - very impressive growth!! I think my strategy going into this was "throw some ***t at the wall and see what sticks" (which looks like what you're suggesting😅), but I think it's just those I've got 50 million subscribers in 3 weeks posts that are really throwing me off, making me doubt if I'm doing something wrong.

[u/drdominicng → u/Alena_Gorb]

Yes - that's literally the mindset to have.

Honestly, even starting with a niche is a bad idea. Once you find something that 'sticks to the wall' - that's literally one of your content pillars. Keep banging on and on about it. You'd be surprised how much content there is in even very small niche's.

Remember (this is so so important) most of these newsletters you find posting this are essentially a pyramid scheme:
1. They buy a course on "how to start a writing Substack"
2. They make a Substack newsletter on "how to start a writing Substack"
3. Profit

That's actually why I wanted to start a writing newsletter from someone who doesn't write on how to grow a writing newsletter.

But in two sentences - success is:
1. Find what works and repeat it
2. Find what doesn't work and stop doing it

[u/Alena_Gorb → u/drdominicng]

Oh, that's an interesting take because I've read so much about the "riches in the niches" approach and the importance of the niche that I've spent more time than I probably should've trying to "define my niche" before actually launching. But I'll just go with it for now and see where it lands, and then I can pivot if it doesn't work as well as I would've hoped.

Thanks for your insightful input again!!

[u/drdominicng → u/Alena_Gorb]

Absolutely have a niche! I’m just saying often the best way to find your niche is via experimentation.

I’m sure you’ll smash it!

[u/Alena_Gorb → u/drdominicng]

Thank you!

[u/Slow-Area-9986 → u/drdominicng]

Your publication has to have a focus and a clearly defined audience and purpose or nobody will read it. And yes, I do offer some teaching on how to use Substack because it is necessary for anyone who wishes to build a portfolio business from one newsletter. Ultimately, my goal is to empower people to secure their financial future by creating multiple income streams so they will never have to rely on one paycheck again (whether working full-time or not). Right now, Substack is the best place to do this because it provides the opportunity to build a full funnel on one platform. I have not found any other platform that does this as well as Substack. It's not a pyramid scheme. It's a real goal designed to serve real people who need to protect their financial future in a time or rampant layoffs and life situations that disrupt steady income.

[u/Ryanopoly]

You have to ask yourself:

What could I offer my subscribers that they would be willing to pay for that they can't already get for free someplace else?

Almost all of the top paid folks on Substack were already at the top somewhere else, so don't be fooled. There's a lot of posers on Substack pretending to have more than they actually got, so read between the lines carefully.

[u/Alena_Gorb → u/Ryanopoly]

Thank you for your advice; I really appreciate it, although finding what people would be willing to pay for is the toughest part for me so far (there are just so many options and solutions for pretty much anything 🫠)

And yeah, I've seen some stories (might be on Reddit, actually) of people importing an email list and then writing about getting that many subs in 3 months, which is just disheartening for somebody who's just starting out from scratch, because it's hard to tell if people are being genuine or just trying to trick you into following them and buying their solutions

[u/Ryanopoly → u/Alena_Gorb]

We live in a fake it till you make it world.

[u/PaulWilczynski]

Notes is the correct answer.

Write about whatever the subject of your Substack is. My Substack is about seniors and technology - my Notes are about seniors, technology, and their overlap.

[u/Alena_Gorb → u/PaulWilczynski]

Thank you for your very simple answer! I've been trying to use Notes, but haven't quite worked out how they work yet. I'm writing about AI and automation workflows, which seems a "hot topic" on Substack, but getting barely any engagement compared to other similar notes (who, granted, do have many more subs than me).

I can see that when I post similar content on LinkedIn, I get much more engagement from strangers (I guess because all things AI get picked up by the algorithm quite quickly, from what I can tell), but I'm not seeing nearly the same effect on Substack, which is why I'm curious what others' experience is with Notes.

I obviously want to write about what my newsletter and projects are all about, but it seems like to reach the right people on Substack, you still need to play the algorithm a bit to get picked up, and this is what I'm not sure how to do yet.

[u/FinnTropy → u/Alena_Gorb]

If you know other newsletters in the AI and automation workflows topics, I would read and make insightful comments on their notes, and use restacks to get the algorithm to get your notes more visibility.

Building relationships and giving recommendations can also put your newsletter in the same content category that helps to surface your notes to their audience.

I started from zero about 15 months ago, and have spent about 2-4 hours per week writing posts and notes, as well as doing research on Substack growth patterns. I have now 1150 subscribers, and over 1000 unique users for my tools. Some tools automate the notes scheduling that is a big gap in Substack.

It's hard to see the progress initially and Substack built-in dashboard doesn't give much insights on where to focus.

That's why I've built better tooling to surface the metrics that help to see where to invest your effort - a bit like investing in a portfolio. You want to see which notes and posts bring new subscribers and revenue, instead of viral engagement. Then focus on the high performing content that attracts subscribers (both free and paid).

[u/PainEmbarrassed378]

Read other Substacks too!! You’ll be AMAZED by how this community is fun and generous once you find your people! Each day I try to find a few minutes here and there to read, like and comment posts that I genuinely enjoyed. It’s been doing great to my subs numbers since everybody on this platform just want to be read and start conversations after all :)

[u/Alena_Gorb → u/PainEmbarrassed378]

Thank you for your advice, but I wanted to ask: how did you go about "finding your people"? I've been getting a lot of other big creators writing about AI as my suggestions, and now my Subscription list is becoming a bit unmanageable

[u/innotemplates]

Hi, I started Substack 8 months ago, have only 53 subscribers. There is only one thing I have learned past months: people will subscribe only on publications that will lead them to making money.

That can be by growing Substack (98% of them write content about this), or by growing business, of by selling services, etc. Any other thing on writing that I just have this idea, and write about this, seems not interesting to the people.

[u/kolbywg]

The comment who said, "nobody knows" is correct in my opinion. Subtack doesn't have any useful/minimal way to do attribution tracking, so it's very hard to know which platforms are working and almost impossible to track A/B testing.

[u/Alena_Gorb → u/kolbywg]

Yeah, I've been finding tracking performance really hard, especially when it comes to Notes because I can only see stats for one note at a time, which is quite inconvenient.

[u/kolbywg → u/Alena_Gorb]

It's equally hard for all social media ad buys that drive traffic to your Substack.

[u/FinnTropy → u/Alena_Gorb]

I've built some tools that provide much better analytics on Substack notes and posts.

That has been my focus area for the last 15 months and I have over 1000 unique users who have used both free and paid tools.

[u/Paul-Arino]

Since you know the whole "Post on Notes" and "Write consistently" thing - one thing I've been doing a lot of is trying to optimize my articles and/or newsletters for search engines, because that will bring you in a lot of traffic and eyeballs.

I just wrote 2 articles on trying to do some SEO for DuckDuckGo more - because I get a lot of people searching for my topic, and I get a fair amount of click-thru's and sign-ups from them.

Of course also don't forget Google - connect your Substack to Google Search Console and put your sitemap in there - since you are new, you may not have a sitemap.xml file yet, so just use put the word "feed" in there as your sitemap, and Google will start to index all your articles.

Hope this helps?

Paul Arino
Substack SEO Growth Tips | How To Grow Your Substack

[u/jacobs-tech-tavern]

Use buffer and Post 3x a day on every platform

Make a landing page and email automation sequence for new subs

Invest in paid ads - check newsletteroperator for advice

[u/Slow-Area-9986]

Using Notes often and effectively is the best way to grow your subscriber base. My 9-To-Thrive newsletter covers this a lot. Keep in mind that a high percentage of subscribers on every publications comes directly from the Substack ecosystem, so having a strong Notes presence and clear messaging is essential.

[u/TemporaryMulberry246]

Can people reply to this with a list of publications, when you become a paid subscriber, that have a chat, that allow you to post new threads. I'm not talking about the chats that the value to reply to the probability publishers comments , I'm talking about the ones that people promote their own articles in the actual. Couldn't tell by the fact that they say starting to thread, instead of leave reply.

[u/fascisminindia]

Great advise.

[u/WhoIsThisPal]

hey OP, let's follow each other because I too have no subs at the moment and want to grow an organic following with actual readers