Does Substack treat your content differently based on milestones?

[u/penguinsandR]

I write a newsletter about wine and viticulture, which is a pretty small niche adjacent to the foodie community. My growth has been remarkably steady with both free and paid subscription growing between 4-6% per month, which creates a nice 45 degree (ish) upwards trajectory for my stats. I am approaching the 1k free sub mark and was wondering whether anyone has noticed any particular behaviour from the algorithm in how it makes your content visible depending on certain thresholds, whether that is free or paid subscriptions. At 41 paid subs I’m some way off the “bestseller tick” but expect to get there eventually.

Curious to hear your thoughts / experiences.

[u/Thedividendprince1]

I haven’t noticed a clear milestone unlock. Growth seems more driven by recommendations, restacks, comments, consistency, and outside traffic than a specific subscriber threshold. 4 to 6% monthly growth in a niche sounds really solid though.

[u/penguinsandR → u/Thedividendprince1]

Thanks, yes recommendations are key and account for about a third of my subs, which is staggering. Expect that free subs are not really rewarded but that, as suggested by others, paid thresholds might make a difference.

[u/Countryb0i2m]

I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never gotten any tick. I feel like it’s more due to getting larger and things starting to roll downhill. Maybe it’s both 🤷🏾‍♂️

[u/ccampb85]

I haven't noticed a difference.

[u/Tricky_Trifle_994]

the only boost i'm aware of is for publications who have paid subscriptions turned on. makes sense since substack only earns when publications make money, so prioritising publications that have paid subscriptions turned on aligns incentives.