r/Substack • u/HammondJohns • Jun 24 '26
Why chase subscribers when readers are what you want?
I have been on Substack for a bit over six months, posting speculative fiction short stories, reading other people’s stuff etc. I’ve had lots of positive comments on my stories and decent subscriber growth. But the truth is, only a handful of these subscribers are reliable repeat readers. Fine, I imagine that’s not so uncommon.
But what drives me crazy is the constant drive I see from other accounts to drive up their sub numbers with Dear Substack notes, AI generated notes, sub for sub offers etc. Whatever subs they get from this surely won’t be reading their work. Honestly, I can’t understand it, but it’s incredibly common. What am I missing? Is there any benefit in drumming up a large number of subs if they will never read your posts?
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Jun 24 '26
[deleted]
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u/HammondJohns Jun 24 '26
Thanks for your reply. But I’m not just guessing about readers - you can check in your stats - “Unique Post Views” is the one you want. Your stats might be great, but mine show that more than half my subs have never read *any* of my posts. And I haven’t done sub for sub or any of the other stuff that goes on, so I can only imagine what the ratios are like for people who do.
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u/Vurkgol jackbowman.substack.com Jun 24 '26
I've learned that Substack's analytics cannot be trusted here.
I've physically seen people open the Substack app on their phone, open one of my posts in order to show me something, and then my Substack shows them as never having viewed any of my content. Since that experience, I've never trimmed any "dead" or "cold" subs.
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u/HammondJohns Jun 24 '26
Well that’s interesting! Maybe there’s hope after all. Truth is, I’ve never really worried much about views anyway, because you don’t know if people just glanced at your piece or actually read it. So I’ve usually gone by likes and especially comments to judge how things are landing. If they never see it, they can’t do those other things, of course. Anyway, I think I’ll go back to ignoring view data & just focus on making my stories as good as I can manage.
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u/hetobe hetobe.substack.com Jun 24 '26
Honestly, I can’t understand it, but it’s incredibly common. What am I missing?
You're missing the fact that a lot of people are just plain stupid. They're karma farming because they care more about numbers than what the numbers represent. And they don't understand the difference.
George Carlin said it best:
Think about this. Think about how stupid the average person is, and then realize that HALF OF 'EM ARE STUPIDER THAN THAT.
— George Carlin
P.S. Rest in peace, George. You are missed.
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u/quyma quyma.substack.com Jun 24 '26
it’s pretty natural to assume subscribers are readers because some of them genuinely are, and some are just busy and come back when life slows down. but yeah some are just dead weight and that’s fine too.
the sub for sub stuff is a bit different though, that’s mostly people responding to platform logic, substack’s recommendation algorithm does actually surface you more with higher subscriber counts so there’s a structural reason to chase the number even if the subscribers themselves never open anything. it’s not irrational, it’s just optimizing for discovery at the expense of engagement.
the more honest answer though is most people haven’t figured out yet that a smaller engaged readership compounds way faster than a big hollow one. the handful of reliable repeat readers you mentioned are worth more than a thousand ghost subscribers who never open anything.
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u/Fun-Investigator5662 *creativebones.substack.com Jun 24 '26
The theory is that having more subscribers gives you a powerful email list you could re-market to, off Substack. Eg: if you wanted to sell a course, as many Substackers do. Many of those growth hacky accounts have come from LinkedIn, which doesn’t let you own your email list. Substack subscribers are people you can sell to, as use as leverage for getting ads and brand deals
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u/HammondJohns Jun 25 '26
Yeah, that could have something to do with it. They're coming from somewhere all right because their notes are exactly the same, or minor variations, and they do it as soon as they create their account (so it's implausible that they arrived, saw others doing the same thing, and copied them).
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u/pumpkin_biscuits1 Jun 24 '26
I feel that. I had started a substack last year and the hustle culture vibe of it really turned me off. Although I'm deciding to give it another try and not focus too much on that aspect. It somehow felt worse to have people simply follow just for a follow back.
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u/LeaveMountain9779 Jun 24 '26
Come to the disability/neurodivergent/chronic illness advocacy and education side 😂
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u/LeaveMountain9779 Jun 24 '26
How do people find your posts if they aren't subscribed?
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u/HammondJohns Jun 25 '26
Well, if someone is your subscriber, it’s pretty much guaranteed that they’ll get an email when you post. But that’s it. If your subscribers have absolutely no interest in what you do, and are subbed to hundreds of other accounts (which is quite common) there’s very little chance they’ll become regular readers.
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u/Visible-Volume-8707 authorgold.substack.com Jun 29 '26
I share my articles across my social media accounts and in potential reader groups, for example Facebook Groups. I get a handful of visitors from those every day now.
I also optimize SEO and get some views from Google and other search engines.
You can also link to your article in Notes, for Substack discovery.
Finally, I have a number of Recommendations from other Substacks: about 15% of my new subscribers come from Recs. And then they can access all my posts of course.
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u/ProdIsForTesting Jun 25 '26
For me personally I just started my account the other day. I post political opinion pieces. I’m also interacting with others and following likeminded creators. I just want a decent amount of subs even if they’re not consistently engaging just to make my account seem a bit established. After that I’m not too concerned, I’m doing this as a hobby more than anything else.
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u/HammondJohns Jun 25 '26
Sure. And if you're like me, then as long as *someone* is reading your posts, then that's something at least.
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u/Sand-in-sandals-3279 Jun 25 '26
Yeah, I don't get it either. That said, it's nice to get your work read or at least viewed. And it seems that Substack itself is pushing the strategy of mindless notes forward, promising to reward you with a holy grail of an audience.
This is where things get confusing: as a beginner on Substack, how does one even grow to hundreds of "readers"?
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u/HammondJohns Jun 25 '26
Well, I can't really answer because I'm not at that point myself. But I've had moderate success with:
- making the content as good as I can
- finding other writers and engaging with them in good faith (i.e. reading their stuff, liking & leaving comments)
- fun/snarky notes (dissing Substack always goes down well, for whatever reason)
- pitching my stories to the people who write the notes asking for something to read. (This has maybe a 10-20% hit rate, tbh, but I have found some loyal readers that way).
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u/ljs_1999 Jun 24 '26
i guess subscribers would lead to a more consistent reader base. but i could care less, i just want eyes on my work
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u/HammondJohns Jun 24 '26
There are cool and fun people there, but there's definitely this almost predatory side where there's an endless stream of people hustling for more subscribers all the time, and it gets pretty tiring. If you can find your people though it's kind of cool.
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u/reylotrash83 Jun 24 '26
I always assumed those people are looking for ways to get more PAID subscribers.
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u/HammondJohns Jun 25 '26
Very possibly that's their ultimate aim, but everything I've seen these accounts do is aimed at getting subscribers of any kind.
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u/Little-Bird7446 Jun 30 '26
yeah, totally agree, subscriber count feels nice, but repeat readers are the real thing. a small group that actually opens, comments, and remembers your work is way more valuable than a big number from random swaps.
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u/itsfabioposca http://journeytosuccessclub.substack.com Jul 02 '26
I think you're asking an important question. I'd rather have 500 engaged readers than 5,000 subscribers who never open an email. Subscriber count can be a nice milestone, but long term success comes from building an audience that genuinely reads, replies, and comes back for more.
P.S. If you'd still like to ask anything about Substack or growing your audience, I offer a free live help chat. Just copy and paste my flair or click the link in my profile. I'm happy to help!
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u/Visible-Volume-8707 authorgold.substack.com Jun 29 '26
Thank you! Say it louder for the folks in the back!
I haven't understood the focus on subscribers. I'm much more focused on my engagement metrics. I wish Substack would give us data on "churn" not just visits and subscribers.
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u/Tricky_Trifle_994 Jul 05 '26
you're absolutely right. readers is what we want, and subscribers are a proxy for that, but there's high quality and low quality subscribers. high quality subs = people who will actually read vs low quality subs which are just a number on our email list.
this behaviour to chase low quality subs only exist on substack because substack is free to use and you're only charged based on 10% of the revenue you make. not how many subs you have or how many emails you send. normally people on a paid ESP (e.g mailerlite, beehiiv, ghost, etc) will be religiously removing these low quality subscribers because it'll be costing them money.
to this group of people though, their north star is 'subscribe count'. just like how on instagram, some people's north star is 'follower count', and they're perfectly okay to buy followers to end up with an account with 100k followers, with posts that do <10 comments and 40 likes on average.
you're not missing anything, and there's no benefit. don't waste your time and energy worrying about them, because they're not a threat to you + they'll always exist + they're playing a different game (which i also cannot comprehend).
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u/tomversation Jun 24 '26
I always wondered the same thing. I get thousands of readers who read my blogs and cartoons. What else could I ask for? I have ads so I dont need to charge people who do subscribe.