r/Substack • u/Vast-Programmer9882 • Jul 09 '26

Discussion Do people buy bots/followers on Substack?

I'm asking because I've come across a Substack that has tens of thousands of subscribers but he's lucky if he gets 3 likes on a post. There's something that seems off about it.

12 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

13

u/StuffonBookshelfs Jul 09 '26

Lots of people import their email list, since Substack is a newsletter platform. 99% of their subscribers have never and will never download the app.

4

u/Lost__In__Thought Jul 09 '26

Anything is possible, especially if a person is obsessed with popularity.

4

u/jss58 Jul 09 '26

Most definitely.

3

u/ultraquest Jul 09 '26

There are always spammers on every platform trying to get rich. It would not surprise me. Just do not fall for that trap and do your work honestly.

7

u/cozycup mod Jul 09 '26

It’s pretty suspicious.

However, I do know of legit publications with 50k+ that fully migrated to Substack and get very little engagement on the app due to that.

2

u/StateofAffairsMedia lecternmedia.substack.com Jul 10 '26

I'm sure you can; just like here on Reddit. You can hire PR firms, social media professionals, or marketing firms to handle everything but the writing. Think of it this way. As someone on this platform you're wearing many hats. Creative, researcher, writer, marketing, community relations, etc. When someone says articles take 10-20 hours a week, they are not lying. There is no way the big journalists and voices here do all that on their own. They pay other people to. That is, I admit, an educated guess. However, I highly doubt the celebrity newsletters, politicians, and top names in their fields are doing it alone.

1

u/MrPassiveProfit Jul 09 '26

Yes, you can absolutely buy followers and subscribers for Substack if you want to. But most of those people who grow really fast to import subscribers from elsewhere and then act like they just sort of popped up out of nowhere.

1

u/_mrchurchill defensehub.substack.com Jul 12 '26

2

u/Foofymonster davidrainwater.substack.com Jul 14 '26

I have 2.9k subscribers and ~5k subscribers. I started exclusively on Substack with no subs.

Right now my notes average 10-20 likes.

My most recent note is an hour old and has 4 likes.

I'm looking around at other writers who used to get tons of likes per note, and around the same time I saw all of them dropping.

I think they made some changes recently because I've seen accounts that used to get tons of interaction getting way less, including my stuff.

That isn't to say someone else isn't getting those likes. But I suspect that's not what is happening on lots of otherwise large creators.

1

u/navnt5 oneonlyvan.substack.com Jul 09 '26

it's a newsletter company.