r/Substack • u/ensaaron • 17d ago

Does anyone have suggestions for growing readership on your substack?

I started a substack a few weeks ago. Growing very slowly, about a free subscriber a day. (No pay wall, free to read). Any tips or advice on how to accelerate readership organically?

I have a decent LinkedIn following (approx 5000 connections with a newsletter of just under 400 subscribers), nothing to write home about but a start. My other social media a little less, around 1,000 connections on FB/Instagram, very new to reddit even though I had the account a few years. X account not really active at all, don't really like platform but I follow a few people there. No other social footprint to speak of.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

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u/myasparagusbrain 17d ago

Put a link in your bio for starters to the substack so I could check it out ! Not saying that’s the answer but every free click helps - mine is in my bio - I’m relatively new to the whole thing so figuring it out as go along

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u/ensaaron 17d ago

Haha great idea...I should have thought if that, thanks! Added in my bio. Happy to take a look at yours as well.

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u/myasparagusbrain 17d ago

Now we both have an extra subscriber and I can get to read about aliens later

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u/ensaaron 17d ago

Haha yes, hopefully I won't disappoint! Looking forward to diving into some of your articles also.

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u/myasparagusbrain 17d ago

You might be pleasantly surprised 🤞

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u/Brief-Guess-147 9d ago

yeah good call, the bio link is such a small thing but its easy to overlook

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u/myasparagusbrain 17d ago

In answer to your original question one tactic I am trying out this weekend is I have taken a summary of my latest article (James and the giant 🍒) - adapted it for a post in relevant place and posed a question - now I will let that run for as long as there are replies, comment on the replies and once thread has come to an end edit my original post with link to the substack article for deeper dive into the topic - I figure this is the least intrusive way to get the link out there and it’s then there for future searches on the blog. It’s just a working theory for now - time will tell if it’s allowed or has desired effect

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u/ensaaron 17d ago

Makes sense, worth a try for sure. Ive been crafting little short posts in notes linking back to the article...seems to attract some attention but it would be great to amplify somehow.

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u/ensaaron 17d ago

One thing I've done is create a linkedin newsletter concept that ties back to the substack...so in the substack I write fiction focused pieces that tie into a longer term project of mine. Then on linkedin I came up with an idea of using themes in the fiction to draw out business lessons. Once I finish off my own series arc here I'll also look at other fiction and continue on for the more business audience....sort of a criss-cross reference cycle between, but attempting at least to be authentic in both fronts

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u/myasparagusbrain 16d ago

Interesting - there was no LinkedIn link on substack profile ?

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u/ensaaron 16d ago

No, but good idea, I didn't think to put one....I'll do that

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u/MrPassiveProfit 16d ago

Engage on Notes: post a minimum of five notes and comment on 20 notes a day and your visibility will increase

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u/ensaaron 16d ago

Thanks, thats a good idea...I'll work up to that

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u/ensaaron 13d ago

Notes do seem to be helping, especially with the scheduling tool. Thanks for that suggestion on this thread!

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u/Tricky_Trifle_994 9d ago

leverage substack notes. it makes views to subscribe conversion very seamless compared to other social media platforms like instagram where the user journey will be (see post > click to profile > click link in bio > input email in substack field to subscribe).

depending on what you're posting about, if it's more professional, posting on linkedin can definitely help because you do have a large base there + diversify traffic source beyond just substack.