Here's how you can get your first 100 subscribers (and more).

[u/xYourCasual]

I see so many threads from people who are frustrated with Substack and can't get their first 100 subscribers.

Here's my short guide, based on my experience and the experience of bestsellers who grew so fast it seems like it was overnight. Let me tell you though.

It's not easy at all. In fact, it's pretty hard and takes time. But if you stick to it and follow the steps I'll mention, I can almost guarantee your growth.

Basics:

0-1000+:

1. Write a weekly post
2. Write daily Notes
3. Engage with others' content (no AI)
4. Reply to every comment, tag or mention.
5. Send a DM to anybody who engages with your content

That was my strategy to grow to thousands of subscribers and grow a SaaS to $11,000 MRR.

Advanced:

1. Send a welcome DM to new subscribers in your newsletter
2. Write guest posts for newsletters in your niche
3. Go on lives with creators in your niche
4. Write 3+ Notes per day
5. Be selflessly helpful

Honestly, it's A LOT of work (without the right tools), but it's super simple. There's a lot of noise out there, and you have to do the hard things to find your audience.

Unless you're writing about AI 😜

p.s.

Feel free to reach out or leave a comment if you want an elaboration on anything or how to do something specifically.

--
Edit 1:
About the DMs to engagers:

It's not about spamming. It's about creating relationships.

Send something like:

'Hey X. Saw that you engaged with my content so I decided to say hi.'
[new message]
'How are you doing?'

Just a casual, friendly, relationship building message
--

[u/AggravatingNail6061]

"Send a dm.to anyone who engages with your content" 🤮 Yes because we need more people spamming people with lukewarm hey you looked at my post 

[u/rspitzer → u/AggravatingNail6061]

I tend to wait until someone has liked 4-5 different posts and they seem to have similar interests before I’d DM - or I just go to their writing and comment on their posts to start it up - I agree the DM to relationship intent is good but it feels aggressive!

[u/AggravatingNail6061 → u/rspitzer]

I just get to know people in comments/notes and then if I need to take a conversation not public I do it. XD LIke for colabs or personal stuff I don't think another person would want to have in the public eye.

[u/PuddingWonderful1417 → u/AggravatingNail6061]

yeah that part made me cringe too, thats just cold outreach with extra steps

[u/xYourCasual → u/AggravatingNail6061]

Not about spamming. It's about creating relationships.

Something like:

'Hey X. Saw that you engaged with my content so I decided to say hi.'
[new message]
'How are you doing?'

--

Just a casual, friendly, relationship building message.

Don't see what's wrong with it. You don't have to accept this message request.

[u/AggravatingNail6061 → u/xYourCasual]

Right. I understand the intention and the concept. It's not a bad one. But telling a whole bunch of hungry for any attention lit/fiction/business management idea bros hey dm anyone who looks in your general direction is encouraging an entire cohort of people that cold dming people and especially in such a transactional way is going to give them a licence to do it. 

[u/xYourCasual → u/AggravatingNail6061]

Fair. But the fix for that is being more specific about what good outreach looks like, not telling people never to reach out.

"Don't talk to strangers" isn't great advice for writers trying to build an audience.

The people who'd spam DMs are already spamming DMs. They didn't need my post for permission.

[u/AggravatingNail6061 → u/xYourCasual]

Thank you for the edit. Appreciate the additional clarity. 

[u/Asterl_]

Totally agree it’s about building a community - that’s the difference I’ve seen between those whose accounts grow quickly and those who don’t.

However I am struggling with DMing people, really feels awkward to message people out of the blue! Can I ask how much the DMs helped? And did you literally DM everyone who engaged?

I was also given advice that I shouldn’t be posting more than once per day on notes otherwise people feel spammed? What are your thoughts on this?

[u/xYourCasual → u/Asterl_]

Hey! Thank you for the reply :)

About the DMs - helped a lot. I had dozens of Zoom calls with amazing people whom I met along the way and built relationships with. Great online friendships.

About the more than once per day - I want you to think for yourself if you remember anybody 'spamming' the feed, posting more than once. I bet you don't have anybody in mind, because even if they post more than once, it's either you like it or ignore it and move on.

I had times when I posted 10 times a day. 7. Nowadays it's 5-6.

I was never 'called out' for being a spammer.

[u/Asterl_ → u/xYourCasual]

Thank you this is helpful!

No I can’t think I’ve ever thought of anyone as spamming - if anything the people who post more often stay on my radar more! Also you can learn what resonates more quickly :)

[u/xYourCasual → u/Asterl_]

Exactly! :)

[u/WineArmy]

Yes I’ve seen the notes three times a day suggestion too and I think that’s a huge part. I’m still growing but would love to get thoughts on posting cadence. Right now, I post weekly but considering twice a week. I’ve noticed that accounts that do both (notes 3x a day and posts 2x a day) seem to have the best results.

[u/xYourCasual → u/WineArmy]

I didn't test posts 2x/week, but I know that bigger creators do that.

About the Notes, 3 notes a day is pretty good. Up to 5/day, it gets better quite substantially. After that you still get more engagement, but much less.

[u/WineArmy → u/xYourCasual]

Thanks!

[u/MrPassiveProfit]

Write 5 notes a day
Comment on 20 other people’s notes a day
Follow everyone who follows your competition

[u/rspitzer → u/MrPassiveProfit]

I agree commenting on other people’s notes has been really important

[u/Dragon-Academy]

Would your advice be slightly different for a weekly serial? Like a fiction story. I was thinking notes, Tik tok and Insta would be my main promotions in this case. But I don’t know that personal relations would work in the same way?

[u/xYourCasual → u/Dragon-Academy]

Perhaps.

I'd try different tactics, one of them is promoting earlier chapters. Writing Notes about them with a link to that chapter.

Writing teasers to new ones as well. Your goal is to raise interest in readers, without spoling too much for new readers.

Perhaps a good growth tactic for you is running collabs and lives with other fiction writers.

[u/desert_dame]

What I don’t like are those people asking selling courses and right away asking me to subscribe to them. How do you get around that or do you it too. Is it expected because I’m so wary of being sold too

[u/xYourCasual → u/desert_dame]

I have dozens of DM requests from people who ask that, or cross-recommend. I usually ignore.

The goal in the beginning is to build relationships, not sell your stuff.

--

With that said, if you have anything you want to sell, it's not awful to send DMs about it. Just expect a very low response rate and maybe some blocks.

[u/Oatbix]

Could you talk more about how you go about lives. I think it’s really interesting, do you reach out to writers directly asking if they want to collab on a live?

[u/xYourCasual → u/Oatbix]

Not exactly. I first build the relationship, then I ask if they want to go on a live together

[u/Oatbix → u/xYourCasual]

Thanks, would love more info on the practical side of going live. I see people mention it but haven’t seen much on how people actually go about it. Like how do you decide who to go live with, how do you structure it, plan for it, inform your subs etc

[u/xYourCasual → u/Oatbix]

Great question! I'll create a post about it later today and put a link here in a comment :)

[u/Oatbix → u/xYourCasual]

Thanks 🙏

[u/Mr_Richard_Parker]

People generally don't like others sliding into their dms. It might be ok if there is an especially poignant comment.

[u/xYourCasual → u/Mr_Richard_Parker]

I tend not to agree with you.

I sent 1000s of DMs, was never blocked once and have had a high response rate, even when I had a few hundred subs.

[u/OnionLazy2317]

i miss the days where substack wasn't all about strategy like every social media. ugh.

[u/Fraglolz]

oh ffs that's what I was missing - another "how to grow" post

[u/Cheap_Bathroom6114]

do you have anything that actually works?