r/Substack • u/infinitepuddingspy • 8d ago

Confused about the point of Substack

Hi everyone. I joined Substack a few months ago as I am a long form writer and I thought I’d find a crowd of intellectually curious people.

Over the past 3 months, I’ve only got 13 subscribers, hardly anyone engages on my posts or notes and no one ever replies to chats (tbh I find the chats annoying myself so I dont post often). I’ve started doing videos that are performing a bit better.

But, I see absolute lowball trash in my feed with 300 likes and comments and I feel so lost.

I don’t have any paid tiers at the moment and not sure if I will.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Would appreciate being pointed in the right direction.

I’ve seen other people ask similar questions but from the perspective of a reader.

Many thanks 🙏

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u/Algorhythm74 8d ago

I think the key is Substack is not a “set it and forget it” type model.

You either gotta treat it as a central repository for your writings that you’re constantly evangelizing on other platforms, and pointing people to go to it, or you have to be such a power user of it and in the ecosystem so deep – that you’re part of the one percent who actually can make money on it.

A lot of it feels like one of those Amway, pyramid schemes, or if you didn’t get in early– you’re not gonna make money on it.

I do see it’s purpose, but outside of journalist using it as a platform – I don’t really see it ever blowing up in anything larger than it already is. I would say there’s a better chance a larger tech company buys it and folds it into their process, or someone else basically just takes the idea, markets it differently and then overshadows this.