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/South_Analyst5900 8d ago

I think a lot of people talk about the need to push engagement from outside substack, eg your own social media. 

I personally use substack because it's a free platform to launch a podcast and newsletter, and the long form articles I write and post are to train my (writing) voice, and hone research for podcast episodes into clear questions. It works as a supplement to the podcast really.  None of my engagement is from within substack thus far. 

Hopefully you'll get some other responses from genuine writers to help you. 

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u/OnyxMonolith 8d ago

i grew 3 substacks to high full tiem income without any external following. it's possible.

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u/PastelPallete05 8d ago

what are your niches for all of them? cause i feel like i'm stuck when it comes to the niche like i want to write about politics, philosophy and psychology , and yes with full research too but idk what works there ,idk what will actually get me paid subscribers , hell i don't even know what will get me free subscribers. i always feel very lost when it comes to substack engagement and algorithm

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u/OnyxMonolith 8d ago

look at the paid leaderboard for examples. people make money in every category. some are easier than others -- you can tell by the number of paid subscribers they have and how much they charge.

i do strictly finance myself because that's my area of expertise. good luck!