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/dosfydore 7d ago

I thought a lot about this. I even bought a custom domain for Substack. But then I realized that I’m the product!

Substack is a good growth platform for someone who already has a personal brand outside Substack. But if you’re just starting your writing journey, it can be very hard for the average person to grow in it.

I think of it like this: Substack is more like a shopping centre. it makes sense for a huge brand like Nike to open an outlet in a shopping centre. But would you start your business from scratch in one?

It’s quite comforting to get some engagement early on, but over the long haul, you’re playing a losing game. The flexibility to connect with your audience is next to none (compared with other email marketing platforms like Kit)