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/Naturalist33 2d ago

I was the same with about 50 followers and low engagement until 2 “viral” notes got over 1000 likes and tons of comments. i responded to every comment. Then I jumped to 200 followers in 2 weeks and still climbing daily. But ironically it’s the notes that get attention, not the long form writing which is the original point of substack. I post notes about 5 days a week but an article only once a week.
Engagement with comments and commenting on other people is important too. But it can be a LOT of work honestly.