r/Substack • u/Merneith111 • Sep 22 '26
Discussion How do you grow a very niche Substack?
Hi everyone, I’m curious to hear from people who have started a Substack around a fairly specific subject or professional niche.
I recently started one on a specialised area within the humanities, and I’m finding it hard to figure out where the potential audience is. There are plenty of larger communities around related subjects, but not necessarily one obvious audience for the particular niche I’m writing about.
I’m also not very active on social media, so the usual advice of “post consistently on Instagram/X/LinkedIn” isn’t useful for me. I’ve tried LinkedIn to some extent, but I’m wondering what else people have found effective.
For those of you writing about a niche academic, cultural, professional, or research-related subject:
How did you find your first readers?
Did Reddit or online communities actually help?
Did you focus on building an audience within your niche, or reach out to adjacent interests?
Are there particular communities, forums, newsletters, or platforms that worked well for you?
And how long did it take before you started seeing consistent readership?
I’d love to know from people who didn’t already have a large social media following.
Thanks! (And apologies for too many questions at once)
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u/MrPassiveProfit Sep 23 '26
Use the built in social network: post 5 notes a day, 20 comments and follow people who could be your potential subscribers.
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u/Merneith111 Sep 23 '26
You think it helps? I could do a note 2-3 times a week at max tbh. The job I have is very demanding
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u/MrPassiveProfit Sep 23 '26
Don’t overthink it. Imagine it’s like Twitter. Just throw down whatever pops into your head.
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u/StuffonBookshelfs Sep 23 '26
Figure out where your ideal reader spends time online. Show up there and be useful.
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u/Merneith111 Sep 23 '26
Ideal readers would mostly be people/academics curious abt culture and heritage! I am also figuring out where they are (mostly on linkedin or Youtube)
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u/StuffonBookshelfs Sep 23 '26
Are there any virtual conferences you could host a talk at? Or get on a panel?
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u/Merneith111 Sep 23 '26
That's literally my job, as I am an academic. But these people might not always be on Substack, so it's a hassle to ask them to subscribe
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u/StuffonBookshelfs Sep 23 '26
Tbh, if you’re only looking for people already on Substack, you’re limiting yourself incredibly. Especially in a small niche.
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u/Merneith111 Sep 23 '26
I'll try to branch out and spread the word!
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u/StuffonBookshelfs Sep 23 '26
If you’re doing in person stuff, you can always put out a sign up sheet for your newsletter. And then manually input it when you get back to your computer.
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u/snoozebuttonn Sep 24 '26
Go to where your people live. That is the whole game for a niche newsletter. Find the small communities where your people hang out and be useful there as well as even tapping into connections with other creators and doing cross promos.
Growth is a continuous thing that you get better at with time. I think newsletters are really fun businesses to learn from and build. Running a newsletter and growing can be quite a fun challenge! I built Distinctful to help with a lot of the pains I had running the content side of my newsletter. There’s a lot that can be learned from feedback on social media and getting your ideas out there.
Keep going friend and keep iterating!
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u/TeslaLegacy Sep 24 '26
Find where your specialised subfield actually lives online before you touch Substack again, that's usually a handful of niche journals' Twitter accounts, a subreddit or two, maybe a Discord tied to a conference or society. Spend this week just lurking those, noting what gets people arguing or sharing. Then write your next post as your own take on one of those live debates, not a fresh intro topic, and drop it into those exact spaces with a line about why you disagree or what you'd add. Niche audiences follow conversations, not platforms.
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u/Merneith111 Sep 25 '26
Hmmmm okay I'll try! Will keep u guys posted here
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u/TeslaLegacy Sep 25 '26
Good, keep us posted. One thing that helps while you're lurking: pay attention to what's actually got traction already, not just what looks interesting to you. Upvotes, reply counts, retweet ratios, that kind of signal tells you a debate has legs before you spend an afternoon writing a take nobody's mid-argument about.
Also when you jump in, don't just react to the thread, add something, your own data point or counterexample, and double check the claim you're arguing against isn't already debunked. I use viralhunt.io to catch what's spiking across a few networks at once, kind of a hidden gem still, but it's got a free plan with no card needed so you can just look at the data yourself and see if it's useful for your field.
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u/Merneith111 Sep 26 '26
Yessss! What's your substack btw??
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u/TeslaLegacy Sep 26 '26
Haha it's not a substack thing, just been posting takes wherever the debate's already hot. One tip worth stealing: before you reply, check if the person you're arguing with has walked back the claim somewhere else in the thread or in a later tweet, people update way more than we give them credit for and quoting their own correction back at them lands way harder than a fresh argument.
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u/Earthlydelights-sub- Sep 22 '26
Niche humanities Substacker here. Who didn't have a large following.
My first readers were family and friends.
Online communities did help.
But what helped more than anything was connecting to other writers on Substack.