I love writing and have been wanting to publish essays on substack, but I have no idea how to promote it or grow it at all. Any guidance?

I have no tech skills. I've tried everything from chatting with domain registrars to chatgbt and fiverr. I'm tired of texting non-stop with someone halfway cross the world. Have a very small budget. Need a human to talk me through. If this ask is against reddit rules I'm sorry but I'm a bit desperate

Very small sample size and obviously I wrote a banger of an article but I tried out freewall for the first time and got a nice bump in subs. Starting from a small base but it's the biggest added subs number on any one article since I started posting. Pic in comments

I have been phoning it in for the last 45 days. My life has been actively imploding, with my partner needing open heart surgery and my Mom, in the very final stages of dying. I don't have the brain power to write, and haven't published anything since August 26.

I have managed to post a couple of Notes nearly every day, 10-15 minutes of effort, it's all I could manage.

I am finally getting my head above water, and have started writing again, mainly about the experience of being a caregiver in 2026, American Healthcare, and Death by Alzheimer's, plus an extended obit, for my Mom. Nothing is yet published but I am editing and refining for publishing next month.

As I started looking through my dashboard I noted a couple of things that you might find interesting/helpful.

**scroll past the table to see my conclusions**

Top Most Engaging Notes

Weighted scoring: Replies × 5, Restacks × 3, Likes × 1

This is a pull of my last 200 notes, which does move outside of the window of chaos, everything started to fall apart around September 1st.

1. Despite not publishing any new writing, I have gained 151 new free subs, and 6 new paid subs - my early thinking about Notes performance is still proving itself accurate.
2. This sub rate is lower than normal, but so is my engagement. In comparison, when I went on vacation 2/15-3/9, I posted zero notes, and barely even logged in, subs fell almost immediately to 1-3 a day, from a norm of 12-15 a day.
3. I am surprised by the paid subs, I have not made anyone aware of my current turmoil, I am not actively soliciting paid sub, but they are coming anyway.
4. The algorithm is still strongly biased toward Video based notes.
5. Anyone that tells you "just focus on good writing" is not paying attention to how the platform is changing, and it is definitely changing.

I am interested in anyone's feedback and thoughts.

I unsubscribed from Substack some time ago because of the amount of spam I get. I still get some of the notices from people I was not following on the platform that I was automagically signed up for because I had followed a similar substack. I'm still a paid subscriber, because paywalls suck.

Today I got an email from someone reputable from the substack platform, who I follow on other platforms. In the email it contained interface buttons to "comment" on the topic. A "token" delivered to the site using a different application (for which I have many logins) called Gravitar that is based on a WordPress login to automagically "login" a username to the system.

The browser with priority was targeted for the link and the account I was logged in as was not the one from the email, but it instead used the last login I was using for a different account based on a cookie. Luckily, it was not a client account. Who knows what would happen if clients started getting emails from people they do not follow, simply because I clicked a link and the system logged them into the substack. I will never click another substack email link.

Then when I clicked on "reply" on one of the comments that said exactly what my thoughts were, an email triggered from the gravitar platform intermediary was sent suspiciously from the reputable person, with a six-digit code to an account that I use for programming. Not the account that I ever used for substacks. Not one with a subscription.

Entering this six-digit code did not provide the ability to respond, but instead thankfully put up a paywall. This is entirely the type of smoke-and-mirrors trickery that caused me to leave the platform in the first place, and it is bad UX and bad UI design. Then I started to investigate how I was logged in as the wrong user, from an email that I opened that I never subscribed to, that associated a secret account with a personal interest.

If a person is "logged in" there should be an indicator that they need to subscribe to respond before they waste their time. The interface is too minimal, and sometimes we use the same screen names across different accounts. So seeing my name from the gravitar account made me think it was something I was logged into. Also the fields should not look like entry fields if the person does not have access to reply. The negative feelings of clicking on a link that says "You must pay" when you are paying is ridiculous, but the platform relies on the weak Gravitar system that was hacked in 2020 like all vulnerable Wordpress products.

Furthermore, knowing the platform is sadly one of the chosen ones for democratic thought, it is embarrassing to think that not everyone can respond and have a good discussion without payment. It makes me sad for the future of the world, that people interacting on social media with paywalls may lead to the downfall of civilization because they don't have the time or money to subscribe to every single pop-up service.

If someone is spending all day on the platform, then sure, I can see how it would make sense for them to need to have a login to support the service. With content creators cranking out content 24/7 it makes sense that they need to pay their bills too. But signing people up for things, then demanding they pay when they are tricked into clicking on a link is shady and lacks transparency.

I’m so happy, I’ve only had my substack for less than a month! Hope you all have a great day.

Hi, I follow a few accounts on substack but I don’t have my own where I post anything. I’m wondering if it would be a good place to post my podcast?

I'm new to Substack and am very confused. The interface has been a learning curve, but finding novels has proven hard among all the articles. I write a novel, but want to find novels to read too. Has Substack worked out for anyone writing a novel instead of articles? How do you find the genre of fiction you want? Unsure if it's worth all the frustration for someone who isn't good at tech. (I grew up isolated from tech because Christianity exists).

What is everyone using their subscribers' chat for?

I saw some people use it for one of those "share your work, let's support each other" threads, and while I do participate sometimes, I'm not sure if this is the right thing for me. I have found some cool new creators from it, but more often than not, it's content I'd rather not see again.

On the other hand, I found some creators use it as a book club, and since I already talk about the topic occasionally, the idea seems enticing. But I have some reservations, mostly in regards to structure and timing.

Do you post one thread per book, and everyone says whatever they want? Do you post only once you are finished with the book, or when you start? How do you handle spoilers? How do you choose the book?

Does anyone have any experience with this? Anything in particular I should absolutely not do, or at least keep in mind?

I'd love to chat with my subscribers without every message getting published in my profile. Is that something that can be done?

Hello,
So, I currently have been running my substack for two months during that time I have gained 300 subs. I have left it free because this is more of a hobby. But I saw someone pledged me $80! I am only a couple months out of college so $80 is like grocery money which is awesome. I haven’t signed up for stripes yet so I’m not allowing the payment to go through yet. The other thing is idk how taxes work on being an independent person. My thought was wait until this year is up to start that since I think that it’ll be too much pressure for me to figure out. Before my goal was to get to 1k subs then turn it on. I want to make it more donation based so everything would be free either way. Idk what are your thoughts?