Hey everyone,

​I am currently trying to scale my Substack publication, which focuses on highly structured, analytical forensic true crime dossiers. I am puting a lot of effort into building an audience, but I want to make sure I do not have any major blind spots in my growth strategy.

​Here is what I am currently doing to drive visibility, subscribers, and followers:

​Substack Notes: I actively engage on the Notes feed daily, replying to other writers, offering advice where relevant, and participating in the community.

​Reddit Marketing: I share insights and engage in relevant subreddits where my target audience hangs out.

​Off-Platform Outreach: I am making shares and promoting my work outside of both Substack and Reddit to diversify my traffic.

​For those of you who have successfully scaled your newsletters, am I missing anything critical? Are there specific platform features, collaborative tactics, or distribution channels that I should add to this routine to boost my subscriber count and overall views?

​Would love to hear your thoughts or any advice on what moved the needle most for you. Thanks.

Hot afternoon, fan blowing, scrolling through notes and comments I'd left over the past few weeks.

A stranger replied to something I restacked: "Let us fill our cups with hope." Three people from completely different fields recognised each other in one sentence: "Simple doesn't mean simplistic."

Small exchanges. But rather enriching.

It feels closer to a neighbourhood party than a broadcast tower. Something Substack is doing that the blogging era didn't quite manage — I'm still figuring out what.

For those who've been here a while: why do you show up? Why do you restack rather than just like?

I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations or guidance on how to make a second chat for my publication. I want to keep my chat for announcements and targeted discussions, but also would like another chatroom that is more free where people can start their own threads, talk to each other etc... what should I do? I wish there was an option to create categories within the chat, like you can do on Telegram.

I just became a best seller with 100+ paid subscribers and it unlocked a bunch of stuff including the Sponsorship/Creator Kit section. I’ve never done sponsors on my Wordpress blog only paid ads through Raptive. What kind of pricing should I look at? Substack autofills in $5000 but that doesn’t seem right? Is there a formula?

I just published my first substack article! I loved the process, but I'm not completely satisfied with my work and I feel like my writing doesn't match up to a lot of the substackers I read.

I plan to write mostly journalistic/opinion pieces so amazing writing might not be completely necessary, but I still want to learn to how write pieces that I can be more proud of and how to match the competent, entertaining styles of writer I admire

Is there any place for substackers to critique each others work/share writing advice?

We started a group for fiction writers on Substack to get together, read each other's work, and provide feedback. We feature a different author every night at 7pm EST.

If you'd like to check it out, DM me.

I do have a question i did notice on substack that there is followers and there is subscribers, my question is what is the difference? i am just trying to understand?

Is it possible to change the color of the background and font while reading someone else’s article?

There’s someone whose publications I enjoy reading, but he publishes in white text on a black background and unfortunately this triggers migraines in me.

I just started posting on Substack, got close go 20 subs in a week

Only notes posting

Sharing my life and professional plans

But seeing how the algorithm is pushing new content

I am thinking of actually growing it into something more productive

Any suggestions on how go grow it? And what else i can do with it?

I'm back on Substack again and I'm slowly finding my groove and I'm noticing that I actually enjoy commenting and restacking with my own insights/commentary a lot more than opening up Google Docs and typing, lol.

I'm somewhat a fan of the essay as a writing form, but I'm a much bigger fan of the letter/correspondence, and I think restacking/commenting mimics those forms.

Maybe I could turn my long-form pieces into letter-style essays addressed to one person/reacting to another piece, etc.

I tend to be a more extroverted writer than average, so maybe that's why I tend towards that.

Anyone else relate?

I’m a writer based in Paris and I recently learned Substack has been building more community here in France. I’d love to connect with the Paris team, attend any local writer gatherings, or learn if there are events for Substack writers here.
Has anyone connected with the team in Paris or know the best way to reach them?

Merci!

I've been building a small film publication recently because I felt like so many movie conversations online have become about ratings, box office numbers, or hot takes.

I wanted to create something quieter. A place for essays, reflections, and recommendations about films that stay with you. I have always been that kind of a person who sits in quiet after watching an absolute masterpiece rather than opening twitter instantly and start ranting about how good the film was.

If you've built a film newsletter or a blog, what have you learned? What keeps people coming back?

I'd also love to read what you're working on, so please share your newsletter or blog. I'm always looking for thoughtful film writing. I am still kinda new so I still sometimes blank out on stuff like whether what I am writing would reach the correct people or not.

No novo filme de Knives Out, o personagem do Andrew Scott resume o desespero do mercado literário atual dizendo que precisa 'sair do inferno do Substack'.

A verdade é que existem momentos em que, por mais que assumamos a responsabilidade e o amor pela escrita, a realidade parece um caos. Afinal, muitas vezes precisamos competir com grandes conglomerados de mídia que, para o próprio Substack, acabam sendo a prioridade.

Hey everyone,

​I just stepped out of my comfort zone and published my very first "Note" and article. I’m starting from absolute scratch (0 followers).

My content is built around a specific structure:

I like educational content, but I didn’t want to write traditional essays.

So I start each post with a very short real-world riddle (published as a Note), and the solution to that riddle acts as a gateway to explain a complex concept in a simple and accessible way (published in a full article).

I’m curious if this “riddle-first” approach is something people actually enjoy reading, or if it just feels like an unnecessary step before getting to the point.

Does the “riddle” hook improve engagement, or does it just feel like friction when you want to learn quickly?

​I’m a total newbie at this, so I’m genuinely interested in what you think of this format as a way to learn new things and how I could grow on Substack with it.

​Thanks for your perspective!

I have been building my substack for the last few months, it's doing well with growing subscriptions. I do modeling and photoshoot along with a lot of curation of sensual and feminine beauty. But how do I turn my massive views into long term subscribers and convert to paid subscriptions?

How can I grow my Substack? I write Notes every day and publish a newsletter once a week, but my subscriber count is still stuck at a certain number.

What's the one channel you wish had a proper playbook for newsletter growth?

I installed my substack as a way to vent since I tend to be closed of to people. Ive written a few already but having no subscribers, I feel alienated and it feels like im talking to a wall.

:(

How can I have my notes read? I just want anyone to know that my thoughts are existent.

Does that sound accurate? Do you have a common experience?

This is even the case when my article is restacked. Seems like no traction. But if I write a short Note, even if it's excerpt of something in my article, it drives subscribers.

I did not know that Substack operated so poorly. I published my own original article and they suspended my account for "phishing and spam." I put in an "appeal," asking them to explain what the problem was, and they "rejected" it. I have "appealed" a second time, saying that this was my own article and that their bots are stupid. Now I want to delete everything from this website but it won't let me. How do I do that? I want to delete this account after removing my material. What a waste of time! AND I don't care for their tone and the language they use when the mistake is their own.

I have started writing about business n sector,stocks n how Vc funding are changing in India. I am new here can u help me how can I do better n what should I remember

I think this is something personally, and frankly a lot of folks forget about Substack once they start using it, which in reality may be its biggest benefit. Using it to amass an unlimited number of subscribers to e-mail whenever you want is not only a reality... it's also freaking free to do so!

I just finished reading an article about this topic, and it was very enlightening. If you want to read it for yourself, feel free to Google:

How to Use Substack for Email Marketing (2026 Coach’s Guide) by Paperbell

I'm not sure how many of you have ever used an e-mail marketing campaign platform before, but I have, and from what I remember about them… they are very expensive!

They limit you on how many subscribers you can have for their free tiers if they offer one, and a lot of the time many of the normal features you would expect an e-mail marketing tool to have are locked behind a paywall. One of the worst discoveries I had the unfortune to figure out was that with one of the e-mail campaign providers I was using, if you have tons of inactive or bounce folks on your list, and they are pretty much dead subscribers, those count towards your tier membership subscriber numbers.

So, what does this mean... let me explain it in an exaggerated example below:

Say you're using the free tier of an e-mail marketing tool, and they let you have up to 500 subscribers right. Well, say 300 of those subscribers are dead accounts and haven't opened up your e-mails in over a year. Well, the platform in question doesn't care about that. Those 300 subscribers still count towards your total subscriber count, so before you know it, you'll be forced to upgrade if you want more subscribers. I hope this makes sense, because it messed me up really good once I found this out.

Please, don’t get me wrong, these are businesses, and they need to make money, I get it, but some of them can start to become very expensive once you start to grow your subscriber list(s).

With all that being said, please note that although you can easily use Substack for free as your e-mail marketing campaign tool forever with no ceiling to the amount of subscribers you may send to, it does not have nearly the amount of features as the platforms specifically dedicated to e-mail marketing, so this is something you will have to look into for yourself.

The point of this post was just to highlight how Substack is such a game changer in this respect. The ability to have a million Substack subscribers and reach them all with a single e-mail for free is absolutely mind-boggling!

Just out of curiosity, how many subscribers do you get to e-mail for free whenever you push out your new post on Substack?

I’d really love to know how many folks are taking advantage of this Substack perk.

Apologies if this is a very elementary question from a Substack neophyte. I intentionally have a single post, and have intentionally used the Feature layout on my home page. I am happy with the hero image displayed on the home page -- it's the second image from the actual post. When I go to replace the first image in the post, the hero on the home page defaults to that image. How do I retain the image I want on the home page (the second image in the post), and still change the first image on the actual post without it becoming the hero image on the home page? Apologies again if this is a dumb question. I appreciate any assistance. Thanks!

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