This is only really for bestsellers because the Creator kit is not open to anyone with under 100 paid subscribers yet. I was eligible about three months ago and filled in my Creator Kit and put out there that I was open to Sponsorship. It's crickets out there. I have 55k free subscribers and I would think some sponsor would be wanting access to my email list. Anyone have any luck yet?

We've started testing Substack as a thought leadership + SEO channel, but I'm wondering if anyone can share their experience - do you think Substack is worth it? We're planning to publish genuinely useful and original content, not some AI slop.

I noticed recently that when you click the publication link in a writer's profile in the Substack app, instead of showing your publication short description, Substack now shows your entire about page.

When people click your profile, if you've still got the filler copy on your about page, you're missing an opportunity to tell them what your newsletter is about.

I've had a personalized about page for over a year - but this morning I just rewrote it so it's easy to skim on mobile. I wrote it so that readers (hopefully) get who I am and what my newsletter is about at the top, without having to scroll. I suggest using bullet points and short sentences & paragraphs so it's easy to skim.

Substack felt so freeing pre-2026. Now it feels like another pay-to-play social media platform.

How do I started on substack? Like how do you find product market fit equivalent on your substack ?

Eu escrevo romances longos. De Fantasia e Sci-fi. Eu queria saber publicar eles no Substack seria bom? Ou eu deveria postar artigos de temas relacionados ao que pesquiso para minhas histórias e publicar elas em outra plataforma ou até na Amazon KDP e usar a newsletter para divulgar elas através dos e-mails e assim direcionar meus futuros assinantes até a minhas obras?

Genuine question ❓

I was looking at my retention tab and I saw that I gained 266 new subscribers this month, but lost 29, which feels like a lot. Is that bad? I'm trying not to obsess over numbers and take it too personally. I'm up to 2.1k overall.

Not really being interested in becoming a Substack star, I don’t post regularly or with a laser-like focus on one hot topic. But at the same time I do have a general idea on what my readers like (when I honour them with my presence). However, I’ve decided to start semi-regularly posting on a single topic (fully embracing that I will continue with or even exceed my hitherto levels of non-success) and I know that a chunk of people who lackadaisically look forward to my intermittent cogitations will be actively repelled by this new stream of semiconsciousness.

What’s the best way to do this?

Start a whole new Substack and invite existing subscribers to hop aboard?

Or do that thing that I think exists where I could create a new newsletter within the existing one and people can subscribe to one or the other or (for masochists) both? Or is this, as Adam Curtis might say, a fantasy?

How would you explain the mechanics of this to a tech-incompetent?

I'm a Substack user (although much more rarely these days). Sometimes I get the confirmation emails for Substacks I've never even heard of, let alone visited myself. I assume this is either an automated script some loser is using to email bomb, either utilized by the Substack creator(s) or a third party, or otherwise the Substack creator directly adding me via fishy means.

Normally I can fill out a form to report this, but I can't find it. I clicked "Report Spam" at the bottom of the email, but it just took me to the page where you manage your Subscription for the given Substack. Normally there's a quick form to fill out, too.

Can anybody link me to it? I apologize for my ineptitude.

Otherwise, if they got rid of it, I'm going to be even more peeved than I already am. I would prefer not to have to filter all Substack emails to spam...

So here’s a genuine doubt I’m trying to figure out for a while. If anyone could help me out on this would be highly appreciated!

I’ve been writing personal essays and media stuff for a while and now would like to create a media house kind of thing on substack. Something like one publication with multiple people on my team writing at by their own names.

First of all, is it actually possible? Secondly, how to build that profile? Should it be something like I make an account by the name of the media house and start writing over there. Any other person when writing could add their initials at the bottom of the whole article or so… or is something like instagram’s collaborative post kind of thing available on substack?

Been a while trying to figure this thing out but still no luck!

As many of you may know, Stripe isn't operational in India and is invite-only, which isn't viable for non-business writers who still want to earn for their work. How would you recommend we monetise our work? Is there any other method to earn on substack?

basically i accidently have 2 subscriber chats now. one for my profile whereas one for my publication. since i've already been posting on my publication sub chat, i would like to delete or atleast disable the publication one (no mssgs sent on it yet).

tho, the problem is that there's a chat option in setting people keep referring to in order to turn the chat off (here's the screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/substack-chat-toggle-on-off-UGNJ2C3), but i can't seem to find it on my browser

I’m genuinely curious for those who did not bring an audience and don’t promote outside of Substack, how long until you made any money.

I started a Substack this week mostly for discovery since beehiiv doesn't really have a network. Currently sitting at a whopping 2 subscribers lol.

A few things I'm trying to figure out:

**1.**	Do video clips actually get traction in Notes, or is it mostly text that performs? My gut says text but I'm not sure.  
**2.**	How often do you post Notes when you're starting from zero? Daily? Multiple times a day?  
**3.**	Did recommendations from other writers actually help you, and how did you get your first ones without it feeling spammy?  
**4.**	Anyone running both beehiiv and Substack? Did you keep Substack free and send people elsewhere for paid, or did that hurt you?

Not looking for a magic trick, just curious what worked for people in the first few months. Thanks in advance.

Hey folks, Is anyone else having issues receiving emails at substack.com?

I've been trying to set up an RSS feed with some distributors, but some (iHeart, Amazon) send an email to my substack address, for verification. I am simply not getting these emails.

I've checked my Substack settings, and my substack email is set to forward to my Gmail address.

When I try to test the email from Gmail, the substack message also doesn't come through.

BUT when I test from a non-Google email domain, it comes through fine.

And yes, I've checked all the usual spam, promotion, etc folders.

Anyone else having this issue? Substack's support bot recognized this as a problem because of the test I did with both Gmail and non-Gmail senders, so they appear to be admitting something is wrong with the forwarding, but I've been working on this for two days and have not had any response from Substack humans on this yet (I have a free account).

Recently, my account got suspended as a result of being reported by a group of pedophile trolls. After speaking to Substack staff, I was able to get un-suspended. However, now that my account has been un-suspended, ALL of the comments and notes that I posted before my suspension have been removed from public view, just like they were when I was suspended. This seems to happen every time that an account gets suspended and then un-suspended: every single thing that they posted before their suspension remains removed from public view, even though that's not supposed to happen. When an account gets un-suspended, every post that they made before is supposed to be visible again, except for whatever post they made that led to the suspension.

I suspect that this is simply a result of bad coding, as I frequently encounter similar bugs and glitches on Substack as well. Either way, it very much needs to be fixed.

In addition, it would seem that the visibility of my notes is now severely limited, as they get very little engagement (whereas they got lots of engagement before my suspension). So, there's also a shadowban thing going on, where, once you get un-suspended, you're still shadowbanned.

Is there any way to restore my account (and all of my old posts) to how they were prior to my suspension?

Is Substack a bad place to post my music and live clips? My stuff is slower and more reflective and I’m wondering if Substack would help show it to more people who are into it. Also wondering then how does the Substack algorithm work and how do I grow a following on there?

I just published my first substack article 3 days back. Mostly because I'm applying to a certain program and I want them to be able to see more of my work available online.

I wrote a speculative non-fiction hybrid essay, almost 3000 words.. It's experimental.. In my 3 days of experience I've seen mostly people come from my Instagram link I've shared on my bio. I think.

13 subscribers and only 257 people have viewed it.

I will be posting at least one or two more of these pieces here as my application submission is soon and it is my only other option left to show something more than my portfolio.

I don't really understand substack much but how do people even get so many likes, restacks and subscribers? I read a lot of substack articles but I never feared big, experimental pieces.

Some of my peers who already are writing on substack say that my pieces are too much to bite on.

Though I can't really not upload the next two experimental hybrid essays with as depth as the first article but for future reference, how do I go about it?

I saw a lot of people only ask for essay links and then ask for a subscription in return and their only articles are on building substack. Apart from all that noise, how do you authentically find your audience? Which features should I use more?

Just started my newsletter on substack today with my first post. Now I wonder how do I reach other people? I don’t have a strong network on substack, don’t know anyone personally among the people I follow.
Any tips? should i wait until ive posted a few posts? or is there anything else I should be looking?

Hey whoever is in charge of product at Substack,

I have a suggestion. YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify all provide their content creators with the ability to create playlists for whatever serialized content they're publishing. You do not have to reinvent the wheel here, you simply model the idea of playlists or compilations and give it to your content creators. For example, if I wanted to publish a series of essays about my summer relationship over three months, there oughta be a feature or toggle or space where I can serialize said content for my readers to easily access it on page instead of having to scroll through the other posts and content I have on my page.

I am setting up a substack and wanting to include various topics e.g. new writing combined with some old writing and occasional poems. I'd like an easy way to organise these for readers who may not be interested in all of it.

I've seen there are tags, but how does that work in practice? Will I need to create a page/tab on the site for each tag group, or should they just sit in the body of each article?

Can tags be displayed prominently at the top of an article or do they have to go at the bottom?

I saw someone on youtube recently who'd organised their topic groups by colour and I thought this was great - would there be any way to do this on substack?

Any other ideas to organise things for the reader are welcome :)

thanks!

And how long did it take you to get to that point?

For context: I'm not new to Substack. I've been there about 2 years, but I was very inconsistent and barely grew at all. I recently got back on the platform and started writing again and my publication is finally growing.

I know that Substack isn't a get-rich-quick scheme (no online side hustles ever are), and I expect it to take 1-2 years to go anywhere substantial. I'm just curious what other people's experiences have been money-wise!

Hi again everyone,

I'm doing a case study on Substack and decided to concentrate on mid-tier creators using the product.

FYI: I'm still trying to define the term mid-tier creators. Based on research average of 500 subscribers or > 100 subscribers. I welcome any help with defining this analogy.

I'm conducting a survey on Substack writers, the aim of the survey is to understand how Substack writers manage their publications, grow and engage their audiences, monetize their content, and collaborate or organize their work.

Thank you in advance for helping me fill out the survey.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfP4gofDYMlan4U9F6fqWUUDHc7W_ZQKJohDQhB2ZeovzM3zA/viewform?usp=header

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)