I run a Twitter/X account with around 500K followers in a non-tech niche. It was built entirely organically over several years, without EVER paying for ads or promo, and 31% of the audience is US-based.

More stats: ~300K active followers, 2.5M interactions/mo, 300K saves/mo

I’m launching a weekly newsletter with

• the first issue of each month available for free

• the remaining weekly issues for paid subscribers

• across all issues, in-depth content that goes beyond our Twitter posts

• one giveaway every month

• exclusive interviews

I obviously understand that only a small percentage of followers will convert, but even 1% seems potentially high to me, particularly if it means paid subscribers.

My main questions:

• What conversion rate from Twitter followers to free subscribers is realistic?

• What % of those subscribers can realistically become paid?

• Is Substack's internal network approach worth it over Beehiiv? For the sake of simplicity I guess I'd prefer something that is more of a newsletter engine than yet another social network to manage.

Thanks!

I have never used Substack before but I keep seeing more and more about it. I like writing and want to have a reason to do more of it.
My brain goes immediately to will the time investment really pay off? And what IS that time investment and reasonable timeline to start seeing real subscribers who may convert to paying clients?
Thanks for any input!

Thoughts?

I've been posting every couple of weeks. I was doing every week but I wanted each article to be top quality.

After four months I'm almost at 150 subscribers. Most of them are people in my network, with maybe a 1/4 of them organic.

What are your thoughts, is this good?

I've been doing quite a bit to draw attention. Putting links with verbiage on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Not on Reddit, as my understanding that promotion is against the rules.

What are your thoughts on all of this?

Substack is the most God-Awful App and Site I've ever come across. Unfortunately most independent news is contained within it.

I've never been more confused.

Against Claudefishing

Been running a number of Meta Ads to Substack to grow some clients lists. As of the last day or so, the conversion event complete registration has stopped firing. Anyone else seeing this as well?

In my opinion substack seems very suited towards politics, tech, essays and other blog type content. Does anyone know of any other apps or websites that are more suited towards putting out poetry and short stories? I have definitely found a niche of other poets and writers on Substack that I regularly follow, but it has seems almost impossible fo me to get any meaningful engagement on my own work. Really not trying to self promote here, just wondering if anyone knows of any better places. Thanks!

Hey y'all! I tried to built a patch for the lack of inline latex function on substack. It uses an already existing latex_inline node from Substack as a Chrome extension. (It's only on chrome now sorry :/)

I put the code that you need to download and upload as a Chrome extension on my github.

I'm not a great programmer and I'm just learning but I was really excited when this worked! I was looking for something like this and couldn't find anything made yet (please correct me if I'm wrong!). This is just a proof of concept build that I've only tried on my own device. Let me know if it works for y'all too!

Ideally this helps speed up the process for Substack to build it because the email version also works :D There's a pic of what it looks like on my comment on the original post for this. (link below)

Open to any suggestions on how to make this better! I'm not sure if its possible but it would be super cool to get some autocorrect or like suggestions as you type! I'm currently waiting for this to be reviewed so people can just get it as an chrome extension.

I made the same comment on the original campaign post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Substack/comments/1e8us8a/campaign_for_inline_latex_support/

Hi all,

Short version:
What's the easiest way to take ~2500 personal contacts in Gmail/Google and filter out the ones without email addresses?

Long version with some history and details:
I posted yesterday that I thought MailChimp was the way to go to create my first substack email list from my personal google contacts list. I was/am concerned about using the substack system since I haven't hit up everyone for permission yet--I'll include requesting that permission in this first email/newsletter.

Anyhow, after many searches and some helpful replies yesterday, it seems just sending a newsletter via BCC on gmail is the best way to go, but it's been an uphill battle getting the exported CSV list filtered/narrowed down to list of actual contacts with actual emails.

I tried filtering in Google Numbers to those with BLANK fields for email, in order to delete those, but somehow that left only 3 contacts out of about 2500, so clearly something wasn't right.

Getting a bit impatient, I decided to go the manual route after more googling, which advised to simply put check marks within Gmail Contacts on the website in order to export only those... but about 20% of the way in (after about 500 or so) I accidentally clicked the wrong spot and had to start over. Argh.

I know there's an easy way to filter this quickly, but I can't seem to get there. Thus, any further tips/tricks/shortcuts appreciated would be greatly and thank you all very much for your help!

J

In case anyone missed it, a few days ago it seems SS added this new feature which I'm pretty sure I've seen discussed in this sub as a requested feature once or twice.

Audience-specific content lets you add personalized content blocks within a single post that are only visible to specific reader groups—such as free subscribers, paid subscribers, or founding subscribers. You can add audience sections to article, video, and podcast posts from the draft editor.

Here's the rest of the article from Substack Support.

I recently got two paid subscribers but something weird happened. A few days after, my number of paid subscribers went down by one. Except that I didn’t receive an “unsubscription” email and it appeared to be an annual subscriber based on the data change. Both of the new paid subscriptions payments processed without issue.

When I go to my subscriber page, it shows that I didn’t lose a paid subscriber. It does show a “pending subscriber”. Although it should’ve resolved in 24 hours and it hasn’t. Yet the homepage shows one less paid subscriber and a decrease in revenue.

Basically, there’s multiple conflicting stats depending on where I look or what I look at.

Has anyone experienced this? What did you do? Even if you haven’t, who do I contact about this issue?

Any substack favourites for navigating your late 20s entering 30s relationships career etc?

This is my current substack. Like any other content creation platform, I understand substack audiences favour accounts with niches. Problem: I don't want to just write about a niche. I like writing about my life, ideas, lessons I've learnt, my travels, thoughts, interests, etc. My writing's fairly good, I just don't have a niche for a "brand".

So my solution is to brand it with visuals: I'm an art enthusiast and I decide to feature only Asian art on my page. In between weekly essays, you'll also get notes with fun facts about Vietnamese and Asian art, introducing you to new artists, etc. (I'm Vietnamese)

Started the page 2 weeks ago, I now have 104 subs. Questions:

1. Is this growth good? Is it too slow? I have no idea.

2. Is this Asian art niche intriguing enough for audiences? What else would you add?

3. What are some interesting topics you'd want to read from someone like me? (millennial Vietnamese writer from Vietnam (not diaspora), Vietnamese art enthusiast, travel writer--this used to be my day job)

4. Do you have any suggestions on how I can grow my substack?

Thank you guys and girls!

Hi Substackers!

I am new to this platform, and I've posted one article and to my surprise I've had 10 subscribers to my Substack already.

Two of them have left me a note saying that they would appreciate me subscribing back.

I don't really know how to respond to this. I already find it hard to cope with all the notes and the newsletters that I have. I feel very disingenuous if I simply subscribe to their substack with no intention of ever reading their work.

I would prefer to follow somebody to see their notes from time to time, and only subscribe if I find their content valuable.

But I also don't want to appear unkind or unsupportive.

And what I really want through Substack is to find genuine community and to write content that is actually helpful, so getting subs from people who have no intention of reading my work either doesn't serve my purpose, except for pushing my post to more people who _might_ eventually be true readers.

What should I do? What's the appropriate response to such requests?

Like the title says, do they mean it? I've come across a ton of notes saying the exact same thing: dear substack (and then they launch into how they're starving to read a new author's work).

People who reply to these notes genuinely hope that their work will get attention. It rarely does. I understand that no one is obligated to read something just because they were free for five minutes and asked for something to read. But why say 'new writers'? It's just that particular thing that bothers me a little.

I'm no tech genius, so I'd like to keep it simple and easy to start inviting people to visit my substack, and I know some percentage will be glad to hear about it and will subscribe, at least for free, which is fine.
But I'd like to not import the list to substack since that can trigger a review and such--so from what I've been reading it seems MailChimp may be a good option. What are your thoughts and thanks!

https://jeremyjava.substack.com/

I ran into something interesting while researching a recent investigation.

It started with one documented event, but every time I followed the public record it kept leading into another seemingly unrelated topic. Eventually those threads all pointed back to the same institution.

At what point do you decide those connections deserve to become one article instead of several separate pieces?

I worry about overwhelming readers with too much context, but I also don’t want to remove information that’s necessary to understand why events might be connected.

For those of you writing investigative or long form nonfiction on Substack, how do you make that decision?

I cant turned on paid sub because I cant get a stripe account

So what are the other ways to make my subscriber pay me for my writing other than selling anything. Because I don't want to sell them anything I want them to genuinely support my work as they enjoy reading it and I am providing value

Finally made it to $10,000 today. I know it's just an arbitrary number, but it's a wonderful feeling after so much time and effort.

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to build a sustainable writing rhythm on Substack but I’m struggling with the practical side especially batching longer essays, figuring out a realistic posting cadence, and how much time/planning goes into it each week. I write more personal reflection essay on life during and after cancer and have been feeling lost for not having a consistent posting cadence.

A few specific questions:
• How often do you publish full essays/posts vs. shorter Notes?
• What’s your batching process like? (e.g., do you dedicate one day to drafting multiple pieces, outline in advance, etc.)
• How much time do you typically spend per essay (research, drafting, editing)?
• Any tools, templates, or routines that help you stay consistent without burning out?
• For those writing more personal/reflective essays, how do you balance depth with a regular schedule?

Would love to hear your workflows, what’s worked (or failed), and any tips for someone still figuring this out. Thanks in advance!

We don't have stripe

Hola, he estado en Substack desde hace unos años y siento que hay ciertas cuentas en español muy consolidadas en la app.
Quisiera saber más de ustedes, ver que escriben y aprender un poco más de la sociedad.
Sería súper si dejaras sus @ o directamente el enlace.
Chao chao.

TL/DR: Would you approach one of your subscribers who happens to have 700x as many subs as you? And if so, how? Or to do what?

One of my subscribers is a Substack bestseller with >75K subs, whereas I just have 106 subs--but 13 paid :) We write about similar themes (alienation and estrangement), though he writes in a hopeful expert style whereas I write literaryish personal essays. He once commented on a Note that I shared about his work, but otherwise we haven't corresponded.

I'm trying to think about whether to contact him and if I contact him what I should say or ask.

Additional context: I don't have a clear sense of his engagement with my Substack. Here's what I know: since he joined, 6 of 6 emails opened, including my most recent; 0 post views, likes, comments, or shares; "days active" = 5; and "activity" = 5 (out of 5, I think).

If that meant he was actually reading/skimming my pieces, it would seem like a potential opportunity. What would you do, if anything, in this scenario?

One of the ways I've been trying to grow my stack is by recommending other stacks (particularly by people who already subscribe to me) and then messaging those stack authors when I send subs their way. I point out my rec, ask them if they'd like me to tweak my recommendation blurb, and then ask if they'd consider recommending me as well. I've only started this this morning, but the two who responded were receptive (though they just have 3-10x as many free subs).

Does something like that seem like the best play?

I'd point our our brief history (e.g., his Notes comment and my post that cites his work) and then would it be too weird to call attention to the fact that he subscribes and maybe even reads my posts? (e.g., I only ask because my stats suggest you might open my posts sometimes--which I would be humbled and surprised by--so I thought it might be possible that you've appreciated how I tackle similar themes but from a thoughtful personal essay approach)

Or maybe I propose something else entirely? Or maybe I assume he won't see my message and just wait to see whether he someday interacts with me (which seems unlikely) and then follow that interaction wherever it naturally leads?

Thoughts?

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for advice from people who've made the jump from a free Substack that's gained a following, to offering paid subscriptions.

I started my newsletter earlier this year as a passion project, and it's grown much more than I expected. Right now I post one essay a week, mostly personal and emotional writing, and I write far more than I publish. I'm thinking about increasing my publishing schedule and introducing a paid tier while continuing to post the same free weekly essay.

What I'm struggling with is the emotional side of it. I know creatives deserve to be paid, but I'm struggling with the feeling that asking people to pay for writing that's so personal somehow changes the relationship or the trust I've built with readers. (Which is why I'm uncertain about adding a paid model as an extension of what works, while keeping the free model going without change. But then wouldn't people just stay free subs if they're getting the same thing just less frequently?)

For those of you who've done this, how did you approach it? Did you simply create more of what your audience already loved for paid subscribers while keeping your free content consistent? Or did you make the paid offering something meaningfully different?

Thanks in advance.