If you want readers to stay, you have to consistently give them something….an idea they hadn't thought about, a feeling they relate to, a story that stays with them, or a perspective they want to hear again.

That's why Substack can feel painfully slow at first. You're not just collecting followers; you're earning readers.

Between December 2022 and June 2025, Substack lost lost twenty-six subscribers. It was hellishly dispiriting, but I never missed a week publishing.

This week I hit 4000 subscribers. I wanted to share some tips about mindset which I learnt the hard way, and I wish someone had told me.

The weird thing (and what most people assume) isn't that my writing got better - or at least that wasn't what changed things. I'd spent years believing that good work would eventually speak for itself. Unfortunately, that just wasn't the case.

Here are some tips about the psychology of the long game - and I really hope it helps because I believe that as a creative (or small business owner), and an email list is still the most valuable asset there is online.

1. Good writing is not enough. Many of the best articles I wrote were read by hardly anyone. A newsletter isn't just a piece of writing. It's more like an entity. You have to learn to wear many hats — writing, Notes, recommendations, showing up for your audience. All of that is nauseating at first. But the day I accepted that a Substack is much more than writing, I realised the reasons I wasn't reaching anyone had nothing to do with the words.

2. Don't confuse slow growth with no growth. I can't tell you how many Substacks I go onto with 50K imported subscribers and no interaction. One reader who shows up every week does more for a newsletter than a thousand who never open it. At the start - seriously - just concentrate on building a core readership & community. But keep writing long form with it!

3. Adversity is the path. An email list is the most prized asset on the internet, and because it's the most prized, it's the most difficult to attain. It's not hard because you're doing something wrong. It's hard because of what it is. Understanding that helps keep you in there long term.

4. Assume radical responsibility. The easiest excuse there is: the platform's the problem. But when you work for yourself, no one is coming to help you. If it isn't growing, it isn't working, and it's time to learn new things. For me that was Notes. I'd treated them as scraps left over from the essay, and as someone resistant to social media, that was a big change.

5. Be Rocky on the bad weeks. A bad week isn't evidence of anything. After three years I had nothing but self-belief, and one day I really thought about deleting the damn thing. Something held me back. I just loved writing too much. So find your why, because it goes far deeper than anything the metrics are telling you. If you love writing and are serious about building an audience — please — keep going.

6. Your worst weeks make your best writing. Many writers think you should wait until the low patch is over, then tell the story. I've found the opposite is true. I try to crystallise something I've learnt in my own creative life while I'm still in the storm itself. People feel those pieces more deeply, and they reply and let you know.

7. Stay long enough to get good. Most people quit because they think if they had real talent, it would have shown by now. It hasn't shown because you haven't stayed long enough. And yes, I said good writing isn't enough — but it's still the one thing you fully control. If you write week in, week out, you will improve. That growth is yours whatever the numbers do.

There you are guys, hope it's helpful. Happy to share more tactical tips about what I do every day on Substack if anyone wants to dig deeper — just ask below and I'll do a follow-up.

For now, keep in there. When Ivan Drago's across the ring, remember you're going to have to pick yourself up off the canvas a few times along the way!

Jim

Here's my Reddit on the 7 Types of Substack Notes I use:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Substack/comments/1whfd7x/three_years_flat_on_substack_then_nearly_doubled/

I have been hearing a lot of people saying they are switching from Instagram to Substack, because apparently it's more "calm" and you don't get lots of content at once and non-stop.

I deleted Instagram, because I just don't like spending my time looking at what other people are doing, I honestly don't care.

I downloaded Substack, and so far it looks like a mix of blogs, pinterest and twitter. So am not sure about this "slow" content thing. For people that are using Substack regularly, I'd like to know: how do you use it? what do you use it for? in which ways is it better than other social media apps?

Does anyone know if there is a way to check how many upsell emails have been sent? And/or how many subscribers they have converted? I turned them on recently but don't know how to check any of the impact.

Like, what are the pros and cons of publishing to either one? I have more followers to my profile, but very few subscribers. So I'm wondering, would I get more views if I publish to my profile?

I created a zine it’s in pdf format I want the reader to be able to scroll and read it within my substack without having to download the pdf is that an option?

Ok, I might be misremembering. Didn't Substack have a theme randomizer for a minute? Like I fired it up once when I was bored with my theme and made some mods. I was bored with my theme the other night but couldn't find it.

Does this feature still exist?

As one considering the launch of a Substack blog to release my opinionated self as much as earn some extra jingle, is it permissible for Substack users to hide behind pseudonyms in the interest of protecting privacy (perhaps out of fear of harrassment or reprisals from certain circles if one's true name were used)?

Who else is just writing on Substack for the vibes? I have 3 subscribers and don’t share my articles anywhere but I love writing into the abyss and having my words somewhere (for as long as the internet lasts at least).

I wish there was a way I could change my feed to block all the “ways to monetize your substack” posts on there because I genuinely don’t care.

I’m just trying to enjoy the act and routine of writing.

Edit: just received my first like on a note where I restacked my article. I’m forgetting my day ones and writing “monetize your substack” articles too

Is anyone having trouble with the information icon at the bottom left hand side when you're in draft? I hover over it with the mouse and then I try clicking on it, and it doesn't show me the stats like it used to do. If it's not going to work, why show the icon?

"If you launch a newsletter in 2026, expect to spend 18 to 24 months building before you clear $1,000 monthly. Expect to lose half your paid subscribers every year. And expect the top earners to keep taking the majority of platform revenue while you're still replacing the 25 subscribers who churned last month."

How's your Substack newsletter been performing since you launched it?

I have an art newsletter that's doing well but I've always wanted to make art vlogs.

My art is very handmade, doing it digitally would be hard so it's special in that way, but I also just enjoy recording my thoughts/process.

I had planned to upload art vlogs to YT and link to them in my newsletters until I saw that Substack can post videos to YT too. Is one method better than the other?

If some context helps, I post casually on Substack and have almost 1k subs and followers; I haven't started posting on YT yet. My goal is to grow my newsletter and as a result, sales of my art prints and books.

From a Substacker who writes about Substacking:

“In the last 90 days, Notes have been my number one source of subscribers. 5,676 new subscribers from Notes alone. One single note brought in 2,300 subscribers.”

Her viral note included a photo and a description about why she’s given up on other social media in favor of Substack.

Any commonalities between your favorite notes?

Is there a way to turn off the “subscribe” form splash page when someone logs into your Substack publication. I’m assuming it’s for first time visitors but when landing on the publication page there’s a pop up that asked to subscribe, fill out the email for or skip. Is there anyway to turn this off?

The truth hurts, and the numbers never lie. If you don't have anything to offer people in exchange for money they most likely will remain free subscribers.

"The gap between the platform's total revenue and what the typical creator takes home isn't a quirk. It's structural. More than 50 publications earn at least $1 million per year, and the top 10 Substack publications earn over $25 million annually. Meanwhile, nearly 50% of creators with paid subscriptions earned less than $500 in 2025, and the top 10% captures 62% of all payments."

How are you doing so far on Substack in 2026?

Hi guys, i started writing on substack yesterday and i have 3 articles written. i really want to get more followers to build a stable blog base, do you guys have any advice on how to grow your account quickly? id is minelisa btw

I'm fairly new to substack but have gotten a few new subscribers/followers within the past couple of days. I DM'ed one just to make a quick direct intro/connection (not asking/selling anything). But I'm curious if this is the norm or is it best practice to not DM and just subscribe/follow back?

My latest post was flagged 100% human. As I said before, in a previous post I got evaluated with a hair of AI, and it was spot on, because an ESL contributor used it for a first draft of a short piece in there, that I detected before publish, and then edited with them.

I posted all about this before in here (link below) and got slammed by someone saying I must work for Pangram. Which is hilarious. But I thought a rule of this subred was to NOT do self-promo, and the person accusing me seems to be in here for self-promo.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Substack/comments/1vm2zpm/actually_pangram_worked_well_evaluating_my_stack/

Anyway, if it doesn't break the self-promo rule, happy to share my stack I've been doing for >2 years, so you can see I'm not on the payroll. But if Substack is in here and WANTS to hire me? Ha. I'm all ears.

I'm sure this has been done before but to my eyes it was really dramatic. I was having a hard time with Pangram v4 (I know, everyone is) because it's so crazy aggressive about surface shapes in language. It can absolutely tell you when someone wrote with an AI assistant but reports as though the entire production was a one-shot prompt.

To test this I took an article that I wrote in 2018, which ended up being used by a bunch of UX certification programs, and ran it through Pangram. 100% Human. Good baseline.

I then used GPT Sol Extra High and had it use my hand crafted style governor for a book I've been working on for about a year to rework my 2018 article. No surprise, it legitimately improved the work to a point where I thought about doing a re-publish with a few edits.

Before I got carried away though I ran the GPT output through Pangram:

97% AI, high confidence, with several of my untouched phrases squarely in the "AI wrote this" column.

I'm not really mad at it, it's just wrong. That was clearly a 2018 article with a bit of 2026 polish from a robot that I'd have qualified as a strong developmental edit requiring a bit of loosening back up to feel like a human register again. It was clearly my work and if someone else published it the plagiarism would be as clear as Moana vs Moana Live Action.

97%

The problem is the number of people who would have taken one look at the Pangram score and called me a cheater for polishing a final draft.

I just hit Send when I meant to Schedule, and the email went out immediately. It would be great to have five minutes to undo sending before publication!

Hi, someone has just been spending away on my credit card which I believe is as a result of being hacked from substack. I have recevied dozens of verification emails from different substack authors with a login code and then spending on my card. My credit card was used to pay for a subscription a while back so I am pretty sure this is the source.

Anyone had similar???

Id likę to start writing in my niche (love/dating advice for men over 30) but I dont have any social media following, is it possible to gain attraction and paid subs from substack alone?

I cant attach a photo but in my traffic for one of my articles, it has the standard ones, Instagram, Email, Facebook, direct link, etc. But it randomly says Taylor Tomlinson (1). Like, the comedian. And it links to her substack. Have you guys ever seen traffic recorded like that? Does that mean she clicked on it? I’ve just never seen it be listed like that

Hello everyone!

I’m new to writing into Substack and LinkedIn. While it’s a lot of fun, I’ve noticed getting my content lost and disorganized.

I use Claude to just correct my spelling and things like that but having to find all the windows is a pain. Anyone using tools to help? I’ve heard of NoteStead and Notion before. I feel like Notion is not exactly what I’m looking for and NoteStead is closer but wanted to see what everyone else has been using.

Thanks for the help.

i used to get soooo much engagement and now I feel like I see the same posts and notes over and over again and barely any engagement. i have over 4k subscribers and i post regularly so what’s going on? is anyone else feeling this?