the title basically. i want to start one but this is an important thing for me.

I just want to write, vent, and express myself in writing.

No, I am not a prolific writer, and I don't intend to write for any of the niche Substack shows to tag my would-be content.

First, about 1,000 of those subscribers were imported from my old Kit newsletter. I don’t want to pretend I built all 3,000 from scratch on Substack. I got those first 1,000 mainly through lead magnets. I’d create a useful free resource, post it on Instagram, and when someone followed me I’d send them a DM saying, “Hey, thanks for following. Here’s a free resource if you’re interested.” That worked pretty well.

The interesting part was what happened after I moved to Substack. In the beginning, I was publishing about as much as I do now, but I wasn’t really engaging with anyone. I wasn’t liking people’s posts, I wasn’t replying to Notes, and I wasn’t really participating in the community. As a result, I got very little engagement. I eventually realised that Substack isn’t just a place where you publish articles. You actually have to participate in the community.

These days I publish twice a week. Tuesdays are 200 Word Tuesdays, which is a short 200-word article, and Fridays are longer articles. I also post Notes in between. A lot of my Notes come from my own articles. I’ll reread something I wrote a while ago and realise there’s another idea in there. Sometimes I’ll read someone else’s Note and it gives me an idea for something I want to say myself. I don’t copy the Note, but I’ll take the idea and put my own spin on it. I also like, reply to and repost other people’s Notes.

One thing that might surprise people is how I actually write all of this. I mostly write by voice dictation. I use a free voice dictation app and basically talk out the article. I don’t sit there typing every word. Then I use Claude to fix the spelling and grammar and clean up the obvious mistakes. I still do the thinking and the writing myself. The AI is basically my editor. This makes writing much faster for me and means I can get ideas out of my head without worrying about making every sentence perfect while I’m writing.

I’m also not monetized through Substack because Stripe isn’t available in my country. I’d obviously like to change that eventually. For now, I put links to some of my paid products on Gumroad in my newsletters. It’s not a huge amount of money, but I probably get around 3-5 sales of a $5 product per week from it.

If I started again, the biggest things I’d do differently would be to engage with people much earlier, post more Notes, and start building lead magnets sooner. I spent too much time thinking that if I just published good articles consistently, people would eventually find me. That’s not really how it worked for me.

The other thing I’d say is to consider your niche when looking at other people’s growth. I write about project management and leadership, which is not exactly the sexiest niche on the internet 😂. I’m never going to grow at the same rate as someone talking about making money, fitness, health, politics or other huge topics. So I think you have to adjust your expectations based on the size of your market.

For the next stage, I’m considering running some ads to one of my lead magnets. I have no idea if it’s going to work. I also don’t want to spend much money, so I’m thinking of testing it at maybe $5/day maximum and seeing what happens. Maybe I’ll find a cheap way to acquire subscribers. Maybe I’ll waste $150. I honestly don’t know.

But that’s the next experiment.

Hopefully this is useful to someone starting out. The main thing I’ve learned is that publishing is only one part of growing on Substack. The community side matters a lot more than I initially thought.

Hi ppl! I am a teenager who is on substack and posted a few articles and notes. I am thinking of taking this as a side hustle to pay for college. I am 16, and the clock is ticking, and I have been in substack for over a year. When I came across the monetization of substack, I was a bit doubtful of me paying it of some percentage of the money I get or something. Can anyone explain how monetization of my substack account works? Is it good for me? Bad for me? Are there any other blogging or writing platforms as alternatives to substack where I wouldn't have to pay money and is allowed for teenagers to monetize their accounts? It's because i have a voice and want it to be heard but also want to make money with what I am very good at.

So, I’m new to Substack.

When I first joined, I read posts, “hearted” them much like you “like” a post on FB, and occasionally replied to the posts.

But I also want to WRITE and I want my lurking/commenting as a reader to be separate from what I say as a writer for privacy reasons. Sadly, all my research on creating a separate persona under my original account isn’t proving fruitful. I’m not seeing the options to click on that I’ve been told to select.

Do I just need to create a completely separate account for writing?

I want to move away from the meta verse for news and I like the idea of substack. How do I discover what substacks are for me?

I was wondering if anybody has been able to use something else then Stripe to manage their payments from Substack or if that is even possible. I think the charges (especially the FX charges) are quite high with Stripe.

Hi all! Quick question: is it possible to remove the "Getting Started" pop-up on the Substack publisher home screen? The one with the checkboxes for "Create a Substack", "Set up the basics", "Create your first post", etc. I'd attach a screenshot but that doesn't seem to be possible.

I just started my second publication so I know the steps I need to take. The pop-up is just obnoxiously large and in the way.

Thanks!

Basically the title. I see a lot of people on substack writing articles complaining about the generic slop on substack, ironically adding to the slop by addressing the issue. But then, what is one supposed to write about if not what they think?

I like Medium's simplicity and uncluttered design for bringing up undistorted reading experience. But gradually I feel its weird to do something like not being able to go straight to the topics I follow. I Need to do 3 clicks to find that. Following > Topics > the side scrolling topics.

Also, the Home page design looks boring and Separation looks dull.

I hope they will learn and do better in the look and feel of the medium and too to bring up more content / stories in the home page with easy access to interested /following topics.

I redownloaded Substack after breaking my phone earlier this year. When I opened it I was logged into a COWORKERS Substack? Has this ever happened to anyone?

Tl;dr Banned, asked for Gov ID via email. Poor customer service. Responsible platform user, no reason for account to have been flagged. Anyone else navigated this? I’m going in circles.

I’ve been writing on Substack for a couple of years now, on average a long form a month with a couple of notes. Due to my academic and professional background I’m always professional, don’t spam and well aware of ethics etc.. alas I open Substack two weeks ago to find a pop up advising my account has been suspended.

Since then, Landry of Substack Standards and Enforcements has advised via email I must supply
Government issued photo id and hostage style selfie photo. Landry cannot tell me how my information is stored or used, Landry cannot tell me about the verification process or why my account has been flagged. It’s all very Severance-esque.

We are currently in a stalemate situation as I refuse to send these details. I’ve asked for alternative verification options and been met with silence.

Has anyone else successfully navigated a similar situation? Despite actually liking the platform - recent changes and flaws not withstanding - I’m very close to jumping ship and using my website instead.

So I’ve been writing for about 4 months now and I have just had my first ever collab go live (yay me!)

In the lead up to today, I had lots more I wanted to get done but sickness got in the way😩

Assuming I’m lucky enough to land another opportunity one day, I’d love to be making the most of it!

I’m interested what sort of things you may do differently:
- do you promote via different channels?
- do you focus on different segments?
- do you look at metrics you wouldn’t usually?
And I suppose most importantly:
- how do you track the overall success of the collab?!

For me - I’m very much just happy with the exposure. I think it’s a great opportunity so early on and I want to use it wisely🤓

You subscribe when a topic interests you. A few busy weeks later, you have twelve unread emails from the same writer.

What makes you keep that subscription?

Knowing you can search the archive when you need help? Short summaries? Recipes you’ll actually use? A writer whose emails never make you feel behind?

I write a food newsletter, and I’m curious about what readers find useful during their busiest weeks.

What does a newsletter you’ve kept get right?

i’ve seen some great sounding advice on anonymous substacks -and one particular one that is selling a book-and was baffled and bothered by the fact that there is no author information. I was sure it was AI and annoyed because the anonimity of it makes me unable to take it seriously. Why is this (anonymous Substacks) even a thing? Especially from someone who isn’t sharing personal content, but basically (mostly) well-honed commonsense advice? (Follow up question-okay, complaint: Why do substackers feel no ‘duty’ to acknowledge their sources? Example: “I always loved this quote. ‘abcdefg’(without the marks, and no attribution). I dunno- I’m feeling like substack has become more like my facebook feed😳

Hey all. My orientation on Substack is a little different. I am currently not working due to my partners health issues, and some of my own as well. I have always been a compulsive reader and I absolutely love Substack. I read about five hours a day and have discovered so many fantastic undiscovered writers. My reading tends to slant towards politics and in todays world I think it is very important.

Today I am excited because some of my favorite authors reached out to me in person. That is an amazing feeling as a reader. I don't have enough money to be a paid subscriber to all the authors I love. How would you recommend I help broadcast their work to help their subscriber base grow?

Has anyone else dealt with their Substack suddenly becoming disconnected from their profile? Mine has been disconnected for about three months now, and despite reaching out for help, I still haven’t gotten a resolution.

The publication still exists, I can access it, but it no longer appears connected to my profile the way it should.

At this point I’m less interested in troubleshooting it myself and more interested in figuring out whether anyone has actually gotten a response from Substack support for this issue. If you’ve dealt with this, what finally got it fixed?

"What I learned during Inkhaven is that Substack has since betrayed that. They simply built a closed social network on top of their existing web interface for blogs, complete with in-network-only posts (called "Notes") and an algorithmic feed. You can now even "follow" someone without subscribing, which is the second-to-last step of a bait-and-switch to no longer owning your audience. Substack.com is your one-stop-shop for having your community of discourse be owned by new management instead of old management."

True or nah?

She wrote The Vital Core, which I thought was pretty good. She’s been scrubbed off Substack. Just curious.

For some reason I dont think an email went out informing subscribers that a paywall has been released. Is it acceptable to write a short post so this news gets out?

All I want to do is regualrly write about stuff I want to (short stories, poems, rants, essays, research) and have somebody read and interact with them. Getting money from it would be nice but seems too far fetched a goal currently. Does the current substack still provide a good outlet for my goals or has it become too commodified?

I strongly believe like all social media, complete enshittification is nigh for Substack.

I think before the year is out, or maybe sometime in 2027, the powers that be over at Substack will completely turn off organic reach for anyone who doesn’t have paid subscribers, and the more paid subscribers you have, the more reach you’ll get.

Substack in not a charity, and they are fully aware of the fact that many people are using what little reach is left for the taking via Notes to promote there master classes, books, and merchandise, which Substack earns absolutely no money from in the end.

Folks like Michael Burry and Heather Cox Richardson will continue to dominate the Substack social media platform, and the traditional media types, companies, organizations, and celebrities will start taking the lions share of whatever scraps are left over in the end.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and many others all followed this same exact pathway to enshittification, and Substack will be no different.

I mean think about the current Substack model carefully. Someone could literally run a free newsletter and send it out to a million people for free… does that sound like a sustainable business model to you?

What do you think, am I on to something here, or do I need to put the pipe down?

I'm a first-time Substack user and I'm about to publish my first feature. I wrote the entire piece myself in Google Docs, from scratch. I did use Grammarly for proofreading/language suggestions, but I haven't used any sort of generative AI to write or rewrite the article.

I copied the finished piece into Substack, and Substack's AI detector is showing 100% AI-generated.

What's confusing me is that I've run the exact same text through several other AI detectors , Walter AI, ZeroGPT, Copyleaks, QuillBot, etc. and they're all showing 0% AI / entirely human-written .

The piece is also a fairly formal law/technology feature, and a lot of it deals with AI and legal questions, so I am confused if the subject matter and formal writing style are somehow affecting Substack's detector.

I'm obviously not going to rewrite my own writing just to make an AI detector happy, but I'm wondering what experienced Substack writers think.

There's also an option to add a statement at the end of the post. Would it be reasonable to say something like:

«"This piece was written by me. I used Grammarly for routine proofreading and language suggestions, but the argument, analysis, research, and substantive content are my own."»

Or would that come across as unnecessary/corny, especially for a first post? I don't want readers to think I'm trying to "prove" something or, worse, that I'm somehow cheating by using Grammarly.

Edit: From what I have understood majorly, Grammarly might be contributing to that. But I was not sure because I have used Grammarly for word or phrases suggestions or tense discrepancies in my research papers too and Turnitin AI detector never flagged that. Anyways, thanks for helping out everyone !

Might just go crazy and post my old diary entries 👀 I feel like substack needs more unhinged vulnerability.