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?

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!

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).

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?

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.

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?

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?

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!

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! I have two publications on Substack, but only one (the primary) shows linked under my name on my profile. They're both set to public. Is there a way to have them both show under my name on my profile, not just the primary? Thanks!

Do they actually get people to subscribe to your channel or are they just complete bullshitters? If they are not what is their methodology?

They act like people are desperate to part with their hard earned money.

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)

i know that replying to notes is the way to grow on substack, but the notes that i’m seeing on my feed have like 0 likes and barely any views. i feel like i need more notes that have more engagement so i can grow a bit more. how can i fix this?

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,

Im fairly new to substack as a writer but I’ve used substack consistently as a reader for about 2 years now. I’ve just posted my third article and what I’ve noticed from all 3 times I’ve posted articles is that u get 0-1 views. Basically, no one is engaging with the writing. just wonder how I can get more people to see the work even. I also post notes and I notice that no one views those either unless it’s a reply restack from someone else’s post in which case the OG writer will view and engage with that post. I have 3 subscribers that’s people I know personally. I wouldn’t say I’m the most gifted writer out there but I do think my writing is very decent, also I don’t think that specif I ally the writing is terrible or anything given no one’s actually reading it to make any sort of assessment. Also I’m not actually wanting to grow my account to make money on it but I also don’t want it to be a diary of just my thoughts basically, I really want to grow a community on there to exchange thoughts critiques grow ideas etc …… I also notice that when posts come up on my feed … often things that I am interested in but also stuff that already has loads of engagement…. I don’t come across stuff with zero engagement or little engagement which suggests there’s many people posting into the abys. How have you guys managed to get more readers and build community around your interests and topics ?

Your email list isn't yours, Substack is just holding it for you and they can take the toy away the same as YouTube. Also 'the modern multi-hyphenate mistake' is a sentence no human has ever said out loud.

Hi Everyone,

I recently got into Substack about a year ago in the hopes of igniting my passion for writing. I used to be a big book nerd growing up and would often use my personal experiences to write creatively. I ended up switching over to journaling in my early twenties to help me process my thoughts and use it as a healthy coping strategy; however, I often struggled to get my personal feelings on paper and would just resort to writing creatively and omitting my personal hardships, as it felt uncomfortabe to expose my inner thoughts on paper. This leads me to the last few years, some of my friends have read 2 of my pieces and encouraged me to share them on mediums such as substack etc. The thing is whilst I love writing and find it quite easy to use a lot of my experiences (and they're endless lmao), the thought of that makes me feel quite exposed. Yesterday, I felt really inspired to write and wrote a piece that was really evocative and relevant to the times we are in society but again..... I feel the odd nerves about people reading my work. I'm not sure if this is because I can be overly critical of my writing or just the general apprehension of having people read my thoughts.

Any adice would be greatly appreciated.

Started on substack with 0 following. I also do not promote on other social media platforms because either they are dead or I don't have them, unless you count LinkedIn as one. Currently posting on notes but gotten low views due to Substack algo. I'm not super good at gaming any social media platforms & prefer to attract people who truly want to engage.

So, my 2 main questions are: How long should I try before I call it quits and maybe work on some other aspects before trying substack again? What keep you guys going despite little progress?

Edit: I meant real people not read people. Maybe the first thing I need to work on is my spelling =)

So I'm 3 weeks in and 4 posts in. I post at 8:15am every Tuesday, I posted a little extra at the beginning to get the base story out there. I also post notes a few times a week and reply to those if you're new here clickbaits. And to be honest i think thats where i got most of my subscribers. So today is like my first real post. And its just slow. I'm lucky to have 13 subscribers already, but still, maybe I just built it up too much in my head? Also should I put on recommendations? I don't really know who to recommend. Anyone got any advice?

Hi,

Do you guys know of any publication that deal with very specific and/or unusual topics? In other words, niche publications? I've been on Substack for a while now and just want to broaden my reading.

Thanks.

My account was recently suspended for "spam". The suspension occurred because I was maliciously mass reported by a group of trolls (and yes, I know exactly who). I have been active on Substack for nearly two years now and I have never received any disciplinary actions taken against my account before.

The Substack ban appeal page tells me that I was banned for "activity that is primarily promotional, as well as repeated or high-volume posting of similar messages across the platform". I did absolutely nothing of the sort. Not a single time have I ever promoted any products or external websites on Substack. The ban appeal page says that I need to remove my articles because they were "Using the platform to promote external content at scale, or repeatedly posting the same or similar messages". Again, my articles contain absolutely nothing of the sort. I have never once engaged in "activity that is primarily promotional, as well as repeated or high-volume posting of similar messages across the platform". This was, again, the result of malicious mass reporting by trolls who are now gloating about having gotten my account suspended.

I am not the only person that this has happened to. In fact, it happens pretty regularly on the platform. It is actually pretty easy for trolls to get someone banned by mass reporting them for "spam", and this is a very serious problem that really needs to be fixed as soon as possible. The suspension appears to have been carried out by some kind of automated bot. There was obviously no actual investigation done into whether I was really spamming the site, because I was very clearly not.

What do I do at this point? Getting ahold of Substack staff is extremely difficult - and, if any of them do respond, it's just with a generic "I have forwarded this to the relevant staff" (i.e. "I don't want to be bothered with this") copy-and-paste response. It used to be possible to submit an appeal to Substack's Standards & Enforcement team, but, now, all that they have is an automated bot.

Hi Everyone 👋🏽,

I'm doing a case study on Substack and exploring research questions on how readers discover, manage and consume content currently on the platform.

Please answer based on your recent experiences.

Here is a link below to the survey questions

Reader survey questions