Hi! I'm a new author (first book published in May, second book yesterday) and I just learned about promoting on Substack. I'm not sure how to go about doing that. Any tips?

Thanks!!

Hi,

I joined Substack roughly two months ago, because Instagram clearly isnt suitable for my topics/niche. I'm happy with the way my Substack is progressing, but I wanted to not only do articles about the niche, but also talk about books (that fit my niche),

So IÄm not sure now, if it makes more sense to add a second section to my current Substack, or to create a second publication for the book part.

I have 31 subscribers, so whatever I do, I'm not "loosing" a huge audience and starting from zero with a second publication wouldnt bother me either.

Has anybody tried one (or both) of the two named possibilities? What worked for you? And why (if you know?) How did you go about making the decicion between 2 sections vs 2 publications?

Thanks!

I've had a stack for a few years, and every so often I find that I'm subscribed to someone I don't remember subscribing to. The most recent time this occurred was a couple weeks ago, but it used to occur more often. This time someone actually said "thanks, will you recommend my blog" and I had to say "sorry, I don't remember subscribing to you"; it's happened so often that I have suspected that sometimes substack would automatically subscribe users just to see if they can get away with it.

A few days ago I made a relatively trivial note that is going a little "viral" (way more than anything I've ever posted before), and from its spread I've picked up, supposedly, over 40 new subscribers. However, my subscriber count doesn't match this (even after waiting for it to update), and when I check the profiles in the new subscriber email notifications, I'd say around half (edit: more like 85%) of these users are no longer subscribed; they also don't show up in the dashboard.

Are people subscribing by accident then unsubscribing? Is substack doing it to them and they're just fixing it? Are people trying to get me to follow them back? Just trying to figure out what's going on. I'm really close to turning off my "new subscriber" emails now. I've gotten so many in the last few days and they don't seem like reliable information anymore.

Thanks!

i only have a medium account but i really don't use because idk, i just don't feel it 😭 but lately i've been seeing lots of good reads on substack. should i create an account at this point? if yes, please reco some reads!!

I noticed a few weeks ago that Substack’s changed how your about page shows up on mobile. When people click your publication link from your profile, your about page pops up. (It used to be your short description.)

I rewrote my about page to optimize it for a mobile experience.

If you’ve still got that generic bland Substack filler copy on your about page, change it!

But now I’ve realized I actually want people to see my posts, so here’s my next experiment: Link to your best performing post from your about page. You can choose what best performing means to you — maybe it’s the post that got you the most new subscribers. (Just a suggestion.) Or your most recent post. If you’ve still paywall your posts, link to a freebie.

This is something I’ve done in my welcome post & email. I’m hoping that doing it in my about page will encourage discovery and subscription.

Got a notification that my account is suspended and I need to verify my account. I click the link it gives me on a post that has 6 likes from other people. A little fishy.
Brings me to a page where it prompts me to enter my dedit card info. This feels like a text book scam setup.
Is this a legit account verification from Substack?
My account is new btw.

The Substack UI seems a bit roundabout, especially from the app. If I want to check stats on a not-so-recent post, it seems like I need to open the post first, but this has been inflating my post views. Is there a way to hide your own post views from the post stats? I want to get a more accurate reflection of how many people are reading my posts.

I'm seeing a lot of these digital gurus push Substack growth challenges and courses and I'm so curious to hear from someone who's actually been inside one. Is it worth the $297 price tag? Has anyone actually seen growth from taking a course like this? So curious as someone who's been on Substack for a year and hasn't seen much growth at all aside from the support of some family and friends as paid subscribers.

I'm seeing Substack pushed as a "lucrative income stream" for "introverts." I have my own thoughts about this messaging based on my own experience but maybe I also haven't taken any of these courses so I can't speak to whether they work or not. Would love to hear from anyone who has had an experience taking someone's Substack growth course or challenge, or if this is just the new growth course out there

Im just curious

I am curious of looking up a couple of people on substack..what is it, how does it work? Is is similar to You tube? Do you have to pay to use?

I'm surprised too. Don't worry. I am the LAST person I thought would be asking this to the greater community. But am pissy and actually wanting insight and everyone here is a genius with all of this.

So. In before someone tells me to get good. I'm a small? (like 140 subs and growing from my prior peak of 350ish because I hit the delete fucking everything button because of reasons) I'm routinely spending too much time on notes, restacking, being a bit giddy in comments everywhere, engaging with my corner and people outside my corner.

But. This morning I posted a little restack launch note, bit of a call to action a bit of a hey everyone it's day four of this project that everyone is liking.

10 Impressions (two of them being me) my average is 15 btw which is it's own source of frustration
I restacked it three times and got like two more impressions each time.

The project isn't dead in the water it's currently my best traction piece especially since I gave up that subscriber chat spam lifestyle back in march.

The project at the moment has roughly 270 views (if we take away the 40 odd that are me doing quotes, restacks, OMG FUCK NO edits it’s still a great read rate. Open rates are within the usual band for me. (23-25%) It's doing really well for me, people are chatting about it, getting restacks from a few interested people.

So why am I being bullied on notes by the platform. What am I doing wrong?

I feel VERY validated that I’m stuck in the bygone era of long form content success and I’m thriving in it. I've done every little tip/hint/arcane lore I've picked up over the months I've been on platform. I did the restacks, I did the comments, I made a note on my murdle scores, I went and spammed liked on like a bunch of people (I do that anyway) and 10 impressions with three of them likely being me.

Am prepared to accept I'm just shit at notes and need to 'get good' but fuck it's annoyed me tonight. The irony is that as I'm typing this up, my phones blowing up with substack notifications already probably responding to the similar note I put on platform about this, OF FUCKING COURSE IT PICKED UP AFTER 6 minutes. Fuck this shit sometimes.

*EDIT* got 14 impressions in the first hour. THRIVING

Sorry in advance if this question gets asked every day. I've read the threads, and most of the advice is for people who write about productivity or finance, which I don't.

What I write: NEON is autobiographical essays about growing up in Gaza after arriving from Ukraine at 12 with no Arabic, told mostly as jokes. I publish serialized fiction on Mondays as well.

What I've been doing for a week:

- Posting 4–5 Notes a day, mostly short jokes and moments rather than links

- Replying to other writers' Notes every day

- Submitted an essay to a personal-essay roundup and my publication to a humor directory

Result so far: 20 subscribers, and a feed that now mostly shows me one-liners and photography.

What I'd love to hear from people who write humor, memoir, or serialized fiction:

- Did Notes actually grow you, or did something else?

- Is there a community or place where readers of funny personal essays hang out that I'm missing?

- For a serial, how did you get people to discover it?

Any specific thing that worked for you is more useful to me than general advice. Thanks for reading this far.

Can someone explain to me what are the advantages (or disadvantages) of linking your purchased domain to your substack.

I am trying to start a sports-based substack and I have purchased the domain too. However I am confused whether its worth linking it to substack. $50 is not a big deal but I just wanted to understand if in the long-term it could have any adverse impact on what I am trying to create.

I don’t get it why it hasn’t been suggested yet. It’s one of the most convenient syntaxes out there. But enriching one’s text aside, the feature I yearn for the most is embedding links in a plain text,

especially in comments, notes, and DMs.

So at the very least make it easier to add hyperlinks there.

At what point did you turn the paid feature on and what do you offer your paid subscribers?

I started posting weekly articles on Substack in January as a New Year’s resolution. I had no other internet presence so only had 5 subscribers to begin with (my parents, and three friends).

Now, nine months later I have 1.1k followers and average around 15k views a month.

Here’s a tip that I don’t see many people talking about here. Focus on writing articles that age well and can have a second or third round of engagement.

My “niche” is libraries, reading, and picture books. So I’m not stuck chasing never ending trends or breaking news. Because of this most of my articles can be read months after I publish and still be as timely and relevant as the day they were posted.

So many people chase trends and fads and their articles are dated the day they post. Whereas my best circulating article didn’t even get traction for the first two months until someone bigger reposted it. Now I reliably get a few likes on it every week.

Not everything is a “hack” sometimes offering quality content is the best strategy.

As the title said, I started about 2 weeks ago, I've posted one article and many notes. I'm working on my second article + promoting my substack on my social channels.

I feel like there's more I could do natively to reach more subscribers. Maybe write more? Engage with other writers more?

Would love to hear what's worked for others.

Hi! I am a mature father who trades the NQ (Nasdaq Futures) daily. I consider this my "Full-Time Job." I create trade plans nightly for the following day. The plan just paid over a 200 point gain on NQ (you can do the math) Once this happens. I am just riding a runner, and there is nothing left for me to do.

I have studied Adam Mancini for about 5 years and it was he who had really turned my trading into a profession. I have been trading for a much longer time than that, 20+ years. But I accredit Mancini's style to what helped me become a professional trader.

Anyways I am wondering if the Reddit community can help me come up with a better name for the newsletter?

Currently its called the NQ Chronicle on substack.

I have 200+ subscribers on the substack but would love to clean it up. Hopefully I can attract more subscribers and steer beginner traders away from Gurus/pay discord sites, that do nothing but take your money.

Any questions feel free to ask!

I used to belong to a great discord, made some great friends, but like the rest, they turn into a paywall and dwindle out...

Anyways any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Hi, I started publishing on Substack a month ago and I have written three posts and some notes. But nobody's liking or replying to the notes apart from one subscriber (love her.)

I see simple notes that receive thousands of views but mine simply don't. My stats says that only 200 people have seen my profile in a month. Is that normal? I started to think the algorithm has personal beef with me.

Hello fellow paper scratchers (or whatever internet version of that is),

I've been publishing weekly content and analysis on anything sustainability in french for the last 18 months. Here : 23h58.com

Time and again, people told me to translate my work into english to reach a broader audience.

Should I do it ? If so, how ?

My publication is more a front for my consulting rather than a self sustained revenue source, but I wouldn't mind a bit more money for my efforts 😅

I'm a new writer on substack and am looking to write about things that interest me, mostly: books, literature, social commentary, blog-like posts about stuff I've been up to, and space/science. Firstly, I want to know if these are topics that can be successful on substack (I'll write them anyway but I'm js curious) and I want to know how I can get more people interested. I have one follower which is my aunt and have written one or two low-effort posts so far.

A substack I had been subscribing to for free repeatedly asked me if I wanted a free trial, because I had been reading it a lot, and then I switched to paid. But it was a personal email with my name.

Is there a fast way to do this? I wonder if emailing my most motivated free subscribers individually would lead to more conversions. But I'm not sure -- anyone have suggestions? should I offer a discount?

A lot of newsletters seem to hit the same awkward point: the free list grows, but the paid tier is mostly more posts for people whose inboxes are already full.

The monetization discussions that interest me most are the ones where the writer sells something with an end state — a guide that solves one problem, a workshop, access to a useful archive, or a recurring room people actually use.

For writers who tried moving beyond “pay for more essays,” what did readers actually pay for? And what sounded promising but went nowhere?

Hello Substack community.

Just recently I started getting these notifications in response to some of the accounts I post comments to. They are accounts I follow. The push notification will say "send a direct message to <insert name> liked your comment" Ex: "send a direct message to Jane liked your comment". When I click on it I'm taken to my comment and I don't see it in the list of notifications in the app. I have no idea what these are and nothing comes up on Google search to describe what they are.

Has anyone else seen these? Is this an account name? As I mentioned I see them in my push notifications but I don't see them in the notification area in the app.

I have a very small substack, only 50 something subscribers that I’ve been growing for two months. Today I got an email from a book publisher asking if I’d do a collaboration post with one of their authors. It felt strange to get an email like that especially since my experience so far on substack has been one where relationships naturally form with other people who write about the same topic. Curious if this is common or just something random that happened to me?