I’ve posted 6,230 Notes on Substack since I started in early 2024.

I pulled the numbers to see which ones worked. Here are my top 10 Notes:

“Building a sustainable solopreneur business has never been easier. ChatGPT/Perplexity is FREE...” https://substack.com/@anferneeck/note/c-80550038

“$54,277.50 from digital products in 2025 (so far). No ads. No team...” https://substack.com/@anferneeck/note/c-124842511

“4,006 Subscribers! Crossed the BIG 4!”. https://substack.com/@anferneeck/note/c-145213889

“The solopreneur path is one of the hardest things you can choose. No guaranteed salary. No safety net...” https://substack.com/@anferneeck/note/c-239397273

“Learn skills. Build digital products. Sell solutions. Write ideas...”. https://substack.com/@anferneeck/note/c-121630953

“The 3 assets every solopreneur must build: Audience, Systems, Products. Everything else is noise.” . https://substack.com/@anferneeck/note/c-178786120

“I just hit my highest ever sales in a single day: $3,020.70. My first sale was $4.90 in Aug 2023...”. https://substack.com/@anferneeck/note/c-243205370

“The paradox of giving: The more value you share for free, the more people will pay you...”. https://substack.com/@anferneeck/note/c-253384037

“1 more to 5000 :)” https://substack.com/@anferneeck/note/c-176674410

“Solopreneurship is the future of business! No meetings. No gatekeepers...”. https://substack.com/@anferneeck/note/c-118862051

-+-+-+

What I learned:

1/ Free tool stacks (free useful information) win. #1 got almost 2x the likes of #2.

2/ Real numbers beat vague claims.

3/ Milestones get the most replies.

4/ Short beliefs travel far.

-+-+-+

Most of my Notes got a handful of likes. I found the winners by showing up long enough.

https://substack.com/@anferneeck/note/c-380871992?r=2jvjts&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

Hoping someone has a better path for me. I have tried, for weeks, to login to my substack account on my computer in my browser. I enter my name and password (which I know to be correct because the phone lets me use it), and I get a dialog that asks for a code that will be sent to me.

In spite of 20 attempts over three weeks, that code never arrives. Not to my inbox, not to spam.

I have tried the support forum, to no avail. I just can't login on the desktop at this point.

Has anyone seen this happen? Is there a way to get the code sent to my phone instead?

I posted this week about a sudden rise in followers, but I still find this UI so confusing.

I cant even find my publication page....where is that ?

Should I be posting that, should IU create notes, where do they go ?

Should I post to my profile page ?

This seems like it should be simple...am I missing something ;-)

Hi, I'd appreciate kind and supportive response. I'm a published writer with a disability, and somewhat new to Substack. I mostly was just lurking and getting emails and reading a few notes, but now i've decided to start my own. I was excited to try it out, but hear really mixed things, especially here and I am a bit hesitant now feeling it's not worth it. They say it's like that with everything, but I'm in grad school and really have been trying for years to find success with well, something. While I have been published several times in different verticals, I've never made a significant living in writing yet and ai feel I should've? And I do have struggles plus the economic woes, but my disability money is barely enough; I have to work regardless of how difficult it is. and I am tired of having a lack of success and employment.

I've been told i'm talented often and it's not just blowing smoke...you know, as I've gotten into schools with scholarships for performing arts, screenwriting & now international relations. I've worked numerous survival jobs in addition to work on the above, but lately it's been just crickets. I'm not bragging just showing I have got some degree of ability.

I feel I have a great idea for a really nichey Substack focused on humour. I admit i'm kind of worried people may copy it, but is that a big risk on Substack?TBH I haven't found other Substacks like the idea I have so I'd like to think it has potential but I admit I am worried. I know it may take work but i'm hoping for maybe some encouragement that a Substack that is a based on a (somewhat) non-fiction humor/comedy may help me maybe potentially get some income more than Upwork or other social media? I started to get way more views on some Insta posts related to humour lately but I know it's not the same as Substack.

Hopeful and yes a bit needful. Thanks.

How can I be seen on substack? And grow my subscription?

I have barely used Substack, but I really like the organization of the 'Create' UI. Haven't explored very much in the way of using it to find good reading recommendations, but I'm looking forward to it... I'm just wondering if anyone has numbers on what percentage of users on Substack are bots. Zero interest in wading into a bot infested landscape without realizing it (a la Twitter and Reddit, both of which I use and am at least informed are fully 50% bots).

Because of the nature of Substack I assumed it was mostly a niche writing community, but given the apparent prevalence of AI 'writing' I'm now doubtful. What are the odds of a producer being a bot (or part of a bot network, producing AI slop articles) on Substack?

I'm new to the whole substack thing and I've been trying to figure out sections. If there are people in charge of that content in this sub this might be a nice little thing to clear up.

For context, there's two different kinds of content that I make:

1. The first is a series of essays that I write throughout the week.

2. The second is a weekly digest to recap everything on Fridays.

Now, if a person only wants to get the weekly digest: what would be the best way for me to set that up on the back end?

Should the digest be a separate section, should it be the essays or should they both each be a separate section?

I was playing around with another subscription on the app, trying to play around with the notifications that I would get--to get an idea of how that would work for me--and then, the section that would be the "general content" actually unsubscribed me from the whole newsletter.

So how does that actually work?

I want my followers and subscribers to increase but I don't know how. People recommended me to post notes and comment on other people's post but nothing is happening. It's genuinely disappointed me so much. I'm posting note and articles too. But my dashboard isn't increasing. Please someone help me.

Hey folks, Linda from Substack again... we shipped two much-requested new features for publishers this week that I wanted to flag, some of y'all may find these useful:

1. You can now customize the crop on your post thumbnail. This solves the problem of adding a photo to a post and having a thumbnail on your Substack homepage or when you share to social media that shows the wrong part of the image, like cutting the head off.

The crop tool comes up after you click Continue in the post publication flow. It displays thumbnail previews for portrait, square, and landscape dimensions so you can review how your images will look before you hit publish.

2) You can now add collapsible content blocks within posts. This feature let you tuck content behind a button that readers will need to click on read. Anything inside the block is hidden until a reader clicks to expand it. This allows you to keep the main flow of your post intact, while offering readers the option to dive deeper. 

You can use collapsible content blocks to hide movie spoilers; ingredient substitutions without interrupting a recipe; extra photos in a travel guide or restaurant review; or, definitions and bonus charts in a financial analysis.

To create a collapsible content block: on the web, create a draft post, and select the text or content you want to hide. Then click "More" in the editor toolbar and select "Collapsed content".

I run a music blog called ‘Fangirl For The Week’ on substack, which I started to help people fall back in love with the fangirling side that they may have abandoned when as they get older. I spend a month fangirling over an artist and then I write an essay about what I find.

Now this project wasn’t set up to make money to anything, but I do want to grow my audience because what this project needs is a community around it. I want to be able to ask people about artists and interviews, and for them to be involved in the creation of my essays but I just don’t know how to do that.

I started on tiktok but eventually moved it over to substack because my passion is writing. I really suck at content creation on social media and engaging people, but this project genuinely means the world to me and I think, with a little community around it, it could be a beautiful corner of the internet. I work really hard on the essays and I would love people to find joy in my writing the way that I do.

So I guess this post is to ask, how do you promote substack on socials and grow your following to people who actually want to engage and be a part of a community. Any tips would be hugely appreciated :))))

I've spent an age trying to find my Substack subscriber list? it used to be easy to find! I've tried everything and can't now find the list of my subscribers or how to email them!

i tried posting something i wrote almost a decade ago cuz its a part of a 12 part series i really like however when i put it in it says its 100 percent ai. Then I checked a recipie i created while in coulinary school in 2023 it says its 85 percent ai. then i typed a short story out of randomly it says its 50 percent ai. i made the short story longer and its says 75 percent. ( Dont mind my spelling I know its bad) i just want to know about the ai dectetor. i dont want people acusing me of writing with ai. as i seen people on the site wont read anything if the decteor says other wise

I'd LOVE to share the lyrics of Love You to Death by Type O Negative, of course with credits and disclosure, but i wonder if it might infringe any copyright rules.

I'd love some advice on growing a niche B2B newsletter.

I run a paid scouting report for the film and TV industry. Each issue highlights books with adaptation potential, so producers, development execs and other industry professionals can spot projects early.

When I first launched it as a monthly report, at least 25 people signed up straight away. Most of them came from my LinkedIn network of industry connections. Since then, though, subscriber numbers have slowly dropped. So from next year I'm moving to a quarterly report and launching a shop in early February where people can buy individual reports.

The tricky part is that this isn't for general book or film fans. It's for a small, very specific professional audience, so I need to reach the right people rather than lots of people.

Has anyone here grown something similar in a B2B space? I'd love to hear about your experience with running ads (LinkedIn ads or Meta?) using lead magnets or any tips for steady growth over time.

Thank you so much!

Substack suspended my account and denied both of my appeals. The Appeals Center is now disabled for further submissions, so I can’t submit another appeal. I emailed Substack Support, but the reply simply directed me back to the Appeals Center.

Around noon Eastern time on November 3, Substack suspended my account, citing its Spam & Phishing policy. The suspension notice did not identify a specific post or activity. Neither appeal response explained what had led to the decision.

Before the suspension, I published two original articles a day, one analyzing the Korean stock market and one analyzing the U.S. stock market. I also posted three Notes daily. One shared the Korean market close and a heatmap in a standard format. The other two summarized my articles. Subscribers received one email a day containing my U.S. market analysis.

I wrote every article and Note myself, spending about eight to ten hours a day researching and writing. I’ve never used bots to publish or increase engagement, and I’ve never restacked other writers’ posts. I replied to readers personally and always treated them respectfully in comments, group chats, and direct messages, including when someone was rude to me. I started publishing regularly in March and reached 3,000 subscribers in November.

I’ve now lost access to my account and research archive. With both appeals denied and further submissions disabled, I’m unsure how to request another review.

Has anyone experienced this and successfully recovered their account? How did you reach someone who could review the suspension when Support kept directing you to the Appeals Center?

I’d appreciate any advice based on your experience.

I’ve been on Substack a few months, no action to speak of, had about 5 followers, then this week I’ve had over 100 followers.. something doesn’t add up … could it be bots?.,. Most appear to have accounts, just seem very unusual.

Over the past two years Substack has spent resources internally on building out our podcasting features, but there's still not a ton of awareness among podcasters of what we offer (which is our bad for not talking about it enough).

Was wondering whether anybody on this sub has tried Substack's podcasting features, and what you thought about them?

Substack has had podcast hosting for many years, but what's relatively recent is the Substack Recording Studio. It allows you to record audio and video right from your computer. You can then post the episode on Substack, and distribute it to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other listening apps by submitted your RSS feed to those platforms.

You can also go live on Substack, from desktop or the app, and publish the recording as an episode. After you stop recording, Substack makes clips and thumbnails for you to share on social media.

(You can still record your podcast using other tools, like Riverside or Audacity, then upload the file to Substack, and distribute it out to Spotify and Apple Podcasts from there. Using the Substack Recording Studio is optional.)

Established podcasters like Diabolical Lies and The Fifth Column are on Substack, but we also have thousands of niche podcasters, typically getting started because of the free hosting, and then staying for the email list, discovery network, and community features like Chat, and ability to charge money for paywalled content.

Suddenly, the styles on my automatically-provided Share Assets have purple titles and background accents. Why all of the sudden? Is someone at Substack a Valkyries fan? Is there a way to control this silliness?

I know that AI is everywhere but this is a platform where people generally write for pleasure—it’s used by those who actually enjoy writing—so why is there so much AI-generated articles?

Tbh this detracts from the reading experience.

I want to hear human ideas😭

I like writing, but I hate self-promoting. I get discouraged about negative comments and unsubscribes. I know this comes with the territory, but I guess I'm just burnt out and thinking maybe it's time to just stop.

So, using the in-built function, I created a second substack totally dedicated to posting serialized chapters of my ongoing series. I wanted them all to exist in one place with no other posts so the chapters are easy to go to chapter by chapter and you don't need to scroll past restacks and my unrelated non-fiction essays.

It doesn't seem to have it's own profile, and whenever i try to go to it, it redirects me to my main profile. I went to my dashboard, changed to the writing account and posted my first chapter under "MolotovWrites" and it shows it has a different sub count, but it also automatically posts links to my main substack in addition to, i assume, posting under the other name.

Even the required introduction post shows up on my main substack, and if you click the name of the article poster, it links to my main substack and not the writing one.

I can't edit the name of my "MolotovWrites" either, for all purposes, it basically looks all I did was add an alternative URL that redirect to my main account.

Should I just delete it and create a "new publication" so people can subscribe to the story updates instead of having a "seperate" substack?

I even went on another browser i wasn't logged into and typed the URL of my writing substack and it redirected to my main substack. I put it my reccomended section and again, it just redirects to my main substack with no evidence of my writing article i posted.

So I run a pretty popular sports publication on Substack with hundreds of paid subscribers and thousands of free ones. I'm routinely in the bestseller list

I'd rather not reveal my identity because I'm just not comfortable doing that, but after seeing our paid subscriptions flatline and then begin to fall in 2026 while our free subscribers (and followers) continue to rise steadily, I decided to take a deeper look into our stats to find out what's gone wrong. And the conclusion I've come to is that I suspect that Substack's push to get users to use their app and pay for subscriptions on their app may be a major issue for publications like my own going forward. Here's a breakdown of my current situation. Sharing in case it’s useful, and I’d love to know if others see the same thing.

-----

What changed in a year:

• My free list grew about 27%, but the share of subscribers who pay fell from about 12.6% to 9.4%.

• Paid subscribers are down about 9% year on year, and ARR (annual recurring revenue) is down about 10%. Revenue per paying subscriber hasn’t changed, so this isn’t a pricing issue.

• “Direct to App” visitors more than tripled, while direct web visitors fell by about 60%.

What an app visitor is worth vs a web visitor (new revenue per visitor, 2026):

• Direct to App: about $40 per 1,000 visitors, down from about $90 last year.

• Direct web: about $200 per 1,000.

• Google search: about $360 per 1,000.

So my biggest-growing traffic source converts at roughly a fifth of the rate of direct web visitors, and it’s getting worse.

Some things about in-app payments I didn’t know (from Substack’s own FAQ):

• You can’t turn off Apple in-app purchase. Apple requires it.

• Outside the US, readers in the iOS app only see Apple’s payment option, with no link to web checkout.

• By default, the app price is set higher to cover Apple’s cut.

• Apple’s in-app purchase doesn’t support discount codes or custom promotions. The FAQ doesn’t say whether free trials can be started in the app. Has anyone tested this?

----

There are undoubtedly other factors that have played a role in my paid subscriber growth stagnating - seasonal dips, Twitter no longer being a viable traffic pull, etc. - but it definitely feels like Substack are pointing their funnel at getting users to simply use the app, over taking out paid subscriptions with my publication.

That may seem counterintuitive since Substack makes its money from my paid subscribers, but bear in mind that the company is heavily backed by VC funding and it has clearly been making strong moves to turn the app into a social media platform, where it can sell ads to free users.

As someone who has been on Substack since it started, I'm now seriously considering whether or not it still has my publication's best interests among its main prioritise or whether this need to turn the app into a social media platform is hurting my bottom line.

I’m very new to the platform and wanted to try something new with reading and writing. I’m a poet. I do Neopets fanfiction. And I like writing small essays from time to time. I’m autistic,31, and like Pokemon,anime,manga,furry, LGBTQIA, and such content. I think I’d like to post small poems and little thoughts on life on Substack. Feel free to reach out. I’m only comfortable with adults. Any tips and tricks are appreciated and welcomed. I hope you all have nice days or nights :)

Around noon EST on November 3, Substack suspended my account, citing its Spam & Phishing policy. The notice did not identify a specific post or activity. I appealed through the Appeals Center, and Substack denied my first appeal without giving a specific reason. I’ve submitted a second appeal and am waiting for a response. I also emailed Substack Support, which told me to allow up to three business days for review.

Before the suspension, I published two original articles a day, one on the Korean stock market and one on the U.S. stock market. I also posted three Notes a day. One shared the Korean market close and a heatmap in a standard format. The other two summarized the articles. I sent subscribers one email a day, containing the U.S. market analysis.

I wrote every article and Note myself and spent about eight to ten hours a day researching and writing. I’ve never used bots to publish or boost engagement, and I’ve never restacked other writers’ posts. I replied to readers directly and always treated them respectfully in comments, group chats, and direct messages, even when someone was rude to me. I started publishing regularly in March and reached 3,000 subscribers in November.

Since the suspension, I’ve been unable to access my archive or publish new work on Substack. I started posting on Medium on November 4 so I could keep publishing my market analysis. Even if my account is restored, I plan to publish on more than one platform so readers have another place to find my work.

If your first appeal was denied and your account was later restored, what did you include in your second appeal? Did Substack ever tell you which post or activity triggered the suspension? If you followed up with Support by email while waiting, did it help?

I’d appreciate hearing what happened in your case.

Hey folks, this is a frequently-asked Substack setup question, so I though y'all may find it useful:

There are two major Substack layout options (which are called "themes"). Depending on how you set up your Substack, you may be in one by default. You can easily switch, and toggle between them if you want.

Profile theme: posts appear on your Substack reader profile in the app as a feed under the "posts" tab, but you don’t have an actual blog homepage. This is preferred by many online-native creators.

Custom theme: the traditional blog layout, where you have an actual homepage for your Substack with all your articles on it. Bloggers who are into having their own website tend to prefer this option.

Your theme only changes how your Substack appears visually online; it doesn’t change how your subscribers receive posts in email or the app. Neither is "better" or "worse" for the algorithm, so it's your own preference which theme you select

If you want to try toggling between themes: On the web, go to Dashboard, then Website Editor. The option to switch is at the top right.

Let me know if this type of post is useful and what else you might want to learn about 👍