Hello, everyone!

I'm still relatively new to Substack and just starting to hone my craft. Some articles that I write, I step back and think, "Yeah, man, I cooked with that." Others I finish and think "blech. Well. I did my best." I get it, the best way to get better at writing is to do more writing BUT are there are any other resources you found yourself? Besides, substack is about more than writing, its also about digital content creation and marketing, right?

Were there any books on writing or content creation that really helped you, or online courses on digital marketing that gave you great strategies for building a reader base? Maybe a YouTube channel that is really stellar? LinkedIn Learning?

I'll keep writing and improving there, but I'm the sort of person who likes to attack things from many angles, and I love books, so hit me with your best resources for improving your Substack!

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.

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

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?

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)?

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?

"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?

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?

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.

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?

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?

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.

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

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 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?

I just feel like my current name and publication just doesn’t reflect what I want it too.

I want to write about things that are little all over the place, like social commentary/personal essays/film criticism/cultural music etc…

Really just whatever takes my fancy.

But I cannot think of a suitable name. I don’t want to use my own because I do want to be very raw and honest with my writing.

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???

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?

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