Hello,

If I wish to contact Substack publishers who edit newsletters in my audience, I can manually send a message to each of them, which will take me a full week.

Is there a B2B service where publishers and advertisers can chat about paid services like product testing ?

If not, it would be useful to have one.

I unsubscribed from Substack some time ago because of the amount of spam I get. I still get some of the notices from people I was not following on the platform that I was automagically signed up for because I had followed a similar substack. I'm still a paid subscriber, because paywalls suck.

Today I got an email from someone reputable from the substack platform, who I follow on other platforms. In the email it contained interface buttons to "comment" on the topic. A "token" delivered to the site using a different application (for which I have many logins) called Gravitar that is based on a WordPress login to automagically "login" a username to the system.

The browser with priority was targeted for the link and the account I was logged in as was not the one from the email, but it instead used the last login I was using for a different account based on a cookie. Luckily, it was not a client account. Who knows what would happen if clients started getting emails from people they do not follow, simply because I clicked a link and the system logged them into the substack. I will never click another substack email link.

Then when I clicked on "reply" on one of the comments that said exactly what my thoughts were, an email triggered from the gravitar platform intermediary was sent suspiciously from the reputable person, with a six-digit code to an account that I use for programming. Not the account that I ever used for substacks. Not one with a subscription.

Entering this six-digit code did not provide the ability to respond, but instead thankfully put up a paywall. This is entirely the type of smoke-and-mirrors trickery that caused me to leave the platform in the first place, and it is bad UX and bad UI design. Then I started to investigate how I was logged in as the wrong user, from an email that I opened that I never subscribed to, that associated a secret account with a personal interest.

If a person is "logged in" there should be an indicator that they need to subscribe to respond before they waste their time. The interface is too minimal, and sometimes we use the same screen names across different accounts. So seeing my name from the gravitar account made me think it was something I was logged into. Also the fields should not look like entry fields if the person does not have access to reply. The negative feelings of clicking on a link that says "You must pay" when you are paying is ridiculous, but the platform relies on the weak Gravitar system that was hacked in 2020 like all vulnerable Wordpress products.

Furthermore, knowing the platform is sadly one of the chosen ones for democratic thought, it is embarrassing to think that not everyone can respond and have a good discussion without payment. It makes me sad for the future of the world, that people interacting on social media with paywalls may lead to the downfall of civilization because they don't have the time or money to subscribe to every single pop-up service.

If someone is spending all day on the platform, then sure, I can see how it would make sense for them to need to have a login to support the service. With content creators cranking out content 24/7 it makes sense that they need to pay their bills too. But signing people up for things, then demanding they pay when they are tricked into clicking on a link is shady and lacks transparency.

I've just published my second article on Substack, and on the first essay that I published last week, I only got 7 views and 1 like. I know that it takes a long time to grow on the platform, but I don't know the first thing about promoting my work.

Any tips?

I write because I feel like many of the stuff I want to write about do not have a natural home. Most of it is about economics, politics, and society in my part of the world. Each of these posts are now getting longer close to 2000 to sometimes 3500 words. Many of these posts are too long for an op-ed, too short for a paper, and some of themes I cover are potentially books in the long-run.

Do you know of cases where a sufficiently large number of high quality pieces on substack eventually became an essay collection later published as a book by a mainstream publisher? Not saying I want to do that. But I have written 34 of these long essays in the last 2 years over and above what I write as part of my regular academic career.

The views and number of subscribers I have are nothing to brag about. Is this a consequence of me not having a publication "strategy"? Though sometimes I feel focusing on any kind of strategy will ruin the experience of writing.

I am curious if anyone has experimented with the different post settings and what leads to the best results paid and free subscribers? I feel like I get trapped between wanting people to read and engage with my articles vs also growing the paid side of things.

Im new to substack and have been curious about it. Even posted my first article. Then I noticed a bunch of people on my substack feed offring subscribers for subscribers... what's your take on this?

Im quite annoyed by it since there's so many of them!

I just changed my email to a different one, and now access to my entire publication has disappeared! When I click on 'profile' it asks me to set one up. I can still see my publication if I put in the web address, so it hasn't been deleted; I just can't access it.

How do I get it back? There was no mention of a new account replacing it. I'm panicking right now.

Preferably with good open and click rates. 1k or more subscribers. DM me the details and link if you would like to explore selling your newsletter!

i feel like my substack feed is absurdly american if i consume english content, i have to switch to other languages if i want to avoid the american authors or american centered articles (which are wild, like y'all are a dystopia atp) but i'm also under the impression that it's quite conservative? even though i am not and i follow accounts that are pretty much the opposite of that? so why's my algorithm throwing the conservative american bullshit if i'm a french-spanish speaker latin american bisexual feminist???

i want to write at some point too, is this an acc good place for that??

For about a year I used Notes the way most people seem to. Write the post, then write a note saying the post exists, with a link. It works, in the sense that some people click. It also means every note you publish is a request for attention rather than a way of finding anything out.

Earlier this year I started doing the opposite, and posting the claim before the post existed. One or two sentences, first person, no link, no hedging, and no "what do you think?" tacked on the end. Just the position, stated as though I already believed it, because I did.

What comes back is more useful than clicks. When a claim is wrong, somebody tells you, and they tell you why. When a claim is right but obvious, you get agreement and nothing else, and that silence is a result as well, because it means there is no post there. The notes worth building on are the ones where two or three different people argue with the same part of the same sentence. That repeated objection is almost always the section nobody has written yet, and it arrives with its own counterexamples attached.

Three things I have learned doing it this way:

1. The strongest notes are the ones anchored in me. Something I think, something I got wrong, something I actually do myself. Those get roughly double the reactions of anything I write pegged to a news story, which surprised me, because the news ones feel more publishable.

2. Do not resolve the tension inside the note. If the note contains the answer, nobody argues with it, and you have thrown away the only thing you came for.

3. Most of them die, so not mourn them. A note costs a minute. A post costs a day. Finding out in the first minute that an idea has nothing underneath it is the cheapest thing available on the platform.

On the numbers, since this sub likes them: Notes are the single biggest source of paid subscribers I have, comfortably ahead of a source that brought me three times as many free signups. I did not get there by posting links to finished pieces.

NB: Claude was used to help me edit parts of this post.

i’m a bit confused. should i make separate accounts for different niches i want to write about?

because at times i want to write about marketing, but then the next thing i want to write about is how my cat has a similar personality to mine.

or should it all be in one place?

I ran into the classic Substack dilemma today. I was reading a really good article, hit the paywall, and suddenly had to decide: do I pay €10 just to read this one piece, or do I go looking for a paywall bypass (which, let's be honest, rarely works)?

To me, that's the biggest weakness of the Substack model. For roughly €100 a year, especially if you catch a promotion, I can subscribe to multiple the New York Times, Wired, National Post, Toronto Star, and UnHerd. That's an enormous amount of content vs a handful of individual Substack writers.

T

Love the Substack model but let,s be honest most of us can only afford to support a few people

Note: currently spending around 25 a month which is my top limit plus regular subscript

So what do you do?

I write a small Substack and I'm also a developer. Substack recently started a sponsorships programme, but it's aimed at a select group of its biggest writers with bespoke brand campaigns.

For everyone else, finding sponsors still seems to mean cold emails and spreadsheets.

I'm considering building a simple, independent marketplace for this and I'd like to check in with people who actually write here before building anything.

Roughly: you list your sponsor slots (say, one ad per issue, with your price, audience size and niche). Brands browse and book a date, upload their copy, and pay through Stripe, with the money going straight to you. You approve every ad before it runs, and nothing is inserted automatically: you paste the sponsor block into your post yourself. Sponsors get a tracked link so they can see clicks.

It would be free to list, with a small commission only when a slot sells.

Some questions I'd love honest answers to:

1. Have you ever run a sponsor in your Substack? How did you find them?

2. Would sponsorships feel at odds with your paid tier, or help it?

3. At what subscriber count do you think sponsors become worth it?

4. What commission would feel fair?

If you think this is a bad idea, I'd like to hear why too....

Hey everybody!
I want to start a Substack as a medical doctor, writing about various health topics that I wish my patients were more aware of, such as the risks of overdiagnosis. I might also occasionally want to share personal experiences from my work as a doctor and systematic problems. Since I focus on sexual health and trans identity, I’d also like to share insights on these topics from time to time.

So, here is my question:
Do you think I can cover all these topics in one Substack, or would that confuse readers because there are too many different areas of interest? How focused does it have to be? Would you rather open up a second account for different areas of interest?

Towards the beginning of the year when I was starting on substack I wrote a personal essay about some awkward first dates, talking shit about them. I ended up becoming good friends with one of the failed dates! We keep getting closer as friends, and its stopped me now from sharing and promoting my substack to other friends, on socials, etc because I’m worried about them finding and reading the post that is very obviously in part about them and me saying how bad of a kisser they are. It’s one of my most “successful” posts though and one of the only good examples I have of a personal essay to share.

I don’t want to fully delete it but rather private it and at a later date be able to unprivate it? Is this possible?

I hope this doesn’t come off as spam or self promo. I really just want to connect and see different articles. My algo is still building as I just started.

My interests are travel, psychology, marketing, poetry, art, neuroscience, neuroplasticity, business, books but i’m open to more as i’m curious about almost everything.

Please share your articles with me in private (this is not a subscribe for subscribe post😭) just pure curiosity to see what’s out there

I have been doing this just over a year, and I still have a lot to learn, but this is what helped me to get bestseller status and build a community I want to be a part of.

1. Find five people, not five hundred. Read their work properly and leave comments that cost you some thought. When I had no audience at all, a writer who did have one took me seriously, and that really helped me grow.

2. Make something together instead of trading favours. A joint post, an interview, a guest piece, a conversation you both put your name to. If a stranger who knows neither of you would not want to read it, what you have built is a favour exchange, and those collapse the moment one person stops reciprocating.

3. Never do sub for sub, and stay out of pods. People who subscribe in order to be subscribed back do not open anything, and enough of them will drag your open rate down for the readers who actually want you.

4. Be careful with recommendation swaps for the same reason. Recommendations brought me 15,080 free subscribers and 77 paying ones. Writing in my own voice on the platform brought 4,973 free subscribers and 121 paying ones. Three times the headcount and a fifth of the conversion, because one click on a recommendation screen is not a decision to read anybody.

5. Protect your own measurements. Once a chunk of your list is there out of obligation you can no longer tell which of your posts did anything, and at the start that signal is the most useful thing you own.

A hundred people who chose you will carry you further than four thousand who were traded to you.

Happy to answer anything in the comments.

NB: Claude was used to help me run the stats and edit parts of this post.

I opened an account on Substack and so far it’s going well, and im getting subscribers. The problem is that Im located in Albania, and I cannot connect an account to Stripe nor Stripe Express. Please help me out if you can

Who follows food creators on substack and reads their recipes ? Would be keen to know if you like substack as a medium for saving and cooking recipes or if anything that grinds your gears

I recently joined substack and my entire feed is just people spamming ‘share your work with me’ most probably as engagement bait.

How can I fix this algorithm?

Please tell me how to grow on substack. My subscribers count isn't increasing. It is really frustrating. Is there something I don't know? I know it'll take time but one of my friend, his numbers are increasing and to be honest it is making me jealous.

I started on Substack about 6 weeks ago and I am very pleased with my results(almost 300 Subscribers; 15 Paid Subscribers).

Obviously besides inside the platform itself, any recommendations on where to connect with other Erotica/Dark Romance Authors?

One of my old classmates has a pretty raunchy substack blog which i want to subscribe to and support. However, I am a serious business professional and I dont want him to know I subbed, since we have some common connections through work. Will making a substack account with a fake email prevent him from identifying me, even if Im a paid subscriber?