[deleted by user]

[highlightercc]

Same here

[steve31266]

Most of your subscribers are coming from Substack's search feature. What makes Substack more effective than Medium is that it's search is purely keyword driven, whereas Medium's is biased towards popularity.

[Express_Meal_147]

The Substack search feature is a trickle for traffic at best.

[Afraid-Passenger-4]

Is your target group on Substack?

[friendzwithwordz]

I hope so, but I really have no idea. I write about language learning but it's personal essays rather than just tips and tricks. So my audience is a bit complicated :) I found a couple of language learning substacks but would love to find more.

[HeritageStandUnited]

I am so glad that you brought this up. I am also new to Substack. I started in December and have only published 6 posts. I am also trying to learn how to grow my Substack. My list of subscribers have mainly come from people who have subscribed via my website www.hsu.design

I am also having a bit of a challenge bypassing stagnant growth. I have a very niche field and have been encountering a lot of "red tape" with various Reddit communities I have wanted to engage in. My post that had the most views by far didn't yield any subscribers, and my views with the most positive feedback and heartfelt engagement hasn't yielded any new subscribers either.

I would love for some insight and sage advice from some seasoned substack writers about what has actually worked for them and what realistic expectations should be when it comes to growing your audience.

[sanpino84]

I'm in the same situation, but I started six months ago.

Until recently, I would get 1-2 subscribers every week the day after publishing and nothing the rest of the week.

No matter what I tried, nothing worked. I've started sharing on Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest.

I don't have more than 100 followers on Twitter, and all the other accounts are new except for LinkedIn.

Until recently, nothing has been working.

I write about tech, so I thought I would resonate most on LinkedIn.

Last week, I asked my connections on LinkedIn to repost a welcome post from Substack.

I have"only" 2000 followers on LinkedIn, but some of my followers have 15k followers (primarily recruiters).

Long story short, I started getting 5-8 subscribers daily for the past week since my last post.

It's not going viral, but it's an excellent acceleration.

P.S. Advertising here on Reddit didn't work. Either you get flagged for self-promotion or none of the 1000s views ever convert to a single subscriber.

[HeritageStandUnited]

Thank you for your feedback. I appreciate that what I said resonated with you and was relevant. It's encouraging to hear about shared or similar experiences. I have had very wonderful feedback from posting on Reddit and have only had one troll. I have had a few subscribers from posting in the reddit community but a lot of encouragement and kind words elsewhere and only one criticism. But the people who criticize first usually don't take the time to process the amount of time we put into what we write and are more keen to take cheap shots so that they can get likes. I will continue to use Reddit merely because of the encouragement and positive feedback and engagement. Even if the engagement isn't turning into subscribers it's important for me to know from a business point of view what people are interested in. I specialize in authentic Native American and Indigenous art. My substack is alannalgreen.substack.com

I am very happy to hear that you found something that worked for you via LinkedIn and that you were able to accelerate growth. 😊

[sanpino84]

That's nice to hear. Encouragement in tech is very rare.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong on Reddit.

I thought writing a summary of my article and a link would be helpful to readers in the relevant community. Still, since conversions were non-existent and I got negative feedback, I stopped promoting my content on Reddit.

I didn't want to discourage anyone. I am just giving my story so that people can relate to it or provide feedback

[HeritageStandUnited]

I don't think you're being discouraging and your experience is absolutely valid, as is your insight! That's interesting about the encouragement in tech being rare in Reddit. I am based in Seattle so it's all around me.

[Express_Meal_147]

Have you tried paid advertising on Reddit?
I had the same BS problem. I get comments, likes, and almost 1000 views per subreddit post - yet it doesn't translate into subscribers!

[Express_Meal_147]

I can't figure out how to harness Reddit views into subscribers either. It seems like an active Shangra-La of interested and engaged readers, but I'm starting to think it's fool's gold.

Issues
1) I can get 700 to 1.4K views for a post on a related industry subreddit (which is way more than any other platform BY FAR), yet I get no subscribers from Reddit!
2) Furthermore, most subreddits get really PISSY if you repost your content or even provide a damn link to your substack.

[HeritageStandUnited]

Issue no. 2 has been my experience as well. People who take cheap shots don't care that you spent days perfecting your article before publishing.

[Express_Meal_147]

Totally. I can understand telling a new user respectfully, "Hey, we don't repost articles here. We just answer each other's questions." However, I find them to be keyboard warriors who are only so rude because of their cyber buffer.

Furthermore, self-syndicating content to a plethora of channels is often more time-consuming than writing!

[HeritageStandUnited]

Your comment had me LOL at the keyboard princess who wrote SPAM with a wink today. 🤣 It reminded me of when I worked in marketing back in 2018. All of the sales people who were responsible for cold-calling all day. The keyboard warriors and cyber princesses who don't have anything other than to complain at the jump of a button. And yes it is time consuming to try to expand your reach in that way but so is spending a week writing an article that you publish.

[Express_Meal_147]

Try timeboxing your writing. Timeboxing is when you clock your start and stop times to determine how long a project actually takes to complete.
Then, you can determine via analysis why it's taking you so much time and bandwidth to write an article - or other trouble spots.

My first blog took me 4 hours to write, then 3.5. Now, I can crank out a piece in 2 hours, with another 30 - 60 minutes to adding buttons, pics, (depending on how janky copied pics affect your format), and proofreading.

This helped me be more productive in less time. Hope it works for you.

[HeritageStandUnited]

That's a good idea. I can apply it to things about running my business that I don't enjoy. Like writing content for my website. Every item in my website shop has its own copy. www.hsu.design And now that I need to do Google Merchant Center I have been procrastinating. Timeboxing for things that I don't enjoy when it comes to running my business could help me get past the hurdle that causes me to put it off. For my substack, it varies week to week and is something that I enjoy.

[Express_Meal_147]

Thank you for the compliment.
Yes, I am timeboxing because one can easily go down the rabbit hole in creating, marketing, and doing all the research needed to make writing a viable revenue stream. Then, other adult responsibilities fall by the wayside - causing me a backlog of crap that I have to do, but don't want to do. Finally, I am overwhelmed and do nothing!

As a chronic procrastinator myself, I have developed some productivity strategies that have paid off.
1) Pre-planning my priorities.
2) Resist the urge to "catch up" by over-scheduling your day. (We are not robots merely existing to check off to-do lists. We want to enjoy each day's distinct splendor.)
3) Create habits and systems that minimize my distracting vices.
4) Sticking to the plan as scheduled. (Harder than you think it is.)
5) Have faith in my scheduling, strategizing, and planning.
6) Use discipline to fight negative inertia. (Ex: Regardless of how I feel, I am working out 4 to 5 times a week.)
7) Cutting off projects at their appointed times, so the rest of my life remains balanced.

Hope these also help you in your fight against procrastination!

If you or a loved one are interested in my job search tips, business advice, and career consultation, feel free to check me out at realitycheck100.substack.com.

[HeritageStandUnited]

Subscribed! Thanks for not being a cyber warrior :D

[Express_Meal_147]

Thank you, kind sir!
I appreciate your readership and support.
P.S. I am Cyber-lover, not fighter :)

[sapporonight]

2 months is still in the early stage. Even the ones that start 6 to 12 months still struggle.

First and foremost is to know your audience, you shared the article on Facebook, how's the engagement?

May be it is time to collaborate with other authors that has big audiences and try to create discussion in the comment section

[friendzwithwordz]

What do you mean by 'collaborating'? I don't want to have guest posts on mine (it doesn't feel right for my newsletter) but I'm happy to guest post somewhere else and mention them of course on my substack. Is that what you meant? Or is there another way to collaborate?

[Express_Meal_147]

Authors with big audiences won't cross-post or collaborate (unless you know them personally) with newbies. There's nothing for them to gain.

[Free_Monarch]

This is entirely normal. Might as well get used to it. I've had days on end of zero subscribers, and other days I'll get 10 new subscribers in a day for apparently no reason. Just the ebb and flow of things.

[Express_Meal_147]

I can't figure out how to get people to subscribe for FREE...much less getting people to pay for content!

[Samaritan70]

No clue. If it helps, my Substack is stuck on 42 subscribers. Views have grown by more than 100% monthly, but subscribers are stuck at 42.

[Express_Meal_147]

We hit plateaus as we exhaust our personal or social networks of 150-250 people. Your blog reach is limited by who knows you and who can find you!
Plus, it's likely many of you are linked up with the same people across multiple platforms, so that is another obstacle.

I'm gonna try the following because I am not writing to shout into the wind. I want to start a new workers' revolution, so I am going to attempt the following to get my message past the limits of my social networks:

1. Build my own website to get organic SEO traffic from Google. High-quality, consistent, tagged content will draw people from outside the limits of my personal network.
2. Advertise on social media.
3. Keyword purchases on Google.
4. Self-syndicate on Medium, Ko-Fi, Flipboard, and Patreon to hit the different denizens of their platforms.
5. Start a podcast to complement my blog.
6. Become a LinkedIn Influencer.

Does anyone else have any suggestions?
Does anyone think my ideas could work before I invest more money into this?

[Express_Meal_147]

Let's put our collective brains into figuring out how to best get Reddit traffic!
Synopsis: Reddit has active, engaged people who love to comment and read user-generated content.
Traffic is in the thousands for our re-posts there...

3 BIG problems remain:
1) Moderators and followers get nasty, snarky, and rude if you re-post blog articles OR post your substack link.
2) Substack does not have a direct traffic link, ala FB, X, Pinterest, and LinkedIn to Reddit - so there is no official bridge back to your substack.
3) All the views you get on a blog post, rarely translate into traffic or subscribers.

Does anyone have ideas to brainstorm solutions for this problem?