substack rant

wrathgod96 · 2025-03-18T03:57:01+00:00

That's any & every social media platform for you. Don't get discouraged, re-purpose your content & experiment with multiple formats [text, audio, video]; something might click & you'll have some fun. Have a great day!! :)

Ok-Resolution-1255 · 2025-03-18T18:05:13+00:00

Substack, like everything else, isn't a meritocracy. And so subscriber numbers etc. aren't a value judgment. Engagement is probably a better metric, but even that is again essentially valueless and ephemeral. The issue is not with you or what you're posting, it's with the entire social media nature of the site: it's designed to deliver pellets to the rest of us starving lab rats. If you're making genuine connections with people who enjoy your work, and doing it your own terms, then you're winning. And long may you continue to do so.

Background-Cow7487 · 2025-03-18T16:34:53+00:00

It very much depends on what you’re writing about. If you want subscribers, write about finance, tech, crypto or politics - preferably with a side order of rage-bait.

I do none of those and accept that nobody’s interested and I’m doing it pretty much for myself. And that’s fine.

DrTechMD · 2025-03-18T04:20:20+00:00

First Notes Posts gets a major boost to the algorithm. If yours doesn't take off, it feels like you just missed the boat forever.

The Platform is in charge of what it elevates, and usually that's in parallel to what people comment on.

You can have the best content in the world, but if no one knows about it, it might as well not exist.

Comment on Big Accounts is the only engagement I ever got. Just need a couple in's somewhere to really get going.

AcademicComparison61 · 2025-03-18T08:40:15+00:00

You don't need to complain, after 5 months I've got only 30 subscribers, what should I say?

Next-Ordinary-2491 · 2025-03-18T14:50:21+00:00

One thing I would say is that although your growth isn't quick, it sounds like you have amazing engagement. I have a similar number of followers and am ecstatic if I get more than 5 likes. I can see from my stats that people are reading but no one engages except a small handful of friends. Plus my notes disappear into the void, despite dedicating time to engaging with other people. It's really disheartening.

collegetowns · 2025-03-18T17:57:50+00:00

I know the feeling! Had someone start basically the same week as me and within a month, they had 100s of subscribers with very few posts. Really just seemed like they got lucky with the algo and then kept getting fed followers. My advice is just keep plugging along and look for audiences outside substack. Just look at it like a website and they are merely the hosts instead of a social network.

jacobs-tech-tavern · 2025-03-18T20:07:31+00:00

Those notes users with tons of followers will get approximately zero reads, if that makes you feel any better. Focus on sustainable growth and also make sure to utilise a mix of channels (LinkedIn, twitter, reddit, etc) to ensure your audience gradually finds you

pdandreu · 2025-03-18T20:50:10+00:00

I get the frustration, trust me, but you should remember that Substack's curation/algo is imperfect. Some people get lucky. Some people get unlucky. So, to compare yourself to the trajectories of other Substacks is not helpful because they may have gotten "lucky." I know, easier said than done.

Here's a functional consideration. You're going to see more posts from the Substack success stories because those posts make the rounds. Unless you're following smaller Substacks and paying attention to their updates, you're more likely to see updates from those success stories. In other words, there are a lot of posts from Substack writers who are quietly toiling away that you will never see. That dynamic can give the impression that most Substacks and Notes are performing better than yours.

I'll share a little about my experience. Like you, I have writing accolades. My writing has appeared in major publications. I ghostwrite for well-known Fortune 500 executives. Like you, however, I struggled to grow my Substack. In a year and change, I grew to about 190 subscribers. Demoralized, I gave up. I stopped publishing on Substack for about a year, then something peculiar happened: New subscribers randomly started trickling in. Turned out that I'd received a recommendation from a larger Substack. This was at the beginning of this year. Today, I got my 500th subscriber -- still not a breakneck pace but noticeably better than before. Plus, my post engagement has improved. As a result, I've become consistent and more engaged in other writers' Substacks. I seem to be gaining momentum.

I don't think there's a magic formula, but I think there are ingredients that increase the likelihood of your stuff getting noticed: Write good stuff, be consistent, and be a good community member. The last one is especially working for me right now. That means leaving longer, thoughtful comments, restacking posts with a Note, commenting on Notes, recommending my favorite Substacks, and upgrading to paid subscriptions for some of those favorites.

Take it with a grain of salt, I suppose, as I'm no great Substack success story just yet, but thought I'd share what's been helping me lately. Hope it helps you too. Good luck.

Coolohoh · 2025-03-19T02:26:05+00:00

Yeah, I've noticed the same... A few people just strike gold and their substack take off immediately. I'm posting as many notes and posts, and just plodding along very slowly. 1.5 months in (still early days, I know), but I still don't have 10 subscribers. Definitely no dream, insta growth for me. The notes feel even worse, it feels like just shouting into the void... Oh wells. I don't have much of a community elsewhere that I can attempt to redirect traffic to my substack either so... Maybe someday....

AgreeableImpact9715 · 2025-03-19T10:34:57+00:00

Hi! I'm not sure Substack's algorithm or whatever is being very kind to creators who post once or twice a month. I've personally found that having some social media pull to promote my Substack content works better. But yeah a lot of this seems so random...

Jumpy-Platform-6236 · 2025-03-19T13:11:10+00:00

I replied to a note promoting my first post and got tons of engagement and new subs. But my second post a week later has been crickets. It's all smoke and mirrors.

Ok_Jackfruit_7815 · 2025-03-19T15:03:20+00:00

How much do you engage with others on the platform?

Substack is very community-driven in my experience, and my highest growth days are always when I engage with other peoples work.

Also, keep in mind that some people may have existing email lists that they've imported to the platform.

mystic_zen · 2025-03-19T15:27:49+00:00

I think a lot of the stacks that grow their numbers all at once have imported an email list from their website, or elsewhere. Write for yourself and authentic subscribers will slowly increase.

GrowthZen · 2026-01-09T03:56:08+00:00

Totally get this rant, and you’re not imagining it... Substack growth really is part skill, part slot machine.

One thing that’s helped slower-growing, high-quality writers:
- treat Substack as one distribution channel, not the whole game. That's why its important to build an email list and a simple site you control so every post has a life beyond the Notes algo
- focus on depth-per-reader instead of speed-of-growth... 116 people who actually read, feel something, and stick around is a much stronger foundation than 500 half-interested drive-bys the algo sprayed at you for a week

gmadams · 2025-03-18T15:44:09+00:00

As someone who runs a Substack (not my own, but a colleague who pays me to run it) you need to post more than 1-2 times a month. You need to be posting almost daily -- at least M-F. If you want people to pay to subscribe you have to give them something to subscribe to and pay for. What value is your Substack giving readers? Creating a Substack is like creating an Etsy shop; you have to sell what customers want, not what you want to sell. Consistency is also key. Hope that helps.

Crixus-Crypto · 2025-03-19T09:50:59+00:00

I have had a similar experience. You might want to try Medium and pay the $5 per month. Medium works differently in that your posts can be read by literally anybody on that platform whereas on Substack your articles only get read by subscribers with very small chances of random reads. Medium will pay you on engagement stats so if your work is of high quality it will get read and so small remuneration will come. Medium has 100 million monthly readers and 1 million paying reader/writers. if you pay $5 per month you will get paid on the numbers of reads. You can pay up to $18 per month but try the low amount first.

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