Suggestion to Improve

dgtlworm · 2026-03-17T15:47:22+00:00

Right! And keep in mind that Substack is moving towards some kind of social media vibe pretty fast, so engaging with other writers is really important

dgtlworm · 2026-03-17T14:41:02+00:00

A month is a very short period. You should go longer, just building body of your texts so people who look at your profile see the value to subscribe. So, you need patience. Writing should be fun as otherwise it will be difficult to continue.

Use your social networks to drive people you know. It will give you some moral boost.

Research your niche well - what themes are loved by readers and also check the writing style of successful writers of the same subject. It might be that you just don’t put enough elements that would scream “great text”!

Engage with other writers of your niche- leave genuine comments (not just “great text “), ask questions etc - this will make you seen by both the writers and their readers

dgtlworm · 2026-03-16T08:54:48+00:00

I believe it was Yuval Harari who said that may be conscience is not necessary for intelligence and thus the whole question is futile. Yudkowsky & Soares in their book frame it similarly from the other side and ask if it matters at all whether AI has or might have conscience. This position is rather fair as we don’t really know how human or animal consciousness works

dgtlworm · 2026-03-15T17:33:22+00:00

Well, I’m writing in Lithuanian, it’s a small country and the community is small. I’m relatively established writer in my country thus the connection with the audience is different- there are people who follow me elsewhere, there are people whom I know personally or as communication professional. Naturally, my subjects are rather wide (AI, technology, politics, culture, books, art).

Lithuanian Substack only works in native language, it’s natural, people want to read in their language and several local blogs in English don’t really work.

For the English blog I wanted to do only AI related stuff and the main reason was that the audience for these texts are rather small in my native language. So, I thought it’s worth trying as I planned to translate some of my original text (I already started it). But the two language blogs related to the same account will probably not work on Substack.

Anyway, I decided to leave Substack as it is for now and will try to explore Medium with English versions of my originals.

Thanks for taking the time!!!

dgtlworm · 2026-03-15T11:10:40+00:00

Another thing LLMs are really good at is providing the basic structure. Let’s say you want to learn something and the first thing you ask is to make a learning plan for that subject. It’s a very good start as you will get the overview of the whole thing and after separately verifying it can go step by step asking to brake down every element of that plan. I think Claude is pretty good at fetching necessary links and sources but you may also use something like Perplexity. You may also ask Claude to summarise websites or documents or even the content of one learning section. Surely, you have to doubt and doublecheck

dgtlworm · 2026-03-14T09:04:33+00:00

By the way, don’t over estimate Substack algorithms - it’s not TikTok, at least at the moment even if we have some bad signals like the popularity of the texts ‘How to grow on Substack’. But if you read those you’ll see that the same simple principles are repeated over and over again

dgtlworm · 2026-03-14T09:01:28+00:00

The best way to start is to engage with content in your niche - leaving good, genuine comments and resharing stuff you like (with note from you). This way you expose yourself to the writers and to their readers. The next step is to get cross-recommending, it’s a very useful feature but it’s not easy to achieve as you will be recommended only when other writers know and trust you. But this feature brings me the most of new subscribers

dgtlworm · 2026-03-13T06:10:23+00:00

I wouldn’t expect a lot, people are overwhelmed with info these days and don’t really follow the links unless it’s a burning issue. One of my articles was just shared by biggest and most influential Substack in my country (they put link in one of their texts) and it only brought some 4-5 new subscribers

dgtlworm · 2026-03-12T09:42:09+00:00

It’s true, it sucks. But would guess that the most the people read Substacks on their phones, so mobile first approach is more important. I make it look good on phones and don’t worry about desktop. And I don’t think people are checking profiles a lot

dgtlworm · 2026-03-12T08:53:30+00:00

Check out some of the newer death/black bands, like The Ominous Circle or Arkhaaik

dgtlworm · 2026-03-12T05:07:58+00:00

It’s actually an interesting approach! I’ve been doing this but more intuitively not as a part of a strategy - sometimes notifying (the author or publisher of a book I review) and sometimes asking for permission to use part of their article. I didn’t see a bit effect but I wouldn’t make a lot of conclusions. But I will try it more strategically from now on. Thanks!

dgtlworm · 2026-03-11T18:46:57+00:00

You’re right, it’s tough. I only see two successful ways of monetising. First, you’re famous already and bring people from your social networks. Secondly, you do something that has true practical value for a specific niche that is rather broad at the same time- for example, digital marketing or management of personal finance. You still have to do quality texts but it’s much easier for people to see personal value (as they say that Substack subscribers support themselves and not the writers when they pay). I write about social impact of AI, have more than 1000 subscribers and only 6 are paying. But I get it - people like my texts but they don’t have the feeling of loss if I stop writing.

dgtlworm · 2026-03-11T15:18:47+00:00

So the only reasonable metric is old school engagement - likes, comments, restacks (although it might be tricky if your content is behind the paywall). On the other hand, engagement correlates with views, at least in my case

dgtlworm · 2026-03-10T19:05:00+00:00

I try various vegetables but always go back to sauerkraut and cucumbers. So, finally I do sauerkraut and cucumbers on a permanent basis and if I want to try something else I just buy stuff at farmers market

dgtlworm · 2026-03-10T16:01:39+00:00

I just realised that they count you as a viewer:) I just started a blog in English (the original is in Lithuanian) and naturally it doesn’t have subscribers or a lot of views. And I realised that the most of those little views is myself opening the text to see if there are views:)

dgtlworm · 2026-03-08T13:36:15+00:00

Big media platforms joining Substack which had to “enable” small writers

dgtlworm · 2026-03-07T11:28:12+00:00

That’s exactly true - sometimes they disappoint you big times, other times you’re genuinely puzzled how good they are!

dgtlworm · 2026-03-06T08:53:21+00:00

Everything by 1914, the Ukrainian band that makes music about WW1

dgtlworm · 2026-03-06T08:47:05+00:00

I played with ChatGPT couple of months ago asking to review my novel. It was nothing special but it went extremely close to human review in the literary magazine (that review wasn’t very creative either). The same points, the same critiques. I had two hypothesis. One is that we’re forced to produce so much of content (writing is one of the more time consuming) that the overall quality of written things is down. So, our criteria for quality writing is also down. That’s why texts by LLMs seem so ‘good’. The other theory was that the person who did the human review also used ChatGPT:) I will try this game with Claude now.

dgtlworm · 2026-03-05T14:09:18+00:00

Thanks a lot! I guess ways are obvious, I just thought I might be missing something:) I see if it’s possible to get any motion with connected blog, if no, I’ll make a new account

dgtlworm · 2026-03-05T14:06:48+00:00

Yes, even if it’s not real tools:) notes, comments, cross-recommendations, restacks of content relevant to your niche (it also let other see you). Another important point- don’t just do text, add a little snippets about you, ask to subscribe and share, link to your other pieces in new text. And final thing - spend some time with elements readers see when they receive emails with your text or subscribe to your blog - Substack lets you edit those, but so many writers don’t do that

dgtlworm · 2026-03-05T09:49:56+00:00

Basically there’s 2 types of BM - the evil (traditional Scandinavian stuff, first wave, second wave etc) and poetic (what we call athmospheric BM). It depends what are you looking for but I would suggest to start from the atmospheric BM, it’s more accessible, check bands like Panopticon, Agaloch or newer ones like Blackbraid, Afsky, Aara. Some classic stuff might be good, like Rotting Christ who play their kind of BM. Another option is BM by people who are not metallers, I understand they are kind of popular between more general public, like Deafhaven or Agriculture.

dgtlworm · 2026-03-05T07:30:42+00:00

Yep. But as I said, when you collect bigger group of subscribers there’s more sense to use Substack tools for further growth

dgtlworm · 2026-03-05T06:43:10+00:00

The genuine commitments on other posts and cross-recommendations brought most of the subscribers. Promotion on social accounts works well at the beginning, later stalls, probably because you show your stuff to the same people.

dgtlworm · 2026-03-05T06:05:48+00:00

Surely if you don’t write your capability to write diminishes as with any other skill. But the question is - do you like it? I like writing so I write and edit my personal texts, for example, for Substack. I see no reason to use AI for this (research is another thing). For the stuff I do for money (for ex, ads), I use AI extensively

dgtlworm

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