r/Substack

I run a finance, markets, and economy newsletter with 75,000+
subscribers who are highly active and convert well on offers (real
numbers available under NDA).

Looking for one of two things:

Full buyout — I sell outright, or
Investor/partner — you fund growth, we split revenue

I'm confident enough in the list that I'll guarantee the investment:
miss an agreed revenue target in 90 days and I return your money
(terms negotiable, formalized properly).

Serious people only — you should already understand newsletter
monetization and what real due diligence looks like. Comment or DM for
numbers and details.

Guys, if I write original historical articles in my own style but use AI-generated images to reinforce the concept and engage the reader's imagination, will that prevent me from earning revenue?

I recently audited 105 of my notes to understand what’s really driving my subscriber growth. Surprisingly, two networking notes alone accounted for 56 of the 62 subscribers attributed to individual notes—roughly 90%. This shows how skewed the perceived success can be if you only look at raw numbers.

This experience made me realize that a small number of high-impact notes can dominate growth, which isn’t always visible through aggregate data. It’s a good reminder to look beyond the surface and analyze what’s truly working.

Hi everyone,

I am going to start publishing my writing on Substack and have two niches that I am currently exploring (personal development and fashion).

My question:

Would it be better to open two Substack accounts using their respective email addresses (already set up) or does it make more sense to create a personal account and have them set up as publications?

Context:

I am doing this as a way to explore my interests and creativity. It is not a business at the moment but I am hoping that sharing my work opens me up to more opportunities personally and professionally over time.

Thanks :)

I find myself switching to substack as soon as a open instagram, like scrolling is no longer enough
Or satisfying

Any one experience this 😭😭??

My Substack blog isn't indexed by search engines. Even when I Google the blog title or article, nothing comes up. Has anyone else encountered this problem? I've been blogging for a few days.

I recently started writing on Substack as an analytical hobby, and after walking a beginner through the setup, I realized this straightforward breakdown might help anyone else thinking about launching.

Here is what the platform actually looks like in practice once you cut through the hype:

1. Treat the Web Editor as Your Workspace (Skip the Mobile App)

The Substack mobile app is designed primarily as a reader experience and a light feed for Notes. Trying to format, draft, or arrange layouts on mobile is an exercise in frustration. Use a desktop browser for drafting, structuring, and publishing your work.

2. Pick Your Model Early

Know why you are writing. If your goal is purely sharing ideas and building an open audience rather than turning an immediate profit, consider a 100% free-forever model. All content stays accessible without paywalls, while paid tiers remain strictly optional pledges for readers who simply want to support the project.

3. Standardize Your Post Architecture

Before obsessing over subscriber counts, build a repeatable, clean visual template on desktop:

• Header: High-quality featured image right at the top
• Title & Subtitle: Clear, hook-driven framing
• Body: The analytical/core piece
• Author Close & CTA: A brief sign-off paired with a native subscribe button

4. Don't Rely Purely on Internal Platform Growth

Substack Notes and internal recommendations are helpful, but treating them as your entire growth engine is a dead end. Treat Substack as your publishing hub and build external distribution pipelines: share article links into relevant subreddits, X discussions, and topical Facebook or Discord communities where that specific conversation already exists.

5. Protect Your Anonymity (If You Want to Stay Private)

• Pen Name: Set your publication title, author profile, and handle to a chosen pseudonym.
• Dedicated Email: Create and register the account with an email address that contains no trace of your legal identity.
• Payment Separation: If you ever enable optional pledges, verify your Stripe settings so your public business name and billing statement descriptor show your pseudonym/brand rather than your legal name.

Would love to hear others' thoughts on this.

I started posting on Substack recently. All the notes I put out were getting shown to over 100 unconnected people, and that got me new subscribers every day. Since the past few days, my overall notes impressions have suddenly dropped to around 20, and they're barely getting shown to any unconnected people. The people who see the notes are engaging, but it does nothing to improve the impressions. I haven't changed a thing about my content, so I find this sudden unexplained drop really strange. I've read that there are temporary platform wide shifts that happen from time to time, and that your impressions return to normal later. Could that be the case here? Is anyone else facing this problem?

​

I’ve been wanting to start writing online, but I’m honestly a little confused about which platform to choose.

I’m mainly interested in writing about things I’m genuinely curious about — psychology, philosophy, business, finance/economics, law, and observations from everyday life. I don’t necessarily want to position myself as an “expert”; I’d rather document what I’m learning and develop my own perspective through writing.

I’ve been considering Substack, but I have a few questions:

- Is Substack a good platform for someone starting from zero?

- How do you actually get your first 10–100 subscribers?

- Does Substack have enough organic discovery, or do you basically need to bring an audience from somewhere else?

- Would you recommend Substack over Medium, LinkedIn, or another platform for this kind of writing?

- How long did it take you to build a consistent readership?

- What do you wish you knew before starting your newsletter?

- Is it better to focus on one niche, or can you successfully write about several connected interests?

I’d especially love to hear from people who started with little or no existing audience.

If you started a newsletter/blog recently, what worked for you — and what completely didn’t?

Every time the 'just let AI draft it' thing comes up here it gets argued as a voice problem, can the model actually sound like me. and honestly that part's mostly cooked now. the surface mimicry is fine, it'll nail your rhythm and your tics well enough.

the thing nobody prices in sits upstream of the draft. the reason you had anything worth sending most weeks wasn't the writing itself, it was that the deadline forced you to read your corner of the world closely and argue with it until something was actually worth saying. the typing was just the excuse to pay attention. take the drafting away and the deadline quietly stops doing that second job. the failure mode isn't clumsy prose, it's that a month in you're sitting in front of a tool that writes beautifully and you've got nothing to feed it, because you stopped noticing things.

so the drafting was never really the cost. the noticing was, and the writing was the only thing keeping that muscle warm.

for the folks here shipping every week, where does the raw material actually come from. does sitting down to write surface what you think, or are you mostly transcribing something you'd already worked out in the shower. written with ai

I’m a writer and I genuinely enjoy writing and exploring my thoughts. Most of what I write is around self-discovery, shadow work, identity, and understanding yourself on a deeper level.
I’ve recently started publishing on Substack, and I’m wondering if posting consistently (especially daily) actually helps with growth and reaching new readers.
For those of you who write on Substack: has posting daily worked for you? Or is it better to focus on fewer, more thoughtful posts?

Private Equity means drowning a good idea in money until it dies.

That is what’s happened to Substack.

It was once a great idea for writers. Now, it’s a sh***y version of Facebook merged with Mailchimp.

“After a certain age, you are no longer the product of your environment or how you were raised. It's a personal choice to live the way you do. At some point, blaming your past becomes a distraction from your future.

Healing is your responsibility. Growth is your decision.”

Thought it was worth sharing.

Hey everyone,

I’m currently working on an article, and I’m trying to get better at the research side of things. I was wondering where people usually go when they need to research something properly.

Do you mainly use Google, Google Scholar, academic journals, books, specific websites, databases, Reddit, or something else? And are there any websites or resources you’d recommend for finding reliable information and sources?

I’m especially interested in hearing how other people go about checking whether a source is trustworthy rather than just taking the first few search results at face value.

Any tips, websites, or general advice would be really appreciated.

Thanks!

Hello, I recently joined Substack and I write essays within Architecture and Art History. The essays can be technical, but they are more akin to something like John Ruskin or Jun'ichirō Tanizaki pieces. They can range from 5 pages to 20 pages and I was wondering if this is too much for Substack. I also wonder what the best way is to gain more traction on such a niche and if posting notes or quotes does anything.

One of the positive side effects of the AI content boom is that people are craving authenticity.

This didn't just start with AI. Following spam, automated phone services, and content farms, people want a real person.

As society in general went through the loss of 3rd spaces, years of quarantine, and addiction to phones, the desire became even stronger: connect me with a human.

Then Substack goes and flags everyone that might be using AI.

Respect, Substack, it's a good intention but the wrong application.

* People will research with AI

* Language translation gets flagged as AI

* People will write with AI

And... So what? Flagging that doesn't help with what people really want. Because some people couldn't care less if what they read is from some well thought, person, who happened to use AI.

So what's a right solution?

Comments.

Notes.

Those are meant to be conversations between people (or, why bother, if it's two machined talking back and forth).

Now, you might not care... Content results in page views.... Which is revenue.

But, people care.

An Author, who writes with AI or not (if people like it), should be able to OPT IN to automatically flag any Comment written by AI.

That would be a helpful feature ❤️

Flag and even block when comments (mean to be people) are clearly just AI slop pretending to be someone.

Authenticity is this...

An author might write with AI but if people like it AND the author is present, in discussion, to meet, to connect with, to talk with, then that is authentic.

Comments that are AI are not authentic. They trigger an author to engage with what is a machine. They aren't genuine. They aren't researched. They're just a positive (or negative) conversation starter that wasn't even made by a person.

Mind you, I don't actually think much of this works or matters. But what does matter is how Substack as a company and brand signals your intentions and culture. Support authors, no matter how they create, and help filter bots on comments and notes? Or, judge authors for using every resource available, to try and make it (as long as it's really a person)?

I would ask you to consider that the first question is a far better value to hold than than second.

Downloaded this app because I want to read some long form content but I can't find out where I can see those posts in the app. Very confused. It just feels like Twitter.

Curious for people who read Substack: what made you actually hit the subscribe button on a newsletter?
Was it one really good article, the writer’s personality, a recommendation from someone, seeing their posts elsewhere, or something else?
And what makes you stay subscribed?