How to Write for a Living

How to Write for a Living

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How to Write for a Living
How to Write for a Living
5 Key Lessons From My 10,000-Subscriber Growth Journey on Substack
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5 Key Lessons From My 10,000-Subscriber Growth Journey on Substack

If you're starting from scratch, this one's for you.

David McIlroy's avatar
David McIlroy
Sep 05, 2024
∙ Paid
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How to Write for a Living
How to Write for a Living
5 Key Lessons From My 10,000-Subscriber Growth Journey on Substack
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➡️ If the thought of promoting your writing gives you the heebie-jeebies, make sure to download my free 3-page guide, Sharing Without The Cringe.


What you’ll learn in this paid post:

  • The surprising early mindset shift that helped me kickstart real audience growth on Substack

  • Simple, numbers-based strategies you can copy to turn slow growth into real momentum

  • Why consistency and patience (not just creativity) are the hidden engines of subscriber growth

  • How to foster real community and human connection that keeps readers sticking around

  • A mindset shift: why treating your publication like a business can massively multiply your results — even if you “just want to write”


I had under 200 Substack subscribers at the end of November 2023.

It’d been tough going up to that point. My audience growth moved at a snail’s pace. I couldn’t see how I’d ever make things work on the platform in a meaningful way.

Then, from December 2023 onwards, my entire trajectory changed.

My Sustack audience grew, and grew, and grew some more. And in July 2024, I finally crossed a threshold I never expected to reach: 10,000 email subscribers.

It’s a bit mad.

So, what caused my abrupt change in fortune on Substack? What drove my growth on the platform (and continues fuelling it today)?

I think there were 5 key factors at play here…

The rest of this post is for paid subscribers. If you want to dive in (and support me in the process), consider upgrading to my paid tier. You know it’d make my day. ☺️

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