5 Key Lessons From My 10,000-Subscriber Growth Journey on Substack

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

Sep 05, 2024

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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…

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1. Doing the early grunt work

My Substack audience growth stagnated for months because I didn’t invest any real time in the platform. I was still pretty new to writing online and, like Bambi on ice, was still working on finding my feet. Substack engagement wasn’t high on my priority list.

Until it was.

One day, I decided to set aside 30 minutes to network on the platform. I spent that entire time doing 3 simple things:

Following people in my niche
Commenting on articles
Engaging on Notes

I did it for half an hour, flicked off my computer and went about my business.

The next day, I checked in again, and was surprised to see I’d gained a bunch of followers and a handful of subscribers. So I did the same thing again: following, commenting, engaging.

More followers. More subscribers.

Hmm, maybe there’s something to this after all.

That was that. I committed to 30 minutes on Substack each day for the rest of December, simply networking with fellow users. I also continued posting every week, aiming to refine my process by 1% each time (I’ll talk more about that next).

After a month of repetitive grunt work on the platform, I’d accumulated 1,091 more followers and an additional 473 subscribers for How to Write for a Living. Combined with the 243 subscribers I picked up for The Solopreneur Stack (some of whom were imported from another list), I ended the year with 716 subs. Not bad for around 30 days of minimal effort grinding.

Best of all, once I’d established that audience foothold, things started taking off on their own. I had momentum. Growth gradually became organic, and I was able to focus on the more important aspects of the Substack experience.

Lesson the first: put in the grunt work during your early days on the platform. It’s a bit boring. It doesn’t feel creative. But it’s easy, time-limited, and pays off in the long-run.

2. Stick at it

If lesson one was all about what to do in your early days on Substack, lesson two focuses on your future on the platform.

That is, how to safeguard your growth.

It’s easy to arrive fresh to a new platform and get caught up in the hype. It’s exciting. It’s easy to grow. Everyone seems to love it.

But what happens when that honeymoon period winds down? What happens when the initial buzz you felt starts to fizzle out?

I’ve seen a ton of writers and creators come and go from online platforms because they didn’t do one simple but absolutely crucial thing: set a strategy in place.

It’s like trying to get in shape. You join a gym, start going every week, get super into it, begin to see visible results as your belly shrinks and biceps bulge, nothing’s going to stop you…

…and then the holidays roll around. Or you pick up a niggling injury. Or life just gets in the way, and suddenly you don’t feel like going to the gym anymore.

And before you know it, you start to wonder if you even need that membership anymore.

If you want to maintain your fitness, you need to put a plan in place and stick to it. Know in advance which machines you’re going to use at the gym. Have a clear exercise routine laid out. Set a defined start and end time.

Trust me, as someone who’s bounced between gym memberships for years, I know how hard it can be to maintain a regular rhythm.

But if you can create a sustainable strategy and stick at it for long enough, it’ll become a habit. And habits are far easier to preserve than short-term bursts of enthusiasm.

This goes for Substack, too. If you set clear goals (that are within your control) and plan out exactly how you’re going to meet them, and in what time frame, you’re far more likely to succeed long-term. And the simpler, the better.

For me, my initial simple goals were:

Publish at least one article every week
Post at least one Note every day
Read 2-3 posts from other writers every day
Write as often as I can

I harboured quiet growth-related hopes and expectations (how many new subscribers I wanted to pick up, how many mutual recommendations I wanted to establish, etc), but they were “soft” goals outside of my control. If I didn’t meet those targets, it didn’t matter.

I only had to do what was within my power.

And that was enough. That early strategy developed over time, but the core principles never changed. I did the boring stuff. I stuck at it. And my audience grew accordingly.

Lesson two is simple but deceptively difficult, and the majority of creators won’t take it on board. But if you can be in the minority who do, your readership will grow and your publication will thrive.

Set a strategy in place. Stick at it. Master patience.

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3. Prioritise community

Lesson 3 is just as crucial.

Here it is: if you want your publication to thrive, you need to foster a sense of community around it.

One thing I’ve observed about all the best and brightest publications on Substack is that they all have engaged, active subscribers. And a healthy portion of those subscribers are engaging actively with each other within those publications.

Active post engagement (in the form of likes, comments and restacks) is a great indication that a publication is on the right track, especially if that engagement is consistent across all of their content.

And if those users are bouncing engagement back and forth between themselves, even better.

Chat threads work in a similar way.

I often post simple questions in the How to Write for a Living chat and watch as glorious group conversations unfold beneath them. I love seeing subscribers offer advice, answer questions, share struggles, and even subscribe to one another’s publications as a result of spending time in the chat.

I’ve also recently set up a private Slack group for my paid subscribers, where we can chat, share ideas, and stay up-to-date with upcoming events on Substack.

Community. It’s absolute magic.

Let your subscribers know they’re part of something. Make them feel at home in your publication. I can see that happening organically in mine, and it’s amazing.

I think the best ways to foster the community feel in your publication are to:

Make regular, effective use of Chat threads (keep going, even if no-one responds to your early efforts)
Ask questions at the end of your posts that prompt readers to comment

People follow your publication when you pique their interest.

They subscribe when you offer value they can’t find elsewhere
They stay subscribed when they feel like they’re part of something

Come to learn. Stay to grow.

Don’t sleep on community - it’ll add real longevity to your work here on Substack.

4. Be a human on Notes

We live in an era of internet “slop” (that is, the AI-generated crap “creators” throw at the wall just to see what sticks), so constantly reaffirming the fact that you’re a real, live human being is more crucial than ever if you want your audience to know and trust you.

The less you can sound like ChatGPT in your Notes, the better.

And the more windows you can open into your own life, the deeper your online connection will be.

For example, I shared this Note last month:

I didn’t plan it out in advance. I just felt something, opened my laptop, and started typing. The comments alone are a good indicator of how deeply it resonated with people.

Equally, simple image-based Notes like this one can also have a big impact:

My point is, both of those Notes are genuine, authentic windows into my personal life. There’s nothing groundbreaking about them, but they each convey one important thing about me: I’m a real person.

Lesson 4 of 5 is this: if you want to create and nurture a deep, lasting connection with your audience on Notes, let them see the real you. Show your face. Open a window. Be vulnerable.

It’s the most effective way to use Notes right now.

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5. Treat it like a business

Finally, if you want your publication to grow, your connections to deepen, and your writing to get the attention it deserves, you can’t treat Substack as just another platform. It isn’t. Right now, I’d go so far as to suggest it’s the best online platform for writers in 2024.

That’s not really a hot take, either.

But it won’t always be the case. Times change. The powers that be make bad choices. Unbroken things will get fixed, and consequently made worse (just ask anyone who’s been on Twitter for more than a couple of years).

We’re in the early days of Substack’s explosive era. It’s going to get bigger. More people will join. Readership opportunities will increase.

The fifth and final lesson I learned from my journey to 10,000+ subscribers on Substack? Treat the running of your publication like a business.

Take it that seriously.

For too long, I saw Substack as just another string to my bow (among many other fairly pointless strings). I didn’t put in the effort required. I didn’t really try.

When I did, things changed.

The line on my subscriber graph curved upwards after plateauing for months. My writing improved. There was a nice buzz around my posts.

Most importantly of all, I was energised by it. I saw the potential. I wanted more.

So I took it seriously. I treated my publications like a business. I experimented, iterated, paid careful attention to detail, learned quickly from those ahead of me. I made plans and stuck to them. I set targets and did my best to hit them.

I treated my publication like a business. And it bore fruit.

Look, I know some folks will read this and say “But David, I just want to write - I don’t want to run a business!”, and that’s totally fine. I understand. It’s what makes Substack so great - anyone can share their words and have others read them, and that’s beautiful.

But for those of you who - like me - want to write for a living, I urge you to approach your publication with a business-oriented mindset. It’ll add a ton of clarity to your pathway going forward. Heck, it’ll make it less stressful, too. When you have plans and goals and things you can measure, it’s a far more enjoyable process.

Helping other writers learn to think that way about their publications is something I’ve come to really love.

And I know a lot more of you will reach that 10k milestone someday, too.