After 60 Days on Substack, I Think I've Found the Best Platform for Writers

The Substack strategies that got me 222 subscribers in 60 days (without external traffic).

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📣 This week’s guest post comes courtesy of

Alberto Cabas Vidani

, a blogger, YouTuber and and solopreneur aiming to help you find a pathway to freedom and fulfillment. Alberto is a fantastic writer and thinker (and one of my Sustaining Members!) so I know you’ll find this piece useful.

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A couple years ago, online writers started flocking to Substack. It seemed like the place to be.

But I didn’t buy it. All the success stories talked about creators who moved their large audiences from other platforms. No one was growing organically within Substack.

But in 2023, a few things changed. They convinced me to finally try the platform. Now I’m a believer.

I’ve finally found a platform that rewards my efforts. It feels like 2010, when I started blogging and my articles naturally ranked on Google, constantly bringing in new traffic.

Let me show you what worked, so you can catch this opportunity before it’s too late.

But first…

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The writers’ nemesis (and the plan to beat it)

In 2023, I was busy publishing but frustrated by the platforms I chose. Hours and hours of work with haphazard returns. It looked like it was time to give Substack a chance.

But where could I find the time?

I was (and I still am) also running another online business in Italy, for which I create long Youtube tutorials, launch products and consult with clients. I didn’t want to jump ship and waste everything I did on the previous platform. I had invested so much effort . And I wanted to hedge my bets. Going all-in is the best choice only when you can brag about it a few years later.

It was time to work smarter, not harder.

I took stock of what I already had: hundreds of articles, dozens of newsletters, and a new newsletter issue every week for the foreseeable future (a promise to my 500+ subscribers). Then, it was…

Repurposing time

To truly test Substack’s organic reach, I needed to answer this question: how fast can subsriber grow without bringing in traffic from any other channel?

To run the experiment with the least amount of additional work possible, I devised this repurposing strategy:

• create a Substack newsletter with the same topics and target audience as my existing newsletter (creators who want to overcome practical and mental obstacles and become prolific),

• send every newsletter issue both on Substack and to my existing email list (on Saturdays),

• republish on Substack past articles and newsletter issues (to double the output and speed up my growth),

• reuse ideas from the articles in short posts on Notes daily (the Substack social network).

Finally, growth is faster on all social platforms if you engage with other creators. But this can’t be repurposed. And on other platforms it required so much time to bring decent results.

But everyone was raving about Notes and I wanted to gauge the full potential. So, I committed 15-30 minutes every day to commenting on notes and articles from other authors I liked with an audience similar to mine.

Somebody pinch me, please

The results have been unbelievable. In my first two months, I woke up every day thinking “today is the day the miracle stops”.

Here are some exciting numbers (after 60 days):

• 222 subscribers to my email list,

• 580 followers (on Notes),

• almost 40% open rate,

• about 1600 views in the last 30 days,

• dozen of comments to my articles and posts.

The last point is important. If you are an experienced copywriter and/or a clever networker, you can easily inflate your views, aka make people click. But this doesn’t mean they like what they see. They don’t become fans. When they instead take the time to leave comments, maybe even very long comments, you struck a chord.

These results are already better than anything I tried since 2022. They are special if you consider the effort I put in:

• writing a newsletter issue takes me about 2 hours on average (my previous articles took 2-5 times that much),

• repurposing an old post takes at most 30 minutes,

• writing and engaging on Notes takes 15-30 minutes per day, weekends excluded.

So, in total, I spent less than 5 hours every week for my Substack experiment.

Now, let’s see what worked.

What am I doing right? Is it just luck?

Studying successful content creators has been one of my main pastimes in the last 13 years. Most of that time was wasted. You always miss too many details. Those same creators ignore crucial factors contributing to their success.

But we have to make do with what we have, right? I did my best to analyze what worked, to find the universally adaptable best practices and exclude what’s specific to my case or attributable to luck.

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What may not work for you

My content on Substack targets creators. This is a well-represented audience on the platform.

But none of the top earning newsletters talk about content creation, writing and similar topics. You don’t need to talk about meta topics to succeed.

Another caveat is that my first couple of recommendations came from authors I already knew on Medium. So, I may have had a head start. But if you don’t know any Substack author, this just means you’ll have to wait a little longer while you develop profitable collaborations.

Finally, Substack is now in its honeymoon period. Competition is low, while the platform is growing fast. Usually, this situation stops, but we don’t know when. So, no one can say how it will work in a year.

What may work

Here’s what I can recommend based on my experience:

• Try Substack now, to take advantage of the overall growth of the platform.

• Create a newsletter (a publication, in Substack lingo) with a clear audience and benefit in mind. You don’t need a tiny niche, but give readers a clear reason to follow you. (My tagline is “Tactics, strategies, reflections, to become a prolific creator by removing practical and mental obstacles. From a 13+ years veteran creator.”)

• Publish once or twice a week. You’ll avoid overwhelming subscribers and maximize the chance to be found and get feedback from readers.

• Be authentic. Base your articles on your personal stories and expertise.

• Develop an angle that readers can’t find in other publications.

These are the essentials in term of content creation. But what about promotion? No writer in history got known by “just writing”.

My subscribers aren’t emerging out of thin air:

• about 55% came from recommendations,

• about 40% came from Notes,

• the rest from articles.

Based on this data, here’s your promotion plan. You don’t have to do everything from the list below, but do at least something. Even just 15 minutes a day will guarantee a steady stream of new subscribers:

• Find 2-5 authors that you like whose audience overlaps with yours and isn’t much larger than yours.

• Leave replies to their articles or notes, always adding to the discussion.

• Restack other people's articles and posts, adding a quote.

• Deepen the relationships through direct messages.

• Suggest exchanging recommendations, guest posts, or cross posts.

• If you have the time, publish one or more posts on Notes daily.

• If you already have an email list or a following on another platform, invite them to your Substack newsletter.

If you are allergic to anything resembling major social media, avoid Notes. Just focus on your articles, read other people’s articles, and when the relationship is ripe, propose to recommend each other. As always, jumping out of the blue into someone’s direct messages won’t work.

To your Substack success!

I’m against platform-hopping. But it’s hard to contradict these numbers.

Try implementing my advice for 3 to 6 months. Then you will know if it’s the platform for you.

And if you need help, reach out to me at The Unstoppable Creator.

Good luck!

Thanks for reading. If you want to become a prolific creator, join my newsletter. You'll get weekly tips to improve your productivity and your mindset and finally publish all you want. Click here to join.

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