How I grew my Substack audience by over 1,400 subscribers in under 2 months
Here's what worked for me (and could work for you, too).
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What you’ll learn in this paid post:
How I used Substack Notes to grow my audience (without feeling like I was yelling into the void)
Why showing up consistently beats chasing algorithms every time
The power of making friends on the platform (and how collaborations helped me grow faster)
Why your best growth lever might be right under your nose
How to build steady momentum—even when it feels like no one’s paying attention (yet)
I joined Substack on June 12, 2023, with an imported list of 49 subscribers (from YouTube, I think).
I had no idea what I was doing when I first started on the platform. I can’t quite remember why I even decided to join in the first place.
I was just… there.
At the time of writing this post (January 25, 2024), I had exactly 1,631 subscribers across two publications, 25 of whom were paid.
That may or may not seem like a lot to you - again, I often felt like I had no idea what I was doing on Substack - but I’m incredibly grateful for the support I’ve received so far. This is an awesome platform and I wish I’d discovered it sooner.
However, I have a very specific reason for writing this post today. This isn’t just an update or an elongated form of clickbait. I want to talk about the nature of my audience growth on Substack, and particularly how it fundamentally changed at the end of November 2023.
Because on November 28, I had just 179 subscribers.
That means, between November 29 and the date of this post’s publication (58 days), my audience grew by 1,452 people.
So let me tell you why I think that happened.
First, an important disclaimer: 182 of those subs came from a list imported from ConvertKit at the start of December. Even so, I still picked up 1,270 subscribers organically within Substack itself after November 28. That’s just over 21 subs per day on average.
And a second important disclaimer: the reason I’m sharing this information (and speculation) isn’t to toot my own horn, because what’s the point in that?
I’m sharing this in the hope it’ll provide some direction and encouragement for those of you who, like me, are working towards the goal of writing for a living full-time, and are maybe experiencing frustratingly-slow audience growth, as I’d been.
It is possible to grow your audience on Substack at a rate that doesn’t leave you pulling clumps from your hair each time you check your dashboard.
And while I can’t say what’s worked for me will work in the same way for you, I believe what I’ve done is entirely replicable for anyone with a Substack publication and a few hours to spare each week. I’ll tell you what I changed about my approach, and why I think those changes made a difference. Do with it what you will.
Anyway, here are the 5 key factors I believe played a major part in growing my Substack audience over the last couple of months.
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. ☺️
