My First Year on Substack, Without the Hype

A full breakdown of what I tried, what failed, and what moved the needle.

My first Substack article was published on May 4th, 2024.

I joined this platform after abandoning the shipwreck that was Medium.com. Sunk cost bias was high. I didn't want to waste a few thousand followers there. (Though they actually amount to nothing, given how that algorithm works)

But I kept reading of creators starting from nothing and rapidly growing organically. The platform seemed ready to explode.

So, I made the jump.

You may be considering if Substack is worth it. Or you may just be thirsty of anything about Substack growth (guilty as charged!)

So here it is, my first year on Substack, no holds barred, everything that worked, everything that didn't.

Disclaimer: This isn’t one of those “Let’s f*ing go” growth reports. I don’t have thousands of subscribers. I’m not making a full income from Substack. But maybe that’s exactly why this honest, realistic report can be useful.

Subscriber growth

Screenshot taken on May, 10th, 2025. Sorry, forgot to take it on the 4th! Incidentally, I got two paid subscribers afterward…

Organic subscriber growth is why I tried Substack. It didn't disappoint. It really is powerful.

On other platforms you have to perform circus tricks just to budge the numbers. On Substack you can grow:

• organically (no paid traffic),

• without outside traffic,

• "just" posting content (in the right ways).

I've been publishing online since 2014. I know Substack is still in its honeymoon: it still isn't a huge platform, but it is getting a lot of attention, attracting new creators and new users.

I expect organic growth to wane over time. But here's what I experienced in my first year.

To put things in context, I spent more than half of my days on Substack from May until about November. Then my previous business started growing again. Now I basically have just the time to write my articles and mini-books.

Recommendations

Recommendations are without a doubt the highest ROI growth tool on Substack. If you're new to this platform, here's how they work:

• Every publication can recommend any number of other publications.

• When a new subscriber joins, Substack shows them three of those recommendations.

• With one click, the reader can subscribe to any of the three.

This means that once another publication starts recommending yours, you'll continuously gain new subscribers as long as that publication keeps attracting new readers.

I started by actively swapping recommendations. Some of them brought in dozens of subscribers.

At one point I loaded up a ton of recommendations just to see what would happen. Nothing.

But fortunately, other publications started recommending mine without even telling me. Over time that accrues.

Don’t expect recommendations from giant publications, though. Usually you get them from your peers.

So, what's the best recommendation strategy?

The recommendation algorithm is murky. I am also part of a mastermind with successful Substack creators. No one was able to decipher it.

Results don’t scale exactly with the size of the newsletter recommending you. It’s probably tied to how many new subs that newsletter gets and how many other pubs it recommends.

It makes sense:

• If a newsletter recommends only three others, those three get shown to every new reader.

• If it recommends ten, each individual rec appears way less often.

(That's why, when creators promise “join my community and I’ll recommend you,” it's worthless.)

Best practice seems to be: swap recommendations with creators who speak to a compatible audience.

So, recommendations are a no-brainer. Spend some time every week swapping recommendations with creators you like who have a compatible audience.

And, most importantly, keep publishing. The more frequently you show off, the more people see and appreciate your content, the more recommendations you get.

The downside is quality: subscribers from recommendations are colder. Most never read an article of yours before subscribing. They may forget they even subscribed. If a large part of your subscriptions come from recommendations, expect a low open rate.

Notes

From the best to the worst.

Every fast-growing creator in the creator niche (meta... I know) is now offering some kind of course, challenge, or tool to get more subscribers from notes. And yes, notes can bring in lots of subscribers, but they can also be a total waste of time. The devil's in the details.

I’ve posted a lot of Notes in my first year. More than one per day, for some stretches. (Sorry, I don't have the stats, Substack analytics don't help)

I always wrote something I thought useful for my audience and followed the rules of good short-form writing.

You know what my top‑performing Note was?

Here it is:

As you can guess, it didn't help grow my audience at all.

And guess what comes in second place? Basically all my posts about Substack.

In other niches, things may work differently. But I'm writing for creators who want to build an audience and make a living online thanks to their content. In this niche, Substack isn't different from X or Instagram.

If you write meta content or teach people how to make more money and grow an audience faster, you win. Otherwise, you may not lose, but if win, you do it much more slowly.

Algorithm shifts add to the frustration. Tom Kuegler is a successful creator who's been betting on Notes for over a year. He keep pushing them as a great growth tool, but he admits that what works changes monthly.

So, beware gurus bragging “I went viral on NotesX times—here’s my formula.” They obsess over hooks, formatting, and language. But they forget to mention the real driver: topic. Their viral Note was about Substack, or money, or a tear‑jerking story, things that sell themselves.

So, this is my take on Notes: treat them like a lottery.

You may go viral, but unless you talk mainly about a proven topic, publish as often as possible, test different topics and styles, and hope to get the winning ticket.

This is the healthiest approach for me:

• You limit the time spent on Notes and lower your expectations.

• You save energy for your most important content and your paid offer.

• You show up a lot.

• Short-form content helps you test ideas.

• The occasional high-performing note becomes almost free traffic.

Guest posts

I can't recommend guest posting enough. I earned dozens, possibly hundreds, of subscribers from it. (Again, Substack analytics don't help.)

30 subscribers earned on the day David McIlroy published my guest post.

A guest post is simply an article you publish on someone else's publication.

Substack is made for guest posts:

• adding another author is a piece of cake for a creator,

• your name appears in the byline of the article,

• Substackers are extremely interested in collaborations,

• you get notified for every comment on your guest post and you increase your visibility by replying.

I wrote an article and a mini-book about "how to write the best guest posts". You can find them here and here. The mini-book in particular is an extremely comprehensive guide.

The best thing is that you expand your reach by doing exactly what you would already do: You write helpful, inspiring articles.

And, almost inevitably, you can create a relationship with the host creator. It could lead to other guest posts, joint offers, or who knows what.

Secret trick: some creators offer a guest slot if you become a paid subscriber. If their pub is way bigger than yours and the fit is right, do it.

Commenting

On most social networks, if you leave thoughtful comments under other people’s content you borrow their visibility. And you may develop interesting relationships and collaborations.

Substack pushes hard on social. It’s the perfect platform for this tactic.

When I spend more time reading Notes and articles and leaving comments, my stats increase.

But sometimes it feels like factory work. If I want to attract my readers, I have to comment on the articles that attract them, not me. After all, I have to be ahead of them to be useful, right?

So, now I prefer to focus on creators I like as persons comment only when I want to have a tiny conversation with them. This often doesn’t get me additional exposure. But it doesn’t have to be the only purpose of our online activity.

If you want to know more about how to grow by leveraging other people’s content, read this.

Lives

Lives can definitely help you grow subscribers. I've done about a dozen interviews. Sometimes, on the day of the interview, I saw a spike in new subscriptions.

I think you should try them, but especially with other people. Do an interview or just chat about an interesting topic for your audience. Your guest's audience will see a notification when she joins you, it's free promotion.

And there's a handy bonus: Substack automatically generates a draft post crediting both authors. After you publish the live recording, your guest can republish it too, putting your content in front of their audience again.

But, most importantly, having a chat with an interesting, like-minded person, and also seeing the reactions from the audience is priceless. (It will also provide you with new ideas for your content.)

Paid communities & engagement pods

I paid for a few memberships to join creator communities and tried some paid engagement pods. Both totally underwhelming in terms of audience growth.

Many communities are just repackaged content you could find free if you’re a decent self‑learner. Some don’t even give direct access to the host. Others devolve into self-promotion dumpsters.

“Notes boosts” and similar intitiatives inflate your numbers briefly. Once you stop daily engagement, metrics drop. The other participants are there specifically to engage. Most of them aren't part of your intended audience.

If you join a paid community, pick one that either costs real money—$1,000+ per year—or one that's lower-priced but only runs for a few weeks or months, like a cohort-based course. And favor an offer on a skill you want, with the creator hands‑on. Otherwise, pass.

How much should I post?

I've been consistent for the entire year. I started with two posts a week.

At the start of 2025, I declared I would publish just one. But then Substack Live became available.

I had been thinking about launching a podcast, and I couldn't resist. So I added back another post with the recording of the live interview.

More posts definitely mean more views. Content lifespan on Substack is brutally short. It feels just like X, but with many more words per post...

I've seen many creators drastically increase their growth by publishing a lot, articles, notes, videos, anything. One stellar example is Jason Provencio.

How to get rich by publishing on Substack

😉😉😉

When I joined, one year ago, people still believed you could convert 5–10% of free subs to paid. It probably happened to the first celebrities who joined Substack, bringing their existing fame and audience.

Based on my experience in online business, I expected 2% at best. Over time I’ve seen about 1% as the norm in my niche for regular creators who aren’t hardcore marketers.

And that's my exact conversion rate.

How I tried to get rich on Substack

The automatic paywall is the dream for creators. It's basically free money:

• publish articles,

• turn on auto paywall,

• let old articles lure in an endless stream of paid subs.

I tried it for a few months. It didn't work.

Maybe a tighter one‑week paywall, instead of the 4 weeks I set, would create urgency. But several creators I spoke with ended up removing the automatic paywall because the small boost in revenue didn’t make up for the drop in views and new subscribers.

So, I focused more on paywalling small products, namely templates to help creators become more productive and mini-books.

Almost all my paid subscribers converted after visiting those products' pages. But it wasn't a home run.

In part it's just a marketing problem. The best-sellers on Substack (not the ones that inflate their numbers to get that badge, but the ones who are really making more money) are constantly in launch mode.

I simply don't have the time for that, my Italian business is thriving and my "selling time" is better spent there for now.

Confusing signals

I have hundreds of videos on YouTube. When a topic pops, it usually means I can offer products or services around it and sell.

Substack, for me at least, hasn't been consistent at all. I released multiple products based on the audience feedback. None of them shined.

I'd really love to do like Robin Wilding (listen to her interview here). She publishes a lot (in the humor niche), then asks for support. No paywall, no community, no 1:1 access. No offer at all.

She's doing very well. Enough to think of reducing client work and earn mainly from her content.

I suspect this approach works only in some niches, though. I see no one in my niche doing it.

Am I in the wrong niche?

Look, I wrote an article, then a mini-book about finding your niche. It's a good process. But Substack is puzzling me.

Productivity is non‑negotiable for creators. Even purely “creative” guests I’ve interviewed have habits, rituals and processes.

That's the thing: creativity needs your top focus and energy. If you don't build your productivity system, you'll waste your best moments on other apparently urgent tasks.

Building that system is a productivity and self-improvement challenge. That's what I decided to talk about on Substack.

Yet there’s hostility toward “productivity” on Substack. People treat all productivity as toxic productivity. They rally behind creators who say, "Do what you want, when you want, how you want." The baby is getting tossed with the bathwater, so interest in my topics is lower than I’d hoped. Despite being strong on other platforms.

And adding salt to the wound, every time I talk about Substack, engagement spikes. (I bet this will be one of my best posts).

Other creators in my mastermind basically recommended "Attract them with what they want, then give them what they need". Which means "Write about Substack so that you get many more views. Then talk now and then about your core topics and build the products around them." I don't know if that's what I want to do because my time is limited and, by the way, shouldn't we be aiming at being unique?

What do you think? Should I pivot?

What would I want to know before joining Substack?

Anfernee asked this in reply to my first-year celebration note. I didn't discover any enlightening truth to accelerate your growth on Substack. But there is something.

When I first joined Substack, everyone was talking about how it's a different, higher-quality platform. So, I spent more time on finding more original angles, and refining my writing (I'm Italian, so impostor syndrome screams louder).

But after a year, I’ve realized that, at least in my niche, what works here is still the same stuff that works everywhere else.

Sure, you can’t just copy what’s been done for years. But the principle remains the same: subscribers flock to the same type of content that would go viral on other platforms.

So, I think I've complicated my life. I could have saved time (and possibly got more subscribers) by considering Substack just another content platform.

So?

I know this isn't the mouth-watering report you're used to read. I don't like to sugarcoat things, and I'm all for sincerity and realness.

But even though I didn't get a bestseller badge, far from it actually, I think Substack is a great platform for creators. Especially because the founders constantly strive to align their incentives with the creators' incentives.

There actually is one thing that makes Substack unique: the absence of advertising.

Substack as a company succeeds when creators earn more money. This is as good as it gets in terms of alignment.

I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions or need clarifications, feel free to ask in the comments. I always reply!

---

Subscribe to The Unstoppable Creator to get free articles like this every week. Or upgrade your subscription to get:

• 📚 Monthly Mini-books to overcome the crucial creator challenges

• 💬 Community and 1:1 mentoring via chat

• 🛠️ Monthly templates to make you more productive and unleash your creativity