Substack Isn’t a Blogging Platform. The Writers Who Finally Accept This Grow the Fastest.
Most writers set up their Substack and treat it like a blog. Then wonder why nobody is subscribing. Here's what's actually happening.
Most writers come to Substack the same way:
They create an account, set up their profile, write their first post, and hit publish.
They come back a week later and do it again. Maybe they share it on social media once. Maybe they tell a few friends.
Then they check their subscriber count.
Their number hasn’t budged. So they write another post. Wait another week. Check again. Still nothing.
Three months later they’re frustrated and starting to wonder if the platform even works or if they’re just not cut out for this?
I was there too. For longer than I want to admit.
Writing consistently, publishing every week, doing everything I thought I was supposed to do — and growing by almost nothing.
It wasn’t until I understood what Substack actually is — not what I assumed it was — that things finally started moving.
Substack isn’t a blog. Stop treating it like one.
Most writers set up their Substack like it’s Medium. Or a personal blog. Or an online journal where good writing eventually finds its audience if you just keep showing up long enough.
It’s not MySpace. It’s not Medium. It’s not a platform where publishing consistently and writing well is enough on its own to bring new readers in.
If you publish a post on Substack and do nothing else — no Notes, no engagement, no community — almost nobody will see it. Your existing subscribers will get it in their inbox. Everyone else won’t even know it exists.
You’re not getting subscribers because nobody knows your Substack exists. And publishing more posts without changing anything else won’t fix that.
The writers who grow here aren’t necessarily writing better posts than you. They just understand how discovery actually works on this platform.
And discovery on Substack works completely differently than any blogging platform most writers have ever used.
There are really only two ways to grow your Substack consistently.
The first is to bring people over from somewhere else. LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube — build an audience on another platform and drive them to your newsletter. It works.
People find me from LinkedIn every single day. But it’s a slow burn and you’re always dependent on someone else’s algorithm and someone else’s platform.
The second is Notes. That’s how I grew to 17,000 subscribers.
Not by writing better posts or driving traffic from LinkedIn alone.
By writing Notes every single day and letting Substack’s own algorithm connect me with the right readers consistently over time.
Substack built Notes specifically for this. The algorithm is designed to help readers discover writers they’ll actually subscribe to.
Hamish McKenzie, Substack’s co-founder, has talked openly about how most social platforms are designed to keep you trapped scrolling forever because that’s what their business model requires.
Substack deliberately built something different. They only make money when you make money. So the algorithm is designed to help you grow — not fight you at every turn.
I chose option two and stuck with it. Everything else followed from there. Notes now brings me 500-700 new subscribers every single month from a routine that takes about 20 minutes each morning.
The 20-minute daily habit most writers skip entirely. Here’s why that’s a mistake.
Remember: Stop treating Substack like a blogging platform. And, start treating it like the community and discovery engine it actually is.
My advice? Write Notes every single day.
Not occasionally, not when inspiration strikes — every single day. The specific types of Notes that bring subscribers rather than just likes.
Then, engage genuinely with writers in your niche. Restack strategically. Give the algorithm something consistent to work with so it can start doing its job. That’s the system.
Of course, your posts still matter. Keep writing them. But posts alone will never grow your Substack the way Notes will.
The writers publishing once a week and wondering why nothing is compounding are almost always the writers who haven’t touched Notes in weeks.
Every day you skip Notes is a day the algorithm learns nothing new about you. And a day the right readers don’t find you.
Let me show you how to grow your Substack in a simple sustainable way.
(📌 Last chance before everything goes up Monday May 11th.)
Quick reminder — all of my trainings are increasing in price tomorrow Monday May 11th. This is the last chance to get in at the current price before that happens.
If you want the complete system for building on Substack the right way — this is your moment. Here they are:
The Notes Growth Workshop is for the writer who wants to grow right now.
This Workshop will teach you the specific Note types that consistently bring subscribers, the daily routine that takes 20 minutes, and the strategy that teaches the algorithm exactly who you are.
If Notes hasn’t been working for you this is what fixes that:
The Six-Figure Substack Growth Masterclass is the complete foundation.
Your story, your positioning, your voice, the Notes system, and how to monetize once the audience is building. It’s the strategy behind 17,000 subscribers and $100K+ in revenue — laid out simply so you can build it too.
Here’s what’s inside:
Your origin story and positioning — the specific angle that makes your newsletter impossible to ignore and immediately worth following. Most writers skip this and then wonder why nothing gains traction
Your voice — how to write in a way that feels completely authentic and builds the kind of trust that turns casual readers into loyal subscribers who actually open every email
How to monetize your audience — the exact digital product strategy behind $100K+ in revenue built around simple products that sell consistently
What actually grows versus what just gets likes — so you stop wasting time on vanity metrics and start building real momentum every single day
A sustainable system you’ll actually stick to — because showing up consistently only works if it doesn’t burn you out in three weeks
Here’s what writers are saying after going through it:
“I absolutely love the honesty. I like how he doesn’t pressure you to be on every platform and just chose a few to start with. This is why it’s important to invest in learning from people who have done the work before.” — Sumu Sathi
“This was the best most concise explanation of how to scale and monetize a newsletter I’ve ever come across.” — Jake Griggs
Over 500 writers have gone through the Masterclass and built this foundation. Writers who showed up scattered and unsure of what they were building — and left with a clear direction, a growing audience, and a Substack that finally felt like theirs.
Price goes up Monday May 11th. This is the last chance to get either at the current price:
Question: When you first joined Substack did you treat it like a blogging platform? Drop it in the comments — I think most writers will admit they did.
You say the Substack algorithm focuses on helping writers grow their list because they make money when writers make money.
That leads me to wonder if Substack’s algorithm favors writers of paid newsletters over writers of unpaid newsletters. Have you researched this?
'If you publish a post and do nothing else, almost nobody will see it' — I can confirm this with data. 3 posts published in my first month, zero subscribers from any of them. Every single organic subscriber came from comments on other publications. The posts didn't bring people in — the conversations did. Starting Month 2 of my growth experiment today with daily consistency as the variable. Month 1 was the messy version. Let's see what showing up every day actually changes.