How to Grow Your Substack Subscribers (Even As A New Writer)

A simple playbook you can follow and grow to at least 1,000 subs in the next 90 days

Listen to the deep dive:

Your Substack isn’t growing because no one knows you exist.

Harsh? Yeppo.

But as a new writer, you’re fighting for attention in an ocean full of voices. Hitting ‘publish’ and waiting for readers to roll in doesn’t work anymore.

Today, I have over 6,000 email subs reading my stuff. Half of them are on Substack.

But a few years back I had no audience. I was publishing to the void.

Substack is an incredible place to start writing online this year.

Here’s how to grow your Substack, even if you’re starting from zero.

1. Find your N-word

99% of you passion-writers don’t want to hear this.

And that’s why most of you fail.

The reason? You have no niche. Many writing gurus tell you to be niche-less. But that’s a stupid lie. THEY ALL HAD A NICHE when they started out and only expanded to generic mumbo-jumbo after having gathered tens of thousands of readers.

Don’t get fooled. Don’t be a sheep.

Writing without having a niche is the perfect recipe for slow reader growth.

If you’re trying to be everything to everyone you’re nothing to no one.

Do you know how I decide whether or not I subscribe to a newsletter?

I usually discover new writers on Substack, either by notes or in the comment section of articles. If I like the content, I hover over their name. I look at their bio. If I like the bio, I check out the latest posts. And if the latest post actually doesn’t speak to me, then I’m out.

I bet that most people do the same.

We live in a three-second attention world. So you’ve got to hypnotize your readers quickly. You can’t do that when you’re trying to stretch yourself in every direction like a ballerina.

People don’t subscribe to newsletters. They subscribe to solutions to their problems.

You need to give them a real reason to hit that subscribe button.

Riches are in the niches. And without one, you’re broke with glitches.

2. Post Substack notes (or stay invisible forever)

Most people think that Substack is still like in 2017. Post an article, and that’s it.

But Substack rolled out notes back in April 2023. It’s like X/Twitter minus the bots and the stupid character limit.

When I first discovered Notes, I thought they were just another social media time-suck.

Boy, was I wrong.

Notes are Substack’s built-in discovery engine. They’re how readers find new writers to follow. And they’re how you build an audience before you’ve even hit ‘publish’ on your first full post.

I started posting notes daily. Just quick thoughts, insights, or quotes from my articles.

I went from 0 subs a day to 3.
From 3 to 10.
From 10 to 21+.

You can write a note in five minutes or less and get it out there.

So start posting notes. Today.

3. Give your writing gremlin the finger

I’m a die-hard introvert.

If you’d met me on the street and said “Hi,” I’d turn red like a tomato.

That’s one of the reasons why I love the internet. I can sit alone in my briefs for hours and still be kinda sociable.

And that’s exactly how you should treat Substack. It’s a place to interact with others.

If you’re not interacting on Substack, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

I see it all the time. Writers publish their posts, maybe throw out a few notes, and then… crickets. They sit back and wait for the subscribers to roll in.

But that’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.

So don’t just post stuff:

• Interact with other people’s notes.

• Reply to other writers’ articles.

This doesn’t have to eat up all your day. You can simply dedicate 15 to 30 minutes each day and interact.

But please, don’t write stupid comments. You can’t just drop “Great post!” and expect results. Your interactions need to continue the conversations and add your own 2 cents to it.

Interaction = Growth.

4. The forgotten blog post strategy

When I first started blogging in 2011, everyone was talking about “guest posts.”

In short, you write a post for someone else’s blog/newsletter.

You might be thinking, “Matt, why the hell would I write for someone else’s newsletter when I’m trying to grow my own?”

I get it. But guest posting on other Substacks is like injecting your subscriber count with a vitamin IV.

Why? Because you’re tapping into an already engaged audience. You’re borrowing someone else’s credibility and get to speak in front of their audience.

But you can’t half-ass it.

Your guest post needs to be your best work. It needs to be so good that readers can’t help but click through to your Substack.

I remember spending a whole weekend crafting a guest post for Write with AI – a Substack pub with over 20k subs. As a result, I got hundreds of new subscribers out of it.

Now, I’m not promising you’ll get the same results. But I am promising that if you do this right, you’ll see growth.

5. Get endorsed

“Do you want fries with that?”

That’s how McDonald’s upsells you on a menu when you just came for a burger.

And this strategy also exists on Substack. It’s called recommendations. You can recommend other Substack publications. And they can recommend you in return (if they aren’t b-holes).

When a new subscriber joins someone who’s recommending you, they get asked if they also want to subscribe to your newsletter.

That way, everyone’s growing at the same time.

But Your recommendations need to be strategic. They need to be relevant to your niche. They need to provide value to your existing subscribers.

I only recommend Substacks that I genuinely read and enjoy. Ones that complement my content without directly competing with it.

It’s a fine line to walk, but it’s worth it.

Most writers are too scared to recommend others. They think they’re sending their audience away. They don’t realize that by curating great content for their readers, they’re actually building trust and authority.

It’s not just about what you write. It’s about who you know – and who knows you.

6. Get new subs on autopilot

Most people hate SEO.

It takes MONTHS to get to 3 consistent visitors a day. I get it.

But I’ve been using SEO for a decade to drive traffic to my websites and email lists. So you might throw tomatoes at me saying I’m biased. But what I love about SEO is that it brings in subscribers, even though you don’t publish.

When you’re just getting started on your blog, nobody will ever visit it simply because you don’t have any SEO authority. You start with a brand-new virgin blog.

Substack has a domain authority of 92. For those of you who don’t speak SEO, that’s like having a golden ticket to the top of Google’s search results.

So here’s an easy way to get started.

Think about all the potential keywords your target audience might search for.
Then, write cohesive blog posts around it.

Use Substack’s built-in features to optimize your:

• Article outline using proper H1/H2/H3

• Meta descriptions

• ALT descriptions

• Titles

If you want more info on that, check out my free SEO course.

7. The bonus tip (that will piss off most of you $8 subscription fanboys)

Most of you writers are too impatient to start making money.

Yeah, I know. You’re itching to slap a paywall on that newsletter and watch the dollars roll in.

But you’ll get way more leverage by keeping things free.

When I started my Substack, I was tempted to go paid right away. Everyone’s pounding their chest on my newsfeed about their paid subscriber count. I’m not new to this. After all, I’ve been selling online courses for years.

Charging for content is my bread and butter.

But resist the urge. First, paid subscriptions are a terrible business model. Second, free content spreads. Paid content doesn’t.

When your stuff is free, people share it. They forward it to friends. They post it on social media. Each share is a chance to reach new subscribers.

But the moment you put your best stuff behind a paywall, you kill that momentum. You’re basically saying, “Hey, please don’t share this.”

Now, I’m not saying never charge. In fact, I recommend charging from day 1. But not stupid $9 PDFs or substack subscriptions. That’s not worth your time. Instead, create an online course or offer personalized coaching.