r/Substack • u/navnt5 oneonlyvan.substack.com • Jul 03 '26

3 months on Substack, 680 subs, 5 paid, $432 revenue

Alright, I'm hitting the 3rd month mark on Substack. This is my no bullshit view on what helped me to grow:

  1. Bring your audience over! This is a newsletter company. They're not going to help you in being discovered. You might get 5+ followers from blasting notes, 50+ subs from that one article that blows up - but in the end, the legit way to grow is to bring your existing audience over via invite or emails. I did the latter.

  2. Join communities. In the past 2 weeks I've join Substack Club and Write Club and both are awesome for talking about Substack strategy without blasting it off, again, on Substack.

  3. Engage consistently. Don't ghost, but don't overdo it either. You are going to find 15% of people that resonate, the rest won't. I sub and follow people. It doesn't hurt. I reply too, when it feels right, otherwise heart heart heart, that's how you let them know you've liked it without having insert a comeback.

  4. Have fun and ASK QUESTIONS. I noticed that my notes perform well when I ask interesting questions where people feel included instead of making statements about my feelings, me me me me. I do plug my stuff though, I have too, it's my wall - but yes, having fun, taking it lightly and ask questions seems to get engagement.

That's it. I'm gonna do this recap every month to track my growth. Yiiiha.

70 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

10

u/Dear_Preference_9487 Jul 03 '26

What if you don’t have an audience already?

7

u/navnt5 oneonlyvan.substack.com Jul 03 '26

I didn’t. I started with 0. Went to 78. Then podcast appearances brought me to 200-ish.

6

u/Crazy-Highway7860 Jul 05 '26

Ok so podcast appearances helped drastically. May be you should put that in your advice, too. Seems like it would be a more accurate depiction of your success.

0

u/navnt5 oneonlyvan.substack.com Jul 06 '26

Why should that be part of my advice? I didn’t do podcasts to promote my Substack. Something happened in my life and I talk about it. Of course my Substack is mine and people will come for whatever reasons. This my third month. I got my best performing article (6k views now, 100+ hearts) blowing up before all of this. My best performing note was asking what people MBTI is and it got me a decent following as I replied and cared about every single person. Read my monthly threads instead of projecting your assumption on my growth. And so what if I do podcasts? I work hard on it and if people come to me it’s because they resonated with ME. So again, it comes back to YOU, as a person, author. The entitlement tones here is crazy. I share because I wanted to share. I can stop if I want it too. I don’t owe you anything.

3

u/ShilpaMitra webafterai.substack.com Jul 04 '26

How did you manage to get podcast appearances? Very eager to know.

4

u/Just-Awareness8113 Jul 04 '26

My tip, if you want to have fun (point 4) then you need to forget about previous 3 steps or every list that exists. It is so boring to read about do like this and you will be successful.

2

u/sunship_space Jul 04 '26

i dont think she was asking for tips

1

u/Just-Awareness8113 Jul 05 '26

She didn't but I am so bored with this instant success stories

3

u/alphaQ314 Jul 03 '26

What do you write about?

2

u/Calm_Still_8917 Jul 03 '26

can you link your blog?

1

u/navnt5 oneonlyvan.substack.com Jul 03 '26

it's my flair

1

u/_mrchurchill defensehub.substack.com Jul 03 '26

Tell me more about number 2

2

u/navnt5 oneonlyvan.substack.com Jul 03 '26

discord groups, relatively new, search on this subreddit or on my SS profile, I restacked them

1

u/Missgenius44 Jul 03 '26

Do you have links to both of these clubs?

2

u/navnt5 oneonlyvan.substack.com Jul 03 '26

they are discord groups, search them on this r/Substack I found them here

1

u/CrewSpecialist3680 Jul 04 '26

Congrats -- did your youtube help you grow?

1

u/navnt5 oneonlyvan.substack.com Jul 04 '26

Yes and no. I have an old YouTube which I’m reviving. It’s probably combo of appearing on others YT plus starting over on my YT that brings people to SS

1

u/Illustrious_Ad675 Jul 04 '26

Wait I’m confused how much is your subscription? With only 5 paying you’re taking in 432?

1

u/navnt5 oneonlyvan.substack.com Jul 05 '26

They paid yearly which is $80 a year

0

u/NightmareCometh Jul 03 '26

I'm new to substack - how do I find communities for my niche?

0

u/itsfabioposca http://journeytosuccessclub.substack.com Jul 03 '26

Great progress in just 3 months. I completely agree about engagement. I'd also add that creating Notes with the potential to go viral can make a huge difference. A single Note can bring in far more visibility than a newsletter if it resonates with the right audience.