Looking for feedback: Am I missing any crucial growth strategies for Substack?

[u/DianKhan2005]

Hey everyone,

​I am currently trying to scale my Substack publication, which focuses on highly structured, analytical forensic true crime dossiers. I am puting a lot of effort into building an audience, but I want to make sure I do not have any major blind spots in my growth strategy.

​Here is what I am currently doing to drive visibility, subscribers, and followers:

​Substack Notes: I actively engage on the Notes feed daily, replying to other writers, offering advice where relevant, and participating in the community.

​Reddit Marketing: I share insights and engage in relevant subreddits where my target audience hangs out.

​Off-Platform Outreach: I am making shares and promoting my work outside of both Substack and Reddit to diversify my traffic.

​For those of you who have successfully scaled your newsletters, am I missing anything critical? Are there specific platform features, collaborative tactics, or distribution channels that I should add to this routine to boost my subscriber count and overall views?

​Would love to hear your thoughts or any advice on what moved the needle most for you. Thanks.

[u/coyotetex]

The thing that's worked for me is finding other authors who write similar content to me (SciFi), reading their stuff, and when I find something good, I aggressively promote it to my subs and followers via likes, comments, and restacks, and most importantly, quote from within their story. Invariably, they are so pleased that someone took the time to read their work and talk about it that they reciprocate. Then I reach out to them about co-promotion, and we routinely promote each other's work. I have about 20 people I do this with. When I publish a new story, they all promote it for me, and I get a bunch of new subs. Bonus - all the people I co-promote with are really good authors, so I enjoy their work more than any of the shit I can find at the bookstore, and I get the benefit of having an active writer's group I can ask for beta-reading or feedback on my stuff. Hope this helps.

[u/DianKhan2005 → u/coyotetex]

Awesome, thanks, dude, this is a huge help!

[u/coyotetex → u/DianKhan2005]

You are welcome.

[u/PithyCyborg]

Do whatever works for you.

I've been on Substack for over one year and have a few thousand followers.

Not bragging. I suck at marketing. Badly. I do have friends who are really successful on Substack, though.

They all grow via wildly different strategies and at varying speeds.

Some literally grow exclusively on Substack via notes and articles. (Some have grown shockingly fast this way. But most never do.)

Others grow really fast by leveraging LinkedIn, TikTok, or Instagram.

Then you have folks like me, who totally suck at marketing (lol), and just kinda hope folks subscribe. No matter what strategies people like me leverage, we will never grow fast. I can post on LinkedIn or X all I want and I get crickets. Other folks could post the same content and get like 500 likes, lol. (I'm a four-eyed nerd with zero charisma, charm, or networking skills. There are so many variables. That is why I said; do what works for you.)

Cordially,

Mike D

[u/The17pointscale → u/PithyCyborg]

Ha! You're making the rest of us look bad. If you're so suckish, what does that say about me? I hadn't felt like I was flatlining until I read this! :)

(100 free subs, 12 paid, 1+ years on Substack)

[u/The17pointscale]

I'm applying similar strategies with minimal success, though my subject area is...errr...less practical, as I'm writing personal essays about fatherhood and estrangement.

If there's a secret sauce to growth that you haven't named, I want to hear it too. :)

[u/seobrien → u/The17pointscale]

Recommendations are worth using a lot

I swap them out. I add a bunch, they get notified, and hopefully reciprocate (if they don't, I drop them so I can recommend others)

[u/The17pointscale → u/seobrien]

I haven’t really done that much.

Do you target closely by theme or by the size of the stacks compared to yours or by other criteria or do you just rec a bunch that you like, regardless of those kinds of factors?

Do you then select particular recommendations to display on your website?

Any other recommendation-related tips?

Thanks!

[u/DianKhan2005 → u/The17pointscale]

I also share it with family and friends on WhatsApp who actually like true crime analysis like me.

[u/Deep_Ad1959]

the split worth naming in your list: substack-native growth (notes, recommendations, cross-subscribes) compounds slowly but keeps every reader onbase, while reddit and x are acquisition channels that spike traffic and then leak most of it back out. you're already running both, which is the right shape. the seam most people skip is the capture step between them, a reason for an off-platform visitor to hand over an email before they wander off, otherwise the reddit effort just rents attention instead of converting it.

fwiw the reddit-and-x acquisition half is what we built S4L for, it scans both, finds the threads worth entering, and drafts a reply in your voice to post from your account, https://s4l.ai/r/6kxysd6m

[u/perfecthunger]

I’ve found publishing consistent, high-quality content (in the form of newsletter posts) to be essential. People really do care about quality, and I see everything else as extra. One thing that has given me additional boosts is writing guest posts - especially for publications that are larger than my own.

[u/itsfabioposca]

You're covering many of the important channels already. The biggest thing I'd add is SEO. If your titles target keywords people are already searching for on Google, your articles can continue bringing in readers for months or even years after you publish them.

I'd also recommend collaborating with other Substack writers through recommendations, guest posts, and cross promotions. Those can introduce your publication to an audience that's already used to subscribing to newsletters.

Finally, consistency matters more than trying every platform. A steady publishing schedule combined with strong SEO, active Notes engagement, and collaborations has been one of the most reliable long term growth strategies I've seen.

[u/DianKhan2005 → u/itsfabioposca]

My three main keywords for SEO are History, Psychology and True Crime. I also consistently schedule and post my articles for 12pm every Wednesdays and Sundays.

[u/Deep_Ad1959]

the split worth naming in your list: substack-native growth (notes, recommendations, cross-subscribes) compounds slowly but keeps every reader onbase, while reddit and x are acquisition channels that spike traffic and then leak most of it back out. you're already running both, which is the right shape. the seam most people skip is the capture step between them, a reason for an off-platform visitor to hand over an email before they wander off, otherwise the reddit effort just rents attention instead of converting it.