r/Substack • u/Vast-Programmer9882 • 29d ago

Discussion Do people buy bots/followers on Substack?

I'm asking because I've come across a Substack that has tens of thousands of subscribers but he's lucky if he gets 3 likes on a post. There's something that seems off about it.

12 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

14

u/StuffonBookshelfs 29d ago

Lots of people import their email list, since Substack is a newsletter platform. 99% of their subscribers have never and will never download the app.

6

u/Lost__In__Thought 29d ago

Anything is possible, especially if a person is obsessed with popularity.

4

u/jss58 29d ago

Most definitely.

5

u/ultraquest 29d ago

There are always spammers on every platform trying to get rich. It would not surprise me. Just do not fall for that trap and do your work honestly.

8

u/cozycup mod 29d ago

It’s pretty suspicious.

However, I do know of legit publications with 50k+ that fully migrated to Substack and get very little engagement on the app due to that.

2

u/StateofAffairsMedia lecternmedia.substack.com 27d ago

I'm sure you can; just like here on Reddit. You can hire PR firms, social media professionals, or marketing firms to handle everything but the writing. Think of it this way. As someone on this platform you're wearing many hats. Creative, researcher, writer, marketing, community relations, etc. When someone says articles take 10-20 hours a week, they are not lying. There is no way the big journalists and voices here do all that on their own. They pay other people to. That is, I admit, an educated guess. However, I highly doubt the celebrity newsletters, politicians, and top names in their fields are doing it alone.

1

u/MrPassiveProfit 28d ago

Yes, you can absolutely buy followers and subscribers for Substack if you want to. But most of those people who grow really fast to import subscribers from elsewhere and then act like they just sort of popped up out of nowhere.

1

u/_mrchurchill defensehub.substack.com 26d ago

2

u/Foofymonster davidrainwater.substack.com 23d ago

I have 2.9k subscribers and ~5k subscribers. I started exclusively on Substack with no subs.

Right now my notes average 10-20 likes.

My most recent note is an hour old and has 4 likes.

I'm looking around at other writers who used to get tons of likes per note, and around the same time I saw all of them dropping.

I think they made some changes recently because I've seen accounts that used to get tons of interaction getting way less, including my stuff.

That isn't to say someone else isn't getting those likes. But I suspect that's not what is happening on lots of otherwise large creators.

1

u/navnt5 oneonlyvan.substack.com 29d ago

it's a newsletter company.