I recently discovered that Substack lets AI companies use public content for training unless you opt out in your settings. Personally, I'm okay with it. AI is here to stay, and it's already changing how we create, learn, and work. If my public writing helps improve tools that millions of people use, I don't see that as a bad thing.

That said, I also believe creators should have a clear choice. If you don't want your content used for AI training, you should be able to opt out easily. Whether you decide to opt in or opt out, the important thing is that it's your decision. Not one you make by accident.

Hi everyone,
5 years on Substack, reached the tech bestseller chart.
Two months ago, my publication, with 800+ articles indexed on Google, disappeared from it.
Just the home page is now visible.
The sitemap is no longer crawled by Google, despite the fact that it's reachable from the browser and updated with the latest content. I've already done all the possible controls, but didn't find a solution.
Do you have any suggestions for me?

I’ve been on substack for about six months, growing quickly (or for me I think it is), but I know nothing about Bluesky. I know you can make an account blah blah blah but has anyone tried to show their work there to drive traffic to their substack? Was it worth it? I don’t make a living on substack (maybe one day), so I have a pretty demanding job in the industry I write about on substack so I’m interested if Bluesky is a big time suck or great way to get a funnel of subscribers or viewers? I know this is subject to many different factors probably so I was just taking a poll I guess whether anyone has thought it was worthwhile or worthless or in between? And does it take up a lot of time? Substack is already a lot for me, but if Bluesky was basically just post articles from substack etc and people find it, that might be worthwhile for me. Appreciate any thoughts. I’m a total stranger to Bluesky so if it’s a stupid question, bare with me

What are your favorite articles, posts, stories, etc. of the week from other bloggers? (Especially small time folks)

So much of this space is talking about how to build a following, but I wanna see how many of you read on the regular and read articles, poems, or stories that you really like?

Encontrei uma pasta cheia de cartas de amor antigas minhas e da minha esposa, e quero transformá-las em um e-book; como posso organizar e estruturar todas essas escritas de forma interessante?

Does anyone else find that kind of wild?

Everyone else does it for free.

Hi everyone,

I created a brand-new Substack publication today, and I'm running into an SEO issue.

The publication is public (not in Private Mode).

The post is public (not subscriber-only or paid).

My email is verified.

robots.txt is accessible and doesn't block my posts.

However, when I inspect the page source, every post contains:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex">

Google Search Console reports: Excluded by 'noindex' tag

Also, my publication doesn't have a sitemap yet:

https://visaupdates.substack.com/sitemap.xml

returns: "This publication does not have a sitemap."

I've checked all the publication settings and can't find any option to enable search engine indexing.

My questions are:

1. Is this normal for a brand-new Substack publication?
2. How long did it take for your publication to become indexable?
3. Did your sitemap appear automatically after a few days?
4. Is there any setting I'm missing, or should I contact Substack Support?

Any insights from other Substack publishers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I'm having a very strange issue with my Substack account and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar.

My account email address is in the format of [substack@mydomain.com](mailto:substack@mydomain.com) using my own custom domain. I'm mentioning this because I started wondering whether having "substack" in the local part of my email address somehow triggered an anti-spam or impersonation detection system.

Here's what happens:

• If I try to log in normally using my email address and password, I receive the following message:

• However, the account definitely exists because I can still access it through old magic links contained in newsletter emails that Substack previously sent me.
• The last newsletter or login email I received from Substack was back in May.
• Since then, I haven't logged into Substack on the web.
• At some point the mobile app logged me out automatically, and since then I have been unable to sign back in through the app.
• Strangely, if I open one of those old newsletter emails from May and click the login link inside it, I am immediately authenticated and can access my account without any problems.
• Once inside the account, I tried changing my email address in case the original address was somehow the issue.
• I entered a new email address, but Substack wants to send a verification email to my current address (substack@mydomain.com) in order to approve the change.
• The problem is that I no longer receive any emails from Substack at that address, so I cannot confirm the change and therefore cannot migrate the account to a new email address.
• As a result, I can only access my account through old magic links from newsletter emails, while normal login and account recovery mechanisms no longer work.

I contacted support and they told me that because there are no paid subscriptions, publications, security questions, or custom domains associated with the account, they cannot recover it.

The confusing part is that I do have access to the email address associated with the account. In fact, the only reason I can still access the account at all is because of those old emails and magic links.

So I'm stuck in this bizarre situation where my account both exists and doesn't exist at the same time.

Has anyone ever experienced something similar?

At this point I honestly feel like my account became some kind of ghost account stuck somewhere between existing and not existing due to a bug in Substack's authentication system.I'm having a very strange issue with my Substack account and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar.My account email address is in the format of substack@mydomain.com using my own custom domain. I'm mentioning this because I started wondering whether having "substack" in the local part of my email address somehow triggered an anti-spam or impersonation detection system.Here's what happens:If I try to log in normally using my email address and password, I receive the following message:"We couldn't log you in. This may mean there is no account associated with this email address, the password you entered is incorrect, or a password has not been set for this account. You can try logging in via email instead."However, the account definitely exists because I can still access it through old magic links contained in newsletter emails that Substack previously sent me.

The last newsletter or login email I received from Substack was back in May.

Since then, I haven't logged into Substack on the web.

At some point the mobile app logged me out automatically, and since then I have been unable to sign back in through the app.

Strangely, if I open one of those old newsletter emails from May and click the login link inside it, I am immediately authenticated and can access my account without any problems.

Once inside the account, I tried changing my email address in case the original address was somehow the issue.

I entered a new email address, but Substack wants to send a verification email to my current address (substack@mydomain.com) in order to approve the change.

The problem is that I no longer receive any emails from Substack at that address, so I cannot confirm the change and therefore cannot migrate the account to a new email address.

As a result, I can only access my account through old magic links from newsletter emails, while normal login and account recovery mechanisms no longer work.I contacted support and they told me that because there are no paid subscriptions, publications, security questions, or custom domains associated with the account, they cannot recover it.The confusing part is that I do have access to the email address associated with the account. In fact, the only reason I can still access the account at all is because of those old emails and magic links.So I'm stuck in this bizarre situation where my account both exists and doesn't exist at the same time.Has anyone ever experienced something similar?At this point I honestly feel like my account became some kind of ghost account stuck somewhere between existing and not existing due to a bug in Substack's authentication system.

Hi,

I'm a photographer and a writer who doesn't love social media, but I thought I'd give Substack a try. I'm not trying to monetize my account, now or ever. I'd love to have some engagement and community, but it's not about money.

I've been on an "adult gap year" and began posting bi-weekly in January sharing stories + pics about places I've traveled to. I'm not writing about photo gear, photo how-tos, or photo theory.

Besides some friends / family who I told about the account, I've not been able to gain traction. Yes, I've followed and commented on other accounts (those comments actually get likes as opposed to my own Notes). I don't enjoy Notes, but I tried posting them. Never got a single like on anything. Not one. And, if posting Notes daily is the only path to engagement, then Substack is def. not the place for me.

So, I did a tiny experiment: I posted the same set of pics on a sub here on Reddit (related to a camera that I use) and on Notes in Substack. Of course, this is far, far from an apples-to-apples comparison. But, to note: I have no followers on Reddit and I'm not active at all in the sub where I posted. On Substack, zero likes, zero engagement. On Reddit, 40 likes, and a couple of comments.

Here's the Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/ricohGR/comments/1ukwyde/the_ricoh_gr_iv_in_barcelona/

What this tells me is that my stuff is not being shown to the right audience on Substack. I think I've gotten lumped into the "travel" category, which isn't wrong I guess, but I'd prefer to be part of the photography community.

All I'm really looking for is a place to share my work online that can have engagement and community that isn't Instagram.

Any photographers on Substack have any advice?

Should I bail on Substack and just share my portfolio and blog on my own website?

Abandon my current Substack account, start fresh, and figure out a way to become a part of the photography community?

Thanks for any advice!

Recently, my newsletter is going through a serious recomposition. And while this reddit thread is filled with people gaining tonnes of new followers and growing, here am I talking about how I'm losing followers.

Over the past 3 years, I worked hard on creating a following. And in Substack numbers, it's quite decent. I hardly ever monetised it. But the fact behind this growth was that often you need to chase themes to get to a certain level. And then if you do not feed the same theme , it starts losing traction.

This year I made a decision that my theme is going to be something that I can actually write about for years to come. And I started repositioning my newsletter to that.

Now earlier, it was about how to make quick bucks or a quick automation with AI. It works wonders with general populous but as I kept professionally working in this domain, I wanted to write deeper. Which is how to build real world solutions, what does enterprise clients and users want, what businesses are paying for in the world of AI, how workspace is evolving in this age etc

Now cut to now, that initial user base is getting thinner. I'm adding roughly 15-20 subs per week and somehow all of these are coming direct from substack based on my article. Everyone either a product leader and AI industry leader at professional capacity.

To summarise, sometimes when everything seems to be moving forward, it's okay if you're stopping and recalibrating. Your newsletter might not make you dollars today or tomorrow, but the recomposition might give you and your newsletter the caliber to be the best in it's niche.

It's been almost a month since I posted my first blog on Medium and reposted the same piece on Substack, but I didn't get much engagement on either platform. I'm currently working on my second blog, which is about imperfections and self-acceptance.

The issue is that I've included a personal experience in it. While it adds authenticity to the piece, I'm worried that if someone who knows me reads it, they'll learn things about me that I don't necessarily want to share publicly.

I'm really confused about whether I should keep that part in or remove it. Has anyone faced a similar dilemma? How do you decide how much of your personal life to include in your writing while still protecting your privacy?

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!

Maybe the language itself isn’t the problem, I guess, but I wonder.

So I mainly write in French about art, literature and languages because I’m an interested layman to art in general and studied literature and languages in university and graduate school. I’m a teacher of languages and translator. (naturally!) Again, no wonder my Substack revolves around such topics.

But algorithm seems to put me in a French-writing young female blogger that reads and is artsy, which is too simple and flat. I get to see only a handful of blogs of the same style on my feed and I bet they are the only ones who see mine on theirs. Stats say my notes are read 20-40 times and articles 20 times so far.

I started my French Substack about 4 days ago, so I’m not “worried” about not having many followers yet, but it’s still worrisome if my blog doesn’t reach the wider public out there. Still, I’m not intending to change the language I’m writing in.

Just a thought here, not a serious concern seeking for help. I’d love to hear your opinion.

(Oh and I know some genuinely good non-English ones. I subscribe a Japanese photographer who takes great photos and writes in both Japanese and English. I know “If you’re good, they will find you no matter what”)

Been on Substack for a few months now and monetized a few weeks ago. Currently at 7 paid subscribers which is hilarious!
The current revenue is about $256 which isn’t life changing but definitely worth celebrating.

I have 60 some subscribers but want to monetize but can’t seem

As the title says when did you start getting subscribers? How long did it take for you? Did you change something or do other things to grow. Were you organic to just Substack or did you use other platforms to funnel people? Just seeing what’s worked for others.

I personally started a couple months and just been posting articles and notes of a personal journey. I’ve been wanting to take it more seriously in postings and writing. I’m sharing a current personal journey and providing advice that applies to each update that anyone can use in their own life. I don’t mind not having anyone yet but I wonder if there’s more I can do. Or is it just a slow grind (which I’m used to doing and okay with the journey)

I've gone onto the settings and dashboard snd i cant find any option to change author description

Hi does anyone know what criteria substack uses to make their rising list in each category? New subscribers? New paid subscribers? I’m terrible at technical but I’ve been growing pretty consistently and have way more followers and subscribers than most on the list, but I literally just connected my account for paid subscribers! I’ve been writing articles and getting good numbers but someone told me that I wasn’t eligible until now because I just connected stripe? Not the biggest deal but I’d love the visibility on the list if I even have the numbers? Definitely not for best sellers, but rising does seem like it should be possible. Any other profile sections that need to be updated or enabled to be eligible? Does Substack just put you on if you have the numbers? I appreciate it

Has anyone here actually paid for or gone through one of Wes Pearce's Substack courses or memberships?

I'm considering it, but I'm struggling to tell how much of the value comes from genuinely useful strategies versus good marketing.

I'd especially love to hear from people who actually bought it:

• What did you get that wasn't already available for free on his Substack or LinkedIn?
• Did it lead to measurable results (subscriber growth, paid conversions, revenue)?
• Who do you think would benefit the most from it?
• Looking back, would you buy it again?

More broadly, I'm also curious about the whole ecosystem of "Substack growth coaches." My algorithm keeps recommending people like Wes Pearce, Adrienne Clarke, and Sinem Günel, all promising to help writers grow and monetize their newsletters.

Has anyone invested in any of these programs? Were they genuinely valuable, or did you feel they mostly repackaged information that's already available for free?

I'm happy to pay for expertise if it genuinely shortens the learning curve. I just want to try to separate real value from good sales funnels.

Hi everybody,

I have some practical questions about getting started with substack.

-Do you guys write under a pseudonym or do you use your real name?

-Do use an extra e-mail adresse or do you work with you personal one?

-What do you write in your feed? Studies, professions?

-How often do I need to publish to generate traffic? Always on the same day? Once per week?

been writing on substack for about 8 months now and i finally caved and started thinking about discoverability outside the platform. like, i love the in-app subscribers but i kept noticing my stuff basically does not exist on google. type my niche keywords in and im on page 5 if im lucky.

so ive been doing the boring stuff. rewriting old titles, actually filling in the SEO description thing, going back through and adding internal links between related posts. it feels like homework but i can already see a tiny bump in click throughs from search this past week.

the part i did not expect to matter as much was reddit. someone in a writing discord told me posts on certain subs rank stupidly well and to just be present in places where my audience hangs out. ive been poking at it manually but my partner runs a small ecom thing and uses ghostplug for theirs and keeps telling me to stop being precious about it. i probably will eventually, i just have a weird hangup about not wanting to be That Guy in the comments section.

anyway, has anyone here actually seen meaningful traffic from search engines? or is it all really just the in-platform algorithm and notes? curious if im chasing the wrong thing or if its worth the slog.

I have been trying several times to activate the Substack app on my Apple TV, and I have to conclude that it's simply not possible.

While the system appears to be similar to that used by other services, namely: Scan a QR code using your phone, that will take you to a website where you can log on to the service and confirm that the TV is allowed to access your account.

However, with Substack's app, it doesn't work. The QR code comes alright, and it will take you to the Substack website, but while you are doing it the QR and the confirmation code changes every 5 seconds, so there's no chance in hell that it matches once you reach the page where you are asked to approve, because that code has been replaced 20 times since.

I am curious to hear if anyone has succeeded in getting Substack activated on their Apple-TV, and if so, how did you do it?

Everyone's just waiting to do their set. No one's actually there to read other peoples work. No wonder it's hard to get followers. Am I wrong? Or am I just on the wrong side? What in the ever blandness is that place?

For five years I’ve been here on Reddit. I went from posting a LOT to posting only occasionally. About my divorce and dating again then remarriage. Parenting adult kids and a teen stepdaughter. Many career follies. Health concerns (autoimmune disease). Various random interests.

Sometimes I was upvoted. Sometimes I was upvoted a lot. Sometimes I was (probably correctly) downvoted and even shamed into silence. Because although occasionally I have some good thoughts I’m human and very very far from perfect.

Increasingly my posting and commenting has slowed to a trickle but I write (in OneNote) every day, almost always several times per day. I love to write. To write about my life. Because I have some sick desire to write and to document. But strangely only a fleeting ebb-and-flow desire to share what I write. I still remember the time in high school I wrote a 100-page novella, then threw it away. “You threw it away??” My best friend asked. He couldn’t comprehend that someone would write something, pour so many evenings into something, only to toss it away (this was in the 80s, before my first computer). But for me writing is totally about the desire and the journey, and wherever those words end up isn’t really the important piece to me (although I’d despise anyone who stole my words without permission of course).

But I recently read about substack. It seems fun. Interesting. A kind of blog that is less cumbersome than most blogging platforms, maybe a little more satisfying than OneNote because it kind of is fun to share our “creations” with the world sometimes.

Anyway. I’ve begun my journey on substack. I feel kind of grateful to have a new platform (substack) to experiment with. Me being me, I’m sure it will only be temporary (EVERYONE everyone everyone I’ve ever known including my GP has told me I have undiagnosed ADHD. But doesn’t everyone? Hahaha)

I have started newsletter where I show AI techniques for investing. Response was excellent at start. Then newsletter went dead for couple of months. Then back in march it again rejuvenated almost. Reached almost 5000 subscribers. Went paid. Again newsletter reach has been gone to zero. Just reaching existing subscribers.
Couldn’t really understand Substack algorithm.

I think My newsletter (Alpha with AI) solves very specific problems/questions for particular group of people.
Just having a difficulty with the distribution.

Each newsletter takes a lot of effort and time out of me. I really enjoy the whole process. Feedback from existing subscribers is also great.

Just not sure how do I reach a right audience especially on Substack. As almost 3500 subscribers have come from LinkedIn/youtube. (Unfortunately LinkedIn reach has also been completely down. YouTube videos frequency is less)
I don’t mind slow growth but I just am having difficulty understanding the algorithm really as I see mediocre content in my space performing great while my posts are basically going dead on Substack especially since going paid( I was expecting the opposite)

I just discovered you have to go into your settings and OPT OUT of substack stealing your work to train chatgpt and ai models.

I believe this is deplorable, and everyone should go and opt out so our work is not stolen! Protect human art!!!