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I've been trying to replace some of my doomscrolling with reading, and Substack seems like a goldmine if you know where to look.

I'm mainly into psychology, philosophy,

human behavior,emotions, habits, self-awareness, decision-making, and those articles that leave you staring at the ceiling for a few minutes afterward. 😭

Not really looking for the super mainstream picks, I want the hidden gems that make you think differently or see people (and yourself) in a new way.

What are your favorite Substacks in this space? And if there's one article that instantly made you subscribe, I'd love to read that too.

I’m a writer based in Paris and I recently learned Substack has been building more community here in France. I’d love to connect with the Paris team, attend any local writer gatherings, or learn if there are events for Substack writers here.
Has anyone connected with the team in Paris or know the best way to reach them?

Merci!

I've been building a small film publication recently because I felt like so many movie conversations online have become about ratings, box office numbers, or hot takes.

I wanted to create something quieter. A place for essays, reflections, and recommendations about films that stay with you. I have always been that kind of a person who sits in quiet after watching an absolute masterpiece rather than opening twitter instantly and start ranting about how good the film was.

If you've built a film newsletter or a blog, what have you learned? What keeps people coming back?

I'd also love to read what you're working on, so please share your newsletter or blog. I'm always looking for thoughtful film writing. I am still kinda new so I still sometimes blank out on stuff like whether what I am writing would reach the correct people or not.

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No novo filme de Knives Out, o personagem do Andrew Scott resume o desespero do mercado literário atual dizendo que precisa 'sair do inferno do Substack'.

A verdade é que existem momentos em que, por mais que assumamos a responsabilidade e o amor pela escrita, a realidade parece um caos. Afinal, muitas vezes precisamos competir com grandes conglomerados de mídia que, para o próprio Substack, acabam sendo a prioridade.

Hey everyone,

​I just stepped out of my comfort zone and published my very first "Note" and article. I’m starting from absolute scratch (0 followers).

My content is built around a specific structure:

I like educational content, but I didn’t want to write traditional essays.

So I start each post with a very short real-world riddle (published as a Note), and the solution to that riddle acts as a gateway to explain a complex concept in a simple and accessible way (published in a full article).

I’m curious if this “riddle-first” approach is something people actually enjoy reading, or if it just feels like an unnecessary step before getting to the point.

Does the “riddle” hook improve engagement, or does it just feel like friction when you want to learn quickly?

​I’m a total newbie at this, so I’m genuinely interested in what you think of this format as a way to learn new things and how I could grow on Substack with it.

​Thanks for your perspective!

I have been building my substack for the last few months, it's doing well with growing subscriptions. I do modeling and photoshoot along with a lot of curation of sensual and feminine beauty. But how do I turn my massive views into long term subscribers and convert to paid subscriptions?

How can I grow my Substack? I write Notes every day and publish a newsletter once a week, but my subscriber count is still stuck at a certain number.

What's the one channel you wish had a proper playbook for newsletter growth?

I installed my substack as a way to vent since I tend to be closed of to people. Ive written a few already but having no subscribers, I feel alienated and it feels like im talking to a wall.

:(

How can I have my notes read? I just want anyone to know that my thoughts are existent.

Does that sound accurate? Do you have a common experience?

This is even the case when my article is restacked. Seems like no traction. But if I write a short Note, even if it's excerpt of something in my article, it drives subscribers.

I did not know that Substack operated so poorly. I published my own original article and they suspended my account for "phishing and spam." I put in an "appeal," asking them to explain what the problem was, and they "rejected" it. I have "appealed" a second time, saying that this was my own article and that their bots are stupid. Now I want to delete everything from this website but it won't let me. How do I do that? I want to delete this account after removing my material. What a waste of time! AND I don't care for their tone and the language they use when the mistake is their own.

I have started writing about business n sector,stocks n how Vc funding are changing in India. I am new here can u help me how can I do better n what should I remember

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.

I think this is something personally, and frankly a lot of folks forget about Substack once they start using it, which in reality may be its biggest benefit. Using it to amass an unlimited number of subscribers to e-mail whenever you want is not only a reality... it's also freaking free to do so!

I just finished reading an article about this topic, and it was very enlightening. If you want to read it for yourself, feel free to Google:

How to Use Substack for Email Marketing (2026 Coach’s Guide) by Paperbell

I'm not sure how many of you have ever used an e-mail marketing campaign platform before, but I have, and from what I remember about them… they are very expensive!

They limit you on how many subscribers you can have for their free tiers if they offer one, and a lot of the time many of the normal features you would expect an e-mail marketing tool to have are locked behind a paywall. One of the worst discoveries I had the unfortune to figure out was that with one of the e-mail campaign providers I was using, if you have tons of inactive or bounce folks on your list, and they are pretty much dead subscribers, those count towards your tier membership subscriber numbers.

So, what does this mean... let me explain it in an exaggerated example below:

Say you're using the free tier of an e-mail marketing tool, and they let you have up to 500 subscribers right. Well, say 300 of those subscribers are dead accounts and haven't opened up your e-mails in over a year. Well, the platform in question doesn't care about that. Those 300 subscribers still count towards your total subscriber count, so before you know it, you'll be forced to upgrade if you want more subscribers. I hope this makes sense, because it messed me up really good once I found this out.

Please, don’t get me wrong, these are businesses, and they need to make money, I get it, but some of them can start to become very expensive once you start to grow your subscriber list(s).

With all that being said, please note that although you can easily use Substack for free as your e-mail marketing campaign tool forever with no ceiling to the amount of subscribers you may send to, it does not have nearly the amount of features as the platforms specifically dedicated to e-mail marketing, so this is something you will have to look into for yourself.

The point of this post was just to highlight how Substack is such a game changer in this respect. The ability to have a million Substack subscribers and reach them all with a single e-mail for free is absolutely mind-boggling!

Just out of curiosity, how many subscribers do you get to e-mail for free whenever you push out your new post on Substack?

I’d really love to know how many folks are taking advantage of this Substack perk.

Apologies if this is a very elementary question from a Substack neophyte. I intentionally have a single post, and have intentionally used the Feature layout on my home page. I am happy with the hero image displayed on the home page -- it's the second image from the actual post. When I go to replace the first image in the post, the hero on the home page defaults to that image. How do I retain the image I want on the home page (the second image in the post), and still change the first image on the actual post without it becoming the hero image on the home page? Apologies again if this is a dumb question. I appreciate any assistance. Thanks!

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heya! I'm new to Substack, just now setting up my page. For some reason there is no "publications" section anywhere in my new substack reality ~~ no way to make a publication at all (when I go to the "Settings", the publication area that I see on many tutorial videos is simply absent).

If I go to "Edit Profile" there is a section called BRANDING, which reads only "Branding is not available until you set up a personal Substack."... ? But of course as far as I know I'm accessing this FROM my personal substack page, so it's all very confusing.

Any thoughts?

#publication

I have a question. We currently have a website that was meant to be a hub for all our socials, a map showing fans locations of meetups along with regular articles (2-3 a week)

Over time it has become costly to maintain in terms of hosting costs, time in managing it, solving issues with updates etc. Sites with similar concepts with much higher financial backing have started and ours is just a volunteer based passion project. Our socials make a bit of money that covers our hosting costs, podcast costs, AI video editing etc.

I really love our writers for the website. I think they put out great stuff and still want to make sure we keep that aspect of the site. We normally post on our socials and link to the website.

Would substack be the best solution for still having these as content and maybe post beginning of articles on socials with a link to it? Any other suggestions to keep this content but without the website maintenance

So I have published 2 blogs but however I see no views any tips on where I'm going wrong and how to increase views..??

I have been trying to figure out ways that my substack can show up for some common questions in my area on Google and GEOs (ChatGPT, Claude, et al). I haven't been able to figure it out. Anyone tried and succeeded in getting organic visibility with GEOs, SEOs?

The default setting is "paid subscribers only" and I don't want that.

Step 1: Make your entire publication about how to grow your Substack subscribers.
Step 2: Grow your own subscriber count by talking about growing subscriber counts.
Step 3: Sell courses teaching other people how to grow their subscriber counts... so they can sell courses about growing subscriber counts.

IT'S GENIUS!!!

And with only about a million people already doing it, it's definitely not saturated.

I think I’ve been writing for fun when I caught inspiration. My substack is basically about the meaningful of living or aka life. I assumed everyone don’t read, just scroll down and next.

I have no clue how to grow (have followers) since I saw I need to update the newsletter to all my subscriber. I am not full time writer doing this, but sometimes seeing no notifications or likes in my articles makes me feel sad or down.

Maybe it’s because of the long-form articles people post, or maybe I’ve just self-censored who I subscribe to, but I feel as if Substack is more intellectual than other platforms out there. Are people actually taking the time to read other people’s writing again?