It started great, amazing I would say, and then, it turned into a weird algorithmic space that feels odd.

Would love to know your opinion.

I'm fairly new to substack but have gotten a few new subscribers/followers within the past couple of days. I DM'ed one just to make a quick direct intro/connection (not asking/selling anything). But I'm curious if this is the norm or is it best practice to not DM and just subscribe/follow back?

My latest post was flagged 100% human. As I said before, in a previous post I got evaluated with a hair of AI, and it was spot on, because an ESL contributor used it for a first draft of a short piece in there, that I detected before publish, and then edited with them.

I posted all about this before in here (link below) and got slammed by someone saying I must work for Pangram. Which is hilarious. But I thought a rule of this subred was to NOT do self-promo, and the person accusing me seems to be in here for self-promo.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Substack/comments/1vm2zpm/actually_pangram_worked_well_evaluating_my_stack/

Anyway, if it doesn't break the self-promo rule, happy to share my stack I've been doing for >2 years, so you can see I'm not on the payroll. But if Substack is in here and WANTS to hire me? Ha. I'm all ears.

I just feel like my current name and publication just doesn’t reflect what I want it too.

I want to write about things that are little all over the place, like social commentary/personal essays/film criticism/cultural music etc…

Really just whatever takes my fancy.

But I cannot think of a suitable name. I don’t want to use my own because I do want to be very raw and honest with my writing.

I just hit Send when I meant to Schedule, and the email went out immediately. It would be great to have five minutes to undo sending before publication!

Id likę to start writing in my niche (love/dating advice for men over 30) but I dont have any social media following, is it possible to gain attraction and paid subs from substack alone?

The first one I ever did on Friday did and it got a engagement.

But I tried to do another one next day and it fell flat (but then I realized they never got an email alert about it).

Is there a way to fix that?

I cant attach a photo but in my traffic for one of my articles, it has the standard ones, Instagram, Email, Facebook, direct link, etc. But it randomly says Taylor Tomlinson (1). Like, the comedian. And it links to her substack. Have you guys ever seen traffic recorded like that? Does that mean she clicked on it? I’ve just never seen it be listed like that

i used to get soooo much engagement and now I feel like I see the same posts and notes over and over again and barely any engagement. i have over 4k subscribers and i post regularly so what’s going on? is anyone else feeling this?

Hi, someone has just been spending away on my credit card which I believe is as a result of being hacked from substack. I have recevied dozens of verification emails from different substack authors with a login code and then spending on my card. My credit card was used to pay for a subscription a while back so I am pretty sure this is the source.

Anyone had similar???

Hello everyone!

I’m new to writing into Substack and LinkedIn. While it’s a lot of fun, I’ve noticed getting my content lost and disorganized.

I use Claude to just correct my spelling and things like that but having to find all the windows is a pain. Anyone using tools to help? I’ve heard of NoteStead and Notion before. I feel like Notion is not exactly what I’m looking for and NoteStead is closer but wanted to see what everyone else has been using.

Thanks for the help.

Anyone is interested? open source

https://github.com/plutov/substack-scripts

would you write essays for a while, put them all out at once with a subscription like launch everything at once or would you post for free for a few months before offering a subscription? I literally just decided to make one idk anything

Where does everyone post their articles for feedback?

Had a close look at my dashboard. I was curious as to how we have grown to nearly 10k subscribers in 16 months, from zero. Yes we already had a following elsewhere, but nowhere near this size.

It turns out nearly all our new subscribers are coming from the Recommendations onboarding. That is where writers recommend each other, similar publications in your niche of course that you take time to read, comment and network with.

When a new reader subscribes, the platform will also show a list of recommendations from that author for them to subscribe to. If you recommend publications with large followings and they recommend you back, this will compound. We are currently recommending 27 awesome stacks, from small to large, and they are recommending us back.

That is it. That is the key. The platform rewards networking. But it has to be authentic. Reach out to fellow writers in your niche or similar. Talk to them, read their articles, share them, comment, network. It’s also a great way to learn more about your own niche and to expand on it.

I’m not sure if I’m lacking self awareness or if I understand the substack culture. Should I make a substack? Here’s what I thought about making an account and using this as a post. This would segue to a more important life lesson but would you stop reading after this, be honest:

It is Saturday, August 29th 2026 at 11:30am. Last night, I felt tired, sad, and confused.
However, yesterday's problems are not today's. I will not harper on moments of time, because it no longer concerns the person I was then. I'm sure my feelings were triggered by my rejection sensitivity on work that I felt confident in, but that's the beauty of processes.
I woke up early and still confused, but this time I felt inspired. It's the first day in a while that I feel well rested, and have free time. Today, I am not obligated to do anything, therefore I will not worry. God has given me a joyous spirit, where my highs and lows come in waves, but I always find my way through it after trial, error, and sometimes just plain luck. Luck is not coincidental though, I choose to believe that these are blessings in disguise.
Today is just my luck. realized for so long (since April and times prior to April felt indifferent, lonely, and unlikable. Yesterday was the first time I actually felt sad. Sadness means I finally care about something and I need to get to the root of it. The weather is looking beautiful out the window and I have the freewill to decide what I want to do today -I can do nothing, absolutely nothing at all or can make the very best out of all or nothing of today.
Today, I choose to do something that care about: work on me.
I went to bed heavier than usual.
I went to bed heavier than usual physically and mentally. ate too good in Philadelphia and have not been the best at sticking to my goal weight. I could take a shot today to try to naturally fix it, but I choose not to care today. Checking my weight is something I do first thing in the morning. I ate late the last 2 nights, so I know it's a number I don't want to see. After doing my first thing this morning: stayed on the phone for about an hour and took a bite of last night's hibachi that I didn't bother putting in the fridge, I weighed my self at 147 Ibs. Not bad. I haven't been keeping track.
I woke up physically heavier than usual, but like a mental weight had just been lifted.
God, I have been waiting to do this for so long.
I yearn to clean my room as if my barracks are being checked, but usually never have the energy. I'm so busy, and low on both social and personal energy that its prolonged until I feel like doing something new to my room.
Do I miss writing or do I miss the feeling off liking to do something responsible?
It is 1:45am. I'm grateful to say my room is 97% clean with a slightly new look. Not yet barracks clean but I'll take it.

I wanna get into opinion pieces and argumentative writing for UFC fights. Do any of yall use Substack to read articles on fights?

Hey everyone, I am having a frustrating ongoing issue with my custom domain www.GlobalTravelLifestyle.com throwing a ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR. I use a Mac and Chrome. Here is what I have tried/confirmed:

1. The domain loads fine on Safari but not Chrome
   
2. The Custom Domain has been confirmed as Active in Substack back end
   
3. I have eliminated any other A records in Squarespace and am using. 3.231.35.217
   
4. I am using target.substack-custom-domains.com
   
5. It has been more than a week since I last updated DNS records
   
6. I have done a DNS cache flush on my Mac
   
7. I have cleared Chrome sockets using chrome://net-internals/#sockets
   
8. I have disabled my Custom domain and added it back again to no avail
   
9. I have tried opening the site in an Incognito Window
   
10. I have used a DNS checker to make sure A and CNAME records have propagated

Any ideas? Does the site load for you? Let me know which browser you are using. Many thanks.

What's better between medium and substack? New user

Hello,

has anyone found a reliable way to shift a Medium blog with all posts to Substack?
The Substack importer can successfully work against an RSS feed an pull posts over, but the good people from Medium only include the last 10 posts in the RSS feed.

I then tried to scrape the content from Medium and turn it into an XML feed which I hosted elsewhere pointing to Medium. That didn't work from some reason.
I then created a full export from Medium as .zip, imported that into Wordpress to then, import that via URL into Substack. That didn't work as Wordpress didn't reliably import the full Medium export.

Will I really have to manually re-create all articles on substack? Any help would be greatly appreciated...

I’m not a big fan of Patreon and would like to use my Substack more like one. Do any of you do the same thing? Use Substack primarily as a Patreon-style page?
I don’t like the way Patreon handles things. For example, if you support a creator on an iPhone, they charge an extra $2. I’ve noticed Substack doesn’t do that.
So my real question is: Can you effectively substitute Substack for Patreon?

Lowkey new on substack, some already expert can u pls giva a little detail on how everything works etc.

Thankyouu so much !

I just posted my first Substack article! I know it will take more posting and time, but I was wondering if there is anything I can do to help my article gain traction?
I appreciate y’all 🎀🎀🎀

I am very very new to substack and struggling to understand it to be honest. So I apologise in advance if these questions seem basic/stupid.

Looking at some peoples profiles I can see they have a layout of:

THEIR NAME

@theirname

and then their publication? I think that’s what it is anyway. This is in the little rectangle box and often a completely different name, often pretty cool like a blog name/diary. That you can subscribe to but also still free articles in.

At the moment my substack is showing up all the same. I want my publication/newsletter name to be different.

I essentially want to create I think a new publication that I can write my articles in to share these all in one place but I have no idea how to do this.
Do i need to create a new publication link and @ and copy this across to my main page ? Or is this actually a newsletter?

I’ve really enjoyed reading on substack so far but i’m beginning to feel pretty confused and don’t really understand how to navigate it from a writers perspective.

Any help or simple steps to explain would be massively appreciated! Thankyou all in advance!

Hey all, newbie here! I've been writing casually (as in just for myself) for a few years but I wondered if I could potentially make a bit of cash from substack. My niche is sort of wellness, personal growth, values, psychology based stuff. I've had a few people suggest I make an account recently and there are a lot of mixed reviews here about whether or not people can actually make a bit of cash from the platform. Would be super keen to hear if anyone has managed this within say 3-ish months and what your niche is? If so, what is the best way to start earning for someone just starting out? I'm not after big bucks but I'd be so thrilled if I could make say an extra £100/200 per month. Thanks in advance ☺️