Rating popular Substack strategies

Let’s be real. Most advice about growing on Substack feels either too vague to be useful or too hacky to feel good. That’s why we decided to do something different.

We’re not outside observers. We live in this ecosystem. We talk to creators every day, see what’s working in real time, and watch what quietly fizzles out once the hype dies. So instead of theorizing, we sat down and gave each strategy a gut-level, real-world rating, based on what we’ve actually seen succeed (and what’s quietly destroying people behind the scenes).

This is not a list of silver bullets. It’s an honest look at what’s getting traction right now, what’s sustainable long term, and what’s just noise. Every tactic we rate below came up in our conversation, and got scored on a 10-point scale.

Easy is without difficulty, easeful is without friction. So, what can you do without friction?

1. The "X More Subscribers Until Y" Notes Strategy

Example: “Only 17 more until I hit 1,000!”

Russell: “It works. It’s dumb, but it works.”Erin: “I’m on the fence, but I’m going with six. It does work.”

This is the ‘milestone begging’ strategy. It leverages urgency and social proof—just enough to make people think, "Oh sure, I’ll help you hit that number.”

We’ve seen it pop. But it’s got no longevity. It doesn’t build trust or excitement. It’s a party trick.

* Our Take: While this strategy can offer a quick "jolt" of new subscribers and create a sense of excitement , we've found it's generally not effective for long-term engagement. It can feel a bit "dumb" if overused, and historically, this type of plea hasn't sustained growth across platforms.

Our Rating: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ (6/10)

Summary: A shallow bump. It’s a sugar high, not a growth plan.

2. Posting 3-10 Times a Day on Notes

AKA “The Blitzkrieg of Content” strategy

Russell: “Maybe a 10/10 at the beginning… but it’s probably a 6/10 for the long haul.”Erin: “If it burns you out and makes you miserable, it’s just not worth it… I might go six.”

This is the most chaotic-good strategy on this list. It works, especially if you’re in launch mode, if your energy is high, or if you’re trying to build early momentum. It creates visibility. It feeds the algorithm. Sometimes one Note pops, and the rest don’t.

But the toll? Brutal. This is where burnout grows legs.

* Our Take: The effectiveness here heavily depends on your energy and the context. If it burns you out and makes you miserable, it's simply not worth it, as there are better alternatives. While it can lead to new followers and potential subscribers, overexposure can lead to your audience gets saturated and turns away. It can be a 10/10 at the beginning to ride an initial wave, especially when leading up to a specific launch or program, but it's unsustainable as a 24/7 strategy.

Our Rating: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ (6/10)

Summary: Use in sprints, like leading up to a launch. Not your forever strategy.

3. Niching Down

Narrowing your content focus to a very specific topic or audience

Russell: "I'm going to rate it a nine of 10."Erin: "Yes, totally. Agree."

Niching down isn’t just smart, it’s survival. Especially early on, it tells the world what bucket to put you in. It makes it easy for others to recommend you: “Oh, you should read them, they’re the X person.” More importantly, it makes you legible inside the creator ecosystem. Other writers know what you do and what you don’t. That creates space for collaboration instead of competition.

Can you niche back up later? Sure. But until your voice becomes the brand, specificity is your best friend.

* Our Take: Niching down is a powerful growth strategy, provided you understand its core purpose: to help people easily categorize and recommend you ("you're the X person"). More importantly, it helps the broader ecosystem, including other creators and collaborators, know exactly where to "slot you in". This allows you to offer additive value without overlapping with existing content in the ecosystem. While it's crucial at the start, you might eventually "niche back up" as your platform grows.

* An Exception: An exception exists for exceptionally strong writers with a highly recognizable voice, where their personality becomes the niche, rather than a specific topic. Honorable mentions to Alex Dobrenko`, Badreads, and Ash Ambirge.

Our Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ (9/10)

Summary: If you have big growth goals and you’re not niching down, you’re making it harder for people to share you.

4. Creating Pop-Up Publications for Specific Projects

Temporary Substacks tied to launches, summits, or special events

Erin: "At least a nine out of 10. I think it's so effective."Russell: "Yeah, 10 out of 10. I think it's killer."

This strategy hits hard. Think: a Substack just for a summit, an anthology, or a collaborative project. We’ve both seen this explode reach. Why? Because it creates a focused, time-bound container that people can get excited about without having to commit long-term.

Even better: it lets you explore topics that don’t fit neatly into your main publication, without diluting your brand. And pop-ups often become a gateway—people show up for the event and stick around for your other work.

* Our Take: We're huge fans of this strategy. We've seen it work incredibly effectively for projects like the "Sparkles on Substack Summit" and the "10K Secrets" anthology. It's a killer strategy because it allows you to hyper-focus on a specific project, even if it's not meant to last forever, leading to exponential growth. It integrates well with niching down by allowing you to pursue topics outside your main publication. These pop-ups also serve as excellent entry points for new readers who might be intimidated by a broad publication with years of content.

* Hot Tip: Funnel the people you attract with these pop-up publications toward your ongoing newsletter, or the next pop-up you have on deck!

Our Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ (10/10)

Summary: High-leverage, low-risk, wildly effective. Do this.

5. Focusing on Free Subscribers First, Then Paid

Build the free list before you pitch anything

Russell: "That is an enormous, like, successful win. 7 out of 10."Erin: "It just makes it so much easier when you go to launch anything paid."

This one’s all about playing the long game. The bigger your free list, the warmer your paid leads. Simple as that. We’ve seen creators like Tom Orbach grow huge free lists (think 40k+), then flip on monetization and rake in five figures in a week.

But the trick is you need a real offer. You can’t just hope people throw you money because they like your vibes. The free-to-paid pathway only works if it’s paired with intention, timing, and clarity.

* Our Take: This is a nuanced strategy, but it can be highly successful. We've seen examples like Tom Orbach building a 40,000-person free mailing list before launching a paid product and generating significant revenue in a short time. The key lies in having a clear launch plan and a specific paid offer. Continually generating free subscribers fills a "bucket" of potential paid leads, making conversion much easier. While typical conversion rates are 1-3%, a much higher rate might indicate you're not expanding your reach enough. Ultimately, having a paid offer, even if small, allows for crucial experimentation and avoids the pressure of needing a massive launch later.

Our Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ (7/10)

Summary: Grow the free list first, but only if you’ve got a paid plan to follow it up.

6. The "Recommend for Recommend" (Reciprocal Recommendations) Strategy

Reciprocal recommendations without authentic alignment

Erin: "I think that's like a two out of 10."Russell: "Agree. It’s not a real community."

This one lives at the intersection of cringe and collapse. It sounds good in theory—“I’ll recommend you if you recommend me”—but in reality, it builds nothing. It’s the equivalent of those “follow for follow” trains that ruined Instagram.

If you genuinely love someone’s work? Recommend them. But don’t turn it into a transaction. That erodes trust, both with your audience and your peers.

* Our Take: This strategy involves agreeing to recommend other publications in exchange for them recommending yours. We disapprove of this approach. It’s disingenuous unless you genuinely appreciate the other person's content, comparing it to unhelpful "everyone recommend each other" dynamics found in some social media groups. Authentic recommendations don't require a quid pro quo.

* An Exception: If you have had previous positive interactions with the person you want a recommendation from, and if you both are just starting out or have near-equal subscriber counts, you may be able to get away with this strategy. The trick is to already be recommending their newsletter before reaching out for reciprocation. Bonus points if you keep it super low-pressure and send them a specific article of yours they might be particularly interested in.

Our Rating: ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ (2/10)

Summary: If you have to ask for it, it probably doesn’t belong in your sidebar.

7. Collaborative Articles / Guest Posting / Guest Swaps

Writing for other publications or hosting writers on yours

Russell: "Somebody, someone letting you post on their publication is like about the biggest form of trust and validation that you can get... 11 out of 10. I think people should be doing this at least once a month... you are missing the best growth engine."Erin: “I’m with you, 11/10 for me. Collaborations for the win.”

This is the most underrated power move in the ecosystem. When someone lets you publish on their Substack, that’s not just exposure—it’s endorsement. It’s trust transfer. You’re being introduced to a warm audience by someone they already believe in.

Guest swaps are the real magic. You both write for each other, you both win, and it cuts your weekly writing load in half. Especially powerful between creators at the same stage of growth.

* Our Take: This strategy involves contributing content to other publications ("writing for other people") or hosting others on your own. Collaborations are truly the biggest form of trust and validation. Aim for doing a collaboration at least once a month, as it connects you with new audiences and fosters relationships with other creators who can then recommend you. While growth primarily comes from your content appearing on other publications, guest swaps (where you both write for each other) are highly recommended, especially for creators at similar levels, as they provide mutual benefits and reduce weekly writing load.

Our Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★★ (11/10)

Summary: This isn’t a growth hack. It’s the growth engine.

8. Sending Marketing Emails to Free Subscribers (While Avoiding Friction)

Converting free readers into paid subscribers via email

Erin: “I’ve seen these work really well. To do a really good marketing email, a few things have to be in place. 1) Have a reason: only email when there’s something new and cool happening that you want to tell them about. 2) Use cohorts: only send emails to new free subscribers who’ve signed up in the last 2-12 weeks (depending on when you sent your last marketing email). 3) Space them out: send these emails monthly to quarterly.”

This one wasn’t rated explicitly, but it came through loud and clear: marketing emails to free subscribers, when timed right and when trust has been built, lead to conversions!

Quarterly marketing emails to a cohort of newer free subscribers can be particularly effective in converting “warm leads,” which are folks who are the most likely to upgrade to paid.

Summary: Email doesn’t build your list—but it absolutely builds your business.

* Our Take: This strategy focuses on using email marketing to convert free subscribers to paid ones, specifically by making the process seamless and low-friction. The key is to offer clear, direct calls to action within the content itself, rather than relying on external links or complex payment processes. It's about optimizing the user journey from free content consumption to paid subscription. While not explicitly rated in the provided text, the emphasis on directness and avoiding friction suggests a high value placed on effective conversion pathways within the email environment.

* Hot Tip: There’s a sweet spot for leads that are new to your newsletter but not so new that they are too unfamiliar with your work to convert. When cohorting, think of two-to-eight-week-old leads as your sweet spot, depending on how frequently you publish and email.

Our Rating: 0/10 for overall list growth, 10/10 for paid growth

Summary: Email doesn’t build your list—but it absolutely builds your business.

The Meta-Strategy: Ease and Experimentation

Underneath every tactic we’ve rated is a deeper truth: the best growth strategy is the one you’ll actually do.

Choose What Feels Easeful

Russell: “The stuff that feels good is the stuff you’ll keep doing.”

It doesn’t matter how ‘effective’ a tactic is on paper if it makes you feel gross, drained, or creatively dead. You could copy someone’s exact strategy and still get wildly different results—because your energy matters. The sustainable wins come from strategies that align with how you like to show up. That’s where consistency lives. That’s where real growth starts.

Adopt a Testing Mindset

Erin: “Everything is a test.”

When you treat your strategy like an experiment, the stakes drop—and your clarity goes up. You stop judging every Note or post by whether it ‘worked,’ and start asking better questions: What did this tell me? What do I want to try next? That curiosity is the engine of long-term growth. Not perfection. Not hustle. Just iteration.

Growth Has a Shelf Life (And Sometimes a Cliff)

Russell: “People talk about Notes as if it's a permanent growth engine. It's not. It's got a curve.”

There’s a clear arc to visibility-based growth: it spikes, plateaus, and sometimes falls off a cliff. We both pointed out that what works today might not work next month. That means smart creators don’t just pick strategies, they plan for when those strategies stop working.

This mindset helps people avoid panic when their follower rate slows down or when their Notes engagement tanks. It’s not failure. It’s a normal phase shift in the cycle.

Depth × Duration = Growth

Erin: “Do a somatic check. See if it actually feels good in your body to send that marketing email, to engage in that collaboration. Ask yourself if you can really sustain this effort. That’s the only way you’ll see if it’s really going to work.”

TL;DR If it feels good, you’ll keep doing it. If you keep doing it, it’ll grow.

Sustainable growth doesn’t come from intensity. It comes from repetition and relationship-building over time. You don’t need to go viral. You need to go consistent.

That means you can “fail” publicly a dozen times and still win, as long as you’re learning and showing up. It reframes the goal—not to make every strategy work, but to stay in the game long enough for the right ones to work.

Key takeaway: Depth is slow. But it compounds if you let it.

Don’t Use Leaderboards as Strategy

Russell: “It just breaks the leaderboard. It doesn’t help you grow.”

This one was specific to Notes, but it’s worth calling out as a principle: don’t chase metrics at the expense of trust. Leaderboard strategies (like flooding Notes or asking friends to like your posts) might create visibility, but they rarely create real fans and often hurt the ecosystem.

If your growth depends on tricking a system rather than building a connection, it won’t last.

Key takeaway: Growth that breaks the system breaks your future.

Our Biggest Piece of Advice? Stay in the Room

At the end of the day, none of this is about chasing magic numbers or cracking some mythical code. Growth on Substack is messy, human, and nonlinear. The tactics help, but only when they’re rooted in your energy, your values, and your willingness to play the long game.

The real strategy is staying in the room long enough to be seen.

Top takeaways:

* Test everything.

* Pay attention to what feels good.

* Build trust instead of chasing clout.

* Give it time.

* Let yourself be seen.

What do you think?

* What’s your current go-to growth strategy on Substack—and how’s it actually working for you?

* Which of these tactics have you tried, and what would you rate them out of 10?

* What’s one strategy that totally bombed for you—but everyone swore would work?

Let us know in the comments.

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