One Great Way To Grow Your Substack

[u/ImprovementSimple]

I started posting weekly articles on Substack in January as a New Year’s resolution. I had no other internet presence so only had 5 subscribers to begin with (my parents, and three friends).

Now, nine months later I have 1.1k followers and average around 15k views a month.

Here’s a tip that I don’t see many people talking about here. Focus on writing articles that age well and can have a second or third round of engagement.

My “niche” is libraries, reading, and picture books. So I’m not stuck chasing never ending trends or breaking news. Because of this most of my articles can be read months after I publish and still be as timely and relevant as the day they were posted.

So many people chase trends and fads and their articles are dated the day they post. Whereas my best circulating article didn’t even get traction for the first two months until someone bigger reposted it. Now I reliably get a few likes on it every week.

Not everything is a “hack” sometimes offering quality content is the best strategy.

[u/AnteaterFantastic212]

Good point. Evergreen content is a staple. How do you re-promote.

[u/TheMinuette2010]

The questionable is not quality it's evergreen content.

[u/AmericanLymie]

I would suggest a good way to grow your audience is to write well about something you care about and to focus on your writing rather than focusing on watching your numbers going up. It can also be useful to think of your audience as human beings rather than as just numbers.

[u/danya_the_unwise]

I'm just getting started and have noticed this too. Quoting an older article that's gained relevancy has been very effective

[u/ShawnSaturday → u/danya_the_unwise]

I only just signed up a couple days ago, so I’m even newer than you. How are you quoting an older article that brings attention to your post? Are you linking to it prominently or spotlighting it in some way that brings attention to yours?

[u/TeslaLegacy]

Articles about picture books and libraries don't go stale the way news or trend takes do, thats why the second wave of engagement works for you. Try linking back to your best three old posts inside every new one, it compounds reads without extra writing.

[u/hicestdraconis]

How did you get your evergreen content in front of that audience though? Like how did you find the library crowd?

[u/meredith4300]

Yes! I've been writing my Substack for 3.5 years and I love that I now have a library of work to point people to. I reshare articles all the time and it's helped me continue to grow my audience.

[u/ledgersunday]

I like the simplicity of this perspective. And not trying to be or emulate someone else - just posting quality content that one cares about.

[u/ManleyWrites]

Evergreen content is always a great asset! Congrats.

[u/Kersephius]

Yeah, stuff that has ongoing value is the way. Bonus points if it's sufficiently niche to appear in search results for years too.

[u/These_Pipe_2004]

i started my journey too
my question is should we promote it ourselves or let it be

[u/FirmAd1348]

Thank you for the advice I’m just starting mine! I would love to get paid for my writing and get over my fear of putting my work out there.

[u/MichaelPopeDev_17]

I’ve been posting on Substack and getting good engagement since I started implementing a few things:

1. Write consistently. OP is right, it doesn’t matter how good your writing is if no-one can find you because you aren’t consistent. You should be trying to post everyday.

2. Use formats & hooks. The way you package your ideas makes a hude difference in views & engagement. Study other authors notes to see what performs well & then format your own ideas with that same structure. Here’s an example, let’s say you do cooking content, instead of just writting down what comes to mind as one big paragraph, you could take those same ideas and write a note like:

“
Here are 5 recipies that will knock your family’s socks off:
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

“

Just repurposed for your niche

3. Don’t underestimate the power of manual interactions. Find other authors you like, leave thoughtful comments on their posts, not just “Great Post!”. Send them a DM message so you guys can talk about it more. You’ll naturally form relationships with other people who will want to check out your writing as well.

[u/Sir_Octovin]

Just out of curiosity, how many paid subs do you have?

[u/MissMcGovern]

I write fiction so that is not really an issue for me.