Substack generates 1 in 3 new subscriptions on the platform

How the Substack network is helping writers grow

Today, more than 30% of all new free subscriptions and around 10% of paid subscriptions to Substacks come from within our network. 

That means a significant portion of new free and paid subscriptions are coming from readers who discovered your writing through the Substack ecosystem. 

Here are some of the tools we’ve built that make it easier for writers to get new subscribers and for readers to discover and fall in love with Substacks they might otherwise not have found:

• Recommendations — writers that make a recommendation are three times more likely to be recommended themselves

• The Substack iOS app — a seamless space for readers to explore the Substack ecosystem

• Writer and reader profiles — discover new Substacks through the reading lists of writers (and readers) you trust

• Expanded leaderboard categories and improved search — simple ways for readers to discover new publications

• Twitter connections — readers who follow you on Twitter can be alerted to your Substack publication

• Post and publication embeds — a powerful cross-promotion tool for growth

It’s also much easier to grow your paid subscriptions on Substack, because so many readers’ email addresses and credit card information are already logged in the system, making subscribing super simple. Readers who are already paying for another Substack publication are 2.5x more likely to in turn pay for yours.

If you’d like to see your publication benefit from Substack’s network effects, we encourage turning on recommendations for your publication. Writers who make a recommendation are three times more likely to be recommended themselves

Why is this a big deal? 

Our promise to writers has always been that we’ll do everything except the hard part—the writing itself. That means we reduce the need for writers to spend precious time thinking about the technology, administration, customer support, and maintenance of their publishing operation, so they can spend more time on the creative work. This suite of services alone is worth a lot, but we’ve always believed we can do so much more, especially when it comes to helping writers grow their readerships and revenue.  

That’s not just a commitment to writers but also an imperative for our business. With the Substack model, incentives are properly aligned: we only make money when writers do, and because our fee is a percentage instead of a fixed amount, we only grow when writers grow. 

Since Substack’s earliest days, we’ve believed that our 10% fee more than pays for itself. We saw plenty of anecdotal evidence that between Substack’s product, support structure, and network effects, we can help writers and podcasters do their best work and grow their audience faster than they could anywhere else. Now, we have concrete numbers to back it up.

We are excited to have already unlocked so many new avenues to help publishers on Substack grow their audiences, but it’s still early—we continue to build, and we’re even more excited for what’s to come. 

Have you seen new subscriptions coming from within the Substack network? Please tell us about it in the comments.

If you would like to see where your publication’s subscriptions are coming from, visit your Stats dashboard and click on the Network view.