Substack lets you start a publication in minutes, with no technical skills required. You sign up with an email address, pick a name for your publication, and you can publish your first post the same day. But getting the most out of the platform means understanding the full range of tools available, from newsletters and podcasts to video, community features, and built-in audience growth mechanics.
Setting Up Your Publication
Go to substack.com and click the button to start writing. You’ll create an account with your email, then choose a name and URL for your publication (yourname.substack.com). From there, Substack walks you through the basics: uploading a logo, writing a one-line description, and choosing a color scheme.
Before you publish anything, spend a few minutes on two things that will shape how readers perceive you. First, clarify your value proposition. This is the short description that appears on your homepage and in recommendation feeds. It should tell a potential subscriber exactly what they’ll get and why it’s worth reading. “Weekly essays on urban planning” is more compelling than “thoughts on stuff I care about.”
Second, create at least one static page. Substack lets you build custom pages like an About page or a FAQ. An About page gives new visitors context about who you are and what your publication covers, which helps convert casual browsers into subscribers. You can add these pages from your publication’s settings, and they’ll appear in your navigation menu.
Writing and Publishing Posts
Substack’s editor works like a simple word processor. You type directly into it, add headings, bold or italic text, links, images, and embedded content like tweets or YouTube videos. Every post has a few key settings before you hit publish: you choose whether it’s free for all readers or restricted to paid subscribers, add a subtitle, select a preview image, and write the email subject line.
You can also schedule posts for a future date and time, which is useful if you want to build a consistent publishing cadence without being tied to your desk at send time. Substack recommends creating an editorial calendar early on so readers know when to expect new content. A predictable rhythm, whether that’s weekly, biweekly, or daily, builds the kind of habit that keeps subscribers opening your emails.
Each post you publish gets sent as an email to your subscribers and simultaneously appears on your publication’s website. Readers can find it through search engines, share it on social media, or discover it inside the Substack app. You control whether to send an email notification for each post or simply publish it to the web without pinging anyone’s inbox.
Going Beyond Text: Podcasts, Video, and Live Streams
Substack is not just a newsletter platform. It hosts podcasts, video, and live streams natively, meaning you don’t need a separate hosting service for any of them.
For podcasting, you upload audio files directly to Substack. The platform auto-generates an RSS feed compatible with all major podcast players, and it offers direct integrations with Apple Podcasts and Spotify so your episodes publish there automatically. If you already host a podcast elsewhere, you can import your back catalog via RSS. You can also upload transcript files (.txt, .srt, or .vtt formats), and there’s an AI voiceover feature with six built-in voices that converts written posts into audio narration if you’d rather not record yourself.
Video works similarly. Upload video files and publish them as posts with a built-in player. A clipping tool lets you create shorter, captioned clips from longer videos for sharing on social media. You can connect your YouTube and LinkedIn accounts to auto-upload videos to those platforms when you publish. For live content, Substack offers built-in live video streaming with scheduling, real-time chat, and automatic recording that saves as a post draft when the stream ends. If you use external streaming software like OBS, RTMP support lets you connect it to Substack’s live streaming tools.
One powerful option for paid publications: you can create subscriber-only podcast feeds. Paid subscribers receive a unique private RSS URL, so they can listen in their preferred podcast app while your free content remains accessible to everyone.
Using Notes to Build an Audience
Notes is Substack’s short-form social layer, functioning similarly to posts on X (formerly Twitter). You can publish quick text updates, share images or video, and link to your longer posts. Notes appear in the feeds of people who follow you on Substack, making them a way to stay visible between longer publications.
The key feature here is Restacks, which work like reposts. When another writer Restacks your note or post, it appears in their followers’ feeds. This creates organic exposure beyond your existing subscriber base. Engaging actively on Notes, commenting on other writers’ posts, sharing their work, and posting your own short-form thoughts, is one of the most effective ways to grow on the platform without any outside marketing.
How the Recommendation System Works
Substack has a built-in recommendation network that lets writers recommend other publications to their subscribers. When someone subscribes to your publication, they see a screen suggesting other writers you’ve endorsed. They can opt in to follow or subscribe to any of those recommendations with a single click.
This works both ways. If another writer recommends your publication, their new subscribers will see yours during signup. Substack’s analytics show you exactly how many subscriptions and follows you’ve driven for writers in your network, and vice versa. Building relationships with writers in your niche and exchanging recommendations is one of the fastest organic growth levers on the platform. It’s a peer-to-peer system built on trusted endorsements rather than an algorithm deciding what gets seen.
Community Features: Chat and Direct Messages
Every publication can enable chat threads where subscribers discuss topics in real time. You control access levels, restricting chat to free subscribers, paid subscribers only, or founding members (your highest-tier supporters). This turns your publication from a one-way broadcast into something closer to a community, which increases engagement and gives paying subscribers a reason to stay.
Substack also supports direct messages between users, so readers can reach out to you privately and you can have one-on-one conversations without leaving the platform.
Monetizing With Paid Subscriptions
You can turn on paid subscriptions at any time. You set your own price (monthly, annual, or both), and Substack takes 10% of your subscription revenue. Payment processing fees from Stripe apply on top of that, typically around 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction.
The strategic decision is what to put behind the paywall. Most successful Substack writers keep some content free to attract new readers and reserve certain posts, podcast episodes, chat access, or community features for paying subscribers. You toggle each post between free and paid when you publish it, so you’re never locked into one approach.
Owning Your Content and Subscriber List
Everything you publish on Substack belongs to you. Your posts, photos, and subscriber lists are your intellectual property, protected by copyright. This is spelled out explicitly in Substack’s terms of use. If you decide to leave the platform, you can export your full subscriber list, including email addresses, and take it to another service. You also retain rights to all your written and multimedia content.
This matters because it means you’re not building on rented land. If you grow a list of 10,000 subscribers on Substack and later want to move to a self-hosted setup or a competing platform, your audience comes with you.
Getting Your First Subscribers
After setting up and publishing a few posts, announce your publication to your existing networks. Share it on social media, mention it in relevant online communities, and email people you know who might be interested. Substack’s recommendation network and Notes feed will help with discovery over time, but your initial growth almost always comes from outside the platform.
Consistency matters more than volume early on. Publishing one solid post per week and engaging regularly on Notes will build more momentum than publishing five posts the first week and going silent for a month. The recommendation system rewards active publications, and readers subscribe to writers they trust to show up reliably.