My gut feeling is that subscribing sends a stronger signal to Substack than following, but I don't have any inside info on this.
As a guide, mid-sized creators like me often have double the number of followers than subscribers, so it's natural to imagine that Substack assigns less value to follows than subscribes when it's figuring out connections.
Unpopular opinion here: I don't want to subscribe to dozens of newsletters as a hack to be "seen," and then have to either unsubscribe or hurt people's open rates. Also, I'd like to be discovered OUTSIDE of Substack, not just stay on the hamster wheel of "internal" readers who are already fatigued by subscribing to too many pubs lol.
I hear you, Kristi, but subscribing to be 'seen' is not the point. The point is to show Substack what sorts of things you like so it sends you more good stuff.
And I totally agree that discovery outside of Substack is an important piece of the puzzle which I haven't mentioned here since I like to stick to one idea per post.
But I was genuinely surprised to meet creators who literally read no other Substack creators and I think people who do that are missing out on the magic of this platform.
I struggled with this one when my publication was new because I was genuinely grateful that ANYONE subscribed! Subscribing back seemed the best way to say Thank You.
A year later, I only subscribe to publications I really want to read but still have a handful of publications that I scan and delete because the content isn't interesting to me. To be in integrity the right thing is to unsubscribe (I wouldn't want someone subscribing to me if they automatically trash my newsletters).
But, man, when you're a small publication you really feel those changes to the number of people subscribing! Definitely tweaks my ego.
Your point about interacting outside of Substack is a good one. I'd like Substack to do more to make publications easy to find in search engines. On the other hand they do offer lots of opportunities to share content on social media and my publication gets discovered in this way.
Very helpful. I subscribe to quite a number of Substacks related and tangentially related to what I write about which is art for health and well being. I wonder if that throws things off. I also subscribe to Substacks talking about the biz of Substack because I want to learn. Is that an issue if that’s not at all what my Substack is about? Appreciate any thoughts. Thanks so much for the post!
Karen, the opposite of what you’re suggesting could be painful: I subscribe to some people who, frankly, write about things that don’t interest me. It deadens my experience here on Substack, AND it tells the “bots behind the curtain” to send me content that doesn’t interest me.
The upshot: Perhaps, at least in my case, the first step might be to UNSUBSCRIBE to these accounts. (??) Does that make sense, or should I keep the ones I have and just add to them?
Larry you're kidding me, right? Did you just say you subscribe to people who don't interest you and it "deadens your experience" and it confuses the algorithm... why oh why would you do such a thing?
Got one word for you Larry: UNSUBSCRIBE. Unsubscribe from those accounts immediately. Choose new ones that light you up.
If you don't love your time on Substack what's the point?
I know ... it sounds nothing short of moronic. However, the reason I'm subscribing to some of these folks is a bit complicated. (It has to do with an online writing community I belong to.)
Anyway, in the meantime, I'm unsubscribing to most of those who don't float my boat AND am adding a slew of folks who resonate. The tide will shift -- and I'm really enjoying engaging with people via their Notes, per your suggestion. Much appreciated!
Excellent observation, Karen, thank you! I think constructive engagement (including disagreement) is great. This inspires me to do more to encourage conversation and to comment more on notes that genuinely spark my interest.
I'm sharing my comment as a note because I hope other folks will benefit from your wisdom.
I know, right, I have seen the same Jason. If you check out the profiles of these 900 subscription ‘people’ most do not look or behave like genuine people. Probably bots.
Bot subscriptions allow content scrapers to see posts that otherwise aren’t accessible. I’ve even had a few bots sign up for paid subscriptions, presumably to steal paywalled content.
I sometimes check and remove paid subscribers if their name or email address raises any red flags - it's easy to do in my other publication since most people subscribe with a work email address. But for the masses, we're mostly at the mercy of Substack's anti-bot technology and cross our fingers that it keeps up with bot's work arounds...
Thank you, Whitney. This is excellent information! Especially for people like me, indie authors trying to gain an audience without being an annoying, self-serving salesperson.
You're not dumb. I didn't think it was that obvious. In the Substack app, there is a preferences option that allows you to have your substack subs sent only to the app, so you don't need to go through the bother of creating folders in your email.
Thank you for this. I've been increasingly utilizing notes and noticing more engagement. Great suggestion on subscriptions. Appreciate it!
Thank you for explaining the subscriber angle. It's definitely not intuitive.
Insightful info about Notes....thanks, Karen!
Oof the idea of subscribing but never opening/reading hurts. Hate to be a part of the subscriber glut for other writers. But I see your point.
Lissa, I'm in this camp as well.
Newbie here, does it make a difference whether you "follow" or "subscribe"?
Good question, Kat.
My gut feeling is that subscribing sends a stronger signal to Substack than following, but I don't have any inside info on this.
As a guide, mid-sized creators like me often have double the number of followers than subscribers, so it's natural to imagine that Substack assigns less value to follows than subscribes when it's figuring out connections.
Thank you for your valuable post & helpful response!
Unpopular opinion here: I don't want to subscribe to dozens of newsletters as a hack to be "seen," and then have to either unsubscribe or hurt people's open rates. Also, I'd like to be discovered OUTSIDE of Substack, not just stay on the hamster wheel of "internal" readers who are already fatigued by subscribing to too many pubs lol.
I hear you, Kristi, but subscribing to be 'seen' is not the point. The point is to show Substack what sorts of things you like so it sends you more good stuff.
And I totally agree that discovery outside of Substack is an important piece of the puzzle which I haven't mentioned here since I like to stick to one idea per post.
But I was genuinely surprised to meet creators who literally read no other Substack creators and I think people who do that are missing out on the magic of this platform.
I struggled with this one when my publication was new because I was genuinely grateful that ANYONE subscribed! Subscribing back seemed the best way to say Thank You.
A year later, I only subscribe to publications I really want to read but still have a handful of publications that I scan and delete because the content isn't interesting to me. To be in integrity the right thing is to unsubscribe (I wouldn't want someone subscribing to me if they automatically trash my newsletters).
But, man, when you're a small publication you really feel those changes to the number of people subscribing! Definitely tweaks my ego.
Your point about interacting outside of Substack is a good one. I'd like Substack to do more to make publications easy to find in search engines. On the other hand they do offer lots of opportunities to share content on social media and my publication gets discovered in this way.
Great insights
Useful, thank you.
Very helpful. I subscribe to quite a number of Substacks related and tangentially related to what I write about which is art for health and well being. I wonder if that throws things off. I also subscribe to Substacks talking about the biz of Substack because I want to learn. Is that an issue if that’s not at all what my Substack is about? Appreciate any thoughts. Thanks so much for the post!
Thank you so much!
Karen, the opposite of what you’re suggesting could be painful: I subscribe to some people who, frankly, write about things that don’t interest me. It deadens my experience here on Substack, AND it tells the “bots behind the curtain” to send me content that doesn’t interest me.
The upshot: Perhaps, at least in my case, the first step might be to UNSUBSCRIBE to these accounts. (??) Does that make sense, or should I keep the ones I have and just add to them?
This could be a Major Game Changer. THANK YOU.
Larry you're kidding me, right? Did you just say you subscribe to people who don't interest you and it "deadens your experience" and it confuses the algorithm... why oh why would you do such a thing?
Got one word for you Larry: UNSUBSCRIBE. Unsubscribe from those accounts immediately. Choose new ones that light you up.
If you don't love your time on Substack what's the point?
I know ... it sounds nothing short of moronic. However, the reason I'm subscribing to some of these folks is a bit complicated. (It has to do with an online writing community I belong to.)
Anyway, in the meantime, I'm unsubscribing to most of those who don't float my boat AND am adding a slew of folks who resonate. The tide will shift -- and I'm really enjoying engaging with people via their Notes, per your suggestion. Much appreciated!
Excellent observation, Karen, thank you! I think constructive engagement (including disagreement) is great. This inspires me to do more to encourage conversation and to comment more on notes that genuinely spark my interest.
I'm sharing my comment as a note because I hope other folks will benefit from your wisdom.
I wonder what the algorithm does with these writers who subscribe to literally every publication they can find. Lol.
I've seen many over 900. At least one over 1,000.
I know, right, I have seen the same Jason. If you check out the profiles of these 900 subscription ‘people’ most do not look or behave like genuine people. Probably bots.
Bot subscriptions allow content scrapers to see posts that otherwise aren’t accessible. I’ve even had a few bots sign up for paid subscriptions, presumably to steal paywalled content.
Goodness! How can you fend them off?
I sometimes check and remove paid subscribers if their name or email address raises any red flags - it's easy to do in my other publication since most people subscribe with a work email address. But for the masses, we're mostly at the mercy of Substack's anti-bot technology and cross our fingers that it keeps up with bot's work arounds...
Yikes!
Thank you, Whitney. This is excellent information! Especially for people like me, indie authors trying to gain an audience without being an annoying, self-serving salesperson.
You're not dumb. I didn't think it was that obvious. In the Substack app, there is a preferences option that allows you to have your substack subs sent only to the app, so you don't need to go through the bother of creating folders in your email.
Oh yeah, forgot about that option! Thanks Whitney.
Thanks for sharing that! (The emails would be one less thing to deal with!)