If you don't get what Substack is or why a business would start a newsletter using it, this is video and newsletter is for you.
Why is everyone talking about Substack?
A lot of people are starting Substack newsletters or podcasts because the platform now has a critical mass of creators, which makes its recommendation feature very attractive. I'll get into how having more newsletter creators is a good thing shortly.
Substack hasn't released how many newsletters they host. I've seen estimates from non-Substack sources ranging anywhere from 13,000 to 75,000 newsletters on the platform.
If you added all the subscriber lists together of all the newsletters created on Substack, it's over 50 million active subscriptions. Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie told The Hollywood Reporter in March 2025 that the platform has over 5 million paid subscriptions.
Said another way, 10% of the 50 million subscriptions are paying cash to creators. Paid subscriptions are up from 4 million just four months ago and 3 million a year ago.
That's 25% growth in one month for paid subscriptions and 67% year over year. So if it feels like everyone is talking about Substack, it may be because more people are paying for and talking about Substack newsletters they subscribe to or starting their own newsletter.
But first, what's the difference between a newsletter and email?
Newsletters are emails with a specific content focus, much like an article or newspaper column. The content is usually more text than images and inspires, entertains, or educates the reader. Unlike ads, people choose to read newsletters because they provide value.
Newsletters first started as mailed "letters" focused on news. When I was a teenage volunteer at my local hospital, my friend Molly and I created a newsletter. It was printed and mailed to all of the volunteers. Fast forward 25 years, it's understood that a newsletter is emailed, but don't let that hold you back from also printing it.
All newsletters are emails, but not all emails are newsletters.
Think of emails you receive with a product image and text (aka "copy" in the publishing and ad world) that encourages you to click and buy the product. This email isn't a newsletter since there isn't helpful, inspiring, or entertaining content. This email is an ad.
What is Substack and why do people use it?
Substack is an email publisher, podcast, and social media platform all in one place. It started as a platform to publish newsletters. It now also has an X/Threads/Bluesky-type feature, a chat-like feature for your subscribers and you, and a podcast feed.
You can really connect with people who use the Substack app if you use all those social media features.
The appeal of starting a newsletter on Substack when it launched about a decade ago, and still today, is three-fold:
You have a direct line to your subscribers.
Like I mentioned in my last newsletter, email is a great way to build a relationship and sell products. You own your email list, and algorithms don't hide your content. You can export your Substack subscriber list at any time.
It's free to use and you can monetize your newsletter.
It costs nothing to start and grow your email list if you use Substack. If you decide to start a paid tier to your newsletter (typically this level provides more content and value to the reader), Substack takes 10% of what you charge. 4% goes to payment processing. The remaining 86% goes in your pocket. A lot of journalists, recipe developers, and creative writers join Substack with the plan to add a paid tier.
Substack has a phenomenal referral network.
Its recommendation network encourages creators to recommend other Substacks. After people subscribe to a Substack newsletter, the platform automatically checks boxes for you to follow people the writer recommends and subscribe to the creator's recommended newsletters.
As you can see in this video, you have to make the effort to uncheck the boxes.
Many Substack writers attribute their subscriber growth primarily to this feature. In fact, Substack shares that 50% of all subscriptions and 30% of all paid subscriptions come within the Substack referral network.
Friends, you can double the size of your email audience with this Substack feature.
How to get included in Substack's recommendation list.
Getting recommended by others isn't guaranteed or a decision by Substack.
Writers recommend other writers. You have to put in the work to get on writers' recommendation lists—either by creating valuable content or building relationships.
The ideal newsletters to get friendly with are those who write for your ideal reader. With so many newsletters now on Substack, you can certainly find business buddies who have the same ideal reader as you.
You can reach out directly and suggest you recommend each other, or simply recommend another newsletter, let them know, and hope they reciprocate.
Caroline Chambers, the queen of Substack food newsletters, shared at a Cherry Bombe members meeting that she recommends people feature and cross-promote other newsletters beyond just the recommendations list. Think guest posting, Q&As, and in-newsletter recommendations to follow.
Substack's recommendation network is primarily what drew me to join.
A bonus feature of Substack is that it's a lot less toxic than other platforms. Evidently, trolls are less inclined to read newsletters.
Should your business have a Substack?
If you want to email everyone on your email list the same thing at the same time, Substack is a great place to do that and take advantage of their recommendation feature.
It's important to note that Substack can't create personalized email sequences for individuals. That means if you want to have a link on your site where someone can opt-in to receive a series of emails on-demand, you need to use another platform for that.
My DIY PR email series, for example, can't be done through Substack. For that reason, I'm also keeping my email service provider.
Substack is great for content marketing.
Longer-form content, such as newsletters or blog posts, is a great way to demonstrate your expertise, help your prospective and existing customers, and stay top-of-mind. Starting a Substack is great for marketing that uses content (aka content marketing) to build a relationship and sell to your ideal customer.
I am a huge advocate for content marketing because it allows you to:
Provide value to your ideal customer by helping them
Establish you as an expert
Address buying objections
Show how the thing you sell helps people solve a problem or improve their lives
Should you start a Substack if you already have a blog?
One of the challenges people have presently with blogs is discoverability. It's hard to be on the first page of Google's search results. The benefit of having a blog on your site is that it's just a click away from your product page, so don't bail on it. Keep your blog.
Substack automatically creates a website for you with all your newsletters on it. The newsletters automatically turn into posts. The site is crawled by Google, and as a result, your newsletter/post can show up in search results.
If you have a blog, you can easily repurpose some of the content in your Substack newsletter. You can use your newsletter to draw readers in, then send them to your blog to read the complete story. Growth in Reverse, a newsletter about how to grow your newsletter, does this.
Why you shouldn't post the exact same content on Substack and your blog
Google strives to show search results by experts, not people re-posting others' content. The trouble you can run into if you post the exact same content on Substack as your blog is that you confuse Google as to who the original source of information is.
If creators are posting duplicate content in multiple places online, they can create a canonical tag in the HTML to let search engines know which site is the original source of that information. The canonical link tells search engines, "Hey, direct traffic to this other source, not this one."
As of April 2025, Substack doesn't allow you to add a canonical URL, so you can't tell search engines to direct traffic to your website instead of Substack.
This is why I recommend you provide a preview of your post in Substack if you already have a blog.
Should you charge for your business newsletter?
If you have a small email list, I encourage you to not focus on this aspect, at least not initially. The initial focus should be on creating content that helps your prospective customer address their problem, such as what's for dinner, living a healthy life, or creating a beautiful home. The content ultimately works in service of selling whatever it is that you sell.
However, if you're going above and beyond and are approaching your Substack content as a new service that provides a level of value you can't justify doing without a cost, then go right ahead and create a tier that is just for paid subscribers when you launch it.
Who shouldn't start a Substack
If the idea of writing a newsletter feels wildly overwhelming, even if it's mostly photos with a little text, then don't add it to your plate just yet. In future emails, I'll share how to create a workflow for efficiently creating content.
If you are crushing it on another social media platform and have healthy email list growth, there's no need to join.
A year ago, Substack noted that half of its top 250 creators used audio and video as part of their regular content. Now that number is 82%, underscoring just how much audio and video content have transformed the platform.
To make the most of Substack's organic reach potential, you'll want to post your X-like content and short-form video on the platform. You'll want to spend time building relationships with other creators, so plan to commit time to Substack.
If you don’t want to make the time, using paid ads to grow your audience may be a better route.
And with all marketing efforts, treat it like an experiment, review the results, and decide if it's worth continuing.
What do you think? If you’re not on Substack, do you want to join? If not, why?
Your friend,
Melissa