Remove These 3 Things to Speed Up Your Substack Growth

I discovered that the best way to grow on Substack faster is not addition but subtraction.

Photo by Ankara University on Unsplash

Can an ordinary person make a living by writing on Substack?

Many hope for it. That’s why they start writing here.

Unfortunately, most of them never publish more than 10 articles on Substack.

So, they will never be able to reveal the answer to the question. They will never know for sure. Could they make it or not?

If you want to get your own answer to the question, you need to stay in the game.

How long?

Forever.

Most people who want to achieve their goals tend to add more and more actions to the schedule. We were taught that being productive means doing more.

The same goes for Substack.

People who want to succeed on Substack try to do more of everything. More posts, more notes, more comments. The result? Most of them don’t survive more than 3 months of writing on Substack.

Many new writers leave the game before even starting, too overwhelmed with all the actions they try to do to accelerate their growth.

I launched my Substack in February 2025. I started like most new Substackers with 0 subscribers, 0 followers, and 0 experience running a newsletter. I also tried to do more of everything during my first several months on Substack.

Did it help me grow faster?

No.

I struggled to grow despite all the growth hacks, proven tips, and viral tricks I tried. After writing on Substack for 6 months, I thought maybe it’s just not for me.

I decided to do less to achieve more.

That’s when I discovered that the best way to grow on Substack faster is not addition but subtraction.

Here is how my Substack progress looks today:

Let me share with you what you’d better stop doing to grow faster.

Listen, I don’t pretend to know everything about Substack.

I learn as I go. And share what worked for me. My priority is to help you grow.

Today, I want to share with you 3 things you should remove to grow on Substack faster.

1. Stop looking for growth hacks

There are a lot of growth hacks.

Some of them work for a short period of time. Most of them don’t work at all.

But you spend your time on looking for them, reading them, and trying them.

The time you could spend on improving your craft. Building relationships with your audience. And growing.

I know it might sound counterintuitive.

Did you ever feel exhausted and demotivated when you tried another growth hack that didn’t work?

I did.

It feels like you are the only one who can’t make it work while everybody else using it to grow fast.

You lose trust in growth possibility. You lose your writing pace. You lose time.

I figured instead of spending time looking around for growth hacks, it’s better to focus on implementing your own strategy.

The strategy should cover several main parts:

• Who are you?

• Who you write for?

• Why should they listen to you?

• How do you get them to see what you offer?

• How do you convert them from seeing your offer to buying it?

That’s it.

Create the strategy and focus on its implementation.

2. Stop comparing yourself with other writers

Another way to spend a lot of time on useless activity.

One day, I saw a note from one of Substack’s writers who shared how he had grown from 0 to 10,000 subscribers in 3 months. I looked at my subscriber count. 157.

I closed my laptop and decided to go for a walk.

I went to the park. It was a spring afternoon. The sun was shining, birds were singing, and a beautiful cat sat under the big tree in the middle of the meadow.

She was so gracious.

The cat looked at me and didn’t pay any attention. It didn’t matter to her if I was looking at her or not; she was focused on doing her thing. It seems that’s why cats were considered sacred in ancient Egypt. Because they were confident enough not to care what people did around them.

The most useless way to spend your time is looking at others and comparing yourself with them.

Don’t do that.

• You don’t know their circumstances.

• You don’t know their starting conditions.

• You don’t know their experience level and the price they paid for it.

Focus on actions that move you forward.

Write. Edit. Publish. Repeat.

3. Stop expecting fast results

High expectations ruined more writers than failure ever will.

I was one of the writers with high expectations when I started writing on Medium in 2023.

I thought I would go from 0 to 5,000 followers in 6 months. Instead, it took me 6 months to achieve 100 followers. My progress was terrible.

I was so disappointed.

The difference between the expectations and reality was so huge it nearly made me quit writing.

That’s why drop your expectations.

Expect nothing at all.

• Enjoy writing.

• Enjoy meeting new people.

• Enjoy discovering new ways of building online.

Instead of focusing on achieving 1,000 subscribers, focus on publishing 100 articles.

So, can an ordinary person make a living by writing on Substack?

It’s up to you to discover.

I am on my way to get an answer to the question.

Wanna join me?

Talk soon,

Maxim