The blog
Growth experiments, with numbers.
What actually moves subscribers on Substack: Notes, replies, articles and honest results, straight from building Subshack in public. Looking for the method rather than the diary? Start with the guides.
Oct 12, 2026How Keith Keller Grew His Substack Community Without Going ViralA clearer profile, personal outreach, and what I learned from his approach to building community.Read the post →
Oct 5, 202654 Days Without Subscribe-for-Subscribe: A Data Autopsy (Road to Day 90)My open rate never came back. The readers who matter never left. Here's the drop, the 4-part system, and the numbers at day 54.Read the post →
Oct 1, 2026Treating Substack like TikTok in 2021 is why your subscriber numbers stalledWhy chasing viral Notes and posting 5x a day gives you vanity likes instead of email subscribers and the shift to high-converting depth.Read the post →
Sep 28, 20269 out of 10 Substack creators are running a restaurant with no menu on the doorWhy vague bio descriptions kill reader trust before they ever read a single post and the 3-part conversion fix.Read the post →
Sep 24, 20269 of 10 profile visitors leave. Your bio is why.Why 9 out of 10 profile visitors leave without subscribing and the 10-second structural fix.Read the post →
Sep 21, 2026124 km on Foot, 21 Hours of Running: What Our Journey from Cergy to Rouen Taught Us About Autism and EnduranceThree of us, one bicycle, and twenty-one hours between Cergy and Rouen for children whose marathon has no finish line.Read the post →
Sep 15, 2026The Only 4 “Tricks” to Success on SubstackRead the post →
Sep 15, 2026My Open Rate Collapsed From 34% to 14%. Here Is the Exact Protocol I’m Using to Clean My Substack List.A bigger subscriber count means nothing if open rates keep sliding. Here is what the data showed when I audited my own cohorts and how to prune unengaged readers without killing deliverability.Read the post →Sep 15, 2026Should I remove you from the Subshack Growth list?Read the post →Sep 14, 2026Start Here: Know What Actually Grows Your Substack (And What to Do Next)Welcome to Subshack Growth. No subscribe-for-subscribe. No fake hacks. No “10k in 30 days” promises. Here is how to navigate this publication and get your first actionable growth score.Read the post →
Sep 10, 2026Substack’s AI Detector Is Creating a Problem Nobody ExpectedWriters may start optimizing their writing to look human instead of making it worth reading.Read the post →
Sep 1, 2026I Checked My Last 40 Substack Subscriptions. Only 7 Were Confirmed as Mutual.Scan 40 subscriptions for free, no account required. Unlock the complete report with the Subshack extension.Read the post →
Aug 28, 2026Two Notes Brought Me 63 Subscribers. Then I Stopped Using the Strategy Behind Them.I removed the tactic behind my fastest Substack growth to see whether original content could replace it. I ended up publishing more, reaching fewer people, and discovering my real bottleneck.Read the post →
Aug 26, 202619 Subscribers Came Through Notes. Not One Was Attributed to a Note.Both numbers were correct. They measured two different layers of attribution.Read the post →
Aug 23, 2026I Built a Tool to Detect Reciprocal Growth. Then It Flagged My Own Article.The mistake forced me to separate organic, community-driven and reciprocal growth—without changing the raw numbers.Read the post →
Aug 20, 2026My Subscriber Count Grew. My Open Rate Fell From 34% to 18%.Across my first nine articles, later posts clustered between 18% and 23% while my subscriber count continued climbing. A bigger list did not automatically create a more engaged audience.Read the post →
Aug 19, 2026I Checked the Data Behind My Own Growth Advice. It Was Worse Than I ThoughtI analysed 105 Notes. Two of them accounted for 56 of the 62 subscribers Substack attributed to individual Notes — 90%.Read the post →
Aug 13, 2026How I Got 34 Replies on My First Substack Chat ThreadThe exact setup I used—and why community may be the missing piece in growing without subscribe-for-subscribe.Read the post →
Aug 12, 2026I Stopped Subscribe-for-Subscribe. Here’s the Growth System I’m Testing InsteadFor seven days, I’m replacing reciprocal subscriptions with original Notes, meaningful replies, useful articles, a custom domain, and SEO. This is day two.Read the post →
Aug 10, 2026I Tested 3 Substack Growth Strategies: Case StudyA 7-day experiment comparing subscribe-for-subscribe, Notes and original articles—with the acquisition data, limits and next retention test.Read the post →
Aug 7, 2026I Hit 100 Substack Subscribers in My First Week. Then I Added 50 More Before the Week Was Even Over.I started from zero. Reaching 100 felt like the milestone. What happened immediately after was even more interestingRead the post →
Aug 7, 2026Why My Most Contrarian Substack Post Outperformed My Growth ReportsMy most opinionated post got the most views, opens and discussion—but the practical post was the only one that directly generated a subscriber.Read the post →
Aug 5, 2026How I Grew From 25 to 67 Substack Subscribers in Four DaysReciprocal-support Notes helped create momentum, while original Notes gave people a reason to understand my work.Read the post →