Most Substack creators are sitting on a goldmine of growth tools they’re barely using.
They publish their newsletter, maybe post a Note here and there, and then wonder why growth feels so slow.
Substack has built some genuinely powerful features specifically designed to get your work in front of new people.
The problem is that most creators either don’t know about them or don’t use them consistently enough to see results.
At Write • Build • Scale, we’ve used these features to grow our publication to over 48,000 subscribers.
Everything I’m sharing here is backed by real experience, not theory.
Let’s dive straight in.
#1: Guest Posting
Guest posting on Substack is one of the most underrated visibility tools on the platform.
Most creators completely overlook it.
Unlike posting on social media, where your content might reach some of your followers if the algorithm feels like it, a guest post lands directly in the email inbox of every single subscriber of that publication.
Not a percentage of their followers.
Not whoever the algorithm decides to show it to.
Every. Single. Subscriber.
Your author profile is integrated directly into the post, so readers can click straight through to your publication.
(For example, this is the profile integration + subscribe CTA on a guest post that Orel recently published for our publication.)
If you’re writing for a newsletter in your niche or an adjacent niche, those readers are already interested in exactly what you write about.
They’re warm. They’re receptive. And now they’re reading your work.
To make the most of guest posting, target publications with more subscribers than you have. That’s when the exposure has the biggest impact.
Be proactive about reaching out too.
Most creators either wait for an invitation (which rarely comes) or go in with a cold pitch that falls flat.
The most effective approach: build a relationship first. Engage with their Notes, leave a thoughtful comment on their posts, and send a DM to start a conversation.
Then, when you make the ask, come with specific topic ideas — ideally two or three they can simply say yes to.
Make it as easy as possible for them to say yes.
That’s what gets results.
#2: Substack Lives
Substack Lives are one of my favourite features on the platform.
There are two ways to use them, and they serve different goals.
Solo lives — going live just for your own subscribers — are incredible for deepening connection with your existing audience.
There’s no editing, no polishing. People see the real you, hear how you think, watch you operate in real time. Nothing builds trust faster.
At Write • Build • Scale, we consistently find that people who attend our live streams are far more likely to become paid subscribers or join one of our coaching programs.
But if your goal is visibility and new subscribers, co-hosting a live stream with another creator is the move.
When you go live together, both sets of subscribers get notified. Both communities show up.
And suddenly you’re being introduced to an entirely new group of people who’ve never heard of you before.
One bonus most creators miss: after the live ends, both of you receive the replay as a draft post.
When you each publish it to your audiences, you get a second wave of exposure, landing in subscribers’ inboxes all over again.
One live stream, two creators, two audiences, twice.
#3: Newsletter Recommendations
This is the closest thing to a set-it-and-forget-it growth tool that exists on Substack.
The newsletter recommendations feature has brought us close to 10,000 new subscribers, almost entirely on autopilot.
When someone subscribes to your newsletter, Substack shows them a pop-up recommending other publications they might enjoy.
If you have a recommendations exchange set up with another creator, their new subscribers get shown your publication, and yours get shown theirs.
Every time they grow, they’re automatically sending some of those subscribers your way. Every time you grow, you’re doing the same for them.
It’s a genuine win-win that runs in the background without you doing anything.
Setting it up takes a few clicks. Go to your dashboard, click on Recommendations, and start adding publications you genuinely enjoy and trust.
The key word is genuinely.
Only recommend publications you’d actually stand behind. Your recommendations reflect on you, and your subscribers trust your judgment.
Don’t worry about recommending too many newsletters either.
Substack only shows three to five recommendations per subscriber and auto-rotates through your list. No downside to building up a solid list of partners.
And as with guest posting: be proactive. Reach out to creators you respect, start a conversation, and propose the exchange.
Most people are open to it. They just never get asked.
#4: Substack Notes
Substack Notes is one of the few features on the platform with an actual algorithm behind it.
Think of it as the short-form social feed within the Substack ecosystem.
Because there’s an algorithm, your Notes can reach people who’ve never heard of you before, if they get enough engagement.
When a Note performs well, Substack starts distributing it to users outside your existing audience.
People who don’t follow you yet.
People who’ve never subscribed.
That’s exactly how Notes drives new subscriber growth.
But Notes isn’t just a growth tool.
It’s also one of the best ways to stay top of mind with your existing audience.
If you publish one, two, or three Notes per day (as I do), your subscribers have at least one touchpoint with you every single day, compared to maybe once a week with your newsletter.
More touchpoints means they know you more, like you more, and trust you more. And that trust is what leads to loyal readers and paying customers.
Publish at least one Note per day. Two or three is better.
Consistency is what makes the algorithm work in your favour over time.
#5: The 10-5-1 Rule
Technically, this is less a Substack feature and more a strategy that makes use of Substack’s direct messaging feature.
But it’s too important to leave off this list.
The 10-5-1 rule was created by my business partner Philip Hofmacher, and it’s one of the simplest, most effective daily habits you can build on Substack.
For every Note you publish, or simply once per day, you do three things:
Like 10 Notes from other creators in your niche
Leave 5 thoughtful comments on their Notes or posts
Send 1 DM to a creator in your niche
The commenting element alone is incredibly powerful for visibility.
When you leave a genuinely useful, insightful comment on someone else’s post, their readers see it.
They get curious.
They click through to your profile.
They subscribe.
It’s free, organic visibility without creating any additional content. You’re simply adding value to conversations that are already happening.
The DM is the element most people skip, but it’s the most important of the three.
That one daily message is what starts real connections with other creators.
And those connections lead to everything else:
Guest posts
Collaborations
Co-hosted live streams
Recommendation exchanges
If you publish three Notes per day, don’t stress about doing 10-5-1 three times over. Just do it once per day as a non-negotiable habit.
The goal is consistency, not perfection.
Done daily, the 10-5-1 rule quietly builds you a network of like-minded creators on Substack.
And that network is one of the fastest growth levers available to you.
The Common Thread
Look at these five features and you’ll notice a pattern: the ones that drive the most visibility all involve other creators.
Guest posts get you in front of someone else’s audience.
Co-hosted lives do the same.
Newsletter recommendations mean every partner’s growth feeds yours.
And the 10-5-1 rule is specifically designed to build creator relationships that unlock all of the above.
Substack rewards collaboration.
The creators who grow fastest aren’t just writing great content, but they’re actively building connections that multiply their reach.
Start with one of these features this week.
Pick the one that feels most approachable and go all in.
The results will show you why the others are worth your time too.
