Should You Repurpose Your Substack Content? Here's How to Decide.
Everyone says post on 5 platforms—I say focus on one. Here's why both are right.
You do not need to be on 5 platforms. Or 8. Or 16.
Becoming a content machine was consuming our feeds long before we could write posts with a one-sentence ChatGPT prompt.
It’s just getting louder.
Spend five minutes listening to Gary Vaynerchuk, who recently joined Substack, and you’ll hear him shouting at creators to post 16 times per day. Daniel Priestley has said every piece of content should be posted across a minimum of 5 platforms. And experts like Matt Gray routinely go viral, sharing their content repurposing systems.
On the surface, repurposing seems simple enough: write a post, copy and paste it everywhere humanly possible, and grow faster, right?
That’s not how it worked for me.
I Quit 90% Of Social Media And Went All-In On Substack
I struggled to grow an audience until the moment I quit 90% of social media and went all-in on Substack. I was knee-deep wading through burnout when I realized 99% of my Substack subscribers came from Substack’s own network.
The data was conclusive—I’d gained 50 subscribers from Instagram after a year of repurposing content. This made up 1.3% of my audience, but it cost me a lot more than 1% of my time, effort, and peace of mind.
I’ve always planned to come out of my social hibernation and restart YouTube, but only when, or if, I had the capacity and resources so it wouldn’t take away from anything else.
There’s no doubt in my mind that building a personal brand across Substack, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Snap, BlueSky, and Podcasting is beneficial.
The question I ask is: do we have the capacity or resources to effectively do it without feeling like we’re running a 10k with a weighted vest through quicksand every morning?
Knowing When (Or If) You Should Repurpose Your Content Beyond Substack
Here’s how I assess this with my private clients.
Do you have an existing audience on [INSERT PLATFORM]?
There’s a Grand Canyon-sized gap between repurposing on a platform because you have an audience there, compared to repurposing to build one.
Solopreneur Justin Welsh has 800,000+ followers on LinkedIn. That audience, and the email list it built, allowed him to quickly rise to bestseller status when he launched on Substack in 2025.
Now, imagine I have 97 followers on LinkedIn, and build a robust repurposing strategy to share my Substack content there, hoping I can pull those people over to Substack. That’s a very different situation.
Do you have the capacity (or resources) to manage additional platforms?
Or, will managing additional platforms degrade the rest of the work you’re doing because you don’t have the time to adequately dedicate to it?
You know, the whole burnout thing.
I used to think repurposing was a simple copy and paste. Or, just installing a fancy Make or Zapier automation that was connected to ChatGPT.
As I experimented with this, I was faced with a stark realization—it’s much more nuanced than that.
YouTube requires a title, thumbnail, video edits, and show notes. Instagram requires an image or video. Twitter has character limits (or used to). LinkedIn posts without an image often get less reach. Unmodified content might not be relevant because people show up differently on different platforms.
Content that isn’t contextually relevant quickly falls flat.
“Copy/Paste” becomes “minor edits,” which become frustrating when they don’t work, get zero engagement, or chip away at your perfectly time-blocked calendar.
Doing this on one platform might take 5 minutes. Doing this on 7 platforms becomes more time-consuming than we were told.
That’s why I told myself I would only re-add YouTube when I had the resources to accommodate it. Someone to design the thumbnail, edit the video, draft the description, research topics, and schedule it. I’m still waiting.
There’s a reason why Gary Vee has a content team of 30 people and why Codie Sanchez and Alex Hormozi have publicly said they spend over $100,000 per month on their content.
This one’s important: Is it working?
No cookie-cutter online advice should ever supersede this.
C’mon, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Everything is worth testing. Just don’t forget to pay attention to the performance.
When I saw that Instagram had only gotten me 50 Substack subscribers, I immediately knew it wasn’t worth the time it was taking. That time could have been far better allocated to Substack, where a single Note could 10x that growth.
Your experience will differ from mine. I know a few writers on Substack who have gained a considerable number of subscribers from their LinkedIn. That’s why we test.
If it works, there’s no need to stop.
And for folks who’ve been active on Twitter, LinkedIn, or have a YouTube Channel or Podcast—they have a unique advantage of a living and breathing content library they can use to start their Substacks. I share my step-by-step plan for doing this in my Substack Growth Workshop.
What are you optimizing for at this stage of your online business?
For many, this might be the only question we need to ask.
Are you optimizing for maximum growth or maximum lifestyle and balance?
This question holds no morality. There is no right or wrong answer. And it can eb and flow depending on the season of your business.
I hate to be bleak, but everything comes at a cost.
Sometimes, it’s time. Sometimes, it’s money. During a season where balance and lifestyle are the priority, the time, energy, or resource allocation has a cost you must be willing to incur.
Whereas during a season where growth is prioritized, the dialogue changes. There is always a compromise. Maximum growth may require a compromise in time (lifestyle) or money (hiring a team). When balance and lifestyle are the priority, the compromise may be potential growth from additional channels.
Repurposing Doesn’t Fix What Isn’t Working
Here’s the thing I never wanted to hear: repurposing content won’t make up for a lack of clarity on your message.
Sometimes we overlook the root cause. Our growth ‘problem’ often lives inside one platform, not outside it. Spraying the same post across nine apps can feel productive, but it can be an elaborate way to avoid doing the harder work of nailing our message in one place.
I’ve seen this pattern repeatedly with clients and within myself. We’re convinced we need to be everywhere when really, we just need to figure out what we’re actually saying.
Sometimes, it’s better to nail one platform first. Learn the ropes. Refine what you say. Find what your audience actually needs. Discover how to communicate it effectively.
Then, if you want to, repurpose from a place of clarity instead of avoidance.
Only You Can Answer This Question
Should you repurpose your content? Only you can answer this.
I’m just here to challenge the narrative that says ‘more is better.’ Sometimes, it might be. Othertimes, it might leave us resentful of our business because we didn’t want to become a content machine.
Everything can work. The journey is discovering what works best for you. At this time.
We won’t stop seeing rage bait online shilling ‘content machine systems.’
Vague generalities and contrarian headlines overlook the most important aspect: you.
I only tapped into growth when I scaled back and slowed down.
Something I’ve struggled to accept is that I cannot do as much as many of my peers. Many Substack writers produce 2-3x the content that I do. Many of them grow faster than I do. And I get slapped in the face with a wake-up call every time I try to keep up.
Some people were born to be content machines.
The thing I love most about this game we play is that we can change at any time.
In my experience, the best place to grow your Substack is on Substack.
Hope this helps.
Landon
P.S. Ready to make Substack work for you?
If you’re convinced Substack is worth it but tired of the hustle-culture guru advice that didn’t work, I’ve documented exactly how I built 9 revenue streams from my Substack—without burning out.
The Unhustled Substack Growth Workshop shows you my complete system: from building a 90-day content calendar, the anti-hustle growth engine, to building genuine authority with your writing that attracts opportunities instead of chasing them.
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I have been thinking about this as well. Maybe it depends what your goals are. Growing an big audience as a personal brand requires a different approach than if you just want leads for your business. For me, I try to stick to 1 short form platform, which is LinkedIn and 1 long form platform here on Substack.
I plan to build some kind of content loop between the two.
The whole hustle to be everywhere is overrated. By honing in on one platform, you’re not just saving your sanity but also sharpening your message. - And from testing it myself this year, posting and ghosting on tons of platforms is a complete waste of time.