Why Most Substack Writers Are Invisible (And How to Fix It)

How to Get More Views Without Changing a Word of Your Writing

Your Writing Deserves More Readers.

A good friend of mine recently joined Substack.

She’s an industry expert, has helped companies generate millions of dollars, and she’s a copywriter. With an understanding of psychology, persuasion, and the experience of writing for a living—her content was quality.

But I noticed something that intrigued me.

She wasn’t gaining subscribers even while regularly publishing long-form posts and engagement was lower than I anticipated.

So, I took my suspicion to my community.

It turned out that 95% of the writers I surveyed were making a similar mistake.

It’s the same mistake I made when I first started on Substack, too.

I spent 10 months publishing posts every week—with zero growth. I’d almost forgotten the simple changes I made until I polled my community.

Fast forward 1.5 years and it still gets me more readers on every post.

The Only Posts You Should Be Restacking (If You Want More Readers)

“After you publish a post, how many times do you share or promote it?”

Asking my community, the response startled me.

Not because 95% of people either didn’t share it or shared it a single time. But because these same writers were a single click away from becoming more visible—just like I was.

Luckily, Substack makes sharing posts simple.

We’re already doing it. Writers fill their Notes feed sharing and restacking other people’s work—completely neglecting to promote their own work.

That changes today.

Here’s How The Top 5% Of Writers Are Getting In Front Of More Readers.

If you want more readers, you need to share your posts.

Here are 7 ways to promote your long-form content.

#1: Promotional Note.

Pique curiosity and encourage reading.

After my posts go live, I write a short note linking readers to them.

Try this:

• Write a note and include the link.

• Find an impactful quote/portion from the post that demands attention.

• Copy/paste your lead as the note.

• Use ChatGPT to write a “promotional” note for you.

Here are some examples.

#2: The 1-Click Restack.

All it takes is a single click to share.

Open your post, tap the restack button, and the post is dropped into your notes feed. This is the simplest way to share and I’d dare say it’s non-negotiable.

Here’s an example of how this looks in the notes feed.

#3: Impactful Quotes/Passages.

Stop the scroll with an impactful quote—without using Canva.

When you highlight a portion of text and then hit restack, Substack creates a pretty quote post as you see below. You can adjust the design and add a note as well.

Here’s an example of a shared quote.

#4: Cross-platform Repurposing.

Increase distribution through repurposing content.

In my ‘No-Hustle Substack Growth’ article I shared how I’ve gone to the extremes of repurposing content leading to burnout. That’s not what I recommend here.

However, if you have a pre-existing audience on another platform such as LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Facebook, or even a separate email list… sharing your long-form content provides increased exposure.

My ‘lazy’ repurposing has generated over 1,500 views, 100 subscribers, and $632.06 in revenue (from Medium).

Substack stats by author.

You can read more about my lazy repurposing strategy here.

#5: Back-catalog Sharing.

Breathe new life into your old posts.

I’ve posted over 100 long-form articles on Substack. The chance that someone who discovers me today goes to my archives and back to something I posted 18 months ago? Nearly zero.

Realizing I had an archive, of what I’d argue good content, I began sharing old posts. To my surprise every time I do, I get new engagement. I know this because I’ll receive comments on those posts.

Sharing my old(er) content is a daily routine for me.

Each morning as I sit in my car before heading to the gym, I open my Substack app, go to my posts, scroll back in time, and smash the restack button on an older post.

#6: The Restack Redo.

You can restack the same article, twice.

After you restack an article, the option disappears. I thought you could only do it once. However, when you tap “Remove Restack”, you can hit the button again. This restacks it just as it did the first time.

Two clicks is all it takes to bump it up again. And I do this with my top posts, especially posts that generate sales.

#7: Sharable Images.

Substack generates graphics for you to share.

When your post goes live, images are ready—they can be delivered straight to your inbox. These are ideal for cross-platform sharing in places like Instagram. They provide an easy way to promote your posts.

Substack takes this a step further with video and live content. By auto-generating clips you can share on, or off the platform, they try to make it as easy as possible to get more readers to see your content.

Substack sharable images.

Substack Gives Us The Tools—We Just Need To Use Them.

You restack other people—why not yourself?

Increasing your views could be as simple as 1 or 2 clicks of your mouse. And those couple of clicks can make a meaningful difference in the early days of your publication.

I didn’t leverage notes or share my posts for my first 10 months and my growth paid the price.

Here’s what I recommend.

• Share each post at least 1-3 times.

• Do this over 1-2 weeks.

Every day, I share an old post from my archives. I suggest you do the same.

Notes are controlled by the algorithm.
Posts aren’t—they’re a direct line to someone’s inbox.

That’s the power of Substack—but we need to build a list of inboxes to land in, first. That’s why it’s imperative to share your posts. More than once ;-)

Hope this helps.

Landon

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PS: If you found this helpful, would you do me a quick favor and restack it? Sharing spreads the message and motivates me to keep writing practical content to help you thrive in your online business.