If this Substack disappeared tomorrow, I’d lose 20,000 subscribers, two years of work, and the audience behind more than $225K in revenue.
What I wouldn’t lose is the knowledge of how I built it.
Two years ago, I had to test different ideas, adjust my positioning, and learn what actually moved the newsletter forward.
Today, I know what works and doesn’t work, so I’d reduce that learning curve.
If I had to rebuild as quickly as realistically possible, I’d follow a very specific order:
I wouldn’t start with hiring someone to design a logo, a complicated content calendar, or hours spent making my homepage look perfect.
I’d choose one audience, one recognizable topic, and one clear reason for those people to subscribe.
My test would be simple: Could a reader explain my newsletter to someone else in one sentence?
If not, I wouldn’t try to grow it yet.
Good writing matters, but it’s difficult to build a loyal audience when every post feels unrelated to the last one.
Readers should quickly understand what you write about, who it’s for, and why they should keep opening your emails.
Before I tried to reach more people, I’d make sure the right people immediately understood why they should stay.
I’d still publish one strong full post each week, but most of my daily writing time would go toward Notes.
I’d post consistently, join conversations, build relationships with other writers, and give interested readers a reason to visit my profile.
Until I reached my first 1,000 subscribers, I’d probably spend closer to 80% of my time writing and engaging on Notes and 20% creating full posts.
That doesn’t mean full posts matter less. They’re where readers learn to trust you and decide whether they want to keep hearing from you.
But full posts are primarily delivered to people who already subscribe. Notes give your ideas more opportunities to reach people who haven’t discovered your newsletter yet.
Great writing can’t grow your audience if the only people seeing it are already there.
My first goal wouldn’t be reaching 1,000 subscribers. (Repeat…my first goal would not be reaching 1,000 subscribers…)
That goes against all the common advice you’re going to read out there.
My first goal would be making my first sale before I got there.
A sale tells you something subscriber growth can’t: someone trusts your knowledge enough to pay for help applying it.
I made my first $1,000 through this newsletter with fewer than 500 subscribers.
If I had to start again, I’d pay close attention to the questions readers asked and create one useful product around a problem they already wanted solved.
I wouldn’t begin by building a large paid archive or promising more content every month.
I’d start with a guide, toolkit, workshop, template collection, or another focused resource that helped a specific reader get a specific result.
That first product wouldn’t need to replace my income. Its job would be to prove that I had built the right audience and understood what those readers needed.
Once I knew that, I could improve the product, create another one, and gradually build a meaningful income stream around the newsletter.
I wouldn’t spend weeks changing my design, creating complicated paid tiers, rebuilding my homepage, or trying to make every post sound brilliant.
Those things can feel productive because they give you something immediate to work on.
But none of them matters as much as building a newsletter people understand, helping new readers discover it, and giving the right people something useful to buy.
That’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned after two years on Substack: Writing is only the beginning.
You still have to help people find the writing. And if you want your newsletter to generate meaningful income, you eventually need to give those readers somewhere useful to go next.
That would be my entire plan if I had to start again:
Get clear. Get discovered. Make the first sale.
Those are the three parts of the system I teach across my Substack trainings.
The Substack Growth Masterclass helps you clarify your newsletter, build the foundation, and attract the right audience.
The Notes Growth Workshop gives you a repeatable system for getting discovered and consistently bringing new subscribers into your newsletter.
The Digital Product Masterclass helps you turn what you already know into a focused product your readers can purchase.
This month marks two years since I started this newsletter, and we’ve also crossed 20,000 subscribers.
📌 To celebrate, all three trainings are on sale through Monday, August 31, with a special bonus included in each.
You don’t need to do everything at once. Start with the part of the system you’re currently missing—or begin with the Substack Growth Masterclass if you still need the foundation.
If you’re ready to make 2026 your year, I’d love to have you join us below:
Explore the Substack-versary Sale
Keep writing, Wes
P.S. Most writers end up getting all three of my trainings and treating it like a system. You can start with Step One or go ahead and join One, Two, and Three for the system.
P.P.S. Don’t let subscriber metrics and numbers influence you too much. As long as you’re showing up and staying consistent, you’re going to find your people.
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