Category: SubstackCategory: Substack

Emma Gannon, an absolute super star on Substack recently posted, “we all know 1k Substack subscribers is worth 100k in IG followers.”

Emma is right.

You can follow 2,000 people on Instagram, but it’s near impossible to subscribe to 2,000 newsletters – your inbox would explode! The people who subscribe trust you with their email address, and that’s a big deal in 2026.

But don’t get it twisted – they’re not your Substack subscribers, they’re your email subscribers.

Platforms come and go, but your email list lasts (almost) forever.

Don’t rely on one platform for all your growth.

“it’s up to us to grow our own publications, and that’s true whether we’re using Substack, Ghost, Beehiiv, Buttondown or anything else.” Simon K Jones

Once we start blaming an algorithm or a platform for our “lack of new subscribers,” we’re in trouble.

Get on podcasts, attend IRL events, get on other people’s newsletters – putting all your growth into Substack’s hands is risky business.

If you go by this post, “How Instagram creators are bringing their followers to Substack,” there are so many ways to get your Instagram followers to subscribe to your Substack newsletter! Video! Images! Text! Get creative!

In reality, however, your Instagram followers are likely very content to stay on Instagram.

Consider that best selling author Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat Pray Love) has 1.2M Instagram followers, but just 203,000 subscribers. Sure, 203,000 email subscribers is great, but it’s still less than 20% of her following on Instagram.

Artist David Speed from today’s Substack Live:

“From all of these brilliant minds that I’ve had on (the podcast), the overwhelming thing that comes through is just keep making stuff. Because through the things that you will make, you will process the world around you. You will learn what resonates with people and what doesn’t. You’ll find your niche. You’ll find your groove. You’ll find your people. And you’ll get better at what you do. So just keep making stuff. I think make is the most important word that we have. And it is my mission on this planet to encourage people to make stuff. Make as many things as you can. Leave behind a legacy of beautiful things that you’ve made. Make, make, make.”

Listen to the full interview to hear us talk about:

• How 3K email subscribers is mightier than 160,000 Instagram followers
• Small in-person events build trust
• David’s monthly free studio paint sessions in London
• Start a podcast (and listen to David’s Creative Rebels Podcast)
• Plant flags everywhere
• AI slop makes people want to get back to real human-created work

Substack began as a place to send newsletters to email subscribers.

Substack has since become its own bustling social media space, complete with the communal unease and tension of trying to “win” on the platform. This gets people complaining about a lack of likes or comments on their posts.

We have to remember, though, that not everybody reads newsletters in the Substack app, or on the Substack website, which is the only place to “like” a post or leave a comment.

To do either, readers must visit the Substack website or open the Substack app, a platform optimized to increase paid memberships, whether yours or someone else’s publication.

Substack needs eyeballs, and every writer sending a newsletter is how they get ’em.