I Have 124 Substack Subscribers and 25 Unread "How to Grow" Emails. So I Cheated.

What happened when I asked Claude to read every Substack growth email I'd been hoarding — plus the 5 levers that actually move the needle (and the guilt that came with it)

I’ve been hoarding Substack growth hacks in my inbox.

Emails from creators talking about how they approach Substack. Others from Substack gurus with subject lines like “573 Subscribers from 3 Notes”.

They were sitting there…a growing pile of hope.

Hope that I would somehow find time to read them all.

Hope that they would help me find the “secret” to success on Substack.

25 emails sitting unread in my inbox, waiting.

Because my growth has been…pathetic anemic.

I made my first post in this publication on July 16 of last year.

(Not my first post ever, just my first since coming back to start Unscaled Solopreneur.)

In the past 11 months, I’ve published 47 posts and 400+ notes, and spent dozens of hours “engaging”.

For all that effort?

I’m sitting at 124 subscribers.

And I’m thankful for each of them. That’s a full conference room of people who chose to add me to their inboxes.

But it’s not what I expected.

And it’s led to second-guessing if I’m wasting my time here or if my content just isn’t that good.

Which led to a two-month pause in my posting.

Which I know kills momentum and any hope of ever turning this into something.

But THIS isn’t about THAT.

This is about what I did with those 25 emails.

I cheated.

I realized I was never going to have time to read them all, so I asked Claude Cowork to do it for me.

Go into my inbox and my promotions in my email and find all the emails about Substack/Substack growth, and create PKM notes for each (well, the ones that have something worth while - if the good stuff is behind a paywall then ignore it) and save them in my PKM folder. Then write up one summary doc for me to review about the 80/20 actionable tactics/ideas that can move me forward the best with my substack publication. Once you’ve read each email, mark it Read and archive it with label Newsletter.

That was my prompt.

A few minutes later, I had:

• 19 summary notes in my PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) folder that I can come back to when that magical time appears

• A nice write-up that took me 3 minutes to read and gave me actionable ideas

• And my inbox was that much cleaner.

(19 summary notes because 5 of those emails kept the meaty part behind a paywall or were purely promotional, and one wasn’t about Substack but got caught up in Claude’s enthusiasm.)

The 5 levers that move 80% of the needle

Here’s what Claude distilled from those 20 emails as the top 5 things to focus on (word-for-word from Claude):

1 - Cross-recommendations are the growth engine — run them like outreach

Every writer who grew fast credits Substack Recommendations and peer cross-promo over solo posting. Recommend 6–8 aligned writers, then send personal reciprocal-recommendation DMs and track them in a sheet. Pick mid-sized, actively growing peers — not whales (big-name swaps rarely pay back).

2 - Notes is the discovery channel — batch it, and kill the link-drops

Bare “here’s my new post” link notes are the most-posted and worst-performing format. Win with standalone, value-in-the-note posts (a specific claim + the actual usable prompt/phrase, under ~60 words, no click needed). Batch a week of them on Sunday with AI from your own top-performing patterns — then hand-edit every one.

3 - Fix your conversion leaks before writing one more issue

A 10-minute audit beats a month of new posts. Rewrite the welcome email (your highest open rate ever, 70–80%) to set expectations and link your best post. Pin a “Start Here” post chosen by subscriber conversion, not likes (check in an incognito window). Rewrite the About page around the reader’s problem, not your résumé.

4 - Run the publication as a product with one promise

Write the one sentence a reader would use to defend their subscription, and filter every post idea through it. Split posts into a conversion engine (build-in-public, real outputs) and a retention engine (reflection/identity), and judge each by its own job. The promise lives above topic, format, and frequency.

5 - Monetize on purpose — pick a model and build the ladder

Two proven paths: (a) tiered subscriptions that sell outcomes, not access, pushing annual; or (b) keep everything free and sell one-time digital products ($47–$197) sourced from your most-asked questions. Either way, build a relationship ladder (free → low-ticket → coaching/services) and sell contextually inside posts, not in separate blasts.

What to do with this

Claude helpfully turned this into a To Do list for me, focused on the highest leverage, lowest effort tasks.

I can already tell the hardest is going to be the one-sentence promise.

I’ve cycled through various ideas about what this publication is about and who it’s for.

That mushiness is a good part of why my growth here has felt like climbing a mountain with 50-pound weights tied to each leg.

But it’s the clarity I need to find.

Claude thinks it’ll take 20 minutes, I’m not so sure.

But here are the 6 to-dos Claude identified for me:

1. Write your one-sentence promise. Tape it above your idea list and use it as a filter 20 min

2. Run the leak audit: rewrite the welcome email, re-pin a “Start Here” post by conversion, open it logged-out to see what a stranger sees ~15 min

3. Make a list of 8–10 mid-sized, actively-growing peers in your lane; recommend the best fits; DM 5 of them personally for a reciprocal rec. Start a tracking sheet 45 min

4. Batch next week’s Notes from your own top performers — standalone value, zero bare link-drops. Schedule, then hand-edit 30 min

5. Rewrite the About page to open inside the reader’s problem with one honest turning-point story 17 min

6. Pick your monetization model and draft one offer (or one “window post” with the paywall after the core insight) 30 min

Was I wrong to do this?

Part of me feels bad.

The folks who wrote those emails put their own time and effort into them, and I fed them into an AI wood-chipper and pulled out a few highlights so I didn’t have to read them all.

Now, to be fair, I don’t do this all the time. I’ve read lots of posts by each of those authors.

But it was either this or archive them all without reading them because my inbox monster was just getting too hairy and needed a trim.

I do want to give credit, though, so I’ve linked the original posts below so you can click through to read them if you have more time than I do.

Now it’s up to me (and you)

Wrong or right, I got something useful out of the exercise.

Now I have to either do the things or keep whimpering about my lack of growth.

First up: writing a few versions of my one-sentence promise to kick around in my head over the next few days.

If you’re struggling like me, that’s probably a good place to start.

What's your one-sentence promise? If you've nailed yours (or you're flailing like me), drop it in the comments. I'll give you my thoughts (I’m better at helping others than I am at helping myself.)

The 19 posts I mined (go read the originals)

Derek Hughes - The Irresistible Writer

• 5 Substack Tactics That Don’t Work (I Used Every Single One)

• You Have Two Seconds to Hook Your Distracted Reader (Here’s the Sentence That Does It)

• Five Fixes That Turn Your About Page Into a Subscriber Magnet (In Only 17 Minutes)

• Substack Isn’t Random. These 5 Patterns Took Me To 7,000+ Subscribers

• How Ellen Went From 297 To 4,113 Subscribers Overnight. (The Post That Changed Everything For Her)

Anfernee - Solopreneur Code

• The Monetization System Every Substack Solopreneur Needs

• How I Spend 30 Minutes a Day on Engagement and Why It’s Driving 130+ Recommendations

• How to Build a Substack Audience Growth System That Works (Even With a Small List)

Claudia Faith - Wander Wealth

• My honest playbook after going from zero to 13,302 subscribers in 2 years

• Your Substack Has a Leak. Here’s How to Find It in 10 Minutes.

• I Batch 21 Substack Notes Every Sunday in 30 Minutes. Here’s How I Grow on Autopilot.

Kim Doyal

• The Product Framework That Changed How I Think About My Newsletter

• How to Grow Your Substack Without Living on It... Built for Freedom: Part 01

Karo (Product with Attitude) - Product with Attitude

• Publication as Product: How I Built a Substack Bestseller from 0

Mike Thomson - AI Solopreneur Hub

• 90% of Substack Writers Are Invisible Due to Images They Use

Jenny Ouyang - Build to Launch

• I built an AI research tool to study 9 Substack creators. Here’s what 3,000 notes show.

• Grow Your Substack with Claude: 3 Level Hacks for Busy Writers

• How to Grow on Substack in 2026: From 0 to 4,500 Subscribers

Wes Pearce - Escape the Cubicle

• How I Consistently Make $5K / Month on Substack (Without a Single Paid Subscriber)