How To Use Substack, for Readers
For those new to Substack: a brief primer on what it even is, why you might really like it, and how the heck to use it.
Note: I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the popularity of this post! Since Substack’s become even a bigger deal since I first wrote this piece in April 2024, I’ve added a few things I’ve learned as a reader and writer to make it more helpful. Updated: March 18, 2025.
This post goes out to those asking, “What is this Substack thing and do I care about it?” The answers to these questions are, “Let me tell you what I know about it,” and, “I suspect you will.”
This is still not the definitive piece on Substack but it’s enough to get the Substack-curious started.
tl;dr: What Readers Need to Know About Substack
Substack is an ad-free platform where writers publish newsletters to their readers via email. These newsletters also live online at each writer’s individual Substack. As a platform, it prioritizes words and ideas and has curated a (mostly) distraction-free experience. You can subscribing for free to any newsletter, and upgrade to paid for writers you especially like or whose paid offerings you’re interested in. As a platform, it improved my life as a reader well before it changed my life as a writer. Plain and simple, if you like words and thoughtful ideas, you’ll like Substack.
Looking for more detail? Read on, Reader…
Why I’m writing this for you:
This article is not a plug for my own Substack, although I’d be happy to have you subscribe if you feel so inclined. (My Substack is named “More to Your Life” and I write a daily short column about freedom, exploration, life in general, and creating work and a life you actually like. There are stories.)
This article is also not a plug for Substack in general. Substack is simply a digital platform made real by the people who write and read on it.
I’m writing this piece for my own readers and friends who ask, “But what is Substack?” It’s even for those of you who don’t know if you even care. You might be surprised by how much benefit there is to you knowing and participating a little bit.
It is actually my positive experience as a reader that convinced me to move my writing to Substack. That same experience motivates me to share what it is, what’s wonderful about it—for readers, and what readers might want to know.
What is Substack?
Feel free to Google this question if you’re into that sort of thing, but here’s my brief description for your reading pleasure:
Substack is a digital platform for writers to reach readers interested in their ideas. They do this primarily via email delivery of newsletters.
Said newsletters live in “homes” (individual Substacks) owned by individual writers in a larger “city” called Substack. The website Substack.com is like the home for all of the individual Substacks. Make sense?
There is an app as well, but plenty of people just use the website, Substack.com or individual Substack URLs.
My experiences as a reader:
The first Substack I followed was The Free Press. Bari Weiss gained notoriety when she resigned with sadness from The New York Times. I knew nothing about Substack but found her writing and journalistic exploration insightful. Joining her Substack email list, I quickly valued it enough to pay $5/month to support her writing, something I’ve continued to do for years.
The Substack part of this relationship was quickly forgotten, though. Bari’s newsletters came to my email inbox which is where I read them. I never visited her website on Substack, and didn’t know or care too much what my paid subscription got me besides paid-only content from her team in my inbox.
Years after subscribing to The Free Press, I found myself subscribed to newsletters like those from Satya Robyn, a Buddhist teacher and therapist writing about self-compassion, and Frederik Gieschen, writing about “money, meaning, and the mystery of life.” Not just subscribed, but actively reading and appreciating their thoughtfulness of writing in my inbox different from social media soundbites and marketing messages.
In a busy inbox, I found myself opening their Substack newsletter emails with almost a sigh of relief. It was refreshing to read visually clean emails containing new ideas from interesting people—who weren’t ramping up to sell something with each post.
It was like walking into a well-lit, cozy, tidy room after being at an overstimulating carnival.
This was especially true when contrasted with the many AI-written or AI-influenced marketing messages in my inbox. You know the ones. Their subject lines might read something like: “BUY THIS AND CHANGE YOUR LIFE!” or “X IS RUINING YOUR BUSINESS!” or “DOUBLE YOUR INCOME WITH THIS SIMPLE HACK.”
In contrast, every touchpoint with Substack and the newsletters I received was…simple. Clean. Thoughtful. Personal. It was like walking into a well-lit, tidy, and calm room after being at an overstimulating carnival.
But why does it feel different?
Here are my reasons for why the Substack experience feels so different than other email newsletters:
Substack newsletters (“Substacks”) are, by and large, written by writers who deeply care about the written word and who invest a lot of time into their craft.
The platform limits stylistic choices. This keeps the reader experience simple, clean, and consistent across Substack newsletters and sites.
Substack is ad-free. They occasionally promote other newsletters to us readers but they do it so unobtrusively that I don’t mind.
It facilitates a direct relationship between writer and reader with delivery to your inbox, versus prioritizing a reader’s engagement on the platform itself.
Subscribing to a Substack:
Here are three things to know about interacting with Substack + Substack newsletters:
1. Substack:
Yes, this is the name of the platform. But it is also how writers and readers refer to specific newsletters. Examples: “Are you on my Substack?” or “Do you have a Substack?” or “My Substack is called More to Your Life.”
2. Subscribe:
We’ve all signed up for email newsletters, usually when downloading a freebie on someone’s website. You do the same thing when you subscribe to someone’s Substack, and sometimes receive a free bonus included in your initial email to thank you for subscribing. Pretty self-explanatory so far.
You can subscribe on the Substack platform or through an author’s website if they have a separate one from their Substack website.
A few notes about subscribing:
When you subscribe, you are subscribing to a particular author’s particular newsletter and not to all of Substack. Subscribing means you’ll get any new post or article from that author emailed to you in your email inbox.
When you enter your email address, you’ll get taken to a screen where you can choose to become a Paid subscriber or Founding member. You can easily choose Free and decide later if you ever want to become a paid subscriber.
You may see prompts to “Follow __ people” or “Subscribe for free to ____ publications.” These are readers and writers the writer of this particular Substack has recommended. Feel free to uncheck or “Skip for now” your way through all the prompts. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to here :-)
3. Paid subscriber:
You do not need to pay for most Substacks. There are some authors on Substack who do not publish any free articles, in which case you’d need to pay in order to receive their newsletters. But most authors send at least a couple newsletters each month to all subscribers (free and paid).
Why would you ever want to pay?
For each of the Substacks I pay for, I do it to show my support for their writing or to get the things they offer only to paid subscribers. Some I’ve waited months to start paying for, some I’ve paid for straight-away.
Important note:
When you become a paid subscriber, you are supporting that particular newsletter, not all of Substack. The platform takes 10% and the rest goes directly to the author.
In my early days of writing on Substack, I shared 1-2 posts/week with both free and paid subscribers. Only paid subscribers, though, could comment and access the archives.
Now that I’ve found my writerly stride, I’m sharing short, daily, story-filled columns with all my subscribers. Paid subscribers get additional perks, like a monthly Toolkit eBook or guide, an advice column, and behind-the-scenes audio embeds. I love all my subscribers, and know that not everyone is ready for or interested in what I offer to my MTYL Insiders.
How do I find people on Substack?
Great question! Explore the possibilities for yourself at Substack.com. You can search by topics or persons you’re interested in, and you can choose for it to search Posts, Publications or People.
When you click on the name of a publication, you’ll be invited to subscribe. But you can always click “No thanks” (or some version of this) beneath the subscription box to read more about the author first or see what types of things they write.
I’ve personally subscribed prematurely to many Substacks, only to find that I liked one article but not their newsletter in general. It’s easy to unsubscribe when you find it’s not for you.
One final note about looking for Substacks to follow and why you even would: It can feel like you’ve found a new kindred-spirit friend when you find a writer you really like. One who writes about things you care about, in a way that resonates with you. It’s pretty dang cool.
As a reader and as a writer, I experience both sides of this relationship—corresponding with writers via comments or email, and doing the same with my readers. And my life is richer for both.
Bonus things to know:
Notes. Notes is the social-media-esque feed on Substack. As more writers and marketing writers—there’s a big difference between the two—flock to the platform, not everything is as organic and lovely as it once was. But it’s like a zillion times better than social feeds elsewhere. Why? Because it’s more about ideas than self-promotion. “Notes” is the feed you see on the main page of Substack.com.
Following vs Subscribing. If you spend time on Substack.com and want to see an author’s Notes, but don’t want to subscribe (yet), you can follow them by clicking the 3 dots by their name, then Follow. If you subscribe to someone, you will get receive their emails, and you will see their Notes in your Substack home feed.
Find new writers. You can explore new writers and topics by using the buttons at the top of the Substack.com browser window.
Conclusion:
Okay, I know that was a lot!
The great news is that you don’t have to know a thing about Substack to easily receive newsletters from any author via Substack. You’ve read this article because there was some curiosity about the platform, and hopefully this helps you feel more at home exploring and engaging with it.
If you, like me, appreciate things that buck the trends and hustle of our time, you’re likely to enjoy the wonderful world of writers and readers on Substack.
And if you’d like to be part of my corner of Substack and receive my newsletter for dreamers about work, money and living with purpose and adventure, I’d love to have you.
What did I miss?
I’m certainly not a Substack ambassador and I’m not building a business about how to start writing on Substack, I’m just genuinely curious if there are still questions you would like answered.
Also, if there are things you as a reader love about it that I missed, please share in comments or via email.
See you around Substack…