Your First Week Substack-ing in 2025: Insights from A New Substacker
Substack, a social media community and app
You’re reading Hobby Garden, a weekly newsletter for those seeking hobby communities, with a special focus on introverts. Here you’ll find information on hobby communities and how to participate in them. I’m Melba, a social psychologist turned artist and yoga teacher. Feel free to check out my website and socials.
Source: Similarweb, Substack.com data as of September 2025
Substack Was Founded as an Alternative to Other Social Media
In 2017, Chris Best, Jairaj Sethi, and Hamish McKenzie founded Substack, a social media community and app. They were interested in creating a space where writers can focus on their craft and not have to focus on adapting to social media algorithms. Substack’s headquarters are in San Francisco, California. Although not confirmed by its founders, the company name Substack may be a combination of the words sub (subscription) and stack (stack of publications).
As of March 2025, over 5 million people have paid Substack subscriptions. While subscriber numbers are lower than other social media apps such as Instagram, Substack is becoming a popular platform for writers, readers, artists, and content creators. Fifty-eight percent of traffic to Substack posts, even after promotions on other social media apps, comes directly from Substack subscribers.
Fifty-five percent of Substack users are from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom (5.6%) and Canada (3.5%). Slightly more men (50.1%) than women (49.8%) use Substack. Most subscribers are between the ages of 25 - 34 (23.9%). Eighty-two percent of subscribers use Substack’s audio and video functions, which include listening to podcasts and viewing videos embedded in posts.
The next section describes how you might use Substack as a subscriber or writer.
Source: Instagram @melbabuilds, 2023
Setting up Your Subscriber Account
Subscribers are readers, listeners, watchers, and participants. When you create a Substack account as a subscriber, you can stop there. You can casually follow writers or commit to subscribing to their publications, which are email newsletters. Some publications are completely free and others have content accessible only through a paid subscription.
Depending on a publication’s settings, subscribers can like and comment on notes and comments, shape what writers write about, watch videos, listen to podcasts, contribute to chat threads, and participate in live video sessions.
Source: Instagram @melbabuilds, 2023
Setting up Your Writers Account
Writers are professionals, hobbyists, artists, and content creators—the later being concerning for some members of the Substack community due content creators sometimes relying on AI and writing sub-par posts. Writers can create notes or posts. Substack notes resemble Instagram posts and may be posted daily on the app. Substack posts are long form writing that can be blogs or articles that may be posted weekly on the app and through email newsletters
Your first subscribers will likely be friends, family, and those with compassion for newbies. Don’t be alarmed if the number of subscribers shown on your profile and publication pages is incorrect. Substack does not appear to update subscribers numbers in real-time.
Profile and publication pages may be one of the most important things to understand about Substack set-up for writers. Your profile page is generally for your name and biographical information. Your publication page is for a listing your publication name, sharing your posts, providing information on your writing niche, and explaining why someone should subscribe. Of course, how you use these pages is up to you. Also, you can revise your profile and publication pages whenever you want.
Source: Instagram @melbabuilds, 2023
Using the Substack in a Web Browser Gives Full Functionality
The Substack app is a convenient way for subscribers to read notes and posts, especially on the go. In contrast, as a writer you have full functionality through a web browser such as Chrome, Explorer, or Safari on your computer, tablet, or phone. Browsers can be used for creating and editing your website, profile, publications, notes, and posts. Also, it may be easier for subscribers and writers to understand how Substack works by using a browser because you can see all of its features.
Source: Instagram @melbabuilds, 2023
Substack Helps Writers Create and Maintain Communities
Substack is a community with many sub-communities. As Substack grows, you can find writers on almost any topic, connecting more people worldwide. Writers can enable chat functions and host live sessions, creating opportunities for engagement. Introverts may find Substack an especially cozy space where they can meet others with shared interests from the comfort of their homes.
If you are a writer, it may take a while to increase subscriber numbers and engagement for your publication. In the meantime, commit to posting regularly, continue to grow as a writer, subscribe to other publications, and leave thoughtful comments on posts.
Summary
I hope this post gives you a sense of what to expect from the community and app as new subscribers and writers. For experienced users, perhaps this gives you insight into newbies’ experiences with Substack.
Poll
Sources:
Best. C. & Sethi, J. (2024 December 12). Secrets of the Substack Algorithm. Chris Best’s Substack.
Mastrangelo, D. (2025 March 11). Substack surpasses 5 million paid subscriptions. The Hill. https://thehill.com/homenews/5188965-substack-surpasses-5-million-paid-subscribers/#:~:text=Substack%20has%20reached%20more%20than%205%20million,first%20time%2C%20the%20company%20said%20this%20week.
McKenzie, H. (2025 October 1). Substack is a Social Media App. Substack Post.
Similarweb. (2025 September). Substack.com Website Analysis for September 2025. https://www.similarweb.com/website/substack.com/#display-ads.
Source: Melba Reed Studio, 2025
Thank you for reading!
LEGO minifigure Melba turned down the music on her headphones and asked me to tell you that she is grateful (as I am) that you took the time to read this post. She realizes that her face does not show her enthusiasm. Minifig Melba apologizes for the random LEGO photography in this post. She just wanted to give you something interesting to look at while reading. ☺️
Coming soon: Meditation with Melba podcast episodes for meditation newbies. Episode 1 is a walking meditation on job loss with lo-fi music. Listen and subscribe on your favorite podcast app.
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Great post!