Should You Build Your Brand on Substack?
Substack has become one of the most popular platforms for writers, creators, and online entrepreneurs to build an audience and earn money through paid subscriptions. But before you commit, the smart question to ask is whether you should actually build your brand on Substack or use it as one piece of a larger system you control. The honest answer: Substack is an excellent asset when used correctly and a serious risk when treated as your only platform. This is the complete breakdown of how to use Substack as a creator in 2026, the three rules I follow before recommending it to clients, and the platform mistakes that wipe out creators every single year.
By Dylan Madden
Substack has gone from a niche newsletter platform to one of the most talked-about places to build an online audience. More creators are posting there every month. More money is being made there than ever before. And more people are asking the same question: should I actually build my brand on Substack, or is this another platform trap?
Short answer: Substack is a great asset inside a larger system. It’s a bad single point of failure. The right way to use it is as one piece of infrastructure inside a broader content engine that you actually own.
Here’s the full breakdown, including who Substack is actually for, the three rules I’d follow if you decide to publish there, and the platform mistakes I’ve watched cost creators their entire income overnight.
What Is Substack?
Table of Contents
Substack is a publishing platform built around long-form writing, podcasts, video, and short-form posts. It functions as a hybrid between a blog, a newsletter, and a social media platform. Writers can publish for free or behind a paid subscription tier, and Substack handles the email delivery, payments, and discovery infrastructure.
In the last two years, Substack has expanded beyond pure writing. It now supports video, audio, short posts (similar to X or LinkedIn posts), recommendations between writers, and a built-in discovery feed. This is what’s pulling new creators in. The platform now offers some of the same algorithmic discovery you’d expect from social media, while still maintaining the direct-to-inbox connection that newsletters are known for.
In other words, Substack has become more useful and also more risky than it used to be. Useful because it can grow your audience. Risky because you’re now subject to platform algorithm decisions, the same way creators on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok have been for years.
The Platform Trap Most Creators Don’t See Until It’s Too Late
Before we get to whether you should build on Substack, you have to understand the trap that has wiped out more online businesses than any other single factor.
The trap is building your entire brand on a platform you don’t own.
I’ve watched creators making $50,000 a month on a single platform lose their entire income overnight because of one algorithm change. No warning. No appeal. The system that distributed their work just stopped distributing it. Their audience didn’t disappear, but their access to that audience did.
This has happened on Instagram. It’s happened on YouTube. It’s happened on TikTok. It’s happened on X, on LinkedIn, on Pinterest, on every platform that has ever existed. It is happening right now to creators who didn’t see it coming.
Substack is not immune to this. If you build your entire brand on Substack and Substack changes how it surfaces your content, you’ll be in the same position those creators were in. It doesn’t matter how good your writing is. It doesn’t matter how loyal your readers are in their hearts. If the platform stops showing your work, your business stops growing.
This isn’t a reason to avoid Substack. It’s a reason to use it correctly.
Should You Build Your Brand on Substack? The 3 Rules I’d Follow
Here are the three non-negotiable rules I walk clients through when they’re deciding whether and how to use Substack.
Rule 1: Substack Should Never Be Your Only Platform
Substack is best used as a destination, not as a discovery engine.
The right architecture: have one primary social media platform that brings in new audience. That platform directs people to your Substack. Your Substack then directs people to a self-owned email list and your own paid products.
In flow form, it looks like this:
- Primary social platform (X, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, whichever fits your strengths) where new people find you
- Substack where they go to read your longer work and subscribe
- Your own email list and products where the actual business gets built
If you skip any step in this flow, you have a fragile system. If you skip step 1, you have no growth engine. If you skip step 2, you lose the longer-form depth that builds real trust. If you skip step 3, you don’t actually own anything and you’re one algorithm change away from starting over.
Rule 2: Only Use Substack If You Actually Want to Be a Writer
This is the rule most people ignore and pay for.
I see creators jumping to every new platform the way hamsters jump on every new wheel. They don’t ask whether the platform fits who they are. They just chase whatever is hot right now.
Substack is not a generic “build your audience” platform. It is specifically a platform that rewards writers and serves readers. The people who succeed on Substack are people who actually like to write, who write regularly, and who treat the writing itself as the product.
If you naturally want to write, if you can sustain a regular publishing rhythm, and if you have something worth saying at length, Substack is one of the best tools available right now. You can sell paid newsletters. You can publish books in serial form. You can build a paid subscription business around your thinking.
If you hate writing, if you can’t sustain a rhythm beyond a few weeks, and if your strengths are visual or verbal rather than written, Substack is the wrong platform for you no matter how much traction other people are getting. Pick the platform that matches your actual strengths and double down there instead.
Rule 3: Always Have Your Own Newsletter
This is the rule that protects you from everything else going wrong.
Substack hosts your subscribers on Substack’s infrastructure. You can export your email list, which is genuinely useful, but you don’t have the same level of control you’d have with a newsletter you run on a platform like Kit, MailerLite, or Beehiiv.
I personally used Kit and have for years. It’s simple and gives me everything I and my clients need for our newsletters. Here’s a link to check it out.
The strongest setup is to have your own newsletter alongside your Substack. Even if you only email that list once a week, it’s an asset you fully own. You decide the deliverability. You decide the formatting. You decide what happens if any platform you use ever changes its policies.
A simple alternative or supplement is a Telegram channel. Many creators run a Telegram channel as a backup direct line to their audience, completely outside any algorithm or platform’s gatekeeping.
The principle behind this rule: anything important to your business should be backed up on something you own. Substack is not something you fully own. Your own newsletter is.
Why Substack Is Still Worth Using
If the rules above are followed, Substack offers real, specific advantages worth taking advantage of.
Audience discovery. Substack’s recommendation engine genuinely surfaces new creators to existing readers. Many creators report that 30 to 60 percent of their growth comes from other Substack writers recommending them. That’s free distribution at a scale most platforms don’t offer.
A built-in monetization system. Paid subscriptions on Substack are seamless. You can offer a free tier and a paid tier, and Substack handles the payment processing, the gated content delivery, and the recurring billing. For writers, this is the fastest way to start charging for ongoing work without building your own tech stack.
Repurposing leverage. If you already produce written content for other platforms, Substack is a low-friction way to reach a different audience with that same content. Many writers cross-post X threads, blog posts, and email essays to Substack with minor adjustments and pick up new readers each time.
A platform built around readers, not feed-scrollers. Substack’s audience is significantly more likely to actually read what you publish than the audiences on most social platforms. The platform attracts people who want depth. That’s a rare and valuable audience to have access to.
Who Should Build on Substack (And Who Should Skip It)
To make the decision concrete:
Substack is right for you if:
- You enjoy writing and can sustain a regular publishing schedule
- You want to sell paid newsletters, ebooks, or paid subscriptions
- You’re already building an audience elsewhere and want a deeper destination for them
- You’re willing to follow the three rules above and use Substack inside a larger system
Substack is wrong for you if:
- You hate writing or struggle to publish consistently
- You’re looking for a single platform to build everything on
- Your strengths are visual (Instagram, YouTube) or verbal (podcasts) rather than written
- You’re treating Substack as a magic shortcut that replaces actually building a real audience
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you really make money on Substack?
Yes. Substack writers make money primarily through paid subscriptions, which typically start at $5 to $10 per month per subscriber. Substack takes 10 percent of subscription revenue. Top writers on the platform earn anywhere from a few hundred dollars per month to seven figures per year. The amount depends almost entirely on audience size, niche, and how consistently you publish.
How is Substack different from a regular newsletter?
A regular newsletter is delivered through a service like ConvertKit, Beehiiv, or MailerLite, and you fully control the list and the platform. Substack is a hosted platform that handles delivery for you and adds social features like recommendations, a public feed, and discoverability. Substack is faster to start with. A self-owned newsletter is more durable long-term.
Can you export your Substack subscribers?
Yes. Substack allows full export of your subscriber list at any time, which means you can migrate to another platform if you choose to. This is one of the better policies in the creator platform space. Still, exporting your list does not give you the same level of ownership as having a list you control from day one.
Is Substack worth it for beginners?
Substack is a reasonable starting point for new writers because the technical barrier is very low. You can publish your first essay within an hour of signing up. The risk for beginners is treating Substack as the only platform and never building the broader audience system that creates real growth. Use it, but use it inside a larger plan.
What’s the best platform to pair with Substack?
The best pairing depends on your strengths. Writers who lead with personality or commentary do well pairing Substack with X. Writers in business, finance, or career niches often pair with LinkedIn. Writers in visual or lifestyle niches benefit from Instagram or YouTube. The key is to pick the social platform that fits your strengths, then funnel that audience to your Substack and from your Substack to your owned list.
The Big Picture
Every platform decision should pass one test: is this an asset I am building, or a rental I am operating?
Substack is a rental. So is every other platform. The same is true for Instagram, YouTube, X, and any platform that has ever existed or will ever exist.
Your business should not live in a rental. Your business should live in an asset you own (your email list, your products, your audience relationships). Platforms like Substack are the means of reaching new people. Owned assets are where the value compounds.
I work with clients across the world building online businesses, and the ones who internalize this distinction early are the ones who build durable income. The ones who don’t are the ones whose businesses can be ended by a single email from a platform they trusted too much.
Use Substack. Take advantage of its discovery, its monetization, and its audience. Just don’t bet your business on it. Bet your business on the things you actually own. Substack is a powerful piece of infrastructure. It’s not the foundation.
Always the best,
Dylan Madden
