Welcome to the year of Substack growth!

As always, I want to use my expertise as the leading Substack Strategist and platform of 30,000 subscribers to help you grow.

This post—thanks to the amazing Susie Bright, Michelle McQuaid, and Evie Wright—is a blockbuster.

Substack Recommendations

How not to approach Substack recommendations:

[*I’m using lame x emojis lest anyone accidentally takes these as actual recommendations on recommendations—I know you’re skimming]

* (x) Recommend a gazillion people hoping they recommend you back because some Subhacker told you to do it this way ❌

* Ask for recommendations from Substack writers and creators you haven’t read ❌

* Approach people whose Substack audiences don’t have crossover with yours ❌

* Think that you need “big” Substacks to recommend you to grow ❌

* Recommend someone forever ❌

How to approach recommendations: Take in all the wisdom below from Susie, Evie, Chelle, and me below 🟢

Real Substack guidance from Susie Bright:

* Rotate recommendations monthly—on a specific day, like the 15th (see Susie’s February recommendations here)

* Keep to a small number—around 5-6—rather than a long list

* Select people who are “peers” rather than the biggest names

* Have a philosophy (i.e., standards!) as to why and how you feature people

* Feature them; don’t expect a recommendation back

* Look for active Substack writers who have posted within the last couple months

* Write personal, thoughtful notes explaining why you’re recommending each person

* Announce new recommendations in Notes

* Use recommendations to build community and relationships

Real Substack guidance from Michelle McQuaid & Evie Wright:

* Create spreadsheet of potential collaborators in your niche (step-by-step approaches are below)

* Subscribe to and read them before recommending

* Focus on alignment rather than subscriber count

* Reach out with time-limited recommendation exchanges: 2 weeks to 1 month

* Track the metrics—Chelle and Evie have grown by 550 new subscribers through recommendations

* Add a former recommendations Resources page for past recommended Substacks you cycle out (see their Resources page here)

* Think of this as a collaboration, not some lame Instagram follow-for-follow

How to find people to recommend on Substack:

1. Using the Substack search tool:

* Go to your avatar in the upper right, click “home” (which is really Notes)

* Enter a relevant topic in the search bar

* Filter by people, Notes

* Hover over names to read their bios and short descriptions (another reason why you bio and short description are sooooo important—for expert help, go here)

2. Using Notes:

* Participate in the Notes Boost Challenge (through 3/31) and weekly Notes Boosts to find aligned writers

* Use the method above and filter for Notes

3. Using Google:

* Search [your topic] + Substack

* Look for “Best Articles” and “Related Substacks” sections

4. Additional Methods:

* Use ChatGPT to find Substack writers in your niche

* Check who’s recommending you and recommend them back (again, not in a lame follow-for-follow way)

How to manage Substack recommendations:

* Go to your Dashboard

* Click Settings

* Select Recommendations

* Click “Manage” to add/remove recommendations

* You can view the number of subscriptions generated from each recommendation (thank you, Necessary Salt by Joy Sullivan)

More Substack growth via recommendations tips:

* Please, please, don’t feel obligated to keep recommendations forever

* Use it as a way to build community on Substack

* It’s about collaboration, not scratching backs (there are back scratchers for that)

We’re all about real, meaningful growth at SW@W.

Be sure to subscribe to Susie Bright’s Journal for her amazingly immersive podcast and The ‘Good Girl’ Game Changers for their excellent resources!

Thank you Kathleen Lingo, Kelcey Ervick, Dr. Gena Gorlin, , and many others for tuning in. Join Substack Writers at Work for our next Substack Summit Live in the app every Monday.

P.S. I hope everyone reads this, including the bigger, wonderful Substacks.

» Spending just one hour a month to discover five new Substacks to recommend and having only five per month can change a Substack’s financial, professional, and creative existence.

And everyone, please restack this post so others can grow their Substacks.

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