How to Use Substack in 2026: Set Up, Publish, Grow and Get Paid, Step by Step

To use Substack, create a free account at substack.com and start a publication (a name, a subdomain and a one-line description), write your first post in the editor and send it to your subscribers' inboxes and the web at the same time. Then grow it with Recommendations, Notes and your own network, and when readers want more, connect Stripe under Settings → Payments to sell subscriptions. Publishing is free; Substack keeps 10% of what readers pay you.

This guide walks through each step with the menu paths Substack uses in October 2026, plus a launch checklist you can tick off as you go.

#What Substack is

Substack is a newsletter and publishing platform: every post you write is both a web page on your publication and an email to your subscribers, and readers can subscribe for free or pay. It also has an app where readers follow writers, read Notes (short posts) and discover new publications through Recommendations.

That network is the main reason to choose Substack over a plain email tool. Substack says more than half of new subscribers on the platform come from its built-in network (about page).

#Step 1: Set up your publication

If you're moving from another platform, Substack's importer takes posts from WordPress, Medium, Ghost, Mailchimp, beehiiv, Tumblr and Blogspot: Settings → Import/Export → Import posts, then paste your old blog's URL (Substack help). Anything with an RSS feed works too, though some feeds only include the latest 20 posts.

#Step 2: Write and publish your first post

The editor is deliberately plain: headings, images, embeds, buttons, polls and a paywall marker. Write for the inbox first. Short paragraphs and a clear subject line matter more than formatting.

Before you publish, Substack asks three questions:

1. Who gets it? Everyone, paid subscribers only, or founding members only. For paid posts you can add a paywall partway through so free readers see a preview, and offer a free trial on that paywall.
2. How is it delivered? Sent by email and published on the web (the usual choice), or only one of the two.
3. When? Now, or scheduled for a date and time.

A good first post explains what the publication is, who it's for and what readers will get each week. Link it from your About page so new visitors can read it.

Running more than one topic? Create Sections under Settings → Sections → Add section. Each section is its own newsletter at yourname.substack.com/s/section-name, and subscribers choose which ones they get. You can attach a podcast to a section and publish it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast apps.

#Step 3: Grow your readership

Growth on Substack comes from four places. Use all of them, in this order.

• Your existing network. Your first 100 subscribers will almost certainly be people who already know you. Send a personal email to friends and colleagues, post the launch on the social platforms you already use, and add your Substack link to your bio.
• Recommendations. In your publication's navigation, open Recommendations → Add Recommendation, pick publications you respect and write a short "why I recommend" blurb. Your picks appear to new subscribers right after they sign up, on your homepage and in digest emails, and recommended writers are prompted to recommend you back (Substack help). The Recommendations tab shows how many free subscriptions each one has sent you.
• Notes. Notes are short posts (text, links, images, quotes) that appear in the Substack app's Home feed for your subscribers and the wider network. They are not emailed, so post them as often as you like, including restacks of other writers' posts.
• Subscriber referrals. Under Settings → Growth, turn on the subscriber referral program. Paid publications start with default rewards of complimentary paid subscriptions at 2, 10 and 25 referrals; free publications set their own rewards.

Outside Substack, the strongest signal for search engines is links. Substack's own SEO advice is to get your publication linked from other sites, guest posts and your social profiles. If you have a website, embed your sign-up form: Settings → Growth features gives you an iframe code that works on WordPress, Squarespace and most sites (not Medium).

#Step 4: Turn on paid subscriptions

Turn payments on once you have readers who would miss you. Until then, Pledges (on by default for free publications) let readers promise to pay a suggested price; they are charged only if you later enable payments.

To start selling:

1. Go to Settings → Payments and click Connect with Stripe. Stripe asks for your identity and bank details.
2. Set a monthly price (minimum $5), a yearly price (minimum $30) and, optionally, a founding member plan priced above the yearly one.
3. Toggle Enable payments. Readers see paid options only after this step.

Payments land in your bank through Stripe, usually within about 48 hours of each transaction. Substack keeps 10%, and Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 per card payment plus a 0.7% Billing fee. Readers can also subscribe in the iPhone app, where Apple's fee applies and in-app prices are adjusted up by default. For real prices from popular newsletters and a take-home calculator, see how much a Substack subscription costs.

Two settings to know about: Boost (in Settings) lets Substack show automatic discounts and offers, by default a 20% discount to engaged free readers, which lowers what each converted reader pays. And price changes only apply to new subscribers.

#Step 5: Track what's working

Your dashboard shows subscribers, opens and views for each post. Three numbers deserve a weekly look:

• New subscribers by source, to see whether growth comes from Recommendations, Notes, search or your own posts.
• Free subscriptions per recommendation in the Recommendations tab, to know which writers to thank and which partnerships to deepen.
• Earnings, at yourname.substack.com/publish/stats/earnings, which mirrors your Stripe payouts after fees.

#Substack launch checklist

#When Substack isn't the right tool

Substack is built for a newsletter. It's a weaker fit when:

• You want to keep 100% of subscription revenue and control the design. Ghost charges a flat fee instead of 10%; our Ghost vs Substack comparison shows where the break-even sits.
• You need a full website with pages, a store or plugins. See Substack vs WordPress.
• You want readers from Google to your own domain. Substack gates sitemaps and Search Console verification behind growth, and without a custom domain your posts build substack.com's authority, not yours. A blog on your domain does better for search; we compare the two in Substack vs blog.

Many writers run both: a newsletter on Substack and a blog on their own domain for search traffic. Outrank Blogs hosts that blog for free on your domain and collects sign-ups you can send to any email tool. If you'd rather start with a blog from scratch, our guide to starting a blog for free covers the other options.

#FAQ

#Is Substack free to use?

Yes. Creating a publication, publishing posts and emailing any number of free subscribers costs nothing. If you sell subscriptions, Substack keeps 10% of each payment and Stripe charges its processing fees; a custom domain is an optional one-time $50.

#Do I need a website to use Substack?

No. Your Substack publication is a website: every post gets its own page at yourname.substack.com (or your custom domain) and an archive readers can browse. If you already have a site, you can embed a Substack sign-up form on it.

#How do I make money on Substack?

Connect Stripe under Settings → Payments, set monthly and yearly prices (at least $5 and $30), and toggle on Enable payments. You then choose, post by post, what is free and what is for paid subscribers. Some writers also earn through founding member plans and sponsorships.

#Can I import my email list into Substack?

Yes. In your dashboard go to Subscribers → Add subscribers → Add subscribers by upload and upload a .csv, .xlsx or .ods file. You must confirm the people opted in; duplicates and invalid addresses are skipped, and paid subscribers from another platform can be given a trial.

#How do I get my first subscribers on Substack?

Start with people who already know you: a personal email to friends and colleagues, then posts on your social accounts. Inside Substack, recommend other publications (writers are prompted to recommend you back), post Notes regularly and turn on subscriber referrals.