7 AI Prompts to Help You Start and Succeed on Substack
I Transformed My Substack Into a 30K Subscriber Machine in 90 Days. Here are 7 AI Prompts to Help You Succeed on Substack
Welcome to another issue of Excellent AI Prompts. This issue is for those who want to start AND grow a newsletter using Substack’s platform.
As of March 2025, there are more than 5 million paid subscriptions on Substack, growing at approximately one million new subscribers per quarter. The platform has evolved from a simple newsletter tool into what industry analysts call an "unfair advantage" for creators who understand its mechanics.
The game has fundamentally changed. The Substack app has now surpassed recommendations as the top source of subscriber and revenue growth for publishers. Notes alone drives millions of subscriptions monthly, yet most creators treat it like an afterthought—a place to dump links rather than a sophisticated growth engine.
What separates the explosive growers from the eternal strugglers is that they understand that success on Substack is about being strategic within Substack's own ecosystem.
They leverage five core growth drivers:
Select a hot topic through thorough analysis.
Notes is a perpetual discovery engine (not just a social feed).
Recommendations are a compound growth multiplier.
Your audience is why you are here. Honor them.
Leverage Substack growth as a top-of-funnel driver to other products and services
THE PROBLEM
The average Substack creator makes three fatal errors that guarantee obscurity.
First, they choose topics based on personal interest without validating market demand. They write about "life lessons" or "random thoughts" while wondering why nobody subscribes. Without a sharp niche that intersects passion with proven demand, you're essentially publishing a diary that nobody asked to read.
Second, they treat Substack Notes like Twitter, posting sporadically, sharing links without context, failing to understand that on Notes, a single post can continue reaching new Substack users days or sometimes weeks later. They miss the fundamental difference: Notes rewards depth and conversation, not viral one-liners.
Third, they ignore Recommendations entirely or add random publications without strategy. Writers that make a recommendation are three times more likely to be recommended in return, yet most never activate this compound growth loop.
Fourth, they forget their audience exists. They write for themselves, ignore comments, never ask what readers actually want, and wonder why engagement flatlines. They treat subscribers like numbers instead of humans with specific problems seeking specific solutions.
Fifth, they view Substack as the end goal rather than the beginning. They obsess over subscriber counts while missing the opportunity to build a broader business ecosystem. They leave money on the table by not connecting their newsletter to courses, consulting, or digital products that could 10x their revenue, if revenue is the goal.
THE AI SOLUTION
Use AI as your strategic analyst. These seven prompts turn AI into your personal growth consultant, market researcher, and optimization engine, doing in minutes what would take weeks of manual analysis.
Each prompt addresses a specific growth bottleneck, from identifying your perfect niche intersection to engineering viral Notes that compound over time.
THE PROMPTS
Table of Contents
The Ikigai Niche Validator - Find your explosive growth intersection
The Heat Map Analyzer - Identify trending topics before saturation
The Notes Virality Engine - Engineer posts that compound for weeks
The Recommendation Network Optimizer - Build your growth coalition
The Publishing Cadence Calibrator - Find your sustainable sweet spot
The Profile Magnetizer - Convert browsers into subscribers instantly
The Compound Growth Tracker - Measure and amplify what works