How I Help Writers Grow on Substack (4 Clear Paths)
Stop hoping your Substack will blow up (it won't)
I thought Substack was simple.
Until I realised most writers don’t fail.
They drift.
They post consistently. They tweak headlines. They wait for momentum.
Six months later… nothing really moves. The subscriber count inches up. Income feels distant. Confidence gets quieter. And beneath it all sits the question no one says out loud:
What if I try again… and it still doesn’t work?
You don’t just want subscribers. You want proof this wasn’t a delusion. That your voice isn’t late. That this time it won’t fizzle out.
In 18 months, I built a Substack audience of 7,000+ readers, created multiple digital products, and turned my writing into consistent income. Enough to step back from my 9–5.
Not from luck. From structure.
So I built four clear stages to help you stop drifting and start building.
1️⃣ Exploration (Free)
Two Substack posts a week. Thursday and Saturday.
This is clarity.
You get:
Breakdowns of what’s working right now
Key decisions behind my own growth
Clear insights into how I make money
Exploration helps you understand the map. But understanding the map doesn’t build the house.
Stay here if you’re curious.
Just don’t expect curiosity to pay you.
2️⃣ Execution ($15/month, $45/year)
This is where you stop reading about growth and start engineering it.
Every week, you get a working Substack asset:
AI prompts that help you write in half the time
Battle-tested templates that make your posts land
Headlines designed to win attention
Simple growth frameworks to turn strangers into subscribers
Note structures that hold attention instead of leaking it
Not abstract advice. Substack-specific tools.
Exploration helps you see it. Execution helps you build it.
It’s $15/month. Or pay for 3 months and get 9 free. $45/year.
Not a bargain. A commitment signal.
Note structures that hold attention instead of leaking it
3️⃣ Community ($39 per session / $149 annual)
This is where serious builders gather.
Once a month, I run a live masterclass and break down what’s working now.
Recent sessions have covered:
This isn’t theory. It’s applied strategy. Community gives you proximity. Shared thinking. Live refinement. Better questions.
Upgrade to Founding Member. Pay for 4 months. Get 8 free. $149 for 12 live sessions.
Cheap compared to another year of guessing.
4️⃣ Acceleration (Private Substack Strategy)
This is not tweaking. It’s rebuilding.
Five deep sessions where we pull your Substack apart and reconstruct it properly.
We look at it like a stranger would. Where they hesitate. Where they skim. Where they almost subscribe… and don’t. Where money is quietly leaking.
We get painfully clear on who you’re for. So the right reader lands and feels recognised. We connect your posts so they build on each other instead of drifting past like loose thoughts. We reshape your offer so upgrading feels obvious.
We design what you build next. So your writing compounds instead of resetting every week. Because the most expensive Substack strategy is guessing.
Ellen came in with 383 subscribers and was exhausted. Posting. Tweaking. Hoping. Her problem wasn’t effort. It was structure. Clear positioning. Clear pathway. Clear offer.
Once we rebuilt it, momentum stopped feeling random. She crossed 20,000. Not because she tried harder. Because she stopped wandering.
Start your Substack rebuild here.
So which stage fits you?
If you’re curious about Substack → Exploration.
If you’re publishing but inconsistent → Execution.
If you’re serious about growth → Community.
If you’re ready to build income → Acceleration.
But let’s not kid ourselves: Another year of “posting consistently” without structure won’t suddenly turn into momentum. Ambition without architecture becomes frustration. Substack is simple. But it isn’t random.
Stop drifting. Start building.
Derek
Structure is what turns effort into growth instead of another year of guessing.