How I Would Start a Substack in 2026

New year and new goals!

Photo by Jan Tinneberg on Unsplash

There’s a scene in the movie Ocean’s 11 where Danny Ocean is recruiting a member to his team. He meets him at a bar, the recruit sits down, Danny slides a plane ticket toward him and says ‘You’re either in, or you’re out. Right now.’

Without being overly dramatic, that’s almost where we are with Substack and its immediate future.

Last month I gave my thoughts on where I believe Substack is heading in 2026 and beyond. Co-founder Hamish McKenzie said that Substack’s internal data is forecasting big growth for Substack. He said he sees nothing that would stop Substack from reaching 50 million Paid subscribers.

Substack currently has around 5 million. So Hamish is saying he believes Substack is headed toward 10X growth off current levels.

That’s significant, to put it mildly.

This surge in growth will create a unique opportunity for you to leverage it to grow your Substack. But you must be in a position to take advantage of the growth when it arrives.

Here’s the reality: The growth will arrive, but it won’t last. A window will be created, it could last for 6 months, maybe 12. If you align it perfectly and time the progression of your substack so you can fully leverage the entire growth window, then you will be able to maximize your substack’s growth and earning potential.

Here’s How I Would Start a Substack in 2026

First, start now. Immediately.

The reality is, it takes time to create a foundation for your substack, a set of strategies that serve as the blueprint for your publication. For some creators, it only takes a few months to iron out most of the kinks. For some, like myself, it can take a year or more.

That’s why time is of the essence. There are two time constraints you will be dealing with. First, the amount of time it will take you to create the foundational content, conversion and community strategies that will serve as the foundation for your substack. This could take anywhere from 3-12 months.

The second time constraint is the size of the growth window. It will likely only last for 6-12 months. Let’s say the growth window starts in June of 2026, and lasts for a year. If you wait till June to start your substack, that means you will likely miss the benefits of the growth window, because you will be trying to set the foundational direction for your substack. But if you start now and get that sorted by June, then you are perfectly positioned to ride the growth wave just as it arrives.

The Steps You Should Take Now, In Order

Last month I wrote about the three strategies you need to create a successful substack. They are:

Content - This comes first. This is where you decide what you are writing, who you are writing for, and why. Also as you are creating your content strategy, keep in mind that you need to focus on creating content that your subscribers will enjoy, but also that you will enjoy. Growing a substack will require a lot of content, created consistently. You must pick a content focus that inspires you to create just as much as it inspires your subscribers to read your content.

Conversion - This comes second. This is where you decide what type of relationship you will have with your readers. If you want to have a Paid publication, then you design your Paid offering. If you want to stay free, then you consider what that relationship would look like and what other monetization options you have. Or you could do both. Basically, this is where you decide what you will give your subscribers, and what you will expect from them in return.

Community - This comes last. This strategy builds on your content and conversion strategies, and defines how you will engage with your subscribers. That’s why it’s so important that you build your content and conversion strategies first. Most of the advice you see on substack tells you to grow your subscribers as quickly as possible. This is horrible advice, and if you follow it you will end up in a year’s time with a few hundred or thousand free subscribers, and no Paid subs.

We Are Going to Build Your Substack Together

Here’s my plan for the next few months. This month, we will focus on walking you through how to build a solid content strategy. In February, we will focus on walking you through how to build a solid conversion strategy. In March, we will focus on walking you through how to build a solid community strategy.

That gives you a solid month each of training on how to design a solid content, conversion and community strategy.

I started using social media in 2005. I joined Twitter and Facebook in 2007. Over the years I have seen countless social media sites rise and fall in popularity. Friendfeed, Clubhouse, Identi.ca, Colours, Ello, Google+, Plurk, Vine, Periscope, Flickr, etc etc etc.

I feel like Substack offers the best and truly the only real opportunity for creators to make serious income. It has a ton of features built-in that take advantage of and accelerate network effects. As Substack hits its growth spurt soon, those network effects will only be magnified.

Which makes it imperative that you position your substack now so that your boat is ready for the rising tide that’s coming. The last thing I want you to do is think at the end of this year is “Hey, Substack is really taking off, I should start writing!” just as the growth window closes.

This month, we will focus on designing your content strategy. Next month we will focus on your conversion strategy, and in March we will tackle your community strategy. By April 1st you will have a solid foundation of knowledge in place to build your substack on top of.

Thursday’s post will be a deep-dive into designing a content strategy for Paid subscribers. Next week’s two posts will expand on building a content strategy, and both will be free for all subscribers.

The plane ticket is in front of you. Are you in?

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Let’s get your Substack growth locked in for 2026 with a Paid subscription. I suggest going with Annual. It’s the best value, and it locks in an entire year of knowledge and mentoring for you, so you can take full advantage of Substack’s growth in 2026. Also, 65% of Backstage Pass’ Paid subscribers choose Annual.

Paid members get:

• Direct access to me via DMs for feedback and support

• Full access to all 170+ archived posts

• The private paid-member chat

• Monthly deep-dive guidance with real examples, not theory

Backstage Pass will be my only revenue channel here, which means everything I build, test, or discover shows up here first. No courses, no upsells, just one subscription and my best work every month.

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