Stop Recommending Publications That Ignore You
That set-it-and-forget-it recommendation list is dragging your open rates down and attracting subscribers who will never pay you.
How do Substack recommendations work?
Substack recommendations are publications you endorse on your profile. When a new reader subscribes to your newsletter, Substack displays your recommendation list and suggests they subscribe to those publications too.
When another creator recommends you back, their new subscribers see your publication during signup. This two-way system is one of Substack’s most powerful organic growth tools, but most creators set it up once on launch day and never audit whether it’s sending them engaged, relevant subscribers or filling their list with readers who will never open.
A creator I coach (who shall remain nameless on purpose) had 3,200 subscribers. Her open rate sat at 31%, and her paid conversion was barely scraping 1%.
I looked at her dashboard and data and the problem took about 90 seconds to find. More than 40% of her subscribers came through recommendations from publications that had nothing to do with her niche. A poetry journal was recommending her business newsletter. A tech roundup was sending her solopreneurs who wanted coding tips, not monetization strategies.
She was growing. But she was growing with people who would never open, never engage, and never pay.
Her Substack recommendations were filling her list with ghosts.
What are Substack recommendations and why do they matter for growth?
Substack recommendations are the publications you endorse on your profile page. When a new reader subscribes to your publication, Substack displays your recommendation list and suggests they subscribe to those publications too.
Other creators can recommend you back, sending their new subscribers your way without any ongoing effort from either side.
This two-way recommendation system is one of the most powerful organic growth tools on the Substack platform.
When your recommendation network includes publications with strong audience overlap, it delivers a steady stream of engaged, relevant subscribers.
When the network includes publications with no audience overlap, it fills your list with people who subscribed by accident and will never read your work.
Most creators set up their Substack recommendations on launch day, add a handful of publications they personally enjoy, and never revisit the list. That one decision keeps compounding, sometimes for months, before the damage shows up in open rates and paid conversion numbers.
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Why do most creators get their Substack recommendation strategy wrong?
Many people I’ve met treat their recommendation list like a generosity gesture instead of a growth tool. They recommend every Substack they enjoy reading, regardless of audience overlap, and never check whether those publications recommend them back.
The result is a recommendation network that sends subscribers in one direction with no return, and attracts readers who have zero interest in the recommending creator’s content.
Your Substack recommendation list does two jobs at once. First, it brings you subscribers through Substack’s recommendation engine during the signup flow.
Second, it shapes the quality of those subscribers based on which publication audiences are being funneled your way.
Bad: “I recommend every Substack I enjoy because I want to support other creators.”
Good: “I recommend 8 publications whose audiences would benefit from my content, and I’ve confirmed each one recommends me back.”
Generosity is nice. Strategy pays the rent.
What is the Prune-and-Pitch Method for auditing Substack recommendations?
The Prune-and-Pitch Method is a four-step recommendation audit that identifies which publications in your Substack recommendation network are helping your growth, which ones are dragging your metrics down, and where the strongest new partnership opportunities are. The full audit takes about 90 minutes and should be repeated every quarter.
I developed this method after coaching dozens of Substack creators who had growing subscriber counts but stagnant open rates and weak paid conversions. In nearly every case, the recommendation network was the culprit.
The four steps are:
Step 1 — The Reciprocity Check. Go to your Substack dashboard, click Recommendations, and visit each recommended publication’s profile to check whether they recommend you back. If you’re recommending 25 publications and only 6 return the favor, you have 19 one-sided relationships generating zero growth for you. Any publication you’ve recommended for 90+ days without reciprocity gets flagged for removal.