I Analyzed 100 Substack Writers Making $10K+/Month. 89 Broke This 'Rule'

I spent 9 months commenting on Notes daily, restacking generously, building relationships. My engagement was great. My revenue was $0.

Feb 08, 2026

So I analyzed 100 Substack writers making over $10,000 per month. 89 of them barely engaged compared to what I was doing.

Here's exactly what they did instead—and how you can copy it starting this week.

The Rule That's Keeping You Busy (But Broke)

"Engagement is everything. Comment daily. Restack often. Build relationships. Be generous with your attention. Show up for your community."

Sound familiar?

I followed this advice religiously for 9 months:

Commented on 10-15 Notes every single day
Restacked content 3-4 times per week
Replied to everyone who engaged with my posts
Built genuine relationships with other writers

My engagement looked great: 17 likes per post, 4-12 comments, steady follower growth.

My revenue: $0.

Not "building slowly." Just zero.

I was spending 2-3 hours daily on engagement, constantly performing community instead of building a business. And I was exhausted.

What I Found When I Analyzed 100 Top Earners

Month 9, I almost quit. But instead, I got analytical.

I found 100 Substack writers publicly making $10,000+ per month and spent 6 weeks studying:

How often they posted
How often they engaged with others
What their offers looked like
How they structured their content
What their About pages said

I expected to find engagement champions—people in everyone's comments, restacking constantly, building massive community goodwill.

I found the opposite.

The 89/11 Split

Out of 100 writers making $10K+/month:

11 of them were high-engagement, daily-presence creators. They made money through paid communities or courses sold to highly engaged audiences. For them, engagement WAS the business model.

89 of them barely engaged compared to what I was doing.

Here's what "barely engaged" actually means:

Posted 2-4 times per week (not daily)
Commented on 3-7 posts per week (not 10-15 per day)
Restacked maybe once a week, if that
Engaged strategically with influential voices or potential clients only

But here's what they DID do:

Had razor-sharp positioning - You could tell exactly what they did in one sentence
Made direct offers regularly - About 1 in every 3-4 posts mentioned how to work with them
Created strategic content - Every post connected to something they sold
Talked to big enough markets - Their potential audience was large enough that 1-2% conversion = real money

They weren't cold or transactional. They just optimized for revenue, not engagement metrics.

What This Means for You

The uncomfortable truth: Most engagement is just productive procrastination.

It feels virtuous. You're building community. Being generous. "Doing it right."

But you're also avoiding the harder work: making clear offers to a well-defined market.

I was guilty of this. Commenting on everyone's posts felt productive and safe.

Making direct offers felt scary and pushy.

So I hid in community-building and called it strategy.

The 89 writers making real money didn't hide. They engaged strategically and sold directly.

The 4 Things the Successful 89 Did Differently

1. They Picked Markets Big Enough to Matter

What doesn't work:

down to "brand strategists for female service providers over 40 in the wellness space transitioning from corporate."

Total addressable market: Maybe 3,000 people actively looking for help.

Even with perfect engagement, the math doesn't work.

What works:

Niche by the problem you solve or the identity people aspire to, not by demographics.

Instead of "brand strategists for female service providers," try "brand strategists for people who are great at what they do but invisible online."

Same expertise. Same examples. 100x larger market.

The test: If 1% of your target audience became clients, would you have a thriving business? If not, zoom out one level.

2. They Had a Clear "Thing" People Could Describe

What doesn't work:

Sounding like everyone else in your space.

Posts like: "3 lessons I learned about X." "Here's what most people get wrong about Y." "The one thing that changed my approach to Z."

These formats work when they're genuinely your insight. They fail when you're templating someone else's success.

What works:

Having a specific lens or perspective that people can articulate in one sentence.

Examples from writers I analyzed:

"She's the one who treats productivity like therapy"

"He's the one who thinks most marketing is just anxiety with a CTA (call-to-action)"

"She's the one who approaches business strategy like it's relationship counseling"

The test: Can someone describe your "thing" without using generic words like "authentic," "strategic," or "transformational"? If not, you blend in.

How to find your thing:

What advice in your industry annoys you?
What do people consistently get wrong?
What's the gap between what experts say works and what you've seen actually work?

Your perspective is hiding in your irritations and your "actually, it's simpler than that" moments.

3. They Connected Every Insight to an Offer

What doesn't work:

Posting valuable content for months without ever mentioning how someone can work with you.

I did this for 9 months. I thought I was "building trust." What I was actually doing was training my audience to expect free content forever.

What works:

Making it crystal clear how people can work with you, regularly and without apology.

Not every post needs to be a sales post. But roughly 1 in every 3-4 posts should mention:

What you offer
Who it's for
What outcome it delivers

How to get started

Example pattern from a writer making $15K/month:

Post 1: Insight about a common problem
Post 2: Case study of how they solved it for a client
Post 3: Community engagement or educational content
Post 4: "This is exactly what I do in [offer name]—if you're struggling with [problem], let's fix it"

Clear. Connected. Not pushy, just strategic.

The truth people don't want to hear: Your audience isn't annoyed by offers. They're confused by the absence of them.

If you're truly helping them see a problem clearly, they want to know if you can help solve it.

4. They Engaged Strategically, Not Constantly

What doesn't work:

Spending 2-3 hours daily commenting on every post for visibility.

What works:

Spending 20-30 minutes, 3 times per week, engaging only on:
Posts from potential clients (people asking questions you solve)
Posts from strategic voices (people whose audiences need you)

Conversations where you have genuine value to add

The shift:

From: Commenting for visibility
To: Commenting for connection with the right people
From: Restacking everyone to be generous
To: Restacking only what reinforces your positioning
From: Daily presence for the algorithm
To: Strategic presence for actual humans who might buy

Time invested: 75 minutes per week instead of 12-18 hours

ROI: Clear and measurable

What I Changed (And What Happened)

After this analysis, I made 4 specific changes:

What I Stopped:

Commenting on every post for visibility
Restacking everyone to seem generous
Spending 2-3 hours daily "building community"
Avoiding offers because they felt sales-y

What I Started:

Engaging 3x per week on strategic posts only (25 min each)
Making a clear offer in 1 out of every 4 posts
Talking to a market 10x larger than my original niche
Writing from my actual perspective instead of templates

The Results (8 Weeks Later):

Revenue: $0 → $12,000
Engagement metrics: DOWN (fewer likes, comments)
Client inquiries: 0-1/month → 6-9/month
Hours on Substack: 15/week → 8/week
Stress level: Way down

I wasn't working harder. I was working strategically.

And the community I built in those 8 weeks was deeper than the 9 months before—because I was attracting people who resonated with my actual perspective, not just people who liked generic tips.

How to Apply This Starting This Week

Week 1: Audit Your Foundation

Day 1-2: Check your market size
Write down who you help in one sentence
Google search variations of that audience
Estimate: Is this 1,000 people or 100,000 people?
If it's under 10,000, zoom out one level

Day 3-4: Define your perspective

What do you notice in your industry that others don't?
What advice makes you roll your eyes?
What's the gap between what people say works and what actually works?
Write this down. This is your "thing."

Day 5-7: Clarify your offer

What exactly do you sell?
Who is it for?
What outcome does it deliver?
How does someone get started?

Write this in 2-3 sentences. You'll need it.

Week 2: Shift Your Content

Change your posting ratio:

1 post: Strategic insight (positions your expertise)
1 post: Offer-connected content (case study, framework, problem breakdown that leads to your service)
1 post: Educational or community content

Repeat

In the offer-connected post, clearly mention:

The problem you solve
How you solve it
Who it's for

Next step to work together

Don't hide it in your bio. Don't make people hunt for it. Say it directly.

Week 3: Cut Your Engagement Time

Pick 3 days this week.
On those days only, spend 20-30 minutes:
Finding 5-7 posts from potential clients or influential voices
Leaving thoughtful comments (not "great post!" but actual value)
Restacking only if it genuinely reinforces your positioning
The rest of the week: Focus on your content, your offers, your positioning.

Track this: Note how many meaningful conversations you have vs. how many you had when engaging daily.

Spoiler: You'll have more meaningful conversations in 75 minutes of strategic engagement than 12 hours of performative engagement.

Week 4: Measure What Matters

Stop tracking:

Total likes
Total comments
Total followers

Start tracking:

Client inquiries (people asking how to work with you)
Conversations with potential clients
Revenue

Engagement metrics feel good. Revenue metrics build businesses.

The Nuance (Because This Matters)

I'm not saying engagement doesn't matter.

If you're selling courses, paid communities, or products to creators, high engagement might BE your business model. The 11 writers in my analysis proved this works.

But if you're a service provider, consultant, coach, or anyone selling client work—engagement is a supporting tactic, not the main strategy.

There's a difference between:

Performative engagement (what I was doing):

Daily presence for visibility
Commenting on everything to be seen
Building relationships for the sake of community
Hours invested, unclear ROI

Strategic engagement (what the 89 did):

Targeted presence where potential clients are
Commenting on high-value conversations only
Building relationships with intention
Minutes invested, clear ROI

The first one feels virtuous. The second one converts.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Engagement feels productive. It's social, community-driven, visible activity.

Making offers feels vulnerable. It risks rejection. It feels "too sales-y."

So we hide in engagement and avoid the real work.

But the 89 writers making $10K+ per month weren't hiding.

They had clear positioning. They talked to big enough markets. They made direct offers. They engaged strategically.

And they built businesses, not just audiences.

If You're Where I Was 9 Months Ago

You're not failing because you're not engaging enough.

You're failing because you're optimizing for feeling productive instead of making money.

Fix these 4 things:

Market size - Zoom out until the math works (1% conversion = real business)
Positioning - Get so clear on your "thing" that people can describe it in one sentence
Offers - Make it obvious how to work with you in 1 out of every 3-4 posts
Engagement - Cut it to 75 minutes/week, make it strategic

Then watch what happens.

You might lose some engagement metrics. You might get fewer likes.

But you'll get more clients. More revenue. More freedom.

And that's the whole point.

Question: What's your biggest bottleneck right now—market too small, unclear positioning, avoiding offers, or spending too much time on engagement? Drop it in the comments. I read everything and I'll tell you exactly where to start.

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