Subscribe-for-subscribe can help a new publication escape zero.
But the exchange often attracts people who are interested in reciprocity—not necessarily in your writing.
Why the common advice fails
The pitch is simple:
“Subscribe to me and I’ll subscribe back.”
It can create quick visibility and make a new publication feel less empty.
But it does not give anyone a reason to keep reading.
What happens in real projects
The risk is an inflated subscriber count with very little active readership.
Some creators never reciprocate. Others subscribe, wait for you to return the favor, then unsubscribe shortly afterward.
The problem is not reciprocal support itself.
It is mistaking the exchange for genuine audience demand.
The better approach
• Subscribe only to publications you genuinely want to read.
• Use reciprocal-support threads for discovery, not as your long-term growth strategy.
• Prioritize opens, replies and returning readers over subscriber count.
This is slower than chasing reciprocal subscriptions and quick wins.
But it builds an audience with a reason to stay.
That reason has to be visible before someone subscribes, and the profile is where they look. I later built a free Substack profile audit that scores what a visitor sees, out of 100.
The real test
Would these people still read your work if you never subscribed to them?
That is the difference between collecting subscribers and building an audience.
Use subscribe-for-subscribe to leave zero—not as the foundation of your publication.
If you’re growing a Substack from scratch, subscribe to follow the experiments. No subscription back required.
I am new here and I don't really know how things really work, but I think the major inconvenience would be that people coming from subs=subs are from different areas of interest. That might end up confusing the algorithm about who your audience is and where your content should be shown.
Subs=subs is a breath of oxygen for newcomers. Many people who are new on Substack are great writers, with interesting ideas. They are eager not only to write, but also to read. Many of them are or could become part of your audience.
Many, many people starting on substack are genuinely determined to make it, to go one step further in their life project. It reminds me of the early days of blogging, discovering quality people and quality content.
Would these people still read your work if you never subscribed to them? - I don't really know, but I would keep reading the work of some people that I discovered via subs=subs, even I had no clue they existed before. I found interesting writers and also some interesting niches that I didn't know could catch my interest. But they did.
This is really 💯 accurate