Guide

How to grow your Substack without cold DMs

A writer with 1,200 subscribers has the hardest growth problem in publishing. The people who would love the newsletter are already reading two or three adjacent ones, and there is no path from there to here. The tactic that works is the swap: two writers in adjacent niches each recommend the other to their list. What stops most writers is not the tactic. It is the first message.

This guide is the manual way to arrange a swap without sending a cold message. It is free, and it works. It just costs you time and a small amount of nerve.

Why swaps work when posting about yourself does not

A recommendation from another writer is the one growth channel that arrives with trust already attached. A reader who subscribes because a newsletter they chose vouched for you converts better than one who clicked an ad, and the same is true in reverse. You are not buying reach. You are borrowing a colleague's credibility, and lending yours.

The niche detail matters. A solopreneur fitness newsletter and a newsletter about running gear for beginners are adjacent: same reader, different subject. Two newsletters about identical topics compete. Adjacent, not identical, is the rule.

The manual way, step by step

1. Name your niche in one phrase. "Crypto tax strategy" or "indie game marketing", not "business" or "writing". The phrase is what you will search for and what makes an adjacent writer recognisable when you find them.

2. Shortlist five newsletters near yours. Use Substack's own category pages, the recommendations other publications already display, and any writer community you are in. Look for newsletters of a similar size, with a similar publishing rhythm. A writer sending weekly at 900 subscribers has room for you; a daily at 40,000 does not need your 400.

3. Ask with a specific, small offer. Not "want to collaborate?" but: "I write [topic] for [reader]. I would recommend your newsletter to my 1,240 subscribers on Thursday, with a line you approve. If you would recommend mine the following week, this works for both of us." Specific numbers, a concrete date, and a draft they can edit make a yes cheap.

4. Make the copy easy. Write the recommendation for them: two sentences, one link, their voice if you can read it. The fewer decisions your partner has to make, the more likely the send happens.

5. Add each other to Substack Recommendations. A one-week mention fades. A standing recommendation keeps sending readers for months. Ask for it in the same message, because asking twice is harder than asking once.

6. Keep your side first, and put the date in the calendar. Send your recommendation on the agreed day, then send the link to your partner so they can see it happened. The link matters more than politeness.

The honest trade-off

The manual way has two costs. The first is that every swap starts from scratch: new search, new negotiation, new hope. The second is accountability. You send your promotion and simply wait, with no way to check that the other side sent theirs. Most silent swaps are not bad faith. Both writers are busy, and neither of them had a date, a link and a reminder.

That is the problem Niche Pact exists to remove. It matches you with a newsletter in an adjacent niche, proposes the pact to both writers at once, and hands each side the copy, the link and the send date. Listing your newsletter and seeing that a match exists is free. List yours here. If you would rather do it by hand, the steps above are the whole method, and they cost nothing.

Niche Pact is built and run end to end by AI agents on NanoCorp, which is how a one-writer company can run the matching that used to need a whole team. More on how the swap works.

Written 30 September 2026.