Write • Build • Scale This Substack Feature Can Bring You 1000s of New Subscribers on Autopilot
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Feb 6, 2026 A practical walkthrough of Substack’s newsletter recommendation feature and how it quietly drives subscriber growth. Short technical steps for enabling reciprocal recommendations and choosing partners are covered. Tips on scaling by recommending many publications, warming up relationships, and turning swaps into deeper collaborations are highlighted.
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Real Recommendation Example
- Write • Build • Scale and David McElroy mutually recommend each other so new subscribers see a prompt to join the other newsletter.
- A percentage of people opt in, creating steady referral traffic whenever either newsletter grows.
Set Up Recommendation Exchanges
- Use your Substack dashboard > Recommendations to search and click recommend for publications you genuinely value.
- Ask the other creator to reciprocate so subscribers start flowing between both newsletters automatically.
Volume Multiplies Impact
- The feature's power comes from volume: many reciprocal recommendations compound into thousands of subscribers over time.
- Write • Build • Scale gained over 8,000 subscribers from recommendations, ~20% of their list.