How I Got 352 Subs From One Substack Feature 99% Of Creators Ignore

It's the closest thing to "growing on auto-pilot" that Substack has

Howdy, Wealth Writers🤠

Would you like to get subscribers on autopilot?

Well… who wouldn’t? :D

The closest thing we have is the Recommendations feature.

(Half of you just thought: I already have a recommendations section.)

Well… “having one” isn’t the same as one that actually brings you in subscribers week after week. ;)

My recommendation stats

Today, we unlock the full potential of the recommendations feature and make it one of your main growth channels to hit your first 1K subs as fast as possible.

What you’ll learn in this article:

✓ How Recommendations Work

✓ How To Set Up / Manage Recommendations Correctly

✓ My Recommendation Philosophy (Other Creators Will Hate Me For This)

✓ My 3-Step Recommendation Workflow (+ copy-paste scripts)

✓ The exact DM scripts and weekly checklist to make it impossible not to turn this into your main growth channel

Let’s goo! 🤠

How Recommendations Work

When a visitor subscribes to any publication, Substack shows them that publication’s recommendations right after they hit subscribe.

view of the recommendations from the visitor perspective

At this point, the visitor’s brain is in discovery mode, so if your publication is in the same interest field as the one they just subscribed to, hitting “subscribe” on your publication too feels like the natural next step.

You don’t even have to put in any work to get discovered.

The only work happens earlier, convincing the creator to recommend you in the first place, so today I will also show you how to make this process smooth as 🧈butter🧈. :D

How To Set Up / Manage Recommendations Correctly

Recommendations live inside your Substack dashboard

Under (who would have thought it) Recommendations.

There you have an overview of your incoming & outgoing recommendations, and can add new ones as you wish.

My Recommendation Philosophy (Other Creators Will Hate Me For This)

Before we get into the practical workflow I used to get 352 subs through recommendations, I first have to tell you my approach cause here I 100% disagree with the Substack advice out there.

Creators like Rob Riker and Michael | Solopreneur Launch® teach the “build the relationship first, then ask for a recommendation” model.

I see it differently.

I believe real creator relationships get built through working together and winning together, not weeks of talkie-talkie.

A recommendation swap (you recommend them and they recommend you) is one of the fastest ways to start winning together.

You both gain subscribers, and the relationship deepens cause you’ve already got a shared result.

So creators who are direct, straight-up, and open to mutual support are who I optimize for.

P.S. If you don’t vibe with my approach and prefer the relationship-first way, go check out Rob Riker and Michael | Solopreneur Launch®. :)

Now let’s get started with the practical workflow. :D

My 3-Step Recommendation Workflow

Step 1: Clean Up Your Outgoing Recommendations

Before you add a single new recommendation, audit what you already have.

1. List every publication you currently recommend.

2. For each one, check: do they recommend you back?

3. If the answer’s no, ask directly for a swap using the DM framework below, then wait 3 days.

4. Still no reply? Remove them.

“But what if I don’t want to seem pushy by directly asking?”

You’re not being pushy, you’re running a business, and a one-directional recommendation is a misdirection that could go to somebody who actually supports you too.

Step 2: Find Recommendation Partners

Method A: The Suggested Section Inside Your Recommendations Tab

Substack already did the matching for you.

Just scroll the list and reach out to the ones where you see an audience overlap.

My suggested section inside my recommendations tab

Method B: The Suggestions Section On Your For You

Scroll down a little on your For You page, and you’ll find another type of suggestions section.

It works the same way as Method 1, just from a different spot in the app.

Substack Suggestions tab on the For You page

Method C: The Recommendations Trail

Once you’ve found a few aligned creators through Method 1 or Method 2, this is how you multiply that list.

1. Pick a relevant publication in your niche you found through Method 1 or 2.

2. Add /recommendations to their Substack URL.

3. You now have the list of people they are recommending, so the chance is high that these people are open to a recommendation swap also

This is the URL you would use on my Substack to see all my recommendations in one list

Step 3: Ask Via DMs

BEFORE you send a single DM, make sure your profile looks clean and intentional.

The first thing any creator does after your message lands is to check out your profile, so if yours doesn’t look “recommendation-worthy” you get left in the dust.

A great profile will increase your outreach-to-recommendations conversion rate MASSIVELY so make sure to go through The Perfect Substack Profile series.

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Recommendations come from asking directly, not from liking or commenting or just recommending them and hoping they return the favour.

So copy these scripts, rewrite them in your voice, fill in the blanks, send them per DM.

Initial message:

“Hey [Name], I recently came across your work on [Publication Name] and really love what you’re doing, especially [specific thing you genuinely appreciated]. I run [Your Publication], which is for [audience] who want to [outcome]. I think there’s real audience overlap between our readers, and I wondered if you’d be open to a recommendation swap to start, and we could explore other ideas from there.

Follow-up after 3 days (if no reply):

“Hey [Name], just bumping this up in case it got buried. No pressure at all, if it’s not the right fit, I totally understand. Wanted to make sure you saw it.”

Weekly Execution Checklist

Run this every week, no exceptions:

✓ Identify 20 aligned creators

✓ Send 20 DMs using the framework

✓ Follow up with anyone at day 3

✓ Check your current list and remove anyone who stopped recommending you

Is this really worth all the work?😩

Yes! Just take another look at the results that I got with this strategy, so far. ;)

My recommendation stats

Long-Term Notice

Recommendations aren’t an overnight channel, it’s a slowly-but-surely thing that compounds the longer you stick with it.

20 DMs a week feels small in isolation, stack twelve weeks of it and you’ve contacted 240 creators and built a recommendation network that keeps feeding you subscribers long after you stop actively DMing.

Subscribe to Write Your Way To Wealth and get the Substack Side-Hustle Sprint for free.

See ya soon

Timo Mason🤠

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