How I Achieved Top 100 Success on Substack from ScratchHow I Achieved Top 100 Success on Substack from Scratch
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Tiniki Scruggs
• Jul 13
How I Grew a Substack to Top 100 in Faith & Spirituality
Zero to 550+ subscribers, a paid tier, and a Top 100 Rising ranking — no ads, no viral luck. Just a repeatable voice-first growth system.
The challenge: Launch a brand-new publication in one of Substack's most crowded categories — Faith & Spirituality — with no existing email list and no ad budget.
The approach: I treated growth as a writing problem, not a marketing problem. I built the publication on voice-first positioning (anti-toxic-positivity, written from inside life's transitions, not after them), two recurring series that gave readers a reason to return weekly, and a short-form Notes strategy I developed into two repeatable formats — one engineered for reach, one engineered for shareability.
The results:
550+ subscribers with an active paid tier
Top 100 Rising in Faith & Spirituality
88% of subscriber growth driven by the Notes strategy
A community engagement system that turns readers into repeat commenters and restackers
Why it matters for you: This is the exact playbook I bring to client newsletters — positioning, publishing structure, and growth systems that work without an ad budget. If I can do it in a saturated category, I can adapt it to yours.
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