I'm Going to Subscribe to Every Substack Newsletter!

And you get a subscriber! And you get a subscriber! And...

As the title says:

I'm Going to Subscribe to Every* Substack Newsletter!

Wait, what's the asterisk?

Okay, you got me. I won't subscribe to literally every Substack newsletter. I'll bypass obvious spam or other violations of Substack's terms (“Download this pirated video!”).¹ I can't subscribe to private / invite-only Substacks. I won't use this account to subscribe to paid content.

You just said “this account.” What account?

I won't use my main Substack account to subscribe to every* newsletter. I don't want a thousand newsletter posts in my primary inbox every day. I'll use another email address.

But why subscribe to every newsletter? You're not going to read all the posts and listen to all the podcasts!

Every day or two, l’ll skim the senders and subjects in the inbox. I'll click several that look interesting. (I follow many blogs in my feed reader. I'm used to doing this.)

I imagine I'll learn about many newsletters I wouldn't have found otherwise. Over time, I hope to see at least one post from a majority of active newsletters. I could subscribe to some from my main account. ☺️

If I can cobble together a recipe on IFTTT or Zapier (which I haven't used in a while), maybe I could create a continually updated list of recent Substack newsletter posts.

I think Substack once had a list of the newest posts. Some Substack users have asked for one. I don't know if I could put such a page on the public web without Substack's permission. Maybe I could publish a feed?

If I create a list for my use, I could tell you how to create one too. Perhaps your version wouldn't be for every newsletter, but every newsletter you're interested in.

There are other potential benefits of subscribing to all newsletters. I could use my inbox as a search engine for relevant posts. (Need a post but can't find it on Google? You could ask me! Anything in depth might require paid subscription though…) I could trace the popularity of words or phrases over time. Maybe someday I could help the Internet Archive find newsletters or posts they’re missing – if Substack gave permission, of course…

Other ideas? Something you’d benefit from? Please let me know.

So how long will it take to subscribe to every newsletter?

I don't know, forever? Seriously, it could take a while. And as new newsletters begin, I'd have to find and subscribe to them too.

So every Substack newsletter will get one new subscriber?

To paraphrase Oprah Winfrey, “And you get a subscriber! And you get a subscriber! And…”²

I'll try to include “subpub” in the name and email address so that you'll know it's me. 🙂

1. Should I alert Substack to every apparent violation of its terms? As much as I'd like to fight crime, I don't think I should be doing this work for Substack (unless they pay me to do it **hint hint, Substack HR**). I feel that Substack should implement an easy-to-use (but hard to misuse or accidentally use) “flag this page for potential violation.”

2. My inspirations for this post are Oprah

and a YouTuber who also has wild giveaways and other amazing events, MrBeast.

My project is less wild but nevertheless fun. 🙂