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The Comment Compass
Enter your Substack publication name, subscriber count, and follower count. The compass will identify the right-sized publications to engage with, and suggest how to engage them to maximize subscriber growth.
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Interaction Works Best on Publications That Match Your Current Reach
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Enter your subscriber count above to see your ranges.
Your ranges appear here as soon as you enter a subscriber count.
What to emphasize at each subscriber level. The phase that matches your count is highlighted below.
Phase 1 — Under 100 subs
Targeted comments on articles and notes near your topic. Write Notes only as practice — a shop window, not an engine.
Phase 2 — 100–400 subs
Comments, daily and deliberate. Deepen ten relationships instead of starting fifty.
Phase 3 — 400–700 subs
Comments still lead; Notes begin to pull their weight as your audience overlap grows.
Phase 4 — 1,000+ subs
Notes become a core growth engine — now the feed has a network to show you to.
The multiples tighten as a list grows. Every stage is shown here so you can see where you are headed next.
Stage 1: Foundation — 0 to 500 subs
Primary 0.9× to 3×, stretch ceiling 10×
Need volume and reciprocity; most creators at this stage say yes to swaps regardless of exact ratio.
Stage 2: Momentum — 500 to 2,000 subs
Primary 0.7× to 2.5×, stretch ceiling 7×
Compounding begins — recommendations start mattering more, and partners get slightly choosier.
Stage 3: Established — 2,000 to 10,000 subs
Primary 0.5× to 2×, stretch ceiling 5×
List-health focus increases; partners actively trim and prioritize engaged, comparable-size lists.
Stage 4: Scaled — 10,000 subs and up
Primary 0.5× to 1.5×, stretch ceiling 3×
Bigger creators demand near-parity partners; open/click rates matter more than raw ratio.
Butterfly Boardroom. These ranges are guidance for choosing where to comment, not a promise of results.