How much time do I need to run a Substack newsletter?
Setting realistic hours for writing, growth, and income on Substack.
When people ask me about starting a newsletter, this is the question that comes up most: how much time does it take? The short answer—and I’m afraid it’s a massive cop out—is that it depends.
The longer answer is, it depends on what you actually want the newsletter to do. A casual blog, an audience-building project, and a paid publication all demand very different commitments.
Today we’re going to look at those simple goals, and what they mean for your time.
If you want something blog-like
If your Substack is a blog, you’ve got the easiest path. A blog doesn’t need a fixed schedule, polished branding, or endless promotion. You can publish and promote (if at all) when you like, whether that’s once a week or once a month.
The time commitment in that case is small. One short post of 500 words might take you an hour or two. A longer piece could take half a day, perhaps more if you want to be thorough, but only if you want it to. The pressure is low, because your readers aren’t expecting strict regularity. And you aren’t promising them that.
That doesn’t mean it’s effortless. Even casual blogs often disappear quickly if the writer doesn’t keep some routine. If you want to stay motivated, block out a set time each week to write and treat it like a standing appointment.
That’s often the difference between a blog that lasts a year and one that fizzles after a few posts. Consistency, as always, is key.
If you want to grow an audience
Growing an audience takes more than just writing. You’ll need to put aside time not just for drafting your post but also for everything that happens once you’ve published.
Promotion is one part of it. That could mean posting links on social media, joining relevant communities, or cross-recommending with other writers. Then there’s the engagement side: replying to comments, answering emails, and starting conversations in Notes or your subscriber chat. All of this will eat into your schedule, but it’s also what helps you find and keep readers.
The writing itself may take three to five hours a week, depending on your length and style. Add another hour or two for the growth work. That brings you into the five-to-seven-hour range, which is enough to run a newsletter that steadily builds momentum.
It’s worth noting that the more you post, the more time you’ll need to handle responses. A weekly post might be quite manageable, but if you publish multiple times a week, expect the admin aspect to rise with it.
Be mindful not to burn out, too. You don’t have to spend this much time on your newsletter, especially if you’re not in a rush. But if growing an audience is why you’re here, be mindful of the time investment that requires.
If you want to earn from it
Earning money from a newsletter is where time becomes important. Readers paying for your work will expect consistency, and consistency needs some degree of planning.
At a minimum, you’ll need to think ahead in terms of posts, edit more carefully, and create content that feels worth paying for.
That usually means the hours go up, especially if you’re doing this with paywalls. Successful paid newsletters (such as those with dozens of paid subscribers or more) can require 10 or more hours a week to run and maintain. Is that the case for everyone? Of course not, but how much time you can commit is always worth keeping in mind.
That covers writing, editing, promotion, admin, and an eye on what subscribers value. For many writers, the balance ends up looking like this: half the time spent on the actual posts, and half the time on everything else.
If you know that time commitment would be a struggle, consider how your paid offering works. Can you build it in such a way that requires less time or thinking?
You’ll also spend extra hours on things you didn’t plan for. A new product idea, a sponsorship, or a live event doesn’t fit neatly into the weekly writing slot. Those extras can be rewarding, but they’re also time-hungry (and boy do I know that right now!).
If you’ve already got a busy life, be honest about whether you can carve out those hours before switching on the paywall. Once paid subscribers start coming in, the pressure to keep producing content can become genuinely overwhelming.
The hidden hours nobody talks about
Beyond writing and promotion, there’s a whole category of invisible time (in that it effectively is meaningless, but you’ll still do it).
You’ll spend hours tinkering with your logo, adjusting your archive, testing email subject lines, or debating whether to change your posting day. None of that is really ‘work’, and yet you’ll spend hours on things that are basically semantics.
Even answering subscriber emails or replying to responses in a chat thread can take longer than you expect. It’s easy to assume a newsletter is only the time you spend drafting words. In practice, you’ll often add to that with extra hours.
Start small, adjust later
The best part of writing on Substack is that none of this is fixed. You can even disregard all my thoughts on time commitments, if you really want.
You don’t need to start with a fully formed paid publication. You can begin with a light routine, then add hours as your goals change or your enthusiasm for the platform grows.
Plenty of writers only realised they wanted to charge after running a free newsletter for a while (hello, me!). By then, these writers had an audience and a workflow that made the extra hours worthwhile. Growing an audience, and then looking at monetisation, is sometimes the best option.
The danger is assuming you can do more than you really can. If you promise three weekly posts and a chat community when you only have a couple of free hours per week, you’ll burn out. Start with what works for you, then grow from there.
Running a newsletter is never just ‘writing a few emails’, despite what our Substack-illiterate friends and family think.
It’s a project that expands to fill the hours you give it. The trick is deciding whether those hours match the kind of newsletter you want.