I Publish on Substack Every Day, I Only Send Emails Once a Week

And why that’s perfect for SEO and inboxes

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I publish on Substack almost every single day.

Not Like clockwork. Not obsessively. But pretty regularly.

Still, I only send emails once a week.

Now, if you’re new to Substack, you might be thinking, “Wait, isn’t Substack a newsletter platform? Aren’t people expecting daily emails if I post daily?”

Nope. Not if you don’t want to.

I’ve turned Substack into a blog-first, newsletter-second operation — without annoying my subscribers with daily emails.

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Why Substack Isn’t Just for Newsletters

When most people hear “Substack,” they immediately think of newsletters.

And while that’s true, Substack is also a fully capable blogging platform. Every post you publish lives on your personal Substack website. Just like a blog. With categories, tags, archives, SEO indexing, comments, and likes.

In other words, you can treat Substack like Medium or WordPress, just free and even simpler. But pretty powerful.

Here’s the catch, though: by default, every time you hit “publish,” Substack wants to send that post as an email to all your subscribers. Which is great… unless you publish daily.

Because nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to get an email from me every single day. Not even my mom.

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How to Publish Without Sending an Email

Here’s the simple trick: you can publish on Substack without emailing your subscribers.

Substack gives you this control right before you hit publish. You just have to look for this little checkbox:

• “Send via email and Substack app”

If you turn it off, your post will publish only on the web.

That means:

✅ It appears on your Substack blog

✅ It’s fully accessible to readers via your homepage or RSS feed

✅ It’s indexed by Google

✅ It doesn’t go out to anyone’s inbox

✅ You don’t get fifty unsubscribes for “too many emails”

✅ You can keep your daily writing habit without annoying people

You also want to uncheck the “schedule time to publish” box.

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Why Post Daily?

If I don’t send emails daily, why even publish at that rate?

Simple: Writing every day makes me a better writer. Publishing every day makes me accountable. It builds a body of work. It teaches me how to write faster, looser, and with less perfectionism. It also has some technical benefits. More on that in a second.

But emailing daily? That’s a great way to end up in spam folders. People usually don’t want daily emails. Unless they specifically signed up for exactly that. A daily rundown of stuff.

That’s not what I do, though.

I publish almost daily. But by only emailing weekly, I get the best of both worlds:

• Readers can binge your posts on my Substack website, at their pace

• I stay consistent and visible

• I don’t overwhelm inboxes

• I get to choose your best work to send as an email

The last one is crucial, because I have a testing period before sending emails. I’ve already posted a few articles. Then I can pick the one that performs best for the weekly newsletter.

Speaking of weekly…

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The Weekly Email

What do I send once a week?

I cherry-pick.

Once a week — Tuesdays for me  — I go back through the past week’s (or a couple of weeks) content and pick the strongest one (or two).

The one that got the most comments, the one I’m most proud of, or the one I think more people should see.

To then send this one out as an email, I simply open the post, go to edit, continue, and then I check the aforementioned boxes with “send via email and Substack app” and “schedule time to post”.

I could also create a new post and add links to multiple published pieces inside. Whatever feels right.

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Bonus: It’s Great for SEO and Backlinking

I mentioned it before. Posting daily has technical benefits. My site becomes a little SEO machine.

Every post is another keyword opportunity. Another backlink target. Another way to connect my content. By posting consistently (even if I am not emailing), I create a growing archive of searchable content.

If you’re linking between posts, you’re also creating internal links that boost discoverability and engagement.

Substack is starting to act more like a blog system for search engines in this way. And you can take advantage of it now, while most people still treat it like an email platform.

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Things to Keep in Mind

• Your audience probably didn’t ask for daily emails. You may love writing daily, but most readers don’t want to read daily emails from the same person.

• Clarity is key. Somewhere on your Substack (about page, welcome email, pinned post), explain your rhythm for emails.

• Re-use your posts. A blog post that didn’t get emailed is fresh material for your next newsletter. That way, I always have content for the next email.

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The Bottom Line

Substack isn’t just for newsletters. It’s a writing platform. A blog. A SEO engine. A place to test ideas.

Decoupling publishing from emailing, will get you more creative freedom, less spam, and a happier, less unsubscribe-y audience, in my experience. But they read more than just one weekly email.

So go ahead! Publish daily. But save the email for your best stuff.

That’s when people actually open it.

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