# Substack Newsletter Sponsor Lead Extractor (`ayeeyee/substack-newsletter-sponsor-lead-extractor`) Actor

Substack newsletter refs (URLs, slugs, custom domains, feed URLs) become sponsor-ready author leads: the public RSS contact email (itunes:owner + webMaster), MX/DNS-verified emails, phones, socials, tech stack, A-D lead score, sponsor-readiness signal, newlyLaunched flag. No keys, no proxy, per-s

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ayeeyee/substack-newsletter-sponsor-lead-extractor.md
- **Developed by:** [Virtual Footprint LLC](https://apify.com/ayeeyee) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Marketing, Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 sponsor-ready newsletter leads

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Substack Newsletter Sponsor Lead Extractor

Turn Substack newsletter references into **sponsor-ready author sales leads** — the
author's publicly declared contact email, MX/DNS-verified emails + phones +
socials + tech stack from the newsletter's own site, an A–D lead score, a
sponsor-readiness signal (publishing recency + frequency + catalog size), and a
`newlyLaunched` flag. Clean, deduped, and billed **per successful contact**.

Newsletter sponsorship is a booming B2B market — agencies and brands actively buy
"find newsletters to sponsor" lists. This actor is the **newsletter twin of our
Podcast Sponsor-Ready Host Lead Extractor**: same public-RSS `<itunes:owner>`
email pattern, same shared enrichment layer, zero new infrastructure.

### Why this actor (not another content scraper)

Every other Substack actor on the Apify Store (`digispruce/substack-scraper`,
`scraper_guru/substack-scraper`, …) sells **raw post content**. **None** turn a
newsletter into a *sponsorship sales lead*:

- the author's **publicly declared contact email** from the RSS feed
  (`<itunes:owner>` / `<itunes:email>` + `<webMaster>`) — ranked first;
- **MX/DNS-verified** emails, phones, socials, and tech stack scraped from the
  newsletter's **own publication site** (the RSS channel `<link>`);
- an **A–D sponsor-readiness grade** from publishing recency + frequency +
  catalog size + reachability, with a plain-English pitch-readiness line;
- a **`newlyLaunched`** rolling-window flag for fresh-newsletter prospecting;
- **per-verified-success pricing** — you are never billed for a newsletter that
  returns no contact (the #1 complaint about flat-rate RSS dumpers).

### Inputs

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `newsletters` | string\[] | yes (≥1) | Substack publication URLs (`https://platformer.substack.com`), bare publication slugs (`platformer`), custom domains (`lennysnewsletter.com`), or direct feed URLs (`https://platformer.substack.com/feed`). One record per resolved newsletter. |
| `verifyEmails` | boolean | no (default `true`) | Validate the best contact email's domain against live MX/DNS records. |
| `enrichWebsite` | boolean | no (default `true`) | Fetch the newsletter's own site and extract emails/phones/socials/tech. Disable for faster runs when only the RSS owner email is needed. |
| `concurrency` | integer | no (default `5`) | Newsletters processed in parallel (1–10). |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | no | Optional. Only needed if you hit rate limits; the actor works without a proxy. |

> **No keyword search:** Substack has no keyless keyword-search API (the search
> page is JavaScript-rendered and its XHR endpoint is gated). Discovery is
> explicit-ref only — the same pattern as our Website Contact & Shopify lead
> actors. Pass the newsletter references you already have.

### Output schema

One record per resolved newsletter (see the sample below). Fields:

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `inputRef` / `matchType` | The raw input reference and how it was resolved (`slug` / `url` / `feed`). |
| `feedUrl` / `title` / `author` / `website` / `summary` / `category` / `language` | Newsletter metadata from the RSS feed. |
| `ownerEmail` / `ownerName` / `webMaster` | The author's publicly declared contact email + name from the RSS `<itunes:owner>` and `<webMaster>` tags. |
| `emails` | Deduped contact list — owner email first, then `webMaster`, then MX/DNS-verified emails from the newsletter's own site. |
| `emailVerified` | `true` if the best email's domain has an MX (or fallback A) record. |
| `phones` / `socials` / `techStack` | From the newsletter's own site (enrichment layer). |
| `postCountInFeed` / `lastPostDate` / `postsLast30Days` | Publishing cadence (sponsor-reachability signal). |
| `newlyLaunched` | `true` if the catalog is young and the latest post is within the rolling 90-day window. |
| `sponsorReadiness` / `sponsorLabel` | A–D grade + plain-English pitch-readiness line. |
| `leadScore` | A–D data-richness grade. |
| `hasContact` | Whether any real contact signal was found (gates billing). |

### Real-run sample

Run input:

```json
{ "newsletters": ["https://www.lennysnewsletter.com", "platformer"] }
```

Result dataset (real, live-verified 2026-07-16):

```json
[
  {
    "inputRef": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
    "matchType": "url",
    "feedUrl": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/feed",
    "title": "Lenny's Newsletter",
    "author": "Lenny Rachitsky",
    "website": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
    "ownerEmail": "lenny@lennyrachitsky.com",
    "webMaster": "lenny@lennyrachitsky.com",
    "language": "en",
    "postCountInFeed": 20,
    "lastPostDate": "2026-07-13T15:02:17+00:00",
    "postsLast30Days": 20,
    "newlyLaunched": false,
    "emails": ["lenny@lennyrachitsky.com"],
    "emailVerified": true,
    "phones": [],
    "socials": {},
    "techStack": ["Cloudflare", "Express", "Google Tag Manager", "React"],
    "sponsorReadiness": "A",
    "leadScore": "B",
    "hasContact": true
  },
  {
    "inputRef": "platformer",
    "matchType": "slug",
    "feedUrl": "https://platformer.substack.com/feed",
    "title": "Platformer",
    "author": "Casey Newton",
    "website": "https://platformer.substack.com",
    "ownerEmail": "platformer@substack.com",
    "webMaster": "platformer@substack.com",
    "language": "en",
    "postCountInFeed": 20,
    "lastPostDate": "2024-01-12T01:00:49+00:00",
    "postsLast30Days": 0,
    "newlyLaunched": false,
    "emails": ["platformer@substack.com"],
    "emailVerified": true,
    "phones": [],
    "socials": {},
    "techStack": ["Cloudflare", "Express", "React"],
    "sponsorReadiness": "C",
    "leadScore": "B",
    "hasContact": true
  }
]
```

Notes on truthfulness: `lenny@lennyrachitsky.com` is the author's **real own-domain
email** declared in the public RSS feed and MX-verified — a prime sponsor target
(active, 20 posts in the last 30 days → sponsor A). `platformer@substack.com` is
Substack's public forwarding address for the publication (it forwards to the
author) — a usable sponsor contact, and the actor **honestly** grades Platformer
`C` because it last published in January 2024 (Platformer left Substack). The
actor never invents emails; when no contact is found, `hasContact` is `false` and
the record is not billed.

### Pricing (pay per event)

| Event | Price | When charged |
|---|---|---|
| **Sponsor-Ready Newsletter Lead** (primary) | **$0.008** | Once per newsletter that returns at least one real contact signal + publishing metadata. |
| Verified Newsletter Email | $0.003 | When a newsletter yields at least one MX/DNS-validated email. |
| Sponsor-Readiness Signal | $0.001 | When the A–D grade is computed. |
| Actor Start | $0.0001 | Once per run. |

Zero upstream compose cost (self-contained: public Substack RSS + the newsletter's
own public site), so the primary event is priced well above per-run compute. A run
that returns 50 sponsor-ready leads with verified emails costs ≈ $0.008×50 +
$0.003×50 + $0.001×50 + $0.0001 ≈ **$0.60**.

### Performance & troubleshooting

- **Speed:** each newsletter is 1 feed fetch + (optionally) 1 site fetch, run
  concurrently up to `concurrency`. ~50 newsletters/minute on the default
  concurrency.
- **No contact returned / `hasContact: false`:** the newsletter's RSS feed had no
  `<itunes:owner>` email and its site exposed no contact info — not billed. Some
  Substack-hosted newsletters only expose the `<slug>@substack.com` forwarding
  address; that is a real, MX-verified sponsor contact.
- **Stale grade (D/C):** a newsletter that stopped publishing scores low on
  recency — correct, not a bug (e.g. a publication that left Substack).
- **`matchType: invalid` / empty result:** the reference could not be resolved to
  a feed (bad slug, dead link). Confirm the publication exists.
- **Rate limits:** rare (Substack RSS is generous). If you hit them, set
  `concurrency` lower or add a `proxyConfiguration`.

### ToS & safety

Contact is taken **only** from the newsletter author's own publicly declared RSS
email (`<itunes:owner>` / `<webMaster>`) and the newsletter's own public website —
identical to the podcast actor's public-RSS pattern. No account scraping, no
behind-login data, no API keys, no residential proxy. Safe for outreach use.

# Actor input Schema

## `newsletters` (type: `array`):

Substack publication URLs, bare publication slugs, custom domains, or direct RSS feed URLs. One record is returned per resolved newsletter.

## `verifyEmails` (type: `boolean`):

Validate the best contact email's domain against live MX/DNS records.

## `enrichWebsite` (type: `boolean`):

Fetch the newsletter's own publication site (RSS channel <link>) and extract emails/phones/socials/tech stack. Disable for faster runs when only the RSS owner email is needed.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

Newsletters processed in parallel (1-10).

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional. Only needed if you hit rate limits; the Actor works without a proxy (Substack's public RSS feed).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "newsletters": [
    "https://platformer.substack.com",
    "platformer",
    "lennysnewsletter.com",
    "https://platformer.substack.com/feed"
  ],
  "verifyEmails": true,
  "enrichWebsite": true,
  "concurrency": 5,
  "proxyConfiguration": {}
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "newsletters": [
        "https://platformer.substack.com"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {}
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ayeeyee/substack-newsletter-sponsor-lead-extractor").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "newsletters": ["https://platformer.substack.com"],
    "proxyConfiguration": {},
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ayeeyee/substack-newsletter-sponsor-lead-extractor").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "newsletters": [
    "https://platformer.substack.com"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {}
}' |
apify call ayeeyee/substack-newsletter-sponsor-lead-extractor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,ayeeyee/substack-newsletter-sponsor-lead-extractor"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/SPclMNafE8jiZdxAr/builds/1P26CBl2GtDSRbuB4/openapi.json