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I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

shadesofgreaves.substack.com

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Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#31

Post by Andrex »

allium wrote: post #19
cranberryturkey wrote: post #2

haha. nice. man i can't grow shit online like the old days.

It was always hard, but it used to be possible. These days, though, you have to compete for visibility against people who are as good at manipulation as you are at actually doing stuff. Platform capitalism has made the “idiot box” age of TV downright civilized in comparison—at least they didn’t eat Tide pods in the trash cable era.

Maybe not, but what generation added all the "caution: do not eat" labels to everything in the first place? Hmm...

Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#33

Post by taubek »

marban wrote: post #32

My newsletter stalled at 5k subs, and writing every single day had a severe negative impact on my life, so I just stopped after 2 years. Life is too short to chase becoming another Morning Brew when you rely on WOM as your sole growth factor.

Content curation and creation is really full time job. Especially if you have a publishing cadence that you don’t want to break. Publishing every day must have been really exhausting.

Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#34

Post by gowld »

ryukoposting wrote: post #7

Darn, I've been doing it all wrong! Guess I need to migrate my entire blog to Substack so that I can have a concept of "subscribers" and the necessary analytics to give me a dopamine rush any time the number gets bigger.

Journaling is great. It helps organize your thinking.

Why do you publish, if not to reach readers? If you want to reach readers, why not put some effort into that part too?

Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#35

Post by foreverobama »

prmoustache wrote: post #25

I never understood the appeal in platforms like Medium and Substack. But then I am a pathological contrarian and have an allergic reaction to anything any kind of advertising signal to buy, force you to have an account for consultation, subscribe, send like and whatever and tend to avoid most of these platforms. You are free to add an rss xml file to your website though.

[dead]

Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#36

Post by gowld »

marban wrote: post #32

My newsletter stalled at 5k subs, and writing every single day had a severe negative impact on my life, so I just stopped after 2 years. Life is too short to chase becoming another Morning Brew when you rely on WOM as your sole growth factor.

Did you know your readers even wanted a letter ever single day, instead of once a week?

Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#37

Post by jacquesm »

ryukoposting wrote: post #7

Darn, I've been doing it all wrong! Guess I need to migrate my entire blog to Substack so that I can have a concept of "subscribers" and the necessary analytics to give me a dopamine rush any time the number gets bigger.

Why? My most enjoyable project doesn't have any tracking at all, I don't know if it has just 1 (me) user, 1,000 or a million. Every other week or so I get some confirmation that people actually use it and it always is a pleasant surprise, so much more worthwhile than just to see a number go up.

Maybe there is a businessmodel to be made with a platform that shows engagement metrics but they're not the real thing, just a bunch of counters that are incremented regardless of actual use. That way you get to feel good...

Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#38

Post by chiefalchemist »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #9

> So, considering that you’re likely going to fail, at least pick something you’re going to enjoy failing at! This is the golden nugget that got me subscribed. I love satire (and am pumped Jon Stewart is back on TDS) and this is a good perspective to trying out side projects.

It's not limited to side projects. "Failure" is the norm. It's what happens nearly every time, all the time.

Once you embrace this then you're spitting distance from, "What do I have to lose?"

If you don't try, you end up in the same place. If you do try, you also likely end up in the same place. But oh the joy of pulling that slot machine handle and watching the wheels spin. There's simply no joy at all in not trying. So why not try?

Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#40

Post by marban »

gowld wrote: post #36
marban wrote: post #32

My newsletter stalled at 5k subs, and writing every single day had a severe negative impact on my life, so I just stopped after 2 years. Life is too short to chase becoming another Morning Brew when you rely on WOM as your sole growth factor.

Did you know your readers even wanted a letter ever single day, instead of once a week?

Yes, 75% open rate + 'concerned' emails when I missed a day every now and then.
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