Here's What I Learned About Getting More Paid Subscribers in January

Let's buckle in for a fast start to 2026!

Let’s start with my monthly goals. In November, I created a month-by-month list of goals I wanted to meet each month for December 2025 through June of 2027. I hit my December goals on December 2nd. I hit my January goals on January 13th.

My January goals were to have 1,130 total subscribers, 28 Paid, a 2.8% conversion rate. I ended up with 1,144 total subscribers, 41 Paid, and a 3.6% conversion rate. So very happy with those results.

The goals for February are: 1,230 total subscribers, 42 Paid, a 3.4% conversion rate. So I’m in great shape to hit Feb’s goals already.

Long-term, my goal is to reach the first level of the Bestseller Badge (100 Paid subscribers) by the end of June. I am well on way to hitting that goal, in fact I may hit it in May based on progress so far.

According to ChatGPT, Substack’s algo will give you a slight boost in conversion rate of about 25% for a period of 2-4 months after you first get the Bestseller Badge. After that, the boost to conversion rate will pull back a bit, and the new benchmark will be a 10% increase over where your conversion rate was before getting the Bestseller Badge.

Example: If you had a 3.0% conversion rate, then got the Bestseller Badge, your conversion would jump to around 3.75% for 2-4 months. After that, it would fall back to around 3.3%.

Speaking of Substack’s algo, here’s some more findings on how it works: