My 25th Month Publishing on Substack: Here's What I Learned

The BIG month finally happened

This is the monthly recap I have been waiting 2 years for. And it actually started at the end of last month.

I wrote about it a bit in this post, but at the end of last month, I realized I had made a mistake. My plan since last Summer was to grow my Substack in three tiers:

First, create a solid content strategy.

Second, create a solid conversion strategy.

Third, create a solid engagement strategy.

The idea behind this strategy was detailed in this post. Design the content strategy first, create content that becomes a filter. So the ‘right’ people are attracted, and the ‘wrong’ people are repelled. Once my content was attracting the right people, then add the conversion layer to convert them to Paid subscribers.

Everything was going fine, until it became time to add the engagement layer. I should have done that starting in April.

But I didn’t. I was concerned that if I shifted my content to focus more on attracting free subscribers (top of the funnel) that my conversion rate (middle of the funnel) would suffer.

By the end of May, I had only added 20 free subscribers for the month. That was my wakeup call that I had to focus more on accelerating growth by creating content that appealed more to free subscribers.

The last post I wrote in May was the first one I wrote designed to appeal to free subscribers. It was an immediate hit, here’s the stats:

The across the board success of this post confirmed this was the direction I needed to go. A week later I wrote I Can Tell in Under a Minute If Your Substack is Successful. This was the closest I have come to a ‘viral’ post. Here’s the stats:

And here’s how my views tracked over the last 90 days:

As you can see, the run-up started with the “I’ve Been Spying on How You Use Substack’ post. The day that post was published, it set a record for the most traffic in one day. I would break that record nine times in June.

And I thought this was interesting…if you look at the above graph, you can see that daily traffic levels dipped slightly the last 7-10 days of June. During that time, I wasn’t able to spend quite as much time each day on Substack engaging with others. This helps show that when you are here and putting in time to interact with others, you get an organic and algorithmic boost. When you aren’t, then you lose both.

June was also a huge month for free subscriber growth. Which is exactly what I was hoping would happen with my content shift.

If I remember correctly, the most free subscribers I had ever gained in a month before last month was 72. I gained 190 free subscribers in June.

I had 1,177 free subscribers on May 31st, and 1,367 free subscribers at EOD on June 30th.

And here’s the punchline…my conversion rate actually went up in June.

I entered June with 65 Paid subscribers from a total of 1,177 subscribers. By EOD June 30th, I had 78 Paid subscribers from a total of 1,367 subscribers.

My overall conversion rate increased from 5.5% in May to 5.7% in June.

My conversion rate in June alone was 6.8%.

This means a couple of things. First, it means I scaled free subscriber and Paid subscriber growth at the same time. Very hard to do.

But it also means I should have stuck to my guns and made the content shift to target free subscribers back in April. If I had done this, I would likely have the first level Bestseller Badge now.

I stunted my growth by not sticking to my own advice.

My goals for July is to reach 100 Paid subscribers by the end of the month and that will give me the first level Bestseller Badge. As of this writing (I’m typing this up July 1st), I have 79 Paid subscribers. So I am 21 short. It’s an ambitious goal, but possible.

If you’ve been on the fence about upgrading, now’s the time. I am offering a special incentive, whoever is the 100th Paid subscriber will receive a free year added to the end of their subscription. Doesn’t matter if they are a monthly or annual. Obviously, Annual is a much better deal, as it is 38% cheaper than monthly, plus you get a full year to work with me to help grow your Substack.

Many Paid upgrades give you access to the archives, and wish you well. When you upgrade at Backstage Pass, you do get access to the entire archives. But in addition, you get access to the private chat just for Paid community members. A great and supportive group to help you discuss Substack, get opinions, and bounce around ideas.

And of course, your Paid subscription also gets you access to me. You can DM me as much as you want about your Substack and how to grow it. Whether you have a burning question or want to brainstorm ideas, I am always here for you to help you every step of the way.

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Behind the Curtain - Shellie Vandersluis

Behind the Curtain is where we take a closer look at some of the fine people that make up the Paid community.

Shellie is the first monthly Paid subscriber I ever got. In fact, I don’t believe we had ever interacted before she subscribed. July will be her 12th month in the Paid community.

I think she was my 7th Paid subscriber overall. When Shellie subscribed, I was still very uncertain if I could make it on Substack. Unsure if I should cut my losses and move onto something else.

But Shellie’s upgrade, out of nowhere, was a huge boost to my confidence. I don’t think she will ever understand how important it was to me.

Thank you, Shellie. I am honored to have you in the Paid community. As I make my final push to 100 Paid subscribers, there will be a small group of people who I feel a slightly bigger debt to for helping me get to the finish line. You are absolutely in that small group. Thank you, my friend!

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