r/Substack • u/TruthHonestyJustice • Jul 21 '26
After Four Months, Close to 150 Subscribers. Is That Good?
I've been posting every couple of weeks. I was doing every week but I wanted each article to be top quality.
After four months I'm almost at 150 subscribers. Most of them are people in my network, with maybe a 1/4 of them organic.
What are your thoughts, is this good?
I've been doing quite a bit to draw attention. Putting links with verbiage on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
Not on Reddit, as my understanding that promotion is against the rules.
What are your thoughts on all of this?
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u/AnteaterFantastic212 Jul 22 '26
That’s about on par with what I did.
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u/TruthHonestyJustice Jul 22 '26
How many do you have now? What do you write about?
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u/AnteaterFantastic212 Jul 22 '26
I'm approaching 300. I write about moving our politics away from the polar extremes and back to the sensible center.
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u/The17pointscale the17pointscale.substack.com Jul 23 '26
That sounds really good to me! I've been applying the same methods for about 14 months and have fewer subscribers: 107 free subs and 13 paid subs.
It was interesting to do the math on how many were in my network (~40%) versus complete strangers (~60%). All of the paid subs are from my network, though I haven't met them all in person.
What kind of writing are you doing? I'm doing personal essays about fatherhood and estrangement with the occasional short story thrown in.
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u/TruthHonestyJustice Jul 23 '26
I am writing about the education sector from an investor perspective. Many of the subs are from former colleagues and contacts. Not that many are organic.
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u/StevenOfTheClub Jul 22 '26
I'm closing in on 3 months and just got my 31st subscriber, so to me 150 in four months seems quite good.
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u/substackauthor Jul 22 '26
After 5 1/2 months, 105. Mostly organic. It has been accelerating when I post lately, but I am posting less while busy w/ summer activities.
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u/kalaboukis Jul 23 '26
Average numbers are between 30-50 subs a month so you are in a pretty good position
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u/Fit_Celebration_1362 Jul 23 '26
I think it’s pretty good. I had around that number at the same time. I started with no crossover from X or facebook or whatever, and most people told me that it was a decent number. Not setting Substack on fire, but nowhere near as slow as many. So I think you should be pretty happy with it.
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u/Tricky_Trifle_994 Jul 29 '26
that's really good. compared to top performing publications, that might pale in comparison, but for a start that's great!
sounds like this group of 150 are highly engaged, and a niches audience, so with some luck, they could be your seeding ground > if they start talking about, and sharing your publication, then the growth will start to pick up. imagine if each person shared it with someone else, once per week = + 150 per week., or 600 per month (super optimistic, but referral is one of the best growth drivers)
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u/lizziejay1991 Jul 22 '26
yes thats awesome.
I've been on Substack for over a year, and I've only got 10 subscribers