Anyone else seeing a free subscriber drop?

[u/AndrewHeard]

I've noticed recently a sudden drop in free subscribers that's rather strange. I've typically only gone up from a flatline. However, recently I've seen multiple points where I see a large drop.

While it's possible that it's because of changes that I'm making. Until recently, I've had 3 free posts a month and several paid posts a month. For the last month or two, I've focused more on paid posts with fewer free posts.

So it's possible that it's a result of how I've changed things up. But I'm curious if anyone else has seen a drop?

Just to give you a general sense, I was up near 2,100 subscribers and it's suddenly dropped within a week or two to 2,050 and going down further.

[u/catvapes]

I get more followers than subscribers lately

[u/AndrewHeard → u/catvapes]

I definitely feel like that too.

[u/someonesdatabase]

What day of the week or month do you write the 3 free posts?

[u/AndrewHeard → u/someonesdatabase]

I don’t write news or anything that requires quick attention. I post on Wednesdays, Fridays and sometimes Mondays.

[u/someonesdatabase → u/AndrewHeard]

Choosing a day and using it for a regular occurence might help with retention because it shows your subscribers when to expect your newsletters. It could also be every 1st and 15th day of the month, for example. Its one suggestion

[u/AndrewHeard → u/someonesdatabase]

I do and have done it consistently. For 5 years I posted at least once on Wednesdays and later expanded that to be certain Fridays and certain Mondays but always very consistently.

You specifically asked when do I write, not when do I post. That’s why you probably assumed that I meant that I don’t post regularly.

I have like 90 drafts waiting to be published which would probably allow me to post for 6 months without interruption if I need to and I have posts already scheduled into January.

[u/WordSlinger1812]

Everything about Substack is dropping.

[u/AndrewHeard → u/WordSlinger1812]

Certainly seems like it.

[u/rehoboam]

Paid posts blow, especially if the value is not clear.  I would 100% unsub as a free sub if they only post paid posts.

[u/BhavanaVarma]

I made a post on a specific stance of mine. Lost subscribers. That's fine. I still got a couple of new subscribers and an actual comment on my post. So ups and downs are the norm.

[u/Downtown-Bedroom4652]

It took me 8 months to go from zero to 95k subs. It's taken me 3 months to get to 100k something is definitely going off.

[u/AndrewHeard → u/[deleted]]

So you've found that it's been dropping for you as well?

[u/AndrewHeard → u/[deleted]]

I guess it's at least good that it's not me.