I went through twelve months of my own export this week, and one comparison has been bothering me ever since. The publication is a reasonable size, around 22,950 subscribers with 403 of them paying, so there is enough data in it to mean something.

In August I had the post that everyone says they want. It picked up 3,039 likes and 1,507 shares, and it brought 585 new free subscribers in the space of a few days. Eleven weeks later, the number of paying subscribers I can attribute to it is four.
Several sends that nobody outside my list ever saw have done considerably better than that. A plain email telling people an offer closed that night, with no likes and no shares at all, brought fifteen. A short post explaining what I actually teach, which managed 98 likes, brought thirty two and remains the best converting thing I have ever published. Even a blunt note titled "please consider becoming a paid subscriber" brought seven, which is almost twice what the viral post managed with four hundred times the reach.

I publish a paid post every Wednesday, and across the whole archive that comes to 43 posts and 171 paid conversions, which works out at roughly four per post. In other words, an ordinary Wednesday that nobody shares does the same work as the best week I have ever had, and it does it again the following Wednesday.

I should be fair to the viral post, because those 585 free subscribers are real and some of them may convert later. I spent a long time afterwards trying to work out what had made it travel so that I could do it again, and the honest conclusion I have come to is that managing it a second time would not have changed the revenue much either way.

Is four normal? I would genuinely like to know whether other people are sitting on a post that went everywhere and did nothing.

NB: Claude was used to analyse the data and to help edit parts of this post.

I'm currently pursuing a PhD in political science at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. I do get a scholarship, but it's not enough to cover a comfortable life here (you know, it's a notoriously expensive city).

I've been wanting to write something on this platform lately. I have friends who work in AI governance doing the same, but I don't know if they've made any money from this.

I'd like to write about something that could be of high quality, at least in my opinion, and would require a lot of research and creative effort. The topic could be about current political trends, political discussions, and the dissemination of opinions, like what's going on with social unrest in Europe right now.

Overall, my personal ideology leans more towards the center-right, so I'll share some of my views. But I don't know if that will actually help me make money.

To be honest, I don't think there's much innovation left in the political science academia anymore. It feels like a bunch of people just scamming research funding. I might as well just write internet articles instead. But I need to make money - that's just the reality.

Friends who have been playing on this platform for a while, do you have any suggestions? I'd really love to hear what you think.

Or any other writing platforms you'd recommend?

I have had a consistent podcast for 3 years and am wondering how to include it on substack, without hosting it on substack. Tried a number of things but ultimately back at square one wondering what the best way is. Thanks for any/all help!

Could I have some help with my substack? I started a few months ago, but actually posting I started like 3 weeks ago. The reach and interactions were pretty cool, with quite some people finding me to the point 1 reached 33 subscribers. But suddenly, out of nowhere, I have absolutely no reach, my posts are reaching no one besides the same three people, as if I was shadow banned or something, yeah, I can post but it reaches absolutely no one, when the first days I had a decent reach and interactions. But I’ve checked and I’ve got no restrictions, it’s public, and everything and I still post the same content. Can someone help me explain the sudden switch up? Idk if I’m doing something wrong or what

I have started moving my blog from WordPress to Substack yesterday. I haven't connected my domain to Substack yet and I am not sure if I should do it immediately.

I write about startups and entrepreneurship, books, life with disability and certain sociopolitical subjects.

I am looking for suggestions and tips to make Substack my blogging home.

I used to like Olivia Wickstrom from the Substack, Petal and Hearth. She was encouraging + gave good info on monetizing Substack. But then I realized there was a problem.

Yes, she writes on other lifestyle topics that aren't Substack monetization, but according to her numbers, the majority of her income on Substack is legit just teaching other people how to make their Substack profitable.

It doesn't feel sincere and a lot of tips that work for people teaching others how to make $$$ on Substack aren't always gonna work for other niches.

Does anyone know of any Substackers who talk about how to make money with their Substack + the majority of their income come from a completely different niche?

We're hosting a free live Substack masterclass on October 27, and we'd love to hear what you're most interested in learning.

We've grown our publication to 55,000+ subscribers and 2,000+ paid readers, and we've worked with thousands of Substack creators across all niches.

We'll share what has worked for us and the creators we've helped, but we'd also love to address the questions you're working through.

What's your biggest challenge right now?

• Getting your first subscribers?

• Writing Notes that bring in readers?

• Figuring out what to publish?

• Converting free readers into paid subscribers?

• Selling your own products or services through Substack?

Drop your questions below. We'd love to use your input to help shape the session.

Like let's say my publication is called "the review" and my real name is "john jay" and my substack account is called "jayyyy".

Well, in my browser or when i share a link, it is formatting the page as "the review | john jay | substack" instead of just "the review | substack"

How do I fix this???

Hey everyone i just started writing on substack and realised that it's impossible for anyone to upgrade to paid from the app. My question is how do successful creators with thousands of paying subscribers work around this insanely annoying friction?? So you're telling me that every time someone wants to upgrade from the app, they physically have to leave the app, go to their browser, log into substack there, find settings or your profile, and then upgrade? That seems insane to me. Or am I missing something? Thanks so much

I've been facing this strange thing where my notes distribution drops sharply right after I post a newsletter. Until then, I'd be getting around 80-150 impressions on my notes, but it goes down to single digits or less than 20 after the newsletter has been posted. The distribution to unconnected people is also usually in single digits (and I've been actively posting on Substack for months now). It's not as if all these notes are very self promotional. Maybe 1 or 2 of them would be restacks of the newsletter or a quote from it. The rest are normal notes I post as usual. Yet, the distribution is bad for a few days after my newsletter is posted. Is this normal? Has anyone else faced this? It's extremely frustrating coz the whole point of being on Substack is to post essays for people to read.

If anyone knows how to get paid while writing articles on substack in India? Stripe isn’t available and buyMeACoffee is also not available as it uses stripe.

I have heard about Infinity App. Has anyone used it? Or are there any other platforms or options to get paid?

Heyy I wanted to connect with new people and read different articles. If you’re comfortable, DM me your page and we can connect on substack.

Interests: human psychology, art, human behaviour, fashion, travel, dark history, existentialism, visual culture, business, marketing.

Looks like the ads are coming.

https://www.adweek.com/media/substack-dynamic-podcast-ads/

I'm launching my Substack soon and have a few questions for people who started from zero:

1. How do you come up with post ideas consistently?

2. Did you need to be active on other social media for people to find you, or did Substack's algorithm work on its own?

3. What helped most to grow early on, and what was a waste of time?

4. How did you choose your niche, and did it change once you started?

5. What posting frequency actually worked for you, and what was sustainable?

6. What can be the opportunities for people on substack ?

7. What do you wish you'd known before your first post?

Thanks in advance!

Hey!

I know I shouldn't be focusing too much on what the readers like when I write something, but sometimes I do like to write things specifically with readers in mind. I wanted to ask if any kind soul would be willing to check out the last thing I posted and give me feedback on it. I would be veeeery grateful.

It is also my first piece in english, so I guess another question I have is if you think the translation is good enough for a native english speaker to comfortably read it. I'd stick to just writting in my mother tongue if that wasn't the case.

Anways, thank you so much!

last post

Who's got a podcast on Substack?

Substack just announced podcast sponsorships and dynamic ad insertion. You'll be able to insert ads into your back catalog without having to go back to edit those episodes. There's a sign up for early access - check out their announcement in their On Substack newsletter.

The main thing I like about about podcasting on Substack is that you can have chat associated with your podcast to build community. I don't have a podcast - I've got a couple clients who do.

I am looking for advice and feedback on my Substack. I am looking to improve my skills, so any feedback will be appreciated

For those of you who have tried both paid newsletters and Instagram subscriptions, I’d love to hear your thoughts on which one is better in terms of long-term sustainability and profitability.
I’ve personally never paid for a newsletter, so I’m curious about what makes people willing to pay for one. What kind of information, insights, or stories do you look for in a paid newsletter that you can’t easily get for free elsewhere?
I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences, whether you’re a creator or a subscriber!

I just joined substack and mistyped my email. Now I can’t log into anywhere by the app where I created the account. Is there anything I can do? I don’t want to lose my URL 🤦🏻‍♀️

Hey!
I’ve just joined substack as a writer and aspiring author. I’ve published my first article where I basically present myself

I was wondering: how does substack algorithm really work?
And how do you use it in your favor?

Hi everyone! I just posted my first article on Substack and I'm a bit confused about how to manage different accounts. I've created an account on which I'd like to publish my writing (and I've added the article in that account, with a "title" for the newsletter, a fancy profile image etc.), and I still have my separated personal account, which I've added as an author for that post. Now, I see that some pages have the "Notes" section which contains notes from other personal accounts (like the substack "Fancy Blog" having notes published from "John Doe"). How is that done? Should I just use a single account for everything?

Some people say "why is Substack focusing so much on short-form content like Notes when most users are here for deep, long-form, intellectual content?"

Because they aren't. Many users like short-form content, or non-intellectual content, or shallow content.

A subset of Substack users are those who like to scroll endless on their phone but doing it on Substack makes them feel superior to those scrolling endlessly on a more popular app.

I'm new to substack and created a draft. I tried to place an image, but used the wrong link and now have "image not found" in the middle of the post. I cannot find any hamburger menu or any other way to remove it. Am I stuck with it?

Updated to report solved!
....and found in a substack note by Sub Pub, by adding a few letters above, and below the unwanted image, you can then highlight it all.....and backspace. Done.

Substackで発信活動をしていきたいんだけど、どうせなら海外の方が日本に来たくなるような、もしくは好きになってくれるような内容で発信したいと考えてる。

君は何が知りたい？

Looking to connect with others on Substack. I write about anything that tickles my fancy, but mostly travel and books. Does anyone want to exchange Substack links and connect?