My First 12 Months on Substack
Stats, lessons learned, and other juicy stuff.
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What you’ll learn in this paid post:
The honest story of how my Substack audience grew from 49 to over 8,000 subscribers (and why it wasn’t overnight magic)
The two simple changes that kickstarted real growth — including the power of daily Notes and a significant rebrand
Why I’m playing the long game with Substack (and why I think you should too)
The ups, downs, and honest reflections from my first year on the platform — trolls, takeaways, and what’s next
Let’s get right to it.
I joined Substack in June 2023. My first post - a short and sweet placeholder - was published on the twelfth day of the month, almost one year ago exactly.
I started from near-scratch with 49 subscribers imported from another platform (possibly Mailchimp?). It’d probably taken me a few months to gather those subs through my fledgling YouTube channel.
For the next 5 months, growth was a slow burn. I published on a weekly basis, usually repurposing content across from Medium or posting roundups that included recommendations, videos and personal updates.
Many of those posts got little or no engagement. I wasn’t super consistent with my publishing schedule, either. There wasn’t much feedback to go on, so I didn’t really know what my small audience wanted from me.
The rest of this post is for paid subscribers. If you want to dive in (and support me in the process), consider upgrading to my paid tier. You know it’d make my day. ☺️
