As someone who's trying to build my own readership (albeit from a lower base/later start - and without the magic draw of Postcode Address File content!) it's really interesting to hear thoughts from someone who's 'got there'. Especially as you also don't just follow the discourse.
If you're happy to say, how many subscribers did you have when you decided to go paid?
Cheers Iain. I think it was about 2000 when I made the leap to paid – though I had around 20k Twitter followers at the time too, which may have made a difference.
A post of links? All about figuring out the workflow: when you see something you want to link to, have a method of flagging it in whichever system you want to use, and then collate them. I've never tried it with Substack because of its link-embed needing a keystroke rather than HTML, but you could surely script that. (Old reminiscing post of getting to 1,000: https://charlesarthur.medium.com/link-to-the-rest-the-12-year-journey-to-1-000-days-of-theoverspill-links-d70888b5336c )
I would suggest this - a few links of articles worth reading is a distinct value added because the internet is big and someone I know with vaguely similar interests finds XYZ interesting enough to read is worth money in itself.
Delicious was great and then, when it became part of the workflow, *terrible* because its owners couldn’t be happy just being a bookmarking service. When Pinboard bought it everyone (well me) heaved a huge sigh of relief because Maciej, the guy who runs it, is a very does-what-it-says-on-the-tin guy who doesn’t want to turn a bookmarking service into a video-based banking service.
The linky bits are a really nice bonus in other substacks I subscribe to (Helen Lewis, Sarah Ditum for example). If you can find a way to make that work - even if it was just a few bunged on the end of an essay - that would be cool. But totally understand how something apparently simple can actually be enormously time consuming.
If you wanted to take random stuff you post on twitter into a linkdump post every so often, that would be useful, even if you didn't spend an entire day on it. (This is arguably what Jonn Elledge does for his links section; it's blatantly "stuff I saw on twitter this week that I liked".)
Very much get the battle with churn. It's something I'm becoming slightly obsessed with, even though our rate seems to be fairly low. But that still doesn't stop me constantly figuring out how many subscribers we'd have if they'd all stayed! Not entirely healthy, I accept.
Count me as another who really enjoyed the link and short takes edition - always found something interesting in them. Would like to see it back in some form (even if in a quicker way as others are suggesting) but equally, you need to do whatever works for you. I'll keep reading regardless.
Many happy returns and here’s to another year of nerdery and delight! Re links. I love links but I notice hardly anyone clicks on them in my newsletters. I think that’s probably because I have so many long-suffering friends in my mailing list, many of whom are normal and not terminally online and – imagine this! – don’t read endless articles and Twitter threads. I expect you have higher clock throughs with your demographic?? If so, you could just plonk in some very basic links like Corey Doctorow does on his website?
Living through much of what you've outlined regarding lower-tier and commercial writing. Bare times. Aside from trying to build a readership on here, sharpen my voice, I am looking into UX writing, broadcasting opp and trying to pitch more features. That whole posting as pressure release felt very relatable!
I'm really glad that things have worked out for you on Substack. It's my only paid subscription too and worth every 500 pennies!
Thanks Matt!
Still my only paid UK substack, congrats on a full year!
Cheers! Thanks for your support!
This was great to read - thank you for sharing!
As someone who's trying to build my own readership (albeit from a lower base/later start - and without the magic draw of Postcode Address File content!) it's really interesting to hear thoughts from someone who's 'got there'. Especially as you also don't just follow the discourse.
If you're happy to say, how many subscribers did you have when you decided to go paid?
Cheers Iain. I think it was about 2000 when I made the leap to paid – though I had around 20k Twitter followers at the time too, which may have made a difference.
(And I think it very much depends on your income expectations etc etc.)
Thanks! I've gone from 100 to 500 in 15 months, so, optimistically, maybe another year or so to get to that stage.
I think my biggest worry would be being large enough that it didn't kill growth.
Keep at it! Success begets success! So your first five hundred are going to be way more difficult than going from 1000 to 1500, say.
Fingers crossed!
A post of links? All about figuring out the workflow: when you see something you want to link to, have a method of flagging it in whichever system you want to use, and then collate them. I've never tried it with Substack because of its link-embed needing a keystroke rather than HTML, but you could surely script that. (Old reminiscing post of getting to 1,000: https://charlesarthur.medium.com/link-to-the-rest-the-12-year-journey-to-1-000-days-of-theoverspill-links-d70888b5336c )
I would suggest this - a few links of articles worth reading is a distinct value added because the internet is big and someone I know with vaguely similar interests finds XYZ interesting enough to read is worth money in itself.
If you look at Benedict Evans's report it's similar - a long comment article and a few links with a couple of short points to explain why it's there. Likewise https://forums.contractoruk.com/general/150084-monday-links-from-the-bank-holiday-deckchair-vol-dcclxv.html which is published weekly.
I’d completely forgotten about Delicious!
Delicious was great and then, when it became part of the workflow, *terrible* because its owners couldn’t be happy just being a bookmarking service. When Pinboard bought it everyone (well me) heaved a huge sigh of relief because Maciej, the guy who runs it, is a very does-what-it-says-on-the-tin guy who doesn’t want to turn a bookmarking service into a video-based banking service.
PAF'ing hell, looks like you gave struck a chord with that one, surprised there are any spaces left at all ;-)
It shows what an important, populist issue the PAF is! I imagine politicians must be hearing about nothing else on the doorstep.
The linky bits are a really nice bonus in other substacks I subscribe to (Helen Lewis, Sarah Ditum for example). If you can find a way to make that work - even if it was just a few bunged on the end of an essay - that would be cool. But totally understand how something apparently simple can actually be enormously time consuming.
If you wanted to take random stuff you post on twitter into a linkdump post every so often, that would be useful, even if you didn't spend an entire day on it. (This is arguably what Jonn Elledge does for his links section; it's blatantly "stuff I saw on twitter this week that I liked".)
Congratulations on the one year!
Very much get the battle with churn. It's something I'm becoming slightly obsessed with, even though our rate seems to be fairly low. But that still doesn't stop me constantly figuring out how many subscribers we'd have if they'd all stayed! Not entirely healthy, I accept.
Count me as another who really enjoyed the link and short takes edition - always found something interesting in them. Would like to see it back in some form (even if in a quicker way as others are suggesting) but equally, you need to do whatever works for you. I'll keep reading regardless.
Many happy returns and here’s to another year of nerdery and delight! Re links. I love links but I notice hardly anyone clicks on them in my newsletters. I think that’s probably because I have so many long-suffering friends in my mailing list, many of whom are normal and not terminally online and – imagine this! – don’t read endless articles and Twitter threads. I expect you have higher clock throughs with your demographic?? If so, you could just plonk in some very basic links like Corey Doctorow does on his website?
Cory*
Living through much of what you've outlined regarding lower-tier and commercial writing. Bare times. Aside from trying to build a readership on here, sharpen my voice, I am looking into UX writing, broadcasting opp and trying to pitch more features. That whole posting as pressure release felt very relatable!
Congrats. I'm always looking forward to the newsletter.
Your links post could be even more low effort tbh. Tom Scott does a one line title and that's it.
Thanks for all your work. Hopefully your newsletter keeps growing