1 Year on Substack: What Worked, What Didn't And Everything in Between

📍SUBSTACK QUEST CASE STUDY: How I Became a Substack Bestseller in 3 Months and Turned it into a $5k/month Side Business

August 2024. 

I made the call that changed everything. 

I decided to go all in on Substack.

Medium kept changing. More frustration than joy. I needed a better path to build my online business.

I knew a strong newsletter is the backbone of a solid online business. Of all the ways to start a list, I chose Substack.

List building is hard, and Substack has the one feature no other email platform has: real discovery at scale. That is Substack Notes.

It also runs on a model that favors creators. Unlike most platforms, Substack earns only when you earn. That’s all I needed. 

It was my a-ha moment. 

So on September 1 I went all in.

About three months later, on November 15, I woke up to the email every Substack writer dreams about: a Bestseller badge. Three months after that, I earned another badge: first 10k in annual recurring revenue.

It is official. I built a five figure newsletter in six months.

But headlines do not matter if you can not keep them coming.

The real story lives in the dozens of decisions, pivots, failures, and lessons that made it possible.

Today I will walk you through exactly how it happened.

The moves that worked, the mistakes that almost tanked my momentum, and the strategies that got me there without a team, a budget, or an external audience.

Yes, I started from scratch.

Here is how it all happened.