My First 3 Weeks on Substack: 1053 Subscribers and a Big Relief!
My First 3 Weeks on Substack: 1053 Subscribers and a Big Relief!
This is what I did to grow my subscribers list on Substack.
I started my Substack about three weeks ago.
During that time, we were getting to know each other.
Honestly, it felt as if I was just messing around with it and watching the stats.
Until it started happening: my list started growing! Organically!
No pressure.
No writing 1–2–3 times daily.
No reading and engagement daily.
No answering to tens of comments daily.
I can tell you: I did not expect it! I’ve read about it, and I’ve watched Tim Denning preaching about it, but I never believed it!
Until I saw it with my own two eyes.
At the beginning, it grew with just a few subscribers per day.
But I was thrilled! And relieved!
I finally found a place where I could grow at my own pace.
What did I do to gain new subscribers?
Full disclosure: I didn’t start from zero. I already had 993 subscribers from Medium and some lead magnets.
So the first things I did were:
I imported my subscriber list
I set-up my newsletter
I introduced myself in my first post
I posted several Notes
I started publishing my Medium stories for free
I published a few posts for paid subscribers — basically, things I didn’t want to share on Medium or I didn’t want to share for free.
Over a year and a half of writing online, I’ve learned some stuff I could easily pack for paid subscribers.
Next, I started watching the stats.
And it started happening!
I was like “OMG, they’re all right!” I had to see it to believe it.
For the three weeks, I grew new 47 subscribers to 1040. And 6 of them are now paid!
That’s an average of 2–3 subscribers daily. 2 paid subscribers came from Substack organically, 1 from Medium, and the rest 3 from my imported list.
Organic growth!
Not only free but also paid subscribers!
Substack makes money when you make money.
They help you earn more. That’s what I love about this platform. But I also know you can’t count only on that. You have to help yourself.
So I started doing this to push even further my growth:
I started sharing every Substack story on Notes, X, Quora and Pinterest. Even those who were also on Medium. I stopped sharing my Medium stories.
I added a link to my newsletter on every online profile I have
I changed my CTAs on Medium to lead to a subscription.
When I share on X, I make sure I add my substack link in the comments, not on the main post. Elon doesn’t like posts with external links, if you do that you risk being shadow-banned. So far it works.
I introduced my newsletter on X, pinned the post on my profile, and ran traffic ads with a budget of $2 per day. So far this post has 1.3m views and just 1 new subscriber, but I started gaining more followers on Twitter. You can see the post here @yana_g_y
I also started using my Substack instead of a Friend link at the beginning of my stories. This way I get a chance to monetize Medium non-member views. Or at least I get an email — it’s an asset! So far I have 8 new subscribers from Medium. I wrote more about it here.
This works even better!
Yesterday I had 10 new subscribers mostly coming from Substack:
So this is what I did to start growing my subscriber list on Substack.
I love this platform. It’s the first time I say something like this about a platform. It’s a thrill. And I great relief.
I love being here!
Hmm, this sounds like a new plan to me. You are an example of how creative people are!!!