Effort to de-monetize Substack authors is backfiring

I can personally report the Law of Opposite Effects is kicking in … again.

SCREEN SHOT FROM 2 HOURS AGO: Just a week ago, my key Substack numbers were not good. In less than 30 days, I lost 15 paid subscribers, which had never happened. My “open rate” suddenly plunged. Now, in a couple of days, I’ve gone from 199 paid subscribers to 239 (now 241). If the goal was to put Nazi-sympathizing contrarians like myself out of business, this operation has backfired - thanks to the silent minority of the world’s most-important resistance, Substack readers.

I think it’s worth an article to update my own Substack subcriber metrics after I posted a story Friday showing that the Censorship Industrial Complex seems to have launched an operation to demonetize and bully independent Substack authors by labeling the platform a haven for Nazis.

At least from my numbers, I have strong evidence this operation might backfire and be yet another example of the “Law of Opposite Effects” exerting itself.

As noted in the article, the goal of these schemers is clearly to bully Substack so this platform and its “contrarian” or independent-thinking authors can’t reach large numbers of the world population.

Well, in about 36 hours, my story generated more than 140 new subscribers, including as many as 37 “paid” subscribers.

Except for a week-long “subscription drive” in September, I’ve never experienced such a huge spike in total and paid subscribers in such a short period of time.

Many thanks to my fellow Substack authors who “cross-posted’ my article, which allowed this post to reach far more prospective readers and subscribers. A special thanks to Dr. Robert Malone who got my momentum going with a cross-post.

In a nutshell, my “Nazi story” blew away all my personal records for story “likes” (more than 870), “shares” (more than 168), “cross-posts” (75) and Reader Comments (approximately 525).

Why I’m starting to wonder if Substack’s already under attack …

In my article, I referenced my suspicion that some kind of nefarious, secret operation might have already commenced to sabotage the reach, growth and financial success of certain Substack authors (like myself) who might be hitting too close to the key targets promulgated by what I call the “narrative controllers.”

I have reasons, albeit vague or perhaps un-provable, that give me my “spider sense” that something odd and nefarious might already be happening to scuttle Substack’s contrarian authors.

For example, in the last two or three months, my “open rate” has plunged from more than 43 percent to less than 37 percent. (A Substack author’s “open rate” is the percentage of subscribers who receive one of our emailed articles who actually open - and thus read - said article.)

Thanks to my “Nazi” article, I now have more than 5,230 total subscribers. But if seven percent of my “subscribers” no longer open my articles, I’m actually reaching 360 fewer readers than I would have if my open rate had remained constant.

More alarming to me  is the precipitous plunge in “paid subscribers” to my site.

For example, on December 1, 2023, my newsletter had 214 paid subscribers. By December 29, this number had plunged to 199. That is, I lost 15 paid subscribers in 28 days. In less than a month, this is a decrease of 7 percent in my most-important metric. (Needless to say, if that percentage continued to decrease at this rate, I’d soon be out of business as a Substack writer).

For the first 11 months of my Substack’s existence, I was adding 200 to 300 “free subscribers” every month. Suddenly, this “growth” number slowed to 20 or 30 new subscribers every month. (My paid subscriber numbers didn’t increase for months). In other words, all my positive growth trends suddenly reversed and became “negative” trends.

Playing Devil’s Advocate with Myself

As mentioned, I can’t prove - or am not certain - that any nefarious program explains these changes.

It’s possible I’ve simply “lost my mojo” as a Substack author. Articles and essays that once resonated with large numbers of readers are now laying an egg or turning off my readers.

Perhaps more likely, legitimate worries over real inflation are starting to affect my paid-subscriber revenue stream. As I wrote in this article, one of the easiest “inflation work-arounds” is to cancel paid subscriptions.

In fact, I’ve had to do this myself. That is, to keep my checking account balance in the black, I’ve had to cancel (at least temporarily) subscriptions to Substack authors I really enjoy and want to support.

What perhaps happened to me was that some readers who got annual subscriptions 12 months ago are not renewing these paid subscriptions to simply save money.

But even this possibility has red flags as my “attrition rate” (subscribers who later chose to cancel their subscriptions) had always been less than 10 percent but, suddenly, changed to approximately 25 percent.

I’m Not Alone in my Suspicions …

I also read many Substack sites (and the Reader Comments) and have noted some Substack authors seem to also be wondering if something’s happening that might be harpooning their key metrics.

A few of my readers have told me in emails or comments that my dispatches now go to their spam accounts or that my comments don’t show up, or that they continue to have issues renewing their paid subscriptions.

Other Substack authors have opined that many people are growing tired of “Covid stories,” which, admittedly, make up about 80 percent of my Substack content.

This, no doubt, must be true as well, but even this trend alarms me as it implies that, due to “Covid fatigue,” the public is never going to be able to expose people and organizations who committed “crimes against humanity” and/or participated in on-going cover-ups.

My bottom-line: I’m either paranoid or … “someone” really is out to harm me and my Substack business.

The Intelligence-Insulting Sites are Doing Great …

On the flip side, I’ve also observed that many Substack newsletters that seem to exist to reinforce the faux authorized narratives seem to be growing … or at least have far more subscribers and “paid subscribers” than sites like my own.

As I wrote a couple of months ago, Your Local Epidemiologist’s site is the No. 1 “science” Substack site and all this epidemiologist does is regurgitate the Fauci “settled science.”

There’s only one or two of my favorite Substack sites that show up in the rankings of top “Science” sites, which I find … odd … since I happen to think the “Covid contrarians” single-handedly put Substack on the media map.

I can’t help but wonder who all these paid and free subscribers are that allow these narrative clone sites to have “thousands of paid subscribers.” (Your Local Epidemiologist reportedly has more than 20,000 paid subscribers, which would make her one of the world’s rare millionaire epidemiologists.)

Even my story on the Nazi infiltration of Substack referenced a couple of (allegedly) offended Substack authors who self-report “thousands of paid subscribers.” My point was that if the goal of these authors is to fight fascism, Substack is apparently allowing them to do just this.

Question: So why are these easily-terrified posters now calling for the boycott of Substack? 

All important organizations are completely captured …

As the 37 percent of my readers who open my articles must know by now, my favorite recent posting theme has been that “all important organizations are completely captured.”

Two weeks ago, I posted an article arguing that X and Substack must not qualify as “important” speech platforms for the simple reason the great and brave content posted by their contrarian users has yet to change any of the key authorized narratives.

In this article, I stressed both platforms are “potentially important” and noted that these skeptics have no doubt saved many lives by making more citizens question the dubious settled science.

My strong suspicion is that the Powers that Be, who can’t get enough censorship, are now coming after X and Substack even harder because they must recognize they can’t achieve the rest of their nefarious control programs if these speech platforms aren’t significantly neutered.

Thus, I was not surprised at all to read the story telling me that Substack has been taken over by Nazi sympathizers.

One would hope every intelligent person remaining on the planet would know by now that people and organizations that accuse others of being Nazis are themselves employing Nazi psychological operations to control the thinking of the masses.

It seems to me our Shadow Rulers know the potential threat that free-speech sites like Substack and X pose to their future plans and are now ramping up efforts to eliminate these threats.

What the world needs is for far more people to discover vital speech platforms like Substack, which has quickly become the main counter-force to the captured mainstream media and giant social media platforms.

If Substack now has more than 35 million subscribers, it needs to grow to 70 million and then 140 million … as fast as possible.

If there are 2,500 independent-thinking Substack authors who are skeptical of the authorized narratives, the “truth-seeking” population of the world needs to be able to find 5,000 and then 10,000 such writers and researchers.

Circling back to the Law of Opposite Effects …

Once upon a time - about 44 months ago - my “contrarian” musings were pretty much restricted to Facebook posts (since most of my freelance articles and letters-to-the-editor were rejected).

Then Facebook began to increasingly ban and shadow ban the “reach” of my posts.

Fifteen months ago, I said, “screw it; I’m starting my own Substack newsletter.”

This anti-censorship work-around worked as essays that were previously read by maybe a handful or a couple hundred people have now been read (via Substack) by more than one million people, in all 50 states and 74 countries of the world.

(Thank you, Facebook, for making me semi-famous on Substack!)

Nor was I the only real journalist or “citizen journalist” who made the same decision.

Today, our collective work is “moving the needle” and is, no doubt,  making the narrative controllers very nervous.

Per my hypothesis, these people and organizations have decided they’ve got to expedite their program to nix the potential influence of Substack.

In my opinion, the future of the world might hinge on whether or not this effort is successful. 

Today, I simply note that the effort to mute (or make moot) my point of view - and stop my efforts to “monetize” my own content - has backfired … Thanks to our side’s greatest weapon - the “share” button.

My humble advice to citizens who still place great value on freedom of speech is to keep doing those things our rulers don’t want us to do. Keep letting more of your neighbors, friends and family members know there’s a non-captured news source out there … at least for now.

***

A week ago, I was sinking into a depression over my lost subscribers and disconcerting Substack metrics. And then, out of the blue, thanks to complete strangers, I hit a Substack grandslam. Lesson: Don’t give up. Never, ever give up. 

Also, “cook while the iron’s hot.” If I’m going to start losing subscribers again, maybe I can boost my numbers while my mojo’s temporarily returned. It probably sounds like greed, but I’m crossing my fingers I can get my paid subscribers up to, say, 250. That’s a good, even number and will reinforce my maxim that the Law of Opposite Effects still applies. Even if this article produces no extra subscribers, I sincerely appreciate this week’s hope-inspiring show of support from the Substack underground army (aka “the resistance.”)