Yes, I combed through 30 different leaderboards looking for peculiar Substack metrics and data. I found some tidbits that were interesting to me. And, no, I don't show up on any leaderboards.
"Mayor Pete?" Pete Buttplug? (I don't know how to spell his real last name and I'm not going to try and learn.) I never knew, until recently, just how f'd up Mishawaka/South Bend really are.
You should be in the Top 100 of probably both leaderboards. Of course, we'd both not make a Top 100 if these leaderboards included every Substack that should be in these categories. I keep finding "Covid Contrarians" I left off of my "Top 144" list in January and now I don't think I'd make my own Top 125.
I checked out your article. Have been following the 'white fibrous clots ' issue, and your article was so informative -everyone should read and absorb its impacts. The Bill Rice article here was a real eye-opener to the 'censorship' that exists right across social media in one form or another. I live in Australia in what was the longest locked-down State (Victoria) in the world, which, under FOI, we found out recently the lockdown was based on government political objectives, not health issues. Lives, businesses, careers. youth mental health problems followed. Keep up the good work, Laura. Best wishes Peter
Australia seems to have endured the most draconian and non-sensical NPI measures of almost any nation. I have also noted that Australia has also produced some of the very best "counter narrative" Substack authors. That's a good sign. Everyone in Australia does NOT approve. Thanks for finding and reading my Substack. If you can, send me a few more subscribers from the Land Down Under!
Victoria was ahead of the curve on lockdowns but Jacinda Ardern ended up being the most hated Prime Minister that NZ has ever had and cannot even go back to NZ and expect to be unmolested doing so. She currently hangs out in Harvard after Melinda Gates gifted her 30 million USD.
So Victoria does have a competitor. I spent time in both places during the Covid years. I'm not sure I can state which was the worst one.
I will update your new numbers in my "Top 144 Covid Contrarian List. Your growth rate as a percentage is much higher than almost all authors in my list. That's a good sign!
Have you listed your Substack in the "Health Politics" Category? I see you have 1.9K subscribers, which is many more than many newsletters in the "Top 100." I also saw a blurb where your site is completely free. I think, per Substack, the company only ranks newsletters by "paid subscribers" or "revenue" generated.
1.9K subscribers is more than my first cut-off for my "Top 144" Covid Contrarian" authors (which was 1.5K total subscribers. I've now arbitrarily changed it to "at least 2,000 subscribers.")
I checked out your newsletter, which is very important. I like your niche and focus on the Scottish C-19 Inquiry. I'll read more later.
If you can, send me a few new readers from Scottland. That's where my people originally came from!
Thanks for the advice Bill. Correction am over 2,000 subscribers now. ;-) I've never been in this for the money nor fame only to document when i quickly understood a real life horror show was being revealled in Scotland. There are (i think) 110 testimonies within my substack from the Scottish inquiry. If you have a spare 30mins you can get a real feel for it all here. https://biologyphenom.substack.com/p/newwhat-happened-in-scottish-care
I just clicked on one of my oldest stories. In November, 2023 when I had at little less than 400 total subscribers, I posted a story with the headline "The Dog that didn't bark."
The story got 3,900 "page views" of which 3,500 readers had not yet subscribed.
That story generated 120 new subscribers. That means about 1-in-29 non-subscriber readers became subscribers.
Today, I might average 3,500 to 4,500 page views and half of my stories get zero paid subscribers.
So my ratio of "new subscribers generated per article" has gone from as low as 1-in-29 to 0-in-4,000.
This is the type metrics Substack probably doesn't want to publicize.
My story about Iran not using nuclear weapons got only 3,400 Page views. I now have 7,560 subscribers ... But I generated more page views when I had only 400 subscribers.
Bill, had this curious thought considering the comparison between Kunstler and Dunning, where Dunning has such a high paid to non-paid subscriber ratio. Could NGO money be pushing left liberal media figures on Substack? The amount of funds that appear to manufacture protests out of thin air is astounding, could easily see network of NGO money paying to push subscribers, and make them appear instantly popular.
BTW, the 1 to 5 percent conversion rate is well known in digital marketing circles for social media campaigns, and not surprising this is a standard for Substack. Thirty percent is a unicorn.
I can't believe he's kept his subscribers after his first year, since most of his stories get hardly any "likes" or Comments. I should also note that about half of his stories are about Cal-Davis sports teams.
It seems that when he was fired from his long-time job at the community paper, several people organized a big subscription drive for him - So he got a ton of annual subscriptions in probably a week's time?
If anyone wants to organize a similar sympathy sub drive for me ... I'll let you! Per that profile story, he was pacing to make $140,000/year on Substack before he'd posted 10 stories.
Yes. That could explain a lot. Davis, CA is a decent sized community. And I remember was a conservative agricultural community back in the mid 1990s. How times have changed.
Glenn, yes, the same thought occurred to me concerning the possibility that leftist NGO money is used to create the appearance of high paid subscription rates for favored authors. This is exactly how Politico was propped up. Large flows of cash from USAID were paid into Politico, which then registered that as a bunch of paid subscriptions. It is awful that this is happening yet again in essence over here on Substack, but per Bill Rice's research, there are few other conclusions to be drawn.
Thanks, Maureen. I'm just posting the numbers. As to why I/we can observe this "strange" data, that would call for speculation - which I don't mind engaging in!
(Bill, this is slightly edited since you got it as an email)
Bill Rice— This is important reporting, I'm glad you're shining a light on it.
However, well... last I checked Substack is owned and managed by human beings, and human nature being the gnarly complexity that it is, (that gnarliness much on view with a whiff of eau du skunk in recent years) I would be sincerely, like, fall-of-my-chair surprised if Substack's leaderboards were objective, as they apparently purport to be.
As a reader, I'm prepared to pivot if need be. Not so very long ago I was subscribing to newspapers and magazines, lol. I go to read where the info is good. If that's you on Substack, fine. If that's you on another platform, that's fine by me, too.
Other blogs I would happily follow to another platform include Bad Cattitude, James Howard Kunstler, Coffee & Covid, A Midwestern Doctor, Focal Points, and several others.
I like Substack, it's got some advantages at the moment for both readers and writers, I can appreciate that, but it's not the only planet in the galaxy.
I just found Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's subscriber numbers via the Substack ap on my phone. He has 236,000 total subscribers and is No. 1 in "Sports" in a blowout.
No. 2 in “Sports” is John Canzano, who has only 47,000 subscribers.
It's crossed my mind that I could start a third Substack newsletter, one that would focus primarily on college football in our state. The coverage of this sport from the few remaining newspapers our state has is awful.
The demise of the daily newspaper has helped fan Internet sports sites, like Tider Insider, grow tremendously. A few weeks ago, I ran a story on Tider Insider founder Rodney Orr.
Actually, I'm far too preoccupied to start a "college football" Substack ... but someone could do this and, if they did it right, probably get a quick 1,000 paid subscribers - which is enough to make a living.
Okay, it's now been more than 24 hours since I posted yesterday morning's dispatch on "Mayor Pete" joining the stable of "progressive warriors who now dominate Substack."
According to Substack, I have 7,560 subscribers.
Question: How many of these subscribers actually read this article?
Answer, per Substack article metrics: 2,064 (an "open rate" of 27.4 percent)
How many total people read this article (so far)? 3,244
Comment:
- I had 600 more readers for a story I posted in early November 2023 when my newsletter only had 386 subscribers.
That story ("The Dog that Didn't Bark") produced 120 new subscribers for my Substack. My Mayor Pete story has produced two (including, I can't believe it, one paid - thank you!)
In recent months, my "Page View metric" has been about 4,500. When I wrote and published another story on "curious Sustack metrics," I generated 1,250 fewer readers. I don't know, but I think these latest "story-read" metrics might make/support my main point, which is I'm not "reaching" nearly as many readers as I used to.
As I keep writing, it's not necessarily "freedom of speech" that really matters; it's "freedom of reach."
Nobody can make a difference or change or challenge any faux narratives if their articles are hardly reaching anyone, especially anyone "who matters."
1. Darryl Cooper (“The Martyr Made Substack”) - 168K subscribers.
2. Adam Tooze: 157K subscribers - Columbia University professor.
Note: Only two “history” writers - these two authors - have earned purple badges, signifying at least ten thousand paid subscribers. If Adam Tooze has 157,000 subscribers and at least 10,000 are paid, his paid ratio is at least 6.4 percent (but probably higher).
- Subscriber info updated this morning (6-27-25).
- When I wrote down these two authors' data around May 10th, Mr. Cooper had 164,000 subscribers. So his newsletter has grown by 4,000 subscribers in the past six weeks. Mr. Tooze had 155,000 subscribers around May 10th. His newsletter has grown by approximately 2,000 subscribers in the last month and a half.
I was wondering about Igor. I’m a paid sub for 2 years but have not received a receipt recently. I look for something once in awhile from him but I’m not on X.
Me too. I vaguely remember some cryptic message that he was going to stop publishing on Substack. If he had 64,000 subscribers and "thousands paid," he was making a good income on Substack. He might still be making a good income on Substack!
Taxman takes so much of what I earn that it's hardly worth it (yes, I have an accountant). I write for God and as a mental health/spiritual exercise. Hopefully people like what I do (some people hate it and tell me so).
I have not heard of any of those authors you listed, except Dr David Cartland. There's probably algorithms affected much of the rankings. Have you tried contacting them? Sometimes there's tricks to getting more visibility.
It’s his supporters who are vicious. One of them hijackes my account and posted vile things that I never said nor would I ever say. They really resent anyone who questions their “religion.”
There's no excuse for that. I do not trust Offit. His influential advice during covid was destructive. But I would never post a vicious comment on his substack or harass any commenter for their posts. Sorry that happened to you.
I’ve had the feeling (can’t prove it) that Offit uses aliases to reply to any of his readers who ask questions. Some questioners are the parents of autistic children, but they get responses that outright call them liars. I saw a video of Offit being exceedingly rude to a reporter who was being civil to him. Offit went off the rails. So it wouldn’t surprise me if he is doing the same to readers of his substack.
Simulation Commander, for all the quality of his posts, rarely writes about international topics, so someone mistakenly put him in that International category.
See also, this morning’s dispatch about Substack’s three new Leftist, TDS, All-Star authors - Mayor Pete, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Terry Moran.
https://billricejr.substack.com/p/mayor-pete-joins-substacks-growing
"Mayor Pete?" Pete Buttplug? (I don't know how to spell his real last name and I'm not going to try and learn.) I never knew, until recently, just how f'd up Mishawaka/South Bend really are.
Something is rotten in Denmark.
Bill - the categories I chose are “Health and Wellness” and second is “Health Politics”
My top post garnered almost 24,000 views and 442 likes:
https://laurakasner.substack.com/p/a-horrifying-breakthrough-in-the
My latest post post garnered almost 5,000 views and 416 likes:
https://laurakasner.substack.com/p/the-devil-was-hard-at-work-trying
I lost 19 subscribers after this last post, but my subscribers have grown from 3112 a month ago to 3367 as of today.
You should be in the Top 100 of probably both leaderboards. Of course, we'd both not make a Top 100 if these leaderboards included every Substack that should be in these categories. I keep finding "Covid Contrarians" I left off of my "Top 144" list in January and now I don't think I'd make my own Top 125.
Damn 😩
But your newsletter would be very high on the list of Substacks I'd want to "suppress" if I was in the Narrative-Control business.
A picture is worth a thousand words. What if 50 million Americans saw the pictures on your Substack?
Hi Laura,
I checked out your article. Have been following the 'white fibrous clots ' issue, and your article was so informative -everyone should read and absorb its impacts. The Bill Rice article here was a real eye-opener to the 'censorship' that exists right across social media in one form or another. I live in Australia in what was the longest locked-down State (Victoria) in the world, which, under FOI, we found out recently the lockdown was based on government political objectives, not health issues. Lives, businesses, careers. youth mental health problems followed. Keep up the good work, Laura. Best wishes Peter
Thank you Peter. I’m sorry for what you and your fellow citizens have had to endure. It’s criminal.
Australia seems to have endured the most draconian and non-sensical NPI measures of almost any nation. I have also noted that Australia has also produced some of the very best "counter narrative" Substack authors. That's a good sign. Everyone in Australia does NOT approve. Thanks for finding and reading my Substack. If you can, send me a few more subscribers from the Land Down Under!
Victoria was ahead of the curve on lockdowns but Jacinda Ardern ended up being the most hated Prime Minister that NZ has ever had and cannot even go back to NZ and expect to be unmolested doing so. She currently hangs out in Harvard after Melinda Gates gifted her 30 million USD.
So Victoria does have a competitor. I spent time in both places during the Covid years. I'm not sure I can state which was the worst one.
I will update your new numbers in my "Top 144 Covid Contrarian List. Your growth rate as a percentage is much higher than almost all authors in my list. That's a good sign!
Another weird thing Bill. I did not get an email notification of this reply. I get them from everyone else though!
My last post is on its way to being my most “liked” post. But only a fraction of the views from my top post. Very strange.
Substack is a controlled platform just like almost every other controlled platform. The only difference is that they are very subtle about it. Miri AF has a great piece on this: https://open.substack.com/pub/miri/p/you-have-now-entered-a-military-space
My account not making the health politics list i think is proof of what you say. https://biologyphenom.substack.com/p/scottish-covid-19-inquiryclosing
Have you listed your Substack in the "Health Politics" Category? I see you have 1.9K subscribers, which is many more than many newsletters in the "Top 100." I also saw a blurb where your site is completely free. I think, per Substack, the company only ranks newsletters by "paid subscribers" or "revenue" generated.
1.9K subscribers is more than my first cut-off for my "Top 144" Covid Contrarian" authors (which was 1.5K total subscribers. I've now arbitrarily changed it to "at least 2,000 subscribers.")
I checked out your newsletter, which is very important. I like your niche and focus on the Scottish C-19 Inquiry. I'll read more later.
If you can, send me a few new readers from Scottland. That's where my people originally came from!
Good luck!
Health politics was not selected as primary category but it is now.
Thanks for the advice Bill. Correction am over 2,000 subscribers now. ;-) I've never been in this for the money nor fame only to document when i quickly understood a real life horror show was being revealled in Scotland. There are (i think) 110 testimonies within my substack from the Scottish inquiry. If you have a spare 30mins you can get a real feel for it all here. https://biologyphenom.substack.com/p/newwhat-happened-in-scottish-care
Also scroll my notes.
cheers
I just clicked on one of my oldest stories. In November, 2023 when I had at little less than 400 total subscribers, I posted a story with the headline "The Dog that didn't bark."
The story got 3,900 "page views" of which 3,500 readers had not yet subscribed.
That story generated 120 new subscribers. That means about 1-in-29 non-subscriber readers became subscribers.
Today, I might average 3,500 to 4,500 page views and half of my stories get zero paid subscribers.
So my ratio of "new subscribers generated per article" has gone from as low as 1-in-29 to 0-in-4,000.
This is the type metrics Substack probably doesn't want to publicize.
My story about Iran not using nuclear weapons got only 3,400 Page views. I now have 7,560 subscribers ... But I generated more page views when I had only 400 subscribers.
Bill, had this curious thought considering the comparison between Kunstler and Dunning, where Dunning has such a high paid to non-paid subscriber ratio. Could NGO money be pushing left liberal media figures on Substack? The amount of funds that appear to manufacture protests out of thin air is astounding, could easily see network of NGO money paying to push subscribers, and make them appear instantly popular.
BTW, the 1 to 5 percent conversion rate is well known in digital marketing circles for social media campaigns, and not surprising this is a standard for Substack. Thirty percent is a unicorn.
I can't believe he's kept his subscribers after his first year, since most of his stories get hardly any "likes" or Comments. I should also note that about half of his stories are about Cal-Davis sports teams.
It seems that when he was fired from his long-time job at the community paper, several people organized a big subscription drive for him - So he got a ton of annual subscriptions in probably a week's time?
If anyone wants to organize a similar sympathy sub drive for me ... I'll let you! Per that profile story, he was pacing to make $140,000/year on Substack before he'd posted 10 stories.
These California liberals are different.
Yes. That could explain a lot. Davis, CA is a decent sized community. And I remember was a conservative agricultural community back in the mid 1990s. How times have changed.
Glenn, yes, the same thought occurred to me concerning the possibility that leftist NGO money is used to create the appearance of high paid subscription rates for favored authors. This is exactly how Politico was propped up. Large flows of cash from USAID were paid into Politico, which then registered that as a bunch of paid subscriptions. It is awful that this is happening yet again in essence over here on Substack, but per Bill Rice's research, there are few other conclusions to be drawn.
Thanks, Maureen. I'm just posting the numbers. As to why I/we can observe this "strange" data, that would call for speculation - which I don't mind engaging in!
I appreciate your research and thoughtful analysis. Thank you.
(Bill, this is slightly edited since you got it as an email)
Bill Rice— This is important reporting, I'm glad you're shining a light on it.
However, well... last I checked Substack is owned and managed by human beings, and human nature being the gnarly complexity that it is, (that gnarliness much on view with a whiff of eau du skunk in recent years) I would be sincerely, like, fall-of-my-chair surprised if Substack's leaderboards were objective, as they apparently purport to be.
As a reader, I'm prepared to pivot if need be. Not so very long ago I was subscribing to newspapers and magazines, lol. I go to read where the info is good. If that's you on Substack, fine. If that's you on another platform, that's fine by me, too.
Other blogs I would happily follow to another platform include Bad Cattitude, James Howard Kunstler, Coffee & Covid, A Midwestern Doctor, Focal Points, and several others.
I like Substack, it's got some advantages at the moment for both readers and writers, I can appreciate that, but it's not the only planet in the galaxy.
Thank you. I sure do appreciate your support and your always-excellent Reader Comments.
I've been thinking a great deal about a point you make: How many Substack readers might "follow" their favorite writers to an alternative platform?
Send me an email at: wjricejunior@gmail.com and I'll send you some of my thoughts on this question.
Update/Edit:
I just found Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's subscriber numbers via the Substack ap on my phone. He has 236,000 total subscribers and is No. 1 in "Sports" in a blowout.
No. 2 in “Sports” is John Canzano, who has only 47,000 subscribers.
It's crossed my mind that I could start a third Substack newsletter, one that would focus primarily on college football in our state. The coverage of this sport from the few remaining newspapers our state has is awful.
The demise of the daily newspaper has helped fan Internet sports sites, like Tider Insider, grow tremendously. A few weeks ago, I ran a story on Tider Insider founder Rodney Orr.
Actually, I'm far too preoccupied to start a "college football" Substack ... but someone could do this and, if they did it right, probably get a quick 1,000 paid subscribers - which is enough to make a living.
Article "Reach" Update:
Okay, it's now been more than 24 hours since I posted yesterday morning's dispatch on "Mayor Pete" joining the stable of "progressive warriors who now dominate Substack."
According to Substack, I have 7,560 subscribers.
Question: How many of these subscribers actually read this article?
Answer, per Substack article metrics: 2,064 (an "open rate" of 27.4 percent)
How many total people read this article (so far)? 3,244
Comment:
- I had 600 more readers for a story I posted in early November 2023 when my newsletter only had 386 subscribers.
That story ("The Dog that Didn't Bark") produced 120 new subscribers for my Substack. My Mayor Pete story has produced two (including, I can't believe it, one paid - thank you!)
In recent months, my "Page View metric" has been about 4,500. When I wrote and published another story on "curious Sustack metrics," I generated 1,250 fewer readers. I don't know, but I think these latest "story-read" metrics might make/support my main point, which is I'm not "reaching" nearly as many readers as I used to.
As I keep writing, it's not necessarily "freedom of speech" that really matters; it's "freedom of reach."
Nobody can make a difference or change or challenge any faux narratives if their articles are hardly reaching anyone, especially anyone "who matters."
New info on the Top 2 "history" newsletters ...
Top 2 in “History” …
1. Darryl Cooper (“The Martyr Made Substack”) - 168K subscribers.
2. Adam Tooze: 157K subscribers - Columbia University professor.
Note: Only two “history” writers - these two authors - have earned purple badges, signifying at least ten thousand paid subscribers. If Adam Tooze has 157,000 subscribers and at least 10,000 are paid, his paid ratio is at least 6.4 percent (but probably higher).
- Subscriber info updated this morning (6-27-25).
- When I wrote down these two authors' data around May 10th, Mr. Cooper had 164,000 subscribers. So his newsletter has grown by 4,000 subscribers in the past six weeks. Mr. Tooze had 155,000 subscribers around May 10th. His newsletter has grown by approximately 2,000 subscribers in the last month and a half.
I was wondering about Igor. I’m a paid sub for 2 years but have not received a receipt recently. I look for something once in awhile from him but I’m not on X.
I thought in his last, or one of his last posts, he said he was going to stop posting to SS.
Ok. I did really learn so much from him. But X might work out better for him. I wish him well. He was there when I really need what he found out.
I could be remembering wrong. 🤞 It's been greater than a month, so....
I really liked Igor's stacks, too.
Me too. I vaguely remember some cryptic message that he was going to stop publishing on Substack. If he had 64,000 subscribers and "thousands paid," he was making a good income on Substack. He might still be making a good income on Substack!
Woohoo I'm famous in Troy, Alabama (which is the best kind of famous).
Yep - 58 paid subs, 5800 free subs, and 10,900 Substack 'followers.'
Taxman takes so much of what I earn that it's hardly worth it (yes, I have an accountant). I write for God and as a mental health/spiritual exercise. Hopefully people like what I do (some people hate it and tell me so).
Thanks for the shout out.
I have not heard of any of those authors you listed, except Dr David Cartland. There's probably algorithms affected much of the rankings. Have you tried contacting them? Sometimes there's tricks to getting more visibility.
Hi
That's because you didn't look it up in German: Bestenliste.
How does Paul Offit’s newsletter stack up? It should win a prize for the most vicious reader comments on Substack.
Offit certainly deserves vicious reader comments. I'll have to check them out. Without subscribing to that arrogant, covid jab-pushing Offit.
It’s his supporters who are vicious. One of them hijackes my account and posted vile things that I never said nor would I ever say. They really resent anyone who questions their “religion.”
There's no excuse for that. I do not trust Offit. His influential advice during covid was destructive. But I would never post a vicious comment on his substack or harass any commenter for their posts. Sorry that happened to you.
I’ve had the feeling (can’t prove it) that Offit uses aliases to reply to any of his readers who ask questions. Some questioners are the parents of autistic children, but they get responses that outright call them liars. I saw a video of Offit being exceedingly rude to a reporter who was being civil to him. Offit went off the rails. So it wouldn’t surprise me if he is doing the same to readers of his substack.
Neither would I be surprised to learn this is true. He is very defensive and, I suspect, it's because he lacks confidence.
Yes, and he knows the jig is up as far as vaccines are concerned.
Simulation Commander, for all the quality of his posts, rarely writes about international topics, so someone mistakenly put him in that International category.
I wondered how he ended up in the "International" category. His articles better jibe with Health Politics. Still, he made one of the Top 50s!