The Final Numbers are in …
I aimed for the stars … and missed … but this audacious subscription drive got my Substack business a lot closer to the moon.
Author’s note: This article might be of greater interest to my fellow Substack newsletter authors. Per my research, 17,000 Substack writers generate “paid subscriptions.” My assumption is the vast majority of these writers would like to increase their ratio of paid subscribers.
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Before I get back to publishing traditional research, I wanted to post the final numbers on my week-long subscription drive.
First … No, I didn’t “shock the world” or “make Internet news” by adding an unprecedented 823 new paid subscribers - a goal which would have gotten me to the magic Substack number of 1,000 paid subscribers.
However, due to the generosity of my readers, we might have come close to setting records for increasing paid subscribers in one week.
Hopefully, this show-of-support will encourage other Substack authors to hang in there. It’s true … If you aim for the stars (and miss), you might still reach the moon.
The numbers that follow do “send a message” that plenty of generous Substack readers are pulling for - and willing to help - their favorite Substack authors.
The key numbers …
160 - Total paid subscribers before my Subscription drive commenced with this “Open Letter to Substack Readers.”
Note: When I wrote my first article, I actually had 162 paid subscribers. Alas, by the time I posted the article, I’d lost a paid subscriber (“subscriber attrition” … it happens). I later lost another paid subscriber … So I’m using 160 paid as my “baseline.”
212 - Number of paid subscribers approximately seven days later.
+ 52 - Number of paid subscribers added in one week.
32.3 percent - Increase in my paid subscribers … in one week.
Context on 52 new paid subscribers in one week …
Many outstanding Substack writers have been doing the same thing I’ve been doing for at least a year and still haven’t reached 52 paid subscribers … total.
Also, I’ve now surpassed 200 paid subscribers, which puts me in the rare group of authors who can say we have “hundreds of paid subscribers.”
To reach 1,000 paid subscribers, I would have needed to convert 18 percent of my 4,440 free subscribers to “paid.” As it turns out, my “yes’ rate was 1.2 percent. Still, as the numbers below show, a “close rate” of just 1.2 percent can make a world of difference in one Substack author’s life.
To promote this bold subscription drive, I published seven articles. While my readership numbers were typical for me, none of these articles “went viral,” which probably would have needed to happen if this effort was going to make Substack history. Each of these articles were read or “viewed” by an average of 3,819 readers.
FWIW, my first article generated 31 of my 52 total new paid subscribers.
I would also note that in the previous 45 days my articles had generated only two new paid subscribers. Substack authors can go weeks with few if any new paid subscriptions.
One take-away from this effort is that if you are a Substack author who hopes to boost his paid subscribers, you’re probably going to have to make a similar appeal every now and then.
In fact, of my now 212 paid subscribers, about 40 percent came from three subscription appeals. My last “Subscriber Telethon” - about five months ago - netted me 22 new paid subscribers.
The metric that’s most important to Substack authors …
For me, the eye-opening figure for the week was not “total paid subscribers,” but the “gross annual revenue” metric.
$7,096 - My “gross annualized revenue” figure as of October 1, 2023 (last Sunday).
$11,100 - The same figure right now.
Note: a $6 monthly subscription projects to $72 revenue for the year (although many people probably won’t subscribe for all 12 months).
Also, the “gross” part is important as I don’t see all of this money. Substack gets its cut from every subscription and then Uncle Sam gets a donation from my writing (even though most of my writing criticizes Uncle Sam.)
$100 - Approximate amount of Ko-fi “buy-a-cup-of coffee” donations I received in the last week.
With these caveats mentioned, I can report that my readers increased my gross annualized revenue by roughly …
$4,200.
This is an increase in projected annual revenue of 57.9 percent … in one week. Re-stated, my readers just gave me a 58-percent pay raise!
As you can see, my total subscriber figure increased by 32.3 percent, while my gross annual revenue increased by 58 percent.
The difference - the size of my big pay raise - is largely explained by the fact five of my readers upgraded or became subscribers at the Founders Level of $250.
Those five gifts grossed $1,250 for me and my family.
Aside: A couple of months ago, one of my readers emailed me and told me I don’t need to be afraid to ask for more money. A month ago, almost as an after-thought, I added the “Founders’ Level” to my subscription option. I didn’t think anyone would pay me a gift that large … but, I thought, “what the heck?” … just like my reader recommended, it can’t hurt to throw it out there … I think I owe that subscriber a cup of coffee.
I could actually fudge my paid subscription numbers as a $250 subscription is the equivalent of five $50-subscriptions. One might say I added the equivalent of 25 new annual subscriptions from the incredible generosity of my “Founder” supporters. If we use that math, my total new paid subscriptions for the week would be …
52 + 25 = 77.
That would mean I increased my paid subscribers by 47.8 percent … in one week.
Over the last week, I tried to highlight how important the “paid ratio” figure is to Substack authors, especially those of us who don’t have another source of income.
For most authors, this ratio ranges from 1 to 4 percent. In the future, I still hope many worthy Substackers can boost that number to, say, 10 percent paid.
When I started this drive my paid Subscriber ratio was … 3.5 percent. Today it is … 4.53 percent. If I count my Founders’ subscribers as five paid subs, my “paid ratio” would be …5.06 percent.
This is a lot of words and math to basically say that … thanks to the generosity of my readers, this independent writer’s business is moving in the right direction.
While $11,000 gross annual revenue is not nearly enough income to provide for a family of four, based on these important metrics, my newsletter has vaulted to the top echelons of Substack authors in just 12 1/2 months.
I added free subscribers as well …
I also started the week with 4,600 total subscribers and added 82 free subscribers in the past seven days. This puts me at 4,682 total subscribers. My next big goal is to reach 5,000 total subscribers.
If I can get to 25,000 total subscribers and maintain a “paid ratio” of at least 4 percent, I will get to the Magic Substack number of 1,000 paid subscribers, which is the level I think would provide “financial independence.”
A Final Thank-You …
To everyone who read my articles and then upgraded to a paid subscription, please know your generosity and support touched me tremendously. I also learned that many people are supporting not just my writing, but many Substack authors.
This very small percentage of Substack readers are doing far more than their fair share to help our side’s efforts to protect and defend the good things about our nation and world.
I also received many nice notes and reader comments, which have inspired me to work even harder to validate this trust. My plan for the next 12 months is to attack the world’s nefarious rulers at any and every point of vulnerability.
Thank you again for your support and for reading these subscription articles. Now it’s time to get back to work.
Onward!
P.S. I’m already working on two articles about the flu vaccine and the obvious (if ignored) spike in Influenza Like Illness before “official” Covid.
It occurs to me that several companies have made billions of dollars selling flu “vaccines” that don’t work. We need at least a few writers who are willing to point out this massive, decades-long scam.
My last take-away: Numerous people are getting rich and acquiring even more power by selling lies. At least on Substack, a small group of dissident writers are trying to make a living exposing these lies and scams.
When the group that’s seeking to expose bogus narratives becomes large enough, some of these dangerous false narratives might finally be debunked … And the future of the world will be less bleak; a flicker of light will expose the roaches hiding in the crevices of the world.
For your sake, and that of your family, I hope this doesn't backfire with non-renewals or cancellations. I was aware of you and your contributions before I found Substack. At that time, your investigative reporting made it clear that the "novel" coronavirus was circulating long before the experts announced its arrival in the U.S. That's a pretty darn significant contribution ~ impressive! And as soon as I discovered you on Substack, I subscribed ~ hoping for more of the same.
I am subscribed to quite a variety of Substacks and understand/support the incredible significance of off-MSM sources of information. Please continue to "connect the dots" and go beyond MSM reporting. In the meantime, I am a very patient person and completely understand the aggressive campaign in your Stack, and in the Stacks of other Authors via comments, to raise money for your family. Even though I was losing patience, I stuck it out.
I wish you and your family the best. And I pray every day for a fallen world that is collapsing all about us...
We’ll see what happens, but if I was an executive with Substack, I’d reach out to me and do a feature story on this guy that achieved these (still) eye-opening numbers in just one week. If this happens, I’m going to pound home my main message - “My readers are fed up with the captured mainstream media and enough of them will support someone they like and trust if that writer is brave enough to ask them to do so.”
It will be interesting to see if some Substack author does dramatically increase his or her paid subscribers in a very short time … and what appeal or “scoop” allows this author to make this “statement.”