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Bill Rice, Jr.'s avatar

Subscription Drive Update …Here are the headlines from my/our Subscription Drive:

The good news is we’ve already obliterated my personal record for new paid subscriptions in 24 hours. In 24 hours, the number of paid subscriptions has grown by 28. But this deserves a caveat as three of my subscribers purchased “Founders-Level” paid subscriptions (which are $250/year!)

As these subscriptions equal five normal subscriptions (at $50/year), one might say I’ve achieved the equivalent of 43 paid subscriptions (28 + 15).

My gross annual revenue has also exploded. In 24 hours, due to the generosity and support of my subscribers, I grossed $2,220, most from paid subscriptions (and three “tips” from ko-fi).

Last night, I shared the good news with my wife. In my first 12 months as a Substack author, our family grossed $7,000 from paid subscriptions. In ONE DAY, that figure increased by $2,200!

In other words, my subscribers - in 24 hours - gave me a pay raise of 31.4 percent!

My ratio of paid subscribers to total subscribers has also increased from 3.5 percent to 4.2 percent.

Of course, we’re far from reaching 1,000 paid subscribers, which is the level that would make anyone who follows “significant media events” stand up and notice.

But I still don’t rule out such a stunning result for one reason only. My article announcing this initiative reached about 2,800 people and only 1,663 of my actual subscribers. My “open rate” on this article is 36 percent, meaning I still haven’t reached 64 percent of my total subscribers.

(Typically, my “open rate” on stories is around 43 percent, which is probably standard for Substack authors.)

For this project to have any chance of success, I always knew this appeal would have to go “viral” or semi-viral. That is, enough people would have to share this article and/or promote it with their own posts, that we reached, say, 100,000 Substack readers.

If just 8 percent of these Substack readers and supporters were willing to spend $6, we’d demonstrate that a result everyone thought was impossible was, in fact, possible.

I don’t know how this might happen - or who might make it happen - but if this campaign does go viral, we still might shock the world.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this project. I don’t mind admitting that one of my main goals is to achieve financial independence or “peace of mind,” which, in my case, would be possible when my writing produced an annual income of around $40,000.

It’s sad that so many people who might be cash-strapped themselves are being asked to support independent journalists, but this is really the only way “our side” is going to continue to have a growing army of journalists to battle the mainstream media stenographers who are being paid nice salaries.

As one of my favorite Substackers always writes - “Onward!” I have not yet begun to fight!

Maybe today’s story - which summarizes just a fraction of the stories I’ve produced in the past year - will give “Team Rice” another burst of momentum.

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Blair's avatar

"You'll get a free donut!"

This shows you what they think about the general population's intellect.

Unfortunately, in many cases, they were correct.

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