Lessons learned, and thanks!

I started “Sweaty Spice” in 2022 as a whim. I wanted a place to talk about my rekindled love of gaming, and the fact that my working from home (thanks Covid!) meant that I could pick up my guitar and play every day, I just wanted a public place to just fre-form my thoughts.

And for the majority of the time that I have been writing this, it was really me shouting into the void. I never did any serious efforts to promote, so the early posts weren’t really widely read (hint: you can go back and read some of these posts with the archives).

Then in the middle of 2023, I got a few followers. Seems that some of my comments on other ‘Stacks led some people to let their curiosity get the better of them, and they began subscribing. But it was really slow growth. Glacially slow.

And I was fine with that.

Until early March when I made a post that went quasi viral. I grew my followers by astounding amounts. I think I went from about 10 subscribers to near 100 in no time at all.

I had a couple of other posts that have generated a lot of traffic, and with it, boluses of subscribers. (I also have noticed that some people unsubscribe, I suspect my sweary words, or maybe it is my center-left writings on politics are the culprit)

Now, this is what I am greeted with when I log in:

I know that many ‘stacks have far more subscribers, but for me not doing anything to promote other than to write, I feel damn good about these stats and metrics.

I mean, in my professional life (product manager) I work with marketing people on email promotions, and that 33% open rate is pretty damn awesome. That means that each post I make, a third of you open the email. Taking into account that many savvy people use email services that block the “open” tracking token (usually a tracking pixel inserted that the mail sender uses to validate behavior. I do, Proton Mail for the win!) I presume that some not insignificant fraction read it but are not counted.

All I can say is “THANK YOU!”

I can’t express how much of a boost to my ego it is when I get an email that someone has subscribed. Or when I see charts like this:

Thank you for your attention. Thank you for your comments. I do read all of them, and often dive in, but the fact that people comment — even if they are haters — makes me happy.

Every one of you marvelous beasts are my people, and I can’t thank you enough.

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