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The past two months have demonstrated heady growth in traffic and subscribers.

It’s been a while since I shared some of the stats behind the scenes. First, I have had fairly explosive growth in subscribers. My last update was on March 18, at about a year in on Substack. If you want to go back and see it, here it is:

At that date, I had 122 total subscribers, and that growth curve looked pretty impressive.

But today, a mere 62 days later, I am up to 430 subscribers:

That is a net gain of 5 subscribers per day. To me, that is truly mindboggling. And humbling.

But the daily views also tell a story.

Back in early February, I was getting 30 - 50 views a day (mostly when I would post, there was a “bump” and days I didn’t post got bupkis). In early March, I posted something about a completely tone-deaf, moronic take by the progressive poster child Ezra Klein, and then the curve turned up. That clearly resonated, and more eyeballs found my substack.

And since then, I have had more than a few posts go off the chart with activity. Tons of engagement, that means “likes,” “Comments,” and “Re-Stacks" that my reader’s do. That is what I love to see.

Further, a handful of MAGA twat-waffles have done some drive-by shitposting in the comments. When I have seen it, I have refrained from replying, with the realization that they are fishing for a response from the author to then full-on attack. Yet, in a move that makes me incredibly appreciative of my audience and subscribers, people from said audience then takes the shit-poster on.

I am awed by that, and thankful. You all rock!

Learnings …

First, when I post on the topical political shit-show that is rocking the US of A at the moment, I get tons of views and bumps of subscribers. Expect me to do more of this. Yet I still post about music, and my gaming.

Second, regular posts for topics like “Human Garbage of the Week”, and “This Fucking Guy” are crowd pleasers. I am going to try to keep these in the rotation. Fortunately, it is easy to have a weekly HGotW, as the MAGA-verse seems to poop them out on demand.

Also, I have noticed a pretty solid performance when I post Youtube vids on music that I enjoy. The traffic might be down on these, but the feedback I do get from them makes me smile.

Third, the mix of views and sources of subscribers shows that people who have the app on their phone are more likely to subscribe. Out of 430 total subscribers, 380 of them (or 88%) came from people seeing my via Substack’s platform (web, app, etc.) versus 50 who got the email forwarded to them. This reinforces that the platform and the algorithms are strong benefits, and also why Substack is really a social media platform.

Fourth, even when I don’t have time to source, write and post every day, I am still seeing great trajectories in the audience growth. I have a professional publication on product management (what I do for a living) where it took 3+ years to get to 80 subscribers, and this “hobby” has destroyed my curated audience.

Fifth, I have made some connections with people (lots of people) who I truly enjoy our interactions. When I bailed on Twitter, I walked away from a group of “friends” there that I had curated for about 13 years, and that was a loss. But now I do not miss them as much, as I am rebuilding with a better group of people. The longer form of posts gives me time to further express myself, and that makes it more likely that like-minded people find each other.

Honestly, you all ROCK. I am glad that we found each other.

Sixth, once I started customizing the “Subscribe” notes with fun quips, highlighting that I will always be free, I see more people mashing the “Subscribe” button. Expect me to continue to experiment there.

This makes it totally worth it. Thank you for your patronage, and I am glad you came along for the ride!

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