Sorting by free subscriptions versus engagement rate to reveal two completely different lists is something I have never thought to separate. I have been treating high engagement as a proxy for growth, but those are measuring two different things entirely. What I have found is that the posts readers love most and the posts that actually grow the list rarely overlap, and conflating the two leads to optimizing for the wrong outcome. You are building something genuinely useful here. The practitioners in your audience are going to carry this one for a while.
This was very insightful. I’m still at the stage where I’m barely a month in and still trying to figure out what direction to go in but once I settle, I can understand this better and know what adjustments I need to make to make my substack better. Saving this post!
Also, looking at stats can be intimidating because if you get fixated on numbers then it could be paralyzing. It’s important to find a balance between gaining information to help improve and not think of yourself as a failure.
Totally agree! I would honestly ignore most publication stats at the beginning and just focus on post stats to understand what content is resonating and keep doing more of that.
Sorting by free subscriptions versus engagement rate to reveal two completely different lists is something I have never thought to separate. I have been treating high engagement as a proxy for growth, but those are measuring two different things entirely. What I have found is that the posts readers love most and the posts that actually grow the list rarely overlap, and conflating the two leads to optimizing for the wrong outcome. You are building something genuinely useful here. The practitioners in your audience are going to carry this one for a while.
I have found the same!
This was very insightful. I’m still at the stage where I’m barely a month in and still trying to figure out what direction to go in but once I settle, I can understand this better and know what adjustments I need to make to make my substack better. Saving this post!
Also, looking at stats can be intimidating because if you get fixated on numbers then it could be paralyzing. It’s important to find a balance between gaining information to help improve and not think of yourself as a failure.
Totally agree! I would honestly ignore most publication stats at the beginning and just focus on post stats to understand what content is resonating and keep doing more of that.