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Pablo Andreu's avatar

I appreciate you sharing with us, Michael. It's helpful to see specifics on a Substack's trajectory. My biggest takeaway from your piece is the social media insight. I initially got a boost from Instagram, all family and friends, and then subscribers trickled in from Facebook and Twitter. LinkedIn seemed to be more promising at first but has since tapered off. In other words, the return on investment hasn't been there for me, just as it wasn't for you. Granted, I'm earlier in the process than you are.

Most of my subscribers (just over 100) come from Substack. It's great. I love the community here, but there's one piece I keep grappling with. Where's my community? Where are the Substack users who are most likely to be interested in my content? Did you factor that in your approach? It might be different for you, as my Substack may be more specific: it's about generational wealth building and the immigrant experience.

Naturally, I followed immigrant, latine and personal finance writers I liked, and engaged with their content, but that's not where most of my followers come from. Most of them are what seem to be Substack power users. I welcome them any anyone else who wants to read my stuff, but I do wonder if they'll be the ones who will be invested long term and be motivated to share and bring in other readers.

Of course I've looked outside of Substack for communities who might be interested in my stuff, with mixed results so far. But I keep thinking that the numbers show that Substack is the best referrer, so I should keep to the most productive environment.

I'm looking at the length of this comment. Whew, this one really got away from me! I guess what I'm asking is: Did you find your community on Substack or did you find that elsewhere?

Anyway, congratulations on the milestone, Michael. Well deserved.

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Meaghan McIsaac's avatar

Congratulations Michael on 1000 subscribers! This post was so encouraging and fascinating - and boy did the bit on social media make me have to have a think. I am KILLING MYSELF on the gram and now I'm wondering if I need to chill out haha ICongrats again, and cheers to the next 1k!

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