93 Comments
Sep 14, 2022Liked by Michael Estrin

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.

Expand full comment

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!

Expand full comment

Congratulations... I'm wondering how you got such good substack engagement? I can't seem to activate a community on this platform. I get bits and pieces here and there, but not those kinds of percentages. I probably know the answer to the question... Doing more stuff like this lol. This is my first time commenting on your page, but I'd be interested in hearing your perspective.

Expand full comment

Congrats, Michael! You're an inspiration and a standard-bearer. Here's to the next 1K!

Expand full comment
Sep 14, 2022Liked by Michael Estrin

This post is exactly what I love about the substack community. It's so generous, smart, well-written, informative, and funny -- all at once! This is my first time visiting your substack but I'm absolutely going to hit subscribe!

Expand full comment

Congratulations, well done! Reading stories like this is useful for people like me who are newer to Substack. Best wishes going forward!

Expand full comment
Sep 14, 2022Liked by Michael Estrin

Major congrats!!! I just shared your thoughts on perfectionism with a friend in the art world, very well said.

You mentioned that you have over a dozen of Substacks recommending you -- did that mostly occur organically from fans of your work, or did it involve reaching out to writers for collaborations?

Thanks so much for posting this and wishing you the best! x

Expand full comment

Congratulations. 1000 of us will look back as examples of being savvy early adopters!

Expand full comment

Congrats, Michael! I have found the same to be true with all of the sentiments you shared. My only question would be about your percentage open rate, and if you've seen it level off somewhere, or experienced a drop at all? When I had a lower number of subscribers, around 30, my open rate was around 70%. At 125 subscribers, I've now leveled off at around 45-50%. Any thoughts on that?

Expand full comment

Congrats!!!!! Totally agree with the compound interest method ✨

Expand full comment
Sep 15, 2022Liked by Michael Estrin

Congratulations Michael! And thanks for this great post. So much wisdom in here. I’m going to print it out to re-read whenever I need a sanity check!

Expand full comment

Thanks for such an insightful (yet, still freaking humorous--how do you do it?!) post. Congrats on hitting 1,000--this one in a thousand understands precisely how you made it there (and why we’ll be hearing about 2K soon enough!).

Expand full comment
Sep 14, 2022Liked by Michael Estrin

it's always a brighter day when you show up in my inbox. thanks for all you do!

Expand full comment

I found this post after reaching my own 1,000-subscriber milestone for my newsletter, Our Tiny Rebellions. Ironically, this also happened for me during a vacation week. So much of what you write here confirms my own experience, too - about growth, community, and writing what you want, not what necessarily “fits.” Anyway, thank you for writing this. Here’s to more growth in 2023!!!

Expand full comment

Thank you for this post! I am quite new to publishing on Substack though I moved and old list from mail chimp over so have a bit of an audience. I feel like I am walking around in the dark a little so advice like yours is totally brilliant. Love you newsletter! And Happy New Year. :)

Expand full comment

I love how Substack is working for writers. I found you through Brad Berens and have just hit my own first milestone of 500 subscribers. I agree that it's all about community, and I love that I can put all of the skills and experience that I've developed over a lifetime of tech geeking, following links, making connections, using and building software, running conferences (and so much more, of course) to work now as a writer.

Congratulations on getting to 1000!

Expand full comment