What an insightful article on hows and whys of Substack. We love open sourcing our craft and there is no better reward than reaching out to the ones who cares most about it. Surely, clarifying whether it is a business or hobby is a powerful leverage. And you just gave us the tools to do that.
This is a goldmine. The section on 'Dead Weight Subscribers' is a hard pill to swallow but absolutely necessary. We often get emotionally attached to the vanity metric of 'Total Subscribers' while ignoring that inactive ones are tanking our deliverability.
The distinction between treating the newsletter as a 'creative project' vs. a 'business system' is the mindset shift most of us are missing.
Thanks for the specific Claude prompts—that saves hours of guesswork!
Love this article. Data is really everything. The more data you have, the more insights you have, then the better decisions you can make. Eventually, you'll definitely see growth this way. Unbeatable formula.
If you're serious about your newsletter, auditing and making the necessary strategic changes could mean the difference between a "hobby" and optimizing a vehicle to drive real engagement, leads, and business. Sharyph shows the way in this value-packed post.
Sharyph, the Substack Notes data was wild, 32M free subs and half a million paid from a feature most people ignore. Makes me wonder how many creators think they have a “content problem” when they actually have a “platform illiteracy” problem.
A newsletter audit is such a valuable resource for creators. Growing from 100 to 4500 subscribers is inspiring.
What an insightful article on hows and whys of Substack. We love open sourcing our craft and there is no better reward than reaching out to the ones who cares most about it. Surely, clarifying whether it is a business or hobby is a powerful leverage. And you just gave us the tools to do that.
Thank you for putting this together!
Welcome…
Are you up for a hobby or a business?
I want to thank you deeply about this article. It’s very useful and open my eyes to what is happening on substack
This is a goldmine. The section on 'Dead Weight Subscribers' is a hard pill to swallow but absolutely necessary. We often get emotionally attached to the vanity metric of 'Total Subscribers' while ignoring that inactive ones are tanking our deliverability.
The distinction between treating the newsletter as a 'creative project' vs. a 'business system' is the mindset shift most of us are missing.
Thanks for the specific Claude prompts—that saves hours of guesswork!
Love this article. Data is really everything. The more data you have, the more insights you have, then the better decisions you can make. Eventually, you'll definitely see growth this way. Unbeatable formula.
The key is knowing how to use the data and extract information from it.
Start by asking curious questions... 90% don't even know the questions they need to ask.
If you're serious about your newsletter, auditing and making the necessary strategic changes could mean the difference between a "hobby" and optimizing a vehicle to drive real engagement, leads, and business. Sharyph shows the way in this value-packed post.
I think to audit services but content, I think of it and then ineffectively execute.
This is a great road map you laid out.
Great analysis man
I have so much data now but haven’t really got time to analyze them and just vibe around so far!
Gonna do this as part of yearly report!
Great.
I love the clarity it brings.
Sharyph, the Substack Notes data was wild, 32M free subs and half a million paid from a feature most people ignore. Makes me wonder how many creators think they have a “content problem” when they actually have a “platform illiteracy” problem.
Thanks sharyph, great stuff!
I've known for some time I've been treating my newsletter too much like a hobby project but didn't have the tools to do something about it.
Will def use your framework to go through my list - have been looking to clean it up!
That's the whole point of an audit, right...? the focus, clarity...
Once you have that, you will be stronger...and it's like a boost in energy...that's what I feel.
Thank you, and I am glad you found it helpful.
I did, super useful!
Good analysis!!!
Thank you, Luis.
So many valuable tips and tricks and solid advice for making our hobby an income stream
thank you, Dennis!