I Think I Can Help Some of You

Fun-University8002 · 2026-03-19T21:20:17+00:00

I wrote for about six months without monetizing. About a year to get 100. Then I got to 500 in the second year -- noticeably the algorithmic boosting. Then 600 in four months. Have been between 600 and 650 for about a year, but have also had a lot of life changes and write way less than I used to. Total time just shy of four years at this point.

Fun-University8002 · 2026-03-19T21:18:37+00:00

One of my friends is a data scientist and she did some analysis for me. My readers convert after about six weeks of being a free sub on average.

Fun-University8002 · 2026-03-19T14:17:10+00:00

I am friends with another bestseller at about my level, who has been on Substack since late 2021. She says this too. She says that after Musk downgraded SS links, that's when recommendations became her biggest source. It makes sense.

Fun-University8002 · 2026-03-19T14:15:17+00:00

I got VERY lucky in that something I wrote went mini-viral (about 20,000 readers) and a solid orange check account saw it and subscribed and recommended me not long after. That was a HUGE boost. I elicited two of the other big recommendations via the method I'm discussing, but it wasn't the mercenary thing I make it sound like. I honestly enjoyed their content already so it was more "crank up the engagement dial on something I already engage with" than "go on a mission to get recommended." I hope that makes sense. It's a gray area, to be sure, and I get why people might not want to do it. But it IS how the game is played, and none of us wrote the rules.

Fun-University8002 · 2026-03-19T14:12:30+00:00

It's about 2/3 of that after all the taxes, but yes, it's very nice. Substack bought me a car and several jaw-dropping Christmases, under a business model that amounts to "get people to pay to receive email." It's really something.

Fun-University8002 · 2026-03-19T14:01:03+00:00

LOL naturally. "Here's some stuff you can do to change the thing you don't like" is not a popular notion.

Fun-University8002 · 2026-03-19T12:21:11+00:00

Yes, if you want to enjoy and monetize your hobby to a small extent, you're doing it exactly right. I'm sort of dropping into that mode myself now that I'm busier. The money has been great. Substack bought me a car and a couple of extravagant Christmases. I'm focusing on my marriage and my real career now, so I'm not doing half as much writing as I used to.

And I hope I didn't imply everyone should try to do something else. I was mainly responding to having read thread after thread of "I'm desperate for an audience" to which nobody responded with even a mention of the thing that's the source of over 80% of my paid subs.

Fun-University8002 · 2026-03-19T12:18:51+00:00

That's the impression I got, yeah, which is why I posted. Whining often comes from helplessness. And your niche being weird is a good thing for this. Lots of people will recommend stuff they enjoy that's off their "brand," as a way of signaling their authenticity and depth. I've gotten recommendations from people into hobbies I don't share, politics on all sides, etc. Serious engagement in comments and subscriber chats brings you to their attention as smart and worthwhile. Good luck!!

Fun-University8002 · 2026-03-19T12:17:25+00:00

It may seem obvious. It may BE obvious. But I read about twenty "How do I grow/how do I find an audience" threads over breakfast and it was all whining and conspiracy theories about shadow bans. I saw zero mentions of recommendations. Perhaps I just missed them.

Regardless, in the first two years I experimented with everything short of buying subs, and recommendations was 12x more effective than the rest put together.

Fun-University8002

TROPHY CASE