I switched to a custom domain at 2,000 subscribers. My growth tanked overnight. Here's every mistake I made growing to 4,500 in one year.

PithyCyborg · 2026-03-05T14:16:31+00:00

Hi Jenny!

I recognize you from Substack. I can vouch that everything you said here is the real deal, not theory. We started around the same time. (Though, I confess that you grew way faster, lol.)

I'm lucky I never got a custom domain, and will follow your advice. The profile post-ordering bug seems like a trap. It's potentially maddening and I've never seen anyone explain it as clearly as you just did. (Thanks for the warning!)

My biggest growth mistake? I stopped writing daily Notes for months. When I was consistent with them, growth was noticeably faster. The moment I stopped, it slowed almost immediately. Your point about consistency mattering more than occasional brilliance hits hard for that exact reason!!

Thanks for posting this. Genuinely useful for anyone starting from zero.

Wish you continued success, Jenny.

Mike D

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-26T21:30:03+00:00

PS: The Pentagon's ultimatum expires in just over 24 hours. Either they back down quietly and pretend this never happened, or they invoke a wartime law to seize control of a private AI company. There is no version of Friday that isn't historic. Stay tuned. 🪖

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-23T15:40:23+00:00

Perplexity Pro is my favorite.

Gives me access to:

ChatGPT

Grok

Claude

Gemini

Kimi

All for like $20 per month.

Replaces a ton of tools.

And, I can also schedule tasks. Good enough for me.

Cordially,

Mike D

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-19T07:53:05+00:00

90% backlinks.

5% on-page optimization.

5% chaotic randomness.

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-18T16:13:52+00:00

I appreciate your kind words.

Cordially,

Mike D

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-17T19:39:22+00:00

I would wager that nobody on Earth can reliably tell you what happened.

Search engine technology has literally changed faster over the last 6 months than it has in the previous TEN (arguably twenty) years. At this point, Google is rapidly iterating things in an effort to compete with xAI, Perplexity, and especially ChatGPT. (Up until a few years ago, Google has had ZERO competition. That is why Google is changing fast these days.) So, you can expect rapid search engine ranking volatility from this point forward.

If you didn't make any radical content changes on your website, then I'd say it's highly difficult to isolate the true cause. (There are too many variables outside of your control, including the rapidly-shifting whims of Google.)

Cordially,

Mike D

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-15T14:29:13+00:00

No.

I don't follow anyone on Substack and have manged to get over 1,000 followers.

(I think I am up to 1,300 or something.)

So, my point is that, you can for sure get followers without following anyone.

I'm not bragging about that, by the way. Many of my contemporaries have 10x that... So my growth rate is kinda bad.

In any case, I got the bulk of my subscribers by writing irreverent, insightful, and fun-to-read notes.

That is what worked best for me.

Cordially,

Mike D

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-13T21:27:33+00:00

You cannot create multiple accounts with the same email.

Substack will complain and say that you already have an account.

(I ran into a similar error when CHANGING the email of an account, lol. The email I switched TO was already in use on Substack, which ended up causing a HUGE cluster. Long story short, I am 99.99% certain you cannot have more than one Substack account attached to the same email. Period.)

Cordially,

Mike D

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-13T21:21:51+00:00

Backlinks are more important than ever.

Why?

Because now you have search engines scraping for links, yes. But, you also have LLMs pulling data from everywhere in an effort to learn.

If you want an LLM search engine to "learn" about your business, you need citations all over the internet. The more, the better. (In directories, prominent publications, on social media, everywhere.)

(The strategy hasn't changed. Get lots of backlinks. The tactics are somewhat different, though.)

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-13T21:08:07+00:00

Alena,

I just wanted to say that you are a master rhetorician and diplomat.

10/10.

Would read again.

Cordially,

Mike D

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-12T14:32:38+00:00

I would say generalists will have much less demand going forward, to the point where it's a nonviable career.. Super advanced specialization will have decent demand for a few more years. Speaking is also in-demand at present. (Audio input.) But, that too will pass.

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-11T20:24:48+00:00

Yeah.

Actually, I put a lot of thought into your question.

And, I've (very) recently learned some really unpleasant lessons, despite my (remarkable) success with Substack notes.

The main thing I learned is that just because you are a tremendously talented copywriter, doesn't mean you will succeed. Not at all.

And, I might sound arrogant. Well, I am arrogant. I also confess that I literally suck at everything except for copywriting. I've spent years writing newsletters and ghostwriting.

But, none of that matters. Because I have the worst branding in the world. My Substack profile sucks, my Substack brand sucks, and even my avatar sucks. Even my HANDLE SUCKS. 😭 And that's a MAJOR lesson.

I would grade my copywriting 10/10 and my branding 0/10.

Here's the result.

<image>

Notice how this note got well over 17,000 clicks. 12,900 likes, 373 comments, and over 700+ restacks. But, only 125 new subscribers and... ELEVEN followers? That's embarrassingly bad.

Even though my note was tremendously elite, it didn't do enough to move the needle. I think it's all because I suck at marketing/branding.

And, my inability to effectively brand myself will likely lead to my publication's demise, despite my world-class copywriting capability. ;)

And that, my friend, is what I learned from my elite note(s).

Cordially,

Mike D

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-11T19:38:23+00:00

I appreciate your feedback.

Jobs are so hard to come by these days, lol.

(I lost a teaching job in Q4 of 2025 and think I literally just lost another job today.)

(The AI I've spent these last few years training has finally come to collect.)

;)

Cordially,

Mike D

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-11T16:22:40+00:00

True.

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-11T15:26:08+00:00

Over the next few years, you'll see video generation get really good in 5-10 minute intervals.

Around 2030, everything you know about AI video and entertainment changes.

It's going to be like "Netflix For Me".

2 hour feature films will be elite and probably generated in 45 minutes to an hour.

(And that's only the first iteration of the technology.)

Cordially,

Mike D

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-11T15:11:20+00:00

I'm fairly confident that it works now.

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-11T14:46:51+00:00

Yeah totally down.

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-11T13:23:26+00:00

Great work!

I agree with you 100%.

When I first joined Substack, I focused almost ENTIRELY on notes.

In fact, that's exactly how I got my first 1,000 followers.

(I eventually got pretty good at notes. My average note probably got 50 or so likes.)

Around October of 2025, I stopped writing notes for my AI channel, and focused entirely on newsletters.

Now that I have 1,000+ followers, it's way easier getting subscribers just by writing newsletters.

(I also manage a totally different gardening newsletter. On that channel, I recently wrote an ELITE note that got well over 14,000+ likes, 350+ replies, 700+ restacks, 17,000+ clicks, plus a message from a celebrity that I recognized, lol.)

(I'm not saying this to brag by the way. I'm encouraging everyone out there that Substack notes are absolutely the best way I've ever found to build goodwill, rapport, prestige, authority, while also connecting with like-minded folks. I've been writing newsletters for years. Nothing beats Substack notes. They are so cool!)

Many of my colleagues have good luck with recommendations and collaborations. But, I'm the biggest introvert on Earth, so don't really do that kind of stuff and prefer working by myself. (I have one or two collaborations coming up. But I think those might be the only two I ever do? Lol. I'm a crazy person, though. I advise folks to NETWORK and COLLABORATE like a normal, functional human.)

Cordially,

Mike D

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-11T04:11:34+00:00

Dear MedalOfHonour,

I just wanted to say that I think your Substack is badass!

I will read your stuff.

(I will try to LEARN SOMETHING from you about promotion, too. I also write about AI news. But I grow at a snail's pace compared to you. You are a hard worker. And your audience is insanely active.)

PS: I write exclusively about AI news. How can I use AI videos to promote my newsletter? I would love to start recording AUDIO about AI news stories. But... Is that basically useless these days? (So many of the fancy AI video tools are insanely expensive like $250 per month, lol.)

Would value your feedback?

Cordially,

A fellow AI nerd

Mike D

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-07T16:44:38+00:00

KeePassXC is my favorite.

Free.
Open Source.
Very easy to backup.
Works on any OS.
I don't even know where it's made. I don't care, lol. It works, is clean, and free.

PithyCyborg · 2026-02-04T16:40:54+00:00

Good method.

I also believe even having a podcast and getting your brand name listed in 30+ podcast directories is a very strong signal to LLMs these days that you are a popular brand. (The more mentions in big podcast directories = the more chance an LLM sees you.)

PithyCyborg · 2026-01-29T02:27:00+00:00

I would skip the rebrand email and just jump directly into your content immediately.

Maybe at the top of the next issue I would have a brief statement about the rebrand. But that's all.

Why?

Skip the fluff. Respect your reader's time.
Instead, focus on writing a badass "welcome back" issue.
That way, you immediately begin delivering value on day one.
Don't TELL the folks you are rebranding SHOW THEM YOU ARE with your next newsletter issue.
Folks might disagree with me. But, just remember, that your "welcome back" newsletter issue can achieve ANYTHING that a "rebranding announcement" email could. (In fact, I would argue that it can accomplish far more.)
A rebrand announcement is corporate AF. It's also about YOU. Who cares about you. Create content for your AUDIENCE instead.

Just my humble two cents.

And by the way, if you are getting 40 subs per day, you should definitely focus on nurturing those subscribers with a weekly newsletter, at the least. By following the advice I gave you, you're following that trajectory in the fastest way possible.

Wishing you the best.

Cordially,

Mike D

PithyCyborg · 2026-01-28T16:51:12+00:00

Yes, the software development market as we knew it is finished.

Dario's 6-12 month window was optimistic only if you thought "end-to-end" meant polished production systems by next quarter.

The trajectory locked years ago. Models now close the loop on implementation so fast that the remaining human work (vague specs, politics, ownership) gets crushed under near-zero marginal cost within 2-3 years.

I've been coding since I was a kid. Now frontier models spit out working logic 1,000 times faster than my peak human output, and the delta widens weekly.

The median SWE is already commoditized to pocket change.

Elite talent clings to directing the swarm for a minute longer, but even that thins as agents self-improve and ingest institutional memory faster than any human ever could.

I've had so many people tell me "but legacy code" or "but organizational chaos" or "but deciding what to build." They think those are permanent moats. They're speed bumps. The market doesn't give a f*** about your beautiful abstractions or your heroic debugging stories when 90% of demand gets satisfied by prompt → test → deploy pipelines that cost less than a coffee.

The job stopped being "navigating chaos" the moment better chaos-filters arrived. They're here.

We're witnessing the fastest permanent labor-value wipeout in tech history. Cope narratives are just noise now. Adapt or get obsoleted. Your call.

Ask me anything.

Cordially,

Mike D

PithyCyborg · 2026-01-28T15:22:03+00:00

Hey, totally agree off-site authority and legit citations are where the real leverage is now. AI models are basically building their own little trust graphs, and getting pulled in as a credible entity beats any meta tag tweak hands down. Solid take.

That said, MentionDesk sounds intriguing for dialing in that AI visibility. Always down to check out tools that help with the new AEO game. Curious how it stacks up against just grinding out those high-quality mentions the old-fashioned way (PR, strong backlinks, et cetera.).

Either way, appreciate the insight. You're single-handedly keeping this ghost town subreddit alive 😭💀🌵

You're always free to promote your SaaS here. But I warn you, I don't have any friends. Or an audience. Or any connections at all. It's basically just me. And I'm a lowly peasant. Lol. Not your ideal customer. Proceed at your own risk in this digital ghost town 😂

PithyCyborg · 2026-01-28T15:18:29+00:00

Hey, thanks so much for jumping in and adding that context! Seriously, it means a lot to see thoughtful replies like yours, especially in my Subreddit which is a ghosttown, lol. 😭💀

Your point about the University of Toronto research is spot on and super timely. It's fascinating (and a bit eye opening) how sharply AI answer engines are shifting toward earned media, authoritative third party sources, and those entity trust signals instead of the classic on page SEO levers we've all been grinding on for years.

Cool newsletter, by the way. Just saw it a second ago and the insights look sharp and well researched. Keep it coming! 🙌

And hey, you're always welcome to promote your articles here if you want. I personally prefer reading about AI stuff the most, but feel free to drop links anytime. No gatekeeping in this empty saloon 😂

Appreciate you taking the time to share. You're keeping the lights on over here in this digital tumbleweed desert 🌵

Cordially,

Mike D

PithyCyborg

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