One thing that I'd like to just shout as feedback (especially since it was the way I found you in the first place):
High interest titles to niche audiences probably drive extremely high conversion rates, even with minimal total volume.
Also, resharing your niche posts with niche audience aggregators (ex: Reddit – NYC subreddit) helps put unaware audiences onto your vibe.
I personally found you through a reshared post of The Optimal Time to go to the Comedy Cellar on the NYC subreddit. It's a super niche topic that I found extreme high value and interest in. That hooked me, but your writing is so consistent that it got me to subscribe –– and then essentially read all of your other 99 articles.
Substack is an awesome closed ecosystem and clearly you're crushing it –– but I bet you could keep hockey sticking your growth by promoting your niche-er articles in low quantity highly engaged communities like Reddit, FB Groups, etc.
Really appreciate that Noah!! It’s good encouragement; it’s always sort of scary posting to reddit bc you often get taken down by mods or whatever but I should just do it more
100%, totally get it. You have some articles that I think would do big numbers on r/nyc, r/dataisbeautiful, r/motivation, r/joerogan (for the Comedy Cellar article), etc.
Also, believe it or not, you might get some mileage on Quora (high engagement rate, posts live forever) and LinkedIn (target demo).
Wait I too am curious about Peter Thiel and why he's so weird, I wanna go back and read that article lol.
Question, do you write subject lines primarily for email or for substack's internal network? Is your readership driven primarily by email or substack's network?
I wish they'd let you write two headers/subject lines, one geared towards email and one for the app's network. and ideally you'd be able to A/B test as well.
An interesting engagement quandary for Substack to figure out - as they push app usage, that drives down email open rates, but increases in views and shares (seems like this is true for you!)
Yep - i definitely think it is in their interest to move away from email to a platform they control (but there is tension there because it makes creators dependent on them!)
Congrats on 1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣! I love how you analyze data and honestly, I don't know if anyone else could have made salad that interesting.
I've tried briefly to crack the Substack code, but quickly gave up and resigned to posting nonsensical titles because it's just more fun. Or maybe I'm just shit at figuring out my newsletter's patterns ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I enjoyed the historical summary of Residual Thoughts, Joe.
Your Grandpa Jim
Thank you for being a founding reader!!
Congrats man!
One thing that I'd like to just shout as feedback (especially since it was the way I found you in the first place):
High interest titles to niche audiences probably drive extremely high conversion rates, even with minimal total volume.
Also, resharing your niche posts with niche audience aggregators (ex: Reddit – NYC subreddit) helps put unaware audiences onto your vibe.
I personally found you through a reshared post of The Optimal Time to go to the Comedy Cellar on the NYC subreddit. It's a super niche topic that I found extreme high value and interest in. That hooked me, but your writing is so consistent that it got me to subscribe –– and then essentially read all of your other 99 articles.
Substack is an awesome closed ecosystem and clearly you're crushing it –– but I bet you could keep hockey sticking your growth by promoting your niche-er articles in low quantity highly engaged communities like Reddit, FB Groups, etc.
You're going to crush it this year :)
Really appreciate that Noah!! It’s good encouragement; it’s always sort of scary posting to reddit bc you often get taken down by mods or whatever but I should just do it more
100%, totally get it. You have some articles that I think would do big numbers on r/nyc, r/dataisbeautiful, r/motivation, r/joerogan (for the Comedy Cellar article), etc.
Also, believe it or not, you might get some mileage on Quora (high engagement rate, posts live forever) and LinkedIn (target demo).
i'll experiment with those, thank you!! I hadn't considered r/motivation or JRE
LinkedIn has been pretty useful, i post probably 1 in 5 articles there
Wait I too am curious about Peter Thiel and why he's so weird, I wanna go back and read that article lol.
Question, do you write subject lines primarily for email or for substack's internal network? Is your readership driven primarily by email or substack's network?
He’s weird!!
I guess I write subject lines mostly with email in mind, but the substack network drives most of the growth. I’m not sure if what I’m doing is optimal
I wish they'd let you write two headers/subject lines, one geared towards email and one for the app's network. and ideally you'd be able to A/B test as well.
I was curious about this too! Do your Open Rates stats cover both email and app? Or only email?
just email, i believe! i think that is what they report to you
An interesting engagement quandary for Substack to figure out - as they push app usage, that drives down email open rates, but increases in views and shares (seems like this is true for you!)
Yep - i definitely think it is in their interest to move away from email to a platform they control (but there is tension there because it makes creators dependent on them!)
Lots to balance
although i recently found this newsletter, i'm a big fan. your posts are almost always unique, original, and entertaining.
Thank you! Really appreciate it :)
Congrats on 1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣! I love how you analyze data and honestly, I don't know if anyone else could have made salad that interesting.
I've tried briefly to crack the Substack code, but quickly gave up and resigned to posting nonsensical titles because it's just more fun. Or maybe I'm just shit at figuring out my newsletter's patterns ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
thank you!!! Yeah i think there is no code so that seems like the best strategy :)
mazel tov on 100!!!
appreciate it :)
Congrats on hitting 100 newsletters—what a milestone!!!
Thank you! Really appreciate it
Nice write-up, appreciate the mix of personal reflections and data. Here's to the next 100!
Thanks so much Torsten!
Noice!
go Joe!
Thank you!!!
Congrats on 💯- also, fellow tennis fan here
thank you :) let’s play!
one of my favorite substacks!
Thank you!!! 🥲
You have a way of turning numbers into storytelling. Keep telling stories!
thanks so much zoya!!
Love this. Congrats to you!!
Thank you !! Really appreciate your support
Discovered your writing a few months ago and you’re now one of my favorite Substack writers. Amazing work and congratulations on the milestone.
Aw thanks so much! Really appreciate it :)