Congratulations on your progress! And thank you for sharing your advice and the stats behind your Substack journey. It’s always exciting to see how folks navigate this platform during the early days. As someone who is about to embark on my own writing journey, this post is both helpful and inspirational. Wishing you the best of luck going forward and happy writing!
Thank you, Jacob! Cheering you on as you start on your journey as well. It's different for everyone, which is important to keep in mind. A few people who started around the same time as I did have gone far beyond me in terms of numbers, and I love that for them. Others haven't, and that's ok too.
Congratulations on the progress and accomplishment of being able to own the label “paid writer.” This practical information helps me right now as I’m considering a shift from blogger/Mailchimp to Substack. My two main reasons are to cultivate community among my readers (not just with me but with each other) and because audio embedding has become important to my audience. That feature is built into SS but sketchy and inconsistent with 3rd party HTML code in blogger. I am feeling more and more certain that moving to Substack is the right next step. One additional question for you, if you don’t mind: did you leave your Wordpress blog up and in stasis, as it were? Did you maintain consistency in the name from there to here or start fresh? I’m also trying to decide whether to import recent posts from the existing blog or only the email list. Thanks again for the window into your experience here. Blessings 💙
Hi Christina! Thank you so much for stopping by, and welcome. I left my Wordpress blog up for a good while and continued to post the same content on there. It was to experiment with reach, but as I was able to consistently reach new readers through Substack better, I gradually phased out Wordpress. I made an announcement on there to my subscribers that I was completely moving all my writing to Substack and that they could follow me there if they wished, which some did. However, I didn't import any old posts from Wordpress when I started here. Hope that helps!
Grateful you've been on this journey with me, Allison! You can find the engagement rate for any post when you go to post stats and look under the engagement tab. It's the third one from the left, after overview and reach. Hope that helps!
Ah, THERE it is! Thanks for the step-by-step instructions. I never did toggle to the right of overview. I'm happy to see that my typical engagement is 22% - which I guess is pretty good. For me, (like you), I'm here to write and build community. And I feel that the best part of posting is the dialogue that happens in the comment section.
I know people like to hate on these growth posts, but I’m so happy you pushed ahead and still wrote this one. Lots of juicy lessons and absolutely agree with you on focusing on building community.
I personally enjoy reading them haha. I know some are like, "I barely had a following" and then say they had, you know, like a few thousand followers somewhere else. Which is fine; it means they worked really hard to build that elsewhere, but I thought it might be interesting to write one where I literally started from nothing. Thank you for taking the time to comment, Dizzy.
I loved reading this Tiffany, it’s lovely to read how well it’s going, and the personal benefits it brings you too. I’m the same, exploring and growing and enjoying it here more than I could have imagined!
Hahaha.. thank you! Ok, but I do have thoughts on that. As I said, a few people recommended my publication early on, which I'm sure helped a lot. Two of the ones I mentioned have over a thousand subscribers. The other thing is, I have some extremely loyal readers who have followed for years, as in they've been with me through my multiple pen name changes, account changes, platform changes, etc. So when I say to focus on those who are there, they are who I think of. Many of them have become true friends over the years. They do a lot of the promoting for me by sharing articles with their circles.
Thank you for sharing this info, Tiffany. I started posting here just this past January and I'm rapidly approaching the vaunted 100 subscriber level. This is an amazing platform. If you are kind to the universe, the universe will be kind to you. Coming from other social media platforms where the opposite was true, Substack is a godsend. I agree, it all starts with community and the best part is that the community here is amazing. I love Substack. I love your posts Tiffany and it's a privilege to be part of your community.
Thank you, Tom!
Welcome, Alysha! I hope you enjoy it here.
Congratulations on your progress! And thank you for sharing your advice and the stats behind your Substack journey. It’s always exciting to see how folks navigate this platform during the early days. As someone who is about to embark on my own writing journey, this post is both helpful and inspirational. Wishing you the best of luck going forward and happy writing!
Thank you, Jacob! Cheering you on as you start on your journey as well. It's different for everyone, which is important to keep in mind. A few people who started around the same time as I did have gone far beyond me in terms of numbers, and I love that for them. Others haven't, and that's ok too.
Congrats on amazing work!
Thank you, Alexander!
Congratulations on the progress and accomplishment of being able to own the label “paid writer.” This practical information helps me right now as I’m considering a shift from blogger/Mailchimp to Substack. My two main reasons are to cultivate community among my readers (not just with me but with each other) and because audio embedding has become important to my audience. That feature is built into SS but sketchy and inconsistent with 3rd party HTML code in blogger. I am feeling more and more certain that moving to Substack is the right next step. One additional question for you, if you don’t mind: did you leave your Wordpress blog up and in stasis, as it were? Did you maintain consistency in the name from there to here or start fresh? I’m also trying to decide whether to import recent posts from the existing blog or only the email list. Thanks again for the window into your experience here. Blessings 💙
Hi Christina! Thank you so much for stopping by, and welcome. I left my Wordpress blog up for a good while and continued to post the same content on there. It was to experiment with reach, but as I was able to consistently reach new readers through Substack better, I gradually phased out Wordpress. I made an announcement on there to my subscribers that I was completely moving all my writing to Substack and that they could follow me there if they wished, which some did. However, I didn't import any old posts from Wordpress when I started here. Hope that helps!
Thank you. It does.
Congrats Tiffany, well deserved and thanks for sharing your experience. Glad to support your work.
Thank you, Matthew. So grateful for you!
Congrats on your growth Tiffany! I have enjoyed following along. I know this piece will inspire many who are just jumping in.
Question: how do you find out what your engagement percentage is?
I try not to look too closely at metrics but that is one worth paying attention to.
Grateful you've been on this journey with me, Allison! You can find the engagement rate for any post when you go to post stats and look under the engagement tab. It's the third one from the left, after overview and reach. Hope that helps!
Ah, THERE it is! Thanks for the step-by-step instructions. I never did toggle to the right of overview. I'm happy to see that my typical engagement is 22% - which I guess is pretty good. For me, (like you), I'm here to write and build community. And I feel that the best part of posting is the dialogue that happens in the comment section.
Thanks for highlighting all of this!
Aw Tiffany congrats on all this - your mindset is BEAUTIFUL! Keep being you and shining your light. Thanks so so much for the mention! ✨✨
Thank you, Claire! You've been such a huge help. I'm glad I found you here.
✨🥰✨
Congratulations on six months and all your hard work!
Thanks Simon! So grateful we connected.
I'm glad I stumbled upon this post, it's motivating :)
Anyway, it's odd how I first subscribed because I wanted to be a paid writer too, but now I only wish for n° 2, getting rid of social media!
Glad this resonated, Paola. Yes to getting rid of social media haha. I haven't looked back since. It's been freeing without it.
I know people like to hate on these growth posts, but I’m so happy you pushed ahead and still wrote this one. Lots of juicy lessons and absolutely agree with you on focusing on building community.
I personally enjoy reading them haha. I know some are like, "I barely had a following" and then say they had, you know, like a few thousand followers somewhere else. Which is fine; it means they worked really hard to build that elsewhere, but I thought it might be interesting to write one where I literally started from nothing. Thank you for taking the time to comment, Dizzy.
I loved reading this Tiffany, it’s lovely to read how well it’s going, and the personal benefits it brings you too. I’m the same, exploring and growing and enjoying it here more than I could have imagined!
Thank you, Kate! I'm glad you're enjoying it here. I hope we continue growing and having fun creating in this space.
What did you even write about that first 2 months to be able to grow that fast 🤯
Or did you use some magic charm? 😉 Tell me your dark secrets mohahaha.
No but seriously, congrats on your growth, its impressive 😊
Hahaha.. thank you! Ok, but I do have thoughts on that. As I said, a few people recommended my publication early on, which I'm sure helped a lot. Two of the ones I mentioned have over a thousand subscribers. The other thing is, I have some extremely loyal readers who have followed for years, as in they've been with me through my multiple pen name changes, account changes, platform changes, etc. So when I say to focus on those who are there, they are who I think of. Many of them have become true friends over the years. They do a lot of the promoting for me by sharing articles with their circles.
So the secret is, I'm a cult leader.
Cult leader, oh my 😱
Yes, I just came to that conclusion as I was typing it..
Congratulations on 6 months! It is always interesting and inspiring to see others growth here on Substack!
Thank you, Leana!
Thank you for sharing this info, Tiffany. I started posting here just this past January and I'm rapidly approaching the vaunted 100 subscriber level. This is an amazing platform. If you are kind to the universe, the universe will be kind to you. Coming from other social media platforms where the opposite was true, Substack is a godsend. I agree, it all starts with community and the best part is that the community here is amazing. I love Substack. I love your posts Tiffany and it's a privilege to be part of your community.
Thanks, and congratulations to you as well! I'm enjoying my time here as well. Grateful you're here, Steve.
Grateful for you, too, Tiffany.
Tiffany this is so inspiring! Nicely done 👏🏻 and thank you for sharing your wisdom.