My First 5 Months on Substack
How I achieved a GAR of $10,000+ in 5 months from zero on Substack.
Hey Guys,
I wanted to take some time to talk to myself about my journey so far on Substack, which I’ve tried to take very seriously.
Substack is my job, my Newsletter is literally the “link in bio”, on my LinkedIn profile.
This has been my full-time gig, for 5 months now.
My flagship Newsletter AiSupremacy reached 3,000 free subscribers today (May 2nd, 2022), on essentially day 132. That’s about 22 followers a day. I started to hit Substack hard on December 25th, 2021.
I hit 3,000 on day 132.
It has been a crazy ride.
It’s like having a Wordpress in over-drive or like writing on Medium in hard mode. But I’m loving my time on Substack.
I never thought I’d be writing Newsletters.
Here is how I’m doing thus far:
How Much do a I Make From Direct to Consumer D2C Newsletters?
Gross Annualized Revenue: GAR: $5,152. (U.S.)
I’m a Creator working on, less than minimum wage. Consider that I have a Nine other Newsletters I’m developing.
With A.I., I wanted to become a topic expert, hit a niche and add a lot of value to a wide group of professionals. On A.I. Supremacy you can see my archives here, there are literally too many articles to count. Edit: 91 articles so far in 2022.
I wanted to offer the maximum value to a few categories and group of professional audiences. So that’s why I started a Quantum Computing and Data Science Newsletters as well.
GAR: $1,888
GAR: $1,210
So that leaves us at, hang on a sec, there’s also an Investing Newsletter.
GAR: $2,160.
So the 5-month sub-total for my new job in the passion-economy is, drum-roll: $10,410.
So when you are tipping me, or giving me yearly subscription is not discretionary income for me, it’s how I pay my rent or eat for that month. I am a Creator starting from scratch, at the bottom, in a ecosystem with very poor visibility.
I don’t know how it will scale or if this first 3,000 subs has been the hardest, but I’m not going to lie, it’s been hard.
Personally
Across my Newsletters, over 100+ subscribers (after 5 months) are paying me to do what I love for a living. I can only hope that it grows to be a viable income, because I’m the sole breadwinner of my household.
I could probably live off this if just 300+ people decided I was worth supporting. If I don’t make that number by the 1-year mark, I’ll likely have to give up. It’s a numbers game. (Unless I somehow get tons of Sponsors).
I’m really enjoying the challenge, I’m giving up weekends and losing time due to the investment. I have aging people in my family I’m trying to take care of and be a presence for who have major health issues now.
I’m eating well, but don’t have much time to exercise, I’m likely writing way too much. This is organic, I don’t have a budget to grow, with Ads or via network or community efforts. I don’t have friends on the leaderboards of Substack who can recommend my Newsletters.
I look up nearly every single lead I get on Substack, and reverse look-up them on LinkedIn. Each one of those first 3,000 free subscribers have been strictly from my own effort, grit and the reputation of my work. I’ve earned each one the hard way.
I don’t have a Twitter followers, I didn’t start with an Email list, Substack employees laughed at me when I mentioned I would start more than one Newsletter. I of all people understand what Substack Creators go through starting from scratch, I’ve been doing this more full-time than most.
I’ve gone out of my way to dabble in community as well, I spent 50 hours researching and making a list of the Top 85 Data Science thought leaders to follow on LinkedIn. I’ve tried to reach out to other Substack Creators (without much success). I’ve written tip articles and guides on this Newsletters as well.
I wasn’t a Substack Pro writer, I’ve never been featured once by Substack, in spite of being the top writer in #1 in Machine learning here. Basically the most active, like a top writer tag on Medium. I’m not found on any of Substack’s leader categories. I’m not even receiving any free subscription bump from their recommendation cross-distribution feature.
I’m trying to be a self-made indie media startup solo-Entrepreneur. I’m learning on the job, and mostly failing every day. I’m having a blast too!
But I am a case study for something. I’m a case study in the desperation of honoring my craft. In being faithful to the topics that inspire me.
But I am a case study for something. I’m a case study in the desperation of honoring my craft. In being faithful to the topics that inspire me. In covering the news in the future of technology. You see though all this, through being unemployed for most of the pandemic, I’ve retained an identity of being an amateur futurist. Through poverty and adversity, that’s what’s kept me going.
I usually keep my monthly updates locked. But reaching the 3,000 free subscribers milestone is important to me, it’s validation. So many Newsletters in my topic of A.I. are just link spam, but nobody actually follows links in Newsletter, it’s typically under 5%. I’ve been writing long-form articles nearly 5 times a week (and that’s just on this Newsletter). I’ve been hitting the text/image/link limit nearly each time.
I’ve stayed away from writing clickbait articles, tried to cheat or exploit or growth-hacked my audience. Most of my audience comes from Reddit, Facebook Groups, Hacker News and LinkedIn. I’ve probably spent 60% of my time on marketing, just 40% on the actual writing.
If you have any questions in building a Newsletter, in aligning your social media efforts with a lead funnel or in formatting your Substack, I think I finally have some basic knowledge in these things.
I’ve made a list of the Newsletter I like on Substack, I’m happy to add your Newsletter to the list. There are around 100 on it so far.
I’m not a huge fan of the celebrities, journalists and specialty artists that have it easy on Substack. They attract an audience spontaneously, they don’t have to work for it in the same way. I wish I knew more of the simple grinding Creators that don’t get seen or read, like I do, (those are the people I actually relate to) where I might get a couple of comments a week. I don’t like the idea of pyramid schemes, but I do think Substack can offer a lot of value to audiences and Creators who find a way to make it work for them.
These are the Newsletter I Write
Topics I Cover:
A.I.
Quantum Computing
Data Science
ChinaTech
Web3
Startups
A.I. News
Climate Change
Space and Astronomy
Creator Economy
Business
Investing & the Stock Market
Global News
Future
Marketing & Writing Tips
Gaming
Mixed Martial Arts
My Substack In a Nutshell
I’m trying to be a self-made indie media startup solo-Entrepreneur. I’m learning on the job, and mostly failing every day. I’m having a blast too!
Thanks for reading!