How Did My First Month On Substack Go?

I am pleasantly surprised!

I created my first Post on Substack a month ago. I was getting a little bored of pumping out content on Medium and wanted something more challenging.

As well as looking for something more challenging, I wanted somewhere I could interact with people whose writing I liked in a more natural way than just commenting on a post.

So I am here.

Here are The Stats

These numbers don’t tell the whole picture, and I’ll go into that afterwards.

I’m impressed with getting almost 150 subscribers in a month. I thought I’d be lucky to get 50. Although there are no paid subscribers, I am not concerned about that yet! I’m not well known and have yet to prove the value of upgrading.

In addition to subscribers, I also picked up some followers, 223 to be precise.

The growth looks steady, so I am happy with that again.

There is More Than Just The Numbers

The numbers and stats above tell one story, but there is another story to tell: the effect that being here on Substack has had on me.

I’ve been in the content marketing business for 20 years, you could say that I’ve become jaded and cynical and you would be right!

I’ve seen opportunities come and go, companies change the rules and kill business models, and nothing excites me anymore.

But here I am a month after joining, feeling enthused and positive. I see a path that needs exploring. I need to take my writing and consider turning it into a series of books.

I can see that creating books and linking them to a newsletter here on Substack could make writing on Medium redundant and far surpass any income from Medium.

I see a simple future that no longer involves writing daily articles and creating courses and info products.

I see a future that revolves around a Newsletter, Books and Community, and that makes me happy.

I have no idea how it will look yet, but that’s half the fun.

Next Steps

I have created the outline of 5 books that I’ve taken from lead magnets and courses.

I have saved them for later as I’ve set myself and my community members a challenge to write a mini book and publish it in 14 days.

So by the end of the month, I should have a new book live on Amazon, if I don’t call me out!

Thank you to everyone who has interacted and those who have inspired me

Have a great week

Mark