How do you define inactive? Is that by newsletter or by profile? Because I have several newsletters that I’m not using right now and several that I am.
This was such an in-depth analysis of Substack. Really enjoyed reading. Thanks for taking the time to research this data and put in a very readable way.
Thank you for your comment Francine. It's great to hear that you found my analysis helpful. Big thanks to Kristina for giving me the chance to write a guest post in her newsletter!
Thank you Aiza! I'm so glad to hear that you found my report helpful. It's difficult to stay consistent; I think all creators struggle from time to time. Keep up the good work and you'll see the results!
Thank you for your comment Kartikeya! Which insight did you find the most interesting? Yes, as you said, I couldn't get the subscriber information for some newsletters. They are either below 1,000 subs or hide the subscriber information from settings.
Thank you for your comment, Gunnar! You're absolutely right—I expected to see some inactive newsletters, but 45% is far beyond what I anticipated. Starting a newsletter is simple, but staying consistent is the real challenge. It takes patience to see meaningful results. I think that's the main reason.
In my written interviews with newsletter creators, the most common advice they share is, 'Don't give up.' The data clearly shows why this advice is so important.
That reminds me at websites who got a blog added when WordPress became popular. Business owners wrote 5 of them within a month and then nothing for years. Looks like they‘re out of business…
Exactly! They expected to rank on the first page of Google within a month, and when it didn’t happen, they assumed it wasn’t working. But the ones who kept publishing consistently are the ones who succeeded. That’s the world of content:)
I'm happy to hear that you found it cool Ramon, thank you for your comment! I plan to continue publishing mini-reports, exploring paid subscription strategies, and providing original content about the newsletter space.
How do you define inactive? Is that by newsletter or by profile? Because I have several newsletters that I’m not using right now and several that I am.
nice insights
thanks for the effort!
btw is it possible to get more or similar data somewhere for analysis?
Thank you, Kristina. I know this research takes time. It is appreciated.
Interesting. As I’m trying to grow and just went paid it gives me more to think about. Thanks.
Sheesh, how did you analyze 75k newsletters?
Thank you for your comment Chaddeus. I scraped publicly available data from these newsletters. This is a technique to import data from websites.
Nice. Interesting that much data is publicly available to scraping. Good to know.
This was such an in-depth analysis of Substack. Really enjoyed reading. Thanks for taking the time to research this data and put in a very readable way.
I'm so happy to hear your comment, Francis—thank you so much! Which insight did you find the most interesting?
Thanks Kristina for this analysis. It’s very interesting and comforting!
Thank you for your comment Francine. It's great to hear that you found my analysis helpful. Big thanks to Kristina for giving me the chance to write a guest post in her newsletter!
Very thorough and interesting! Thank you! I don’t feel like I’ve wasted my time, which is almost always the case unfortunately
Good to hear lol ^^
Thank you so much for your comment!
Do you have any stats about newsletters in the Real Estate space?
Hi Carlo, I don't have data specific to the Real Estate space. What would you wish to learn about it?
That's interesting and insightful. The consistency thing, I really do lack it, but I am encouraged and motivated, now.
That's wonderful to hear, Aiza and exactly what The Online Writing Club is about: motivate and inspire
Thank you Aiza! I'm so glad to hear that you found my report helpful. It's difficult to stay consistent; I think all creators struggle from time to time. Keep up the good work and you'll see the results!
Interesting insights, thanks
Thank you so much!
Nice! It's great you analyzed all of this. There should have been a block for below 1000 subs.
Thank you for your comment Kartikeya! Which insight did you find the most interesting? Yes, as you said, I couldn't get the subscriber information for some newsletters. They are either below 1,000 subs or hide the subscriber information from settings.
Nice revelation 👍
Thank you!
Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks Raveen!
That‘s insightful! Surprise that so many people became inactive now as Substack is growing (my Twitter became inactive since being X).
Thank you for your comment, Gunnar! You're absolutely right—I expected to see some inactive newsletters, but 45% is far beyond what I anticipated. Starting a newsletter is simple, but staying consistent is the real challenge. It takes patience to see meaningful results. I think that's the main reason.
In my written interviews with newsletter creators, the most common advice they share is, 'Don't give up.' The data clearly shows why this advice is so important.
That reminds me at websites who got a blog added when WordPress became popular. Business owners wrote 5 of them within a month and then nothing for years. Looks like they‘re out of business…
Exactly! They expected to rank on the first page of Google within a month, and when it didn’t happen, they assumed it wasn’t working. But the ones who kept publishing consistently are the ones who succeeded. That’s the world of content:)
That's a cool analysis! Thanks for sharing!
I'm happy to hear that you found it cool Ramon, thank you for your comment! I plan to continue publishing mini-reports, exploring paid subscription strategies, and providing original content about the newsletter space.