What the ⭐️ activity rating means on Substack

What it helps you measure and an experiment to test your Notes audience

The activity rating is found under the Subscribers tab on your dashboard. Make sure under “Columns” (circled in red) you have Activity selected so you can see the Activity rating in your Subscriber dashboard.

Did you know that Substack’s ⭐️ activity rating doesn’t fully capture your subscribers' true engagement?

I recently reached out to the head of data at Substack and asked for clarification on what the activity rating means, and here’s what I learned…

The activity rating factors in:

• post opens/views and

• Notes interactions (comments, likes and restacks).

It doesn’t track key metrics like post comments, likes and restacks. Because of this, I don’t recommend using the Activity rating as a primary way to measure our subscribers’ total publication engagement.

But the activity rating could be a great way to measure who’s active in your newsletter and on Notes.

And here’s an experiment to test it.

1. Click “Filters” and choose “Subscription type” is any of “paid” and “founding.”

2. Then add an additional filter, Activity, and choose “is greater than or equal to” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

   

Now look at the outcome.

• What’s the total number of paid and founding subscribers who have a 4-star rating or higher?

This number tells us something about whether or not subscribers who support you financially are also active and could be nurtured over on Notes.

Now do this same filtering process, but choose “free” readers in the subscription type.

Look at the total number with free subscribers.

Use this data to do an experiment with the types of Notes you publish

Depending on which number is a higher proportion of the total (for free versus paid readers and their activity ratings), you can use this information to write Notes that are hopefully more resonant with the readers who are ready and available to engage there.

Here’s what my own data says about Activity ratings

I just performed these two filters on my Subscribers list this morning, and here’s what I found:

Paid Readers with Activity Rating of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️+ = 154 active readers /180 total paid readers

Free Readers with Activity Rating of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️+ = 1,830 active readers / 3,050 total

I’m really pleased that a significant majority of my paid subscribers are active on Notes. I’m also intrigued by the fact that 60% of my free readers have a four-star rating or higher.

Based on my own goals right now, I’ll probably choose to shape my Notes around reaching free readers and invite them into more of what I’m doing inside my archives. This means I will probably look at writing Notes that highlight:

1. Free resources available in my archive. I might write a Note 3 times each week that points to a top-performing free resource.

2. Feedback from paid readers when they upgrade.

3. Feedback from paid readers on a top-performing resource/post.

4. An experience coming soon that’s high value and available to free readers.

There are, of course, many other ways I could nurture my free readers via Notes. These are just examples of how to keep the experiment within a manageable scope.

→ And speaking of experiment, all our experiments should have a start and end date.

Since Notes changes quite a bit (and because we’re in the middle of a U.S. election cycle), I would recommend committing 3 weeks to consistently publishing Notes that are targeted toward either paid or free readers. And then measure the outcome of the experiment based on Notes interactions (is there an uptick, downtick or nothing much?) and also an increase in free versus paid subscription sign-ups or engagement.

What do you think of this experiment?

Are you going to give this experiment a try?

What can you discover when you filter by activity level on your Subscriber page?

Tell us in the comments.