When your Substack numbers say something different
Building your publishing skills means learning to listen to what your subscribers are telling you. Sometimes that’s through numbers. This month, we're using data.
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You’ve probably heard: post on Tuesday at 9 a.m., write weekly, keep it under 1,500 words, build in public.
But maybe your data says: your readers open Thursday emails more, you only have time to publish twice a month, your longest pieces get the most engagement and writing in private keeps you sane.
Here’s why this matters for building your publishing skills on Substack: most of the people giving you this guidance around growth on Substack comes from someone who started with an existing audience. They had thousands of followers on Twitter. They were already journalists with connections at the top publications in the country. They imported an audience from somewhere else. So their data patterns — and rapid growth trajectory — is completely different than yours.
Their “Tuesday at 9 a.m. works” is based on people who already knew them. Your Tuesday sends go to people discovering you for the first time. Their advice is answering a different question.
This is the reality of starting where you are, with the subscribers you have and the creative vision you’re nurturing inside your work.
When your data contradicts the advice, here’s the question I’d encourage you to ask: Who was the person giving that advice, and who was already in their audience? Because your data is telling you what works for your subscribers. Trust it.
What have you noticed in your own data patterns that also seems to contradict the advice you’ve heard? And more importantly — what does that teach you about your actual writing and subscribers?
The Chat thread is open …
