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How do you write a Substack post that resonates with readers and draws new subscribers to your Substack? In this video, I share one of my most successful Substack posts, along with insights into how and why it gained traction. By “success,” I mean organic reader engagement, not views. Views are meaningless without engagement. Engagement is a measure of how many people commented on a post, shared it, and subscribed after reading it. Although likes do matter for the Substack algorithm, as a writer, I am far more enthusiastic about comments. It’s easy for readers to “like” a post without really reading it. Comments are more meaningful because they indicate that readers have spent time thinking about what you have to say and they want to be part of the conversation.
This post, which I wrote more than a decade ago for an earlier version of my newsletter, drew 213 new subscribers to The Caffeinated Writer and generated more than $400 in revenue in the form of paid subscriptions. Although there are newsletters that get traffic like this every day, my newsletter tends to have a slow and steady growth. The main source of paid subscriptions for this post may surprise you; it certainly surprised me!
It is not one of my longest posts. It is certainly not one of my most time-consuming posts. It is not a “how-to” post, and it is has nothing to do with Substack, sales, or the business side of writing. It’s a post about writing.
