I love your personality - your Substack that especially captured me (bc I’m not a financial person) is the adventure you were undertaking by leaving Canada and living in another country - that takes guts! I wish I could do that (im sure there are a lot of your readers that agree). Also, the takedown of the professor. Keep going after people in power that that corporate media ignore. Also, keep us abreast of your adventures - you have such a interesting, authentic voice. And I also plan on becoming a paid sub - I’m just on a tight budget at the moment.
It was the Seth Smith article. Extremely moving. You were right, this sad story never made the news, surely because it does not fit the woke race narrative.
I'm familiar with the relative crime stats with race as one variable. Yet facts have been resoundingly unsuccessful in conversations on the subject. You personalized the issue with a sensitive, thorough article. This is journalism at its best. You present a non-mainstream view about a serious issue, and explain it with a story, not just data.
Substack is revolutionizing journalism, with writers like you. - Your fan
One of your new subscribers. There was a link to one of your articles; forget from where. Astral Codex? Common Sense? Reason? I don't subscribe to many and the article of yours I read was a standout. You must have used data and had original ideas. Glad to support.
Congrats on your success! I was wondering if you could elaborate more on how you were able to achieve that growth in numbers. Was it organic growth? Did you use social media or other marketing techniques? I definitely can see your point about the benefits of Substack. Thank you so much for your inspirational story.
Every time I published an article I post it on Twitter and Reddit, and those do okay
but most of the really good marketing/growth is a result of just writing the article and then it organically takes off, people post it on blogs, share it on twitter etc. organically. Sometimes I will pester big twitter accounts and ask them for a retweet, but that doesn't really scale. Mostly the growth is a result of writing articles that people want to read and share. The articles do the work for me.
With the caveat that business smarts ain't my shining quality, I'd say you or any writer is best off not trying to earn a living through Substack unless they're just transferring over their "brand." (I hate that term and concept but for shorthand's sake...)
Satisfying the desires of a paying audience will inevitably pull you away from what you most want to do, and turn you into a marketing machine.
I'm close to 50 subscribers now, which is a heck of a lot more than the two I started with (and those two were the guys who encouraged me to start in the first place). I was tempted to set up a paying option, and then I realized I don't want to be forced to play to what the market demands. I want to write what I want to write, and hope the audience that will appreciate that manages to find me. Almost all of my subscribers have come from other Substacks where people thought my comments interesting enough to see what else I might have in my head.
But I'm not young; I'd love the lakeside estate but I ain't gonna try whoring out my antique self in the hope of some imaginary big bucks. Young people will have a different perspective.
Not interested in the audio. Let me read it and not have your inflections get in the way I hear language in my head.
People look at someone like Glenn Greenwald and think "I can do that!" Yeah, not hardly.
But you're doing extremely well right now, in the scheme of things, and what I like most about Karlstack is you don't take no shit from nobody. Don't let nobody tone you down.
Voice over would be Interesting, sometimes I like to read on the bus, or while doing other things, but end up putting them down and forgetting to come back to the articles I’m reading (by anyone, not specifically yours). Podcasts I always keep on
I think I found you from a citizenfreepress.com link? I don't remember. I don't have any paid subscriptions on substack because there are too many authors. I wish there was a way to "tip" based on a good article. You would have earned a couple of $2 - $5 tips from me. But I read fifty six different authors on substack so subscriptions would be prohibitively expensive.
I don't listen to podcasts so the voiceover feature is lost on me. If I were you, I would use youtube as an advertising platform. Create a youtube advert a week or two in advance about your next paid article. Then embed that youtube video in your free articles to generate interest. Edward Slavsquat is doing a good job using telegram and youtube to augment his substack articles.
Ouch! Not personal yet I can see why it would feel that way. I read many articles a day and source amnesia means I don't often recall where I encountered an idea. Now I will look through your posts and tell you which one and why. Fair enough!
How have you found the difference between like, having a direct and focused niche (like, a journalism beat) vs "people are subscribing for Karl"? Is there a marked difference?
At first I was focused almost solely on academia, so most of my initial subscribers were people who cared about academic integrity
Then I started writing about culture wars stuff, and I got a lot of people subscribing who care about free-speech and freedom
Now I write about much more broad topics, so I don't really know why people subscribe. I think many subscribe probably just to support independent journalism and me specifically, they probably enjoy that my writing is about wanting to burn the system down and want to see a plucky upstart succeed
I hope you have the opportunity to do more stories about academic integrity. Not because I'm an academic but because there's so few others who address this area. This of course requires story opportunities to arise but I suspect they'll continue to show up. Good luck with this, Chris.
I love your personality - your Substack that especially captured me (bc I’m not a financial person) is the adventure you were undertaking by leaving Canada and living in another country - that takes guts! I wish I could do that (im sure there are a lot of your readers that agree). Also, the takedown of the professor. Keep going after people in power that that corporate media ignore. Also, keep us abreast of your adventures - you have such a interesting, authentic voice. And I also plan on becoming a paid sub - I’m just on a tight budget at the moment.
So you paid for a subscription because Karl lied about leaving Canada?
Are you going to ask for a refund?
It was the Seth Smith article. Extremely moving. You were right, this sad story never made the news, surely because it does not fit the woke race narrative.
I'm familiar with the relative crime stats with race as one variable. Yet facts have been resoundingly unsuccessful in conversations on the subject. You personalized the issue with a sensitive, thorough article. This is journalism at its best. You present a non-mainstream view about a serious issue, and explain it with a story, not just data.
Substack is revolutionizing journalism, with writers like you. - Your fan
Yes, that was an excellent article.
Keep it up 🏆
One of your new subscribers. There was a link to one of your articles; forget from where. Astral Codex? Common Sense? Reason? I don't subscribe to many and the article of yours I read was a standout. You must have used data and had original ideas. Glad to support.
Congrats on your success! I was wondering if you could elaborate more on how you were able to achieve that growth in numbers. Was it organic growth? Did you use social media or other marketing techniques? I definitely can see your point about the benefits of Substack. Thank you so much for your inspirational story.
Every time I published an article I post it on Twitter and Reddit, and those do okay
but most of the really good marketing/growth is a result of just writing the article and then it organically takes off, people post it on blogs, share it on twitter etc. organically. Sometimes I will pester big twitter accounts and ask them for a retweet, but that doesn't really scale. Mostly the growth is a result of writing articles that people want to read and share. The articles do the work for me.
What are the two big jumps in traffic in 2021 and one in 22, articles that got picked up somewhere?
Do you use sections for separate subscriptions or just to sort things?
Yes, two articles went viral. So I guess the key to growth is "write amazing articles that go super viral" but that is easier said than done!
Yes I have a few sections (Econ, politics, crypto) etc. but I find they don't matter too much. They are mostly just for aesthetics.
Thanks for sharing your journey. I too am rooting for the freedom decentralized platforms will give us in the future. Congrats on your headstart.
great job so far
i hear a lot of ppl do like to hear the article read to them. i don't do it yet, but i might
With the caveat that business smarts ain't my shining quality, I'd say you or any writer is best off not trying to earn a living through Substack unless they're just transferring over their "brand." (I hate that term and concept but for shorthand's sake...)
Satisfying the desires of a paying audience will inevitably pull you away from what you most want to do, and turn you into a marketing machine.
I'm close to 50 subscribers now, which is a heck of a lot more than the two I started with (and those two were the guys who encouraged me to start in the first place). I was tempted to set up a paying option, and then I realized I don't want to be forced to play to what the market demands. I want to write what I want to write, and hope the audience that will appreciate that manages to find me. Almost all of my subscribers have come from other Substacks where people thought my comments interesting enough to see what else I might have in my head.
But I'm not young; I'd love the lakeside estate but I ain't gonna try whoring out my antique self in the hope of some imaginary big bucks. Young people will have a different perspective.
Not interested in the audio. Let me read it and not have your inflections get in the way I hear language in my head.
I wouldn't advise anyone try to earn a living through Substack, either. It is definitely not for the risk-averse.
People look at someone like Glenn Greenwald and think "I can do that!" Yeah, not hardly.
But you're doing extremely well right now, in the scheme of things, and what I like most about Karlstack is you don't take no shit from nobody. Don't let nobody tone you down.
Voice over would be Interesting, sometimes I like to read on the bus, or while doing other things, but end up putting them down and forgetting to come back to the articles I’m reading (by anyone, not specifically yours). Podcasts I always keep on
Congratulations! You're doing really well. Keep grinding.
I think I found you from a citizenfreepress.com link? I don't remember. I don't have any paid subscriptions on substack because there are too many authors. I wish there was a way to "tip" based on a good article. You would have earned a couple of $2 - $5 tips from me. But I read fifty six different authors on substack so subscriptions would be prohibitively expensive.
I don't listen to podcasts so the voiceover feature is lost on me. If I were you, I would use youtube as an advertising platform. Create a youtube advert a week or two in advance about your next paid article. Then embed that youtube video in your free articles to generate interest. Edward Slavsquat is doing a good job using telegram and youtube to augment his substack articles.
Ouch! Not personal yet I can see why it would feel that way. I read many articles a day and source amnesia means I don't often recall where I encountered an idea. Now I will look through your posts and tell you which one and why. Fair enough!
you are responding to a troll who makes new accounts to pester people in my comments section :)
I deleted the troll's comment in case you are wondering where it went
Interesting. That explains the tone. Thanks for letting me know. The troll's reply backfired because it led to a second glowing comment from me!
Big congrats!
How have you found the difference between like, having a direct and focused niche (like, a journalism beat) vs "people are subscribing for Karl"? Is there a marked difference?
At first I was focused almost solely on academia, so most of my initial subscribers were people who cared about academic integrity
Then I started writing about culture wars stuff, and I got a lot of people subscribing who care about free-speech and freedom
Now I write about much more broad topics, so I don't really know why people subscribe. I think many subscribe probably just to support independent journalism and me specifically, they probably enjoy that my writing is about wanting to burn the system down and want to see a plucky upstart succeed
I hope you have the opportunity to do more stories about academic integrity. Not because I'm an academic but because there's so few others who address this area. This of course requires story opportunities to arise but I suspect they'll continue to show up. Good luck with this, Chris.