How About This - month 4 recap

Talking about the publishing month that was August 2022

Sep 03, 2022

INTRO and EXPLANATIONS

My fourth month of publishing How About This concluded on Aug. 31, ready for launching into month five. Another good month!

I’m writing this for my own info as much as anyone’s so I’ll apologize in advance if this seems boring or self-promotional but I think it’s important to track how things are going.

Publication schedule: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday

Traffic (visits)

Month 1 – May 2022: 431 visits (first post was May 3, 2022)

Month 2 – June 2022: 1,900 visits - 440%+ increase

Month 3 – July 2022: 15,681 visits - 798% increase

Month 4 – Aug 2022: 15,698 visits (no significant overall change from July BUT I did not have the huge traffic boost like I received from July 2022’s Hacker News bonanza, so I’m actually quite satisfied)

By far, this month’s popular post was my discussion of the so-called 10000 hours rule- for becoming genius. The vast majority of the other posts in August ranged from 300 - 500 views per post.

I continued to post and promote on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Reddit. I also continued networking with other Substack creators and publishers, including some cross-promotions with three other creators as well as continuing the Creator Spotlight series, which is a lot of fun.

Subscribers (e-mail subscribers only):

Month 1 – May 2022: 15 subscribers

Month 2 – June 2022: 59 subscribers - 393% increase

Month 3 – July 2022: 210 subscribers – 356% increase

Month 4 - Aug 2022: 368 subscribers - 75.2% increase

Although the % increase was smaller in August than in previous months I added a few more subscribers in August than I did in July. I did another “NPR pledge drive” on Twitter and added another verse to “Why did you subscribe?” ditty for when I hit 300. Time to start working on the next verse in anticipation of hitting 400 subscribers, perhaps?

Networking - community membership

Austin Kleon Substack Community
Soaring Twenties Social Club (STSC)
Ness Labs
Culture Study (Anne Helen Peterson’s Substack)

Goals

Subscriber Goal for end of 2022: revised goal is to hit 500 E-mail subscribers

Recommendations Goal for 2022: (new) have a total of 50 other Substack publications recommend How About This

Newsletter goals:

• Maintain the current schedule of M, T, W, F

• Try to keep cool people from unsubscribing

• Keep things as interesting and as fun as possible

• Keep engaging everyone and encouraging comments!

Thanks once again to readers old and new. Knowing how many choices there are for reading and entertainment, I’m honored that you choose to spend some of your time and attention here. Hopefully you’ll continue to keep reading, still a lot to talk about here!

How About This