People keep asking, so I’m going to start talking about it

Substack Bestiies: the behind-the-scenes of building this thing in real time

A few weeks ago I started getting DMs from other content creators.

Not from my GLP-1 audience. From people who make content themselves. And they were all asking some version of the same thing.

Is Substack worth it? How are you getting paid subscribers so fast? How does any of this actually work?

Every time I answered someone individually I thought... this should just be a post.

So here we are.

what this is

I started my Substack on March 13th. It has been six weeks. I have figured out some things, gotten plenty of things wrong, changed my pricing three times, and learned way more about how this platform actually works than I expected to.

I am not an expert. I want to be really clear about that.

But I am someone who is doing it. Growing it. Figuring it out in real time while teaching full time and running a whole other brand. And I think watching someone work through something honestly is sometimes more useful than learning from someone who already has all the answers.

That is what Substack Bestiies is going to be. The behind-the-scenes of the actual build. The decisions. The numbers. The things I wish someone had told me. The things I am still working out.

the honest version of my head start

I want to be upfront about something.

I did not start from zero. I have an existing audience on Instagram and YouTube, and I brought a lot of them over. So yes, I had a head start that someone building completely from scratch does not have.

But here is what I did not realize until I was already in it: having followers does not automatically mean having paying subscribers. Those are two completely different things.

I still had to figure out what to offer. How to price it. How to write in a way that made people want to stay. How to convert someone who has been watching my reels for free into someone willing to pay every month. None of that came with my Instagram following. I had to work that out the same way anyone else would.

where I actually stand six weeks in

Here are the real numbers as of today. And I am going to explain them properly because if you are new to Substack, some of these terms might not mean anything to you yet.

Photo by Oskars Sylwan on Unsplash

imported vs organic: what that actually means

When you start a Substack, you have the option to import an existing email list. This could be from a previous newsletter, a website, a lead magnet, anywhere you have collected emails before.

I imported about 2,064 people from an old list when I launched. These are called imported subscribers.

Organic subscribers are completely different. These are people who discovered me on their own, through Instagram, YouTube, Substack Notes, or Substack’s own discovery features, and chose to subscribe. They raised their hand. They opted in on purpose.

Here is why that distinction matters so much.

Imported subscribers are cold. They did not necessarily sign up because they wanted a Substack newsletter from me specifically. Some of them joined an old email list years ago and have basically forgotten who I am. So when my emails started landing in their inbox, a lot of them unsubscribed. That is not a bad thing. It is just reality.

Organic subscribers are warm. They found me, they liked what they saw, and they chose to stay. These are the people who open emails. Who reply. Who eventually become paying subscribers.

When I launched, my subscriber breakdown looked like this: 91% imported, 9% organic. That means almost my entire list was cold. People who had not actively chosen me in this chapter.

Six weeks later, that breakdown has completely shifted. Today I am sitting at roughly 57% imported and 43% organic.

That shift is everything. It means my list is becoming mine. Real people who want to be here. And the more that percentage tips toward organic, the easier it becomes to convert free readers into paid subscribers, because you are talking to people who are already interested.

the actual numbers

Total subscribers: 2,933. But now you know why that number alone does not tell the whole story.

Organic subscribers: 1,288. Built in six weeks. Growing at roughly 30 new people per day.

Paid subscribers: 35. Most chose the annual plan at my launch pricing. A handful are monthly. One person joined as an Inner Circle founding member (which I do not offer right now, and we can talk about that in a future article.)

Conversion rate on my organic audience: about 2.7%. Meaning roughly 3 out of every 100 people who organically subscribe eventually become paying subscribers. That is a healthy number for six weeks in.

Revenue collected so far: just under $900. From writing. In six weeks. While teaching full time.

I am sharing all of this because I would have wanted someone to show me real numbers instead of vague inspiration. So there they are.

Photo by Jarritos Mexican Soda on Unsplash

what I want from you

I want this to be a conversation.

Drop your questions in the comments. What do you actually want to know? What feels confusing or overwhelming about Substack right now? Your questions are going to become the posts. And eventually the answers we build together become something we can hand to the next person standing exactly where you are, trying to figure out if any of this is worth it.

(Spoiler: it is. But let’s talk about why.)

Ask me anything.

xo, Nyk