How I Grew My Substack from (Almost) Zero to 40K Annual Income in Just 12 Months

Part Two of Two: Eleven Urgent & Possibly Helpful Things I Have Learned About Building A Newsletter During My First Year On Substack

Wow, thank you for your enthusiastic responses to yesterday’s nuts-and-bolts Part One post of “How I Grew My Substack from (Almost) Zero to 40K Annual Income in Just 12 Months.” It really made my day.

To note, amidst the hundreds of grateful comments, a couple of readers objected to the “from zero to 40K” phrase in the headline because I had that (mostly defunct) email list of 600 and 30 supporters on Patreon. Also, three decades of professional experience. I see their point. I was not literally at “zero” in every way, and I sought to unpack that in great detail in yesterday’s post—that despite my lack of platform, I have worked for and acquired (I’m 55 years old!) an expertise and a focus and even a certain amount of authority in my field which in turn absolutely helped me to build Writing in the Dark. But in industry terms, my numbers represent no platform, and I did start with zero paid subscribers on Substack. To that end, I’ve changed the headline to say “Almost Zero.”

Now, for the more philosophical Part Two of the post—in the spirit of gratitude—the eleven most salient things I’ve learned since launching. In addition to being a Part Two to yesterday’s post, this is also a companion to my Eleven Urgent & Possibly Helpful Things I Have Learned About Writing From Reading Thousands of Manuscripts post of a year ago.