Thanks Mark, I’m tempted to update this with my findings, but in all honesty there is nothing ground breaking. My open rate went up a little bit and I think really it was extra work for no real benefit. Your milage may vary of course but I had thought of doing this on a monthly basis, but if I do it again it will be longer than that.
I was doing the math and spring cleaning 100 unengaged subscribers would increase my overall open rate by 2 or 3 percent. This is not nothing, but not huge. Another thing I am thinking of is how to hook new subscribers right after they sign up. One big challenge is that more and more of my new readers are coming from the Substack app and are subscribing to 50-300 publications. It’s tough to grab their interest.
It's all a challenge when readers have that many subscriptions. I've got 180+ which is incredibly excessive and even if they all only posted once a month I still wouldn't have the time to read them all, so I tend to read what I'm presented with by the app more than anything else. So my reading is driven by the restacks and suggestions in notes. I don't have email delivery turned on.
At least then I'm not one of those readers who never opens emails because I didn't receive them in the first place.
No, it was mainly just to clean out all of the subscribers who had never read a post, never seen a note and only subscribed through my viral note. You've probably got 5 star activity so you're safe from the chop.
I could have left it as a vanity metric, but it didn't feel right. But then I wrote this and publishing it to email and notes didn't feel right either. 🤷♂️ So I sneaked it in there and you still found it 🤔
Thank you for writing this. I think I’ll be doing a spring cleaning too.
Thanks Mark, I’m tempted to update this with my findings, but in all honesty there is nothing ground breaking. My open rate went up a little bit and I think really it was extra work for no real benefit. Your milage may vary of course but I had thought of doing this on a monthly basis, but if I do it again it will be longer than that.
I was doing the math and spring cleaning 100 unengaged subscribers would increase my overall open rate by 2 or 3 percent. This is not nothing, but not huge. Another thing I am thinking of is how to hook new subscribers right after they sign up. One big challenge is that more and more of my new readers are coming from the Substack app and are subscribing to 50-300 publications. It’s tough to grab their interest.
It's all a challenge when readers have that many subscriptions. I've got 180+ which is incredibly excessive and even if they all only posted once a month I still wouldn't have the time to read them all, so I tend to read what I'm presented with by the app more than anything else. So my reading is driven by the restacks and suggestions in notes. I don't have email delivery turned on.
At least then I'm not one of those readers who never opens emails because I didn't receive them in the first place.
If i go disappear 😶🌫️ for 7 days will i be kicked out too 🤔
Nah, probably not, 8 days though 🤣
😱 no margin after 8 days?? But i'm about to............... 🫥
No, it was mainly just to clean out all of the subscribers who had never read a post, never seen a note and only subscribed through my viral note. You've probably got 5 star activity so you're safe from the chop.
I could have left it as a vanity metric, but it didn't feel right. But then I wrote this and publishing it to email and notes didn't feel right either. 🤷♂️ So I sneaked it in there and you still found it 🤔
I know your truest and purest and sincerest intentions. I was only sneaking around fired fires 😜
All the ghostly images find there way to me that's how i sneakily found it 😂
🙀 I'm going to have to start hiding Easter eggs around to see if you spot them!
Oh that sounds great fun i would love to play hide n seek with colorful easter eggs 🥚. Can i wear bunny ears too at the hunt even though i'm late 😁🐇