Substack Diaries: A year on from a month that changed everything
November 2024 recap and numbers
Guys! I am so excited! November has a special place in my heart because of what happened this time last year.
In November 2023, things started seriously shifting for musings by mika.
I created the publication in April 2023, wrote 2 posts and had 7 subscribers to my name.
In November, I deleted social media from my phone, downloaded the Substack App and was reading and interacting with so many amazing writers. I was having the time of my life.
I was also doing a lot of journalling and I slowly I started to get a clearer vision of what I wanted musings by mika to be.
By the end of November, I decided that I was going to start showing up every week on Substack in December 2023—even though I didn’t know exactly what the plan was.
I look back on this and I think it’s a great blueprint that I can learn from.
Get rid of distractions
Journal and explore ideas
Immerse yourself and have fun
Make a commitment
Experiment!
I often feel like I have competing priorities…but it just goes to show that amazing things happen when I focus our energy.
I also know that timing is everything.
I didn’t have the headspace for Substack in the 7 months leading up to November.
It’s ok if things take time.
We often have a lot on our plate and feel behind.
This is what I know for sure…..creativity and stress don’t mix.
So, whatever we can do to relieve the pressure and expectations we have on ourselves the better.
Substack is supposed to be our happy place, not another thing to be ticked off our to-do list.
If there’s one things I’ve learned over the year, we get to show up in a way that feels right for us.
Monthly check-in
Things I tried:
Experimented with turning off the subscriber count. Substack lets you choose whether to show it on your profile and welcome page. I might turn it back on later, but for now, I’m keeping it off.
What I learned:
Substack offered limited “Substack-funded gifts” to some publications. It looked like a wonderful way for writers to get paid and for readers to experience paid tiers. It looks like it was only offered to publications in Australia, Canada and United States.
commented on this Note and said she had 30 people use it. How did it go for everyone else?
A great call-to-action for people who can’t get paid from Stripe. Unfortunately, some countries, still can’t get paid via Substack/Stripe. I like
’s call-to-action to offer alternative payment options:
You can grow on Substack without even posting a single newsletter.
has been posting consistently on Notes since August 2024, but he has been creating high quality content and newsletters on other platforms for a long time. A wouldn’t say his Notes have gone viral, I think he just produces high quality Notes consistently and it has sky-rocketed his growth. (I noticed he has produced two newsletters recently.)
What I’m struggling with:
Reading newsletters! I tried getting the newsletters emailed to me, hoping it would put it front and centre, but I’m still struggling to prioritise it!
November (real) numbers
I love it when people open up about their journey, especially the nitty-gritty details of starting something new. Here's me, sharing it all, stepping into the Substack world with no email list to my name.
Total subscribers: 2,108
Started: 0
April-Nov: 7
Dec: 20
Jan: 163
Feb: 196
Mar: 175
April: 161
May: 355
June: 244
July: 194
August: 269
September: 198
October: 67
November: 54 loooovely people joined! 🥰 Thank you and welcome! 👋
Total posts: 50
Apr: 1
Oct: 1
Dec: 6
Jan: 5
Feb: 4
Mar: 4
Including a guest post with
where we both undertook a mission to break-up with late night scrolling
Apr: 4
May: 5
June: 4
July: 4
Including a guest post with
about my thoughts on Being Enough
August: 4
September: 4
Including my first podcast with
October: 4
Including my first Notes engagement collaboration thread with
November: 4
I explained why I was keeping musings by mika free in my October recap
I LOVED hearing your heart felt messages to the dreams in our community connection thread
There was a great discussion around releasing the “shoulds” and embracing “who says” in the comments section of that piece
We found out that a lot of us lose our writing mojo and it’s best to embrace the ebb and flow of being a creative.
Total recommendations: 145 (33 written recommendations)
Dec: 1
Jan: 14
Feb: 15 (2 new written recommendations)
Mar: 13 (4 new written recommendations)
Apr: 18 (4 new written recommendations)
May: 36 (8 new written recommendations)
June: 21 (7 new written recommendations)
July: 6
August: 11 (4 new written recommendations)
September: 6 (1 new written recommendation)
October: 1
November: 3 AMAZING subscriber recommended musings by mika, thank you, thank you! 🥰 (3 new lovely written recommendations)
Total subscribers from recommendations: 1K
Jan: 6
Feb: 14
Mar: 50
Apr: 78
May: 151
June: 181
July: 161
August: 108
September: 143
October: 85
November: The dashboard now says “1K”, even though I’m pretty sure I got more than 10 subscribers through recommendations last month 🤷♀️😄
Total paid subscribers: 19
May: 4
June: 6
July: 2
August: 3
September: 2 (and -2: 1 left Substack completely, 1 stopped monthly subscription)
October: 2
November: 2 of you decided to upgrade! It means more to me than you know! 🥰
Total net revenue: US$515.44
(After 10% Substack fees, 2.9% Stripe fees, plus additional Stripe fees)
May: Net US$86.43, £67.53, NZ$139.30
June: Net US$175.91, £137.86, NZ$287.62
July: Net US$32.72, £15.15 NZ$54.95
August: US$88.26, £67.15, NZ$141.67
September: US$59.63, £45.47, NZ$96.84
October: US$36.61, £28.14, NZ$61.31
November: US$35.88, £28.32, NZ$61.04
Stripe payouts are made in NZD, I then convert to USD and GBP at time of publishing
✍️ Let me know in the comments: How was November for you?
Want to read what happened before?
October 2024: Why I'm keeping musings by mika free
September 2024: Why showing up matters in our creative journey
August 2024: Unexpected delights
July 2024: Why numbers don’t tell the whole story
June 2024: The impact of recommendations
May 2024: How May became a month of transformation
April 2024: One year on Substack (kind of)
March 2024: The power and pressure of celebrating milestones
February 2024: Dashboard detox: Avoid the ups and downs of subscriber growth
January 2024: How the heck did I jump from 27 to 180 subscribers?!
December 2023: What do you do if you're not growing as fast as others?
November 2023: The turning point: Resurrecting and restarting my Substack
April 2023: Did I just have a mini meltdown from setting up Substack?
Loved reading this 💛✨ Have you deleted your social profiles Mika, or just the apps from your phone? I have deleted my X profile, and I have been tempted to delete Facebook too, but not quite ready yet! I am having a struggle keeping up with reading all the Substacks I’m subscribed to as well, but I love that they are there forever, and I can go back and read and comment even if they’re weeks and weeks old!
Always interesting to follow your very intentional Substack journey Mika. I think your comment "we get to show up in a way that feels right for us" sums it up really well. I'm not overly invested here because my blog is my main focus, but I still find it to be a great place to stay in touch with those who use this platform and to meet new people here and there. Thank you for your interest and support, and I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas. :)