2001: A Substack Odyssey

I posted the above video in the week after my 50th birthday which is nearly two years ago now. You’re not going to believe it given the quality of the re-edit, but this was originally filmed for the 1000th subscriber. And the commentary matched up with Buddy Franklin’s 1000th goal, and there was some cleverness and purpose behind the whole thing.

Not so much this time but I do still like the video, because it’s quite silly and all my family are in it. I can even spy Ian Nisbet, my uncle, whose memorial celebration we attended on Thursday.

RIP Ian. You’ll be missed.

I was introduced to Substack by my friend, the screenwriter and author Adam Zwar

Mr Zwar

(cricket and comedy /tv lovers need to read 12 Summers) and I remember Adam saying to me. ‘We just have to get to 1000 subscribers. If we get to 1000, the second thousand is apparently much easier’.

I got to 1000 on the 12th of October 2022. The sale of Twitter was finalised ten days later. As that site was torched by a man who was willing to pay 43 billion US dollars to amplify his own tweets, Substack started a social media competitor (Notes) and we no longer had Twitter to amplify our newsletters.

It became harder to spread articles. Adam said that the magic number for posts was 100. ‘If we can do 100 posts,’ he said, ‘it’ll be golden after that.’ I’ve been pretty good with my Substack routine. This is my 200th post exactly, and I’m on 2000 subscribers exactly. Look. the maths is tricky at this point … actually maybe it isn’t that difficult. Can I expect ten subscribers per post? I’m going to check with my 9 year old when she gets home.

‘Yes dad, but remember to amortise for the fact that your earlier posts went a lot better than your later ones have’

Adam then said the the best tactic was … actually Adam remembered he had a day job writing excellent teleivision shows and didn’t say anything else, and I think that’s the best advice any Substacker can be given. Remember to have a day job. Don’t pin your hopes on this. It’s nice when people subscribe and comment and recommend. It’s especially nice when people pay to subscribe, and to every one of the 170 people who have done that in the last two and a half years, I’m grateful, and I hope you enjoy access to full archive and book discounts and paid posts, and know you have the gratitude of a writer who never knows quite how to explain what he writes about.

Actually it’s not that hard to explain. I write about sport, family and stuff that happens in between, like dressing up in a sequined top to stand outside a Taylor Swift concert.

I also write about Hawthorn, and our Ferenc Puskas documentary (which is on at the Greek Film Festival on the 20th of October). And I sometimes write about carsales.

Whatever brought you here, thanks for coming, please stay, and if you enjoy the piecces and see me in the street, walk up in front of my children and tell them how good I am.

I’ll sneak you the free paid subscription later.