A Year of Substack
I’ve done over 70 posts on Substack this year, and I tried everything.
We’re almost at Christmas, but more importantly, we’re almost at the end of the campaign for Big Smoke Pulp: Volume 2.
I’m so adamant about this is because you only have two days left to get the Kickstarter exclusive hardcover of this book. If you don’t get it now, you won’t get it again, so please check it out while you still can.
And now with that out of the way, let’s talk about Substack.
The Importance of an Email List
One of the most important things I always tell everyone to do if you are starting a creative career—or any career where you want to sell people something you’ve created—is that having an email list is absolutely pivotal.
I’m on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter (or X), Bluesky... you name it, I’m on it. And yet, where I find most of the engagement is through my newsletter. Even though it’s mostly a one-way conversation with me speaking to my readers and really spilling my guts, that’s where I’m getting the most engagement.
Even videos seem to do a little better on Substack than they do on YouTube. If you look at the YouTube numbers, you can see it’s still growing—very early days—but the Substack numbers are night and day.
I credit that to having a strong mailing list that we’ve built over two years of campaigns.
Today I’m going to talk about three experiments that I ran on my Substack this year, followed by four lessons that I took from them.
Experiment #1: “Elsewhere in the Universe”
My sub-newsletter, Elsewhere in the Universe.
Something cool you can do with Substack is have sub-newsletters—small groups of your mailing list reading specific parts of your content.
On Wednesdays, I had my regular posts (like the one you’re seeing now). Then, every other Saturday, I would have a new post called Elsewhere in the Universe. This was my chance to talk about things outside of Pesto Comics. If I wanted to talk about movies, comics, or anything interesting to me, that was my free space to do it.
As cool as that sounded, and as much fun as I was having, it just became too much work. It really took the fun out of it once I was on a deadline. So, I decided to shut that down relatively quickly. That allowed me to focus on my six posts a month, which ended up being quite a bit on its own.
What I learned was I could still get that joy of speaking to people about current events using social media. That’s the whole point of social media! (Though it kind of sucks right now because it’s so fractured.)
If I want to talk comics, I can talk with some folks on Twitter, some folks on Bluesky. Threads I’ve kind of dropped off—that one is way too rage-bait-y for me, but I still post.
The main point is, I’m not using the newsletter for that right now.
Experiment #2: Paid Subscribers
The second experiment is part experiment and part update for today.
For those of you who’ve been here for a while, you’ve heard me talking about paid subscribers. When I first started, I was doing another Saturday post, but eight (then six) posts a month became too much. To mitigate that, I tried to have an extended section at the end of each post for paid subscribers.
However, the way Substack manages paid posts really forces people to see things as “paid.” When I sign people up to the newsletter, they are confronted with pay options immediately. Frankly, as much as I appreciate those who support everything I’m doing here, I don’t want anyone to not join the newsletter because of that paywall.
It’s an extra step just to get people to join in. So, something I’ll be talking about specifically to the paid subscribers today is that I’m probably going to shut down this part of the experiment as well.
If Substack was my primary creative outlet and I needed this paywall to sustain myself, it would be totally worth it. But for me, it actually cut down on engagement. It locks everyone out of the comments, and the comments are half the fun.
I’m going to chalk this up to another learning experience and something that I won’t be continuing in 2026.
Experiment #3: Video Posts
If you read this on Substack, you’ll notice I also attach a video to the top. That’s something new I started in 2025.
It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I started with the audio because I wanted to see if my performance levels were up to it - specifically if I could speak clearly and be somewhat entertaining.
The feedback I got about the audio was wonderful.
I saw the subscribers to the Substack absolutely shoot through the roof once I started doing audio.
It is funny, though. I did a poll recently asking how everyone was experiencing this newsletter, and the majority said they read it. (I think part of that is because if you listen or watch, you didn’t see the poll!) But now I’m starting to get a handful of people saying, “Hey, your videos are great as well.”
So I’m really happy with this. This is something I will 100% be continuing through 2026.
These experiments, if not all successful, were great learning experiences for me. Here’s the top lessons I took from it all…
Lesson #1: Frequency Isn’t Everything
Consistency is key, but frequency isn’t everything. Quality and sustainability are what are most important. If you can’t do this regularly without burning yourself out, then it’s not worth doing.
I was quick to shut down Elsewhere when I felt myself chasing it constantly. I was a little less quick with the paywall because of the obligation to those who paid, but I think shutting it down is necessary to do the big things I have planned for 2026.
Lesson #2: Have Something Special for Paid Subs
If you’re going to do a paywall, make sure you have something special to give those people. Nothing is worse than subscribing to a newsletter and finding out it’s just a small extension of things you could get elsewhere.
Me personally? I don’t want to be a source of bad feelings. If I’m going to do a paid newsletter, I need a real strategy. I think the paywall has to come down because it gets in the way more than it helps.
Lesson #3: Format Matters
Format matters when you’re trying to build a community. The hope is that we build a community where you guys know who I am and I’m not just text on a screen.
With audio, I found the relationships were better. When I met people in person, they felt like they knew me already.
With video, it’s even more personable. It feels like we have a connection. Keeping format in mind is key—not everyone is comfortable in front of a camera, but for me, it was an absolute win.
Lesson #4: Diversify Platforms
Being diversified on as many platforms as you can—without burning out—is huge.
YouTube is something I’ve just started, but the Shorts are great for discovery.
More importantly, it brings people to the Substack. The goal of all of this is collecting emails. If YouTube decides to ban me or shut down, I still have your connection via email. I can take that with me from platform to platform.
Looking Forward to 2026
I learned a lot in 2025. Now, here are three things I’m going to try in 2026:
Utilizing Substack Notes: The discoverability in that tool is just too hard to ignore. I’m going to put more focus there.
Shorter Posts: The feedback is “the shorter the better.” I’m going to try to keep regular posts short and concise. No promises, but I’m going to try.
Leaning into Diversification: I’ll be working more on Shorts—not just slices of the long-form video, but Shorts for Shorts’ sake. I want to use Shorts to fulfill the void of talking about things beyond Pesto Comics.
Thank you for being part of the community.
Building this list from half a dozen subscribers to over 3,000 is a big deal.
I want to ensure we keep growing it so I can keep getting cool stories to you.
Speaking of…
Two Projects in Pre-Launch
Before I go, I want to mention two projects in pre-launch:
Naked Kaiju Woman #3: This is doing very well already, but we could always use more support.
Snip #1 & 2: A brand new comic series by myself and Ricardo Faccini, with colors by JP Jordan. We are doing a double-issue launch (Issues #1 and #2) in January and could use your help getting the follower count up before launch.
We’ll be back next Wednesday on Christmas Eve for a review of 2025.
Thanks for being here! Until next time…
