Growing a successful Substack newsletter isn’t just about writing—it’s about writing what works.
So, what actually works?
Which topics attract the most engaged readers?
What patterns drive consistent subscriber growth?
What sets top-performing newsletters apart from the rest?
To find out, I analyzed 13,844 newsletters and surveyed Substack authors to uncover their most valuable growth insights and most significant challenges. Here’s what they prioritized:
👉 Which specific insights would be most valuable to you?
The top three most valuable insights, according to survey responses, are:
Audience insights (63.6%) – who subscribes, and why?
Best-performing topics (60.6%) - what patterns drive consistent subscriber growth?
Engagement trends (45.5%) - what patterns lead to higher retention?
👉 What’s your biggest challenge in growing your newsletter?
Writers have top three challenges in growing their newsletters:
Audience growth (how to get more subscribers)
Monetization (how to convert free to paid subscribers)
Engagement (how to get feedback and engagement from readers)
These are consistent across newsletters with different subscriber counts.
Their responses were clear: writers desire data-driven strategies to expand their readership, enhance engagement, and increase revenue.
While I develop tools for writers to obtain their Substack engagement metrics from posts and notes, I wanted to inquire about how valuable they perceive automated tools for growth insights and benchmarks.
Seventy-five percent of respondents rated the value as very high (5) or high (4). Only 6% felt that such tools offered no value to them.
Armed with these facts, I started working to solve this problem.
Introducing the Substack Dashboard
I am building a powerful analytics dashboard that tracks 13,844 newsletters, 2.3 million posts, and 1.3 million Notes, providing deep insights into engagement trends and growth patterns.
This dataset is organized by bestseller tiers, allowing you to learn strategies and insights from top creators in 30 top Substack Categories.
For the first time, Substack writers can see:
✅ The topics that drive the most engagement
✅ How audience behavior shifts over time
✅ The strategies top newsletters use to scale and monetize
In this article, I’ll break down key insights from this data and show you how to use analytics to grow your Substack newsletter faster.
Unlocking growth with the Substack Dashboard
The Substack Dashboard isn’t just another tool—it provides a data-driven roadmap for writers who want to grow their newsletters strategically. Analyzing data, this dashboard offers unparalleled insights into what drives engagement and subscriber growth.
Key insights you’ll get from the dashboard
🔹 Newsletter Segmentation by Category & Bestseller Tiers
The dashboard breaks down 13,844 newsletters across 30 to Substack categories and four bestseller tiers, allowing you to compare your newsletter’s performance against others in your niche. See where you stand and what top creators in your category are doing differently.
🔹 Growth Patterns & Engagement Trends
Understand how posting frequency, subscriber growth, and usage of Substack Notes over time impact audience engagement. Spot trends that can help you refine your content strategy.
You can compare the impact of different engagement strategies of other Substack newsletters within the same category and bestseller-tier peer groups.
The Top 20 Engagement Leaderboard calculates monthly rankings based on the volume of audience comments on posts. Which newsletters are gaining engagement and moving up on the leaderboard?
Focus your efforts and learn the best strategies to engage with your audience.
🔹 Publishing Consistency Analysis
Are you posting often enough to keep your audience engaged? The dashboard provides daily, weekly, and even hourly publishing trends, revealing the consistency patterns that lead to higher retention and subscriber growth.
What is the best time to publish your articles? Based on my research on 18,343 stories, publishing in the afternoon between 12 PM and 6 PM U.S. Eastern Time is the best time to get the most engagement.
Are you optimizing your posting schedule correctly?
🔹 Topic Trends & Engagement Growth
A word cloud of post titles and Notes content helps visualize trending topics across thousands of posts and notes. Identify what subjects resonate the most and how engagement evolves over time.
🔹 Best Performing Posts & Notes (Sortable by Engagement Metrics)
See the top-performing Posts and Notes based on multiple engagement metrics (likes, restacks, comments).
With one-click access to actual posts, you can learn directly from the most successful content. This is a huge time saver if you want to study the best-performing content in your niche. What drives reactions, and how do you engage with hundreds of comments?
🔹 Impact of Word Count on Engagement
Does longer content perform better? The dashboard, segmented by bestseller category, reveals the relationship between word count and engagement levels, helping you find the ideal length for your posts.
🔹 Weekly Posting Trends by Bestseller Tiers
Discover how often top newsletters publish content. The dashboard segments post frequency by bestseller tiers, so you can compare your output to those at the top and adjust accordingly.
Based on my research, which included 2.3 million posts written by 13,534 Substackers, writing one extra post per week dramatically helps. The numbers show that this is the difference between 10X outcomes.
🔹 Content Volume Breakdown by Category & Bestseller Tier
See the distribution of post volume across different categories and bestseller tiers to understand how much content successful writers publish in your category.
With this dashboard, you can quickly filter down the newsletters in the same category and bestseller tier, identify the authors, and find their best-performing content. You don’t need to read all 66,250 articles in the Education category. Just filter the next-level bestsellers and review their top-performing posts and notes to learn new strategies.
…and many other powerful insights that help you make data-backed decisions to grow your audience, increase engagement, and improve monetization.
How this data helps you grow faster
With these insights, you can:
✅ Identify which strategies drive the most engagement in your niche
✅ Optimize your publishing frequency to maximize subscriber retention
✅ Learn directly from the highest-performing posts and Notes
✅ Adjust your content length based on actual engagement trends
✅ Compare your growth trajectory with other top-performing newsletters
By leveraging data, you’ll spend less time guessing and more time implementing strategies that work.
🚀 Get early access to the Substack Dashboard
I’ve built the Substack Dashboard to give writers like you unprecedented insights into what drives newsletter growth.
Right now, I’m offering early access to a select group of Substackers who want to be part of an exclusive VIP community of data-driven creators.
🔹 Access actual engagement trends from 13,844 newsletters
🔹 Learn from best-performing posts and Notes across Substack
🔹 Get expert guidance on applying analytics to scale your newsletter
🔥 Join the Substack Dashboard Waitlist Today 🔥
This is more than just a dashboard—it’s a powerful growth hub for Substack writers who want to stay ahead of the competition. If you’re serious about growing your newsletter, join the waitlist now and get early access to game-changing insights.
I have only 20 slots available.
Those 20 slots will go quickly. Join today!
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