Want to get a top spot on Substack's Leaderboard?
My 30 day experiment and some Substack endorsed tips for you...
“What I can say is that you might be doing A LOT better than you think and just using the wrong benchmark to judge yourself”.
Hi Sparkle Gang! How are you? ✨
It is my intention to share generously and honestly here as I continue to grow my multiple publications here.
You know I am dedicated to the ‘test and adjust’ model of working here. I also just love Substack - it’s my special interest! ✨
As part of that dedication, I’ve been playing around with and researching leaderboards for you.
I have been floating around spot 17/18 on the leaderboard for this publication (Sparkle on Substack) since I switched up my primary category at Christmas time.
I never paid too much attention to leaderboards before then; forgive my state school up bringing! I’m just happy to create, grow and be of service.
But here on Substack, I noticed others talking about their ‘spot’ and realised it was great social proof especially if I could snag myself a top 20 or a top 10 publication.
sent me her insight here’s what she said;"While I firmly believe that a writer's sense of accomplishment shouldn't hinge solely on their leaderboard position, the first time I realized my 'ranking' had a profound effect on me. I never anticipated breaking into the top 100, yet there I stood, at 22nd place!
It was a moment that genuinely brought tears to my eyes, and served as a catalyst for continued growth.
In the realm of online platforms, it's all too easy to succumb to imposter syndrome.
However, seeing my name listed alongside other writers and creators whom I admire served as a powerful validation that I was indeed on the right path.
That said, it's NOT everything.
Since that initial surge of encouragement, I've consciously taken a step back from the leaderboard to avoid becoming obsessive. I now check it approximately once a month, using it primarily as a metric to gauge performance—has my ranking gone up? Down?
Anything that I could attribute those trends to? It's like a bit of a performance review and opportunity for reflection!"
There are WAY over 18k writers here 1so to be in the top 100 in a category of the leaderboard is GREAT news! Idea being that if people are ‘exploring’ Substack via the explore pages they might scroll and stumble across your publication.
Categorising your work…
Here’s how you select your category to associate with the Explore Page Leaderboard in your dashboard settings;
Here at
, I’m a ✨ TOP 20 SUBSTACK PUBLICATION ✨…yay! Could I make it to top 10 or top 15? Who knows! I haven’t checked out my ‘competitors’ - a gal only has so much energy for this stuff. 👩🏽💻
Daily Top 5s
You might have seen some of the ‘Top 5’ lists in Notes… those seem to be daily lists and the leaderboards are slightly different.
For example your publication could be Top 3 in parenting Today in parenting, but still only top 50 on the explore page leaderboard.
It looks like you *might* have to have paid subscriptions turned on to make it onto the ‘explore’ page’ leaderboards but you can make it onto the dailies and get lots of eyes on your work that way.
🗒️ TO DO - Head to explore the categories on your desktop here to get a sense of what Substack is all about OUTSIDE of your echo chamber!
Does it matter? If so why?
Let me frame that for you… Does it matter to YOU?
I asked some other colleagues for their take on leaderboards here. Here’s what
, a PR consultant from Hype Yourself said;I deliberately put myself in business, which I was told is a highly competitive category because I like to set audacious goals for myself. Whether that’s my own small business book or Substack. If I can disrupt a list of predominantly men that’s great. At my last count, I was one of 23 women in the Top 100 for business.
Unlike many other business publications I also talk about personal life too. For me, the ultimate business success as an entrepreneur is to have a lovely life supported by my business. The small business and freelance economy is still growing and the reality is for many of us it’s to fit around our personal life. I want to try and showcase for these people too.
It’s a nice to have for social proof but I’m not losing sleep about it. My success on Substack isn’t governed by being invited to their parties, having them recommend me or hitting a certain place on a list.
In fact, how much more fun would it be if I smashed it without them endorsing me? I’m sort of more confident in it being the latter happening anyway.
What’s in a category here and how do we choose?
Some categories are busier than others so I made the decision to switch my category from culture, to business and then I’m settled in education now.
It feels the best fit for me - if anyone else swaps and the algorithm likes them then I’ll move down but I’m fine with it - I want to share the LOVE!
You can read more about my take and the thoughts of my community on categories here;
My ‘leaderboard’ experiment
I’m checked my spot every single day for the last 30 days and it’s stayed around spot 17 sliding down into 18 once or twice. I’ve gone from 202 to 260 paid subs in that time and over 3000 free here at Sparkle. I have over 300 members across two publications but the leaderboards don’t take into consideration my other publications.
I’ve shown up every single day in Notes as part of this experiment and I had a post hit way over 100 comments with 25 re stacks and my position was still 17.
This week, to conclude my experiment, I asked Substack and
for more intel. You won’t believe what we discovered!!Join us as a paid subscriber as we spill the tea on the black and white results of our experiment and watch a video where I talk you through the leaderboard space here…
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