Want to get a top spot on Substack's Leaderboard?
My 30 day experiment and some Substack endorsed tips for you...
This post was originally published in 2024 but I’ve updated it and changed the date as it’s a GREAT post.
“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.
Kate Eskuri, DNP 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 Sparkle on Substack, 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 Lucy Werner, 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 Russell Nohelty 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…
FROM SUBSTACK
The Subbot’s answer;
“So Subbot - Hi, hello - thanks for helping me better understand leaderboards and how I can climb up the ladder on the leaderboard here…”
Subbots advice to us
1. Focus on growing both your free and paid subscribers, as the number of subscribers is a key factor in rankings.
2. Engage with your readers and encourage them to share your Substack with others. This can help increase your subscriber count.
3. Utilize Substack's cross-promotion tools like Recommendations to get endorsed by other writers, which can help you gain new subscribers (read more).
4. Make sure you're posting regularly and creating content that resonates with your audience, as engagement can influence your visibility on the platform.
I also heard from a friend who emailed Substack to ask why her publication wasn’t featuring despite being ‘successful’ and they told her in black and white it’s because she doesn’t have paid subs switched on.
More experiments
My colleague Russell Nohelty who shares my special interest antenna did a wicked cool experiment with me. Russell switched his publication in and out of a few relevant categories in a 24 hour period.
It was important for me to do this work with Russell as he has over 24k MORE free subs than me, the same number of recommendations and subs from recommendations and posts around the same amount as me in Notes and on his publication over at The Author Stack.
Here’s what he found regarding his ‘leaderboard position’ across 10 categories;
Comics - 8
Fiction - 12
Design - 22
Education - 28
Humor - 28
Philosophy - 30
Art and Illustration - 32
Literature - 92
Business - 107
Culture - 253
“I'm super excited that Claire gave me a reason to do a test of several different categories. It's wild to me that with the exact same publication, you can range from 8-253 within the same 24ish hour period.
In testing 10 different categories, my publication (with 535 paid subscribers, $12.1k GAR and 27,000 free subscribers) was all over the place. It's one of the most successful categories some places and not even a footnote in others.
While I only tested categories where I would potentially be a fit, including a couple where it was a stretch, I think anyone with a sizeable publication could benefit from checking their categories. Additionally, it has always been my contention that the only thing Substack really cares about is GAR.
In a test with Claire, her publication, which has more than double the GAR but 1/4th of my free subscribers and half the paid subscribers, ranked more than 10 places above mine, which more than confirms my suspicions. Perhaps it's not completely dependent on GAR, but it's clearly the main thing they care about.
This wasn't true when they used to rank paid and free publications separately, but it seems to certainly be the case right now. I'm still debating where to end up.
It would make the most capitalistic sense to go to the one where I was in the top 10, but I'm not sure it's the right fit, and I'm not sure I wouldn't get some blowback for it either.
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. As a long-time reader of Claire's publication, I figure that might resonate with some of you reading, because we are almost always judging ourselves by the wrong benchmark, and you're probably playing the wrong game anyway.”
So there you have it.
Is there anything you’d like to change with your category here?
Perhaps you’ve forgotten which you chose or you couldn’t find a fit?
If you have paid subs turned on, post your primary category below and I’ll pick 5 to take a look at and see whether I think it would be worth the switch.
Go into the comment thread and chat with others and help them make this decision for themselves?
Read down the lists on the explore page; it’s not all about the top grossing Substacks - there’s way more to it than that but mainly it’s about that - money talks guys… 😆
Have fun and let’s not take anything about it too seriously?
Claire
✨
PS - My brand new resource suite to help you build a sustainable membership model on Substack is OUT in the world; Substack to £10k. Here’s an early bird price for you which wraps up at the end of March ‘24.
PPS - I made a video so you can see where leaderboards live and how to access them…
Unofficially verified but last year there were 17k confirmed so… 🤷🏽♀️
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Loved this, Claire! I have Parenting as my top category at the mo, and have ranked #1 on the dailies with two recent pieces and hover around #55 on the leaderboard in that category. I feel it's a good fit, and possibly less crowded than Health and Wellness and Literature which I'd started with.
Fascinating. Thank you, Claire and Russell. I'd love a personal development category. Do you know whether Substack is open to creating more categories?