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?
This is fascinating! What a fun experiment. I have paid subs on, but only a few paid subs and around 430 free subs. I selected Faith & Spirituality, which seemed somewhat fitting but not entirely. I guess it’s personal development ish, but I’m not even keen on that expression in general.
I’m not sure what other categories I could experiment with, or if it’s even worth doing right now while I’m still a small publication?
This is soooo juicy, Claire! Thank you and Russell for sharing your intel! ✨💘 I have paid subs turned on for The Asian Astrologer and I’ve set my primary as “Faith and Spirituality”. Never looked at the leaderboards but I’ve always been curious about the categories!
Isn't it Gwen?!! Ooo well pop over and take a look? That's exciting... remembering these are all tools of mass distraction too... if you feel like it's fun to check go ahead?!!
Just chiming in a few months late to say that I found a much better category for my writing and will be doing the daily check-in on the leaderboard during the month of July. Really like this idea ... ☀️
Ok great. If you swap and see what number position you are in you’ll see which is the busier category and also like you say folks search in multiple places for our work…
This is so interesting! I don't keep an eye on the main leader boards because I assume I've never placed but the dailies that come up on my note feeds seem mysterious and impenetrable. I follow my categories (Literature and Humour) and I see the same few names every time but the posts themselves may only have a handful of likes or comments. My Friday posts regularly get 100+ likes and I'm a bestseller but I've never appeared anywhere? Chatbot couldn't explain it to because of their secret metrics so I gave up trying to understand it. It feels a bit us vs. them, though. Thanks for the insights here!
KATIE! Haha chat bot! 🙄 🤖 did you see his response above?!
Considering mine and Russell’s experiment it just reads as incorrect?!
You’re not showing up on Literature?! I was just telling my indie book shop friend about your publication the other day. She has three indie bookshops in the NE including the Accidental Bookshop in Alnwick. She thought it was such a great idea for storytelling. I’ve sent your stack to her. ❤️✨
Thanks for having me on to share a guest quote, Claire and Russel! The leaderboard can definitely be a powerful tool-- but like I said, it's definitely *not* everything. I appreciate you talking about this!
It’s been such an interesting set of experiments Kate and we were glad to demystify it for folks. For me it is driving lots more free subs being in a top 20 spot BUT they aren’t converting to paid yet so I dunno… I mean I’m so happy to be of service but I do need this to work within my business Eco system. The social proof is great for me as a Substack educator because it’s a bit like the Wild West in that space 😆 🤠! Sending love to you and HAPPY BIRTHDAY! ✨✨✨
Thank you so much for this! I would love it if substack had sub categories. I write about language learning which kind of falls in the education and culture category but I think a specific language learning category would be perfect. I wish that category existed especially since there weren't many publications about it when I started and there seems to be more growing now.
I love the goal on getting on the leaderboard. My category is parenting and it’s dominated by white woman. My goal is to disrupt that. So far on the explore page, I’ve been ranking almost weekly. In the top 10 and even hit number one. Social proof is important and what keeps me going. My voice matters and my work matters.
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.
YES! I love that you are there and it feels a great fit for discoverability to me? ✨
Agreed!
Fascinating. Thank you, Claire and Russell. I'd love a personal development category. Do you know whether Substack is open to creating more categories?
We can ask - they are usually super responsive! ✨✨
It strikes me that this would be a good fit for quite a few of us.
YES
I would love to have this category
I'd love that category too @Caroline!! I picked Health and Wellness, and Education - but it doesn't quite cut it!
This is fascinating! What a fun experiment. I have paid subs on, but only a few paid subs and around 430 free subs. I selected Faith & Spirituality, which seemed somewhat fitting but not entirely. I guess it’s personal development ish, but I’m not even keen on that expression in general.
I’m not sure what other categories I could experiment with, or if it’s even worth doing right now while I’m still a small publication?
Im in the same boat as you are Sarina!
If you click into the post on Categories linked here Sarina you can see them all listed...
Love this collab you guys did!! The transparency is fabulous 👊
Thanks love! 🥰 I was giggling so much when Russell was sending through his updates! ✨
Yay!
This is soooo juicy, Claire! Thank you and Russell for sharing your intel! ✨💘 I have paid subs turned on for The Asian Astrologer and I’ve set my primary as “Faith and Spirituality”. Never looked at the leaderboards but I’ve always been curious about the categories!
Isn't it Gwen?!! Ooo well pop over and take a look? That's exciting... remembering these are all tools of mass distraction too... if you feel like it's fun to check go ahead?!!
I'm interested to know more. Just starting writing about two weeks ago. Super new and fresh but would love to connect with other people
Hi Chez - WELCOME to Substack - here's my intro thread if you want to meet folks - https://sparkleon.substack.com/p/got-time-for-a-cuppa-an-intro-thread - we also have chats in the chat thread on Mondays.
Just chiming in a few months late to say that I found a much better category for my writing and will be doing the daily check-in on the leaderboard during the month of July. Really like this idea ... ☀️
YAAAAS!
My main category is Fashion, as I do Fashion Studies. Although Fashion is crowded place of mainly style focused publications. 😅
I’ve got climate and environment as my primary category. I cannot for the life of me work out where I am on the leaderboard though!
Do you know how to find it? On the explore page? You just keep scrolling…
Okay most Astrologers are in Spirituality but I am trying Philosophy because I write more than Astrology. We'll see - I will play around for a while
Ok great. If you swap and see what number position you are in you’ll see which is the busier category and also like you say folks search in multiple places for our work…
I am in the “Health and Wellness” and “Travel” categories. I agree with others that have mentioned there were more categories to choose from!
Hey Leanna!! Which seems the busier option to you? Our leaderboard spot it only taken from our primary category…
This is so interesting! I don't keep an eye on the main leader boards because I assume I've never placed but the dailies that come up on my note feeds seem mysterious and impenetrable. I follow my categories (Literature and Humour) and I see the same few names every time but the posts themselves may only have a handful of likes or comments. My Friday posts regularly get 100+ likes and I'm a bestseller but I've never appeared anywhere? Chatbot couldn't explain it to because of their secret metrics so I gave up trying to understand it. It feels a bit us vs. them, though. Thanks for the insights here!
KATIE! Haha chat bot! 🙄 🤖 did you see his response above?!
Considering mine and Russell’s experiment it just reads as incorrect?!
You’re not showing up on Literature?! I was just telling my indie book shop friend about your publication the other day. She has three indie bookshops in the NE including the Accidental Bookshop in Alnwick. She thought it was such a great idea for storytelling. I’ve sent your stack to her. ❤️✨
Thanks for having me on to share a guest quote, Claire and Russel! The leaderboard can definitely be a powerful tool-- but like I said, it's definitely *not* everything. I appreciate you talking about this!
It’s been such an interesting set of experiments Kate and we were glad to demystify it for folks. For me it is driving lots more free subs being in a top 20 spot BUT they aren’t converting to paid yet so I dunno… I mean I’m so happy to be of service but I do need this to work within my business Eco system. The social proof is great for me as a Substack educator because it’s a bit like the Wild West in that space 😆 🤠! Sending love to you and HAPPY BIRTHDAY! ✨✨✨
Thank you so much for this! I would love it if substack had sub categories. I write about language learning which kind of falls in the education and culture category but I think a specific language learning category would be perfect. I wish that category existed especially since there weren't many publications about it when I started and there seems to be more growing now.
Education is good for you I think?
So interesting, thank you 🙏
You’re welcome Trudi! ✨✨
I love the goal on getting on the leaderboard. My category is parenting and it’s dominated by white woman. My goal is to disrupt that. So far on the explore page, I’ve been ranking almost weekly. In the top 10 and even hit number one. Social proof is important and what keeps me going. My voice matters and my work matters.
Marc this is such important work! Thanks for sharing your ambitions!