I Analyzed My Substack Niche—Here’s Where I Stand (And How You Compare!)
I worked with my AI agent to crunch the numbers on 1,200 Substack newsletters—here’s what I discovered about growth, engagement, and what it takes to succeed.
If you're diving into the world of Substack and figuring out how to grow your newsletter, you've probably asked yourself:
Am I writing in a good growth area?
Who else is writing about my niche?
Where do I actually stand within my niche on Substack?
Is there a smart way to analyze my position and tweak my strategy?
I kept wondering about these things, too!
When I came across the study by
on analyzing the massive dataset of 75k Substack newsletters, my data-driven instincts kicked in. That’s exactly the kind of analysis I wanted for my niche, so I decided to roll up my sleeves and start digging!
I’m writing this now because, if you're like me, you might get distracted halfway through (it happens 😆). If you find my analysis useful and want insights into your niche, drop a comment with three keywords describing your publication. I'll generate the same plots and insights for the first 10 requests! 😊
If there is too many requests, I might create a web application so you can do it yourself!
My Niche Analysis Plan
Since I love building with AI, I decided to let my trusty AI assistant do the heavy lifting. Here’s the simple process I used:
Feed my AI buddy three keywords that represent my newsletter’s focus.
Gather data on 400 relevant newsletters for each keyword (1,200 total).
Analyze them to uncover trends and insights!
What I Found Out 📊
1. Subscribers & Posting Frequency
Overall Subscriber Distribution
The numbers confirm what we all kind of suspect—there’s a tiny elite group with massive followings, and the rest of us are climbing our way up. Right now, I’m in the 100-500 subscriber range—solid, but lots of room to grow! 💪
Posting Frequency: Who’s Actually Writing?
This one blew my mind. Nearly half of all newsletters have never posted a single thing! 🤯 So if you’re actually publishing, you’re already ahead of the pack!
Posting Frequency by Subscriber Count
Even crazier—some newsletters with big subscriber numbers have never posted. How does that even happen?! If you have any theories, I’d love to hear them!
Once I removed the “ghost” newsletters, a clear trend appeared: The bigger the newsletter, the more often they post. Makes sense, right? The most successful newsletters stick around and keep delivering value.
What About Newer Newsletters?
I was curious—where do I fit in as a newer writer? Turns out, most small newsletters are growing at a similar pace. Sure, there are a few outliers, but that’s okay! I’m playing the long game, and I know consistent effort will pay off. 😊
2. Quality & Monetization 💰
Paid Subscriptions: Who’s Making Money?
It’s no surprise that bigger newsletters are more likely to go paid. But guess what? Only half of newsletters have actually enabled payments. So, if you’re struggling to monetize, you’re not alone!
Age of Newsletters: How Long Have They Been Around?
Almost half of all newsletters were created in the past year. That means the space is growing fast, but also that there’s a high churn rate. The key? Stick with it!
Substack’s Tier System: Where Do You Rank?
I had never heard of this before, but apparently, Substack ranks newsletters into different tiers based on engagement and quality.
The fact that a large number of newsletters land in Tier 2 means quality content is widespread—good news for readers and writers!
3. Top Performers: Who’s Winning? 🏆
Here are some of the biggest newsletters in tech:
-
Subscribers: 964,000
Focus: Product & Tech
Created: June 2019
Notable: Tons of paying subscribers
-
Subscribers: 919,000
Focus: Engineering Leadership
Created: August 2021
Notable: Explosive growth in just 2 years!
-
Subscribers: 407,000
Focus: Tech & Business
Created: June 2022
Notable: Built a massive audience in under 2 years.
So, What’s the Takeaway? 🤔
The Substack landscape is full of opportunities, but success doesn’t come overnight. Based on this analysis, here’s what you should focus on:
The 1% Rule Holds True – Only 4.4% of newsletters have over 50K subscribers. Growth at that scale is tough but possible.
Quality Matters – Almost half of newsletters make it to Tier 2, proving that consistently good content pays off.
Be Patient – Most top writers took 1-2 years to build a solid readership.
Think About Monetization Early – Only a quarter of newsletters manage to go paid successfully.
Find Your Niche – The most successful newsletters have clear and specific focus areas.
Writing on Substack is easy, but growing? That takes strategy, consistency, and time. If you stick with it, keep writing great content, and stay engaged with your audience, you’ll see results! 🚀
Where Do I Stand? (And What About You?)
To put all of this into perspective, here’s how my newsletter Build to Launch (https://jennyouyang.substack.com/) stacks up:
My Stats:
Current Tier: 2
Age: 3 months (launched November 2024)
Status: Active
Monetization: Not enabled (yet!)
Subscribers: A few hundred (and growing!)
What This Tells Me
Even as a newer newsletter, Build to Launch is already in Tier 2—meaning it’s in the top 47.8% of all tech newsletters. That’s encouraging! It shows that quality and engagement matter more than just age or subscriber count.
What About You? Let’s Find Out! 🔍
Curious to see where your newsletter stands? Drop a comment below with three keywords that describe your niche, and I’ll analyze your niche for you! I’ll take the first 10 requests and DM you the results.
If there is enough requests, I might create a web application so you can easily do the analysis yourself!
Let’s grow together! 🚀😊
Thank you all for the kind words and great questions—I see you! 🙌
I’ve got a packed workday ahead, but I promise to go through your comments and analyze your niche by this weekend!
If you’re just finding this and the 10 spots for my manual analysis are already filled, don’t worry—I’m planning to roll out an MVP in the next couple of weeks so you can try it yourself. And of course, the more requests I get, the higher it climbs on my priority list.
So if you're excited about it, let me know, and I'll try to launch it even sooner! 😊
Great insights! I'd love to test the web app! Here are my questions/takeaways:
1. I'm surprised at the proportion of ghost accounts.
2. How did you get the data? Did you just use the requests module or equivalent to scrape directly from urls?
3. How do you see a publication's tier?