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Rick Lewis's avatar

Jealousy saps my energy, and it's what I feel when I hear about you picking up 17 organic subscribers in a week. So I need your advice. How are you doing that? Is it just your fun and thoughtful newsletter content, or is there something else you're doing to spark the growth? Also, what kind of churn are you experiencing? (If you're willing to share.)

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Arman Khodadoost's avatar

You have more subscribers than me so I should probably be listening to your tips and tricks!

Honestly, I have no idea why I've had more growth this year. I don't do anything to promote my work anywhere else. I have become a bit more active on notes and engaging with other people's notes too. But besides that, nothing!

I turned off "unsubscribe" notifications immediately when I joined Substack so I have no clue how much churn I've had. But I'd say I probably lose 3-5 subscribers per week but gain anywhere from 5-10 most weeks so my growth is nothing crazy.

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Rick Lewis's avatar

Well . . . keep it up Arman. You're giving unique and tangible value to your readers.

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Arman Khodadoost's avatar

After checking my recent influx of new subscribers, I noticed quite a few of them came from your kind recommendation.

That's another powerful way of gaining new readers but it's completely out of our control. So it all comes back to the work itself.

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Zan Tafakari's avatar

Great round up as usual, Arman. Morgan Housel is one of my inspirational writers in terms of his style too - love it. What do you think of Same as Ever as it compares to Psychology of Money?

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Arman Khodadoost's avatar

Thank you Zan! Ive been going deep down the Morgan Housel rabbithole lately listening to all his podcasts and rereading both books. I love them both. Psychology of money is probably the best finance book ive ever read but i think same as ever could end up being more popular because he talks about broader topics that more people may find interesting. what do you think?

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Zan Tafakari's avatar

Oh nice - yeah he's great! I haven't read Same As Ever yet - that's why I was wondering what you think!

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Arman Khodadoost's avatar

I typically stay away from new books these days but I couldn't help myself and I must admit, it was totally worth it.

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Chris Anselmo's avatar

Been meaning to read Amusing Ourselves to Death. Is it a long book?

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Arman Khodadoost's avatar

It's become one of my favorite books I've ever read. And one of the main reasons is because it's not long at all. Only about 175 pages. I couldn't recommend it enough!

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Chris Anselmo's avatar

I will move it to the front of my reading list!

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Arman Khodadoost's avatar

Would love to hear what you think of it. Just replace television with internet and it's 100% applicable to our current times.

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Jack Dixon's avatar

I've come to quite enjoy your essays and summary posts, Arman. Great stuff. A few thoughts...

1-Love the "Howdy" over "Hey." Hey is way too overused and, granted you're in Texas, Howdy seems appropriate. If you have any alternatives for "I appreciate..." I'd appreciate you telling because I currently type that 10+ times per day.

2-As I mentioned last week, I quit my boring business job. In my new life, ideation is generative. The more time I have to engage in creative acts, high quality leisure, workouts, walks, and to not be chained to a desk, the more ideas I have. And when I have more ideas those ideas create even more ideas. I write them all down in a note on my phone called "Thoughts."

3-Like Rick, I'm also curious about your subscriber growth. What's the secret sauce? I've been stuck just under 1300 for a bit.

Thanks for writing and have a wonderful weekend.

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Arman Khodadoost's avatar

I always appreciate your thoughtful comments Jack. It means a lot.

Haha I may stick with howdy for a while. I finally bought my first pair of boots and went to my first rodeo last night so I'm becoming a true Texan!

Love that you do that too. I also have a notes folder in my phone called "my thoughts".

First of all, congrats on 1300 subscribers, that's incredible! How long have you been writing? Sounds like I should be listening to you. I have zero secret sauce. But I have noticed being a little more active on notes has seemed to encourage more people to check out my writing. Besides that, I do nothing. Substack is the only "social media" I use so I really don't know what's been driving my growth recently.

Cheers to you my friend!

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Jack Dixon's avatar

Texas seems like the place to be! I'll need to visit sometime.

I'm an Easterner, but we but on a pretty good rodeo up here in Alberta, Canada. I've been a few times, it's a blast! Also, tangentially related, I attended a bull fighting show in an ancient Roman colosseum in Arles, France. The bull fighters killed all 6 bulls by sword... wasn't expecting that.

I started writing in Dec 2021 so it's really just been a game of stubborn consistency for me. I'm also only on Substack. Other social media is just not a very agreeable place to spend time but I genuinely love reading essays and engaging with people on here.

Hope you're having a great weekend!

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Arman Khodadoost's avatar

It's definitely worth a visit. Don't be surprised if you leave speaking with a Texas twang.

I'm an east coast guy too, I was born and raised in Georgia.

That's awesome, I have always wanted to visit Canada too. I'll have to add Alberta to the wish list.

Congratulations to all your success, you only started writing about 6 months before me and have way more readers so you're clearly doing something right.

Yes I agree. I haven't missed any of the social media platforms for a second.

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