There is nothing quite like an illness to get one to take a hard look at one’s life. I mentioned in my last post that I wasn’t feeling well; it started around the 19th, and I am just coming out of it now. It was mild, as illnesses go, a low grade pressure headache, a little coughing, but mostly just fatigue. I am not 100% yet but close. It seems like my immune system is working like it is supposed to. That, I am deeply grateful for, considering a lot of the alternative covid jab news lately.
I published three posts in that time. The first, about the Russel Brand situation, Guilty, is my most read post in some time, already on my top 7 list. The second was just a quick Happy Equinox with some garden pictures. The third was a kind of fever dream from the peak of my illness, on the madness of the era, When They Show You Who They Are. Despite not being shared or restacked by anyone, is also well above the average from the last month or so. I would like to address an accountability issue about that last post.
In the opening paragraph I sketched out the immigration situation, suggesting that without a course correction we are looking at 50+ million illegal immigrants 2020- 2028, between 40-45million of whom will be men between 16-35. I stand by those numbers.
the day before, 10,000 illegal immigrants crossed the border, none of whom we know anything about. Estimates hover between 5-7 million illegal crossings since Joe Biden was, um, installed as President. Expectations are, 8-10 million by the 2024 election. Presumably if Biden wins again, illegal crossings will number 40 mil or more, 2025-2028. By the 2028 election, half at least of those 50mil illegals will have drivers licenses, which means ballots, which means harvested ballots, which means the Dems will have their one party rule in America.
What I want to address is what I said about half of those immigrants voting by 2028; because half the states have automatic voter registration (AVR), and those same states also give drivers licenses to illegal immigrants, and the primary manner of AVR is by drivers license issuance and renewal, then half of those illegal immigrants will receive mail-in ballots, those ballots will be harvested and Dems will have their one-party rule.
That is false logic, the stuff of fever dreams. That is neither balanced nor restrained. No doubt there are people conspiring to facilitate illegal immigrants voting illegally, but it would be near impossible to have that many illegal immigrants vote without it being noticed. That would be very hard if not impossible to hide. Reader Susan J called me on that, and I am grateful. I do not want to be trafficking in false logic or false anything in this substack.
Moving on, I have been studying the analytics of subscriber numbers.
As you can see it has been a very slow but steady trajectory, since July 04, 2022. That first big jump started on Aug 28, 2022, the day I published A Conservative Counter-Revolution. It wasn’t the post per se, it was the fact that a comment of mine is the top comment on Mattias Desmet’s inaugural post, with a link to my post. My post was then shared ten times or more. It remains my third most-read post.
The second big leap in two parts, in March 2023, came a couple of months after I published There Was No Covid Pandemic, New Years Eve. The leap started after The Good Citizen linked it in a post of his Mar 04, and then March 24, Dr Paul Alexander profiled it.
If not for those three circumstances, the trajectory of this substack would be much lower. I owe a lot to The Good Citizen and Dr Alexander. Otherwise, every period in between and on either side, through mid June of this year, was not much greater than flatline - despite that I was posting regularly and commenting on other substacks prolifically. One of the things John Carter said about the extraordinary growth of Postcards from Barsoom is that he spent a lot of time simply engaging in other writer’s comment threads. I see SimulationCommander and Yuri Bezmenov at the top of many a comment thread. I have been doing that, commenting widely, trying to comment early, but that really has not been very productive, relative to the amount of time I have invested. All substack writers have an automatic link to their substack on every comment, but it seems that is not something most substack readers do, clicking on that link, or at least not for my comments. Twice I have had in excess of 350 likes, comments on Jeff Childers’ Coffee & Covid, one with more than 450, each with a long thread of response I participated in. But as far as I could tell only one subscriber came from that.
I’m not complaining, I’m just reporting, to make sense of how to proceed.
One curious factor I have noticed is that I’m sure I have had well more than 1000 people subscribe to this substack, but I have lost at least one subscriber for every two I have gained. I’m not sure what to make of that; I don’t think I am particularly offensive. Many people are easily offended these days though, and I know it is a thing for people to reject someone entirely for a single thing said outside that person’s comfort zone, a kind of hyper tribalism, self-siloing. Unlike a lot of writers I follow here, who focus on one particular niche, I tend to write on a wide variety of topics, in a wide variety of styles. I suppose some people subscribe because they liked a single post, but then my wide ranging found a sensitive point. I suspect my writing about magic has a lot to do with that, but also my critical focus on trans, liberal/woke ideology and illegal immigration. That also means, as far as I can tell, the subscribers who have stuck around are more open to new ideas and a more wide range, than most people. Cheers to you, subscribers.
Another factor in building a subscriber base is in respect and recommendation from other writers.
Some of my favorite substackers are on that list. So much gratitude. Thank you fellow substackers. Especially MickeyZ over at Post Woke. Though, we had a bit of a disagreement recently. Another example of my lack of balance and restraint lately, while I was ill.
My goal through next July 04, in my 50th year, is to become a paid writer. That has been a long-time dream of mine. That will be true if I am making $10/mnth. At 532 subscribers, I could not expect much, and I’m not asking, not yet. I’m going to work on balance and restraint for awhile. One of the reasons I’m not more widely respected, I am not a bigger fish here on Substack, I have to consider, is I am just not that great a writer or thinker. I’m going to focus on doing something about that for awhile.
One thing about the trajectory of subscribers though, the last three months since late June this year, it has not been flatline, the trajectory has maintained the line of slow, steady progress, the only period that has been true since I started writing here, which is an encouraging sign.
The lead image of this post is the Four of Cups, of the Knapp-Hall Tarot, on the center of a Pendleton, Big Medicine wool blanket. I was feeling sad yesterday: after my illness, contemplating so much doom, my run-in with MickeyZ, my new canoe was damaged somehow. I asked the cards about that sadness, and this was the response.
The double rectangle and the vesica with a diamond remind us of the exhaustless potentialities of creation. Opulent Jupiter is the planet assigned to the fourth Sephirah, and with it’s beneficience and magnanimity also comes a need for balance and restraint.
The square (I’m not sure why they call it a rectangle) is firm foundations. The cups represent water, or the gathering of eternal essence. The card is reversed, upside down, implying not so firm foundations, a lack of balance, a lack of restraint, a loss of eternal essence.
Today I feel more balanced, clear, healthier. For awhile I am going to comment less prolifically and write, meditate, study and reflect more. Thank you for reading. Thank you very much for subscribing.
Hi William, I get your metrics analysis. I commented on the post in question. I am not a writer and but do get a lot of likes for my comments, some followers too, but have no reach so do not restack. May try it soon. Your articles are well written and interesting but I consume thousands per month. Please click on my profile and tell me if you can see who I follow. I will gladly pass on your work either way. Keep it up. Do not get disheartened or disillusioned.
Hi, William. I also get a lot of drop-off along with new subs, I don't know the ratio. Like you, I write about a wide range of topics. One topic may get a bunch of new subs and then lose half of them when they discover I'm not just saying what they want to hear on one topic. I think of it as refining my list. If I had a large following in one topic, I would be afraid to ever change my mind or express something they might disagree with. So, in a sense, I take it as a sign that I'm continuing to be true to myself when I lose readers who are looking for me to be them, and not say anything they don't already agree with.
But I may not be your target audience because I don't do paid subs for anyone but investigative, on-the-ground journalists and a few big fish whose comment threads I see as a form of advertising--Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald and now (on Locals) Russell Brand. I've made that 'rule' for myself because I can't support everyone and it feels unfair to pick and choose--and on what basis?
Reading carefully and responding in depth requires a lot of time. My purpose is to be in conversations where real dialogue and change is taking place. If I were to redesign the economy (which is my primary topic in my book and something I'll be posting more on soon) I wouldn't have anyone make a living from their art. The things that you do naturally, in the real world, should be a healthy and agreeable way to make a living--producing food, teaching, mentoring, helping your community. What can be replicated infinitely--words on a page--should be a gift.
That's not our economy now and I don't begrudge anyone looking for a better way to work. But I hope the world that enables us all to give the best of ourselves is not far away. Just my own perspective. And I will also add that I'm astonished at the excellent writers who have almost no following, meaning one or two comments. If it's your goal to reach the number of people to whom you can reciprocate, we're both already past that. I don't envy Russell his 6.6M viewers. There's something unnatural about non-reciprocal relationships that makes me uneasy although my time to produce new ideas is a difficult balance with my time to take in new material and respond.