I just hit 400 subscribers
A recap of my ten most-read articles
I just hit 400 subscribers to this food and drink newsletter - it feels like a significant milestone. I’m so happy that you want to read what I write.
I started this Substack while working full-time as an Editor at Manchester’s Finest. I wanted to have an outlet for opinions there wasn’t room for on their pages.
Once I started writing here, it very quickly became clear that the nagging doubt about whether the job was for me wasn’t going away. It was only amplified by the satisfaction I got from doing things my way.
I’ve never really liked being told what to do, what to say, how to say it, how to express myself, being restricted, curtailed, stemmed.
Sometimes, I miss having other writers or editors to bounce ideas off. This newsletter isn’t perfect. I sometimes cringe when I read back on things I have written. I suspect a lot of writers do. But this newsletter provides a safe space to write - even if that is with imperfection. And people seem to like it, so I’m going to try and take that compliment without leaning into my usual self-deprecation.
When I started this, I hoped for maybe a couple of hundred subscribers one day. To have hit 400 completely organically in just over a year is a success I want to celebrate.
I also recently celebrated one year of my so-called side hustle Manchester Wine Tours.
When I was Editor at Finest and before that, Confidentials, I was obsessed with stats - not necessarily chasing numbers but curious about what hit and what didn’t. At both places some articles got read in their tens of thousands, but many were in the low hundreds. I can say with pride that all the articles on this one-woman food and drink website stand up in reads to those hugely powerful media sites. I get many more reads than I have subscribers, whatever that means. So yay for me, I guess.
Here are my top ten most-read articles so far (most reads first)
Thank you so much for reading. If you love what I do, please share one of your favourite articles today. I’d love to keep growing my readership.
I think that whilst the "My Top Food and Drink Tips for Manchester in 2024" didn't have as much of your personality / witty humour in it (which I enjoy), I still think it was my fave article because you spilled all your secrets - and I like to be in the know, so that was great to hear all the insider goss. I also liked that you fit a lot into that piece and emboldened each of the restaurant names so that it was easy to read.
You know what would be a really cool idea (which you can have for free), is creating a link somewhere on your Substack to a Google Map of all the places you've been to, both UK & abroad (but obvs a local Manchester map too is possibly most useful), then if people wish to double-check for themselves how good a place is then they can just visually see it on a map (in relation to all the other places and also in relation to wherever they live) ... you could even make it interactive with like a rating system e.g. Bundobust 9/10 ... then you'd just have to squeeze all the other places you love in between a 9 and 10 rating 😅