September Round-Up: Results So Far

The results so far, my thoughts on each platform, and focus for the month ahead.

Lisa Slater
October 03, 2025

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August Results

Platform: Beehiiv

Publication: My Content Marketing Experiment

This is a weekly email (the one you are reading right now) that goes out every Friday. I share my thoughts, findings and learnings each week, with a results update at the end of each month.

Results this month:

Total subscribers: 61 (up 5 since last month)
Average open rate: 40.61% (down from 45.79% last month)
Financial investment this month: £37.11
Earnings (as a direct result of the publication): $3.74

Thoughts:

My average open rate has dropped since I changed to more blog-like content, which is a shame. Fortunately, I have a plan and will be changing the format of the emails in the next couple of months.

I’ve got three months left of “the experiment” and then I’ll be changing things up slightly. I’ve also started thinking about how I can pull together all my learnings in a way that will be useful to others (spoiler - it’s going to be an ebook).

Platform: Ghost

Publication: The Freelance Fairytale Newsletter (TFF)

This is a monthly newsletter that goes out every Monday. It replaced my old daily emails and my LinkedIn newsletter.

I send a weekly email which includes my general observations and a ten-minute task. I also write a weekly web-only post, which takes around 60-90 minutes. Altogether, I spend around six to eight hours per month on content for this publication.

Results this month:

Total subscribers: 36 (up 1 from last month)
Paid subscribers: 2 (up one from last month)
Average open rate (this month): 59% (down from 61.02% last month)
Financial investment (this month): £61.56
Stripe fees: £8
Earnings this month (as a direct result of the publication): £300

Thoughts:

There seems to have been a glitch with the analytics for my most recent email, as it’s showing that only two people have read it. I know that isn’t the case (as people have mentioned the content to me). So I’ve taken that one out of my average open rate, but there is still a drop. Looks like I need to up my game a bit 🤔

I’ve decided that going forward, the emails will be sent as email only and not published on the site. I’ve also categorised all my content - marketing, money, mindset and so on to make it easier for visitors to navigate.

I’ve spent a little bit on Ghost this month, upgrading to the Publisher plan. This means I now have a custom email domain (not having one always bugged me before, so that’s a nice bonus). It also means I can embed larger audio and video files into the emails and posts - I just need to make some videos now!

Platform: Substack

Publication: Write With Lisa (WWL)

This publication is all about writing, whether it’s for business, money or pleasure. I add one blog post per month (free to view) and write one free email that goes to all subscribers. I also create an audio post and email each month for paid subs only. So I probably spend around five to six hours a month on content creation.

Results so far:

Total subscribers: 20 (no change)
Paid subscribers: 4 (no change)
Average open rate (last 30 days): 32.39% (down from 50% last month)
Financial investment: £0
Commission and fees: £4.26
Earnings this month: £30

Thoughts:

I’ve gone off Substack completely so I’ve paid very little attention to it this month. I’ve already moved my New Brew Thursday publication from Substack to Beehiiv, and I’ll be scrapping WWL at the end of the year and moving the paid subs to the TFF membership (which is the same).

In hindsight, I shouldn’t have started a fourth publication, but I had good reasons at the time, and it has helped me learn a lot about Substack so I can help people who do want to use it.

Since I’m going to be scrapping this publication soon, I won’t be doing much to grow it over the next three months, so the results will probably stay pretty stagnant. I’ll still be writing the monthly content and emails for my existing subs.

Summary (for the year)

Totals for 2025	Beehiiv (MYCC)	Ghost (TFF)	Substack (WWL)	Medium	All
Free subs	60	36	20	159
Paid subs	0	2	4	N/A
Average open rate	51%	63%	40%	N/A
Costs & fees	£224.65	£207.04	£57.50	£39.67	£528.86
Earnings	£0	£500	£371.07	£63.96	£947.90
Profit					£419.04

The numbers might not be massive, but at least the subscriber and earnings figures are going in the right direction. I’ve decided to wait until the end of the year to withdraw my Beehiiv ad earnings, so I’m just letting that build up in the background (currently it’s at $17.40, so not exactly life-changing).

My new 12-week challenge starts next week and has already attracted a couple of new subs. I’m going to run more stuff like this next year, as I really enjoy putting together the content for these types of things.

My priority for October is running the 12-week challenge and getting my open rates back up. After that, I’m going to start work on an ebook about the experiment, which I’m hoping to have written before the end of the year.

I’d love to hear from you

Thank you for following my progress so far. I’d love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to email me letting me know whether you find this content useful and what else you’d like to see.

And if you’d like some help with your marketing strategy, you can book 90 minutes with me for only £150.

That’s it for this week and the month. I’ll be back next week with more updates. Don’t forget to let me know your thoughts - I reply personally to every response.

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September Round-Up: Results So Far

The results so far, my thoughts on each platform, and focus for the month ahead.

August Results

Platform: Beehiiv

Publication: My Content Marketing Experiment

Platform: Ghost

Publication: The Freelance Fairytale Newsletter (TFF)

Platform: Substack

Publication: Write With Lisa (WWL)

Summary (for the year)

I’d love to hear from you

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September Round-Up: Results So Far

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