Serious question, who else tracks random metrics for their side hustle?

I hit 1000 email subscribers on my Detroit tech newsletter yesterday. It shocked me because I started it back in March just to share notes about local startups and how people are building stuff here. I never expected anyone outside my friends to read it. But somehow after I wrote that post about the Corktown biotech lab space, signups just took off. I track every open rate and click through in a spreadsheet because it keeps me honest about what people actually care about. This milestone matters because it proves there is real hunger for grounded talk about what works and what flops in this city. Anyone else keep a weird stat that surprised you when you hit it?

2 comments

2 Comments

shanef341d agoRising Star

Oh man, I totally get this feeling. I started tracking how many people actually finish reading my weekly posts about local food popups and it blew my mind when I hit a 60% completion rate on a piece about a taco spot in Pilsen. That number told me more about what people really want than any fancy email signup metric ever could.

drewr151d ago

The same thing happens with recipe blogs whenever they skip the life story and get straight to the cooking. People just want the good stuff without all the extra fluff you think you need to add. It's funny how stripping things down to the core tells you way more about your audience than any dashboard ever could.