Retrospective: Three years of Insight Monitor
And a little thank you for subscribers
It’s our 🎉3 Year Anniversary🎉 here at Insight Monitor! Here’s a little retrospective on how the newsletter has evolved over the last three years, and a sneak peak of what’s to come.
Three years ago, in the depths of the pandemic, I decided to start this newsletter. I was already writing pretty regularly at the time, but was posting things to my website (which was annoying logistically). As part of staying up to date on latest issues and trends, I did a lot of research and analysis — and it seemed silly not to share it. I didn’t have any way to push this information out to clients. I thought the Substack platform would do the trick.
It sure did. Over the course of three years, I grew my subscriber network from just a handful of people to over 5,600 subscribers. Something that started as a marketing tool has become a line item in my company’s revenue column.
Even better, the newsletter has allowed me to engage with so many of you online and in person, and I’ve expanded my network considerably, making great new business contacts as well as friends.
That’s not to say there haven’t been some ups and downs. It took me a while to get into the rhythm of posting regularly. Keeping a regular schedule of 1-2 posts per week, every week, all year, is a bit of a grind (but one that I really enjoy). Now that I have regular contributors, it’s much easier to maintain a steady pace, and I think it gives all of you a fresh voice to read.
There was also the whole issue of Substack hosting Nazi content, which if I’m honest, is still pretty annoying. The company does not have an active moderation policy and I suspect at some point that will become untenable. The policy has certainly cost me some subscribers and money. In the meantime, we remain where we are, for better or for worse.
While our readership base is fairly heavy in North America, we are slowly expanding our worldwide audience. Over the course of the next couple of years, I definitely want to keep that growing. A lot of what we write about is relevant globally, not just in North America. We will still keep a focus on North America, but we will continue to grow our international analysis as well.
I also really enjoy being able to give my clients free access. Yes, whenever I have an engagement, my clients get two complimentary paid subscriptions to the newsletter. It’s nice to be able to continue the relationship even after our main piece of work is over.
The thing that I’m most proud of though is the number and quality of newsletters we’ve been able to publish over the last three years: a whopping 345! Some of this is old material that I migrated from my website, but for the last two years we have consistently published at least one new article a week. And our list of articles to come is in the hundreds (in case any of you are wondering about the future viability of the newsletter….we aren’t going anywhere). While I don’t have a firm plan of what we’ll publish (something to develop later this year), I do have ideas for different series to run, groups to cover, and issues to raise. We will keep busy.
One of the most rewarding things that happens in my line of work is when I see people subscribing to the newsletter, or when I meet them in person and they tell me that they’re subscribers or that they’ve read my writing. I’m really happy with the reach this little newsletter gets, and I have big plans for even more growth in the year ahead.
Speaking of which: as a thank-you to my loyal readers, I’m offering a discount for anyone to upgrade to a paid subscription. If you’ve been around here for a while, you know I rarely offer discounts (my version of this is to not increase the cost of a subscription for the last 2 years, despite inflation). So: if you’ve been thinking about upgrading, now’s your chance. For this week only, you can save 30% off an annual subscription.
On top of this, everyone who subscribes to the paid version of Insight Monitor this week is automatically entered into a draw to win a 🚨lifetime subscription.🚨 That’s right: you’ll have full, paid access to the newsletter forever. (And if you’ve been a subscriber for a long time, don't worry — I have something special for you folks on Friday.)
Thanks for caring about international security and illicit financing!
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