You, Me, and Data

This is not going to be my typical post (that’s why it’s not being published on a Saturday), and hence it doesn’t have a classically (it’s a word) title. This is a post about data. What type of data? Data about Classically Centered. I was compiling and crunching the data to figure out how to improve the newsletter, but some of the findings surprised me. I thought I would share them with you to see if you'd be surprised too. So, before I dive into the numbers on Substack about ancient Rome and Greece, please answer the following questions (or feel free to skip them if you want to see the data).

What percentage of posts are about Rome? Greece? Both?

How many series do I have? Are most posts in a series?

What’s the most popular topic (i.e., history, literature, language, etc) that I’ve discussed?

Here’s the data, and I must confess. Despite having a Latin pen name and aspiring to discuss Greece and Rome in equal amounts, 50% of my posts are about Greece, which means I might want to choose a different pen name. In contrast, only 29% of my posts are about Rome, which I thought would be much higher. So, I might be a bit of a Hellenophile after all, or perhaps I overcompensated for my Latin pen name. Who knows? Let me know in the comments if you think it's one or the other. However, some posts can’t be neatly divided between Greece and Rome, as I discuss both. These posts make up 21% of my total posts, which feels about right.

Now, let’s talk about series. I have a few series on this newsletter: Wisdom from Antiquity, Ancient Titans, What the Romans Can Teach Us, What the Ancient Greeks Can Teach Us, and Classical Words (which only has one post to it, so it isn’t a series quite yet). What the Romans Can Teach Us makes up 4% of posts, as does What the Ancient Greeks Can Teach Us. Wisdom from Antiquity held the largest share at 17%, while Ancient Titans has snatched 8% of posts. Classical Words came in at 4%. A full 63% of my posts are not tied to a series.

Now, let’s talk about topics. I have my intro post, societal beliefs (xenia and pietas and the like), politics (Byzantine post where I reference polisci), literature, language, philosophy, religion, quote-inspired, and history. My intro post accounted for 4% of total posts, societal beliefs for 8%, and politics for 4%. The largest number of posts fell under literature, which was 21% of all posts. Language, philosophy, and religion were all at 8% while quote-inspired posts were 17% and history was 21%.

I was surprised to see how much literature was made up, but I'd like to discuss the topics that were either 4% or 8%, and eventually, I'll include art, architecture, and burial practices. Although it may seem morbid, these aspects are integral to the classical world. It wasn’t surprising to find that I talked about literature (of which I’m including my Sappho post as a part of), considering I have talked about Homer in numerous posts.

Though I was pleasantly surprised to find that some of my longer posts were the ones that had the most views, the highest-viewing post currently is “Byzantine or Eastern Roman,” and “Is Christianity Western?” was in the top five most-viewed posts. But what surprises me the most is that “Talking about Time,” a short and simple post, currently has the most views; perhaps it’s because it’s the only post that was published on a Wednesday.

Which brings me to perhaps the real reason for this post: I will be experimenting with what days I publish. I can’t think of why “Talking about Time” a simple post that was essentially saying “we need to specify time periods” in more words did so well other than it wasn’t published on a Saturday, which most of my post have been published since this (as some of you who read my earlier emails know) is a side project.

Since it is a side project, I decided that I would post on Saturdays so that I could focus on my other projects (novels, they’re all novels). But if sending out the emails on a Wednesday means that more people read them, then I can move the publish day earlier in the week, which, as I write this, makes sense because I typically write these posts on a Monday or Tuesday anyway (though I am writing this one on a Friday).

Now, time for more important statistics. Classically Centered has been around for eight months, and only two people have liked a post. Thank you, Victoria, for liking the Sappho post, and thank you, Rob Pirie, for liking the Themistocles post. I’m not sure if likes have a technological or algorithmic function, but liking a post tells me what you enjoyed reading, which helps me decide what to write about, which is why I created a spreadsheet and wrote this post.

You can also comment. I know that most of you at least know one other subscriber because that subscriber is who subscribed you to Classically Centered. That subscriber’s name is Brendan, and thank you for helping get this newsletter set up. I am very grateful. Of course, some of you don’t know who Brendan is (but you probably do know a Brendan) since you were kind enough to subscribe after reading one of my posts, for which I thank you.

But no matter how you subscribed, or got subscribed for most of you, you can comment; it's probably the most straightforward way of letting me know what you like or what you didn’t. Not to mention, you can meet people who share at least one interest with you, which is one of the many wonders of the Internet.

Okay, that’s it for today. This post went longer than I thought it would, but that’s the thing about writing: you have something in mind, and then your mind says, “Oh, I thought of another thing, you should add it!” Again, thank you for subscribing. If you've somehow stumbled upon this post and read it all the way through, please consider subscribing; it’s free. And if you know someone who might like Classically Centered, please share by hitting the button below. There’s no share post button because it doesn’t make sense to share this with non-subscribers. Thanks for reading!