Substack and X trials (draft plan, 2026-10-12)¶
Owner asked on 2026-10-12 to plan a trial of both. Until now the plan has used LinkedIn only (plus one Reddit post on 2026-10-21, cots-vs-custom-post-ideas.md). This trial adds the two channels for 4 weeks and then decides: keep, change or drop each one.
LinkedIn stays the main channel. Nothing in this trial replaces a LinkedIn post.
What goes where¶
| Channel | What | How often | Made from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Substack | The full article, as a newsletter issue | Once a week, the day after it goes on LinkedIn | The article already queued for that week in marketing-block-1.md |
| X | A short thread (3–5 posts) with the article's one main point and the image | The same day as LinkedIn | The same article or puzzle, cut down |
| X | The puzzle image and its Friday answer | When a puzzle goes out | The spot-the-mistake-built-NN.md draft |
So the trial adds no new topics: every post is made from something already drafted and checked.
Weeks of the trial follow the article queue in marketing-block-1.md
(weeks 2–5: article-2-materials-impedance.md, ai-native-vs-ai-featured-cad.md,
article-1-hidden-complexity.md, article-7-link-budget.md).
Rules carried over from the LinkedIn plan¶
- Check posted-log.md first, and log every Substack and X post there too, with its link, with "Substack" or "X" in the Channel column.
- Every RF/PCB figure must already be checked with a MagicON tool (CLAUDE.md §8). Shortening a post for X must not change a figure or drop a caveat.
- Do not publish the catalog size (owner rule, 2026-10-05).
- Puzzles: same rules as on LinkedIn (built exercises are labelled made-up).
- The Monday draft routine (
monday-marketing-draft) prepares the LinkedIn post only. Adding the Substack and X versions to it is a later step, only if the trial is kept.
Setup (owner, one time)¶
- Create a Substack publication, and an X account if you don't want to use a personal one. These are your accounts: Claude does not create them or sign in.
- Add the links to the MagicON site only if you want readers to find them there (optional).
- Tag links back to MagicON so the source shows in PostHog, for example
https://pcbgenerator.com/?utm_source=substackand?utm_source=x. Not checked yet whether PostHog's web analytics already showsutm_sourcefor this site.
What we measure (each week, ~5 minutes)¶
| Channel | Number | Where to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Substack | New subscribers, opens of the issue | Substack dashboard |
| X | Impressions, replies, link clicks | X post analytics |
| Both | Visits to the site from that source | PostHog, filtered by utm_source |
| LinkedIn (for comparison) | Impressions, comments | LinkedIn post analytics |
Write the numbers as one line per week under "Results" below.
Decision after week 4¶
The owner decides, per channel: keep, keep with changes, or drop. No pass mark is set in advance: with 4 weeks of data, compare each channel against LinkedIn for the same posts and against the time it cost you.
Results¶
(one line per week: date | channel | numbers | time spent)