quietmoneyThestoicmanual
A Stoicism-themed newsletter hosted on Substack that publishes one short, Roman-numeral-numbered piece every day, with everyday advice on Stoicism, social skills, health, leadership, and psychology. Most older posts are open only to paid subscribers, and there are also Notes, Chat, a leaderboard, and a perks page.
The author Dr. One-line growth story, compiled by us from public sources; speculation is marked separately below.
Revenue over time
Real payments synced by TrustMRR, in USD, by calendar month, renewals included.
- MRR
- $8,561
- Revenue, last 30 days
- $10,475
- All-time revenue
- $149,210
- Active subscriptions
- 471
- Payments via
- Stripe
- Source
- TrustMRR, synced from the founder's payment account
1. Productwhat it sells, to whom, and how it charges
- Product
- A Stoicism-themed newsletter hosted on Substack that publishes one short, Roman-numeral-numbered piece every day, with everyday advice on Stoicism, social skills, health, leadership, and psychology. Most older posts are open only to paid subscribers, and there are also Notes, Chat, a leaderboard, and a perks page.
- Users
- English-speaking readers who want to use Stoic philosophy to improve self-control, emotions, and relationships, mainly in the United States and India, skewing toward a male self-improvement audience (speculation)
- Positioning
- A short, actionable daily Stoic guide, turned into a branded Substack publication under the pen name Dr. Antonius Veritas, converting a small number of paying readers from a very large free subscriber pool.
- Pricing
- Specific price not found; TrustMRR's MRR of $8,561 divided by 471 subscriptions gives an average of about $18/month per subscription (our own estimate); subscribers are claimed at over 210K, so paying readers are only about 0.2% and the rest should be free subscribers (speculation) Billing: subscription Free tier: yes
“Only 'Subscribe' and 'Later' buttons; three reader endorsements linking to other Substack publications (The One Alternative View, Stoic Wisdoms, Everyday Living).”Quote from the site
2. Channelswhere new users come from and what the traffic looks like
New-user source: Other (Direct / referral / email / paid). Similarweb 2026-09: the top three channels are referrals (48.6%), direct, and organic search (about 7.7%); of the referrals, 92.45% falls into a hidden News & Media Publishers category, speculated to be mainly substack.com (including the Substack recommendation network and app). The website's subscribe page shows reader recommendations from three other Substack publications, and the navigation has a Leaderboard and Perks, which are Substack's referral reward features (speculation). The search terms are all long tails of famous quotes and historical figures (Epictetus quotes, Michelangelo Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci polymath, how to deal with toxic people), with a high share of non-brand keywords. The founder did not register channels on TrustMRR. Existing users come back for the daily email, and paying readers renew monthly or yearly.
Last month's traffic sources
Top channel measured by Similarweb, others estimated by rank
Five-class attribution
| Attributable new users, last month | Share |
|---|---|
| SEO | 8% |
| Other | 92% |
Direct + brand search 39%. Direct and brand search count as viral only when the site shows sharing mechanics; the largest share wins, under 5% means Other.
Countries
| Country | Share of visits |
|---|---|
| United States | 53.72% |
| India | 34.52% |
| United Kingdom | 10.21% |
| France | 1.55% |
Language
English
Keywords
16 keywords · brand ~39% · organic 100% / paid 0%
| Similarweb top 5 keywords |
|---|
| epitectus why do you let other people posses your min |
| michelangelo renaissance |
| how to deal with toxic people |
| no good thing is pleasant to possess without friends to share it |
| leonardo da vinci polymath |
Non-brand queries: epitectus why do you let other people posses your min, michelangelo renaissance, how to deal with toxic people, no good thing is pleasant to possess without friends to share it, leonardo da vinci polymath
Referrer categories
| Category | Share of referrals |
|---|---|
| News & Media Publishers | 92.45% |
Site metrics (Similarweb, last month)
- Visits, last 3 months
- 28.1K
- Visits MoM
- -11.66%
- Country rank
- India #85648
- Bounce rate
- 51.43%
- Pages / visit
- 2.32
- Visit duration
- 00:03:55
- Top 3 channels
- Referrals › Direct › Organic Search (top channel 48.57%)
3. Growth pathhow the first users arrived and what kept it growing
Classification
Basics
Timeline
Growth loop
Revenue and scale clues
Confidence and gaps
Other sites that started via “Piggyback on a platform”
Similar sitessame category, also growing via Other
FAQ
How much revenue does Thestoicmanual make per month?
About $12,200 last month (real payments synced by TrustMRR), #134 of 563 TrustMRR sites; the month before was $14,741.
Where do Thestoicmanual's new users come from?
New-user source: Other (Direct / referral / email / paid). Mostly referrals, email or paid, or mostly direct with no clear source Similarweb 2026-09: the top three channels are referrals (48.6%), direct, and organic search (about 7.7%); of the referrals, 92.45% falls into a hidden News & Media Publishers category, speculated to be mainly substack.com (including the Substack recommendation network and app). The website's subscribe page shows reader recommendations from three other Substack publications, and the navigation has a Leaderboard and Perks, which are Substack's referral reward features (speculation). The search terms are all long tails of famous quotes and historical figures (Epictetus quotes, Michelangelo Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci polymath, how to deal with toxic people), with a high share of non-brand keywords. The founder did not register channels on TrustMRR. Existing users come back for the daily email, and paying readers renew monthly or yearly.
How much does Thestoicmanual cost?
Specific price not found; TrustMRR's MRR of $8,561 divided by 471 subscriptions gives an average of about $18/month per subscription (our own estimate); subscribers are claimed at over 210K, so paying readers are only about 0.2% and the rest should be free subscribers (speculation)
Dossier confidence: medium. Parts 1 and 2 come from reading the site and Similarweb data; part 3 from public reporting, founder posts, Wayback snapshots, WHOIS and similar, with speculation marked.
The numbers: revenue comes from TrustMRR: real payments synced automatically from the founder's Stripe or other payment account, summed by calendar month, renewals included, in USD. Site visits come from the Similarweb public page; where it shows none, they are estimated from global rank or the TrustMRR payment count, as noted on the page.
Data through last month. Page updated 2026-10-31.