What to actually track (and what to ignore)

Issue #6 – Sunday, March 15, 2026

You don’t need a dashboard to know if this is working

Once you have:

• A tiny asset

• A simple way to put it in front of people

• A few follow‑up emails

…it’s tempting to go “full marketer” and obsess
over dashboards, tags, and complex tracking.

You don’t need that yet.

At this stage, you only need a few simple signals
to tell you whether your system is alive or flat.

Three signals that matter right now

For where you are, focus on three things:

1. New people seeing your asset

   • Are new subscribers or clicks showing up at all?

   • Even a trickle means the pipe is connected.

2. Opens and clicks on follow‑ups

   • Are people opening and clicking at least some
     of your emails?

   • You’re looking for signs of life, not perfect
     percentages.

3. Replies or small reactions

   • Does anyone hit reply, click “yes” on a poll,
     or mention your asset somewhere?

   • One real reply is more valuable than 100 silent
     opens.

If these three are present, even in small numbers,
you have something worth improving.

What to ignore (for now)

There are things that matter later but will just
drain you now:

• Exact “industry standard” open rates

• Complex attribution (which exact source created
  which subscriber)

• Fancy automations you don’t have the list size to
  justify yet

Ninja don’t weigh themselves down with extra gear
for the first mission.

They travel light, learn from the field, and only
add complexity when it clearly helps.

One small move for this week

Here’s your assignment:

1. Choose one simple number to track for the next
   7 days. Examples:

   • New subscribers per day

   • Clicks to your asset page

   • Replies to your follow‑up emails

2. Create a tiny “mission log”: a scrap of paper, a
   note app, or a spreadsheet with just two columns:

   • Date

   • Your one number

3. At the end of the week, look at the pattern and
   ask:

   • “Did this number move at all?”

   • “What did I do on the days it moved more?”

This isn’t about judging yourself. It’s about
learning where your effort actually does something.

What’s coming next

In the next issue, we’ll talk about how to adjust
based on those signals—what to do if things feel
flat, and how to make small, ninja‑style tweaks that
compound over time instead of throwing everything
out and starting over.