Have maker badges worked (or not) for anyone else reading that's tried it?<p>Similar, but floating newsletter sign-up buttons/widgets in the corner of pages have worked for me (they don't have to be in-your-face pop-ups!), making a big difference compared to a sign-up form inlined into the middle or end of posts.
The badge did help with discovery. However i think the exposure was most likely due to the shout out in the podcast. Too much credit is being given for the badge.
Maybe I'm a jerk for saying this, but "dozens of sales" and "hundreds of followers" doesn't seem particularly impressive.