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Christopher Akinlade's avatar

Great insights. Thanks

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Thanks, Christopher. :)

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

One of the next most common laments I see is "why is no one reading my work?" and you've nailed the answer here; people come online to either be informed or entertained. If you can do both you're 90% of the way home. If you cannot, you're dead in the water. And if you're known for X, but often write about Y, you're in that same boat.

My Substack covers music from a fan perspective, but my career is in aviation. If I started writing about planes, I think I'd lose most readers.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Right? Well said. I did the opposite. My career is design and marketing. So when I first got on Medium, of course I started writing about feminism and history. lol. Which is fine, but if I ever planned on promoting my work, that was the wrong way to do it. And then when Medium changed and views tanked, it was even worse.

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David Perlmutter's avatar

You want to make a good impression and be relatable as a person wherever it is you happen to write. Any monetary profit should be a secondary consideration. And like you said, make sure it connects to the kind of things you usually write or make or do.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

You're absolutely right on being relatable. I do think a lot of people are able to make profit a primary consideration. I mean, that's what journalists and professional writers do. And authors. But they still have to know their audience before they put pen to paper.

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Tom Sparley's avatar

Attention is the currency to exchange knowledge. Our discipline to focus on others’ problems is the outlet for our personal experiences to share solutions and resources.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Right? Well said, Tom. Reading an essay and finding it engaging is one thing. But being able to take something away from it takes it to a whole new level, for sure!

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Henya Drescher's avatar

A shot in the arm for me. I should be writing more about why I love writing thrillers/psychological thrillers and how to write them, instead of writing about other topics. Thank you!

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Linda Caroll's avatar

You are so welcome. I often need that shot in the arm, too. I tell it to my clients and then totally disregard it for myself. Why do we do that? I don't know. I guess because we're human. lol

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Linda George's avatar

Amazing, Linda. I love the Venn Diagram! My mind constructed one about my newest novel, and the next one, too! Incredible way to attract readers!

It works for SS newsletter topics, too. Mind whirling, filling the petals with aspects of my new newsletter, coming April 1st.

You're astonishing! Thanks!

Linda

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Thanks Linda, I'm glad you found that helpful. And good to see Substack is letting you log in again. lol.

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Dr. Gabriella Kőrösi's avatar

Interesting article. Thank you for sharing your thoughts Linda.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Thanks, Gabriella - glad you enjoyed! :)

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Sara K.'s avatar

There's an indie author whose fiction I don't like (I tried two of her novels, both were DNFs) but I stay subscribed to her email newsletter for the historical anecdotes she shares (her fiction genre is historical fantasy).

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Linda Caroll's avatar

That's really funny Sara. That's how I feel about Nick Cave. Not fond of his music. At all. But I love the way he thinks and will read everything he writes. lol

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Ha! Same here. Never really got into his music, but love the way he writes.

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Sieran Lane's avatar

Hey Linda, I love the vivid examples you shared! Yeah they would have to write about things relevant to the thing we want to sell, and I like the daisy venn diagram analogy.

Can we make a case for nicheless bloggers, though? For instance, a very popular nicheless writer on Medium I follow, is Sally Prag. She has tons of engagement on pretty much everything she writes. While she writes mostly personal essays, they're on many different topics. I'm not necessarily interested in all of those topics, but I know she writes very well. She can tell a story that's touching, funny, informative, or all of the above. (She's also one of my favorite humorists.)

While she is an amazing writer, I believe a big reason why many of us are loyal readers of her work, is because we love her warm, compassionate, as well as playful and rebellious personality that shines through in her writing. I'm trying to emulate that, where readers like me for my voice and writing style, rather than for specific topics only. But I'm still a beginner trying out these waters, haha. Do you have tips and advice for the nicheless bloggers?

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Linda Caroll's avatar

I wouldn't call Sally a nicheless blogger. She seems to write personal essays. While it might seems like it's a lot of topics, if I had to ask what her primary topic seems to be, I'd say "this happened to me" -- which is an actual tag on Medium. Here's a little tip that might help. It's much more helpful to use look at the audience as a niche than the writer or topics. Like, with the author I mentioned in this piece, her niche isn't "parenting" it's "parents." Thats who she is writing to. Parents. Not always about parenting. But always a conversation with parents. Does that make sense?

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Sieran Lane's avatar

Yes, it does! To clarify, I also called Sally nicheless because she described herself as "willfully nicheless" in her bio, haha. But yes, maybe we could say that audiences who like to read "This happened to me" stories, enjoy reading human interest stories? Specifically in personal essay/ memoir format.

There are some other popular writers there, like Kiki Walter and Michele Maize, who write personal essays on lots of different topics, but would fit into "this happened to me" as well. So no matter what the topic, it's always about the author's emotional journey and what she learned from her experiences. Not all readers are interested in reading personal essays and memoirs, I don't think. So Michele, Sally, and Kiki's audience could be "folks who are curious about other people's personal lives and emotional journeys"?

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I really like Kiki’s work/style, but doesn’t she actually refer to herself as a memoirist?

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Sieran Lane's avatar

Yes, she does specialize in memoirs. I probably shouldn't have used her as an example, haha, but her creative nonfiction reminds me of Sally's and Michele's, hence why I mentioned Kiki for the same point too. As Linda pointed out, though, maybe I could see their niche as "this happened to me." So perhaps the target audience here, are readers who enjoy personal stories that have deep emotional journeys and valuable life lessons.

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Lisa McAully's avatar

Ha. You're right Linda. I hadn't thought about it like that before.

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Linda George's avatar

For the first 16 years of my writing career, I made these mistake dozens of time. I had no idea I was making them, even though I'd read close to 100 books on writing.

After 16 years, I'd finally figured it out for the novels I wanted to write--and sold one!

Now, I'm transitioning to content/copywriting. Yes, I'm reading books about how to do it, and I'm taking an amazing course from Tim Denning and Todd Brison called Twitter Badassery. What have I learned in the first two chapters of the course? How to write for Twitter! There's a lot more to come, but what I've learned in also contained in your newsletter. Specifics? Reread this newsletter and take their course!

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I love the way the two of them play off each other. They seem like polar opposites, but it just…works.

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Linda George's avatar

There's also a course from August Birch I'm taking called Content Quickstart. It's a how-to, but it's also lists and templates! He's the Book Mechanic!

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Denise Shelton's avatar

I’m doomed.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Aww, Denise. How are you doing on NewsBreak? Is it better than Medium?

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Denise Shelton's avatar

Lots more reads but I don't know about money yet. I qualified and applied for monetization about four weeks ago and I'm still waiting for approval. Until then I won't know if it's more profitable. I thought maybe I was doing so poorly on Medium because I was self-publishing, so I started submitting to publications again. Those stories aren't doing any better. I suspect the algorithm may favor newer writers. It's the same set-up as the dealer who gives you drugs for free until you're hooked and then makes you pay.

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Denise Shelton's avatar

I get lot more reads, that’s for sure. I qualified for monetization about four weeks ago but I haven’t been approved yet. Until then I won’t know if what I’m writing is profitable. I thought maybe since Medium is favoring publications again that my problem was self-publishing so I started submitting to them. It makes no difference. I suspect the algorithm favors writers newer to the platform. It’s like the drug dealer who gives you a taste for free until you’re hooked and then makes you pay. I’m barely covering my subscription these days.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Yeah, I'm getting a few more views this month compared to the last several, but not enough to make me excited. I didn't realize writers need to qualify for monetization at NewsBreak. Wow. What's the criteria to qualify?

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Denise Shelton's avatar

Ten stories and 100 registered followers.

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Denise Shelton's avatar

Ten stories and 100 registered followers. It took me less than two weeks to qualify. The good bit is that you get paid whether the followers are registered or not as long as they click on your story. The bad bit is that until you're approved for monetization, you don't earn anything and it's not retroactive.

They weight stories differently as to how much you earn. Local stories make more money than evergreen stuff. Subject matter and engagement also impact how much you get paid. So far, I have 36 stories, 58,000 reads (they call them views). What Medium calls views they call impressions. I have 954,000 of those. So, at least a lot of people are seeing my stuff and getting an opportunity to read it, unlike Medium.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

That's really awesome. I hope they hurry up and approve you. I can hardly wait to see if they kick Medium to the curb on payments. :)

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I'm just one guy talking about one story, but I posted an article on Medium & crossposted it to NB. On Medium, it got about 45k views On NB, it racked up almost 500k views. Articles live & die a lot faster on NB, but once there's some momentum, it's fun to watch.

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Sam W (She/Her)'s avatar

Spot on! In marketing, it's called creating your 'ideal customer avatar'. You literally make up a person with a name, interests, a life story, and write as if you're talking to them.

That's your daisy ven diagram.

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Linda Caroll's avatar

Lots of people like creating avatars. I find they make marketing much harder. You might enjoy this... https://bettermarketing.pub/jeff-bezos-tony-robbins-and-j-k-b0e47fc0020f

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Mandi Gunningham's avatar

I really appreciate the venn diagram advice! Being able to draw that out really helps visualize and focus on topics that are relevant to my readers. Always appreciate your insights!

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