How To Grow Faster On Both Medium And Substack

You don't stand head and shoulders above the crowd by doing the same things everyone else is doing.

Boy. Let me tell you a crazy thing. I like to “meet” new subscribers on Substack so I save subscriber notifications and go through them every day. I can’t check out every person who subscribes because I get around 1200 a month. This week 361.

Not enough hours in the day to check out all of them. But sometimes you find really interesting people just by what they put in their bio. So then I run. Go visit.

Little tip right there if you’re paying attention.

Anyway. One subscriber notice said he subscribes to On Writing (that’s me) and 573 other Substacks. Wow. I can’t imagine subscribing to 500 emails on purpose. lol.

But I get it. On Medium, people sign up and follow 400 or 1200 writers, right? So it’s the Substack version of same. Wanting to hear from all the writers that move you.

What hit me?

Is that it’s really HARD to stand out in the crowd. As a writer.

Like, how do you make a guy open your email and read it when he subscribes to 573 others besides yours? That’s hard stuff. Everywhere you go. It’s hard. Hard on Medium. Hard on Substack. Hard to make it as a freelancer, hard to launch a book on Amazon, hard to pay your bills writing.

I’m going to step sideways for a minute. Might seem unrelated, but it’s not.

I’ve always done two things side by side. Marketing and writing. In marketing, there’s an inside joke about people who teach and people who do. There’s always going to be people selling marketing programs. And in the background, people like me, just sitting here quietly beating their pants off with results they could only dream of.

There’s a couple of reasons for that. First, they’re usually teaching methods based on what they sell. Which is the hope of financial relief. Show me how to sell handbags or novels and we’re talking. Show me how to pay the damn bills selling fifty dollar coffee or five dollar tea or a $20 download and maybe we’re talking.

Show me how to sell something besides the hope of making money to people whose dollar is stretched as far as it can go. And the second reason is they often sell old advice. They’re telling you to do what I was doing last year. Not today.

Preying on the newbie and the struggling is a cottage industry in every niche that exists. It’s even worse in the SEO industry. But it happens in writing, too.

Big tip. Use Notes. Use Notes. Do you use notes? Screw that. Do you know HOW to use notes? Because I promise you, the 2500 people who restacked that clever meme you shared aren’t vaguely interested in what you’re writing week after week.

Such a buzz, when you get a little surge of attention.

Such a buzz-kill when it turns out to be a flop. More people who don’t read.

And then you look at your pathetic open rate and wonder wtf. Are you that bad? No. You aren’t. Probably not, anyway. Unless you’re using AI to write. Then maybe.

What you aren’t doing is reaching YOUR people.

Same thing on Medium. If I hear one more person with their stupid “Boost” tips and write more and submit to more publications and use subheadings and color images please and Christ knows what else, I’m going to scream. Half the time the crap they tell you is spectacularly unhelpful. And outdated. Also wrong.

I don’t talk about results much. I think it’s gauche at best. Ignorant and insensitive of other peoples’ struggles at worst. Tacky as hell falls somewhere between the two.

But goddamit, I am so tired of washed up, half baked advice.

So am I sharing a little.

I get about 1000 subscribers per month on Substack but I know I can increase that if I put in the effort. Because honestly, I haven’t. Client work has been crazy. I’ve gained 22,000 followers on Medium in the last 18 months. Took me five long slogging years to get to 20K followers and just over a year to more than double it.

Here’s the thing. It’s not about stupid tips.

For starters? Half the time you need to know what you’re doing wrong. Tiny stupid mistakes you’re making that all the “tips” in the world can’t fix. And you probably are. Whether you know it or not. When I tell you, you’re going to smack your forehead.

Also? Strategy. Because you can’t just bang out words and hope for the best. There is too much competition everywhere. You need a strategy and you need one that’s for your niche and content, not according to what worked for someone peddling hope.

I could tell you a whole list of stupid little things that will prevent you from getting boosted at Medium and I promise you half of them will come as an utter surprise.

I can tell you why all the people saying you have to “teach something” on Substack to make money are dead wrong, and prove it to you. With examples. I can show you how to use notes without pretending it’s a reincarnation of Twitter and posting your face off in the half dead hope some of them will come check you out. I can show you how to craft a simple and actionable strategy to actually find your people on Substack.

It’s not just Substack and Medium.

I can show you why your book failed on Amazon and how to get sales moving again. And if you’re interested in writing outside of Medium and Substack, I can show you places that will happily pay you $200 for that essay they didn’t boost on Medium.

This is what I do. Analyze brutally. Then apply. And keep my mouth shut.

Because when I quit my last day job 20 years ago, I had no intention of ever going back. And I never have. I work at home. On my terms. Mostly writing.

And because I am sick to death of good writers struggling while AI garbage floods the internet until it becomes the damn Ouroboros eating it’s own tail.

Starting in October, I’ll be producing one insanely long tutorial every month. How to improve something you’ve been fighting like a beast. Those pieces will be a gift sent privately to paid subscribers. All other posts will remain free and public.

There will be two ways to get those tutorials. You can purchase them in the store I’m setting up for $20 each. Or get them as a gift with a $10 subscription on Substack. You can pledge now, or wait and get a subscription when I turn on payments next week.

The first tutorial will be stupid mistakes that cost you views and probably a boost on Medium. And I don’t mean basics like gratuitous profanity or not crediting images.

I’ll be posting a list of upcoming tutorials in the nav menu first week of October. So you can check it out, see if there’s anything that interests you.

Thought I’d tell you in advance in case you want to suggest topics.

Love to know what you think...

P.S. If you enjoyed this post, I also write on Medium.

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