The Biggest Problem On Substack

Sometimes email from my readers are pennies from heaven. Like today.

Sometimes life is strange, the way it plays out. November is when Black Friday occurs, which you know but it might not bump into your life the way it does mine. Because there’s not just Black Friday. There’s the private presale, the public presale and actual Black Friday—all of which I write email copy about, for my clients.

Which means my inbox is full of three things.
1) Black Friday details.
2) Publication submissions. And
3) Email from my readers.

When readers subscribe on Substack, I send a welcome, ask what they’re struggling with. Usually, replies are all over the place. But this week? Mostly one thing.

Getting seen. Finding readers. Getting views.

Some version of that. Writers struggling with growing their following, getting seen, getting readers. Email after email this week. If it’s not Black Friday or publication submissions, it’s someone asking how to get seen on Substack.

If I didn’t know what to write about today, boy oh boy, my readers told me.

So here’s an idea I want to throw back. Do you know why you want readers in the first place? Which sounds like a dumb question unless you think about it a little.

On the surface, I get it. If we didn’t want to be read, we’d write in notebooks. But we’re not, we’re writing on the internet. And it kind of sucks to write to crickets. Sucks even worse when you see other people doing well and you’re not. I get that, too.

Little segue here.

I was pretty harsh with some writer on Medium. It’s relevant, so hang with me.

Some guy posted a piece on Medium that said the only way to build a big following and make any money on Substack is to teach people how to succeed on Substack. Because, you know, all the “big” names on Substack, the people making money, they’re all teaching how to Substack. Or so he said.

That’s a thing I hear often. On Medium, and here too.

And it’s utter bull.

So I posted a comment. Told him if he spent one hour in the leaderboards he’d see how many people are making a ton of money on Substack without teaching Substack. And I challenged him to go do it and come back and publicly admit he’s wrong.

Which he won’t.

Because that’s his schtick.

Feed people their worst fears.

So they can feel better about their struggle. So they can say, “oh yeah, I’m not doing well because I’m not one of them smarmy marketers, I’m doing “real” writing.”

And never figure their shit out because some butthead like him fed them garbage that soothes their ego. I’m not kidding about that. Go look at the leaderboards. People are building a following and making good money in every topic under the sun here.

So now we come back around to you. And getting seen.

Because if people are succeeding in every topic you can think of, makes you stop and look at why you aren’t. Much easier to pretend it’s some wrong headed reason. But it’s not true and it makes you think it’s not possible. When it is.

But here’s the thing. When you build a strategy to achieve anything, you need to know where you’re going. Can’t plan a route on the map without a destination and I’m not sure most writers have one. They’re more like — lets dip a toe in and see what happens. And then it’s all — hey-wait-a-minute-no-one-is-reading-HELP!

And when I ask what’s your long term objective, they don’t know.

Um. Readers?

Sure. But why? If you’re writing just to be read, that’s one thing. But if you ever want to turn it into an income, that’s a different game. And what kind of income? Do you want people to pay for your Substack? Or do you plan to sell something else?

Because while you’re writing and wondering why no one is reading, readers here are doing their darn best to turn this place into Medium. One of my readers follows 981 Substacks. Not to be rude, but is that the guy you want hitting subscribe?

Because you know what his feed looks like, yeah?

You think he’s ever going to convert to paid? Maybe. But the odds are low. They say 5% of free subscribers will convert to paid, but some writers here convert under 1%

That guy following five hundred or a thousand Substacks is a number that makes you feel good because it feels great to look at your stats and see hundreds or thousands of people following you.

But if you’re looking for response, you’re not going to get it there. So the question becomes entirely different. How do you find readers that will actually read.

Maybe even pay.

It’s a big topic. One I’m writing a tutorial about. Two actually. One for Medium, one for Substack. But they both start with a destination. With the outcome you’re looking for. Because there’s not just one outcome and the path is different depending on what you’re trying to achieve. Not sure which I’ll publish first and if you have thoughts on which would be more helpful to you, let me know in comments.

The point I want to make here is that you can’t just focus on growing your following. Not all followers are the same. Not even close. You have to focus on growing the right following and they’re not the same thing. I think that’s worth talking about.

Love to know your thoughts...

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On Medium…

A Light In The Dark

It was the wolf I remembered when I woke. Howling off in the trees on that dark night but I can’t be like my mama, starting stories in the middle leave you to figure beginning, middle, end. Because every story has those. Bolted up, mouth trembling, eyes wet because of how it ended, could still hear my own voice yelling don’t go but she went anyway. Yet despite knowing how it ended, it was still the wolf…

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