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I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

shadesofgreaves.substack.com

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Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#51

Post by ghaff »

tiborsaas wrote: post #44
prmoustache wrote: post #25

I never understood the appeal in platforms like Medium and Substack. But then I am a pathological contrarian and have an allergic reaction to anything any kind of advertising signal to buy, force you to have an account for consultation, subscribe, send like and whatever and tend to avoid most of these platforms. You are free to add an rss xml file to your website though.

You don't have to deal with any tech stuff, basically that's the appeal. No server management, no separate newsletter service, no nothing. Log in to your account, write and publish with built in monetisation.

The monetization is worth pretty much zero for most people. But it's low friction and at least Medium used to have an aura of carrying more reputational weight than a personal blog did. (Which was BS but was the case at least once upon a time.)

Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#52

Post by wruza »

prmoustache wrote: post #25

I never understood the appeal in platforms like Medium and Substack. But then I am a pathological contrarian and have an allergic reaction to anything any kind of advertising signal to buy, force you to have an account for consultation, subscribe, send like and whatever and tend to avoid most of these platforms. You are free to add an rss xml file to your website though.

I remember watching a video from an LA real estate review youtuber where she shared how much money she makes on different platforms, including articles on medium. It ranged from $9k to $30k per month, medium alone. And her content overall wasn't even... sexualized (anticipating the obvious). Neither was she a "stellar" content creator, I mean there was no stupid "show" in each content piece.

She didn't show any sign of being able to set up her own blog.

Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#53

Post by flpm »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #38
mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #9

> So, considering that you’re likely going to fail, at least pick something you’re going to enjoy failing at! This is the golden nugget that got me subscribed. I love satire (and am pumped Jon Stewart is back on TDS) and this is a good perspective to trying out side projects.

It's not limited to side projects. "Failure" is the norm. It's what happens nearly every time, all the time. Once you embrace this then you're spitting distance from, "What do I have to lose?" If you don't try, you end up in the same place. If you do try, you also likely end up in the same place. But oh the joy of pulling that slot machine handle and watching the wheels spin. There's simply no joy at all in not tryin…

+1 The sooner in your career (or life) you get used to failing and learning from it, the more potential (or happiness) you will have.

Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#54

Post by poisonborz »

prmoustache wrote: post #25

I never understood the appeal in platforms like Medium and Substack. But then I am a pathological contrarian and have an allergic reaction to anything any kind of advertising signal to buy, force you to have an account for consultation, subscribe, send like and whatever and tend to avoid most of these platforms. You are free to add an rss xml file to your website though.

The appeal is that you get exposure from their readerbase. They ship you a - minor, but still - audience with the chance that it grows larger. It's not about the money and getting subscribers, very few reach that, and every author hates ads (the downside of these platforms, Substack is much better there).

It's about you liking to write, and liking that people read what you write, not income.

Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#55

Post by alberth »

prmoustache wrote: post #25

I never understood the appeal in platforms like Medium and Substack. But then I am a pathological contrarian and have an allergic reaction to anything any kind of advertising signal to buy, force you to have an account for consultation, subscribe, send like and whatever and tend to avoid most of these platforms. You are free to add an rss xml file to your website though.

They are the modern day "OpEd" of physical newspapers.

You publish there because they already have a large reader base, so that your voice can be heard.

Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#56

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

klabb3 wrote: post #41
mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #9

> So, considering that you’re likely going to fail, at least pick something you’re going to enjoy failing at! This is the golden nugget that got me subscribed. I love satire (and am pumped Jon Stewart is back on TDS) and this is a good perspective to trying out side projects.

This isn’t satire to me, that’s genuinely great life advice. I use it all the time. For instance, a difficult stressful tech interview was passed with flying colors using that psychological method. In general parlance (American in particular), a conditional negative (eg “if I got cancer”) is usually verboten, like you cause a side effect (=killing the vibe) even though the condition isn’t materialized. You have to lo…

The satire comment was in general about that author and post, not the specific line.

Failing is learning. Failing in something you don't enjoy isn't fun.

Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#57

Post by waldothedog »

jacquesm wrote: post #43
gowld wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Journaling is great. It helps organize your thinking. Why do you publish, if not to reach readers? If you want to reach readers, why not put some effort into that part too?

I write to organize my thoughts and sometimes that writing is useful to others and then I publish it. But that's more like 1:50 or so these days, most of the stuff I do I'm pretty sure nobody would be interested in. Last week's project: to recreate an old Romanian kitchen implement. I highly doubt anybody would be interested in something like that.

I’d be interested, should you ever decide to post that content!

Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#58

Post by prmoustache »

tiborsaas wrote: post #44
prmoustache wrote: post #25

I never understood the appeal in platforms like Medium and Substack. But then I am a pathological contrarian and have an allergic reaction to anything any kind of advertising signal to buy, force you to have an account for consultation, subscribe, send like and whatever and tend to avoid most of these platforms. You are free to add an rss xml file to your website though.

You don't have to deal with any tech stuff, basically that's the appeal. No server management, no separate newsletter service, no nothing. Log in to your account, write and publish with built in monetisation.

But then aren't people sick of moving from platform to platform? I've read recently some people saying they were fleeing from substack (many presumably were previously on medium) because of neonazi contents being non moderated.

I'd rather pay a little for my own domain and hosting (you don't even have to manage the server and a cms) than having to migrate every few internet dramas.

Re: I grew my Substack from 439 to 451 free subscribers in just 11 months

#60

Post by bluejellybean »

ghaff wrote: post #51
tiborsaas wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to deal with any tech stuff, basically that's the appeal. No server management, no separate newsletter service, no nothing. Log in to your account, write and publish with built in monetisation.

The monetization is worth pretty much zero for most people. But it's low friction and at least Medium used to have an aura of carrying more reputational weight than a personal blog did. (Which was BS but was the case at least once upon a time.)

> Medium used to have an aura of carrying more reputational weight than a personal blog did.

At least within the realm of technical discussion, I'll be continuing to view it as a mostly negative signal. The institution is very rarely the individual, and there isn't value in assigning positive weight when said institution doesn't carry any itself.

Increased friction is counter-intuitively a positive here, it shows that the author has at least put some real investment into the presentation of their work. Don't get me wrong, doesn't need to be a fully self-designed/built website, just spending some cash on a domain && Wix template is at least _something_ more than throwing words at a page to profit.

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