Category: NewslettersCategory: Newsletters

Our friend Amelia Hruby, PhD is moving their Substack operation over to Ghost. They go on to explain that inactive subscribers won’t be automatically ported over, leading to this curious point from Amelia:

“you know where most of those inactive subscribers come from? 👉👉👉 The “Substack Network.” Which means that a lot of the amazing growth Substack is promising me (and bragging about in my stats dashboards)… is mostly resulting in inactive subscribers.”

I wrote about this experience (Substack Follows The Enshittification Playbook), and it aligns with what I’ve seen: the majority of the subscribers I’ve gained from Substack are inactive. And while newsletter open and engagement stats are not 100% accurate, there are patterns (and gut feelings).

Substack is definitely social media – the allure of growth, of audience – it’s there, and I’ve benefited from it. But that’s how enshittification works – it’s smooth and easy and amazing at the start for the user, and then it’s not.

Saturday I reflected on our WHY HAVEN’T YOU STARTED THE THING YET? call (see upcoming calls here), and thought “we need to ask better questions.”

I kept thinking about this during a hike later in the day, then today (Sunday) I typed out a Substack Note from a parking lot:

“Maybe “should I start a newsletter” is the wrong question.

Maybe it’s “should I send a newsletter to the people who like me about the cool stuff I’m doing in hopes that maybe their day will be brighter and maybe they might (GASP) support me with their gracious attention and / or financial means?”

Starting a newsletter, setting up a website, making a YouTube channel – those are just to-do items, grand dreams. But who’s it for? What’s it about? Who does it serve? What’s the intended outcome?

Basic question leads to a vague and cloudy answers, so we must ask better questions to get a better sense of what’s worth starting.

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Join our next “WHY HAVEN’T YOU STARTED THE THING YET?” call, on Monday, July 13 from 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM EDT. Register here, pay what you want starting at $3.

PJ Harvey’s latest newsletter links to her website, where you can “see draft lyrics and listen to Polly’s voice note.” Oh, and her latest music video for Voyager is there, too. On her website. Without linking off to YouTube.

Your newsletter is a delivery truck. Put cool things on your website, and then tell the people on your email list. Give fans a reason to visit your website.

The voice note is wonderful, too. It’s just under two minutes long, with Polly talking about the new single. No bright lights, no 4K cameras, no fancy editing, just a short audio message embedded on her website.

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You’ve followed the advice, watched how everyone else is doing, tried all the tricks and trending things, and you hated it all. Just dreaded, it right?

You spent all that time begrudgingly, doing something you despised, then wondered why it didn’t resonate.

The problem with modern marketing is that we’re performing for everybody. We’re sanding off the edges, turning ourselves inside out to impress complete strangers on platforms that are built like casinos for attention.

Wouldn’t it feel so much better if you were just talking to people who got you, instead?

In 2023 I knew I wanted to talk to more people about leaving social media. Not selling courses, or writing a book, but talking to people about leaving social media. I started hosting weekly Zoom calls and I don’t do “marketing” anymore. I just tell people who like my work what I’m doing from week to week.

You’ve done the same thing for years on social media, but your followers missed probably 80% of everything you posted. It’s not that nobody liked your work, it’s that nobody knew about it.

It’s amazing what happens when you can actually reach your fans. Your email subscriber count may be less than your social media follower count, but that’s okay.

Because the truth is this: you can build a fanbase, but if you can’t reach your fanbase, you’re at the mercy of the algorithms, and you don’t want to play that game because it’s a game you can’t win and it never ends.

Instead, send an email once a week, talking about the work you make for the people who’ve signed up and said they want to hear from you.

When you can reach those people, they can support your work, which makes the whole “marketing” thing feel a lot easier.

You do the work, you make your magic, then you send a newsletter once a month and nothing really happens.

Your biggest fans (the ones who gave you their email address) get maybe 12 emails a year from you, and chances are they don’t open every one. They might see what you’re doing 4 or 5 times a year.

It’s not that your work isn’t great, it’s that no one knows about it, and it’s hard for people to get into what you’re doing if they forget about you.

You’ve got no problem posting to social media three times a day, spending hours every week engaging, but telling people what you’re doing via email feels like too much.

Think about that!

Imagine you’re a musician, and you reach out to one venue a year to book a show, your odds are terrible. If you hit up ten venues, slightly better. But fifty? Three hundred and sixty-five? Someone’s gotta say yes.

Send more emails about your new song, your new album, your new book, your next class, your next event.

Frequency isn’t some desperate tactic, it’s how you keep from fading into obscurity. It’s not spammy, people signed up for it, and if unsubscribe, then they’re not your people.

But pay attention to the people who stay. As my friend Nikki Learner says, “let’s not hoard our gifts.” Send another email newsletter this week. You’ve got years of “content” that you’ve posted on social media in the last year, start there.

Skip the BUY NOW buttons and product links, you’re not a department store. Everyone does that, then they wonder why they get 10% open rates. Treat your email audience like an ATM and they’ll burn out, then you’re back to square one, posting into the void on social media.

Instead, make your magic, then tell the people who gave you their email address.