Category: Social MediaCategory: Social Media

Posted this on Substack Notes recently:

“Most of your readers are probably reading via email, not the Substack app. Which means FOCUS ON YOUR SUBSCRIBERS!

Substack Notes is nice and all, but it’s a lottery ticket, and your email list is already a pile of gold.”

The image below shows the top traffic sources for a recent newsletter.

Just 6% from the Substack app, which tells me that most of my readers don’t have the app installed, probably.

So all the time I spend on Notes, or Chat, or noodling around with Substack Live is not seen by most of my subscribers.

Now, I will say that messing around with Substack Live is in fact valuable because I’m able to download the video afterwards, and share that with my email list.

But overall it’s standard social media – most everyone misses everything you post.

Are you prepared for more people to find out about your work?

Is your bio photo current? Is your online store stocked? Can people sign up for your email list? Has your welcome email been updated since 2024? Is your website set up in a way that people would stick around and find out more about you, or are all your most engaging videos sitting on other platforms?

In my recent talk with Laura Kidd of Penfriend (new album ‘House Of Stories’ is out April 18th), we hit on the subject of “virality” and the pursuit of more.

“I think people get so blinded by virality and like if somebody doesn’t have 32,000 views on YouTube or something, nothing’s ever going to happen. But yes, my full-time income comes mostly from 236 subscribers on Patreon. and it’s topped up by music sales and stuff I put out on Bandcamp, pay what you want and stuff, and people choose to pay. So it seems small. Maybe it seems small. To me, I know it’s not small. Seven and a half thousand maybe seems small, but if you’ve ever tried to build an email list, you probably know it’s not small. But those people can give you a job if you are able to find… what that job should be, I suppose, what they will value and adds to their life and adds to your own creative practice and everything.”

Listen to the full podcast episode here:

More people on your email list won’t matter if you’re not providing them some form of “value.” Sorry to sound so capitalist, but I mean, in exchange for a reader’s time and energy of opening the email, are you providing entertainment? Relief? Wisdom? Hope? Good music?

Because if you’re not doing that for the people right in front of you, what makes you think you can do it for 5,000 more?

In the video above, Laura talks about having 236 Patreon supporters out of 7,500 email subscribers, which means that “just” 3.1% are enough to earn a living (in addition to music sales).

Depending on what you do, 7,500 is attainable. We’re all closer to 7,500 than a million, right? And 236? I like that number even more.

So cherish the 20 or so people on your email list today, because they’re your foundation.

Stop worrying about all the new people out there that have no idea who you are, and focus on the few dozen people who care enough to open your emails and click play on your videos.

“The false proxy of how many people are following you on social media is a trap,” says Seth Godin, “I know people who have gotten 40 million views of a TikTok, and sold $200 worth of stuff to go with it.”

I offer Email Guidance, where I provide affordable, personalized thoughts and ideas to use and think about for your project. I don’t need 40 million people to know about this offer. My email list will do just fine, really. I can pay the rent without this newsletter getting a million views (find out more here).

And maybe you don’t need to get your work in a fancy art gallery, or play a big corporate owned music venue. Maybe you don’t need to get picked by whatever gatekeeper exists in your world, and you can just do whatever you want.

What’s at the core of what you want to do, and how are you building that foundation today?

Where’s the biggest joy you find? How can you skip all the busy work you don’t want to do and still achieve your desired outcome?

This is the live replay of my Substack Live call from March 22, 2025, where I talk through what leaving the feeds actually changes — and what it doesn’t.

In this live video I cover:
• Why “posting more” wasn’t helping my creative work
• Reclaiming attention and momentum without Instagram, TikTok, or X
• How newsletters + websites beat algorithms long-term
• What fills the void when you stop scrolling
• Audience growth that isn’t dependent on social platforms
• Community > metrics, conversations > likes
• The emotional side of stepping away (fear of disappearing, FOMO, identity)
• Rebuilding trust with your own ideas when the noise is gone
• Sustainable marketing that doesn’t burn you out
• How I think about YouTube without getting sucked into the feed mindset

If you’re tired of chasing algorithms and want to build something more sustainabl this replay might help.

You’re a one person team, I get it. But the marketing team needs a week off.

This week we’re not looking for more subscribers. We’re gonna put “growth” on hold this week.

Instead, your job is to get your sales team making sales. Your shipping team making your paying customer happy. Your front office team working smarter and more efficiently.

YOUR SALES TEAM: Can you send an email and get 5% of your fans to click something? Anything?

If you emailed your fans and said, “next 10 people to email me will get an exclusive demo MP3 of my next single,” would 20 people reply?

If you marked down something 25%, would it spur even one sale?

Would 20 people who already exist in your current creative universe take the time to hit reply?

Figure out how to motivate 20 people to do something. Anything.

YOUR SHIPPING TEAM: I ordered a hat from someone I’ve been following for years. It showed up in a plain box, and shipped from an “order fulfillment company” with a name like U.S. Logistics Corp.

I had no idea what this mystery box was on my doorstep until I opened it.

You don’t want your customers to feel bewildered when getting their orders. Your order confirmation emails don’t have to be boring (see how CD Baby did it back in the day).

You don’t have to outrun a bear, you just need to outrun your friends.

YOUR FRONT OFFICE: Set up an actual online store that can be optimized for the 10 people a month you’re serving. Build it today so you can handle 100 people a month a year from now.

Take the photos you’ve uploaded to Instagram and the videos you’ve posted on Facebook and put them on your website. Build a place for your existing fanbase to fall head over heels for your work. Turn it into a place so cool that your fans wouldn’t dare tell their friends to follow you on Instagram.

Reply to the people leaving comments. Reply to the emails already in your inbox.

Make every reply a giant hug.

Write an email that people love to see in their inbox.

YOUR CREATIVE DEPARTMENT: Do you have current photos on your site? A current bio? Are there any broken links in your LINK IN BIO? In your Bandcamp sidebar? When’s the last time you updated your profile photo? Your logo?

Is the design of your online ecosystem coherent or a jumbled mess?Subscribed

Someone emailed me (see below) asking how to get more people to their site without social media, so they could make more sales. A reasonable challenge in the year 2025.

All their fun, flashy, informative videos were on Instagram, miles away from their online store.

They had a nice site, sure – but all the immersive media, the videos, were sitting on Instagram, for 90% of their followers to never see.

I told them to move that cool stuff to their website. Put the sauce next to the sexy ADD TO CART button.

We don’t need more traffic. We need to captivate the people right here in front of us.

Maybe we don’t need more subscribers.

Instead, we need to optimize what we’ve got because just throwing 1,000 more people at a bad set-up won’t help.

1. Stop worrying about the algorithm and include the link. Put in two links. I’d rather 10 people see my post with a direct link than sending 100 people on a wild goose chase to find my link in bio or in the comments. Do everything you can to offend the algorithm.
2. Got an important update for your subscribers? Venue change, running late for a group Zoom chat? Email, don’t post. Not everyone sees your Substack Notes. Heck, most of your subscribers probably don’t even have the app installed. A recent note of mine was seen by 135 of my 6,000+ subscribers – that’s 2.2% of my audience. Send the email, it’s the most direct way to reach your audience. Another excuse to delete your social media entirely.
3. “Do work. Be seen.” Wise words from Rob Cannon (read it here). Don’t “yeah, but” me on this. You have to do the work first. The work must be done. Keep doing the work until the work is better. Then, when the moment is right and you are “seen,” the work will be ready for the moment because you’ve been doing the work. Less worrying about the “seen” part, and more work. Bonus points if you do that work with and around other people (you should host a group Zoom call).
4. Use less tools. Less automation. Less funnels. Less drip campaigns. Less “email blasts.” AI ain’t gonna win because it can’t show up at an art gallery, curate a photo book, book a show, or be a good podcast guest – but you can. Do work that doesn’t scale. Add so much humanity and grace to your work that people question your sanity.
5. BONUS: Be careful sending a “re-engagement campaign” to all your zero and one star folks, because it can lead to a very low open rate email, which can trigger spam flags, and get your sending privileges suspended. Proceed with caution with “list hygiene” here on Substack.