Harsh words about your topic

What you choose to write about will make or break you

Hey there, thanks for joining me.

If you’re new here, welcome. This is a free publication where you can discover all the secrets I’ve uncovered on my way to building a $21K publication on Substack.

Got harsh words for you today. Your topic (probably) sucks.

By that I mean it probably isn’t helping you get where you want to go with Substack. If you are here to earn a side-income with your writing but that’s not working out for you it could be because your topic sucks.

If you’re here to create a lasting impact with your words but no one’s paying attention to you, it could be that your topic sucks.

If you’re struggling to convert followers to subscribers, or free readers to paying readers, it could be because your topic sucks.

Reminder: a topic is a subject area that you address with your newsletter.

Bad topics

A bad topic is a subject area that makes it harder for you to achieve your goals.

If you want to make money with a paid newsletter you can do it the hard way, with a topic that doesn’t inspire people to pay, or you can do it the easy way, and choose a topic that people will gladly pay for.

In 2018 I spent six months trying to sell a solution to a problem I cared deeply about: bookkeeping for microbusiness owners. But after months of almost no sales, I realised that no one else gave a sh$%t.

Just because I loved nerding out on the ins and outs of deductible expenses and input credits didn’t mean anyone else did. I had crafted an impressive spreadsheet with color-coding, fancy formulas and automated reporting and no one cared.

Turns out, most side-hustlers don’t worry about tax time until it’s too late to start fiddling with a spreadsheet. Worse still, the side-hustlers in my audience weren’t actually making any income, so they didn’t have to worry about taxes or income reporting anyway.

Lesson learned: you need other people to care about your work if you want to get anywhere with it.

This isn’t just a lesson about monetizing. Even if you don’t care about the money, your topic is still super-important.

If you’re not here to make money, but are more focussed on making a deep impact with your words, it’s much easier to succeed if you have the right topic. You can do things the hard way and write about stuff people aren’t passionate about, or you can do it the easy way and choose a topic that people feel strongly about.

How to make it harder on yourself

If your heart is set on writing your ‘daily thoughts’, ‘random musings’, or ‘stuff I like’ then absolutely go for it. But don’t expect it will be easy to grow.

I was chatting to a new Substacker the other day and he said he wants to write what he feels like, whenever he feels the urge. Cool, no problem, I said, Substack is great for random blogging. But then he told me he would also like his readers to pay. Ah yeah, that’s going to be a tough gig.

He also happens to be very good at financial investments. He’s not just good at it, he’s passionate about sharing his knowledge and helping other people to do it successfully. Bingo, I thought. There’s a topic he could get real traction with, much more easily than a ‘my thoughts’ newsletter.

Then again, you’ve got to enjoy your topic or building your publication will feel like a time-suck, not a joy. Can’t escape the hard facts though: some topics are just not easy when it comes to growing an audience.

So what’s an easy topic?

How to make it easier on yourself

Topics that are easy to grow and monetize are ones that make your readers’ lives better. A good topic touches on one of the five big things that people really want:

- More money

- More time

- Better relationships

- Better health

- Better career

Publish a daily yoga practice: that gives people better health. Publish a weekly news summary for a specific industry: that saves people time at work. Publish investment advice: that gives people access to more money.

These are benefits that people will get excited about. These are topics people will subscribe to, share, talk about and pay to support.

But for the love of art….

Okay, okay I hear you, what about the joy of writing, and the magic of culture, literature and art-for-arts-sake?

I’m not saying such topics can’t work on Substack, they absolutely can. There are plenty of successful, high-earning newsletters about topics that don’t make people richer, healthier or more successful at work.

For example, Letters from an American about the history of politics has 1.8 million subscribers, Everything is Amazing, a newsletter about curiosity, has 27K subscribers, Experimental History, about scientific method has 52K subscribers, and Café Anne, about the people of New York has 14K subscribers.

These are beautiful publications: artful, sublime and dripping with talent. And people love them.

So it can be done: newsletters with heart and art and supposedly unmonetizable topics can succeed. I’m not saying don’t create something beautiful and artful. I’m just saying it’s harder to do well in these topics without a bucketload of talent and a lot of promotion.

Final thoughts

We all want our writing to have an impact, and we all have topics we love to write about. But don’t be like me in 2018, the spreadsheet nerd who expected to sell thousands of finance spreadsheets to a bunch of non-earning side hustle wannabes who don’t care about finance.

Make it easier on yourself and choose a topic people feel passionately about, and are willing to pay for.

Cheers,

Karen

P.S. If you sent me proof of purchase of my book last week to get a surprise gift but haven’t received confirmation from me yet, please let me know by replying to this email.

Cover image: Freepik.com