I need to work on my sources to draw my audience to my Substack. Thanks for this thoroughly useful and informative article, Karen. I woz thrilled when I clicked on the graph for my Subscriber numbers as it shows a leap over the past 10 days! And the leap with my Followers is even greater, though I think some followers don't realize that they are bookmarking the Publication, rather than ensuring they see notifications of new posts!
Hi Ice Cube Press, I can see a couple of things that might be holding you back from turning followers into subscribers. If you're interested in hearing my suggestions for improvement (for a fee), drop me a DM.
So helpful, thank you! I really like the idea of using Reddit to meet new readers, as I'm tapping out participating regularly on LinkedIn (I've done a lot there, liked-ish it, but I find it affects my creativity. What does this look like for you? Just making relevant and helpful comments on posts (obviously in non-slimy ways!)? Do you have your newsletter in your Reddit bio or are you actually dropping the link in comments?
Hi Emily Burnett, I don't use Reddit these days, but in the early days of my paid newsletter I would make helpful comments and answer people's questions in relevant sub-reddits, then occasionally share a post I'd written on a topic I thought the other users would like.
Ariane, The Sample uses ai as a domain name extension. It's the same as using .it or .com or .org. I can use the .ai domain extension if I buy it from my domain name provider, it doesn't mean that The Sample is an AI company or anything.
Regarding the Contact link on the sample's home page, the URL at the link is mailto:hello@thesample.ai That's an email address link and it won't open unless you have email software set up on your phone, with the appropriate privacy settings.
The Sample just sends your content to people they think might like it, I doubt they are feeding it into a large language model, but that is always a risk when you distribute your content.
When I reached out to find out why there was no contact info ( sorry, can’t remember exactly how that came about), a few days later I had an email from Jacob, who said this:
“The Sample is a failed one-person business that I stopped working on a couple years ago; I wouldn't expect to get many new subscribers from it.”
Good point about Notes being useless in some contexts. OTOH, I wouldn’t consider notes to be an optimal place for people to find my work, but I think that people do come from there.
Brilliant, beautiful, and simple. Thank you!
I honestly didn't know about newsletter directories at all so I will give them a try. Thank you, Karen!
Thanks for this post. It's a very realistic take on "growth."
A few thousand is a lot of followers.
So happy to read something about going forward that isn't spammy or anxiety inspiring! Thanks!
I need to work on my sources to draw my audience to my Substack. Thanks for this thoroughly useful and informative article, Karen. I woz thrilled when I clicked on the graph for my Subscriber numbers as it shows a leap over the past 10 days! And the leap with my Followers is even greater, though I think some followers don't realize that they are bookmarking the Publication, rather than ensuring they see notifications of new posts!
Congratulations, Grace!
Thanks. My followers keep flocking in. My weak point seems to be figuring out getting subscribers not followers
Hi Ice Cube Press, I can see a couple of things that might be holding you back from turning followers into subscribers. If you're interested in hearing my suggestions for improvement (for a fee), drop me a DM.
Thanks Karen! Your insights are extremely valuable!
How tall are you?
Quite tall
lol, is this a joke I don’t get?
I’m also quite tall fwiw
?
So helpful, thank you! I really like the idea of using Reddit to meet new readers, as I'm tapping out participating regularly on LinkedIn (I've done a lot there, liked-ish it, but I find it affects my creativity. What does this look like for you? Just making relevant and helpful comments on posts (obviously in non-slimy ways!)? Do you have your newsletter in your Reddit bio or are you actually dropping the link in comments?
Hi Emily Burnett, I don't use Reddit these days, but in the early days of my paid newsletter I would make helpful comments and answer people's questions in relevant sub-reddits, then occasionally share a post I'd written on a topic I thought the other users would like.
Hi Karen, I took your advice and signed up on SAMPLE, then noticed it is AI.
I clicked on "contact" and up came "cannot open page invalid address." Whaaaa??
Now I'm doubly nervous. I wanted to ask if they use our content for AI training. Given I'm working with a new paradigm, that's the last think I want.
Your thoughts here would be helpful....
Ariane, The Sample uses ai as a domain name extension. It's the same as using .it or .com or .org. I can use the .ai domain extension if I buy it from my domain name provider, it doesn't mean that The Sample is an AI company or anything.
Regarding the Contact link on the sample's home page, the URL at the link is mailto:hello@thesample.ai That's an email address link and it won't open unless you have email software set up on your phone, with the appropriate privacy settings.
The Sample just sends your content to people they think might like it, I doubt they are feeding it into a large language model, but that is always a risk when you distribute your content.
Hi Karen,
When I reached out to find out why there was no contact info ( sorry, can’t remember exactly how that came about), a few days later I had an email from Jacob, who said this:
“The Sample is a failed one-person business that I stopped working on a couple years ago; I wouldn't expect to get many new subscribers from it.”
Thought you’d like to know…
With warmth,
Ariane
Brilliant
Good point about Notes being useless in some contexts. OTOH, I wouldn’t consider notes to be an optimal place for people to find my work, but I think that people do come from there.