WHAT ONE YEAR OF WRITING ON SUBSTACK HAS TAUGHT ME | Lessons for unconfident writers.

what one year on substack has taught me for those who are too scared to start have you been thinking about starting a newsletter have you been thinking about writing on substack or maybe you're fed up with social media and want to find a different place to become your online home this is my video about what one year of writing on substack has taught me and is particularly aimed at those of you who are very unconfident when it comes to writing online because that's exactly how I was didn't think places like substack were for people like

me I thought readers would tell me I'd no place being on the platform and that I didn't have enough talent to be there but in the last year I've grown my free newsletter subscribers I've started a podcast I've taken unpaid subscribers and best of all I'm really enjoying writing and creating on there it's given me a whole new lease of life it's given me so much more to write about to talk about to explore to discover it's been absolutely brilliant before we go any further I'll do a very quick introduction to substack sub stack is

a platform that has crossed traditional blogging with a newsletter so you have a home page and everyone can read all the posts you've written unless they're for paid subscribers only so just like with a Blog but every time you write a post an email is sent out to your email list this means you go directly to their email but more importantly you own that list it doesn't belong to Instagram to Twitter or X as it's now called and it doesn't belong to Facebook if Instagram for example cease to exist tomorrow that would be it you'd

have lost the audience you've spent so long building up but if sub stack disappeared you still have the email addresses of everyone who has subscribed to you also on sub stack you can create your own podcast or do voiceovers for your newsletters and if you download that app you can send notes which is a bit like Twitter but less shouty and you can provide subscriptions and get paid for your writing I have been writing on sub Stacks since about June 2022 I've grown my original email list which was around 900 when I started and my

current number of free subscribers is 1578 exactly so in just over a year I've grown by around 700 subscribers now this isn't huge in comparison with some other accounts but it's slow and steady growth which suits me I've also lost a lot of subscribers when I changed what I was doing and writing about so when I I changed over from my original email list to substack I changed what I was writing about into what it is now and most recently I dropped about 30 subscribers in a day which was actually a bit gutting but may

have been a clear out of dead or bought accounts or something like that by substack or 30 people just randomly decided to unsubscribe even though I hadn't put out a post that day so who knows who knows but we cannot dwell on these things the thing is though for an unconfident creative this can hit us hard because we think we've done something wrong but as wiser people than me have said you have to see losing followers as a good thing because it means you're getting closer to finding your true people now I write two posts

week maybe also do one thread per week as well I do a monthly podcast with my friend Claire where we chat about our sub stack progress and we call that our sub stack story I will leave a link to that in the description box because if you're watching this video and want more insight into what Claire and I think about how our sub Stacks our individual sub Stacks are going then that's where to go so let's get into the meat of the video what one year of writing on sub stack has taught me and remember

this video is aimed at those of you who have very little confidence when it comes to your writing so number one it can take a lot of courage to start if this is you if you're feeling nervous you maybe have wobbly legs or even feeling slightly sick then believe me this is all completely normal I've been there I've done that and I know lots of other people have as well I have a quote on the board behind me and it says if you're paralyzed with fear it's a good sign it shows you what you have

to do that's by Stephen pressfield in the war of art the thing to remember is you don't have to tell anyone that you're starting a sub stack you don't have to announce it to any social media followers you might have keep it really low-key if that helps until you've got to grips with it I read an opening sub step post from a former magazine editor a few days ago Paula Bell wrote in her substack chord as I was saying with pony Bell I've been a journalist for over 20 years written four books yet writing this

first introductory post has been surprisingly nerve-wracking now if someone said that to me I'd probably take that as a sign that I shouldn't be creating a sub stack and give up on the idea for a few months whilst I built up my courage again but that's not why I'm telling you this I'm telling you that sub stack is for everyone from novice writers to completely experienced writers and most people get nervous it doesn't matter how much experience they have number two it doesn't have to be perfect before you launch now if you research how to

start a sub stack you'll probably be told certain things you have to have in place before you start naming your sub stack is good one to have but you can start with pretty much not setting much up at all and still start don't worry about colors or fonts or logos all of this can be played around with as you get further down the line number three you don't need a niche if I've said this once I've I've said it a thousand times some writers very clearly have a niche or a focus a topic that they

write about mine for example is broadly about creativity mindset and my own creative Journey but you don't have to know what you want to focus on yet I didn't know I was going to focus on confidence and creativity until a few years ago by then I'd been writing online for 13 or 14 years in those preceding years I played around I experimented I tried lots of different topics if you're new to writing online you might have a specific idea or you might want to use your sub stack as a place to try lots of different

things the thing is it's your sub stack and you can write whatever you want obviously if you want to grow and have thousands of paid subscribers you might have to tweak things as you go but in order to start you just have to do that start your focus or topics will evolve over time take the pressure off and just enjoy writing it the great thing about writing a newsletter or a Blog is that it can adapt and evolve over time it grows with you if people don't like it they'll leave and that's fine and they

will probably be replaced with people who do like it number four your audience is important but don't write for them or what you think they might like because you'll tie yourself up into knots you'll be overthinking and worrying whether they'll like it as you're writing and while you're writing you just need one thought what it is you're writing about I've known people not write about what they really really wish to write about because they don't think that audience will like it how do they know they won't like it they don't unless they ask them of

course but then if their reply isn't what the writer wants to write about there may be the writer needs to find a different audience you have to write for yourself first and foremost otherwise it'll make you resentful and unhappy and you won't stick with it you just won't number five consistency is good but not mandatory don't get me wrong people love it if they know when exactly when their favorite newsletter will be popping into their inboxes but it can be hard in the beginning to know how you write best how much time it'll take you

to create a newsletter how much free time you'll have available and so on to write it you might be thinking or have even announced that you'll create twice a week but then you find that isn't manageable it's not a bad thing to drop down to once a week or even once a fortnight it doesn't mean that you failed I write mine twice a week roughly sometimes it might be once but I haven't yet landed on the days that work best for me around my YouTube and my book writing I was originally thinking Mondays and Wednesdays

would be good but it's turning into Wednesdays and Fridays roughly it's Friday today and I still haven't written today's sub stack if it doesn't go out till tomorrow or Sunday that is fine I'm still figuring it all out number six if you're aiming to go paid eventually then turn this option on in the beginning now obviously this isn't a rule because I don't agree with rules not when it comes to writing and creativity it's just advice so do feel free to ignore it if you wish but let me explain about my own circumstances launching my

newsletter was really really nerve-wracking really nerve-wracking but I did it and sent it out to my original subscribers I knew I wanted to go paid eventually but the advice at the time was to build up your free subscribers first I didn't want that hanging over me I didn't want that fear sitting over me for however long it took me to build up a bigger list and instantly you don't need a big list before you go paid by the way so I went paid two days later again there was fear there was imposter syndrome there was

a lot of anxiety but I got it out of the way because then I could just get on with enjoying the writing process it was done the hard bit was done number seven you don't need lots of added extras for your paid subscribers I was really racking my brain to think about how I could add value for my paid subscribers I was thinking of adding courses master classes productivity sessions so much work plus lots of behind the scenes about my writing and creative journey and it was just too much and it was probably too much

for my readers too they don't need to be inundated with information otherwise I'll unsubscribe because they just can't keep up I realized my writing had as much value as master classes courses and productivity sessions it was a really big realization for me and it happened a few weeks ago in fact and I'll link to the sub stack article I wrote about it and take the paywall off so you can read it if you're interested in our podcast Claire and I have discussed just going a bit deeper on certain subjects just being a little bit more

vulnerable with our writing my paid subscribers get more about me and my writing journey I go behind the scenes with my non-fiction book proposal and just recently I've also started writing about earning money as an online writer and creative and I share my earnings behind the paywall number eight you don't need an established audience before you launch you don't need social media subscribers you don't need a previous mailing list and you don't need a YouTube audience you don't even need to be well known a celebrity or a published author the majority of my sub stack

subscribers don't come from social media they come from within the platform from recommendations and from places such as substack notes if you're thinking you need to build a platform elsewhere before you start you don't you just need to start number nine don't compare yourself to writers with bigger platforms please don't there have been a few headlines lately about how some writers are earning six figures through substack this is per year and this is great and motivating to hear that you can do this on a writing platform it is quite inspiring and motivating but it can

also be disheartening you might be thinking you'll never get there so what's the point you might be thinking you're putting in so much work but aren't seeing the same rewards and that can be really really hard a lot of these writers will have had an established audience before transferring over to sub stack years of building up a platform writing and sub stack is definitely a marathon and not a Sprint so for now if you can please concentrate on your writing and enjoy the process do not think about that end goal if indeed that is your

goal number 10 try not to get caught up in the numbers trust your gut instincts experiment and have fun focus on what you want out of sub stack and The crucial thing is just to start foreign