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The new Times expose on Ukraine is shocking, horrifying, enraging. Everyone involved with this caper needs to be sent up the river
We live in an age of despair, unsurprisingly, for we have set up an array of circumstances most conducive to it. Consider contemporary society and what it is ordered towards. You may surprised to contemplate just how many areas of modern life lead people down dark pathways of lonely despair.
Cleaned up this piece, made it more penetrating and straightforward — an analysis of the rise and fall of Liberalism, giving birth to things stranger
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“You fast, but Satan does not eat. You labor fervently, but Satan never sleeps. The only dimension with which you can outperform Satan is by acquiring humility, for Satan has no humility.”
+ St. Moses the Black
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💌: Sharing a bit of my heart today. Can we have a nonpolitical church in these times? How about a nonpartisan one? This letter is free for all to read.
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I just got back from teaching my class and every word of it this is true, this is no exaggeration. He is writing from an American university but it is exactly the same in Canada.
Good grief this is a fantastic article. As a mom of a teen son, I can confirm the talk of college is on the decline.
You made it, you own it
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Interesting and important information about fasting—and how our medieval forebears could have done so much of it.
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Bloomberg’s new anti-Substack piece couldn’t suck more:
Grow your publication on Substack
With recommendations, referrals, and a powerful growth network, Substack creators spend less time on marketing and more time on their craft.
Insightful as always, but unfortunately I fear that the excellent Aaron Renn maybe too late, likely by decades.
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You made it, you own it
You always own your intellectual property, mailing list, and subscriber payments. With full editorial control and no gatekeepers, you can do the work you most believe in.
The fundamentals of Substack success:
There are many people selling their own version of how you succeed on Substack with getting subscribers and how to write, and so on. These are the basics I derived from several dozen such write-ups here on Substack. This is my current strategy.
What works here works everywhere, for any business, but building a Substack newsletter first helps you learn and perfect your process.
TL:DR:
Begin With the End in Mind.
Have a Clear Offer.
Show Up Consistently.
Build a Community.
Integrate Your Flywheel.
0) Begin with the end in mind.
- This phrase, originally from Socrates, says to name the details of the vision you wish to accomplish, and set these firmly in mind before you do anything.
- Here is where you decide the effect you wish to produce on the reader, and how you intend to go about it.
- There is also where you review your life's work so far and extract the theme you've been pushing this entire time. Here is where you recognize your authentic self.
- Here is where you execute Napoleon Hill's six steps and start reviewing these at least twice daily.
1) Have a clear offer.
- Have an appealing home page. Decide on an attractive template for your
- Create a "hero post" which tells your journey with all its emotional cliff hangers you've survived up to the current day. Pin this post at the top of your home page, then update it regularly.
- Craft your welcome email. In it, offer a free email course and ebook.
- Set up your backend on Gumroad with any digital products you already offer. Set up its basics as well, theme and organization.
- Import all your posts from anywhere else. You'll be editing these later into better shape, but for now, they will show your work.
- Go ahead - activate paid subscriptions. Once you have the rest of the above worked up, you'll start getting them.
2) Show up Consistently
- Set a schedule for your posts and notes. Weekly for posts, daily for notes.
- Learn to write and copywrite effectively. These are both based on the three-act Greek Structure. Both leave the reader wanting more and taking action to get it. It doesn't matter how short or long your writing is: people expect to be told a story. That's how we learn to survive.
- Marketing is help. Give this openhandedly through your Notes and Posts. Help people improve their lives by finding solutions for them to their problems. Daily. Weekly.
3) Build a Community
- Streamline your Notes feed by pruning who you follow. Look up the category of Following and unfollow people you can't learn from.
- Streamline your subscriptions. Unsubscribe from newsletters which don't help you by entertaining, educating, or inspiring. You want to look forward to reading your subscriptions and Notes feed. Don't rely on any algorithm.
- Do a Google search for people who are publishing under the tags you use. Make a long list, then take the top 5. Do a deep dive on these, and comment/repost their most exceptional work. Engage with them and befriend them. When you're comfortable, select another five without neglecting the five new friends you already have. Rinse/repeat.
- Start a weekly chat for your subscribers, asking about what they are doing, what they need help on. As usual, ignore the crickets and keep posting your questions. Offer giveaway ebooks with effective solutions to common problems. (Host these on Gumroad as free downloads.) Consistently showing up is again the key here.
4) Integrate Your Flywheel
- Enable sharing discounts for subscribers.
- Enable affiliate payments through Gumroad.
- Offer permanent discounts for your paid and Founding Member upgrades (after you've raised the price to absorb that discount - like any smart business.)
- Help your customers become evangelists. Train them on what you know about your offer and marketing. Ensure they succeed. Help them help others.
- Part of the Flywheel is to expand your brand and diversify into related areas. This may be years away. Get really, really good at delivering one simple thing to begin with. Get your subscribers marketing your product for you and getting rewarded for it. Then find a related area and expand your expertise into solving that set of problems. Repeat all the above steps in this adjacent area. Bring your community along for the journey.
Over to you.
(I have to credit , Napoleon Hill, JB Jones, Earl Nightingale, and Joe Pullizi - all marketers - for explaining these steps in their own ways. Together, their puzzle pieces merged to form a complete picture.)
Ref:
Love this breakdown, Robert.
One thing I’d add is the power of storytelling.
People connect with stories on an emotional level.
Share your wins, losses, and lessons learned.
It makes your content more relatable and engaging.
Also, don’t underestimate the value of feedback.
Good points. The toughest part of write-ups like this are getting the key points in.
Yes emotion-embued storytelling to your tribe, just what they expect, is always key. The mechanics of a systemic list help native writer craft.
Thanks for your validating input.
No matter how u r feeling
Show up daily
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Who’s writing a fiction series here on SubStack?
Please tell me because I’m looking for new reads 😁
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Finding great content on Substack makes me happy, so I’m excited to discover new talent! 👏🏼🔥✍️
I recently got hired as the technical editor at my job. In my resume, I outlined my responsibilities for running a publishing company, which came up in the interview. What encouraged me to start my company? Substack. This platform has helped me grow as a writer and editor, enough to land a new job and shape my career in ways I hadn't thought possible. Start writing, keep building, stay motivated. You never know where your body of work will take you.