Hey there! This is my regular Q&A feature that allows readers to ask me questions that I can answer in a future newsletter. Last month I managed to devote several newsletters to answering some really good reader questions, and so I’m excited to keep this going.
I think the death of filmed entertainment is greatly exaggerated, but I do think platforms like YouTube will continue to eat away at Hollywood dominance. I don't think the modern adult fully understands how much YouTube has captured younger generations.
Seems Hollywood keeps munching up the food chain to a smaller and smaller slate of ever-more-expensive movies and theatrical thrills. Which means ever-more-expansive stories that knock your eyes out but leave your heart cold.
Because media and filmed entertainment comes in many forms, I thought you might like this take on an eighty-hour-long avant-garde masterpiece.
It seems as if Substack, which has recently laid off a number of people, needs to allow authors a bit more leeway to generate revenue. While the bigger journalism names, with large social media followers, are being taken care of (they bring in the subscribers), those of us with much smaller newsletters need to find other revenue streams. Will Substack ever allow advertising (where they also profit) to help the smaller publishers (with enough subscribers and opens to justify ad revenue)? Revue has tested it, I believe.
Seems like everyone is focused on video (sometimes audio) discoverability and the good old essays are left for older millennials to dwell in. It's hard to "go viral" with writing. That leaves discoverability only in with everchanging SEO game.
Another avenue is collaborations. Within publications with the same level of subscribers and hope being "noticed" by much popular ones.
Seems like this is a game only people with big networks can play.
Ever since the birth of radio, people have been predicted the demise of the written word. But it still remains the easiest medium to both consume and create, so it's not going anywhere. Hell, even books are selling at record levels right now!
I honestly don't think you should sweat it. If you don't want to do video, just don't do video. Tiktok and Reels offer quick virality, but there's evidence that those audiences are extremely flimsy and unlikely to stick around. Focus on consistently creating great content and then moving your audience onto platforms you can control, eg your own website and newsletter.
Try LinkedIn, and maybe LinkedIn Navigator to find your audience. I'm getting ready to delete my Facebook account. I'm starting to get a bit of traction on Twitter and am looking into whether I can make TikTok work in short little bursts (how-to's for example). And who says you have to do it every day. Try once a week and see how it goes.
We also have to try to imagine where social media will be in five or ten years. I think it's safe to build something on YouTube and LinkedIn for how they will scale. Twitter and Instagram might not even be around for that much longer / or at least as we know them today.
You have a viral TikTok post but you may not even get clicks from it, just like a viral Tweet when they were more common. However If you grow a YouTube or LinkedIn Newsletter, there's going to be a lot of synergy and actual higher CTR.
If you were a displaced editor/reporter frustrated at the deteroration or disappearance of local journalism in your community, what steps would you take to try to duplicate what's going on in places like Baltimore (Banner) and NYC? How would you approach local philanthropists or prospective donors about investing without giving up editorial control?
Outside of paid subscriptions and paid Ad sponsorships, what other revenue streams could a Substack Creators realistically pursue?
I've been given this some thought because my monetization strategy on Substack is not scaling like I might have imagined.
Substack likes to dangle cherry-picked case studies of success stories, but after seeing about 30, I'm realizing that they are actually de-motivating for a number of writers / because they are too far off what we experience as newer creators.
So there has to be some realization that even paid subs alone takes "too many months" to scale as it is for most people to realistically pursue full-time or even part-time. This lowers the volume of actual writers and creators without significant existing lists and followings to even to attempt the experiment.
If we have to bootstrap and create our own B2B Ads sponsorships, just to get by, at least this these multiple revenue streams should be easily stated somewhere.
The way I see it Substack subs could be 20%, B2B Sponsorships could be another 40%, but we are still missing around 40% of additional connected streams in the stack - but Substack gives me no hint as to what those might be....
The economics if you are not a Financial or Politics writer is stark, to say the least. But we at least have to be transparent about it and promote alternatives. For a Finance writer who can charge over $25 a month for a single sub, paid subs alone is realistic to get to that $2,000 mark per month in 1 year.
We're hearing that some newsletter publishers are evolving the calculation of CTR. We have historically tracked CTR as Total Clicks / Total Opens(Impressions), but in many instances with newsletters, there are repeat opens so it suppresses the CTR. (Example: If a bot is pinging one newsletter repeatedly, it may increase total opens(impressions) and therefore negatively impact the CTR).
We're hearing that some publishers are using both of the following in reporting to clients now, or on marketing materials:
CTR = Total Clicks / Unique Opens
CTOR = Unique Clicks / Unique Opens
The challenge with varying reporting is in the analysis from various media buyers. We're seeing an advertiser compare 2 different newsletter brands and seeing higher performance from one over the other, simply because of the way in which they are calculating performance.
We also see challenges on local and regional levels with less sophisticated buyers.
What is the generally accepted practice? What are most people using to showcase newsletter performance? What do you believe are the top 5 metrics that should be shared to showcase newsletter performance?
In developing a memoir the investigation has now turned to finding the best medium to develop, publish and test the waters for a book. Any recommendations?
I think a blog/newsletter is a great way to test the waters and build up an audience that will be more likely to buy your book once it's published.
There's also podcasts. Brian McCullough wanted to write a book about the history of the internet, but first he started the Internet History podcast where he brought on important pioneers from internet history. He used those interviews both as research and to also build an audience for when the book was eventually published.
Hi Simon. Thanks for the invitation into your intellectual cafe conversations. My question is did you already write about your background and reasons for deciding to add Substack to your business? What were the truths or assumptions that you realized right before you put your flag on the Substack platform?
Yes, I remember reading that awhile back. Because you pointed it out, I read it again. That article is about your decision to depend on newsletter subscribers more than others for your income. My question is more about Substack as your choice. Why them and what criteria were you sorting through to guide your decision to that third-party business? The other choice is your own platform and that one is not a fit for us. So I wonder what said Substack was the best for your business, your customers, and your long-game plan?
What's the future of filmed entertainment post the streaming wars?
I think the death of filmed entertainment is greatly exaggerated, but I do think platforms like YouTube will continue to eat away at Hollywood dominance. I don't think the modern adult fully understands how much YouTube has captured younger generations.
Seems Hollywood keeps munching up the food chain to a smaller and smaller slate of ever-more-expensive movies and theatrical thrills. Which means ever-more-expansive stories that knock your eyes out but leave your heart cold.
Because media and filmed entertainment comes in many forms, I thought you might like this take on an eighty-hour-long avant-garde masterpiece.
CAN AN AVANT-GARDE FILMMAKER SAVE US FROM THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY? https://www.spikeartmagazine.com/?q=articles/can-avant-garde-filmmaker-save-us-twenty-first-century
It seems as if Substack, which has recently laid off a number of people, needs to allow authors a bit more leeway to generate revenue. While the bigger journalism names, with large social media followers, are being taken care of (they bring in the subscribers), those of us with much smaller newsletters need to find other revenue streams. Will Substack ever allow advertising (where they also profit) to help the smaller publishers (with enough subscribers and opens to justify ad revenue)? Revue has tested it, I believe.
Thanks! Just added this to the queue.
What is the future of text in your opinion?
Seems like everyone is focused on video (sometimes audio) discoverability and the good old essays are left for older millennials to dwell in. It's hard to "go viral" with writing. That leaves discoverability only in with everchanging SEO game.
Another avenue is collaborations. Within publications with the same level of subscribers and hope being "noticed" by much popular ones.
Seems like this is a game only people with big networks can play.
Ever since the birth of radio, people have been predicted the demise of the written word. But it still remains the easiest medium to both consume and create, so it's not going anywhere. Hell, even books are selling at record levels right now!
I'd love to know the answer to this one
Is there any hope for solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, and small business owners who don't enjoy being on camera and sharing short videos every day?
It seems like Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts are dominating all social media/media feeds.
I get 20x the views when I post reels vs. typical posts and photos. But, I don't enjoy being on camera and creating videos every day.
I honestly don't think you should sweat it. If you don't want to do video, just don't do video. Tiktok and Reels offer quick virality, but there's evidence that those audiences are extremely flimsy and unlikely to stick around. Focus on consistently creating great content and then moving your audience onto platforms you can control, eg your own website and newsletter.
I've definitely noticed that quick pop and fade with reels
Try LinkedIn, and maybe LinkedIn Navigator to find your audience. I'm getting ready to delete my Facebook account. I'm starting to get a bit of traction on Twitter and am looking into whether I can make TikTok work in short little bursts (how-to's for example). And who says you have to do it every day. Try once a week and see how it goes.
We also have to try to imagine where social media will be in five or ten years. I think it's safe to build something on YouTube and LinkedIn for how they will scale. Twitter and Instagram might not even be around for that much longer / or at least as we know them today.
You have a viral TikTok post but you may not even get clicks from it, just like a viral Tweet when they were more common. However If you grow a YouTube or LinkedIn Newsletter, there's going to be a lot of synergy and actual higher CTR.
Good advice. It might be that Instagram and TikTok just aren't my thing.
Larry, I feel exactly the same -- just not my thing even though I have a YouTube channel.
Seconding this one!
To reduce churn on our Email lists, I also think Podcasting and community building on Substack are becoming essential for the long-game. Am I wrong?
If you were a displaced editor/reporter frustrated at the deteroration or disappearance of local journalism in your community, what steps would you take to try to duplicate what's going on in places like Baltimore (Banner) and NYC? How would you approach local philanthropists or prospective donors about investing without giving up editorial control?
Thanks! Just added this to the queue.
Outside of paid subscriptions and paid Ad sponsorships, what other revenue streams could a Substack Creators realistically pursue?
I've been given this some thought because my monetization strategy on Substack is not scaling like I might have imagined.
Substack likes to dangle cherry-picked case studies of success stories, but after seeing about 30, I'm realizing that they are actually de-motivating for a number of writers / because they are too far off what we experience as newer creators.
So there has to be some realization that even paid subs alone takes "too many months" to scale as it is for most people to realistically pursue full-time or even part-time. This lowers the volume of actual writers and creators without significant existing lists and followings to even to attempt the experiment.
If we have to bootstrap and create our own B2B Ads sponsorships, just to get by, at least this these multiple revenue streams should be easily stated somewhere.
The way I see it Substack subs could be 20%, B2B Sponsorships could be another 40%, but we are still missing around 40% of additional connected streams in the stack - but Substack gives me no hint as to what those might be....
The economics if you are not a Financial or Politics writer is stark, to say the least. But we at least have to be transparent about it and promote alternatives. For a Finance writer who can charge over $25 a month for a single sub, paid subs alone is realistic to get to that $2,000 mark per month in 1 year.
Thanks! Just added this to the queue.
We're hearing that some newsletter publishers are evolving the calculation of CTR. We have historically tracked CTR as Total Clicks / Total Opens(Impressions), but in many instances with newsletters, there are repeat opens so it suppresses the CTR. (Example: If a bot is pinging one newsletter repeatedly, it may increase total opens(impressions) and therefore negatively impact the CTR).
We're hearing that some publishers are using both of the following in reporting to clients now, or on marketing materials:
CTR = Total Clicks / Unique Opens
CTOR = Unique Clicks / Unique Opens
The challenge with varying reporting is in the analysis from various media buyers. We're seeing an advertiser compare 2 different newsletter brands and seeing higher performance from one over the other, simply because of the way in which they are calculating performance.
We also see challenges on local and regional levels with less sophisticated buyers.
What is the generally accepted practice? What are most people using to showcase newsletter performance? What do you believe are the top 5 metrics that should be shared to showcase newsletter performance?
Thanks! Just added this to the queue.
Do you think there should be a Substack competitor that supports programmatic ads?
Thanks! just added this one to the queue.
In developing a memoir the investigation has now turned to finding the best medium to develop, publish and test the waters for a book. Any recommendations?
I think a blog/newsletter is a great way to test the waters and build up an audience that will be more likely to buy your book once it's published.
There's also podcasts. Brian McCullough wanted to write a book about the history of the internet, but first he started the Internet History podcast where he brought on important pioneers from internet history. He used those interviews both as research and to also build an audience for when the book was eventually published.
Do you believe that folks who are not full-time writers/journalists can make decent revenue from a paid Substack publication?
Thanks! Just added this to the queue.
I have nothing to add here. The questions and comments are wonderful!
Very entertaining.
)
Hi Simon. Thanks for the invitation into your intellectual cafe conversations. My question is did you already write about your background and reasons for deciding to add Substack to your business? What were the truths or assumptions that you realized right before you put your flag on the Substack platform?
Hey Georgia, I think this piece might answer some of your questions.
https://simonowens.substack.com/p/the-exact-time-commitment-it-takes
Yes, I remember reading that awhile back. Because you pointed it out, I read it again. That article is about your decision to depend on newsletter subscribers more than others for your income. My question is more about Substack as your choice. Why them and what criteria were you sorting through to guide your decision to that third-party business? The other choice is your own platform and that one is not a fit for us. So I wonder what said Substack was the best for your business, your customers, and your long-game plan?
Hi Owen - love your Q&A sessions. Here are some questions I constantly ask myself:
1. What are the best ways to attract companies or products looking to showcase ads in my newsletter?
2. What are the best ways to promote a substack newsletter besides sharing your own content?
Thanks! Just added this to the queue.