Protecting Substack At All Costs

When I saw someone do this, I cringed a little bit

Image created by yours truly, with DALL-E

First, is it me, or when you see the word “cringe,” now do you instantly think of a Gen Z saying something is “cringe” with a bit of a snarky face and bothered expression?

Oh, the joys of generational slang. 😉

Slang or not, the word cringe fits this scenario.

Outside of my newsletters, I’m still finding my rhythm on Substack. I don’t necessarily want to log in daily (to any platform), but I am focused on increasing my engagement and building new relationships (as well as fostering older relationships, because, yeah, this feels a bit like a fun reunion of sorts, too).

I was in the feed yesterday and saw someone introducing themselves, saying they were excited to be here and that if they subscribed to them, they’d subscribe back.

I instantly thought, “Nooooooooo! Don’t do that!”

One of the things I love most about Substack, in the whopping few weeks I’ve been active here, is that it doesn’t feel like a race to the bottom to build vanity metrics.

The request for subscribers was a genuine ask, and nothing about it felt smarmy, but it’s a guaranteed way to dilute what the platform is about, not to mention the quality of your own community.

About ten years ago, I had a friend who watched a webinar about growing your Facebook page to 10k followers quickly with a cheap ad (pennies) in specific countries (primarily non-English-speaking countries).

He tested it, and it worked, so I thought I’d also test it.

Yep, it worked for me, too.

(For the life of me, I don’t remember what the 10k page followers thing on Facebook was all about, but at the time it was an important threshold).

My thoughts about this little “experiment” today is, “Well, that was dumb.”

Testing things is great—that’s part of the process. But all that “experiment” did was give me a higher follower count… —people who would probably never engage, subscribe, or buy from me.

Don’t do that here.

Whether you’re here for a short while or in this for the long haul, just be patient and consistent and do the work.

At whatever pace works for you.

I’ve got a project that’s been taking up most of my time (and will be wrapping up soon), so I’ll have more time to dig into Substack how I want.

But I can guarantee you it doesn’t include any sort of “follow/subscribe” train.

For example:

I have another newsletter called “Women, Wisdom, & Wealth,” where I explore the psychology and beliefs around money for women, specifically GenX and older. I’ve also got a podcast coming out by the same name (early November).

Right now, the only “offer” I have for that brand is a paid subscription.

I have plans for more down the road, but I’m trusting the process and evolution. My primary focus is creating, promoting, and connecting.

What good would it do me to gain a bunch of followers who are men or in a much younger demographic?

Not only would the content not resonate (some of it might), but I’d be building a subscriber base who would probably never read or buy.

It’s better to go slower, attract, and connect with the right people you can serve and who resonate with your content than try tactics to improve numbers.

Because here’s the thing…

Those tactics give you false numbers.

They also drive down your open and click rates.

Think of it this way…

If you compare a statistic in California to a statistic in Idaho, you have to consider the population. You could do a percentage comparison, but you couldn’t do a straight numbers comparison. I’m making this up, but if there were 1000 murders in the state of California and there were only 150 in Idaho, Idaho would have a higher murder rate (.008), whereas California’s is .002.

There are 39 million people in California and only 1.9 million in Idaho.

That's kind of a dark example (sorry 😉), but you get the point.

Much like Kevin Kelly’s article, 1000 True Fans, you want to focus on the quality of people, not the quantity.

My point about ‘Protecting Substack at All Costs’ is that even though I’m new on the platform, after almost 17 years doing digital marketing, this feels like a breath of fresh air.

And I don’t want to see that go sideways with tactics that take away from what Substack feels like.