This summer I almost started a Substack newsletter.
Almost.
It’s something that I’ve been thinking about for a long time, for a lot of reasons. I’ve supported clients as they’ve launched, grown and also pulled back on their own Substack newsletters and now felt like a good time to try it myself. As a writer, it always seemed like a logical tool to use.
I’ll admit that the siren song of “discoverability” and monetization that the platform promises were strong too. Not only would I get to write, but I’d be rich and famous doing it too.
When I signed off publishing for the summer, it was with the intention of coming back in September and announcing the switch.
I had a running list of topics and monthly themes in my notes app. I mapped out an entire quarter’s worth of content in my Notion calendar. I even clicked that “start writing” button and claimed my domain.
(fwiw it was going to be called Good Advice – the antidote to all the bad small biz marketing advice out there on the Internet! So cute and clever right?)
Everything felt so clear… until it didn’t.
I hadn’t intended for Good Advice to be a marketing strategy, it was the offer. So would I use this newsletter to promote that newsletter? And while I was excited by the prospect of organic growth, I know from my client’s experiences that it doesn’t reeeeeally work out the way Substack promises.
Charging Substack’s recommended $8/month meant that I could expect about $25-$50 in monthly revenue after fees, assuming a conservative 1-2% conversion of my existing newsletter audience to paid subscribers given my small (healthy and engaged but none-the-less small) list size - also assuming those 1-2% converted immediately on launch. That’s not nearly enough to sustain the amount of work required to make it any good.
The pros say you gotta write for free before you can make any money, but without a paywall did that make Good Advice… just the newsletter I was already writing?
And what would it mean for marketing my
advising offers? When would I even have time for seeing clients one-on-one when I’d need to be devoting so much time to the Substack?
What about my
Just Enough workshops which is the main way I currently attract and connect with my audience. Do I make that a paid perk and risk the conversions that always happen after a session?
By the time I got back from my just enough summer, starting a Substack started to feel like decidedly bad advice.
Because when I really assessed how it would fit into my current business model and my goals - it just didn’t align.
Then, one night as I was brushing my teeth a lightbulb went on over my head: it wasn’t a Substack, it’s an audio course! And
Marketing With Purpose was born.
Stay tuned next week as I break down how I tested my idea and decided it was the right fit.
Until then, go slow and stay steady.
