Write2Sell: The 5 elements
Everything you need to grow your paid subscribers on Substack
I’ve said this many times: writing is not enough to succeed on Substack.
It’s not.
It’s just one piece of the puzzle you need to solve on Substack.
Imagine you go to the grocery to buy some veggies. Writing is just the small talk you have with the salesperson about the weather today. It’s not the veggies.
You still need to give the money, right?
Oh, and how did you learn about this grocery store in the first place?
What about buying from the same place again?
Substack is all that!
Let me show you what this looks like:
See? Writing is 1/5 of the whole pie.
Take Medium for example: there you only write and earn. Medium takes care for the rest 80% of it. With Substcak you’re the one to take care of it.
I know, I know! It can sound a bit complicated, but it’s not.
I promise!
Remember my superpower? It’s my ability to make complex things simple and digestible.
That’s why I created the Write2Sell column. In it, I’m gonna be unpacking all these elements for you.
Today, we’ll start cracking each of them one by one.
Product / Service Design
Your Substack is your product.
It’s what you promise to deliver.
This is the packaging of what you sell. It’s the reason why people should pay you.
Make sure you have a BIG FAT MOAT - something that no one else can replicate. Something that only you can create.
And make a proper presentation of it - from the very first subscription confirmation email to the CTA of your latest story.
All of that is your product.
I see many writers who come from Medium (like me) putting behind the paywall the same articles they publish on Medium.
Some create videos for paid subscribers which you find on YouTube.
That’s not how I see this.
It takes just one paid subscriber to find that out and you’ll get negative feedback. Or even worse: you’ll get nothing. No feedback, but also no paid subscribers.
You need to make that exclusive.
And that’s the tricky part. How to do that without burning out? Especially if you’re writing on more than one platform.
The answer is in the content and monetization strategy you choose. We’ll talk about that and many other aspects of it in the upcoming posts.
Writing / Content Creation
This is the actual delivery of the value you get paid for. Is it your writing, or the product or service you sell, whatever it is, you need to deliver.
Now, there’s also something more to it: this is your paid newsletter.
I realized I need to ask myself this question before I start writing:
Is this something people would pay for?
It’s quality.
High quality.
The highest high you can deliver.
And some more.
You need to polish this.
A simple collection of your 10 articles packed into a “book” won’t work.
You need debt.
That’s what makes you unique.
Here we’ll talk about this and many other topics like consistency, titles, intros, storytelling, outros, CTAs and many many other aspects of writing.
Marketing
No, we’re not at selling yet.
First, we need to let people know you exist.
This is the promotion part.
Then we need to make them subscribe to your free plan.
That’s the consideration part.
One of the most efficient tools to grow on Substack is using Notes.
Daily.
Post one Note daily, engage with other writers in your niche (follow, subscribe, comment, like, restack), and watch the magic happen.
Because this is so crucial to the process, I’ve set a dedicated monthly challenge where I’ll give you some templates, guides on how to write them, and writing prompts for each day of the month.
It starts in September 2024, but if you read this after the fact, you can find all the challenges in the dedicated section.
We’ll also be covering other ways to promote your Substack, including Medium and other social media channels.
Selling
Here comes the fun part.
And the most difficult for many writers.