2023 Substack Goals

Please Excuse Me for Writing About the Blog I'm Writing

Photo by BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash

I’ve been sifting through other Substacks, trying to build a little network. In doing so, a recurring peeve of mine is the amount of Substack posts out there which are about Substack. So much writing about writing! People writing about their “journey” as a writer. People sharing their struggles. And, particularly annoying, a good number of triumphant "success” stories from writers I’ve absolutely never heard of and find wholly uninteresting, despite their “success”.

It all feels like listening in on somebody’s session with a therapist, and I find it, in general, very self-serving.

So pardon me for one post, as I write about my writing. I’ve got good reason; it’s a new year, and it’s the appropriate time to set a couple benchmarks. Writing those out is helpful for me, and interesting to return to in the future to see how I did.

I have three goals that I’ve come up, and I think they’re pretty good. I’ve been enjoying some time off work, and actually had some time for thoughts about what I’d like to do with this Substack/blog. There are lots of ways I’d love to grow it:

• Video and audio are particularly interesting. A video element for reviews, for example, could be a lot of fun.

• Substack has some podcasting tools, and I think it would be extremely fun to have some sort of periodic podcast conversation with a guest.

• I’d like to rename the blog to something catchier, and get a nice logo and banner to use consistently on Twitter and wherever else I post.

The thing is, those are all ambitious projects; I’d like to have some sort of confidence there’s an audience for it before I invest time into it.

So with that in mind, I’ve come up with three main goals for the year:

1. Continue to reliably post something every Monday, like clockwork.

2. Maintain a focus on technology.

3. Reach 100 subscribers.

Goals Number 1 and Number 2 are in my control; Goal Number 3 is the tricky one!

Substack offers some resources and informational posts about how to grow your subscriber list, and I’ve checked those out. In summary, they tend to say the following steps essentially will guarantee you nearly 100,000 subscribers:

1. Write consistently. (I can do this!)

2. Spam everyone that you currently know, and ask them to subscribe to your Substack. (Wait, what?)

3. Shut down your YouTube channel, and direct the 100,000 followers you already have over there to subscribe on Substack instead.

I don’t find this very helpful, and neither does anyone else, as I’ve been able to gather from the comments on those articles from Substack. However, in sifting through said comments, I’ve found some writers insisting it is possible to build a reader base by networking on Substack itself. The trick is to find writers you like, and to follow, comment, and recommend their work.

That strategy has a bit of an incestuous, Ponzi feel to it, but enough people seem to say it works. I wouldn’t mind finding some peers, and being able to help each other out. I saw the benchmark of 100 subscribers in a year coming up often from those commenting and recommending such an approach, so I’m going to give it a shot and see how it goes. Once I get 100 subscribers, my bet is that I’ll have a better idea about what I’m good at, what people like, and where I should invest more time and energy.

So there you have it; thus concludes my 2023 public statement of goals. I’ll add Goal Number 4 right now: for the rest of 2023, no more writing about my writing!