I’ve often read that a good way to network, as a writer, is to leave high-quality comments on articles that you find interesting. So in 2023, I’ve been budgeting a certain amount of time to rove the internet for content that I find compelling, and attempt to contribute a meaningful, relevant, comment. For me, that’s usually some sort of dead-panned, sarcastic, absurdity, but it’s the best I can do.
I’ve not had wild success with this strategy; the time I budget toward it is limited. I do, however, see modest results on Substack. While my data set to work with is so minuscule that I’m not able to do any scientific analysis, my intuition is that when I’ve been inspired to jump in the comments on Substack (or Substack’s Twitter clone, “Notes”) there has been corresponding subscription activity for Cool Story, George.
That is notable. It’s one of my favorite things in the world when total strangers enjoy something I wrote, even if it’s only a few people. What’s more, that slow trickle of Substack subscribers is better than what I can get elsewhere. For instance, I’ve put far more time this year into posting and replying on “X” (aka Twitter), than I have on Substack. That’s yielded, as far as I can tell, zero “X” followers. Yes, I’ll get likes, retweets, nice replies, and occasionally even become the running theme for an hour long podcast; but my Tweets don’t form any sort of lasting connection with authors or their audiences.
So it would appear that Substack may actually be a pretty good place to try to start writing and growing an audience. Paradoxically, however (big words!), Substack has a definitive, trademark feature that works against my strategy. How? Well, as I mentioned at the top, the supposed key to finding peers and an audience, is leaving high-quality comments. I have found that in order to have a high-quality, meaningful reply, the article needs to be of a certain quality standard. If something is just not interesting to me, or if it is disjointed and I don’t get the point, I can’t comment in a meaningful way.
When I happen to find a Substack author who is consistently good at writing, and to whom I often have thoughts to add in the comments, those writers tend to eventually activate Substack’s paid subscription features. And when they make their Substacks paywalled, I can no longer comment. And therein lies the conflict.
Now, on the one hand, this is encouraging news. I’ve noticed in this one year alone, a couple cases where I discovered a great, free, publication, and then later on, they announced they are going paid. It would seem that Substack is succeeding in rewarding good writers. If you write it, they will come, and you’ll make money. That’s motivating!
Still, for me at the early growth stage, this presents an obstacle. It is challenging to find writers I understand and relate to. Then when I occasionally do find one, and they go paid, I’m locked out of viewing their best work, and frozen out of the comments and can no longer participate in this symbiotic growth process.
The more you can leave good comments, the more you can get good subscribers; but the more ideal an article is for meaningful commenting, the less likely it is going to allow comments. That’s my assessment of the situation anyway. How about you? Share your thoughts in the comments.