Saturday Morning Coffee ☕ #72

Is your Spidey sense tingling?

➡️ Stop overthinking and finally publish that article — join The 5-Day Article Sprint that gets you from idea to inbox in under a week. Get it here.

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Hey friend!

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⬇️ In case you missed it:

The 30-minute daily routine that can transform your Substack in 30 Days

Why you should create digital products (and how to get started)

3 paywall formats that grow your income without eroding reader trust

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👀 Something you might like:

Whether you’re starting from zero or want to accelerate your growth and monetisation engine on Substack, this Masterclass by

Veronica Llorca-Smith

provides a clear roadmap to help you create a strategy that gets results.

Want to work with me to grow your audience and generate more income? Here’s how.

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💡 Your questions, my answers:

I received a few questions in this week’s Q&A Chat thread - here’s my stab at answering some of them:

If Substack is my base, does it make sense to share content from here on other social platforms like Instagram?

If you have a decent presence on other platforms, I’d say it’d be beneficial to share your content there. I’ve seen other writers do that on a regular basis. But it probably depends on the size of your audience outside of Substack - if it’s not particularly big, your reach will be pretty limited and sharing externally may not be worth your time. Evergreen platforms like YouTube would be more useful in this regard than sites like Twitter or Instagram, where external links are throttled and visibility is usually poor.

I use many platforms for my novels but I'm not earning or getting the viewer count I need. Any advice?

Have you tried getting other creators to share content about it? Try giving away a few free copies to folks on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram (these can be digital copies if you don’t want to pay for physical versions) and let them create video content for their followers. You can share that content yourself, and you’ll reach new potential readers among their audience bases. I’ve done this myself with TikTok and it’s definitely helped get the word out about my books.

I find most of my readers in my personal network by sharing with friends or even people who I'm in other groups with. It can be very scary sharing with people you know, very vulnerable and daunting, but I find the most success there. How do I get more comfortable sharing my work with people I meet?

It’s definitely hard talking about your work with people you know and meet in real life. I had that experience again just this week (“You write books?” / “What’s Substack?”). I’ve actually made a little free email course about how to share your work without the cringe factor if you want to check it out. In short, though, the best way to get comfortable with it is to practice - the more often you talk about it, the less awkward it’ll feel. Start boldly (“I’m a writer” ) and let the conversation flow from there - most people will be super interested to hear about your writing.

Any thoughts on these questions/answers? Do you have any of your own?

Drop them in the comments! 👇

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Want a signed copy of my book?

I have a limited number of physical copies of my horror novel The Substitute available to buy directly from me (if you want to bypass Amazon). Each book will come signed with a personalised message, which can be for you or someone you’re gifting it to.

You can grab your copy right here.

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📖 This week’s juicy reading material:

• The One Question That Helped Me Beat Self-Doubt by

  Katja Groesser

• Does More Notes Get You More Subscribers on Substack? by

  Karen Cherry

• Why Your Course Isn't Getting Results (And It's Not What You Think) by

  Rodney Daut 🔥🪵⛺️

• Why Having Too Many Ideas Is Worse Than Having None At All by

  Matt Tilmann

• How I Outperformed Creators with 5x My Audience by

  Meena Rohith

• Pricing Isn’t Your Problem — It’s Positioning by

  Carrie Loranger

• Confused by Substack? These 10 Lessons Saved Me by

  Derek Hughes

• Why You Feel Invisible on Substack (And How to Finally Get Your Writing Seen) by

  Wes Pearce

• The Best Way To Use Substack Notes by

  Matt Lillywhite 🇬🇧

• Literary Magazines Are Not Your Validation by

  Judson Stacy Vereen

• Why You Shouldn't Want To Be A Creator by

  Tim Stoddart

• Stepping off of the default path with Substack CEO Chris Best and Justin Welsh by

  Justin Welsh
  and
  Chris Best

• 7 Ways To Monetize Your Substack (Without Paid Subscribers) by

  Jari Roomer

• I Always Thought: They Should Already Know It. I Was Wrong by

  Anfernee

• How I’m rebuilding my creative ecosystem for longterm sustainability by

  Elin Petronella

📖 Contributions from Paid Members:

• sketching, story-keeping, noticing by

  Karena

• A sense of what's to come by

  Lydia_is_mad

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📺 Something from YouTube:

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🗒️ Something from Notes:

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☑️ Go deeper:

• Here's why you should start your own podcast as a writer

• Magnetic Notes: 10 examples of Notes that grow your audience (with stats)

• I ran a 42-day audience growth experiment on Notes. Here's what I did, and everything I learned

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Have an amazing weekend, gang! ⌛

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🤷‍♂️ What’s next?

I’m ready and waiting to support you in the next stages of your creator journey. Here’s how I can help:

1. Start Your Podcast on Substack: A complete course guiding you from concept to launch, based on everything I’ve learned so far during my own podcasting journey. Learn to plan, brand, record, edit, publish, and promote your podcast while building an audience. Perfect for creators eager to share their voice with the world.

2. The 1K Daily Writing Challenge: Build a consistent habit by writing 1,000 words daily for 30 days. Along the way, you'll get encouraging video prompts, accountability support, and plenty of inspiration to ignite your creative spark. Nail your rhythm. Find your flow. Transform your writing journey forever.

3. One-To-One Coaching: A live coaching session over Zoom plus a full video audit of your Substack publication. Ideal for those who want to grow their online presence, identify their key strengths, and develop a long-term business strategy. Upgrade to VIP Membership for full access.

4. Promote to 22,000+ readers: Get yourself in front of a highly-engaged online audience via email, podcast and social media.

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