Saturday Morning Coffee ☕ #74

It's the weekend, gang!

➡️ 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:

How I use (and don’t use) AI in my writing process

216: How to become a bestselling author and build a business around your book (featuring Dina Marais)

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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:

How do you create offers from your writing that still feel like you, without stripping out the soul just to make it sell?

Find ways to understand what your audience want/what their problems are. Write articles that address those problems. Then turn those articles into digital products (use them as scripts or springboards for video courses) or curriculums for a coaching offer. That way, the heart of it all still flows directly from you - it’s just packaged differently.

Identifying those audience pain points is the real key in that process. Survey your audience. Use polls. Invite comments. Browse conversations beneath other articles in your niche and look for correlations.

Is it better to build an audience and then paywall it or introduce the paywall from the start?

I think it’s best to be crystal clear with your audience, right from the get-go, about what they should expect from your publication.

If all of your content is free for a long time and then you suddenly switch to paid, it can cause some confusion among your subscribers (although I know of other writers who introduced a paid tier after years of publishing on Substack and immediately became bestsellers).

Decide what your “premium” content is going to be and where exactly your paywalls will sit within that content, and then stick to it long enough for your subscribers to understand what to expect from you each week. You can use paywalls as soon as you like, but just make sure to offer plenty of high-value free content too.

How do I start with no qualifications, degrees, certifications? Should I get some? Simple as developing a portfolio of some sort?

You can certainly explore qualification pathways if you feel they’d help make you a better writer. I went that route in university and never regretted it, though it was in the pre-creator economy era and I may have done things differently now.

As long as you can write competently and produce content that actually helps your readers in some way, I wouldn’t say you need qualifications. There are tons of incredibly successful creators out there who never got a degree, and I honestly don’t think most people really care if their favourite writers have them now.

If you want to just get started, then do precisely that - start. Write from experience. Solve problems. Make people’s lives easier. Support others. Be kind. Develop your writer brand.

Degrees are good. But so is immediate action.

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

Drop them in the comments! 👇

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📖 This week’s juicy reading material:

• 6 Reasons Why a One-Person Business Is the Future of Work for 50+ Professionals by

  FutureProof50

• How to Use Interest for Writing Motivation by

  Jesse J. Anderson

• Overcoming Procrastination and Building a Purposeful Creator Life by

  Michele Parad
  and
  Veronica Llorca-Smith

• Why Smart Creators Are Ditching Social Media for Substack by

  Noah Vincent

• Why So Many Smart People Are Rethinking ‘Success’ by

  Trish McGinty

• The 10 Biggest Lead Magnet Mistakes Non-Fiction Authors Make (And How To Fix Them) by

  Seema

• The One Line That Got Me 17K Clicks, $800, and My Audience Back by

  Meena Rohith

• 5 Marketing Ideas You Should Steal by

  Ash Ambirge

• Forget Your Business & Write From Your Heart by

  Khadejah J

• The Manuscripts Editors Are Fighting Over by

  Karin Gillespie

• 10 Amazon KDP Secrets Every Author Should Know (and Most Don’t) by

  BadRedheadMedia, LLC

• You Shouldn’t Write Your Book Like That! by

  Abigail Fenton

• Whatever you do, don't do this on Linkedin by

  Liam Darmody

• Writer Karma is Real by

  Fleur Hull

• This Is How To Make Real Money With Newsletter by

  Tim Stoddart

📖 Contributions from Paid Members:

• When “How are you?” Feels Harder to Answer than a Million-Dollar Question by

  Jennifer Hacker

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📺 Something from YouTube:

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🗒️ Something from Notes:

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☑️ Go deeper:

• A New Book Launch Every Week

• 3 mental shifts to help you achieve online authenticity

• The productivity paradox: How writing less leads to better writing

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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 24,000+ readers: Get yourself in front of a highly-engaged online audience via email, podcast and social media.

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