How to lose followers and alienate subscribers
What I learned in my first year on Substack
When I launched my Substack a year ago, I was a published author with a decade of blogging experience in the German-speaking world. It matters to me, as a humanities scholar, to engage not only a specialized audience but also the wider public. As an author, I consider digital writing to be an open workshop that encourages me to write consistently and clearly, test resonance, and facilitate feedback. Weekly publishing can be a form of procrastination in itself if it keeps you from writing well-thought-out books. Ultimately, however, you can only find your position and voice through practice, by writing.
As someone who teaches at an Institute for the Theory and Practice of Communication, I believe it is vital to be an active participant, rather than merely an observer, in the transformation of the media system in the early 21st century and the advent of the independent creators’ economy. There's a kind of tacit knowledge that doesn't truly reveal itself otherwise. Furthermore, it's thrilling to be personally involved in such a seismic shift, and Substack excels at making you feel like you're at the very heart of the action.1
My decision to switch to English for my newsletter was driven by the simple fact that I wanted to reach a larger, international audience. This, along with the hope of benefiting from the platform's network effects and generating income through blogging, was the deciding factor in setting up my newsletter on Substack.2
Before sending out my first newsletter, I prepared quite thoroughly: I explored the platform as a reader, read guide articles from professional Substack consultants and successful authors3, and attended a masterclass offered by Substack.
Several key decisions proved sound in practice, including the strategic separation of personal website and blog, the weekly rotating LETTER and POSTCARD formats, and the 'old-world look' intended to evoke the rotogravure supplement of printed newspapers.
Inevitably, however, other considerations (including self-imposed milestones) proved to be mere intellectual constructs. Although interesting and indirectly insightful, preparation eventually becomes a substitute activity, a form of rationalized waiting for permission. So it was time to kick things off and refine along the way.
After a year: What have I learned? Did I achieve my three goals (internationalization, audience growth, income)? What adjustments need to be made in the future?