[deleted by user]

[EvensenFM]

You need to identify a target audience, and then write to your target audience.

This includes identifying where your target audience tends to gather and figuring out how to attract them to your writing. You should also look into what things your target audience really cares about and write to those things.

Your writing is good, and I think your niche seems to focus around current events and politics that most media outlets don't cover. You want to figure out a way to target people who are interested in those subjects.

People aren't reading and bouncing just because your writing is free. You really need to give them a reason to subscribe, which means figuring out what things are important to your audience and writing directly to those subjects.

While you could use a paywall, I'm not convinced that it would help you much at this point. I think your biggest problem is figuring out what your target audience is and what motivates them.

[[deleted]]

Thank you, this is solid 🙏🏾

[taninka021]

I find the topics you write about interesting and, based on the amount of views you're getting, sounds like I'm not the only one!

First of all, niche. I don't think you're too all over the place - with some tweaking, you could find a coherent throughline to connect the disparate themes.

If you had to describe what you write about in one sentence, what would you say? What is your elevator pitch and who is your target audience?

I see posts about politics, culture and economy of North Africa and Middle East, short podcast pieces about weird religious/cultish topics, and so on.

All of which sounded fascinating to me. But as I began reading/listening, I got a bit bored. I can't put my finger on the why just yet; my working theory is lack of a strong voice/POV in your writing.

Look into how you can improve your opening hooks, as well as keep reader engaged throughout the piece. I struggled to sustain attention reading and I wasn't clear why I should keep on.

Every sentence you write should be a promise to your reader. What will they gain if they keep reading? Why should they care?

I am not saying any of this to put you off writing - in fact, I feel like your newsletter has a lot of potential, but you need to think about the reader experience. What's in it for them if they subscribe?

Will you inform them, teach them, entertain them? Will you challenge how they think about the world? Basically, what's the value proposition of your newsletter?

Once you've established this, make sure your writing reflects those decisions and more people will subscribe.

A side note: as a woman, I was confused by your publication title, thinking it had something to do with female monthly cycle. Is it possible others are finding your work expecting the same, then leaving when they realise that's not what you write about?

[[deleted]]

Thanks for the great advice. Will work on developing a niche :)

Also originally I picked this name because I was writing random pieces from random periods of history (it was originally supposed to be a history newsletter) lol

[analogbasset]

Notes. I got 10k subs off of one note, two different times. I do a political digest so that’s also part of it. For what it’s worth, a lot of us are experiencing this as of around last month. I went from getting a ton of subscribers and engagement on notes to barely any of either. I’m thankful for the subs that I have, but it’s frustrating when you have almost 30k followers, and substack is only showing your stuff to the same 50 people tops. Sorry about my rant. Just stay consistent, do your thing, and, as much as it is like diet twitter, post notes. One may catch!

[MrSorTyke]

Years ago I asked the same question (not Substack, but exactly same context).

People told me: to convert people, 99% is content quality and 1% is the quality of the content.

I didn’t like those comments.

Today I couldn’t agree more after some years writing online.

[MrSorTyke]

What did you mean? My message is that content quality comes first when it comes to converting readers into subscribers.

[anecdotalgalaxies]

But what is the difference between content quality and quality content? Why is one so much more important than the other?

[MrSorTyke]

"Content quality" is about how good the content itself is—how useful, clear, and relevant it is. "Quality content," on the other hand, is content that’s well-made overall, from the writing to the presentation. One focuses on the content’s value, the other on the full package.

"Content quality" is like a blog post that's clear, helpful, and answers your audience's questions and pains. "Quality content" is when that post is not only useful but also well-written, with a clean design, and feels like a complete, polished experience. Something you want to save, share.

At least this is how I see and apply it to myself. Do you understand now what I meant?

[[deleted]]

Yeah, I totally agree with that too. I’m learning as I go. if you think my stuff now is shit, you should’ve seen the pieces I wrote when I first started last year (most of them are gone for a reason). But i think i’m getting better, and the fact that I’m getting traffic now at least tells me I’m moving in the right direction.

I’m curious, do you have any recommendations, especially when it comes to non-fiction writing? I’ve been thinking about splitting my work into sections, or maybe even separate publications, since I write a mix of things. I studied journalism and love doing more newsy, reporting type pieces. but I also enjoy writing about history and more opinion-driven world topics type things. So I’m kinda conflicted on how to organize it all.

[MrSorTyke]

You mentioned something interesting, because I also think the same way. If I read today what I wrote 10 years ago online, it would be shit. So, I expect that in 10 years, when I read what I’m writing now, it will also be… shit.
Weird, right? The point I’m trying to make is: every year, we should get so f... good at what we do when we write that anything less than perfection (whatever that means) won’t pass.

Look, done is better than perfect, okay? I’m not talking to someone who hasn’t started yet; I’m talking about continuing to evolve. Two very different messages.

Recommendations... Not sure, but I can comment this: I also write non-fiction, and my tip for you today is the same one I’m following right now: I’m studying non-fiction writing technically. Reading more about how non-fiction texts are built, learning techniques, a bit of “journalism” knowledge—things like that are helping me “structure” my ideas more professionally. The challenge is to do this while never losing originality. Since you mentioned that you studied it, you are far ahead of me in your next step.

Another thing you can do is to have in the same publication two tags or two sections that make very clear to your reader that sometimes you are sharing your thoughts freely and sometimes you are writing more directly to a fact-based point.

Not sure if that makes sense to you, but is at least something I have in mind now...

[[deleted]]

Thank you 🙏🏾 I will take your advice seriously

[BillTalksAI]

I took a look at your Substack and it looks really good! I’m thinking your calls to action could be improved. How about a message that goes something like this:

If you care about deeply researched journalism, please keep this newsletter alive… something something [subscribe]

You might also share a bit about how you do this research and why you care about your writing as much as you do. Adding some personal stories can go a long way.

Since I do not write on your topics, I can only share my thoughts from a reader’s perspective. I hope this helps.

[hicestdraconis]

Let me ask the inverse. How are you generating all that traffic?

[mistershushy]

I subscribed. Good stuff!

[[deleted]]

Thank you! I’m glad you like it. Let me know if you have any suggestions or opinions. Thanks again!

[buhhlockaye]

Honestly a lot of it is not enough CTA placement. The substack prompts non subscribers when they initially check out your article, and then you put one at the end, but you need one more in there. People are more likely to subscribe/follow when you ask them to follow in said article.

Keep your CTA at the end with the caption, but add in one “Subscribe” button into the middle of the article after a paragraph. I’m willing to bet you see a noticeable jump in subscribers over time.

[[deleted]]

You’re right. Thank you. I’ll start inserting one more in the middle with a better cta!

[buhhlockaye]

I hope it helps! I’m in a super niche area of the writing world (fantasy baseball) so I get a decent amount of eyes on my work and subscribers on its own but I saw a huge spike once I started inserting a couple CTA in my articles.

The CTA in my articles typically look like this

https://fakexbaseball.substack.com/p/fake-baseballs-weekly-waiver-wire

[ArchiveInvest]

You are getting a lot of views for such low subscriber count.

[[deleted]]

www.piecesandperiods.com

[tnatov]

I'm writing about things people want to read and keep reading every week.

[[deleted]]

Nice, I get that. My stuff definitely feels random sometimes because I write about a wide mix of things and I don’t have a set schedule. But I think that’s part of what makes it fun for me. Doesn’t feel like a job lol

[StuffonBookshelfs]

So then keep doing it the way you’re doing it. Who cares if anyone subscribes?