💬 In this week's issue:

• Learn how to rewrite your landing page copy like a pro.
• Don't overcomplicate things. Keep your marketing simple.
• Find out how to protect (and unlock) the creative magic in your work.

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Unlock the secrets to high-converting landing pages

In case you missed our last issue, we announced an exciting new feature in Ghost that makes it possible to build even better landing pages. So we couldn't resist following that up by sharing some great copywriting tips that can help you turn those pages into powerful conversion engines!

In a recent Marketing Examples post, author Harry Dry and copywriting pro Annie Maguire rewrite the copy of several company landing pages. The insights and examples are so digestible that you can apply this knowledge to your own landing pages right away! Here's the takeaways:

• Put yourself in the customer's shoes. What do they care about the most? For example, if they care about saving time, make sure your copy shows them how they will do that!
• Instead of being vague, get really specific and highlight the uniqueness of what you offer. Lead with what makes you stand out from the competition.

When you've got a unique product the golden rule is to let the product speak for itself.

• People are interested in outcomes, not products. In the example below, the original copy simply explains what the product is. The improved copy explains what the outcome is, and taps into what potential customers desire.

• Handle the common objections people might have, in as few words as possible, like this:

• Figure out what the emotional pull to your work is, and highlight that in your copy. This means figuring out what gets your audience excited.
• Always add social proof. How many subscribers do you have? How many people has your work helped? Include this in your landing page copy.
• Be concise. Less is often more. Don't expect people to read huge blocks of text on a landing page that is designed to sell.

Write the title only you can.

Interesting stories & ideas 📚

• How to create content on LinkedIn that actually gets engagement
• 3 ways to keep content quality high (even at scale)
• Why you need to personalize your cold outreach emails
• 13 SEO tactics to help you get more traffic
• 9 things Grub Street Journal learned making an indie print magazine

Are you overcomplicating your marketing?

It's easy to fall victim to shiny object syndrome and start believing that we must do all of the things in order to grow. But as IndieHackers member Dan Kulkov argues, sometimes this leads to an overcomplicated strategy. In a recent post, Dan shares some tips that can help you keep things uncomplicated and gain more clarity in your approach to marketing.

1. Start at the bottom — Focusing on getting as many website visitors as possible is not useful if you can't convert any of those visitors. Start at the bottom of your funnel and make sure you have a clear and compelling offer. "Chase conversions. Not clicks".
2. Do your research — Don't neglect learning all there is to know about your market and competitors. Doing research can have a profound impact on your business and the decisions you make later.
3. Simplify — Design a marketing funnel that is simple and effective. Lean on one primary acquisition model, one key activation moment, and one key offer to sell to your audience.

Conversion Rate Optimization isn’t a magic spell to make people love you. It’s about designing a marketing funnel that takes in new users, communicates your product’s value, and helps them to pay you money.

4. Don't forget to nudge — Most people aren't ready to purchase from the get-go. Make sure you are nudging your audience by addressing common objections and building trust. In short: Make what you offer more desirable. Some great tools to use for nudging your audience include creating offers and discounts for new customers and offering free trials.
5. Don't do difficult things until you get your first customer — If you put too much effort into long-term strategies like SEO before you have verified demand, you run the risk of having to pivot and start over.
6. Pick one thing — You don't need to do everything all at once. Be focused, pick something to work on, and work on that until you've nailed it.

Protecting the magic of your creative work

There's a captivating essence that comes from discovering your own personal process of creativity. It's raw, it's messy, and it's powerful. Once you find your secret formula, you feel like a superhero that can accomplish anything, but how do you protect yourself when something tries to knock you off your pedestal? Sammy Maine over at The Creative Independent chats with writer Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah on how to shield yourself from external (and internal) demons.

There may be a set of rules, but it’s for you and it may change all the time. So basically there is none. If there was one way of doing it that was correct, a lot more people would do it. Also that wouldn’t be art. Part of the magic is our diverse processes. Part of the magic is the ways we contour our lives around the thing. – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Here's how to craft the perfect creative potion:

• Switch up your workflow, and break your own rules. Consistency is powerful, but shaking up your muscle memory can lead to exciting paths.
• Take your time, and don't force it. You can't always rush through the creative process and hope brilliance will gush out naturally.
• Don't focus too much on numbers and algorithms. Concentrate on the human aspect of your work to block out any distractions.
• Protect your content. Your creative work is who you are. Make sure that you have a sturdy support system, both professional and personal.
• Mentor others. Connect with the community around you, and teach those who want to learn. Inspiring others is a creator cornerstone!
  

If I can help someone feel like they deserve to be a little bit more as an artist or as a person, that matters a lot and I think some of these writers forget that you have that. It matters how you move. A lot of it’s connected to teaching. That’s why I like being a mentor to someone because I’ve had really great mentors and I like creating spaces where people can discover a way. You have this power just like anybody else. – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

You're in control of your own destiny. Your creative magic lies in who you are and what makes you happy. Protecting your work by staying true to what speaks to you, and inspiring others to do the same, is as close to "perfect" as you can get. The rest is just beautiful chaos. 💥

Curator's pick

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• Discover how to create beautiful landing pages using the Ghost editor.
• Have you tried BAB and AIDA? Explore these creative copywriting frameworks and make your writing more persuasive.
• Find out how cognitive biases and buyer psychology can improve your content.

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How to build a beautiful landing page in Ghost

Hot off the press 🔥 It's now possible to remove the title and feature image from any page in Ghost, unlocking the ability to build landing pages that truly look the part in just a few clicks. All you need to do to get started is hide the title and feature image from the page settings, like this:

Once you've done that, it's time to start building a beautiful landing page using the dynamic cards in the editor. For example, you can use a header card or a signup card to open your page with a splash, followed by some copy, images, toggles, buttons, or whatever your heart desires.

Here's a few examples of what's possible:

We'd love to hear from you and see what you create. Hit reply or head to the comments to share your new landing pages with the community! 💅

Interesting stories & ideas 📚

• 3 time-saving Facebook automated rules to try (+1 to avoid)
• Google engineers want to make adblocking (near) impossible
• How to scale the # of articles you publish per month (& increase your search traffic)
• Giving your donors the best possible experience as a non-profit
• The difference between creative & uncreative people

Copywriting frameworks that actually work

Speaking of creating beautiful landing pages, if you're looking for some copywriting tips to make sure those pages convert, look no further than these frameworks.

In a recent newsletter issue, Neal O'Grady argues that rather than reinventing the wheel, you can use some of these existing copywriting frameworks to spice up your writing. Here's some examples to get you started!

PAS(P)

Neal added the last P to this commonly used framework to make it even stronger:

• Problem — Identify a problem your audience has.
• Agitation — Make that problem more intense.
• Solution — Introduce the solution to the problem.
• Proof — Provide evidence and social proof.

BAB

Paint a story of where your reader is now, where they could be, and how they can get there:

• Before — Show your reader's current (bad) situation.
• After — Show how amazing their life could be.
• Bridge — Explain how your product bridges the before-to-after gap.

AIDA

If you're struggling to focus on a "problem" using the first two frameworks, then you might find AIDA is a better fit:

• Attention – Hook your readers with a great headline, question, or fact.
• Interest — Build interest with a story that backs up your headline.
• Desire — Paint a picture of how.
• Action: Drive action with a compelling call to action.

The 4 P’s

Make your readers visualize their future with this framework:

• Promise — Make a bold promise about what you can offer.
• Picture — Help readers visualize how their life will be improved.
• Proof — Back up your promise with testimonials and social proof.
• Push — Your CTA, give visitors a reason to take action.
  

Writing is a superpower.
It sells even when you're asleep.
It amplifies your voice around the globe.
It sharpens your own thinking.
It attracts people to you.

How to hypnotize your audience

We all want to be liked, make friends, and have a laugh. (Not talking to you, Capricorns. 🐐) We do this by relating to others and understanding what makes us tick. Connecting with people can be hard, and an unconscious barrier that all of us have are cognitive biases. These biases are a natural part of the human psyche and are mostly viewed as negative, but can cognitive biases be used as a positive in the name of content creation? Alex Llull over at The Steal Club thinks so.

I’ve been studying cognitive biases and buyer psychology a lot lately. Initially, it was out of curiosity more than anything else. But, the deeper I dug, the more ideas I found that could be applied to content creation. We engage with things that spark emotions in us. That’s why learning what makes people buy, click or engage is super helpful. And it can turn into a competitive advantage. – Alex Llull

Here's how you can help grow your engagement in a mind-bendy sort of way:

1. Make your content feel personal, even if it isn't all that deep. This will help draw your audience in and make them feel seen and heard. It's not always about what you say, but how you say it.
2. Give your content its own signature style. Use unique colors and interesting formatting. Just like in real life, personality is everything. What's pleasing to the eye will be pleasing to the brain.
3. Create an emotional barter system. A human's natural instinct when being helped is to give help in return. Don't be afraid to ask for retweets (re𝕏eets?), follows, and shares. A loyal audience will happily go to bat for you.
4. Master the art of passively bragging. Sharing your wins with style is a classy way of making people think (or know) they're missing out on something great. The bandwagon effect is real!

Psychology can be applied to everything, including content creation. Just remember that with great power comes great responsibility. There's a fine line between being dishonest and delivering content in a more appetizing way. Your first line of defense is to create great content. The second is to make your content more human, and that's the most genuine you can be. 🌀

Curator's pick

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💬 In this week's issue:

• LinkedIn. A 7-step marketing strategy that helped Justin Welsh gain 430k+ followers.
• Nonprofit news. How a community-led strategy can bolster growth for a more sustainable newsroom.
• Social media ain't what it used to be. But here's how we can all contribute to making it a better place to hang out ✌️

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A 7-Step LinkedIn marketing strategy

LinkedIn is not just a space for your online resume, nor does it work like many other social media platforms. When used correctly, it can be the place where you can build meaningful connections, share your content, and become a thought leader within your niche.

Justin Welsh, one of the top creators on the social platform with over 430k followers, shares their tried-and-true strategy for marketing on LinkedIn.

#1 Determine your audience — Avoid shouting into the void by first figuring out who you're aiming to connect with on LinkedIn. Ask yourself what your passions and strengths are. Ask who are the people you can help with your skills.

Knowing who you're speaking to is the first step in delivering content that sticks and sparks conversations. It's not about casting a wide net, it's about attracting the right fish. — Justin Welsh

#2 Optimize your profile — Treat your LinkedIn profile like you would your homepage, and make sure it showcases your expertise and credibility in a way that aligns with your target audience. Make sure you update every aspect of your profile, including your banner, headshot, tagline, featured section, about section, experience section, and get some stellar recommendations.

#3 Turn creator mode on — This allows you to add up to 5 hashtags relevant to your areas of expertise and helps you get discovered by other people interested in those areas. To turn this one, click the Me button, select View profile, scroll to Resources, and then toggle creator mode on.

#4 Don't stop networking — But don't play the numbers game and add everyone (no one likes this behavior). Build a relevant network, focus on quality over quantity, and foster real relationships with real people. Personalize those connection requests!

#5 Publish shareable content — As is always the case on any platform or on your own website, sharing valuable content with your followers is the best way to expand your reach. Create a domino effect by publishing sharable posts that are packed with value.

Your content shouldn't mirror what everyone else is saying. It should inspire, challenge, and educate. It should solve problems, open up new thought avenues, and stimulate meaningful conversations.

#6 Spend time on engagement — Sharing high-quality content is half the battle. The other half is sticking around for the comments. Set aside some time to engage in the comments on your posts with thoughtful responses that further the conversation.

#7 Partner up — Work with other professionals and creators to cross-promote your work. Get involved with (or host) a LinkedIn live, jump on other people's podcasts, and create some mutually beneficial opportunities to attract new followers from each other's networks.

Interesting stories & ideas 📚

• The price of verification: What paid Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter verification means for news
• 10 things you won't want to miss in your GA4 migration
• You can now use Google sheets to deliver email to up to 1,500 recipients with mail merge tags
• The most important copywriting skills every marketer needs
• Twitter is now X as the little blue bird disappears

How a community-centric approach boosts member revenue

The Intitute for Nonprofit News shared an insightful deep dive into the success of Bridge Michigan, a nonpartisan news service published by the Center of Michigan.

Founded in 2011 as a digital-only outlet with only one editor and reporter, the organization has since grown to a team of 22 whose roles sit in editorial, growth, engagement, and membership. With a focus on transparency and accountability, the publication approaches its work as a public service and has leveraged several opportunities to grow a highly engaged audience, form a sustainable business model, and continue providing community-centered reporting.

Here's the digestible takeaways:

• Adopting a membership model — By focusing on engaging deeply with their audience, going as far as buying a van to drive around the state to meet their audience, they were able to launch a membership program in 2019 which has gone over to raise nearly $1 million from over 8,000 donors, making up 24% of the organization's revenue.

This is going to sound easy, but I really do think [engagement] is kind of the secret sauce as to how we were able to get off the ground with membership so quickly, and how we’ve been able to continue to grow,” DeLind said. “We sort of had that muscle memory, that institutional knowledge, of how to make people know that you care about them — that you’re interested in their feedback and their ideas, and that membership is really just the ultimate expression of engagement with your organization. You care so much about this thing, this organization that provides you news that you can get for free, that you are deciding to spend your money and just support it.

• Investment in staff and training — Creating full-time roles to manage their growth strategy and membership programs was a big turning point for the publication, along with participation in the Meta Journalism Project Accelerator in 2018, they were able to work on a strategy to attract and retain new readers.
• Understanding the funnel — Gaining a deep understanding of how Bridge readers were visiting the website, what they were reading, and when they were returning, became a valuable tool in understanding audience behavior, and promoting their one-time donation and membership offerings.

• Refining tiers — The Bridge team continues to refine its membership and engagement strategy, build out new benefits for donors and members, and roll out new membership tiers for individuals and organizations based on what they learn from speaking to their audience. Running a sustainable newsroom is not a set-it-and-forget-it deal — it requires constant iteration!

Bridge Michigan has firmly established the membership program in less than three years, thanks to a culture of connecting with local readers and demonstrating the value of Bridge’s reporting work to communities in Michigan.

The engagement grave

Is social media what it used to be? YouTube is out, TikTok is in, Instagram is always working through a mid-life crisis, and we're not sure what's going on with Twitter (𝕏). Many creators struggle with today's complicated algorithms, fuzzy metrics, and dead strategies. How are we expected to function within a dysfunctional social media landscape? Writer and social media manager Emily Rochotte shines some much-needed light through the engagement fog.

In all this uncertainty, there is good news. Social isn’t dead yet, but your social media accounts need some TLC. The negative experiences you, me, and our peers are having with social present a meaningful opportunity to explore how users feel about media platforms and the content that circulates on them. – Emily Rochotte

So, how can you make your social media insanity sane again? Try this:

• Make everything meaningful. The way you engage with other accounts should be relevant, and on-brand. Don't just throw likes and follows at the wall to see what sticks.
• It's not about the bots. Automation and AI may seem like the tools of the future, but it's become a big turn-off. When it comes to social media engagement, most people know a fake friend when they see one.
• Don't cut corners. Shortcuts like buying followers will only falsely inflate your numbers, making your entire social media presence inauthentic. Real engagement needs real people.
• Clean house. Don't be shy about combing through your followers and removing the obvious bots. Your follower count will drop, but you'll know who's left is real, which creates more authentic followers in the long run.
• Content is key. There's never going to be one magic remedy to curing all of your social media ills, but one of your major focuses should always be creating and sharing quality content. If your content sucks, so will everything else.
• Build relationships. Don't be afraid to show your true self to your audience. The amount of "human" you share will always be noticed, and you'll receive authenticity in return.
  

When you keep showing up, providing the information your audience is seeking, and delivering it in the manner in which they desire to consume it in order to help them learn, you’re showing them they’re valuable to you. And in a challenging world filled with an overabundance of low-quality, bot-generated content, making someone feel human is the best way to connect. That connection is the priority. The engagement that builds with it is the added bonus. – Emily Rochotte

In the end, is social media all about engagement metrics? Not really. Your audience doesn't care about your numbers, they only care about you and your content. If you keep giving them what they want and show them who you are, they'll follow you forever. Connecting with others is easy. The hard part is climbing out of the engagement grave, and connecting with yourself. 🪦

Curator's pick

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💬 In this week's issue:

• Social platforms. Which ones should you focus on in 2023?
• A signup story. New ways to implement signup forms, and test their performance.
• Reaching out. How to send cold emails that actually get a response.

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How to navigate the changing social landscape

Social media is having a moment and going through a period of change, with Twitter declining, Threads rising, and short-form video content becoming more popular than ever. So how should we navigate all of this change, as creators?

Jay Clouse from Creator Science shared a tweet thread about this topic, ranking the platforms by order of opportunity. Here's the low-down.

Writing platforms:

1. Threads
2. LinkedIn
3. Twitter

Jay argues that while Threads is new, which brings some risk, it also bridges the gap to Instagram, and it already has a fast-growing user base of 100M (Twitter has 400M). Meanwhile, LinkedIn shows steady growth, and Twitter is in decline.

Short-form video platforms:

1. Instagram (Reels)
2. YouTube Shorts
3. TikTok

Gaining followers on Instagram is a 2-for-1 with Threads (sort of), and YouTube shorts can be a foot in the door for regular, long-form YouTube, whereas TikTok feels more risky, Jay explains.

The most important takeaway: Remember that all of these are "rented" discovery platforms. They're great for growth but don't forget to invest in relationship platforms, too.

Don't neglect Relationship Platforms (email, audio podcasts, SMS, private communities). That's distribution you own. Move people from discovery → relationship platforms. — Jay Clouse

Interesting stories & ideas 📚

• How to sell yourself, without being salesy
• Twitter has blocked links to its Meta rival, Threads
• Mastodon hits 2 million active users
• How Twitter's decline may birth a new microblogging ecosystem
• 5 creator flywheels you can use to leverage your business

More ways to get more signups

Where you place a subscription form on your website, unsurprisingly, impacts the number of subscriptions you receive. While you don't want to overwhelm visitors with a signup form at every turn, it's a good idea to implement several forms in well-placed locations around your website.

ICYMI, a few weeks ago we released a brand new editor card that allows you to grow your audience from any post or page on your publication. The signup card is the easiest way to add an email subscription form to your content whenever you need to call on visitors to consider becoming a member of your publication.

Here's three ideas of where you can use a signup card on your site:

• Half-way down a long-form piece of content
• On your about page
• On a dedicated signup landing page

For each signup card, you can choose a custom width, background image or color, button text, and you can completely customize the copy on each card. This means you can tailor each signup form — make it big, small, colorful, and on-brand. Or keep it simple. The choice is yours. The best part is you never have to leave the editor 😎

Each signup card is directly integrated with memberships in Ghost, so they'll only be seen by logged-out visitors on your site, making sure not to get in the way of your existing member's experience.

Don't forget to test how your forms perform, then iterate and improve! With each signup card, you can apply a label that will automatically be added to any members who sign up using that form, giving you real insights about which signup forms perform the best.

How to do cold outreach right

Cold outreach doesn't have to be so cold. In fact, when it's done right, it can be the most effective way to achieve your goals — especially in the early days of growing a newsletter.

Co-creator of MakerBox, Sveta Bay, shared the exact cold outreach template they use to contact founders to write guest articles for their newsletter, which gets an 80% response rate!

The template:

1. Quality over quantity. Stop trying to reach 100's of people. Pick the most relevant people for your outreach, and make it personalized.
2. Get to the point fast. No small talk, people are busy.
3. Make a crystal clear offer. Describe exactly what you need and what you'll give them in return.
4. Focus on stats. Back up what you'll give people in return with numbers.
5. Close objections. Figure out what the main objections will be and address them directly.
6. End with a question. This encourages people to answer.

Here's an example Sveta shared of this template in action:

Who says cold outreach can't wear a cozy sweater? 🧣

Curator's pick

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💬 In this week's issue:

• Get personal. How events and in-person interactions can help you grow your newsletter audience.
• Getting sponsored. Useful tips about positioning newsletter ads to advertisers.
• Creative spark. Wise words about harnessing your creativity and building spaces for community to thrive.

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How face-to-face meetings can boost audience growth

Here's a growth channel you might not have thought about — in-person interactions! Whether this means attending events, creating events, offering 1:1 calls, or opening up an office hours slot.

This might sound like a lot of work, but as Simon Owens argues, it's worth considering the fact that face-to-face interactions can offer unparalleled opportunities:

I think a lot of media entrepreneurs underestimate the power of face-to-face interactions as a growth tool. If you have a phone call or in-person meeting with an operator within your niche, they're more likely to recommend your outlet to others. I've met a lot of successful creators who were extremely aggressive about attending live events and also scheduling phone calls with their most engaged audience members. — Simon Owens

Here's some examples of publishers who have benefitted from face-to-face interactions:

• Pickleball newsletter The Dink traveled to pickleball events around the US in a van with their logo on the side. This allowed the founder to meet the sport's top players and influencers (and helped the newsletter grow to 150,000 subscribers).
• Dan Oshinsky at Inbox Collective provided an automated link in the newsletter signup email offering new subscribers the chance to book a phone call, which attracted many consulting customers.
• Jane Friedman of The Hot Sheet leverages speaking at industry events to build a subscriber base.
• The RANGE Media team run AMA sessions with local Redditors, and host office-hours events in a local brewery.
• Simon Owens's Media Newsletter started organizing monthly dinners with media operators in 2023, which has led to an expanding network with dozens of media professionals.
  

Do these types of interactions scale? Not really. But they provide much greater impact on a per-person basis than any individual piece of content — Simon Owens

Investing in IRL events and interactions might require more time and personal energy than writing a piece of content, but the benefit of creating a network, boosting word of mouth, and creating a flywheel for growth shouldn't be overlooked. So, what type of face-to-face interactions could you create?

Interesting stories & ideas 📚

• Instagram's Threads surpasses 100 million users
• The beginning of an exciting new era: The future of news
• SEO: How to target specific keywords and win featured snippets
• 7 areas where entrepreneurs waste time (+ time-saving tips)
• Why doing creative work will save your life!

Are newsletter ads worth it?

In order to make newsletter ads a sustainable source of revenue, it's important to know how to sell ad slots to potential sponsors. IndieHackers community member Darko shared an interview with Emanuel Cinca, the founder of Stacked Marketer, who has monetized a newsletter with ads and gets new subscribers by doing advertising "swaps" with other newsletter creators.

The takeaways provide some useful insights into how you can better position your ad slots, and give sponsors a good idea of what they can expect upfront.

• Compared to social media ads (TikTok, Facebook, Instagram), newsletter ads are high intent. This means they tend to be more expensive but provide higher quality visitors who are more likely to convert, so long as the advertiser and newsletter audience are well-aligned.
• The #1 objection advertisers have when starting with newsletter ads is the lack of defined targeting (for example being able to segment the target audience by location, or job).
• However, many advertisers come back once they see results and many choose to book recurring slots.

It’s not uncommon for 33-50% of the available slots to be booked by returning sponsors.

• The expected click-through rate depends on many factors, including the size and placement of the ad, the size of the newsletter's list, and how engaged the list is.

The size of your newsletter matters a lot. The smaller it is, the more likely it is to have a higher CTR, and the more likely that your audience is made of superfans that engage with everything. If you are over 25,000 subs, I think over 0.50% CTR on your primary placement is pretty good, but you can definitely get it to 1%. Then smaller placements drop much lower in CTR, as expected.

• The cost per click for a newsletter ad can vary between $1-$10, depending on the audience type and size.
• Keeping your list clean is the best way to provide good results for sponsors, and therefore keep them coming back in the future. The Stacked Marketer's 58,000 readership outperforms industry newsletters that are 3-4x the size, by keeping their list clean!

Creating a creative community

Some of us don't have a choice but to create. When you first got your hands on finger paint in pre-school, the fire was lit forever. Now, as an adult, your creativity has become more than color and words — it's your friends, family, and livelihood. Max Freedman from The Creative Independent sits down with author Emerson Whitney on harnessing your creative calling and building community out of your creative work.

Honestly, I think there’s really nothing else to me besides this. There wasn’t anything else I was supposed to do. I entered this material reality with a commitment to writing things down, and it has stayed. There was no point in my life that I was wanting to do absolutely anything else at all.

So, how do you use your creative spark to truly better yourself, and the spaces around you? Emerson has some wisdom to share:

• Be mindful of how your work impacts others. You may feel like a solo artist, but the entire world is your band. Always keep your ears, mind, and heart open.
• Use social media as a creative tool. Harnessing the power of social media to connect with other creatives and fans alike is a great way to flex your work and your voice.
• Your work should reflect who you truly are. Don't be shy about injecting your identity into what you do. This is how your readers relate to your work, keeps them coming back, and makes them stick around.
• Follow the money. As you build a business around your creative work, don't be afraid to talk openly about status and class. Show your followers how you live, and they'll share their lives with you too.
• Teach! Surround yourself with other creatives who want to learn from you and vice versa. By natural osmosis, your creative space will morph into a "learning community" rather than a classroom.
  

The hope is that it’s a place where I’m sharing my resources and my experience, especially in publishing and writing, but also, I’m totally a learner, and I’m blown away constantly by how badass my students are and what they’re up to. I like the fact that we spend our time in a learning community, versus considering my students as a glass that’s empty that I’m filling with stuff.

Sometimes, all we have is human connection. We're not meant to spend our lives totally alone, yet your creative space can sometimes feel a bit isolating. If you're feeling uninspired, pop your bubble and live a little! Show the world who you are, and it'll show you right back. 🚀

Curator's pick

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Anything else? Hit reply to send us feedback or say hello. We don't bite!

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💬 In this week's issue:

• Focus. A three-step process to sharpen your focus, plus some simple tools to use along the way.
• Homepage. 6 ideas to improve your homepage, stolen from top creative entrepreneurs.
• Expert mode. Find out how better research creates a path toward becoming a true expert.

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A guide to eliminating distractions

According to Günter Richter of the IndieHackers community, the most significant challenge independent business founders face is the ability to focus and prioritize what matters.

This lack of focus poses a real risk because not only does it hinder progress, but it can, in some instances, set the business backwards — Günter Richter

There are many types of distractions that can block us, from poor planning to procrastination, fear, risk avoidance, and shiny object syndrome. But thankfully, the steps to combat this don't have to be complicated. Günter goes on to share a three-tier model they used to make a shift toward managing multiple concurrent projects with ease — a requirement for any modern digital business.

Step 1 — Define a strategy and key objectives
Identify where you are now, where you want to be, and the steps you'll take to get there, and be as specific as possible to avoid making your strategy too vague. For example, rather than "build a paid newsletter" get specific about what that looks like, for example, "launch a paid subscription and attract 100 paid members in the next year".

Step 2 — Planning the tasks required to meet your objectives
The objectives you define in step 1 need to be broken down into more detailed steps. This is where you can identify specific tasks you'll need to do to meet your key objectives. For example, this can include market research, setting your price, building a paid offering, marketing, and more. Günter recommends using a Kanban board to put all of these tasks into a backlog in order of priority. We love this method of working too (we use Notion)!

Step 3 — Use of methods and tools to remain focused
With all of that planning in place, it's time to get down to business. This is where the real work comes into play. Here's some tools and tips to help remain focused:

• Set "deep work" slots in your calendar, and turn off notifications.
• Use the Pomodoro technique and work in 25-minute bursts with 5-minute breaks and repeat 3-4 times, with longer 30-minute breaks at the end of each cycle.
• Use a time tracker on your computer, some of them (like RescueTime) will also keep a log of which apps you use the most. This is useful for reviewing how productive working days are, but also helpful for those of us who overwork and burn ourselves out!
• Find a buddy! Join a community or find a peer to buddy up with and hold each other accountable. Co-working (digitally or in-person) can also be very helpful.
• Approach one task at a time (and yes, that means no scrolling social media during periods of focus ❌📱).
  

Sound obvious? Many people will do one or two of these, but all three are a must if you want to be genuinely successful — Günter Richter

Interesting stories & ideas 📚

• A 7-step framework for finding a profitable niche
• How to format a blog post for search success
• How to share links on Twitter without losing organic reach
• SEO doesn't have to be hard — here's a simple method to get started
• A publishers guide to content organization

6 homepage tips from the smartest creative entrepreneurs

Your website's home page is your center stage — a window to the world where you can sell yourself and your work.

Josh Spector studied the home pages of 10 successful creative entrepreneurs and discovered they have a lot in common. Here are 6 similarities they share that you can borrow for your own site:

• Prioritize email signups. This is where the funnel begins. Make your signup easy, and support it with some great copywriting. Here's an example:

• Feature curated content to help people find your best work really fast. Give people an easy introduction to your work without needing to put in any work to find it.
• It's not all about you! Your home page may be a window into who you are and your work, but it also needs to be about them, your audience. Make it clear what visitors are going to get. What problem does your work solve? What transformation will it help them make?
• Include a photo of yourself... or don't! This is a common trait on the home pages of many creators, but it's not a necessity. Creators like James Clear and Josh Spector don't use a photograph.
• Include social proof. This is non-negotiable. The easiest method of doing this is to include your audience number on your signup form ("Join 125k+ subscribers"), but if you want to go the extra mile, adding some real testimonials from readers is very powerful.
• Define your "key statement" that reflects a core belief of your work or approach:

@robertoblake emphasizes discipline.@HCWeiss
emphasizes big ideas.@TheCoolestCool
emphasizes that content shapes culture.@KateBour
emphasizes that too much marketing effort is wasted.
— Josh Spector

Become an expert at anything

How much time do we spend beating ourselves up because we feel like we're doing everything wrong? Are we the problem, or is it just the approach we're taking? Not everyone learns the same way, and what works for Person A may not work for Person B (all the way through Person Z). So, what's the key? How you research! Eric Barker walks us through how better research can be your secret weapon to becoming an expert at anything.

Effective learning is not intuitive. And it’s made even more unintuitive by the fact that your brain is lazy and will play devil-on-your-shoulder the entire time. It wants to do what is easy, not necessarily what’s effective. And when it comes to learning, what feels like it’s working often doesn’t and what feels like it isn’t working often does. When you feel stupid, it’s usually a sign you’re getting smarter.

Here's the breakdown:

• Discover what doesn't work. Surprisingly, what doesn't work is usually what most people spend most of their time doing (horrible note-taking). It's all about focusing on how you research rather than what you're researching.
• Be a better organizer. Treat your research like Lego Bricks - put them together, break them apart, lose that one tiny piece that's the load-bearing brick for the entire structure that they only gave you one of, and put them back together again.
• Give your research meaning. How does your research relate to you, and your goals? Putting feelings into all your facts helps your brain (and heart) care about what you're doing, and why you're doing it. Meaning means memorable!
• Test yourself. Yes, flashcards are still one of the best self-testing tools out there. We know it sounds boring, but it's bountiful. If you want everyone to trust you know what you're talking about, you have to prove it to yourself first.
• Apply what you've learned. Whether you're sitting down to compose an article about the next killer bee attack (they're not angry, just disappointed), or trying to convince your readers why Halloween should start in May, you should be feeling pretty confident in all the things.
  

I love learning. This website is basically a walk-in closet for things I’ve wanted to learn about. Sometimes the days are boring and never seem to change but that doesn’t mean life doesn’t change — because you can learn and grow and see more in the things around you. And when you learn something new that blows your mind, that’s an awesome feeling. It means the world is different than you thought it was. And whenever we learn about the world, we learn a bit about ourselves and our place in it.

Feeling smarter yet? No? Great! That means the process is working. The more you know, the more you realize what you don't know. That's what learning and discovery are all about. Now it's time to share what you've learned with your audience because that's what experts do — teach! 🎓

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💬 In this week's issue:

• Growth levers to help build your audience.
• Copywriting secrets you can steal to sell your work.
• Guidelines for balancing creativity with business.

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Sahil Bloom's path to success: 400K subscribers 3 years

Sahil Bloom was one of the first people to popularize threads on Twitter 🧵 and has since gone on to build an audience of 1.9 million across platforms, attracting 400k email subscribers over at The Curiosity Chronicle.

Chenell Basilio writes about Sahil's road to success on Growth in Reverse, with a deep dive into the growth levers Sahil used to hit this impressive milestone. Let's break it down:

• Create content loops. Sahil borrowed tactics used by successful bloggers and recreated them on Twitter. For example, Sahil shares listicle-style tweet threads, complete with internal links back to previous threads. This creates a loop where more people read more of this content and are therefore more likely to subscribe.
• Be consistent. It sounds like a simple tactic but in reality, this one takes time and dedication. Sahil published threads at least 2x a week for the first year and still publishes 1 per week to this day to maintain an engaged audience.

When you show up every day, every week over and over, people start to notice. You become that person who knows your topic best. — Chenell Basilio

• Expand topics. Sahil initially built a niche by writing about finance in a way that people outside of the finance industry could understand. This was a great starting point, but over time, Sahil had to start expanding into other topics such as business, and personal growth. Doing this helped Sahil expand their reach.
• Build an engine. Sahil's secret weapon in being a prolific creator is dedicating a lot of time to consuming content and speaking to interesting people. This is how you build an ideas engine as a creator, by consuming at least as much as you create.

Every idea that you share is downstream from something you consume. — Sahil Bloom

• Repurpose ideas. Sahil repurposes a lot of content, reuses ideas, and makes good use of templates, which helps ease the burden of creation while remaining consistent. Especially on Twitter, templates have to be refreshed periodically, or else they become overused.
• Hustle for distribution. Great content may go unseen, especially in the early days when you have a small audience and are working hard to create that flywheel. Sahil combated this by (shamelessly) plugging threads in other people's replies.
• Build a community. Sahil tapped into creator communities such as the "1ook club" with other creators you might have heard of (such as Sam Parr and Julian Shapiro). Teaming up with your peers helps create accountability and a support network where you can help each other grow.
  

When you start out on any of these platforms, you need a community of like-minded people who are at a similar stage trying to grow. This has enormous effects…and it accelerates the entire pace of it because you’re growing together. You’re creating this rising tide for everyone within that group. — Sahil Bloom

Interesting stories & ideas 📚

• Improve your efficiency with these AI copywriting tools.
• Tips on how to find time for your side-projects, from the IndieHackers community (read the comments 📖).
• How to find and win trending keywords in SEO.
• Reddit blackouts: What happens when the internet's biggest forum turns out the lights?
• Discord plans to allow creators to sell downloadable products.

Top-tier copywriting secrets from a master wordsmith

Words on a page can be a powerful tool in business, and the best copywriting advice often comes from observing what other great writers do and distilling it into simple concepts that you can apply to your own work. Twitter user Adi Verma recently shared a thread with 5 simple tips taken from Joe Sugarman, who sold millions of pairs of sunglasses with a 240-word story.

Here's the copywriting secrets Joe Sugarman used to achieve success:

1. Invoke curiosity by telling stories, teasing benefits, answering questions, and offering explanations. This is key to keeping attention.
2. Make your opening sentence strong — its role is to invite your reader on to the next, and so on. "Make your reader slide down the page".
3. Emotion → Logic. Open your writing with emotion (which is what motivates people to buy) and then back it up with logic (which is what people use to justify their purchase). Another way to think about this: Lead with benefits, and back it up with features.
4. Become a ruthless editor because good writing is 80% editing. Remove fluff and filler, combine sentences, make sentences shorter, and revise the flow so that you're sticking to points 1, 2, and 3 ☝️
5. Emphasize the experience and sell the concept behind your offering, rather than the product itself.
   

Selling with words alone is hard. Because online, trust is low and skepticism is high. So here's something you can try: Sell the concept, not your product. Like Apple sells simplicity, not electronics. — Adi Verma

Getting creative about business

What's the ultimate career goal? For many of us, it's getting paid to do what we love. Making a living by simply living is really what mastering capitalism is all about, but is this even possible for the creators of today, or is it all just fanciful dreams that help us sleep better at night? Paul Barman over at The Creative Independent chats with writer and comedian Victor Varnado about creating a business out of being a creator.

At the core of what I’m doing is I’m trying to create a life where I can just get up and play all day. Because that’s what I used to do as a kid. I wanted to figure out how I can be an irresponsible, ridiculous artist and just do things that are nonsense and still make very good money. Every day I get to wake up and do something stupid.

How can you make this dream a reality? Victor's advice:

• Figure out what you really want. Usually, this has nothing to do with money, but everything to do with freedom.
• Perfect your communication. Connecting with different types of audiences by fine-tuning your creative message will help you grow.
• Focus on creating. Hire people to do all the things you hate, are bad at, or don't know how to do.
• Keep your inner artist happy. The bedrock of your business should always be generating joy within your creative space.
• Tune out the negative voices. You will be anxious, tired, and full of doubt. Lean on your support system, and push through.
  

I asked myself a question, “Can I be successful?” And my anxiety was like, “No, idiot.” And then I was like, “Oh, but let’s reason that through.” I reasoned it down to this sentence, which I always think of, which reminds me I can be successful: There’s already somebody out there doing it worse and they’re a millionaire.

Creating a business out of your art can be intimidating, but just because you're a right-brain thinker, doesn't mean you can't be a left-brain doer. The key is to surround yourself with people who are good at steering the ship so you can keep drawing the maps. You've colored outside the lines your whole life, now it's time to think outside the box. Get creative! 🎨

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💬 In this week's issue:

• Newsletter growth. Should you hit the ground running, or grow slowly? Here's some ideas to help carve out your strategy.
• Money matters. Find out how being transparent with your audience and talking about money can help your business.
• The art of stealing. Use these tips to ethically source inspiration for your own content.

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Embrace the pace: It's ok to grow slow

In the creator space, we talk about growth a lot. How to grow an audience, or increase the number of paid subscribers is a hot topic. But as Claire Zulkey argues in a recent Inbox Collective article — focusing on rapid growth isn't necessarily the path forward for all newsletters.

For some indie newsletters, a focus on content or community — not growth — is the right move.

Not everyone wants to build an aggressive growth strategy. In fact, leaning too hard into a multi-faceted approach with cross-promotions, social media, sponsorships, and paid marketing may actually detract from what is most important. As the saying goes, "Keep it simple, stupid!"

I have been publishing my twice-weekly parenting newsletter, Evil Witches, since 2018 with a philosophy that favors slow, organic growth — and it’s worked. With light social media marketing and in-newsletter encouragement to share, I’ve grown my free readership to over 10,000 subscribers, with nearly 10% of those readers paying a subscription fee. The newsletter brings in money — not enough to be my only mode of income, but that’s not my goal. I like having the flexibility to build out multiple revenue streams, including my newsletter, freelance writing, and editing work.

There are many indie newsletters in the world that prioritize things other than growth, and take a slow and steady approach towards success. Here's a summary of some food for thought that Claire shared in the article:

• Embracing side-projects. Many publishers find a lot of joy and productivity in running a newsletter alongside a primary job. Maybe you really like your day job, and maybe your day job is what makes your newsletter stand out within your niche. When balanced well, a newsletter as a side project can be a fulfilling endeavor and can still generate some revenue as an upside.
• Diversifying revenue streams. For many creators, a newsletter is just one piece of the puzzle. For example, Chris La Tray who writes An Irritable Métis earns 40% of their income from the newsletter, but also chooses to leave space for workshops, public speaking, and book publishing.
• Finding the right pace. Growth for the sake of growth usually involves quick wins that can often lead to an unengaged and uninspired audience. Getting realistic about the pace of growth you actually need is beneficial if you want to build a truly meaningful community. For example, if you're a consultant or coach that can only work with a handful of clients per year, do you actually need tens of thousands of subscribers?
• Slow growth is still growth. The pursuit of slow growth doesn't mean ignoring growth completely. There's nothing wrong with running special offers or driving new subscribers from social media. It's easy to feel envious when we read about that one publisher who got 50,000 subscribers in 18 months. But ask yourself this: Are you willing to do what it takes to achieve the same level of growth? Or is a slow and steady approach better for your business?

Interesting stories & ideas 📚

• How to create content that attracts your dream sponsor (🎬)
• 50+ paywall examples to inspire your subscription strategy
• How to reach Gen-Z with brand influencer partnerships
• You don't need a vision, just a daily practice. Here's why.
• Find out how one newsletter creator sold out 2 months of sponsorships in a day

Opening up about money: How to break the ice with your audience

Should we tell our readers what it actually costs to produce our work? Lauren Kaljur argues yes, especially when it comes to journalism, honesty is the best policy.

The costs of investigative journalism have been hidden for so long, so this may feel like a shift in perspective, but for smaller independent outlets, it may also be the path required to make journalism more sustainable. Lauren writes:

This spring, The Discourse took home a Canadian Journalism Award for best community investigative feature. That story was part of a series exploring how low-income renters in Nanaimo were organizing in response to cuts and alleged bullying from their nonprofit housing provider. We decided to add up how much it cost us to produce that series. It took more than 470 hours of writing and reporting spread out over nine months. A total of 26,209 words over eight feature stories, with more than $20,000 spent on wages, lawyers and administrative fees. Yikes.

When growing a community of readers, transparency around these types of costs and the work that goes on behind the scenes can make it easier to make a bolder ask for financial support (more about making your ask in this issue of the Ghost newsletter).

Whether times are tough and you're facing cutbacks, or you are simply struggling to grow in order to provide more value for readers, getting comfortable and openly sharing what you need from your community can be a winning strategy.

If you’re comfortable sharing, share away. Because, ultimately, creating and delivering journalism in 2023 has no perfect playbook or business model.

How to steal content (ethically)

Is anything original anymore? Not really. (We're pretty sure originality peaked with Crystal Pepsi.) Does this mean everything we know and love is just a reformulated thing from another regurgitated thing? Absolutely. Does this also mean that taking inspiration from other creators is stealing? According to Alex Llull over at The Steal Club, if you do it the right way, definitely not.

There’s always some resistance whenever I talk about “stealing” ideas. Some people don’t agree with the use of "Steal" when it comes to online content. And I get it. When it’s so easy to plagiarize others, saying that you “steal” content doesn’t sound nice. But as the founder of The Steal Club, I have something to say: In this context, the term Stealing is rooted in inspiration. Some people confuse Stealing with copy-pasting. That’s not cool. – Alex Llull

So, how do you determine whether you're making something your own rather than flat-out copying someone else's work? Alex wants you to follow these steps:

1. Pay attention to what's catching your eye. Make a habit of bookmarking the tweet, video, or article that made your brain happy.
2. Examine what you've saved. Decipher how the content is formatted, and extract the meat.
3. Make it your own. Take your pieces of inspiration, and mold it to your own voice and creative whims.
   

Remember, the core of stealing in the creative context relies on inspiration, not copy-pasting. You need to identify the big idea and the structures behind every piece of content. I understand some people may find this uncomfortable, but after looking at how the top creators work, I can guarantee that 99% do it this way. Stealing (the good kind) helps you become a better creator because every idea you encounter will influence you. – Alex Llull

Originality is dead, and newness is an illusion. What's "original" is in the eye of the beholder. If you're able to take what's already here and shape it into something that feels fresh, you may have discovered the key to infinite creation by inspiring someone else to steal from you. And what's a better compliment than that? 🥲

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💬 In this week's issue:

• Quality or quantity. Which one should you prioritize?
• The state of news. Get the scoop from this year's Digital News Report.
• Community. How to build a writing world where your audience is happy to spend their time.

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The great trade-off: Quality and quantity

Ah yes, the long-since debated argument in content creation: Create lots of content frequently, or create higher quality content less often?

Many will argue that you should choose one side or the other, but as Jay Clouse writes on Creator Science — the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

When people ask me whether they should focus on quality or quantity, I say "yes." — Jay Clouse

Jay goes on to explain that the journey of successful content creators is marked by three distinct phases:

1. Quantity — The fastest way to becoming "good" at creating is to create more often. By getting lots of reps in, the more you can build critical mass, all while improving your work and finding your style.
2. Quality — As your quantity approach allows you to get into the groove, you'll start to feel more comfortable and begin thinking about the quality of your work. This is a natural progression, where you can harness more intention and artistry.

Basically, you've tumbled down from Child's Hill into Insecure Canyon and have begun climbing Grown-Up Mountain. — Jay Clouse

3. Quality Quantity — The third stage involves continuing the same level of quality from stage two, while also increasing publishing frequency. This involves building a system to support a high level of output and requires a team to pull it off!
   

I believe that you won't build a resilient, sustainable creator business without a bias towards Quality. But it's unlikely that you'll create that bias without spending a season focused on Quantity. — Jay Clouse

Interesting stories & ideas 📚

• 8 SEO frameworks for scaling quality content
• 13 smart ways to repurpose content to expand your reach
• A deep dive into the art of audience growth with Josh Spector (podcast)
• Where to find trustworthy sources for your content
• 5 questions you need to answer before you sell something

Key findings from the digital news report

There have been a lot of discussions happening around the state of the news business in the past week, as the 12th edition of the Digital News Report was published, covering data from six continents and 46 markets. The report is 160 pages long, so we've distilled some of the key takeaways here for you!

If you'd like to read the full report, head to the Reuters Institute website or get the PDF version.

• Only 22% now prefer starting news journeys with a website or app, down 10% since 2018. Younger people show weaker connections with news brand websites and apps, opting for social media, search, or mobile aggregators.
• Less than a third (30%) consider algorithms a good way to get news, 6% lower than in 2016. However, users slightly prefer news selected by algorithms (27%) over that chosen by editors or journalists.
• Only around a fifth (22%) actively participate in online news, while nearly half (47%) do not participate at all. The UK and the US have seen participation decrease by over 10% since 2016. Active participators tend to be male, well-educated, and politically partisan.
• Trust in the news has fallen by 2% in the last year, with only 40% expressing trust in most news most of the time. Finland has the highest overall trust (69%), while Greece has the lowest (19%).
• News avoidance remains high, with 36% of respondents avoiding news often or sometimes. News avoiders prefer positive or solutions-based journalism and show less interest in major news stories.
• Online news payment growth seems to be leveling off, with 17% of respondents in 20 richer countries paying for any online news, unchanged from the previous year. Norway has the highest proportion of paying subscribers (39%), while Japan and the UK have the lowest (9%).
• Reading news articles remains the preferred method globally, but video news consumption is growing, particularly in countries like the Philippines and Thailand. Most video content is accessed through third-party platforms.

There are particularly interesting trends at play when it comes to social media and messaging platforms. Adam Tinworth writes on One Man & His Blog:

The balance of platforms is changing. The stable state we’ve had for the best part of a decade is over. But the changes might not be what you think.

As this graph shows, Facebook is still the largest network, but declining. Twitter remains stable (surprisingly!). Adam's advice is to utilise platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, and to keep an eye on growing messaging apps, WhatsApp and Telegram.

That means you’re going to need a multi-skilled audience team. You can’t just fall back on Facebook and Twitter — and you will have to be creative in finding ways of bringing people back to your main product from challenging platforms like the ‘gram, TikTok and messaging apps. And the necessity for that becomes even clearer when you look at the social media habits of the younger demographic. — Adam Tinworth

The art of attracting an audience

When it comes to publishing, community is key. Building a loyal following of readers isn't just about subscriptions and site traffic. Tessa R Davis believes that it's also about building a writing world where your audience is happy to live, and happy to champion.

In simple terms, audience building is the art of attracting and engaging a group of individuals (your audience) who resonate with what you do, or say (or sell). It’s about creating a community that shares your interests and values your content. Remember, your audience is not just a bunch of numbers on your analytics page. They are real people who appreciate your work and could potentially become your customers, clients, or advocates. – Tessa R Davis

How do you get started on your audience "world building"? Tessa has some tips:

• What's your specialty? Know who you are, and why you're doing what you're doing. This helps you discover who you're writing for.
• What's your content strategy? Consistency is important, but so is quality. Be sure to listen to your audience's wants and needs.
• What's your soapbox? Determine your message and who it's for. It's better to focus on one high-value platform so that your words are clear.
• Who's on the VIP list? Email addresses are gold. Build an audience based on their email rather than their social media handle.
• What are you worth? Value is key! Nothing else matters if your readers aren't benefiting from their investment.
  

Building a high-value audience isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon. It requires patience, consistency, a targeted content strategy, and, above all, providing heaps of value to your audience. It’s about understanding that your audience isn’t just numbers on a screen but real people who are investing their time in you. So make it worth their while! – Tessa R Davis

Creating your own personal fan club isn't easy, but as long as you invest in your readers, they'll invest in you. Everybody wants community, and you have the power to create your own circle that your members will be happy to be a part of for a long time. If you build it, they will subscribe. ⚾️

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The new Ghost editor (beta)

We just released the beta version of the latest iteration of the Ghost editor. Over the past few months, our team has been working hard on rebuilding our editor from the ground up using new technology that will help pave the way for the future. The good news: It’s

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💬 In this week's issue:

• Marketing. Steal this simple but effective strategy from Apple.
• The big reveal. Actually, the big 3 reveals, and why your stories need them.
• Calmer writing. Break down the obstacles in your writing process with these tips.

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What you can learn from the Apple marketing philosophy

Did you know that the marketing philosophy Apple use today originated in 1977? Sometimes the most successful strategies are timeless! As Daniel Murray writes, this marketing philosophy is still very applicable today — so here's what we can learn from it.

The fundamentals are pretty simple:

• Know your audience deeply. Better than anyone else.
• Focus on your top priorities. No distractions.
• Brand is everything. Avoid quick wins at the expense of your brand.
  

You don't have a 2nd chance to make a 1st impression. That doesn't mean overproduce everything you do. It means never against your brand ethos, not for a second.

Daniel shares some tips to help you hone in on each of these philosophies:

1. Use empathy. Put yourself in your customers' shoes. When you truly understand their needs your marketing will shine.
2. Find focus. Avoid shiny objects and invest your time, energy, and resources in a small set of priorities. Be ruthless.
3. Remember the details. People will judge a book by its cover, so make sure your "cover" is good. Details matter when it comes to maintaining a strong brand and making a good first impression.

Interesting stories & ideas 📚

• The mind-shifting relationship between iteration and innovation
• Get controversial and leverage your spiky point of view 🌵
• How to have more effective meetings
• Why you should avoid using .99 for annual plans
• How to use a content matrix to come up with new article ideas

Why every story needs 3 truths

Ann Handley shares in a recent newsletter issue that every story should reveal three truths, which can be summarised as:

1. Reveal the writer to the reader: Help the reader understand the writer.
2. Reveal the reader to the reader: Help the reader see themselves.
3. Reveal an idea: Help deliver an a-ha moment.

When a story fails to balance these reveals, it can fall flat or feel inauthentic, preventing a partnership between the writer and reader from developing.

Things that can cause a lack of balance include making it all about you/your business, overwriting, over-explaining, or lecturing.

But this doesn't mean you can't tell your story. Here's a framework to think about that will help you keep the 3 reveals in balance and help your stories shine:

1. Tell your authentic story (revealing the writer)
2. Tell this story in a way that your audience can relate to deeply (revealing the reader)
3. Help readers understand something new (the a-ha moment)

Lessons for beginner writers

Feeling like a writing n00b? Not sure how to start, where to go, or how to cope with existential dread? 🫠 Fret not! According to John Nicholas, being an amateur can actually be an asset.

Do I see myself as an expert writer? Not by any means. I only started writing online 18 months ago. I still have a lot to learn. I still have bigger dreams for my writing journey. Funnily enough, my relative inexperience is an advantage. Especially as a teacher. — John Nicholas

If getting started on your writing journey is feeling a bit chaotic, John's been able to narrow down a calmer path into five simple lessons:

• Lower your expectations. You're not perfect, your writing's not perfect, and that's okay!
• Create a formidable note-taking system to define what's important to you.
• You don't have to be creative to start writing. Document what you're already doing naturally and go from there.
• Examine your ideas and stories from multiple angles to help turn your obstacles into openings.
• Being good at writing is only half the work, the other half is promoting yourself to the world around you.

Does practice really make perfect? Not really, and that's the beauty of it. Writing will never be a perfect art form, and that's what makes creating so special. It's raw, it's organic, and it's tough, so don't be so hard on yourself when trying to accomplish your writing dreams. One person's cringe is another person's inspiration. 🥰

Curator's pick

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💬 In this week's issue:

• Announcements — ICYMI, you can now add announcements to any Ghost site in a few clicks.
• Decisions — three tips to help make more informed decisions for your content and business.
• Ideal followers — understand your ideal follower profile to produce content that is irresistible (to your ideal followers).

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Let your readers know what's new

For those times when you need to share big stories, offers, news, or new projects with your audience, Ghost has you covered with the announcement bar feature.

With built-in visibility options, you can decide whether to display your announcements to everyone on your site, to new visitors and free members, or with paid members only.

It's easy to set up an announcement bar (takes a minute or two), and allows you to make a splash about all sorts of things, such as:

• Promote a special offer for paid plans
• Drive incentives with a time-based offer
• Invite visitors to an event
• Announce a new ebook, podcast, or paid course
• Share breaking news
• Invite visitors to complete a survey
• Run a giveaway or competition

Have you taken the announcement bar feature for a spin yet? Read more about how to get started, and drop into the comments 👇 to let us know how you used it!

Interesting stories & ideas 📚

• The EVE framework: Getting backlinks in a post ChatGPT world
• How to grow your audience by dominating on LinkedIn
• Structuring your website for maximum SEO performance
• 60% of Twitter users in the US have taken a break in the past year
• 5 advertising trends that are changing media buying

Decision-making strategies

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Francesca Gino argues that self-serving bias — a tendency to interpret information with confirmation bias to serve our own interests – can be harmful to the decisions we make in life and business.

A few years ago, I advised a sales team whose job involved making cold calls. The team members would often attribute successful sales to their own skill and expertise, while blaming external factors like poor leads or bad timing for any failures. This is just one of many examples I can think of from my experience working with leaders across organizations and industries that illustrates a common human bias.

To combat this self-serving bias, and make better-informed decisions, Francesca recommends three strategies:

#1 Examine objectively
Consider the source of your information and review the information objectively.

By considering the source of the information you’re relying on, you can become more confident that in deciding on next steps, you’re using relevant information to weigh others’ thinking and actions, as well as your own.

#2 Think counterfactually
Counterfactual thinking involves considering different courses of action you could have taken to get an understanding of the factors that influenced your choice and identify changes you might want to make to future choices.

Engaging in counterfactual thinking can help you think through choices you’ve made by helping you expand your focus to consider multiple frames of reference beyond the present outcome. This type of reflection encourages you to take note of different perspectives and reach a more balanced view of your choices.

#3 Challenge your assumptions
Self-serving bias can be addressed by seeking out new information that challenges your existing beliefs. This can feel uncomfortable, but persevering with this approach can help expand perspectives and generate new ideas.

Take Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft. When he assumed the role in 2014, he recognized that the company’s focus on Windows and Office was limiting its growth potential. Not only did the company need a new strategy, he recognized that the culture needed to evolve as well.

Actively seeking out information that challenges existing preconceptions allows for beliefs to be updated based on new evidence and reduces the limitations of self-serving biases.

Your ideal follower profile

Move over "customer personas", Justin Welsh has a new term: the Ideal Follower Profile (IFP).

Your Ideal Follower Profile (IFP) is the kind of person who’ll get the most value from your content, ideas, products, and services. It’s the person who’s going to want and need exactly what you’re creating & selling.

Justin argues that understanding your IFP can be the difference between the success or failure of your content product.

An IFP can include traits like age, location, income level, occupation, and much more. But try not to get too lost in the details. Focus most of your attention on figuring out your IFP's pain points and aspirations. It's your mission to get closer to understanding what your ideal follower wants, what they need, and what blockers are getting in their way.

If you can visualize an actual person, that will help you bring your IFP to life, and you can focus your energy on helping that exact person.

Here's a summary of the process Justin shares to get closer to understanding your IFP:

#1 Start with a hypothesis
Understanding the pain points and aspirations of your IFP begins with a hypothesis. Approach people who seem to fit the bill of your IFP with a hypothesis, and listen to what they have to say to get closer to the truth. Remember, you're searching for pain points and aspirations.

#2 Tailor your content to pain & aspiration
With a clearer picture of the pain and aspirations that are shared by your IFP, it's time to put what you discovered to work and tailor your content to meet your audience where they are at.

As people interact with your content, you'll get a sense as to whether or not your hypotheses were wrong or right. You can always iterate and experiment to see what truly resonates.

#3 Iterate and optimize
Once you have people listening to you and consuming your content, diving deeper into your IFP gets easier.

If you publish high-quality, laser-focused content like that for 3-6 months, it’s almost impossible not to gain a small & ideal following.

Continue having conversations with potential and existing customers. Keep testing your hypothesis, and layer this information into your creative work. The more people you speak to, the more you'll be able to identify the trends from the outliers.

The goal is to have a balance between specificity and market size. Enough people to serve, and specific enough to stand out [...] if you can get this right, you’re going to create content that resonates deeply with the exact follower you want for your business. And guess what? Ideal followers become the best customers.

Curator's pick

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PS, did you know you can join the conversation in the comments? There's a handy comment button at the bottom of this newsletter. See ya there! 👋

💬 In this week's issue:

• Email — The overarching principles that will help you get more email subscribers.
• Flow state — How making space in your brain for creative thought can be a game-changer.
• Metrics — Vanity metrics are a distraction, here's how to avoid getting sucked in by them.

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How to grow your email list

For most publishers, growing an email list is a priority, whether you've just launched or have an established newsletter. Dan Oshinsky recently shared a killer article that contains 52 ideas to help you grow yours, based on their experience leading newsletter teams at Buzzfeed and The New Yorker.

Before you implement any of the tactics in this article, Dan argues there are 7 best practices you need to consider:

1. Nothing beats great content. As always, content is king.

Exceptional work — strong reporting, exclusive content, outstanding storytelling, remarkable writing — is crucial to growing your lists. If your content isn’t great, it doesn’t matter how good your strategy is. Mediocre newsletters don’t grow. — Dan Oshinsky

1. Figure out what works for you. Just because one growth tactic works for The Morning Brew, doesn't mean it will work well for you. It's all about experimentation and testing. Don't force something that doesn't feel right for your brand or your audience.
2. Sample your tactics. You'll have a better chance at growth if you combine different methods of building an audience.
3. Patience is a virtue. You can't implement everything all at once, and most growth strategies take time to reap the results. Expect to run tests for a month or more.
4. Be honest with yourself. Not every newsletter will reach an audience size of tens of thousands, and that's perfectly OK. Get realistic about the potential size of your audience and focus on building a loyal and engaged audience – not on the numbers.
5. Metrics matter. Understanding engagement rates, and what sources your newsletter signups are coming from are the key to understanding where the most loyal readers come from, and how to find more of them.
6. Think about retention. If you focus too heavily on growth you may lose sight of keeping existing readers engaged. Don't forget about the audience you already have.

Once you have internalized these things, go forth and start implementing some of the 52 email growth tactics in Dan's list, which includes smart ideas about where to add signup forms, lead magnets, quizzes, giveaways, and more:

52 Ways to Grow Your Email List | Inbox Collective

From landing pages to pop-ups to paid acquisition, here are 52 proven strategies to help you grow your email audience.

Inbox CollectiveDan Oshinsky

Bonus tip: Understand your why. If it feels like nothing is working, go back to the beginning and figure out why people should feel compelled to sign up. If your pitch isn't strong, then your investment into these growth tactics may be in vain.

Often when I start working with a new client, they’ll tell me, “We’ve tried a lot of tactics to convert readers to newsletter subscribers, but nothing’s worked!”

Then, when we go through their website, I’ll usually find that two things are happening. One is that they only have a handful of places where they’re promoting the newsletter, which leads to slower-than-expected growth. The second is that their pitch for their newsletter isn’t very good. — Dan Oshinsky

Interesting stories & ideas 📚

• Tinder is home to some of the best copywriters on the internet, here's what you can learn from them.
• Unlock the secrets of mind mapping to boost your creativity
• Google launches blue checkmarks for verified brands in Gmail
• Can email newsletters keep local journalism alive?
• 10 mistakes non-profits make with fundraising and how to fix them

Making space for creativity

When placing lifetivities (yes, it's a word now) on your list of priorities, where does creativity lie? Figuring out how to make time for creative work is a huge part of the writing process, yet it can still feel like such a small part of the big picture. Writer Marian Bull spoke with Grashina Gabelmann over at The Creative Independent on how to master the balancing act of your own creative practice.

I believe creative thought happens when your brain has the space for it. When it has space to be idle and the space to float around in new directions, even if it’s just 20 minutes a day. I think that’s one thing that artist residencies have really taught me: how to build space for yourself that will allow your brain to go to new places, or make new connections. – Marian Bull

Writing can take a lot of brain power. With great power, comes great writesponsability. 🕷️ Even if you've been writing for years, have you ever taken the time to make a proper mental space for your craft? Here's how Marian does it:

• Focus on how your projects make you feel before worrying about how others will feel about it. It's all about you.
• Make time for anti-productivity. Go to the park, see a show, and dine with friends to refill your tank.
• Establishing constructive habits takes time. Experiment, play, and be open to ambiguity.
• Respond to your creative needs in an honest way. Your work may not quite yet pay the bills, but if it feeds your soul (chicken soup or otherwise), keep going.

One thing I’ve really had to learn about myself as a freelancer is I’m not going to have these fully formed ideas in my head all the time. I just have to work through them, and then I will figure them out. It often means sitting down with a fragment of an idea, or even just a feeling, and seeing where it takes me, rather than sitting down with a plan of what I’m going to write. – Marian Bull

Building your special space that delivers meaningful results can be quite the task, but there's no need to rush it. The best creative paradise you can make for yourself is one that fuels your fire while keeping you cool. Remember, doing what you love can simply be enough. The rest will come naturally. Write that down! 💕

Being mindful of vanity metrics

Businesses and content creators often prioritize the wrong metrics when assessing their performance, and as Fio at contentfolks explains, this can obscure having a true understanding of how your content performs, whether you're reaching your goals, and even mask potential problems.

Fio shared a personal anecdote in this newsletter issue about using the Headspace app to cultivate a mindfulness habit but soon found that focusing too much on maintaining a streak of daily meditation as the measure of success hindered the actual goal.

Vanity metrics are easy to pick and hard to let go of. They can subtly but significantly damage the system for a long time before you spot them, at which point you’ll need to take a hard look at your actions and decide how to course correct. Fast. — Fio Dossetto

Some examples of vanity metrics in the content world include:

• Number of words in a blog post. This doesn't truly indicate the value of the post to the reader.
• Number of pieces of content published weekly or monthly. This doesn't reflect the true impact of these pieces, and even if it brings in more traffic, this could ultimately be meaningless if visitors take no subsequent action.
• Number of social media followers, pageviews, or subscribers. These metrics can look spectacular on the surface, but if your readers are not actually engaged then this metric doesn't translate to anything meaningful.

The takeaway: Choose metrics that genuinely reflect progress towards your objectives, and regularly review them to weed out vanity metrics that are spending unnecessary time and energy.

Curator's pick

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💬 In this week's issue:

• Internal change – How to take back control when your goals and ideas feel overwhelming.
• Optimizing content – This simple SEO hack can get your existing content to rank better, and bring in more new traffic.
• 40/40/20 rule — A success formula for effective ad campaigns.

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The crisis of being stuck

Getting caught up in your own personal whirlwind of work, goals, and ideas can feel overwhelming. You're constantly asking yourself, "How am I going to get all of this stuff done, and catch up on Succession?" This "crisis" happens to us often (every decade, in fact). Eric Barker has a few secrets on how to get unstuck.

First, it’s ubiquitous. We all feel it. Second, people don’t realize just how common it is — which makes them feel worse. And finally, the stuck we feel can be internal or external. External means we literally don’t have what it takes to move forward. We lack the money or resources. But that’s only true in 10% of cases. The other 90% is internal. And that form of “stuck” is surmountable. By making a change we can move forward and get back on track toward fulfillment.

Internal change is what we have the most control over. So, how do we take control?

• Simplify your roadmap. Tweaking just one thing in your workflow can create a domino effect of positive change.
• Brainstorm until the cows come home! Quantity produces quality. It's simple cow science. 🐄
• Say "yes" more. When you're feeling stuck, it's easy for "no" to be your favorite word, but exploring and experimenting helps you find what works.
• Don't get caught up in the middle. The beginning and end of your work is the most exciting, so do what you can to make the middle feel weightless.
• Focusing too much on being perfect will slow you down, and wear you out. Perfection doesn't automatically mean excellence.

Don’t let yourself stay stuck. You’re the protagonist in the movie of your life and what you think is Act Three might only be Act One. You might feel like you don’t have enough time left for a big shift but you have more time than you think. The crisis of being stuck can feel like a near-death experience. But when it leads you to something better, you’ll realize it’s not. It’s a near-life experience.

When feeling the pressure of your own mental weight, keep reminding yourself that you make all the rules. Go when you want to go, and stop when you want to stop. No matter your personal pace, you'll get to the end on your own terms. 🚶

Interesting stories & ideas 📚

• What publishers need to know about Google's transition to GA4
• 30 tools to help streamline your content creation
• How to tell if your landing page copy is not working (and how to fix it)
• AI-generated content: A guide to the new era of content
• How to boost your business by pinpointing high-impact tasks
• A cheat sheet to generate ideas for your future social media posts

Unlock your content's full potential

Creating great content consistently is an important aspect of running a creator business, but the quantity of your content should never come at the cost of quality.

When it comes to SEO and attracting new organic traffic, the same logic applies. In fact, it may be better to stop publishing brand-new content and instead focus on optimizing the content you already have.

Jake Ward shared a simple recipe on Twitter to help identify areas for optimization:

1. Go to Search Console (if you haven't set this up already, here's a guide)
2. From the Search results page, filter for the last 28 days, and export your data

1. Open your exported data using Google Sheets and filter for queries in positions 4-20. This gives you a list of keywords that your content is already being discovered for in the search engines, but could be optimized to perform better.
2. Use these keywords to inform your content optimization: Update existing articles, add new sections, update headings, and so on.

Updating and optimizing existing content comes with the added benefit that those pages are already indexed and discoverable, and hopefully, also have a few backlinks from other domains. Using the data available to you to improve this content can provide some near-term wins for SEO performance, compared to writing entirely new articles.

The 40/40/20 rule of direct marketing

Many people think copywriting and design make or break an ad campaign, but as copywriters Eddie Shleyner and Kim Krause Schwalm argue, this is not true. According to them, the 40/40/20 rule can be applied to the success of any direct marketing campaign:

40% on the “List”
40% on the “Offer”
20% on the “Creative”

In other words, if your “List” and your “Offer” are excellent but your “Creative” is abysmal, then technically, you still have a roughly 80% chance of success. Or if your “List” and your “Creative” are excellent but your “Offer” is abysmal, then you have a roughly 60% chance of success. Etcetera.

This rule can be used to help predict the success of any direct marketing promotion before you launch it, as well as evaluate its success afterward. Here's a quick breakdown of each factor:

• The List — 40% of your success depends on the strength of your list, or the people your message is going to be shared with. Your list should be a segment of your market, rather than your entire market, and consist of people who have a proven desire for your product.
• The Offer — The next 40% of your success depends on the strength of your offer, which involves a combination of desire, price, and incentive. Your product needs to be something people desire. It needs to be at the right price point. And your ad needs to give people an incentive to buy now.
• The Creative — The final 20% of your success depends on the strength of your creative: the copy, design, and format of your ad. Copy is king, but it must play nicely with the design. The more research you put into understanding your audience and presenting a solution to their problems, the more you'll tap into this 20% success factor.

Curator's pick

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Let's dive in, the water is warm & there aren't many sharks around.

💬 In this week's issue:

• The Artisans Way — Why creators need to learn how to stand out as the Age of Average nears its end.
• Attention — Simple ideas to help your writing garner attention.
• Love/hate – What to do if you find yourself hating writing (it happens to the best of us).

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Standing out in a sea of averageness

In a recent Foster collective piece, Rob Hardy writes about the inescapable sense of averageness that is pervasive everywhere you look.

Creative works that inspire awe, and that speak to the depths of the human spirit, feel like an endangered species.

As writers in the digital realm, it's obvious how the world pushes us to conform and participate in creating average content. To get ahead, our content needs to be catchy, and skimmable. It needs to be optimized for search and able to reach people on social media. We have to create personal brands, add value, and niche down.

For the past 10 years, centralized platforms and their algorithms have visibly rewarded writing that adheres to a narrow set of rules.

But what if the Age of Average is nearing its end? As new tools and generative AI enter the picture, average writing will be easier and faster to produce, and cheaper too. What if the old playbooks for how to succeed start to fall apart, and people begin turning their attention to new corners of the internet?

In this new world, the only writing that will reliably cut through the noise, and reach people in their isolated corners of the internet, will be writing that’s thoughtfully crafted and unmistakably human.

In this new landscape, Rob argues, the old strategies for success will no longer be effective. Only thoughtfully crafted writing will be able to cut through the noise. New strategies for success will involve blending modern tools with an artisanal approach to produce unique, durable work meant to be cherished. This strategy, which Rob names "The Artisans Way," should allow creatives to speak their truth, embrace imperfections, and create work that feels alive.

In a world of atomization and disconnection, where the Age of Average surrounds us and dampens our spirit, we believe this approach is how we reverse the tides. We can choose the path of less, but better. We can reject the incentives nudging us to behave more like machines and factories. We can reclaim our humanity, approach our work as artisans, and focus not on shouting louder, but mattering more. We can choose The Artisan's Way.

Interesting stories & ideas 📚

• Psychological principles to improve your marketing
• Can phrasing H2's into questions help boost organic traffic?
• Why you shouldn't worry about AI-powered search - yet!
• What is Bluesky and how do you join?
• Tips for creating successful Reddit ads as a small business

7 ways to maintain attention in your writing

As a writer you rely on the attention of others. First your writing must attract the attention of your audience, and then it must keep it. In the modern world, doing both of these things has becoming increasingly difficult, as Morgan Housel argues.

Getting people’s attention has never been easy, but social media made it a nightmare. Someone reading a book 20 years ago had few other distractions in front of them. Today your phone offers an Olympic competition for your dopamine.

Using short-term wins like clickbait comes at the expense of a long-term loss of trust — and we trust you know this is not an ideal scenario.

But the good news is that the loudest voices don't always have to win. Morgan shares some tips you can run with today, to help strike a healthy middle-ground:

• When you invest time in writing, you hope that others will invest in consuming it. Respect your readers' time by getting to the point, fast.
• Good stories will always stick with people more than anything else. It doesn't mean you can't write in long-form, but don't do that at the expense of a good story (or to make up for a lack of one).
• Create "ah-ha" moments for readers. Follow your gut when it comes to explaining things people intuitively know is true, but haven't yet put into words.
• No matter how complex the subject, write in language anyone can comprehend. Writing clearly can't be underestimated.
• Deliver new information through the lens of something readers already know. Asking people to leverage something they already understand is a great way of communicating. Analogies are cool.
  

There are three types of written content: You can give people information; you can give them an opinion; or you can try to change the way they think. The first is ultra-competitive. The second pulls you towards pandering. The third is, I think, by far the most powerful, and the best way to not only get but keep people’s attention.

You're going to hate writing 🙃

In a love-hate relationship with writing? You're not alone. When you love something so much, you're bound to hate it at times. Although the hate is temporary, it can feel discouraging enough to make you quit altogether. Writer David Perell walks us through how to stay committed to (or take a break from) your craft during times of turmoil. 😵‍💫

If you’re indifferent about a piece of writing or it feels like busy work to you, stop working on it. And if you permanently hate writing, don’t write. Cut the masochism and do something else. When I hate writing, it’s because I love it so much. An experienced writer is somebody who knows when the hatred is temporary.

Doing what you love won't always feel like love, and that's perfectly normal. Here are some tips to help you level out:

• Remind yourself that negative emotions are temporary
• Take a break and do something else you love
• Reassess your long-term goals and focus on why you love to create
  

The difference between a “writer” and “somebody who writes” is the difference between showing up on a schedule and only showing up when you’re inspired. If you insist on always loving the craft, you’ll quit in the face of turmoil. Greatness isn’t always rainbows and butterflies.

Greatness isn't always rainbows and butterflies? Lisa Frank would like a word. 🦄

So, don't get discouraged! The negativity you sometimes feel when writing will pass, and it just means you're doing the love thing right. We love that.

Curator's pick

Enjoy this newsletter?

Forward to a friend, sharing is caring.

Anything else? Hit reply to send us feedback or say hello. We don't bite!

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💬 In this week's issue:

• Copy or content. What's the difference between copywriting and content writing (and why you need to be skilled at both!)
• The 30-30-30 method. Why you should be talking to your customers and subscribers more often.
• Anti-goals. Doing things you dislike is important, sometimes.

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The difference between copywriting and content writing

Writing great words is an important part of most businesses in the modern world, especially when your business is your content. Whether you're writing newsletters, articles, essays, or crafting a killer landing page, your words matter.

Bill Widmer writes in an Ahrefs article:

There are two types of writers you can become (or hire): A content writer or a copywriter.

Copywriting usually takes the form of sales content that persuades visitors to take action, such as an ad, copy for a signup form, or copy for a landing page.

Content writing is typically longer-form, and created to inform or entertain readers, such as articles, newsletters, and ebooks.

Some types of content may sit between the two. For example, you might write Tweets that are intended to convert, as well as Tweet threads that are intended to inform.

As publishers, it's important to become skilled at both crafts. After all, your newsletter relies on great content writing, but it also relies on strong copywriting to encourage visitors to subscribe to receive your great content writing.

It's never a bad time to take a step back and consider which areas of your creative writing practice need the most improvement. Here's a few resources that we love getting inspiration from:

• The Write Better guide by Julian Shapiro
• Digestible copywriting tips from Harry Dry at Marketing Examples
• Practical copywriting course for beginners, by Mike Nardi on YouTube
• Foster.co — A community of writers, editors, and experts passionate about helping independent online writers.

Got any writing resources you love that we didn't mention here? Hit reply and let us know. We're all learning together!

Interesting stories & ideas 📚

• Should you use subscriptions or advertising as your business model? (The answer: Both!)
• Publishers are experimenting with generative AI to boost SEO
• Media freedom is in dire health, according to a number of countries
• How Reddit can generate thousands of pageviews
• A process for finding easy-to-rank keywords for a new domain

Why you should spend time talking to your customers

Whether you're selling content as a product or delivering a free newsletter — it's important to make the time to speak to your customers/audience to validate that what you offer solves their needs. But how often should you be talking to customers? And what kinds of conversations do you need to be having?

Justin Welsh shared a simple method for approaching this on Twitter:

What is the 30-30-30 Method? A simple framework to make sure you're working on 3 specific levers that will deepen your knowledge of customer pain and problems. It's a simple concept to create effective growth (without losing focus). — Justin Welsh

Step 1: Spend at least 30 minutes per week talking to your ideal customers about their problems to help build a business around their needs (and not your own assumptions). Asking them about their problems is a great way to identify how your content or product can help solve their problem.

Step 2: Spend at least 30 minutes a day figuring out how to solve the problems people told you about in step 1. For example, if they tell you they don't have enough time to stay abreast of news in your niche, can you solve that for them by curating the best content in the most easily digestible format?

Step 3: Spend another 30 minutes a day creating content to solve the problems your audience has. Keep their pain points in mind at every step, and write for exactly those people.

If you can follow the 30-30-30 Method, you'll always be improving. It's hard NOT to get better at your business by spending time with customers, creating unique solutions, and talking about them online. — Justin Welsh

Are 'anti-goals' the new goals?

Goals have always been used as a roadmap to help prioritize what we want out of life. They can measure progress and help us to stay motivated, but can focusing too much on big goals lead to big roadblocks? Writer John Nicholas explains how 'anti-goals' might be a better path.

For me, it is more important to ask what our anti-goals are. By defining what you are scared of becoming, you get closer to figuring out what you stand for. By pointing out what you want to avoid, you get closer to where you want to go. – John Nicholas

Personal resets are important. In a goal-ception type of way, anti-goals can be your new goals for mastering your actual, big goals. 🤯 Here's how:

• Don't be afraid to retry things that haven't worked in the past.
• Discover what you don't want, so you can achieve what you do.
• That new thing you know for certain you'll hate? Do it anyway.
  

My anti-goal has kept me going. Writing has been the antidote to my restlessness. I've created artifacts I can point back to. I've helped people in small, but meaningful ways. I'm having more of an impact by publishing my ideas. – John Nicholas

'Anti' is the new 'pro'. It's ok to break away from your own personal norm and get into a little bit of danger. Warning signs can give you just as much guidance as a green light. 🚦

Curator's pick

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