The Grasshopper #53: Building a Reader Base
The single most important aspect of writing online
Can you see your work as a business in addition to a form of creative expression? That’s one of the leaps any working writer needs to deal with. And when you write online, having a loyal reader list is critical to success.
A year ago when I started this newsletter, I had a small list of Medium readers who had signed up to get emails of my writing there, about 70 people. Email lists are not the primary way you’re building a following there. The readers there have to discover you, in a way by accident.
So, while I had around 4000 Medium Followers back then, not that many had opted to get my stuff via email. One problem with the Medium model is that it’s difficult to impossible to transfer those Followers to another platform. It’s their proprietary model and I can live with that.
But the founders of Substack recognized that building an email subscriber base was a way for writers to own access to their loyal readers. That’s a major reason why they built the platform. And when you start to build a subscriber base you start to realize you have a significant business asset that you own.
In other words I could take my Substack subscriber base with me. That’s a big deal. But how to grow that base?
I cruised along for three or four months with no real growth. Then I hit on a way to leverage my bigger following on Medium to attract subscribers to The Grasshopper and my numbers immediately began growing.
It may seem a little idiotic, especially given my past career in marketing, that it took me so long to figure out the obvious. But I didn’t for a while. Then one day last August I realized that a lot of Medium readers were likely to be writers or aspire to be writers. D’oh! (slaps bald forehead).
A simple blurb began appearing at the end of all my Medium pieces, appealing to those writers by offering up The Grasshopper. And my numbers grew. I’m still in the middle tier for subscribers from what I can tell but after a year it is nearing 1000 free subs, that is to say, you guys.
Writing is a solitary activity by necessity. I can write just about anywhere because once I get started the noise of the world recedes from my world. That’s a learned skill, but solitude is not enough. Knowing I have readers is a big deal.
In the nineties, I wrote six how-to books on entrepreneurship for two different national publishers, but the only way I knew anyone was paying attention was via royalty statements which consisted of one number, sales for the most recent quarter.
I felt like I was sending those books off into an impenetrable void. The advances and royalty checks were nice but writing an entire book and not knowing who was reading it or why left an emptiness once I’d sent it off to the editor.
It was really only in recent years that I learned the value of having loyal readers and getting feedback from them in more or less real time. It’s something way beyond monetary considerations.
I don’t get a ton of comments at The Grasshopper, yet, but on Medium I can barely keep up with them and most are supportive. But I write about controversial subjects there so readers feel empowered to send their two cents and it means a lot.
Despite the claims of rapid success in side hustle stories, the reality is that building a base takes patience. Yes, you may get bursts of followers when an article goes viral, but those are outliers. It’s slow and steady wins the race.
I’m ok with this. Maybe it is the patience you acquire as you get older. When you’re starting out it’s natural to want things to move faster. But wanting won’t make it happen. You have to build it before you can enjoy it.
But there is this benefit if you hang in there: the more readers you have, the more readers you get. It’s a function of algorithms, those mysterious equations that combine factors to determine how many people see your work. All we can do is keep at it and build a voice that is our own.
Absurdity
Sometimes it seems that, as a country, we are having some kind of collective nervous breakdown. Because I write about current events, I try to have some sense of where things are going with our democracy. But this week a former President told NRA members that criminals were running out of department stores carrying refrigerators.
When I read that I had to sit back and process how a mind gets to such an absurd place and how his followers process something that is patently absurd and physically impossible. It’s in the ‘you can’t make this up’ category, a category that is being stretched to its limits by what is acceptable and normal.
If you’ve seen Mel Brooks’ wonderful comedy Young Frankenstein, you know what Abby Normal is. I’m starting to wonder if Abby Normal is becoming normal.
When I write about politics I really wonder how people come around to accepting things that are crazy and nonsensical but also dangerous and divisive. I could write about decency but it doesn’t sell. But I try to inject it into my writing here on The Grasshopper.
We all need balance in life but lately things seem lopsided and stranger than Alice In Wonderland. I guess that’s just reality these days. But writers are often witnesses and we know reality will always surprise us.
Interesting survey of self-published authors finds their average income is going up. Guess I better get my novel publishing plans going.
After a crazy couple of news weeks, there’s a short lull right now. But that won’t last with the Fox/ Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit trial beginning today. As I’ve noted previously, journalism is not my forte. I’m an opinion and observation writer on these topics. From what we know, Fox appears to have been generating fake rage about the 2020 election.
It was not stolen, nor was it corrupt. Writers and on air personalities who lie are basically propagandists and they can create distrust, unjustified fears, and division.
This week I wrote about the increasingly untenable living situation in Florida after Ft. Lauderdale got an astounding 25” of rain in just seven hours. The Medium article has gone viral but the vast majority of that traffic for this piece was from external reads, which I do not get paid for.
So, when I look at those stats, I’m conflicted. Yes, I’m reaching a lot of new readers, but it is messing up my overall stats and I’m not seeing a decent payday from it. So it goes.
This is an example of why building a base of loyal readers who are willing to pay for your work is a big deal. And it is why you see my pitching for upgrading to paid. I’m trying to balance the satisfaction I get from writing The Grasshopper with the time I’m putting in.
Did you write today?
Martin Edic
1215 words
A paid subscription or upgrade gets you access to a year’s worth of my writing on writing, a growing archive of over one hundred stories and ideas. Please consider supporting this work financially. A few dollars a month is all it takes. Thank you.
Lani, I’ll have to check that but everything is included with the paid upgrade. The main benefit of paid is access to back issues and my occasional guides to various ways to generate income with writing.
especially good piece. it got me considering a transition from "receiving-only mode" to
"receiving-and-sending mode". I also considered moving from free to paid subscriber, but couldn't find "Weekly Wednesday Issue and biweekly Witness Chronicles" in either of the paid subscription menus! I'm a free member now, and don't want to lose what i'm currently getting.