This is very timely Sara! Did you see the lovely Fiona Humberstone had her Facebook account hacked (hacker posted inappropriate content) & Meta shut down her Instagram account as a response... 41K following, 8 years of content, and it wasn’t even reviewed by a human, with no opportunity to appeal... Email lists are actually worthy of more of our creative energy & time than IG or elsewhere.
For people saying you’re not sure what to write, send us letters from a friend, just write to one person & send it to many. What do YOU find interesting to read about? Write & send that. Don’t need to be a great writer, I promise. X
I will read fully and dig into this later, but just to say that I only started my newsletter recently, then moved it to Substack when I heard your podcast about it, and I absolutely love it ❤️ the connection and response has been amazing.
What a great read Sara, thank you! I've been lurching around Substack for a few months now and feel very drawn to creating something here, it seems like just what I've been looking for in a social platform, less shouty. My perfectionist tendencies are screaming about not being a writer, but I dove in and discovered there are some photographers doing great stuff on here too. I don't know where to begin, but I guess I just have to - like you suggested in your email.
I'd been thinking of starting a Substack for a while and then your podcast episode gave me the reminder I needed! It's my favourite thing I've done creatively in years and I love finding new Substacks to check out too 💕
I really hope email/Substack can also be like a revival of personal blogs from the 2010s. I get that same feeling of excitement here as I did when I first created a blog back then. :)
I’m still scared of sending an email for some reason 🙈 - I feel like I’m just trying to run away to Substack when maybe I should be pouring more my time there... need to go back to all your tips here and make some notes! Haha 🤓
Sara, I think we mentioned this is SYS too, but I think you need a new course - Email Letters Retreat! This is absolutely my focus for 2023, it is absolutely where my more recent sales are coming from, where once upon a time it was IG, so few of my followers seem to even see my content anymore. I am using Substack here, which has been so delightful, and I am also still using my own (Flodesk) newsletter, working out what I want both to contain, figuring out the flow. So looking forward to catching up on Chat, but of course, as an android user, we continue to wait...
Ah SARAAAA this post is absolute gold and something that I feel like I want to print out and read whenever I doubt myself or my direction!!! (👵🏻) I’m a new freelance writer and the reason I bravely gave it a go is because I grew a really lovely engaging community through Instagram just by sharing my words and photos. Lately though....we’ll we all know how Instagram engagement has gone! I’m almost finished a website for a online ‘cv’ type place so that I *might* get my words published in indie mags etc but I’ve recently joined substack thinking it might be quite useful for me (no word limit and a way to get everyone maybe to actually SEE my words! Imagine!). This post was so useful and helpful and marvellous!! I’m off to share it... THANK YOU xxx
Your email is great inspiration this morning. My mailing list has been languishing while I figure future directions out. I’m inspired to write a chatty hello & see where this takes us.
Really helpful article Sara! I love the space you're creating here. You're such a great writer. I started my mailing list this year and love the privacy of being able to get to know my followers intimately. xx
Brilliant post! Thanks for sharing 😃. I just downloaded the Substack app a few weeks ago, and I love it -fnising myself all nostalgic, it’s like reading blogs again. Never going back to IG, and TicToc, please no 🫠
I switched over both my newsletter and Patreon to Substack and it has been a game changer! It feels like old school blogging because there are actually people on the other end! Very excited about the chat feature.
This is great motivation to jump back into my substack. After two posts I fell into the perfectionist trap which results in posting nothing. Thanks for the push to get back to it!
Such a great and in-depth post Sara, thank you. In the past year or two I've been really pleased with how my email list has grown but every time I mention it I still get new subscribers. Part of me thinks that everyone who follows me must have seen it by now but they obviously haven't (or the time wasn't right for them to sign up before). Talking about it loudly and often seems to be the key.
This is very timely Sara! Did you see the lovely Fiona Humberstone had her Facebook account hacked (hacker posted inappropriate content) & Meta shut down her Instagram account as a response... 41K following, 8 years of content, and it wasn’t even reviewed by a human, with no opportunity to appeal... Email lists are actually worthy of more of our creative energy & time than IG or elsewhere.
For people saying you’re not sure what to write, send us letters from a friend, just write to one person & send it to many. What do YOU find interesting to read about? Write & send that. Don’t need to be a great writer, I promise. X
I will read fully and dig into this later, but just to say that I only started my newsletter recently, then moved it to Substack when I heard your podcast about it, and I absolutely love it ❤️ the connection and response has been amazing.
What a great read Sara, thank you! I've been lurching around Substack for a few months now and feel very drawn to creating something here, it seems like just what I've been looking for in a social platform, less shouty. My perfectionist tendencies are screaming about not being a writer, but I dove in and discovered there are some photographers doing great stuff on here too. I don't know where to begin, but I guess I just have to - like you suggested in your email.
I'd been thinking of starting a Substack for a while and then your podcast episode gave me the reminder I needed! It's my favourite thing I've done creatively in years and I love finding new Substacks to check out too 💕
I really hope email/Substack can also be like a revival of personal blogs from the 2010s. I get that same feeling of excitement here as I did when I first created a blog back then. :)
I’m still scared of sending an email for some reason 🙈 - I feel like I’m just trying to run away to Substack when maybe I should be pouring more my time there... need to go back to all your tips here and make some notes! Haha 🤓
Sara, I think we mentioned this is SYS too, but I think you need a new course - Email Letters Retreat! This is absolutely my focus for 2023, it is absolutely where my more recent sales are coming from, where once upon a time it was IG, so few of my followers seem to even see my content anymore. I am using Substack here, which has been so delightful, and I am also still using my own (Flodesk) newsletter, working out what I want both to contain, figuring out the flow. So looking forward to catching up on Chat, but of course, as an android user, we continue to wait...
:/
Ah SARAAAA this post is absolute gold and something that I feel like I want to print out and read whenever I doubt myself or my direction!!! (👵🏻) I’m a new freelance writer and the reason I bravely gave it a go is because I grew a really lovely engaging community through Instagram just by sharing my words and photos. Lately though....we’ll we all know how Instagram engagement has gone! I’m almost finished a website for a online ‘cv’ type place so that I *might* get my words published in indie mags etc but I’ve recently joined substack thinking it might be quite useful for me (no word limit and a way to get everyone maybe to actually SEE my words! Imagine!). This post was so useful and helpful and marvellous!! I’m off to share it... THANK YOU xxx
Your email is great inspiration this morning. My mailing list has been languishing while I figure future directions out. I’m inspired to write a chatty hello & see where this takes us.
Really helpful article Sara! I love the space you're creating here. You're such a great writer. I started my mailing list this year and love the privacy of being able to get to know my followers intimately. xx
I really need to move my email list to substack! It's rather neglected at the moment.
Oh, I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been turning all my focus to Substack now and it feels like the best thing to do already.
Brilliant post! Thanks for sharing 😃. I just downloaded the Substack app a few weeks ago, and I love it -fnising myself all nostalgic, it’s like reading blogs again. Never going back to IG, and TicToc, please no 🫠
I switched over both my newsletter and Patreon to Substack and it has been a game changer! It feels like old school blogging because there are actually people on the other end! Very excited about the chat feature.
This is great motivation to jump back into my substack. After two posts I fell into the perfectionist trap which results in posting nothing. Thanks for the push to get back to it!
Such a great and in-depth post Sara, thank you. In the past year or two I've been really pleased with how my email list has grown but every time I mention it I still get new subscribers. Part of me thinks that everyone who follows me must have seen it by now but they obviously haven't (or the time wasn't right for them to sign up before). Talking about it loudly and often seems to be the key.