I moved to Substack a few weeks ago, but I've been writing my newsletter for a while. There are many aspects of your essay that resonate with me. One of the biggest benefits of writing, I find, is that it makes me more curious about my subject area (which, like you, includes research integrity). Writing the newsletter helps me to pull the threads together and better understand the trends and hot topics. It's a genuinely enjoyable process.
Thanks so much for your comments! I am glad this essay resonated with you!
Yeah, it's definitely work, but also fun. That's why I figured I would do a six month reflection, as I know I am not the only one out there doing this. Hopefully it has at least a tiny bit of insight that will help you on your Substack journey (and if not, at least it's great to connect with you!)
“[…]I’ve realized that translating ideas into clear, engaging writing is one of my favorite parts of the job.” Love this. It’s such a valuable, and personally satisfying, experience. It was one of the things I loved most in my career, though for me I’d say “[…] into clear and engaging communication […],” as that includes presentations and in-person verbal explanation as we worked on an issue together.
I was surprised that I am quite happy with the slow growth of my newsletter. It’s niche and it should stay niche. In comparison to other social media, Substack is slow, and that is very enjoyable because you can take the time to really read and interact with people.
Yeah, exactly. That's why I posted this, and the first point was about defining what one wants to get out of it. If you know what your goal is ahead of time, it becomes easier to write and define one's own success. Some people aspire to be viral, and make serious dollars here, and that's completely fine. Others enjoy being niche, and that's fine also.
And related to your niche... When mentioning TikTok and Insta in my post, I was going to put a reference to cat videos, but then I came to my senses :)
Thanks for sharing your experience! Do you stick to your weekly posting schedule pretty faithfully, and if not, does it matter?
I'm also impressed by how prolific you are on here, not just with posts but with notes and comments. I'm curious how you allocate your time to reading and engaging with others versus producing your own content? For me, there are so many incredible accounts on here that I find myself putting off posting to catch up with all the great content!
I originally planned to post every Tuesday, but sometimes I couldn't make that happen from a timing perspective. So, just getting something posted once per week became my goal. I think I missed one week in October, but otherwise I have stuck to that.
Does it matter? My guess is yes, but it all depends. I think consistency helps people recognize who one is and generate better connections, and once that is built perhaps there is some wiggle room to be less consistent. But, it also depends on content. I see some people on here who write very inconsistently, but gets tons of engagment.
As far as allocating time to everything, it just depends on the day. I like "deep think" time for big projects. If I have something substantial to work on, I want to have a 2-3 hour block without interruption. But there's often times where my schedule is peppered with meetings and such, so I will have 30-60 minute chunks of time. That's when I take on smaller tasks, or sometimes just go on Substack and browse. So, that's when I write comments or notes.
I was going to write this in my article, but it was already getting long... but honestly, I have spent more time on the "producing" side rather than "consuming" side of Substack (so the opposite approach of what you are doing!). There's a lot of great things to read here, and I have bookmarked many of them, but often don't get around to having some downtime for that type of reading for weeks. I'm trying to get better about that, because there really is a lot of interesting stuff here!
I moved to Substack a few weeks ago, but I've been writing my newsletter for a while. There are many aspects of your essay that resonate with me. One of the biggest benefits of writing, I find, is that it makes me more curious about my subject area (which, like you, includes research integrity). Writing the newsletter helps me to pull the threads together and better understand the trends and hot topics. It's a genuinely enjoyable process.
Thanks so much for your comments! I am glad this essay resonated with you!
Yeah, it's definitely work, but also fun. That's why I figured I would do a six month reflection, as I know I am not the only one out there doing this. Hopefully it has at least a tiny bit of insight that will help you on your Substack journey (and if not, at least it's great to connect with you!)
“[…]I’ve realized that translating ideas into clear, engaging writing is one of my favorite parts of the job.” Love this. It’s such a valuable, and personally satisfying, experience. It was one of the things I loved most in my career, though for me I’d say “[…] into clear and engaging communication […],” as that includes presentations and in-person verbal explanation as we worked on an issue together.
Congrats on hitting the 6 month mark! I started writing on substack a month after you!!
I was surprised that I am quite happy with the slow growth of my newsletter. It’s niche and it should stay niche. In comparison to other social media, Substack is slow, and that is very enjoyable because you can take the time to really read and interact with people.
By the way, your substack stand is great!
Yeah, exactly. That's why I posted this, and the first point was about defining what one wants to get out of it. If you know what your goal is ahead of time, it becomes easier to write and define one's own success. Some people aspire to be viral, and make serious dollars here, and that's completely fine. Others enjoy being niche, and that's fine also.
And related to your niche... When mentioning TikTok and Insta in my post, I was going to put a reference to cat videos, but then I came to my senses :)
Thanks for sharing your experience! Do you stick to your weekly posting schedule pretty faithfully, and if not, does it matter?
I'm also impressed by how prolific you are on here, not just with posts but with notes and comments. I'm curious how you allocate your time to reading and engaging with others versus producing your own content? For me, there are so many incredible accounts on here that I find myself putting off posting to catch up with all the great content!
Thanks!
I originally planned to post every Tuesday, but sometimes I couldn't make that happen from a timing perspective. So, just getting something posted once per week became my goal. I think I missed one week in October, but otherwise I have stuck to that.
Does it matter? My guess is yes, but it all depends. I think consistency helps people recognize who one is and generate better connections, and once that is built perhaps there is some wiggle room to be less consistent. But, it also depends on content. I see some people on here who write very inconsistently, but gets tons of engagment.
As far as allocating time to everything, it just depends on the day. I like "deep think" time for big projects. If I have something substantial to work on, I want to have a 2-3 hour block without interruption. But there's often times where my schedule is peppered with meetings and such, so I will have 30-60 minute chunks of time. That's when I take on smaller tasks, or sometimes just go on Substack and browse. So, that's when I write comments or notes.
I was going to write this in my article, but it was already getting long... but honestly, I have spent more time on the "producing" side rather than "consuming" side of Substack (so the opposite approach of what you are doing!). There's a lot of great things to read here, and I have bookmarked many of them, but often don't get around to having some downtime for that type of reading for weeks. I'm trying to get better about that, because there really is a lot of interesting stuff here!
In reference to writing (bullet “a”) my mentor (Ron Terjung) at Up State Medical University, used to say “sometimes better is best”.