Tough love, but necessary! Thanks for another great article Matt! People need to learn to stop chasing virality and just do the unsexy, grunt work. It doesn't have to be slog - enjoy the journey, but expect it to not happen overnight.
I’ve read many How-to pieces, but this one was genuinely useful.
My problem is when I do this:
“Here’s how this plays out in real life: you reply to someone’s Note. They notice. They check your profile. If your writing’s solid, they subscribe. Sometimes they even shout you out or recommend you.”
people treat my work as a public library that they can “borrow” from. No subscribing, sharing, or recommendation, only “inspiration” and “borrowing.” It’s demoralising and frustrating to say the least, especially when I have so much waiting to be published.
As someone who was writing before computers, and as a teacher, YES. Copy by hand. There is a relationship between our mind and our body; utilizing them together strengthens what we're learning. :)
I love this tough love. There is really no magic sauce to success. We live in the information age. Anyone can learn almost anything for free. The answer is there in front of people. Yet, they are still trying to find "the thing" they're missing. That thing is consistent action. Reaching success is simple, but not easy.
Seriously. Find writers you admire—people whose words make you stop scrolling—and handwrite their work."
Exactly. You *are required* to process the text using at least three neural networks (kinesthetic, language expression, and language decoding) to copy text. This helps ensure that information is encoded in *a personally meaningful way*. Great thought, Matt!
I do this every time I’m reading and find an author just hit the nail on the head with language creativity. Didn’t know it’s an actual thing. Feel seen and called out at the same time being a bit of a generalist aka multi passionate aka multi-niche😆.
Thanks Matt for the tips on how to grow the audience! Real-life advice for someone who is serious about writing, learning, sharing and networking with like-minded people.
Love this Matt - the audience building advice is the same - whatever the platform. Become a writer people can't resist reading and who actually helps them.
my mentor taught me how valuable a niche is and why you need not just a niche, but a hyper-specific niche. and you need to solve hyper-specific problems for a hyper-specific group of people. everyone that complains about niches and says they’re a load of bs just hasn’t found theirs yet, probably. haha.
Indeed Substack = social media! Even Medium always has been in a way - but Substack brought long format writing into next level on social. Insightful article with golden nuggets on consistency, Matt!
I‘m with you, Matt - I meant about Medium „in a way“ as it evolved from Twitter co-founders to add a long-format thought leadership platform. But itself it lacked the social component.
Thanks for writing this article Matt. I’m a new on Substack and my feed is flooded with less real content and more follow & subscribe requests. This article helps a newbie get a grip on this platform.
Tough love, but necessary! Thanks for another great article Matt! People need to learn to stop chasing virality and just do the unsexy, grunt work. It doesn't have to be slog - enjoy the journey, but expect it to not happen overnight.
That's it, Charlie.
I’ve read many How-to pieces, but this one was genuinely useful.
My problem is when I do this:
“Here’s how this plays out in real life: you reply to someone’s Note. They notice. They check your profile. If your writing’s solid, they subscribe. Sometimes they even shout you out or recommend you.”
people treat my work as a public library that they can “borrow” from. No subscribing, sharing, or recommendation, only “inspiration” and “borrowing.” It’s demoralising and frustrating to say the least, especially when I have so much waiting to be published.
This is super useful and sadly something I needed to hear… I remember learning the copying by hand trick when I was leaning copywriting- it works
glad it resonated Meredith :)
“Copying great writers by hand” is new to me, will try that and see. Thanks Matt!
do it every day for 30 minutes.
As someone who was writing before computers, and as a teacher, YES. Copy by hand. There is a relationship between our mind and our body; utilizing them together strengthens what we're learning. :)
I love this tough love. There is really no magic sauce to success. We live in the information age. Anyone can learn almost anything for free. The answer is there in front of people. Yet, they are still trying to find "the thing" they're missing. That thing is consistent action. Reaching success is simple, but not easy.
That's human nature, Lóránt!
Absolutely Cinema(one more time)!!!👏👏👏 Fantastic job Matt, you inspire me!
ONE MORE TIME!
"Copying great writing by hand.
Seriously. Find writers you admire—people whose words make you stop scrolling—and handwrite their work."
Exactly. You *are required* to process the text using at least three neural networks (kinesthetic, language expression, and language decoding) to copy text. This helps ensure that information is encoded in *a personally meaningful way*. Great thought, Matt!
I do this every time I’m reading and find an author just hit the nail on the head with language creativity. Didn’t know it’s an actual thing. Feel seen and called out at the same time being a bit of a generalist aka multi passionate aka multi-niche😆.
👊
Thanks John!
Thanks Matt for the tips on how to grow the audience! Real-life advice for someone who is serious about writing, learning, sharing and networking with like-minded people.
glad it resonated
Thank you for the audio. Really appreciated the content. David
Glad it resonated, David :)
Bro uploaded the NotebookLM Audio on Substack have not seen this yet, very neat!
I take it back 2 minutes in to it I'd much rather just read the post 😆
LOL!
Love this Matt - the audience building advice is the same - whatever the platform. Become a writer people can't resist reading and who actually helps them.
Thank you Sir :)
This is gold. So refreshing to hear someone cut through the noise and just tell the truth: consistency, clarity, and care over 'hacks.'
glad it resonated
my mentor taught me how valuable a niche is and why you need not just a niche, but a hyper-specific niche. and you need to solve hyper-specific problems for a hyper-specific group of people. everyone that complains about niches and says they’re a load of bs just hasn’t found theirs yet, probably. haha.
true words, Brittany
Indeed Substack = social media! Even Medium always has been in a way - but Substack brought long format writing into next level on social. Insightful article with golden nuggets on consistency, Matt!
I think that I have to disagree with you on this, Gunnar.
Medium seems to be better for plain long-form writers.
Here, to get started, you NEED to start with short-form
I‘m with you, Matt - I meant about Medium „in a way“ as it evolved from Twitter co-founders to add a long-format thought leadership platform. But itself it lacked the social component.
I never missed the social component lol
Thank you again!
And no AI crutch, that's why Iike you
Love never fails 🌾
🫡
"Stop whining
Substack's algo ain't broken.
You’re just inconsistent, invisible, or incoherent"
haha... hard truths right there.
👊👊👊
Thanks for writing this article Matt. I’m a new on Substack and my feed is flooded with less real content and more follow & subscribe requests. This article helps a newbie get a grip on this platform.
Glad it resonated, Ruchi