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12 Comments

Is Substack the right path? 🤔

I've been using Substack for buildfaster.co's newsletter for the past few months. Don't get me wrong, Substack is awesome. However, I don't know how to use it the right way. Is is worth my time for BuildFaster's growth?

Let me explain.

It's taking up too much time 😬

Now don't get mad with me when I say this. I have been trying to put more time into contacting than selling.

It takes a decent amount of time to create a weekly newsletter and gather ideas. I want to save it for more important matters.


Of course that's not my only reason. 🙄


It's not right for BuildFaster 😞

I started a newsletter in the first place because I wanted to create a community for BuildFaster. However, that's not really needed at this point. I only had around 10-15 active subscribers and it really wasn't worth my time.

I also want to grow my business with this newsletter however I think the way I'm doing things on Substack isn't helping. I can totally do this same style of writing on my own personal website if I wanted to but right now I want to know what's best for BuildFaster.co

That's why I decided to go on the email marketing route. 📩

I replaced the Substack form with a custom made HTML form that submits to Netlify.

Screenshot of the new design

Let me know what you think of it.

View it live here 👈

I plan on sending out deals and updates on new themes every once in a while so stay tuned! 😄

  1. 8

    Hmmm... I have a feeling you confused "Substack" with "Newsletter" (content marketing) because substack is just a tool for creating and delivering your content.

    Another feeling I have is you are just trying to find excuses to stop doing what you really don't like and what - you think - doesn't help at all. I did it all the time. As soon as I feel so bored or didn't have results I found thousands of excuses to stop doing what I did... and it's okay. Just stop calling it "substack is not working for this business".

    One more thing... probably this method of marketing still can do a lot for your business but you need to do it differently... to save your time, to make it more effective, and less boring for yourself.

    Good luck!

    1. 1

      I also want to grow my business with this newsletter however I think the way I'm doing things on Substack isn't helping. I can totally do this same style of writing on my own personal website if I wanted to but right now I want to know what's best for BuildFaster.co

    2. 1

      Totally understand what you mean. I've changed the title and tone of this post.

      How do you think I can make it "more effective"?

      I'd love to hear your thoughts.

      1. 1

        I don't think you understood what he said. Basically focus on your product first. Community building is a massive rabbithole and you don't want to go there right now.

        On the plus side, you're making course corrections so that's good.

        1. 1

          No, I did understand that. I originally said what you said in my post:

          I started a newsletter in the first place because I wanted to create a community for BuildFaster. However, that's not really needed at this point.

          1. 1

            Fair enough. Good that you're learning from your experiences.

            1. 1

              Thank you @maantin.

              I’m doing my best :)

    3. 1

      This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

  2. 2

    What can you give people besides deals and telling them about new themes?

    1. 1

      That’s the thing. I don’t know 🤷‍♂️

      Could you help me come up with some ideas?

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        I can't do that, I don't know your audience, and I would be cautious trusting anyone who offers you a bunch of ideas at random :)

        Because more importantly, you don't need ideas, you need to know what your audience struggles with!

        Go find the people who would buy your themes, and look for the problems/challenges they talk about. Find stuff you can answer, tips you can provide, shortcuts/templates/resources you can give them to help save them time and frustration.

        Instead of hopping from tactic to tactic, if you start really investing understanding who your audience is and their problems (don't limit yourself to theme-specific problems!) you won't feel so lost in the sauce.

        1. 1

          Thanks for the advice. Very helpful indeed :)

          I’ll work on it.

  3. 5

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

    1. 1

      Yes, I think that makes sense. Thanks for your input.

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