One thing that should be working and isn't as well as I'd like is youtube. There's a ceiling to what I'm able to do, and though I do get some conversion to things like Patreon through youtube, it's very slow. I wonder if it's a limitation of platform, or it's that I'm not clearly CTFO or whatever the other one was.
WTFU, if you're talking about chill the fuck out/wake the fuck up.
So, are you doing a grassland strategy, or at least a "be everywhere" strategy, or are you more focused on making it work. Because I have more a "I'm going to be everywhere and if everything brings in a little bit that's cool."
I will say that our podcast youtube keeps growing little by little just because we are consistent with it, and launch every week, but it's not really blowing anything away.
I think probably if you need youtube to pop, you need to redesign your image. There's lots of data that shows 80% of success comes from the thumbnail and title alone, and yours don't look like the ones that are popping off right now.
You need to embrace your inner Desert to get Youtube to pop off. I listened to PAt Flynn talk about how he got his youtube to a million+ subs 2x in the past year, and it was all about rapid iteration, watching the retention graph, and redesigning the thumbnail.
yes, that's the one. WTFU. I seem to be somewhere in the middle, which isn't ideal. But you're right, I've also been treating it as part of a "be everywhere" strategy, which is fine for now. But I don't have a great discovery platform, and I think that'll be the next big project for me. It'll probably be either substack or youtube. Thanks for the tip about the thumbnail, and thanks for the Pat Flynn reminder. He's always been a good resource for me.
I it’s okay to not do things on most discovery engines to pop, but you do need one main one, ABs for that one you should do all the things to help boost you. I personally don’t feel comfortable doing the things that work on YouTube, but if you then it could be a great engine
Ok, 2 clarifying questions, if I may. One, can you share what you're uncomfortable doing on youtube? Two: people are starting to complain about substack organic growth and engagement going down. Do you still think, for an information product that edges toward CTFO, that there's organic growth to be had on Substack?
I don't like any part of the youtube algorithm. I'm not sure what you mean. As for Substack, any platform where you use the algorithm to your advantage can see organic growth.
Ummm... still working on all four, tbh. But I've been career hopping a bit the last four or five years - just now starting to get a feel for what I'm really creating which involves the fiction I write as well as building an online business centered around serving creatives who are blocked by trauma or negative programming. I'm still defining the product there and have found it tricky to lock down "the thing" because I've learned so many different modalities in my own healing journey... so I guess my first step is the Product. Any thoughts or resources on how to nail down your product if you're unsure?
It's where we tell most people to start. However, if you don't know your author ecosystem or stage, then you should start with this book. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/page1
We recently designed our start here page and categorized everything into buckets. So, anything in he Heart section is about projects. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/welcome
Your ask is a very broad question, so I only have a very broad answer.
I don't really believe there is one "thing" that gets people to convert. There's a suite of things that different people want at different times and they buy those things when they
Thank you! I will probably have more specific questions soon - it just all feels amorphous right now. I'll start with the resources you shared... I don't know my ecosystem or stage, so that's a great place to begin!
Wow, another great post. I can find new eyeballs (with free content) but getting them to pay for something when they found me through free content has proven difficult. Do you have any advice on this?
How are you moving them through your funnel? In general, I think most of your time should be spend finding new people and moving them through the flywheel to fall in love with your work, with very focused monetization events like discounts and kickstarter campaigns.
What does "find new eyesballs" mean, though. LIke is it 10 new eyeballs or 10,000. What is your conversion rate? Does it scale? If you can consistently find 100 people and get 1 to convert, then you should be able to find 10,000 and get 100 to convert. Then it's jus tweaking the funnel.
If you can get 2% to convert, then you double your money. If you can find double, then you can make double, if you can get double to retain through the funnel...
So, you need a repeatable system, and then you need to work on each stage of the system and try to get it working better. If you optmize all those parts, you can 10-100x your money.
One thing that should be working and isn't as well as I'd like is youtube. There's a ceiling to what I'm able to do, and though I do get some conversion to things like Patreon through youtube, it's very slow. I wonder if it's a limitation of platform, or it's that I'm not clearly CTFO or whatever the other one was.
WTFU, if you're talking about chill the fuck out/wake the fuck up.
So, are you doing a grassland strategy, or at least a "be everywhere" strategy, or are you more focused on making it work. Because I have more a "I'm going to be everywhere and if everything brings in a little bit that's cool."
I will say that our podcast youtube keeps growing little by little just because we are consistent with it, and launch every week, but it's not really blowing anything away.
I think probably if you need youtube to pop, you need to redesign your image. There's lots of data that shows 80% of success comes from the thumbnail and title alone, and yours don't look like the ones that are popping off right now.
You need to embrace your inner Desert to get Youtube to pop off. I listened to PAt Flynn talk about how he got his youtube to a million+ subs 2x in the past year, and it was all about rapid iteration, watching the retention graph, and redesigning the thumbnail.
yes, that's the one. WTFU. I seem to be somewhere in the middle, which isn't ideal. But you're right, I've also been treating it as part of a "be everywhere" strategy, which is fine for now. But I don't have a great discovery platform, and I think that'll be the next big project for me. It'll probably be either substack or youtube. Thanks for the tip about the thumbnail, and thanks for the Pat Flynn reminder. He's always been a good resource for me.
I it’s okay to not do things on most discovery engines to pop, but you do need one main one, ABs for that one you should do all the things to help boost you. I personally don’t feel comfortable doing the things that work on YouTube, but if you then it could be a great engine
Ok, 2 clarifying questions, if I may. One, can you share what you're uncomfortable doing on youtube? Two: people are starting to complain about substack organic growth and engagement going down. Do you still think, for an information product that edges toward CTFO, that there's organic growth to be had on Substack?
I don't like any part of the youtube algorithm. I'm not sure what you mean. As for Substack, any platform where you use the algorithm to your advantage can see organic growth.
Ummm... still working on all four, tbh. But I've been career hopping a bit the last four or five years - just now starting to get a feel for what I'm really creating which involves the fiction I write as well as building an online business centered around serving creatives who are blocked by trauma or negative programming. I'm still defining the product there and have found it tricky to lock down "the thing" because I've learned so many different modalities in my own healing journey... so I guess my first step is the Product. Any thoughts or resources on how to nail down your product if you're unsure?
This is the diagnostic tool we designed. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/framework
It's where we tell most people to start. However, if you don't know your author ecosystem or stage, then you should start with this book. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/page1
We recently designed our start here page and categorized everything into buckets. So, anything in he Heart section is about projects. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/welcome
We also have books and courses about writing better products. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/nonfiction
Your ask is a very broad question, so I only have a very broad answer.
I don't really believe there is one "thing" that gets people to convert. There's a suite of things that different people want at different times and they buy those things when they
Thank you! I will probably have more specific questions soon - it just all feels amorphous right now. I'll start with the resources you shared... I don't know my ecosystem or stage, so that's a great place to begin!
This was so helpful and landed in my inbox at exactly the right time—thank you!!
yay!
Wow, another great post. I can find new eyeballs (with free content) but getting them to pay for something when they found me through free content has proven difficult. Do you have any advice on this?
How are you moving them through your funnel? In general, I think most of your time should be spend finding new people and moving them through the flywheel to fall in love with your work, with very focused monetization events like discounts and kickstarter campaigns.
What does "find new eyesballs" mean, though. LIke is it 10 new eyeballs or 10,000. What is your conversion rate? Does it scale? If you can consistently find 100 people and get 1 to convert, then you should be able to find 10,000 and get 100 to convert. Then it's jus tweaking the funnel.
If you can get 2% to convert, then you double your money. If you can find double, then you can make double, if you can get double to retain through the funnel...
So, you need a repeatable system, and then you need to work on each stage of the system and try to get it working better. If you optmize all those parts, you can 10-100x your money.
Does that make sense?