A personal note from me. Please read to the end. And thanks as always!
“Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is a deeply underrated movie.
In it, Peter, played by Jason Segal, who also wrote the film, is dating a woman named Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) who has become a TV star. The movie opens as she breaks up with him — sending him into a tailspin of epic proportions.
To escape, he plans a last-minute trip to Hawaii — only to find out that his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend, a world-famous rock star played brilliantly by Russell Brand, are on vacation at the same resort.
Hijinks ensue!
My favorite scene is when Peter decides to take a surfing lesson with Kunu (played by Paul Rudd). Here’s the scene:
In essence, the lesson Kunu/Rudd is trying to impart is that surfing is about doing less. That less activity and less movement is actually a good thing.
I have been thinking about this scene a lot lately. Not in regards surfing (I tried that!) but as it relates to my work life. Because I am doing A LOT lately. And the question is whether this is the best way to work if my goal is to grow the number of subscribers I have to this newsletter.
Right now, my days go something like this:
2-3 items a day for this newsletter
A daily item for “The Replay,” my sports-only newsletter
A daily video for my YouTube channel
That is a lot of content. And a lot more than the average person on Substack produces.
In fact, the ONE piece of advice I get from experienced Substack content creators is this: You need to do less — both for your own well being and that of your audience.
Let me explain why I write so much. There’s two main reasons — one altruistic and one financially driven:
I have a LOT of thoughts. I like to share them. I write pretty fast so I am able to create a lot of content in a relatively short period of time.
The only way I have ever known to build audience — at WaPo, CNN and now at Substack — is to write a lot. The logic goes like this: Put a lot of poles in the water and you have a better chance at catching something. Throw enough, er, stuff at the wall and something sticks.
That second point is especially relevant to me now as I am doing this full-time to support myself and my family. Candidly, I need to grow my subscriber base — free and paid. And the only way I have done that since, well, forever, is to write and write and write.
But, a conversation I had last week has made me think twice about all of that. (I will keep who I talked to private because I didn’t ask him if I could share it.) I have always used traffic as a measure of success. But, in this new content creator world, the real measure of success is paid subscribers and renewals.
Speaking of which, subscribe!
In that world, quantity may not be the catch-all solution that I have always viewed it as. I could see even where the amount I write is daunting and/or a turnoff. People have a lot to read. They get a lot of emails. Do they really want to pay for me to flood their inbox?
And so, I wanted to put the question to you all.
The facts are these:
We have built a vibrant political community here
We have almost 3,000 paid subscribers and over 13,000 free subscribers
I need more people to pay for this product to be able to continue to produce it for the medium/long term.
Given those facts, what’s your take on the best cadence for posts? And will it make you more likely to subscribe?
Take the poll here:
And please feel free to reach out — whether in the comment section or via email at cillizzac@gmail.com.
I am doing a lot of thinking about how to make this newsletter the best it can be for readers — and how to grow it beyond our current universe. Any and all ideas are VERY welcome.
Something urgent and very newsworthy(i.e. DJT’s death or incarceration) would deserve a 2nd email, otherwise, one email per day is sufficient.
One per day is enough. Inboxes are too full as it is. 3,000 paid on 13,000 total subs? Congrats on having the highest conversion rate on substack, nothing suspicious at all ;)