Haha yeah - I see this pattern a ton with technology Substacks: I think people mostly treat them as one-directional content, vs like literary or political posts which get tons of comments. But I definitely want to encourage more collaboration with the folks who are reading!
Very thoughtful post. As someone who has posted randomly on various media (not substack yet) the lack of meaningful feedback on what is unbiasedly a good article is discouraging. But you make a great point on perseverance and enjoying it for a sense of purpose. Thanks for your posts, stumbled here by chance but glad to have.
Outstanding job, thanks for all your very valuable posts Charlie! I have very much enjoyed reading your posts. I'm a robotics/AI engineer, and I second the feedback you received on that the value in your posts lies in that you actually understand the topic and don't just gloss over things. I have unsubscribed from quite a few other "roundups" stacks that I tried, because they were doing no more than reiterate the news I already read elsewhere. Your writing is way more reflective! Your target audience (IMO) therefore also being engineers in our field - of which there are many who are thirsty for content with substance and critical thinking behind it!
For me, you are already hitting the mark 👏🏻
I admit that I am (still) one of those too many free subscribers, though you will highly likely see me subscribing soon. The tricky bit is that these days we all have so many subscriptions (across the board in our lives), that it's not the individual value to consider, but the summation of them all. I subscribe to quite a few subtacks, of which I would put perhaps 10-15 in the category "totally worth paying for", yours definitely among them. If each subscription was a little less $, I wouldn't need to decide, and just take them all. Right now I am having a pickle to decide on the maybe top 5 to support. I'm absolutely not saying the individual subscription fees are not justified, and your content would even be worth more! I would just like to give feedback/insight on why perhaps some of us aren't paid subscribers *yet*.
You are doing wonderful work, thank you so much! For me you are hitting the mark 🎯
Thank you Jennifer! I appreciate your feedback. I totally get where you're coming from on subscriptions, and hopefully I can find a good balance of free content and paid upgrades. In the meantime, any recommendations or shares go a long way!
Many congratulations, Charlie. Thoroughly deserved. Yours is one of the few newsletters I read regularly. I'm very humbled by your kind mention and hope we can collaborate more this year :)
Thanks for sharing your experience building a successful Substack newsletter. We're all trying to figure out what works. Interested to see if you are able to drive sponsorships. I'm surprised more aren't already doing it. Keep up the great work!
Hi Charlie, I'm one of your silent and free readers. As a rookie surfer on that AI-wave, I don't feel like bringing much to the discussion with useless comments but this post is the opportunity to thank you for your work and confirm that your posts are good - the roundup is cool and I really like its format, your articles find the right balance (to me) between big picture, technical details and readability.
As you and I have talked about, I recognize and can relate to many of your observations about stats, comments, paid conversions, etc.
I think the part that truly matters is that you hold on to the passion for exploring this space and keep writing. Neither of the two seems to be an issue for you.
Thanks for your articles, Charlie! I appreciate your writing. It was great collaborating with you. We should do it again this year!
I've had a similar experience paywalling articles. I basically write everything for free and add an entire list of other interesting things I found for anyone who pays, but I don't think it's an effective monetization strategy. It's really just a thank you to all my paid subs. I also just want people to be able to read everything I write so walling content off feels wrong. It seems like you're in a similar boat.
Thanks Logan! I think I'd probably be in a different position if I didn't have a job as a primary source of income. But I'm lucky enough to have that, and as a result it feels like optimizing my writing for money is a little short sighted.
Great work here Charlie, and I appreciate the rundown on what's worked for you and where you're heading. I've been experimenting with AI and writing a fair bit lately; that might offer an opportunity for us to collaborate on a piece. Are you familiar with Novelcrafter, for example?
congrats on 2 years! I usually read these posts in my inbox and didn't realize you were looking feedback or comments on your posts.
Haha yeah - I see this pattern a ton with technology Substacks: I think people mostly treat them as one-directional content, vs like literary or political posts which get tons of comments. But I definitely want to encourage more collaboration with the folks who are reading!
Very thoughtful post. As someone who has posted randomly on various media (not substack yet) the lack of meaningful feedback on what is unbiasedly a good article is discouraging. But you make a great point on perseverance and enjoying it for a sense of purpose. Thanks for your posts, stumbled here by chance but glad to have.
Glad to have you here, Rajat!
Outstanding job, thanks for all your very valuable posts Charlie! I have very much enjoyed reading your posts. I'm a robotics/AI engineer, and I second the feedback you received on that the value in your posts lies in that you actually understand the topic and don't just gloss over things. I have unsubscribed from quite a few other "roundups" stacks that I tried, because they were doing no more than reiterate the news I already read elsewhere. Your writing is way more reflective! Your target audience (IMO) therefore also being engineers in our field - of which there are many who are thirsty for content with substance and critical thinking behind it!
For me, you are already hitting the mark 👏🏻
I admit that I am (still) one of those too many free subscribers, though you will highly likely see me subscribing soon. The tricky bit is that these days we all have so many subscriptions (across the board in our lives), that it's not the individual value to consider, but the summation of them all. I subscribe to quite a few subtacks, of which I would put perhaps 10-15 in the category "totally worth paying for", yours definitely among them. If each subscription was a little less $, I wouldn't need to decide, and just take them all. Right now I am having a pickle to decide on the maybe top 5 to support. I'm absolutely not saying the individual subscription fees are not justified, and your content would even be worth more! I would just like to give feedback/insight on why perhaps some of us aren't paid subscribers *yet*.
You are doing wonderful work, thank you so much! For me you are hitting the mark 🎯
Thank you Jennifer! I appreciate your feedback. I totally get where you're coming from on subscriptions, and hopefully I can find a good balance of free content and paid upgrades. In the meantime, any recommendations or shares go a long way!
Many congratulations, Charlie. Thoroughly deserved. Yours is one of the few newsletters I read regularly. I'm very humbled by your kind mention and hope we can collaborate more this year :)
Likewise, Sairam!
Thanks for sharing your experience building a successful Substack newsletter. We're all trying to figure out what works. Interested to see if you are able to drive sponsorships. I'm surprised more aren't already doing it. Keep up the great work!
Thanks John! More Substackers are definitely getting into sponsorships - I saw a NYT piece about recently.
Hi Charlie, I'm one of your silent and free readers. As a rookie surfer on that AI-wave, I don't feel like bringing much to the discussion with useless comments but this post is the opportunity to thank you for your work and confirm that your posts are good - the roundup is cool and I really like its format, your articles find the right balance (to me) between big picture, technical details and readability.
Really appreciate the kind words 🙏
Congratulations on the two-year mark!
As you and I have talked about, I recognize and can relate to many of your observations about stats, comments, paid conversions, etc.
I think the part that truly matters is that you hold on to the passion for exploring this space and keep writing. Neither of the two seems to be an issue for you.
The rest will take shape in due time.
Here's to the next two years!
Thanks for your articles, Charlie! I appreciate your writing. It was great collaborating with you. We should do it again this year!
I've had a similar experience paywalling articles. I basically write everything for free and add an entire list of other interesting things I found for anyone who pays, but I don't think it's an effective monetization strategy. It's really just a thank you to all my paid subs. I also just want people to be able to read everything I write so walling content off feels wrong. It seems like you're in a similar boat.
Thanks Logan! I think I'd probably be in a different position if I didn't have a job as a primary source of income. But I'm lucky enough to have that, and as a result it feels like optimizing my writing for money is a little short sighted.
I feel the same way.
Great work here Charlie, and I appreciate the rundown on what's worked for you and where you're heading. I've been experimenting with AI and writing a fair bit lately; that might offer an opportunity for us to collaborate on a piece. Are you familiar with Novelcrafter, for example?