Let's Network! A Pryor Thoughts Update

Any Substack or Medium writers reading?

When you first set out to start writing online, a few things happen:

1. You enjoy the rush of the first time you hit publish and wonder if anyone out there will actually read your transcribed brainwaves.

2. A second rush when you actually see your first ever stranger-reader (even if it was secretly your mom who didn’t have the heart to tell you.)

3. A third rush if you’re ever lucky enough to go viral.

And if you keep at it for months if not years, the flipside:

1. A wave of disappointment when you realize there’s 50 million people out there all trying to ‘beat’ you at the same game.

2. A second wave of sorrow when you realize that, while advice on how to get better and succeed is abundant, other than the fundamentals of writing and basic online-ing itself, a lot of it is b*llsh#tty and often a strategy to help someone earn money rather than to help you.

3. A third crushing wave of disappointment when you find out most of the big names on these platforms, while being good writers, almost always 1) were famous 2) had a huge following on another platform previously 3) are ultra-niched and an expert on that subject or 4) have been at it for years on end consistently

Now, sprinkle in a lack of external expectations to keep on producing, the constant question of if you’re spending your time on something that will be read fewer times than Trump’s guide on How to be a Feminist, and the giant underlying factor—if you’re approaching this as a full-time thing—the constant need to survive with an unknown paycheck.

All of these add up to an incredibly difficult challenge. And one I certainly was far from fully aware of over three years ago when I started this new journey.

But…and there is a but, there are some ways to fight back!

So, if you’re a writer on Substack or Medium or want to help someone that is, please continue reading.

The Power of the Crowd

While big-name journalists often tend to dominate the likes of Substack and similar newsletters, the company has made a lot of product features that can help anyone trying to get their readership up a bit more.

I’ll just keep this a bit short and list a bunch of things I’d like to start helping with.

Guest Posting

If you read a lot of blogging advice articles (it’s kind of a sick fetish for me), you’ll see a common mention is to guest post on other people’s blogs, publications, or newsletters.

What is guest posting? It’s essentially writing (or re-posting) an article on another person’s property, sometimes with a little introduction.

But the thing is, I’m soberly introverted and extremely lazy, so I’ve never done this before—until this week.

I’d like to host 1-2 outstanding guest posts a month for other upcoming writers out there (if I like their writing) and in turn, they’ll host one of my maybe-not-quite-so-crappy articles from before.

Importantly, the writing has to be interesting to my readers, as I would hate to waste anyone’s time (other than the poor lady that makes my tea every day, but she understands).

If you’re interested in this form of exchange, please let me know in the comments or reply to this newsletter with “GUEST POST” in the email subtitle.

Recommendations on Substack

If you have a publication on Substack, did you know you can recommend others? You can also write up a little blurb to help potential readers know why you like it (or hate it?).

If you’d like me to start recommending your substack (and I like it) and to include a little blurb, please mention your newsletter in the comments and I’ll do my best. Again, hopefully this can be a tit-for-tat.

Mentioning Names

Another interesting feature of Substack is you can now mention other writers’ names with a direct link to their profile. For instance, one of my favorite newsletters to read is called Unchartered Territories by

Tomas Pueyo

. Now you can click his name and see if he'll become one of your favorite writers, too. Plus, I'm guessing he gets a little notification (out of the thousands he already does) saying I mentioned him.

But just in case, what up Tom?

Medium Curator

I’ve been running a medium-sized Medium publication called Feedium for a few years now. It’s nothing huge, but it’s around 5,000 subscribers now and I’m always adding new writers on there. For more info, read my highest commented article of all time (1,500!) and see why.

But more importantly on there, Medium just allowed publication owners to apply to help curate other people’s work.

I’d like to apply. But part of that process is to pick a superb outstanding amazingly awesome piece of writing that the algorithms missed out on from the past, and to link to the post so their existing curators will see if I can curate to their curatable taste.

So, if you want me to potentially recommend a piece of writing that will 100% be read by the tiny Medium curation team, and possibly help me submit potential stuff to curate in the future, please leave a comment with a link to it and put “For Curation” in front of it.

Thanks!

That’s it for today. Just wanted to give a bit of an update and possibly help each other network a bit more. This substack is almost at 1,000 subscribers, which is just crazy to me, so thanks again to everyone who reads these thoughts.

If you have any other ideas to help people network and grow on Medium or Substack, please let me know in the comments.

Later this week, I’ll have an awesome new writer to share with you and then back to the normal programming—if I can call it normal.

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Written by a networked J.J. Pryor.

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