✏️ I've been doing some investigative journalism about farming and Bill Gates buying agricultural land in my hometown in contravention of the state's anti-corporate farming act. As in the 90s, when I did this kind of journalism, it has taken months. I'm going to publish before the new year. In the meanwhile, my posts have been few--as I'…
✏️ I've been doing some investigative journalism about farming and Bill Gates buying agricultural land in my hometown in contravention of the state's anti-corporate farming act. As in the 90s, when I did this kind of journalism, it has taken months. I'm going to publish before the new year. In the meanwhile, my posts have been few--as I'm not a fast writer and this kind of journalism takes time. I really believe that. Does anyone have any ideas about tactics for "filler" content when I'm working on a big story. I don't like to publish anything except what's purposeful and excellent, and I rarely jump on the latest news flash or trending topics, instead preferring to pursue areas that I'm interested in. I do post collections of my father's nature photography, which keeps me going. And I post fantastically controversial meme collections that I scrub from the internet. I also do fiction, but don't have time for that kind of intensive writing at the moment. Thanks for any ideas.
Repurposing previously written articles - You can either do a "season of reruns" or a "season of updates" where you take your old posts and either beef them up with new information, or you comment on them with how things have changed in some way. Mike Sowden does this with Everything Is Amazing. Between seasons he will rereleases episodes from his archive, which I think is really smart.
Repurposing things you said on social media - Kathryn Vercillo blew my mind when she tagged me on a “Things I Said in Substack Notes This Week and Have More To Say About” post. This is an ingenious way to repurpose work you have already done.
Voicemails - Either record voicemails for your subscribers or get voicemails from them and do a roundup of them. Meg Conley does this on her Homeculture publication.
Best of lists - This can be compiled by somebody else, like a VA or even AI, if you give them the format. You can also just pull a bunch of quotes about a subject and line them up together, as well. Resilience, Courage, Love, whatever you want. This is also a great way to build SEO with your target audience.
Q and A - If you do take voicemails, you can use them as a Q and A segment where the audience is making most of the content except for your answer. Tara McMullin does this weekly on her Substack.
Hire a "monthly intern" or "guest editor" - Rusty Foster from Today in Tabs has a monthly intern they bring in to write articles.
Asynchronous interviews - Lots of people do asynchronous interviews, where you send a series of similar questions to people and then post their responses. Scott Neumyer does them. Gareth L. Powell does them. Jane Ratcliffe does them. Sari Botton does them.
Cross-posting - One of the easiest things you can do is to cross-post interesting articles to your audience from other Substacks. This takes almost no time, and is criminally underused. It’s a great way to beef up your publication while also promoting other people. I will usually only cross-post work that I've written, but I have been cross-posted before and it's great.
Guest posting - This takes longer if you’re the one writing it, but it’s an amazing way to get more content, especially if you have a publication with some traction.
Thank you so much, Russell. These are great ideas! OMG. I'm going to cut and paste your thoughts into a working document. I really appreciate your help! Thank you thank you thank you.
This sounds similar to what I do--I create research-based comics--which take time--because reading and digesting research takes time. What I do is post process posts in which I discuss the process of research and making. I also
Thank you so much, Cara. A process post sounds interesting. I don't know what tools could be used to create comics--that's not my talent but I'd be interest in learning. Much gratitude!
If you like fiction, maybe CROSS-POST some fiction writers that you like and that way help them out as well? Send out RECOMMENDATIONS to 'Stacks you support. You can start with me if you want! 🤣
I break my long, in-depth posts into a series. For example, I used to write one 4,000 word piece. Now I break it into four, 1000-word pieces. I have the time to really dig deep into a story without having a month between posts.
That's a great idea, and I have used that one time for an eight-part series. In this case, I would be able to maximally do a two-part series. But in my heart, I know it's one long piece, and people will read to the end. It's a big story. Thanks for sharing. Ima check out your work!
✏️ I've been doing some investigative journalism about farming and Bill Gates buying agricultural land in my hometown in contravention of the state's anti-corporate farming act. As in the 90s, when I did this kind of journalism, it has taken months. I'm going to publish before the new year. In the meanwhile, my posts have been few--as I'm not a fast writer and this kind of journalism takes time. I really believe that. Does anyone have any ideas about tactics for "filler" content when I'm working on a big story. I don't like to publish anything except what's purposeful and excellent, and I rarely jump on the latest news flash or trending topics, instead preferring to pursue areas that I'm interested in. I do post collections of my father's nature photography, which keeps me going. And I post fantastically controversial meme collections that I scrub from the internet. I also do fiction, but don't have time for that kind of intensive writing at the moment. Thanks for any ideas.
I wrote about some things you can do here. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/growth-or-something-like-it
Repurposing previously written articles - You can either do a "season of reruns" or a "season of updates" where you take your old posts and either beef them up with new information, or you comment on them with how things have changed in some way. Mike Sowden does this with Everything Is Amazing. Between seasons he will rereleases episodes from his archive, which I think is really smart.
Repurposing things you said on social media - Kathryn Vercillo blew my mind when she tagged me on a “Things I Said in Substack Notes This Week and Have More To Say About” post. This is an ingenious way to repurpose work you have already done.
Voicemails - Either record voicemails for your subscribers or get voicemails from them and do a roundup of them. Meg Conley does this on her Homeculture publication.
Best of lists - This can be compiled by somebody else, like a VA or even AI, if you give them the format. You can also just pull a bunch of quotes about a subject and line them up together, as well. Resilience, Courage, Love, whatever you want. This is also a great way to build SEO with your target audience.
Q and A - If you do take voicemails, you can use them as a Q and A segment where the audience is making most of the content except for your answer. Tara McMullin does this weekly on her Substack.
Hire a "monthly intern" or "guest editor" - Rusty Foster from Today in Tabs has a monthly intern they bring in to write articles.
Asynchronous interviews - Lots of people do asynchronous interviews, where you send a series of similar questions to people and then post their responses. Scott Neumyer does them. Gareth L. Powell does them. Jane Ratcliffe does them. Sari Botton does them.
Cross-posting - One of the easiest things you can do is to cross-post interesting articles to your audience from other Substacks. This takes almost no time, and is criminally underused. It’s a great way to beef up your publication while also promoting other people. I will usually only cross-post work that I've written, but I have been cross-posted before and it's great.
Guest posting - This takes longer if you’re the one writing it, but it’s an amazing way to get more content, especially if you have a publication with some traction.
Those are brilliant, Russell, thank you for sharing.
Good advice again, as usual Russel!
Thank you so much, Russell. These are great ideas! OMG. I'm going to cut and paste your thoughts into a working document. I really appreciate your help! Thank you thank you thank you.
This sounds similar to what I do--I create research-based comics--which take time--because reading and digesting research takes time. What I do is post process posts in which I discuss the process of research and making. I also
Thank you so much, Cara. A process post sounds interesting. I don't know what tools could be used to create comics--that's not my talent but I'd be interest in learning. Much gratitude!
If you like fiction, maybe CROSS-POST some fiction writers that you like and that way help them out as well? Send out RECOMMENDATIONS to 'Stacks you support. You can start with me if you want! 🤣
Thanks for the ideas! I'll subscribe to your work right now and check it out. You have gratitude for weighing in!
I break my long, in-depth posts into a series. For example, I used to write one 4,000 word piece. Now I break it into four, 1000-word pieces. I have the time to really dig deep into a story without having a month between posts.
That's a great idea, and I have used that one time for an eight-part series. In this case, I would be able to maximally do a two-part series. But in my heart, I know it's one long piece, and people will read to the end. It's a big story. Thanks for sharing. Ima check out your work!