Do You Really Need Substack?

Woman with manual typewriter.

Matt told me he’s started a Substack, and wondered how to make best use of it. I’m not sure I’m the right person to answer that, in the sense that I haven’t managed yet.

But I do have some questions that might be helpful:

  1. What are you hoping to achieve? It’s a simple question, but an answer is really difficult. Take your time.
  2. How does Substack help you to achieve that? And how might it hinder you?
  3. What will have happened in one year if you succeed? Give specifics, so you can be absolutely certain you did succeed.
  4. Put those specifics in order of importance.
  5. Put them in likely chronological order (i.e. “this needs to happen before that”).
  6. If Substack disappeared tomorrow, how would you achieve those goals without it?
  7. Do you really need Substack? (Either yes or no is an acceptable answer!)

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