How My Writing Has Changed as My Audience Has Grown
It’s been 19 months now since I first published an essay online and started my newsletter as part of Write of Passage 6.
The first email went out to 13 subscribers. My Twitter account was a derelict place harbouring 25 followers from years ago and my website had 0 traffic. When you start out writing online, you’re scared. You wonder who will read what you put out, both hoping for loads of engagement and yet being scared of it at the same time.
I used that time to write for myself. In hindsight writing online was self-therapy.
David Perell always talks about a serendipity vehicle, but I had no idea what that meant. After all, who would be interested in my musings? I had no plan, no content strategy and no audience. So all I wrote about was personal experiences and sharing little insights into my life in my weekly newsletter.
It was fun. But my audience wasn’t growing. I was puzzled by it at the time, but looking back on it, I wasn’t providing any value to the reader.
So by late 2021, I decided to make a change: I took Twitter more seriously, promoted my newsletter and started to listen to what content my readers enjoyed.
Within a few weeks, I saw an uptick. Twitter grew from ~140 in November ‘21 to 250 by the end of the year. And newsletter subscribers had reached 30. When I sat down for my 2021 annual review, I made bold goals (because Robbie Crabtree had urged us to dream 10x when setting these).
The plan was to get to 1,000 followers on Twitter and 100 newsletter subs.
Why did I set those numbers? Because I wanted to challenge myself to take this whole writing online business more seriously. And more importantly, I wanted to provide more value to the readers. No more selfish explorations, but more helpful content. I wanted to become a better storyteller and writer to serve the reader.
What happened?
Insanity. That’s what’s happened.
Twitter sits at 33k+ and the newsletter at 1,150+ (80 issues deep). Numbers I thought of reaching in 2025 if I got lucky.
Why am I sharing this with you? For two reasons:
Robbie Crabtree was right. You need to dream bigger. 10x your goals. Make them so big and ridiculous that reading them out loud scares you. Then pursue that goal with relentless passion.
David Perell was right. Writing online is a serendipity vehicle. But you need to provide massive value. You need to build connections. You need to show up daily. You need to get up when you get knocked down. And most importantly: you need to be consistent.
How has my content creation changed due to this growth?
Instead of just writing for myself I’m now trying to speak to someone who has the problems I had 6 months ago.
What do I know today that I wish I had known then? I try and educate myself more with my writing. This might seem altruistic, but it’s actually very selfish because I love learning. And there’s no better way to learn than researching a topic and then teaching it to others.
I am also consciously trying to weave storytelling more into my writing.
And whenever I pull the storytelling off right, my readership grows. Because it is one thing to teach someone a topic, but it is another entirely to share your experiences. It makes the reader invested in you, they want to learn more about you and in turn, they will keep following your journey.
And whether you are looking to build a business with your writing or just connect with like-minded folk, a bigger audience is always beneficial.
