Tag: substack

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DCMS report: Creator remuneration

How are you doing?

I’ve been reading the new report on creator remuneration from the Culture Committee—a good summary of the issues and potential solutions, which the NUJ’s Freelance organisers have commented on here.

✅ A Freelance Commissioner to advocate for creative people and the self-employed, for legal protection & rights, and to address outdated copyright and IP regulations. Yep – it’s urgent.

✅ Tackling stagnant fees—some companies are paying the same rates they did 20 years ago and generally rubbish rates across the sector. I had to chuckle (and cry) at our Swedish colleagues’ cake celebrating ’20 years at the same pay rate.’ 

✅ A UK private copying scheme to remunerate creators such as the Smart Fund, which safeguards payments from abroad.

✅ AI and creators: “The Government must ensure that creators have proper mechanisms to enforce their consent and receive fair compensation for use of their work by AI developers.” (You can block AI training on Substack, which “may limit your publication’s discoverability in tools and search engines that return AI-generated results.”)

Good stuff. Let’s share it about and fix it for freelancers! We have a manifesto at #FairDeal4freelances, which includes a charter of freelance rights that the self-employed should enjoy. Gov has two months to respond to the report.

Self-employed rockstars make up a significant part of the creative workforce. I read that more than one million over 50s now work for themselves despite the pandemic’s impact on self-employment [IPSE]. Folks who want to start their own biz or have had enough of the 9-5. 

Yet we lack a single voice to represent our interests in government. And support and biz training generally, which is why we have such active unions, small biz orgs and freelance communities. 

AI and creative work

This week, we had a lively meeting on AI and creative work with speakers Laurence Bouvard from Equity (actress and computer scientist) and John Sailing from the Writers’ Guild. Interesting to hear about Equity’s successful campaign #StopAIStealingtheShow. The NUJ is also developing an AI toolkit for writers; watch this space.

Laurence said part of the problem is that the gov doesn’t understand the tech/AI and that there’s a general malaise: “People just don’t care.” 

It’s not that we don’t care, but it feels futile; the horse has already bolted. AI is here to stay; the companies already have our data, and what’s depressing is they’re so hungry for new data (i.e running out) that they’re now developing ‘synthetic’ info—i.e. training AI on text generated by AI (this NYT article went viral).

They hope that bringing different AI models together will solve the data problem and that “it should be alright.”

Where will it end?

I agree with Laurence that it isn’t just about protecting jobs (AI will create new jobs—I’ve had recruiters reach out for help training AI systems for $15 an hour!) but about protecting what it means to be an artist and writer—and keeping the human at the heart of it.

And protecting our planet – can you imagine how much power these machines are using?

Things I enjoyed this week

▶️ Death of the follower & the future of creativity on the web with Jack Conte [SXSW]. Amazing keynote and storytelling. His thoughts on the arc of the internet, how it will continue to evolve, and Patreon’s place in it. A call to make beautiful things that light you up and go deeper with your ‘true fans’ rather than chasing followers/algos/other people’s agendas. Love his passion. Go Jack!

▶️ The #1 Neuroscientist: After listening to this, your brain will not be the same [Mel Robbins]. Practical tips on how to trick your brain into manifesting your goals and desires and using manifesting as a tool for success, happiness, and better health. Dr. Tara has a knack for simplifying science and making it fun.

▶️ I’m analysing 49K Substack newsletters [Newsletter Circle]. Understand the newsletter space and other creators’ behaviours and strategies in this new report. I’m enjoying Ciler’s work and love that she’s dreaming big. Her goal is to create a full-fledged media company for newsletter creators.

▶️ Axios sees AI coming, and shifts its strategy [NYT]. “The premium for people who can tell you things you do not know will only grow in importance, and no machine will do that.” Spot on, Jim. Axios is focusing on live events, a membership program centring on its star journalists and an expansion of its high-end subscription newsletters. Can’t wait to see how this plays out.

▶️ NylonMag is getting back into the print biz and relaunching its physical magazine for the first time since 2017. Back on the newsstand on April 16 with cover star Gwen Stefani to celebrate their 25th birthday.

It may be less frequent (bi-annual) and more of a coffee table magazine, but that’s not a bad thing. Quality over quantity is better for the planet. A keeper!

I’ve been enjoying reading physical magazines lately—I have to give my eyes a break. Seriously, I look up, and I can’t see! 😱 We’re not built to sit and stare at a screen all day.

Have a great week.

Nika 🙂

PS. I’m compiling a list of niche media events – newsletter conferences, creator events etc. If you have any recs, let me know.

Hi, I’m Nika! 👋

I run Firebird, the content consultancy helping entrepreneurs impact the world with their stories. Life is too short to play small.

See my services here.

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Build your Google Business Card

I’ve been tinkering around with my Google Knowledge Panel this week. I have an old one from 2007 when I wrote my first book, which is outdated now and looks a bit sparse.

Google still dominates online search results, so I’m keen to grow and improve my KP – it’s your digital business card and the first thing people see when they look you up online.

If you don’t have a Knowledge Panel, you look like a nobody. So, it’s a really good way to push yourself up the career ladder as it were, to be recognised as a leader in your field.

Jason Barnard, the Brand SERP Guy. 

I clicked on the dots next to my name and suggested an edit. I added a a short bio, but they rejected it. That info comes from the Knowledge Graph, Google’s information collection about people, places, and things.

So, back to the drawing board. I have to educate Google!

Google is actually a child, thirsty for knowledge who wants to understand the world. It doesn’t care about notability; it just wants to understand everything.

I’m working through this free guide from Kalicube (Jason’s agency specialising in KP). I’ve updated my website bio (Home/About page) and social profiles (Crunchbase, Journolink, Response Source, Haro, Muck Rack, Substack, and LinkedIn).

He says your bio needs to be clear and consistent (who you are, what you do, who you help), and preferably written in the 3rd person. I’m not keen on that; it’s too formal for me, but I’ll try it for now. I can tweak it later.

Repurpose the same bio across all your social platforms and link back your website to “create an infinite loop of self-corroboration that Google understands”. 

I checked it this morning, and it’s now updated my name and added my social profiles, but there’s no pic of me or bio, so I still have some work to do.

It could take months so I need to be patient, but at least I’ve made a start.

Thanks to Jason and team for this resource!

I enjoyed his interview with Kristina God on how to create a KP as a writer (Kristina writes on Substack and Medium), plus they touch on other stuff – how Google is explicitly looking for writers, multimedia content, the importance of visual branding (often overlooked) and whether we should let AI crawl our content (we now have that option on Substack).

If the future of search is about how we educate these smart machines, then we need to understand the knowledge algos and how they function. This is a good place to start!

Also, check the information about you on ChatGPT, etc, to make sure it’s correct. Joe Pulizzi asked it what his favourite colour is, and it said ‘purple’ when we all know it’s orange! 🚩

If you make videos, check the auto-generated captions on YouTube, as they can be inaccurate.

Here’s Jason’s website (like an encyclopaedia!) and Knowledge Panel.

Let me know how you’re growing your Knowledge Panel.

Congrats to Kristina on becoming a Substack Bestseller and getting 100 paid subscribers! 🥳  

Good Reads

▶️It’s not just you. It’s harder now to make a living as a creator. An excellent essay on how the sea has shifted when building an online business. Those who are killing it are mainly marketers selling courses about marketing. I agree; it’s very meta (more Substacks about how to succeed on Substack). I’m in this space, too, and struggling with it. Some advice on how to look forward and innovate. [Alexis Grant] 

▶️Google’s Helpful Content update – reflecting on what happened. The September ’23 HCU caused thousands of sites to lose organic (SEO) traffic from Google in a few days (there seem to be NO recoveries from this), and the March core update rolls on. Here’s Lily Ray on patterns she’s seen in her work, research, and advice for smaller indie publishers. [Lily Ray] 

▶️Time to Act. What are publishers doing now? Some industry leaders in the blogging and publishing space have joined forces to create a collective non-profit association, the Web Publishers Association, to inspire change. Tony Hill shares his thoughts on it here [Amy Aitman]  

▶️Joe Pulizzi’s new book, The Content Entrepreneur, is out in the next few weeks. I love the cover of the proof copy – very Gatsby! Direct sales only via their websites, not Amazon etc, so a bold move. I’m interested to see how the experiment goes – not sure how it differs from Content Inc. [Joe Pulizzi] 

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🌟🚀 Success on Substack

CSA Images

It’s ok to grow slow

Happy September! It’s good to be back at my hot desk with some entrepreneur energy, art, dogs, and stuff happening around me. I’ve missed it. 

Coastal Currents art festival opens today – fully independent this year, with no Arts Council funding – go Tina & team! 👏

I keep trying to take August off like the Europeans do for proper rest and reset, but it doesn’t work at home. I slip back into the usual habits and routines.

To take the entire month off(line), I need to go AWAY and be in a different environment. So, something to work towards for next August.

Back-to-school vibes… Farrah Storr sums it up perfectly in her newsletter: 

As summer fades, change at this time of year feels inevitable. One of the things that has always struck me about September is its capacity for renewal, especially creative renewal. I think it’s something to do with the summer months allowing our ideas to just sit and be, and in their being, that’s when they truly take shape. 

September is the perfect time to give those ideas a little push out into the world.

Farrah Storr – Things Worth Knowing

I like working in seasons/12-week sprints and setting small goals. Enjoyed this piece in Vox on why dividing your life into semesters, even when you’re not in school, can help with goal-setting, time management and motivation.

It gets us going and out of a rut. And it gives you something to aim for and look forward to – the next break from mid-Dec to mid-Jan.

Seems like a productive way to organise the year. 

📚 The 12-week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months is about breaking down the activities that are most important and creating a sense of urgency to get stuff done.

Time to ditch the annual plan?

🛠 Substack Toolkit 

So, I’ve been thinking about where to devote my energies this season and the ONE thing I want to focus on.

Growing on Substack and getting to know the community better alongside my 1:1 client work. 

I’m compiling a toolkit of resources for Substack writers – industry trends, articles, experiments, opportunities, and folks to follow.

It will live here on Google Docs; I’ll update it as I go. Let me know if you have a link or story to share, and I’ll add your name and newsletter. 

I see a lot of resources for general newsletter growth, so it’s good to find some support with a Substack-specific focus. 

Exploding Topics

Substack has launched two new features this month. You can find and follow friends and AI-powered tools to generate transcripts and create social sharing assets (useful if you do interviews).

🗞 Read 

👉 Writer making six figures on Substack says ‘I won’t write for free anymore.’ | Press Gazette

👉 Revealed: Top 27 highest-earning Substack newsletters generate over $22m a year | Press Gazette 

👉 The people earning 56K a year through their Substack side hustles | iNews 

👉 Substack faces fresh competition in the newsletter wars | Vanity Fair

👉 Digital platforms and journalistic careers: A case study of Substack newsletters | CJR 

👉 Why New Statesman became the first major publisher to exclusively host newsletters on Substack | Press Gazette. Be interesting to see if other publishers follow suit.

🌱 Grow

I’m seeing a desire for cohort-based courses over standalone training/videos you do solo. People want to learn with others who are doing the same thing. Be part of a community and a challenge. Just keep ‘em affordable!

👉 Ready to kick-start your creative future? | Things Worth Knowing – Farrah Storr’s new Substack support channel and writing group dates. Pitch her (and get paid £200 – she’s now commissioning writers). 

👉 Substack Soiree – Starts Sept 11 – a 5-week supportive group programme for anyone looking to start, grow or expand their Substack. Covers: optimisation, subscriber growth, sales, self-promo and community, what to write about, getting out of your own way, and sharing with love.  

👉 Success on Substack: Craft a Subscription Newsletter Worth Reading | Marlee Grace. “Everything I know about writing a digital newsletter for over a decade, and specifically choosing to monetize it – sending it weekly to 25k subscribers, 1400+ paid subscribers, and a gross annualised revenue of over $80k a year.” (1-month free trial on Skillshare).

Marlee writes Monday Monday, a weekly Substack on creativity.  

👉 Substack Course: The Ultimate Guide to Creating, Operating, and Monetising a Substack Newsletter | Casey Botticello (he also has a Facebook group for Substack writers).

👉 Grow – How Laura Kennedy made more money on Substack than anywhere else. On moving from Patreon and earning a steady income. Plus, updated resources, a workbook and creator interviews – one to bookmark.

👉 Bringing your LinkedIn followers to Substack | Linda Lebrun (and what to do with your LinkedIn newsletter).

👉 It’s OK if you grow your audience slowly | Inbox Collective. Claire Zulkey on why, for some indie newsletters, focusing on content – and community – is the right move. 

I’m with her on this – a refreshing perspective and an antidote to all the 7-figure newsletter biz articles and podcasts.

Yes, most of us need to make money. But it’s not the only goal.

What about building for impact while you earn a shit ton of money? That’s my plan. I’d love to hear more stories about global initiatives, impact projects, celebrating cultures, and telling stories to build connection and empathy – Substack for Change? 

After years of struggling as a freelance journalist in London trying to make writing pay, it makes my heart sing to read posts like Emma’s about earning six figures from her Substack.  

I enjoy seeing writers flourish on the platform, building an audience, earning a steady income, and paying others to write. 

Yes, you need to have your eyes open. Substack is VC-backed and under pressure to grow. But it’s exciting and inspiring to see what’s possible – and great to see people experimenting.

Platforms may come and go, but the humble newsletter isn’t going anywhere.

This week’s fave Substack post: We need more jazz vinyl cafes by Ted Gioia. Oh, for a trip to Tokyo to check out the jazz joints! 

To your success! 🥂

Nika

PS, I’m doing Joe Dispenza’s Walk for the World on Sept 23. I love his work – inspiring stories of transformation.

His ‘You Are The Placebo’ meditation is 👌

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Inside the Elon-Substack drama

This week, Substack rolled out Notes, a new way to share short-form content on the platform to help drive discovery.

Not the quiet product launch they were expecting!

Elon dubbed it ‘the Twitter clone,’ which they deny – and apparently began to restrict promo and visibility for tweets with links to Substack posts (The Verge).

So much for Twitter being the platform of free speech.

How bizarre to block links to ‘competitors’. He’s cutting off his friends and allies publishing on the platform. How are writers/journos supposed to market their work?

“Twitter Files” journalist Matt Taibbi said he’s leaving the platform after Elon’s latest changes have made it ‘unusable’ for him. NPR has also quit over the government-funded label.

It doesn’t spread goodwill towards Twitter or make you inclined to pay for it, even with Creators Subscriptions to earn income from writing. They shut down Revue!  

Political battles and, once again, writers take the hit. It’s also backfired and given a tiny product launch full-scale media coverage. It’s not often we see a product story hit the headlines.

Shakespearian shenanigans! The ‘battle of the bros’ – Elon Vs Matt, Hamish and Chris 😉

Check out this interview with Kara Swisher (New York Magazine). No names mentioned, but Kara doesn’t shy away.

Chris and Hamish handled themselves well; you can read between the lines. They also discuss the challenging business model of newsletters. 

I am surprised Substack has gone into the social space, but I can see the logic. They are building “a subscription network”, and this will reduce their reliance on other platforms.

But building an ecosystem around social media is very different to running a paid newsletter – and content moderation is a big job.

I published my first note last night. It looks like Twitter, but doesn’t feel like it… much calmer, with no ads and a hospitable welcome from the team, appreciated. Less friction – you can subscribe directly from a note.

Substack is positioning Notes as a tool to help writers more easily get subscribers. It’s early days, so let’s see. Not keen to spend more time online, but if it’s fun to use and helps get more eyeballs on your work, all well and good.

Yet another reminder about the importance of owning your list and not building your biz on rented land.

I’ve redirected my Substack URL to my website, which will hopefully get around any Twitter nonsense.

Well, at least we’re not bored!!

Nika 🙂

The Shift Hot 5 🔥    

The 2023 Unsung Content Entrepreneurs. Usually, the 1% making the big bucks get all the attention. Great to see The Tilt spotlighting ‘middle-class’ creators who are making money from their content biz. A diverse and inspiring list!

Google’s latest update evaluates product reviews about services, media, and other things – articles, blog posts, pages. Worth keeping an eye on if you publish reviews beyond product reviews on your site.

Lofi Girl’s universe grows! French YouTube channel and music label Lofi Girl released a 24/7 livestream featuring Lofi Boy – a new character. Official title: “Synthwave – beats to chill/game to”. A new realm of retro-futuristic sounds to work to!

Is there life after influencing? Internet personality Lee From America wanted to see what life was like as plain old Lee Tilghman. How easy is it to leave lucrative brand partnerships and high follower counts behind? NYT profiles her move from TikTok creator to corporate (got round the paywall on Reddit).

Lee’s new creative outlet is a Substack called ‘Offline Time’ – interesting comment about having to take the app off her phone: “Oh god, this is becoming a social media app”… 🤦🏻‍♀️

Bionic Reading – become a super reader. Oh, to read a book a day again! Shallow forms of reading can dominate the internet. Read faster and retain info better. A typographical trick that works by highlighting certain words in the text – your brain reads faster than your eyes. Free to download.

Thoughts, questions, or topic suggestions? Email nika@nikatalbot.io or follow me on LinkedIn for content tips.

Have an good story to share or want to nominate a creator? Get featured in a Creator Business Spotlight | Hot 5

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Thinking about a rebrand

Test your brand name; Own a piece of Substack; The Shift Hot 5

‘What’s in a Name? Gift Cards, more than just a gift’ – a panel session at a industry conference I worked on recently. New research and a whitepaper exploring whether the name ‘gift card’ is still relevant today.

Gift cards are much more than a physical card and being used innovatively to help with the cost-of-living crisis. Employee rewards and incentives, as a tool for budgeting and saving, and self-gifting is on the rise… ‘You Card’ is one suggestion.

Turns out people still like the ‘gift card’ name though – it has a nice ring to it. Simple and obvious. 

It got me thinking about my name for this project: The Shift – and whether it still fits. The newsletter has evolved since I started it three years ago. It was ‘WorkLife Shift’, which I shortened to The Shift. It had a broader focus, exploring the future of work and living, remote work trends, and freelancing.  

The name was an impulse decision. I looked down at my keyboard and saw the ‘shift’ key. Made me think of freelance shifts and the gig economy. I like the transformation aspect, go solo – #MakeTheShift is my hashtag.

I’ve niched down some more and am now focusing on content entrepreneurship and the booming creator economy. For those interested in creating a lifestyle-first, one-person biz. I’ve set some goals to motivate myself – earning six figures / 10K month / workations – I’m not a nomad, but will travel when I can.

The Shift is too generic – not obvious or specific enough for SEO and discoverability. I mentioned it to a friend and she said, “Well, it doesn’t really tell me what it’s about.” Ugh.

I need a catchier brand name.

I like ‘The Content Entrepreneur’, but that’s registered to The Tilt as Joe has a book coming out on it this year – yay! The Digital Entrepreneur? Or something with Creator in the title. I can’t have ‘The Sunday Solopreneur’ as Justin is rocking that on Saturdays. Six-figure Small is great, but too close to Brian Clark | Unemployables.

Names are important. I realise this is holding me back. Someone asked me to speak at an event the other day, and I hesitated. It’s the name. I can’t imagine being announced as “Nika from The Shift” or writing a book with that in the title. Too many other books using it. I also associate it with the gig economy and grind – not what I want to communicate!

I’ll sit with it for a bit.

Lots to think about – domain names, social handles, trademarks, personal brand Vs brand name. I’ve asked ChatGPT for a few suggestions – pretty good, but nothing I love.

I listened to Jay Clouse talk about his rebrand from Creative Companion to Creator Science. Great name, like the juxtaposition. Excellent episode – well worth a listen.

You can test your brand name here.

Own a piece of Substack

Big news from Substack. They’ve launched a community funding round opportunity asking people to invest (donate) in the platform. Here’s the pitch email. They believe the future of media and the internet’s next chapter is the ‘subscription network.’

I’ve made a reservation. I believe in what Substack is trying to do – change a broken media model. I like the product and community they’ve built over the last five years. It’s an ambitious mission and they want to build with writers.

I like that it’s accessible – the minimum donation is $100. The fundraiser is almost sold out, which is a good sign.

It’s a matter of principle and a loyalty move, really. I don’t expect to get my money back. It’s an interesting opportunity (I’ve never been offered this in the writing biz), and I want to be part of it.

I would like to see the financials (coming in the next couple of weeks they say), and have a few questions. Do we have voting rights? Do they plan to go public or sell at some point? Nothing lasts forever – especially in startup land. I would rather have actual shares in Substack…

It’s easy to be cynical – they didn’t make their funding round last year, and the market is tough. But it’s a simple decision. I like what they’re doing for writers, and I’ve benefited from the platform and community over the last four years. 

I’m happy to give back, and I want them to succeed.

I also want more from them. A Substack conference, a magazine for writers, more help with marketing and distribution (Sparkloop style, Beehiiv), local meetups and events, which all require more $$ – maybe even a Substack gift card? 😉

Comment in The Verge (some data they didn’t include) – Oooof. I’ve seen many posts from backers – Emma Gannon, Polina Pompliano and this one by The Honest Broker.

Good luck to the team – and thank you for an excellent product.

The Shift Hot 5 🔥

How I’ve doubled my following on LinkedIn in the last few months – Jay Clouse shares his strategy for how he’s growing on LinkedIn based on current algo research and best practices. I love these solo episodes – practical, actionable advice. Grab a notebook and pen! 

Teach Me to Pin – free training w/ Jenna Kutcher. Pinterest is her #1 traffic referral source and a huge part of her marketing strategy. Pinterest is a search engine, not a social media platform, which means people actively search for keywords in your niche. The average post lifespan is 4 mo Vs 18 mins on Twitter!! Worth your time.

Prompt Crafting – become an expert on using generative AI for marketing content creation. A handbook from Writer.com – learn the art of prompt writing, how to personalise your content for audiences, optimise for SEO and more.

A Guide to Writing Well by Julian Shapiro – learn how to write better non-fiction books and blogs. “There’s a science to non-fiction that I believe has been overlooked.”

A ‘Manifesto for Slow Learning’ including a ‘Bill of Rights’ for the slow learner. A project that Idler editor Tom Hodgkinson took part in and shared in his excellent newsletter. A path to a mindful and meaningful future of learning… feels right with the AI insanity.

Listening to this today. Have a great (rest of) Sunday.  

Keep moving –

Nika 

Thoughts, questions, or topic suggestions? Email nika@nikatalbot.io

Have an good story to share? Get featured in a Creator Business Spotlight

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