What really is the difference between writing something in a notebook and writing it in a header? The words may be the same. The impulse may be the same. The format is different, and the audience is different, but the…
There is no shortage of tips for creating a Substack newsletter. Most of them bring back familiar places: choose your location, write consistently, create an email list. Even rarer is concrete, earned guidance from someone who has built a full-time…
Every morning, before anything else has a chance to interrupt, I write a list of what I want to do that day. Not a diary entry. Not a record of my feelings. Five or six things I want to keep…
For most of the web’s history, getting on the first page of Google meant getting traffic. This attitude—position equals visits—was the underlying logic of SEO, content strategy, and the display ad-supported blog model built upon it. The logic still works.…
Earlier, patience had another address. It’s not a virtue held within particularly quiet or spiritual people, but something baked into the fabric of ordinary everyday life. You wrote a letter. You sealed it. You sent it. Then you waited. Days…
The standard explanation for why someone would trust a stranger on TikTok over a doctor, scientist, or credentialed professional is that the person is gullible. The internet has made everyone prone to the confidence it dresses up as experience. Careful…
Two bloggers can cover the same topic, post with the same frequency, produce content of comparable quality, and end up with radically different audience relationships. For each post, readers are collected who appear, share without asking, and write emails that…
There is a quiet judgment about the person who writes in a diary and never comes back to read it. It’s not always said out loud, but it’s presented as journaling: hints for reviewing old notes, tips for tracking patterns…
I’ve been in therapy for a few months now and I still don’t understand my dad. Sessions help – I don’t want to deny that. It pays to say things out loud in a room where someone is being paid…
Most email marketing metrics are abstract. Open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates — these are aggregates, statistical averages that describe the readership without any individual faces. Unsubscribing is different. He registers as a private person who deliberately chooses to leave.…
