You touched on lots of topics here. Let me see how much I can fit into the max allowed characters in the Substack comment box.
# Platforms
I'll follow you on whatever platform you choose.
I personally prefer posting on my hosted WordPress. However, that very much lacks the discoverability feature that Substack has. Plus, Substack is just much simpler. Both for the writer and for the audience.
The writer on substack doesn't have to worry about themes. Or writing in WordPress' block system.
The audience on Substack gets a cleaner experience. All your subs are in one place. Nice, easy email subscriptions. Substack is nice.
But there's something about having WordPress on MY site. And it's all MY files. Although most likely, I like WordPress because I've self-hosted my blog since 2021. I got some income from Google Ads in the early 2010s. But now those days are long gone, especially with AI cutting out the search engine business.
Perhaps I need to realize that the days for writers are now on services focusing on getting subscribers, not on getting ads displayed.
Anyhow, that doesn't answer your question. Just rambling thoughts on services.
# Lemonade
Your metaphor of lemonade is somewhat related to my metaphor of the potato. It's the whole reason why I use the "spudart" name online. Actually, the potato metaphor comes from other German artists like Sigmar Polke, Jorg Immedorf, and Joseph Beuys. The basic gist could be summed up in this quote by Polke, "Well if there is anything at all which manifests everything artists are supposed to be or have - the delight in innovativity, creativity, spontaneity, productivity, creating entirely out of oneself and so on - then it is the potato." Basically, taking what you got, and making something out of it.
# Interaction at concerts
For years, I went to art talks with the same thoughts. That at some point, I would interact with people at these talks. But that never came to fruition. There were a couple of talks that were geared more towards getting the audience members to engage with each other. And that got me to meet a few people. However, none that I continue to engage with today.
# Shared experiences
Whoa. Yeah. You've encapsulated it. After leaving college, I was always amazed at how the regular world doesn't spontaneously interact with each other. Like my 3rd floor studio in Wrigleyville. I remember finding it odd how everyone kept their doors closed in the staircase. At college, people would keep their doors open.
And now, in the burbs of Chicago, I was so glad to have our street torn up for six months when they installed new pipes. Not only for getting the lead pipes out but also for how much the block interacted with each other during this process. People would stand outside and watch what was happening. People would stop and chat. It gave us all something in common to chat about. And now that the construction has been done for a couple of years now, I rather miss it.
# Elmhurst Art Museum
Oh! I should follow the Elmhurst Art Museum more. They have a Picasso show? Oh yipes, it's open only until January 7th.
# What we'd like to see
I really like the format of how you write these. It's impressive how you tied together various topics.
When I write, I tend to write more frequent short posts. That way, it gives people something more specific to reply to. But, lol, my blog gets barely any comments. So, I guess that method doesn't really work?
However, when I read longer form posts with multiple topics, I wonder if people get overloaded with what to say in response. Then again, I bet a lot of people simply read your posts and don't leave a response. Maybe most people simply read to consume, and that's it.
When I read, I like to share responses. In fact, I make a point of leaving some form of comment on what I read, so the author knows that their works are being read and thought about.
The method of longer posts with various topics works for you. Your articles are engaging to read. If they were short blips, the reader would feel like you aren't as invested in the content you are writing.
And that's part of the signaling that readers pick up on. "Does this author care about what they are writing about? Or is this filler fluff?" Maybe I'm too sensitive about this angle, because I work in the media/newspaper industry where I see articles being churned out. But readers certainly can sense if the author is invested. Write a nice longer-form essay that weaves in multiple topics, and ties them together under a thread of thoughts. That brings the reader along a journey on well-paved roads.
# Engagement
The success for me is the very writing you create. That you spend the time to sit down and craft all these words and put everything together around once a week is very impressive.
I'm certain it helps you to clarify your thoughts. And to develop new roads of thought. It's also nice to be able to look back at your archive. Just like you did with the lemonade search. You looked to see how you covered something (or not covered at all). The more you write, the more you can intersect things. And actually, that's one method of getting more subscribers. When writers demonstrate that their work is interconnected with their previous writings, it shows themes. It shows your investment that you cover these themes in depth. Linking to previous articles shows that you care about your previous writings, which means your future writings will be good, too.
And the search engines like the interlinking. That helps the search engines do their job. When you interlink stuff, the search engines know better how your work relates to each other and what the important topics are.
And the same for readers. The readers get to read more of your work that way. They discover more of your archives. They get more invested. The more invested your readers are, the more likely they are to share your work. And then your work spreads. From time to time, I've linked to your writing from my site.
It takes time to interlink all your work. I haven't done a good job on my site. Maybe I should do that more. But it all helps to develop a larger readership.
Which then leads to more engagement. That's my primary goal with writing.
Speaking of engagement/comments, Substack is a curious land in that regard. I've seen some substacks with lots of comments. Some with very few. It raises the question if Substack is built for comments. The simplicity of the UI certainly helps to get more comments. (In comparison to my blog, the design is too bloated at the end of the article to get the comments.)
However, I've noticed that when you post your articles on Facebook, you get more comments there. And that's because Facebook is built for comments. That comment box is right there. Boom. You don't have to scroll to the bottom of the post to leave a comment. Of course, that's weird, because people would leave a comment without reading the whole thing. Alas, that's how the internet works. Even with that point aside (that someone would comment without reading the full post….) Facebook's UI gets people in the mood to comment, because the comment box is immediately visible. It sets the tone for commenting.
I've thought about designing my site to mimic that--having the comment box appear right away near the top. I just never got to it.
To be clear, I'm NOT advocating that you post your full-length articles on Facebook. You aren't doing that now, and I don't need to get into all the reasons why not to do that, because you are probably already aware of that.
Ok, back to your point, you feel like something needs to change to keep your own interest up. I'm curious what you are looking for. More subscribers? More comments? I'm guessing you'd like both. But with your writing, I also get the sense that you enjoy writing them.
Hi, Phil. So sorry to hear about the Nazi-enabling Substack administration. I wonder why I have not heard about this from Heather Cox Richardson or Joyce Vance (the other two Substacks that I read). I am sure they would be concerned if they knew of this. You might reach out to them, if they are not already part of your coalition. As for the future, I don't really listen to podcasts or watch videos (what we used to call "television"): it just takes much longer than reading to get the information on offer, and time/life is short. I, of course, value your insights into politics and society; and I have also enjoyed your cultural comments (on, e.g., pizza parlors in various suburbs) and enjoy learning about your life. I'm in a little academic town (Hyde Park). Drop by and see me sometime, if you want some of that vibe (can't guarantee famous people). It would be great to see you.
You touched on lots of topics here. Let me see how much I can fit into the max allowed characters in the Substack comment box.
# Platforms
I'll follow you on whatever platform you choose.
I personally prefer posting on my hosted WordPress. However, that very much lacks the discoverability feature that Substack has. Plus, Substack is just much simpler. Both for the writer and for the audience.
The writer on substack doesn't have to worry about themes. Or writing in WordPress' block system.
The audience on Substack gets a cleaner experience. All your subs are in one place. Nice, easy email subscriptions. Substack is nice.
But there's something about having WordPress on MY site. And it's all MY files. Although most likely, I like WordPress because I've self-hosted my blog since 2021. I got some income from Google Ads in the early 2010s. But now those days are long gone, especially with AI cutting out the search engine business.
Perhaps I need to realize that the days for writers are now on services focusing on getting subscribers, not on getting ads displayed.
Anyhow, that doesn't answer your question. Just rambling thoughts on services.
# Lemonade
Your metaphor of lemonade is somewhat related to my metaphor of the potato. It's the whole reason why I use the "spudart" name online. Actually, the potato metaphor comes from other German artists like Sigmar Polke, Jorg Immedorf, and Joseph Beuys. The basic gist could be summed up in this quote by Polke, "Well if there is anything at all which manifests everything artists are supposed to be or have - the delight in innovativity, creativity, spontaneity, productivity, creating entirely out of oneself and so on - then it is the potato." Basically, taking what you got, and making something out of it.
# Interaction at concerts
For years, I went to art talks with the same thoughts. That at some point, I would interact with people at these talks. But that never came to fruition. There were a couple of talks that were geared more towards getting the audience members to engage with each other. And that got me to meet a few people. However, none that I continue to engage with today.
# Shared experiences
Whoa. Yeah. You've encapsulated it. After leaving college, I was always amazed at how the regular world doesn't spontaneously interact with each other. Like my 3rd floor studio in Wrigleyville. I remember finding it odd how everyone kept their doors closed in the staircase. At college, people would keep their doors open.
And now, in the burbs of Chicago, I was so glad to have our street torn up for six months when they installed new pipes. Not only for getting the lead pipes out but also for how much the block interacted with each other during this process. People would stand outside and watch what was happening. People would stop and chat. It gave us all something in common to chat about. And now that the construction has been done for a couple of years now, I rather miss it.
# Elmhurst Art Museum
Oh! I should follow the Elmhurst Art Museum more. They have a Picasso show? Oh yipes, it's open only until January 7th.
# What we'd like to see
I really like the format of how you write these. It's impressive how you tied together various topics.
When I write, I tend to write more frequent short posts. That way, it gives people something more specific to reply to. But, lol, my blog gets barely any comments. So, I guess that method doesn't really work?
However, when I read longer form posts with multiple topics, I wonder if people get overloaded with what to say in response. Then again, I bet a lot of people simply read your posts and don't leave a response. Maybe most people simply read to consume, and that's it.
When I read, I like to share responses. In fact, I make a point of leaving some form of comment on what I read, so the author knows that their works are being read and thought about.
The method of longer posts with various topics works for you. Your articles are engaging to read. If they were short blips, the reader would feel like you aren't as invested in the content you are writing.
And that's part of the signaling that readers pick up on. "Does this author care about what they are writing about? Or is this filler fluff?" Maybe I'm too sensitive about this angle, because I work in the media/newspaper industry where I see articles being churned out. But readers certainly can sense if the author is invested. Write a nice longer-form essay that weaves in multiple topics, and ties them together under a thread of thoughts. That brings the reader along a journey on well-paved roads.
# Engagement
The success for me is the very writing you create. That you spend the time to sit down and craft all these words and put everything together around once a week is very impressive.
I'm certain it helps you to clarify your thoughts. And to develop new roads of thought. It's also nice to be able to look back at your archive. Just like you did with the lemonade search. You looked to see how you covered something (or not covered at all). The more you write, the more you can intersect things. And actually, that's one method of getting more subscribers. When writers demonstrate that their work is interconnected with their previous writings, it shows themes. It shows your investment that you cover these themes in depth. Linking to previous articles shows that you care about your previous writings, which means your future writings will be good, too.
And the search engines like the interlinking. That helps the search engines do their job. When you interlink stuff, the search engines know better how your work relates to each other and what the important topics are.
And the same for readers. The readers get to read more of your work that way. They discover more of your archives. They get more invested. The more invested your readers are, the more likely they are to share your work. And then your work spreads. From time to time, I've linked to your writing from my site.
It takes time to interlink all your work. I haven't done a good job on my site. Maybe I should do that more. But it all helps to develop a larger readership.
Which then leads to more engagement. That's my primary goal with writing.
Speaking of engagement/comments, Substack is a curious land in that regard. I've seen some substacks with lots of comments. Some with very few. It raises the question if Substack is built for comments. The simplicity of the UI certainly helps to get more comments. (In comparison to my blog, the design is too bloated at the end of the article to get the comments.)
However, I've noticed that when you post your articles on Facebook, you get more comments there. And that's because Facebook is built for comments. That comment box is right there. Boom. You don't have to scroll to the bottom of the post to leave a comment. Of course, that's weird, because people would leave a comment without reading the whole thing. Alas, that's how the internet works. Even with that point aside (that someone would comment without reading the full post….) Facebook's UI gets people in the mood to comment, because the comment box is immediately visible. It sets the tone for commenting.
I've thought about designing my site to mimic that--having the comment box appear right away near the top. I just never got to it.
To be clear, I'm NOT advocating that you post your full-length articles on Facebook. You aren't doing that now, and I don't need to get into all the reasons why not to do that, because you are probably already aware of that.
Ok, back to your point, you feel like something needs to change to keep your own interest up. I'm curious what you are looking for. More subscribers? More comments? I'm guessing you'd like both. But with your writing, I also get the sense that you enjoy writing them.
Hi, Phil. So sorry to hear about the Nazi-enabling Substack administration. I wonder why I have not heard about this from Heather Cox Richardson or Joyce Vance (the other two Substacks that I read). I am sure they would be concerned if they knew of this. You might reach out to them, if they are not already part of your coalition. As for the future, I don't really listen to podcasts or watch videos (what we used to call "television"): it just takes much longer than reading to get the information on offer, and time/life is short. I, of course, value your insights into politics and society; and I have also enjoyed your cultural comments (on, e.g., pizza parlors in various suburbs) and enjoy learning about your life. I'm in a little academic town (Hyde Park). Drop by and see me sometime, if you want some of that vibe (can't guarantee famous people). It would be great to see you.
I will always try to follow you where ever you write. I am your biggest fan. I need to embrace podcasts .