Hey Adam just wanted to drop in and say I love your content and writing! Discovered you on IG now following on Substack. Cheers from a writer/composer living in LA :)
You're absolutely right that I started following you on YouTube and made an account here just because of your posts. So your strategy is clearly working, and moreover, you're bringing in new users to the platform.
thank u etymology nerd for another little post in my inbox… I agree with this wholeheartedly though I think information should be free and accessible and it’s frustrating that everything circles back to monetary gain lol. What happened to adding value to the soul…
this is so refreshing adam!! so rare these days to not want to monetise every single platform and holding back from brand partnerships, and also for being transparent like in this post.
ive been following you on ig for a year and only recently in substack, personally i would prefer if substack would let us do one off purchases like a single issue of a magazine haha >_> can’t wait for the book! thanks for all the work that you do :)
i am in a kind of a troubled relationship with social media as a whole. your writings make me feel that maybe i'm not that crazy - but theres light in the end of the tunnel.
It's a very complex situation for us, because if e.g. all Substacks were paid / paywalled, audiences would not frequent the platform in enough numbers to grow paid subscriptions (as they find it frustrating to constantly be asked to pay!). Our optimizations have to balance the need for audiences to have lots of free stuff to read that they love —enough to come back often, such that we deliver growth— with our need to make money, for ourselves and for creatives who use us for that reason above others.
Ultimately it's a challenge for all the ranked and unranked surfaces to balance these things well. Fortunately, I'm in design and so don't have to contemplate the mathematical realities of doing so at scale! But basically: free publications and posts are *extremely* important to us, and always will be, for a range of reasons but in practical "business" terms because you just cannot have an "all-paid" or even "mostly-paid" platform that gets the usage we need to get the scales we need to pay!
Hey Adam just wanted to drop in and say I love your content and writing! Discovered you on IG now following on Substack. Cheers from a writer/composer living in LA :)
glad the short form ➡️ substack pipeline is working :)
I fw the substack heavy. You are a gem. I make sure I read every one eventually even if I gotta save em
I use soap every day
Hey that’s me. They should call you the Etymology Freak
You're absolutely right that I started following you on YouTube and made an account here just because of your posts. So your strategy is clearly working, and moreover, you're bringing in new users to the platform.
thank u etymology nerd for another little post in my inbox… I agree with this wholeheartedly though I think information should be free and accessible and it’s frustrating that everything circles back to monetary gain lol. What happened to adding value to the soul…
this is so refreshing adam!! so rare these days to not want to monetise every single platform and holding back from brand partnerships, and also for being transparent like in this post.
ive been following you on ig for a year and only recently in substack, personally i would prefer if substack would let us do one off purchases like a single issue of a magazine haha >_> can’t wait for the book! thanks for all the work that you do :)
Thank you for sharing your ideas and keeping them accessible for all! You articulate a lot of ideas I vaguely feel but could never put to words.
Your approach to digital monetization is one of the most thoughtful & nuanced I've read. Loved reading this, thanks for writing it!
i am in a kind of a troubled relationship with social media as a whole. your writings make me feel that maybe i'm not that crazy - but theres light in the end of the tunnel.
thank you
It's a very complex situation for us, because if e.g. all Substacks were paid / paywalled, audiences would not frequent the platform in enough numbers to grow paid subscriptions (as they find it frustrating to constantly be asked to pay!). Our optimizations have to balance the need for audiences to have lots of free stuff to read that they love —enough to come back often, such that we deliver growth— with our need to make money, for ourselves and for creatives who use us for that reason above others.
Ultimately it's a challenge for all the ranked and unranked surfaces to balance these things well. Fortunately, I'm in design and so don't have to contemplate the mathematical realities of doing so at scale! But basically: free publications and posts are *extremely* important to us, and always will be, for a range of reasons but in practical "business" terms because you just cannot have an "all-paid" or even "mostly-paid" platform that gets the usage we need to get the scales we need to pay!
Thanks Adam for taking the time to explain this & spell it out.
thanks so much for all you do and love your stuff
Thank you for not making commenting a pay wall on articles :)
A comment before the paywall, this is great content thanks for providing it and taking the effort
These short stories
with your illustrations
are good enough ( delightful ) to sell as
I think you are already doing. I’m old
enough that I cannot
read the story. I am using my phone not my computer. Good luck with your creativity!
Thank you Adam for your tremendous work, authenticity, and transparency. I can’t wait to read Algospeak.
thank you etymology nerd I'm a foreign language student in Colombia and your posts help me and motivate me !! <3