A Simple Publication Strategy Cheat Sheet.

Insight: On questions that help you refine writing goals.

Photo by Matheo JBT on Unsplash

"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."
-Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing

Whether you have been writing newsletters or blogs for a while or have just discovered it, are you examining your strategy periodically to ensure you are on track or need to course correct?

Here are ten simple and basic questions to consider for measuring progress:

1. Why am I writing this newsletter? Is this primarily for me, or for others?

2. Why do I care about this topic so much ?

3. Is it always going to be free or paid?

4. Does it matter if only one person is reading it or do I want the maximum number of readers possible? Am I bringing subscribers from my other sites or growing on a single platform?

5. How should a reader feel when they read my content?

6. Where do readers who read my type of content usually hang out?

7. What is unique about my writing and approach to this content?

8. What have I learned from the comments and feedback I have received already?

9. What do other writers who write on my topic do weekly?

10. Do readers of this topic have questions on other social media forums (e.g. Quora) that I can answer in my newsletter?

Based on the answers to this first ten questions, additional questions may develop that require further thought. For example, if your intent is to be paid, but your engagement is low, what does it mean? Or should you retain your main website but write on Substack directing blog traffic here? Or abandon other sites and concentrate on one site alone?

How you think of your newsletter, shapes your home page, your paywall strategy, your engagement intent, your post topics, your writing frequency, and how you grow the subscriber base, the time you allocate weekly, and what systems you build.

This then gives you an operational process plan that may look like the following based on answers to the above questions.

1. Write Saturdays and Sundays. Schedule to publish on Mondays and Thursdays.

2. Carve 20 minutes daily to engage with your readers who like, comment, or post.

3. Engage on the platform daily by writing a 25-50 word message, following someone, reading other writers, or commenting on other posts.

4. Decide which posts are free, which are behind a paywall.

5. Spend 30 minutes weekly on other social media to grow traffic to your main site.

For instance, step 5 may include you cross-posting to your other sites or writing platforms.

What tools do you need to make you more efficient for your steps?

You also need to ensure you have a system of process, tech tools, pricing and newsletter strategy that are aligned to achieve your goals outlined in your answers.

No matter which step of the process you are at, you can decide what to measure, and how to achieve your milestones.

Milestones can be based on the answers you devise for questions that matter. They can be achieved as slow or as fast as you wish, and as James Clear, the author of ‘Atomic Habits,’ said, “you rise or fall to the level of your systems.”

Achieving milestones can be a joyful activity, and regardless of monetization gateways, can create micro wins that fuel our sense of achievement and doing meaningful work.

I hope this was helpful. Do you have tips you would like to share?

Author generated based on article text. © Jayshree Gururaj

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If you need personalized help, please write to me at hellotechmadesimple@proton.me for a paid session to build a custom viable strategy, system and process that helps you feel more in charge of the direction of your newsletter.