Cohort-BASED writing (all ships rise with the tide)
Reddit is ideal place to join communities based on shared interests. Who knew?
I’ve never been a Redditor, but as the years go by, I find myself looking for real, authentic, and true answers on reddit. In fact, in my search queries, I’ll often append the word “reddit.” So instead of Googling “Substack vs. Beehiiv,” my query would be “Substack vs. Beehiiv Reddit.”
This afternoon, I saw this on a subreddit (r/Substack) that I joined last week:
“It feels like I’m writing in the void, and I know it takes awhile to get things snowballing, but this start was very discouraging. I just don’t want to spend any more time posting if all I’m going to get is <10 views.”
How many online writers have been in this exact position? Feeling frustrated that your 2,000 word post was read by a total of 1 unique viewer (most like you! haha).
Check. Been there.
Then what happens? The blog or newsletter you planned on becoming a force in literature peters out and fades into the landfill of dead newsletters started by you (and me). (Too soon?)
But what if there was way to harness the power of community to help launch your newsletter?
Here’s what I suggested on that reddit post:
I really think one way of solving for this particular problem is the following:
Create a writing cohort based on interest, topic, or field. It CANNOT be one writer who writes on cars, another who writes about personal finance, and another on Tokyo travel tips. It sounds counterintuitive, but if a cohort consists of writers who write about a SIMILAR interest, topic, or field — THEN all boats rise with the tide. Ever notice on YouTube that if you watch a travel vlogger based in X country, then you’ll get recommended other vloggers from X country. Watching one vlogger doesn’t mean you’ll not watch another vlogger. IN FACT, I would argue that it helps the consumer see multiple perspectives on X country.
Commit to writing 5x per week. Make this a REQUIREMENT for staying in the cohort. This generates both motivation and ACCOUNTABILITY.
Cross-promote: Fo every post that you write, you HAVE to embed links to your cohort mates and their newsletter. And this is okay because the cohort is based on interest, topic, or field-based, so if you are writing about X country, you are not recommending “Flying Kites” to your readers who came to read about X country.
Since this is a Substack subreddit, perhaps the easiest way to get started with a Cohort-baed movement designed to help all the members of that cohort gain VISIBILITY and new SUBSCRIBERS is to write about… “Online Writing.”
I would love to help organize if you are interested!
There you have it: 3Cs for the Cohort-based launch.
- Create
- Commit
- Cross-promote
I would love to hear your thoughts on this idea. Feel free to leave a comment.
/fin
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