Concentrate on the Process and Celebrate the Progress

People are reading your newsletter

Credit Image: Grok 3 on X

I spent the past three years on and off writing on Substack. I didn’t know how to monetize my newsletters, and my numbers showed it. I used to spew the same thing everyone on Substack Notes and other online writers mentioned that “your writing business is a system. You need to build a system.”

What is a system?

A system is a method for writing your newsletter or article and making money from it.

I spent the past three years writing on Medium and Substack journaling. The strategy with journaling carried over to Substack, but I learned it was even worse than Medium.

Journaling on Substack doesn’t work. It’s great if you’re treating writing online as a hobby, but I was trying to build a writing business.

I always heard other online writers say, “What problem are you solving for your reader?” I knew it meant something, but I didn’t know what it meant.

With that, I continued writing on Substack, guessing about what readers wanted to read. I would get the occasional views. One person on Substack DM’d me that they wanted to purchase a subscription, but I didn’t even turn that option on for readers to subscribe.

If you found a system that could help you make money, would you buy it and apply it to your writing?

That’s the time to pivot.

For all of you who like numbers or even if you don’t, consider this:

(1)(1 + 0.01)^365 = 37.8

That’s what a 1% increase per day for one year will do. Concentrate on the process and watch your progress grow.

You increased the “1” you had at the start to 37.8 by getting better by 1% each day.

Concentrate on the process, and the progress will follow.

One Substack Newsletter Changed Everything for Me

I came across an interview and listened to how a person built her Substack business. I immediately signed up for the free subscription, but soon signed up for the paid subscription.

The person’s Substack newsletter is made up of courses on how to build an online writing business.

There is a system to build a writing business that eliminates the guess-and-test approach to writing. Once I knew the roadmap to follow, I jumped at the opportunity.

I have implemented the system, and the numbers show it.

Concentrate on the Process and Celebrate the Progress