I saw an interesting thread on Twitter by David Perell discussing storytelling. He posted a graphic with the following title: Always be asking yourself: what does my reader want? Because your reader is quite different from you.
Attention span: Writer - Long, Reader - Short
Interest in topic: Writer - High, Reader - Low
Persuadable by other opinions: Writer - No, Reader - Yes
Cares about your happiness: Writer - Yes, Reader - No
The topic of wrting for an audience is something I think about constantly. When I first started writing online, I was primarily writing for myself. I still write for myself to a large degree, but as I have expanded into other endeavors such as a newsletter, I had to start thinking about writing for a specific audience.
I think the audience for my newsletter may still be too broad. This has gotten me thinking about another weekly newsletter with a more specific and narrowly-defined audience. I didn't do a lot of this audience-defining work with Be Wellthy, so this second newsletter will give me an opportunity to take what I've learned and "do it the right way." If I do start another newsletter, I will try another platform instead of Substack. Might as well learn another tool along the way.
Attention span: Writer - Long, Reader - Short
Interest in topic: Writer - High, Reader - Low
Persuadable by other opinions: Writer - No, Reader - Yes
Cares about your happiness: Writer - Yes, Reader - No
The topic of wrting for an audience is something I think about constantly. When I first started writing online, I was primarily writing for myself. I still write for myself to a large degree, but as I have expanded into other endeavors such as a newsletter, I had to start thinking about writing for a specific audience.
I think the audience for my newsletter may still be too broad. This has gotten me thinking about another weekly newsletter with a more specific and narrowly-defined audience. I didn't do a lot of this audience-defining work with Be Wellthy, so this second newsletter will give me an opportunity to take what I've learned and "do it the right way." If I do start another newsletter, I will try another platform instead of Substack. Might as well learn another tool along the way.
The newsletter you shared with me about the Texas energy freezing I think was good because it's value prop is so simple and easy to grasp -> get caught up on everything socio-political without having to read for hours. I've read for you and give you 1) a list of it 2) more details if you click on something on that list 3) one story of the moment that you will want to read
I also find David's value prop very easy to grasp -> I know how to write engagingly and I will teach you. Read along.
I think a good next step for you would be figuring out a more direct value prop. It could even be super tunnel visioned and you can expand it later. Super tunnel visioned would be like go-karting in desert climates lol