Harrison Polites’ Post

Great overview Lex Roman, thanks for including my comments. Yes, I'm in it for the connection, collaboration, and community. But I also need to make a living. I want a six-figure biz powered by my newsletter 😁 This platform comparison chart is very handy! As always, it's multiple income streams. Kaitlyn Arford is spot on about balancing ads, sponsorships, and subscriptions with Freelance Opportunities. I have a similar audience. I've run a few Classifieds before. Another factor is the time it takes to manage the money/collab side of things when you're solo. Swapstack and Passionfroot are great, but fairly time consuming. Some great insights here for Substack and beehiiv to learn from each other. 🔥 If you're writing on both platforms, I'd love to have a chat! BTW Lex, here's another platform making waves Steady

I notice a few news reporters have been following me and I have a tip for you! Be the first to report or give a fresh take on a developing story with Google Alerts. It's maybe one of the oldest media monitoring tools but it's free and very accessible. Start populating your Google Alerts with keywords relevant to your beat. #journalismtip #writewithai #newswriting #ashleighannmowatt

Two journalist/writer friends with stellar credentials (NYT, Reuters, many more) are urging me to start a Substack. They had no idea they were doing this at the same time and don't know each other. Uh oh. There are probably 56,341 Substacks out there, a great number of them self-indulgent static. But the urging continues. So my thought is this: Why not start a Substack modeled as a sorta-newspaper with “sections”? Monday’s would feature media criticism, which I think is badly needed in this era of clickbait, false equivalencies and the normalization of dangerous behavior. Wednesdays, I’d run personal essays and excerpts from books I’ve written. And Fridays I’d offer art, music and other goodies from my artsy archives as a nice weekend sendoff. A simple “thumbs up” will attest to your “go for it” vote of approval. Specific feedback and advice would be especially encouraged. I plan to charge $9 a month: a bargain for the light I hope to bring a subscriber’s way. Or you could just say, “Forget about trying to write your way out of a paper bag--the paper bag is still trying to write its way out of you.” I’d be dejected, of course. But I’d likely soldier on because as I try to teach my kids, keep moving forward! #substack #bankadelic #qwoted #talkingbiznews #mediacriticism   

Here's the dirty little secret of big mainstream media companies: There is NO magic solution to their business problems. We made a mistake 25 years ago when we didn't start charging at the start for our content online. Now people have an expectation that all this great work should be free. Impossible to put that genie back in the bottle. The reality is that big media companies are a terrible business. There is no secret sauce. The future is smaller companies or individuals. I think the future is co-ops of a sort. A group of good reporters/analysts/writers who join together. You pay a set fee for all their content. Sort of like The Bulwark.

Many times your content can get lost in the noise and the reason comes down to a weak opening hook. Similar to others, I thought the body of the message was where the magic happens. But the truth is, if your opening line doesn’t grab them, nothing else will matter. So, I focused on just one thing: nailing the first sentence. I crafted something that made them stop and say, ‘’Tell me more.’’ Here’s what I learned: ➡ A great hook is more than just a catchy phrase. ➡ It should speak directly to a problem or desire your audience feels immediately.  ➡ If you hook them in the first 5 seconds, the rest of the content has a chance to shine. It was a game-changer for me, and it showed in the client's reaction. More engagement, more results. Remember, attention is your currency. If your first sentence doesn’t make them pause, you’ve already lost them. How do you craft your opening hooks? Share what’s worked for you!

Here's a weird one. Things were slower than usual in August so I thought I'd check out Reedsy and created a profile there. I've got 14 years of professional editing experience and dozens of well-reviewed titles. I hadn't heard back from them since I created the profile, so I checked it today. They've listed me as 'inactive' and there's a note below my status saying, "Our team has decided not to activate your profile on the Marketplace. Though we can't provide personalised feedback, you can find more information about our selection requirements here." I clicked the link for 'here,' and I still exceed all their requirements. Should I take it personally? I can't imagine what the problem is! EDITED TO ADD: I think I found the missing piece of info. Will report back, for anyone who's had the same experience!

My top 3 learnings for writing a newsletter while running my boutique research & strategy company: 1. Be conscious of investment of time, energy and money to avoid burnout and ensure sustainability 2. Think about your value proposition. Think again 3. Use platform features well While I have your attention, I also want to share some great thinking from Robert Wu on the future of his personal newsletter: https://lnkd.in/d7YNfRcq Are you actively involved in creating your company's newsletters? Do you relate to these learnings, or do you have your own experiences to share? What role do you think newsletters play when everyone has a voice and an opinion? I’d love to hear your thoughts! #newsletter #creatoreconomy #substack #beehiiv https://lnkd.in/dSjNh_Gw

News is a bizarre business where you make a product for one crowd – then look for another to pay for it. Only about 1 in 6 UK indie news publishers turns to their readers for funds. (That's from the Public Interest News Foundation Index 2024 we launched this week.) What I've always loved about reader revenue is it's the only model where you serve a single master. No need to interrupt the user experience to please an advertiser, no need to shoehorn your editorial projects into the list of requirements of some foundation or philanthropist, no need to satisfy the changing whims of an algorithm. Make the better product your audience wants and your revenue will increase. That simple. Sure, putting the principle in practice gets a tad more complex. It can rarely be your –only– revenue source. But name me another business model that gives you instant and constant product feedback and a direct relationship with the audience. I'll wait. All that to say, 16% of indie newsrooms using reader revenue methods is puny and I'm sure we can up that number.

Things take time; just focus on the system. This is Week 2 of my channel. As I told you, I am going to take a challenge to hit 50,000 subscribers on my channel in 3 months. Here are the updates: ↳ Hit 18,236 subscribers ↳ Hit 100,000 hours of watch time Struggling with: ↳ The growth I expected is not happening right now. ↳ My video editor is struggling to edit these videos because the volume has increased. We are both managing and trying to focus on both quantity and quality. Let’s see what next week has for us. P.S. I forgot to give the update for Week 1. P.P.S. Have you subscribed to my YouTube channel?

He is NOT alone in this opinion. Quantity over quality is what the world of content is all about today. The rise of digital platforms has led to content explosion, where vast amounts of information are created and shared every second. While this abundance offers opportunities for learning and expression, it also brings significant perils. Audiences face information overload, making it difficult to discern credible sources amidst noise and misinformation. Additionally, the rapid spread of unverified content can amplify disinformation, polarize opinions, and erode trust in institutions. All of this can leave users vulnerable to manipulation and mental fatigue. But fear not. My firm's latest offering "Synopsis.services" tackles this very problem. Get your own personal content butler. #content #information #misinformation #contentexplosion