Summary

The Coffee Challenge 6 is an initiative designed to help Substack newsletter creators grow their audience and potentially win prize money by following a set of participation guidelines and publishing criteria.

Abstract

The Coffee Challenge 6 is aimed at Substack newsletter writers who are seeking to expand their reach or better engage with their existing subscribers. Participants are required to write and publish an article responding to the prompt "Why You Should Subscribe to my Newsletter," collect testimonials from subscribers, and publish a summary piece with top testimonials by specified deadlines. The challenge runs from April 15 to May 10, 2022, with winners announced on May 15, 2022. Prizes ranging from $25 to$ 100 will be awarded based on the persuasiveness of the main article and the compelling nature of the testimonials. Substack is highlighted as a platform that allows writers to publish and monetize their content for free, with a growing community of over a million paying subscribers.

Opinions

The initiative is seen as a valuable opportunity for writers to gain motivation and guidance in growing their Substack newsletters.
Substack is praised for its hybrid nature, enabling writers to create blogs, newsletters, and monetize their work through various means such as paywalls and hybrid models.
Winston, editor in chief of Coffee Times, emphasizes the importance of a clear message in newsletters, focusing on the uniqueness of content and the need for conciseness.
Vidya Sury suggests that writers should choose a niche they are passionate and confident about to ensure the success of their newsletter.
The challenge encourages cross-promotion and networking by requiring participants to publish their responses on Medium's Coffee Times publication and engage with other publications.
The judging criteria focus on the convincing nature of the writers' arguments for subscribing to their newsletters and the quality of subscriber testimonials.
Yana Bostongirl will provide updates and answer participant questions throughout the challenge, indicating active community support and engagement.

Coffee Challenge 6: It Is All About Helping You Grow Your Substack and Win Some Cool Prize Money!

Does your Substack newsletter need a boost in order to reach your current subscribers more effectively or looking to increase your subscriber base? Then this challenge may be right for you

Are you like me who started a Substack newsletter with high hopes but let it slide because of a lack of motivation or guidance on how to effectively reach subscribers? Or you may be looking to build on your existing subscriber base — either way, Coffee Challenge 6 is the right vehicle to help you achieve your goals.

Let me break it down for those of you who have heard the word “Substack” but are not sure what the hoopla is all about:

According to blogging guide.com Substack is “ a hybrid digital publishing platform that allows writers to create a blog and/or newsletter.”

On Substack, writers can:

publish and monetize their posts
promote their books, courses, and affiliate products among other things.

And the great thing about it is that it is free for publishers.

While a lot of posts on Substack are free to read, some writers opt to put their posts behind a paywall or go for a hybrid model that is a combination of both.

Now, a paid subscription can vary between $5 and $50. Out of this, 10% goes to Substack, 3% to Stripe and the rest goes to the publisher.

Currently, there are over a million paying subscribers on Substack.

“To decide on a niche, think about what you are happiest and most confident writing about. And go for it” — Vidya Sury

Now that I gave you an idea, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.

From its humble beginnings in October of 2021, the Coffee Times Substack is now 1.4K subscribers strong. In his article, Winston, editor in chief of Coffee Times explains why writing a newsletter is important and how to build a newsletter organically on Substack as well as some important points to keep in mind when crafting your newsletter.

“If you have no idea what you are selling, then you cannot expect your readers to have any idea. Worst, they may have their own idea” — Winston

For this Winston has written a series of helpful articles that are helpful for launching Substack but what drew me in is the 3 Whys. This is how Winston describes the 3 whys you need to answer when crafting your newsletter:

Why must your reader read your newsletter? i.e. what is your story?
What is on your newsletter that is not found elsewhere? i.e. what is the exclusive content?
Your reader doesn’t have a lot of time to read a long newsletter, hence you must keep it short and simple while keeping it informative and interesting.

Here is a helpful tip from blogging veteran Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles — “To decide on a niche, think about what you are happiest and most confident writing about. And go for it”

✅The timeline for this challenge is as follows: The start date will be April 15 and the end date will be May 10. The winners will be announced on May 15th, 2022.

✅To participate you need to have a publication on Substack. Don’t worry, it is easy to do 👉 Setting up your Substack

✅The prompt for CC 6 is going to be: “Why You Should Subscribe to my Newsletter.”

✅The following are the next steps:

1️⃣ The participants are required to write a response to the CC 6 prompt and publish it with Coffee Times pub on Medium. The last date of submission for this part of the challenge is April 30th.

2️⃣Invite readers to subscribe to your Substack. Although not a requirement, participants are strongly encouraged to advertise in other publications in order to promote their newsletter to more audiences.

3️⃣Following that, each participant should obtain a minimum of three testimonials from their subscribers explaining why they decided to subscribe to your newsletter.

4️⃣ Finally, publish a summary article along with your top three testimonials with Coffee Times. The last date of submission for this part of the challenge is May 10.

Meet the panel of judges, judging criteria, and prize money

The judges of this challenge are Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Dr. Preeti Singh, Liberty Forrest, Author, and Yana Bostongirl

The winners will be determined based on 2 criteria: How convincing the reasons in the main article are in response to the prompt that is published in Coffee Times as well as how compelling the 3 testimonials are in the summary article published in Coffee Times.

Prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place are as follows (to be paid out via Ko-fi or buy me a coffee):

🌸 Ist Place — $100

🌸2nd Place — $50

🌸3rd Place — $25

For this challenge, you are requested to tag the judges: Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Dr. Preeti Singh, Liberty Forrest, Author and, Yana Bostongirl

🌸I, Yana BG, will be posting regular updates and answering questions posed by participants on my 👉Substack so don’t forget to subscribe and check in regularly.