Summary

The article outlines strategies for building an email subscriber list from Medium stories, emphasizing the importance of owning one's audience for commercial success.

Abstract

The content discusses the significance of email lists for writers and creators on Medium, advocating that owning an email list is crucial for a sustainable income. It provides five key tactics to attract the first 1,000 subscribers, including offering valuable content, solving specific problems, demonstrating transformation, maintaining visibility, and ensuring repetition of the offer. The article stresses that while Medium can be a powerful platform for reaching an audience, it's the writer's responsibility to convert readers into email subscribers to create a direct and controlled connection with their tribe.

Opinions

The author believes that a writer's success is contingent upon building an owned audience through email lists, rather than relying solely on platform-dependent followings.
It is suggested that asking readers to join a list is ineffective; instead, the focus should be on providing a valuable and free offer that addresses a reader's problem or need.
The article conveys that a call-to-action should not involve immediate financial transactions, such as book sales or Patreon memberships, but rather focus on giving away valuable content to build trust.
The author emphasizes the importance of solving a single, well-defined problem with a free offer to avoid overwhelming potential subscribers with too many choices.
The transformation that a reader will experience by subscribing should be clearly communicated to encourage them to take action.
The author points out that a large number of views and followers on Medium is necessary for a successful email list-building campaign, as only a small percentage of readers will convert into subscribers.
Repetition of the offer across multiple stories is recommended, as it may take several exposures before a reader decides to subscribe.
The author promotes their own "Tribe 1K" email masterclass as a solution for writers looking to grow their email lists without paid advertising.

Why You Aren’t Getting Any Email Subscribers from Your Medium Stories

5 tweaks to get your first 1,000 subscribers

Most of my work is spent attempting to convince commercial writers and creators the importance of email. If you want to earn a good income from your work, building a tribe you own is critical.

While Medium and the other large platforms provide us with a fantastic opportunity to reach our niche (ooh, not a bad rhyme, I’ll take it), the truth is — the platforms own our following, not us.

**You’ll want to bookmark this story**

While big-platform traffic can be fruitful, we either we own the access to our tribe, or not. On big platforms we don’t own the traffic. And if we don’t own our traffic we don’t have a business.

Medium is a fantastic place to build an email list.

We can place a call to action at the bottom of every story, with an enticing, valuable gift. If we target our tribe correctly, a certain percentage of our readers will join our tribe.

This happens 24/7/365.

Our stories work hard for us, while we’re not writing. Which is a fantastic way to build a legacy-level publishing business. One subscriber at a time.

Later, we can send her valuable content and occasional offers. The offers sell our work on autopilot — giving us more time to practice our best work, spending less time chasing customers.

All that sounds pretty good.

But it’s not easy.

I’ve been list-building for 20 years. Even I struggle to find the right message and offer mix sometimes.

But there are five sure-fire things that you need to get right if you want to have any prayer of growing a tribe of valuable customers.

Keep reading. I’ll share the list in a second.

How to Earn a Lot of Money from Your Part-Time Writing

The key is to have your writing work for you — not the opposite

medium.com

5 tweaks to your first 1,000 subscribers

You can put as many calls-to-action as you wish, at the bottom of your stories. But if you come across as too demanding, too self-serving, or too ambiguous, you’ll have a up-hill battle building a list.

It’s hard enough to earn a new subscriber. Let’s make it a little easier on you.

1. Never ask readers to join your list —

I will never stop saying this. It’s my personal crusade. Yet I see this on more writers pages than not. Same is true for asking people to ‘subscribe to my newsletter.’

No one wants to be on a list. Ever.

You can talk about your list when you speaking/wring among friends, but your offer should never be to join a list. Instead, offer your free thing. Offer a solution to a problem. Offer something self-serving for the reader. Not for you.

You are the stranger. You must earn the reader’s trust before she’ll open her wallet and buy your work.

2. Never ask readers to click on something they must pay for in order to get your content —

Your call-to-action is not a place to ask for money. Some writers ask people to buy their books, or join their Patreon page. I can see that working on a small scale, but your call-to-action will work much better if you barrier is low.

A low barrier equals a free barrier.

If you want to sell something, or create a lifetime customer, you need to give before you can get. This means you’ve got to shell out something free and valuable that solves a real problem the customer would pay to eliminate.

This is the level of value we’re working with.

We need to earn our reader’s attention before we can ask her for a more-difficult step (i.e. buying something).

3. Solve a single problem with a free, fantastic valuable offer —

If you write fiction (although Medium is kind of a lousy place to grow a fiction tribe), offer a full, free novel. The reader is investing her time in a new author. Give her a reason to buy your paid work. Here, the problem you solve is escape and entertainment.

If you write non-fiction, or have some other kind of business, solve a single problem for the reader. Sometimes writers put too much information in their call-to-action.

The reader can get buried in over-choice. If you offer a kitchen sink basket of randomness, the reader will choose nothing. Target your free offer to gather the tribe you want to serve.

4. Show the transformation she’ll get if she subscribes —

As with solving a single problem, your free offer (I call this your Easy Invite) should deliver a transformation from where she is now to where she wants to be.

Take the reader from her current reality, to a new, better reality and you’ll get a subscriber.

For example, in my offer I give the reader a free, 7 day email masterclass. I show readers how to get their first 1,000 subscribers.

I never ask people to join my newsletter, or join my list. I show a transformation (you’ve got zero subscribers now. Here’s how to get your first 1,000).

5. Get more views and followers —

Medium is a numbers game. If you have a call to action in every story, but you’re not getting any subscribers, you might have a tiny following. For example, if I want 15–25 new subscribers in a day I need 1,500+ views for that day. Medium is a great place to get a steady stream of leads but your content must generate the viewer numbers for it to work.

Most people who read your stories won’t join your tribe.

Most people who take the time to click your call-to-action link, also won’t go through the trouble of subscribing.

If you’re getting 200 views a day, a 1% conversion on that is two people. Which is more-likely to mean zero. This means you also need to build your Medium following at the same time you tweak your email offer.

The best offer in the world can’t compete with low visibility.

You also need repetition. I hammer the same offer on every story I write. I’ve written over 800 stories in a year and a half. Your reader might need 15–30 exposures to your free offer before she takes action.

Remember, you’re competing against all the other email offers out there. Why is yours better? Why would your reader join your list versus all the other choices she gets in a week.

If you can’t answer those questions, it’s time to tweak the offer.

Why You Should Choose Medium as Your Single Marketing Channel

…if you must pick one

medium.com

It’s time to get your first 1,000 subscribers

Not only do you need the numbers, but you also need a great email offer, and fantastic email subject lines to convert subscribers to buyers.

Once we have our email list humming-along, we can sell our work while we sleep, on autopilot — so we can spend less time marketing and more time creating.

I’ve got just the thing.

I created a hand-woven, 7-day, email masterclass. I call this the Tribe 1K. Past students include New York Times bestselling authors.

I’ll show you how to get your fist 1,000 (or your next 1,000) readers without spending a hot nickel on ads.

The best time to start an email list was 20 years ago. The second best time is now — Abraham Lincoln

Tap the link.

Guarantee your seat before that ‘other’ writer takes it.

We’re waiting for you.

Enroll in my Email Masterclass. Get Your First 1,000 Subscribers

August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. As a self-appointed guardian of writers and creators, August teaches indies how to make work that sells and how to sell more of that work once it’s created. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.