My quandary is this. I read about 30 substacks. I certainly can’t pay for all of them so I end up paying for none. If I was going to subscribe to 2 or 3, how do I choose which ones? I like your idea of a substack pool that I could choose to give to articles as a one off and I guess ko-fi is the nearest to that. I will give this more thought.
I know that for one of the niche video subscription service I use, they use a similar pooling method, where they collect all subscribers' money but divvy out payments (royalties) to the publishers or content owners based on viewer statistics. I assume a similar model is used for Amazon Kindle unlimited and Rakuten's Kobo subscription model as well as some tech book publishers I use. These services can offer a relatively low price for a very large library because each individual is only going to consume a few of the media at a time, so allocating the payments back to the content creators or publishers works out without loosing money. If the same model is used for Substack then it could perhaps be based on article ratings
That's understandable. I mostly expect that the number of Substacks out there plays a huge role so if Substack could provide a more flexible payment model that may work out much better.
If you come up with the secret sauce, please share!
I have the same struggle. It takes time to assemble the data for even a simple analysis of the Fed's interest rate fiasco, and I am constantly torn between what should be free and what should be "premium" paid content.
One thing I am testing currently is setting my paid articles to unlock after a week's time. I figure that by then the paid subscribers will have read it, and so the benefit of a paid subscription has been realized. Time will tell if I'm right or wrong.
Unlocking the premium content also makes it easier to reference them later on, which helps building a foundation for future articles.
But I am always looking to refine the model. While I do not plan to tailor my articles simply to work the crowd, I do want to have the crowd as regular subscribers.
Reading papers are hard, and I won't even say that I do it well, but I think it's a more earnest attempt than just posting the abstract and saying, "look, this is TOTALLY what's happening!". It can be a bit frustrating because writers know that most people aren't clicking on links and so they're more than likely not reading studies for themselves. This leaves us in the position of either trying to break down the study or just posting the abstract and extrapolating from there where it really lacks context. I do hope readers understand that a lot of work happens behind the scenes and not just what gets posted.
I still haven't figured out the paid content to paywall. I've tried taking the approach that paid content will just be additional bits of information that may not be completely necessary but interesting for people to look at. I try to have it be more of a "thanks for being a paid member" more than a paywall of critical information. The only problem becomes that the free work takes up all of my time so I barely have time to make anything for my paid content. It's one of the reasons why I stopped my monthly posts because it just ended up taking several days to look up stuff for those alone.
It's hard to figure out what works the best. I'm inclined to think that Substack may just be oversaturated now. I'm also inclined to believe that it may just come down to personalities or the person more than the content.
It is, alas, all too easy to just be an echo chamber.
Myself, I strive for putting something of original value in my content. That means looking not just at a few popular metrics, but dissecting them and looking for confirming or countervailing trends, and hopefully to present a cogent picture of what I think the data means.
Some days I succeed more than others. My hope is that people will value my work, and enable me to do more of it.
It's always about looking at the wider context. I'm finding that too many people are picking up on bits of information but aren't able to interpret them within the necessary context or within models that they should have formed through all of the things they read on Substack. I'll harken on the fact that the whole story of egg antibodies getting passed around should have been met with more pause if one were to use a model of adaptive immunity (albeit one based on mammals) that should alert readers to the point that chickens won't produce anti-spike antibodies unless shown the spike.
I think that the monthly subscriptions can work, provided readers get a notice before it renews. I know this makes it harder for writers to anticipate income though. I say this b/c I have ups and downs with my work. At certain times I don't have a lot of time for extra anything. The auto renews means we only get notice after the fact. I' like to get notice in advance, so I can assess my timing.
I"m not sure if you've done this, but sometimes a writer will introduce a topic, and then for detailed content require a paid subscription. That would be the time to decide whether to spend the 1 or 2 dollars for the article if it was set up like you suggested. Locals is like that - you deposit the coins all at once, then use them accordingly (which is better than pulling out the credit card for 2 dollar purchases.
I really appreciate substack - I think that we always want to be open to changing our minds. I like that you provide that questioning our biases piece, as does Mathew Crawford and Stephanie Brail.
I think people should be receiving renewal notices. I think Substack generally sets it up to alert people a week in advance. For me I've added that bit at the beginning of my paid content to warn people in case their renewal is coming up. I think it doesn't help that subscribing to several Substacks means that you have to keep track of different renewal time periods.
My paid articles generally start with a bit of a set-up, albeit maybe not a good one. It becomes a bit of an issue if the set-up has to be clickbait before leading into the actual story, but so far most of my paid posts are not entirely paywalled.
Thanks for the comment. I think we may forget that we all have our own biases and we may be susceptible to groupthink- we just tend to assume that those who share our biases may be inherently correct or trusting which is where things can go wrong.
I actually only get a notice if I cancel: Your paid substack subscription is about to expire. Otherwise, I only get the notice when the payment has been taken from my card.
I understand that people must make a living. Many writers have lost their jobs or taken a step back from their jobs due to concerns about what has gone down!
Re: biases - Dr.Naomi Wolf had an excellent line in her Substack today: The Crime of "Talking to Tucker Carlson:
"Above all it horrified me because the Left thus had departed from the post-Enlightenment metric of “is it true?” to return to a pre-rational metric of “is this within our tribe and according to our rituals and our cult?”
Those who have (unexpectedly) landed on the "other side," must be wary of the same trap.
That would be pretty bad if so. In that case, it may be within my interest to provide more notifications in order to remind people to check and see if their subscription may renew.
That's an interesting quote, although as I've stated in my article these comments may be seen from a perspective that one side is inherently "better", and that may put things aside from rational/critical thought ahead of the discourse. I at least try to remind myself that it's about the facts and not in-group/out-group dynamics when looking at data and information.
One of my favorite Stacks to read is The Free (but I pay for, okay, wrong type of free) Press which features many different authors on a myriad of subjects, albeit mostly social issues. I know Bari Weiss is coming with a lot of journalistic experience and social media savvy, but maybe there is a way for some of these smaller, but incredibly VALUABLE Stacks to join forces. It might be more financially feasible for the consumer to subscribe to a newspaper type of Substack and be able to see economics, science & social issues under one roof instead of each writer trying to fend for him/herself. I have no idea if that's even possible, but The Free Press seems to rock it. I feel bad in a way as I can only support a few people, but I WILL NOT support shallow thinkers who post clickbait (and boy are they doing well). Anyways, your work is awesome - I can't even imagine how much effort you put into each article ... and then we see the MSM and how each outlet just pushes nearly the same articles everyday. Literally NO ONE is doing their homework. I'm glad I have found a few here on Substack to support.
Thank you Clarisse! I see a lot more of those types of Substacks and even independent websites popping up. It'd be really interesting to see how these models fare relative to the mainstream press. Unfortunately, so far from what I've seen some of these places end up falling into the same issue that the mainstream press does, which is to cite stories based on what other writers have written rather than looking at studies for themselves. This just creates another self-referential model of disseminating scientific information. It's frustrating to see that most writers aren't spending time reading, including those who should probably know better not to do that.
I do find The Free Press to be very interesting. It's a model that allows writers a lot more time to flesh out their posts. They also likely have a team of editors which helps as well.
Hopefully those who spend more time reading and parsing information can gain more attention than the immediate, quick posts.
Very nicely done. I was not aware we could use Ko-fi but am delighted to learn differently. Personally, because of the nature of my writing (spiritually) I keep my Stack free. But will look into adding a Ko-fi button, as well on clicking yours.
If you mean linking Ko-fi onto Substack I think Substack has stated that such a thing is allowed. They even allow people to have promos on their posts if explicitly stated I believe. Ko-fi is nice since it allows people more flexibility in how they want to pay rather than dealing with monthly subscriptions, so it's something worth considering as an alternative payment method.
I would definitely take you up on the more discounted annual offer! Substack needs a more flexible model IMO. If they did have more options, then some authors would not need to resort to Ko-fi or external means for one time payments. I only pay for a handful while I subscribe to a lot. It's unfeasible for every subscriber to pay for the monthly or discounted annual subscriptions for every substack they might find interesting. I don't have time to read everything but I do find your work in going through the research valuable. I actually wanted to comment on some other posts that I found more interesting and relevant to me, like the microbiome and gut flora articles and the Ozempic / semaglutide (in relation to GLP-1) ones,.. but again, time :-)
No problem VJ! Like I stated most readers are likely passive readers who do so on their own time.
I think if Substack felt some pressure with respect to 3rd party models then they may be more inclined to create more flexible payment options. I suppose the recent announcement of investors may provide some insight into the direction Substack may head including in how they operate financially.
A lot of this may just come down to a war of attrition, retention, and unfortunately saturation.
I would struggle with shorter articles as well if I were writing the kind of content you do. I like the content, if it does not engage me I just move on. So let me add this: The shorter articles could/would be something along subject lines that you write about, or not. Nothing wrong with mixing things up.
For instance, I look into supplements and while not terribly scientific, posting a short Q & A article:
What type of supplements did you use during Covid and do you still take them now? Let's discuss what was perceived to be effective. For instance, what do you think of Dr. Peter McCullough's Spike Formula from The Wellness Company for treating after vaccine/covid long haul spike proteins that may remain in the body? Here is a link: https://www.twc.health/collections/covid19/products/long-haul-formula
And so on.. Setup a subject pose a question or two and give you own answer.
The above idea might seem like a waste of time but the purpose is user/subscriber engagement, and also to have content come back to you that you might find interesting and worthwhile to invest time in. So given the above sample you might come out with a longer (paid) article about an ingredient in the formula, Nattokinase, "... has been researched to dissolve spike proteins and blood clots...". Or any ingredients or maybe alternatives or maybe debunk the supplement with research
Doing studies is great and I agree about the lack of alignment. I see it all the time in things I read. Those people are counting on others to NOT check the references. You job is to point this out as well and there could be another short post with a question or statement to engage and elicite feedback and then a longer article about some substack writing and the lack of alignment.
This is an interesting idea! One problem I have with asking questions is more along the lines of whether responses may be directed towards providing medical information. I'd like to cover supplements, but if asking people what supplements they took for COVID it may lead to an issue of people using that as justification to take many different supplements based on comments they saw. I want to try to avoid such a suggestion in case it may either harm an individual or offer them false promises.
This actually came about when covering East Palestine and looking at information on dioxin. I saw several people posting that eating sprouts will provide you with a compound that helps you "detox" from dioxin. In reality, the compound in question was an aryl hydrocarbon agonist which is what dioxins are, and so these people are essentially telling readers/viewers to consume something that has a synergistic effect with dioxin. This is a case where lack of information can cause serious harm, and why care needs to be taken for people to avoid providing medical information unless they provide additional context.
At the same time, if worded properly it can probably be done in a manner that ensures readers that what they are reading are opinions and that they should do their own research. I found that engagement tends to be hard regardless, but having more open inquiry may help offset the longer posts.
Thanks for the thoughts. As for new subjects: write about what happens to our Neuro system when we get out in nature, and stop for a moment to be grateful. Or Neuroplasticity and how to change our sense of self and world. Good skills for these times
That'd be something to consider. I would have to make some time for it in the future but if you haven't seen it yet Heather Heying had an interesting post on near-IR and its effects on melatonin. I haven't looked too deeply into the research but it seems rather fascinating.
If you've read their book I believe they mentioned a similar phenomenon with respect to fire, which adds another possible puzzle for IR exposure and may relate to the type of light bulbs we use as well. I haven't researched this topic much but it's an interesting one to say the least.
A $$ quandary for sure. Prior to turning on paid for my own substack, I'm being cheap, as I gave up my profession for the mission to get people outside and lost in the weeds.
Modern Discontent Stack is certainly worth much more than the media to which people traditionally subscribed.
Each person needs their own model based on the $ demographics of the target audience. People who read scientific literature will gravitate here, but we are not in the higher echelons of income. Kofi is a terrific idea. So is a tip jar for Substack so they can get a cut of the tips. I saw a thought experiment which proposed that Substack create a venue for one-off sales by writers. I hope for them to continue spinning out platform ideas that can bring income to themselves and to us.
I can't recall who stated it but I brought it up once on one of their forum posts. Substack can create an allowance fund in which people can allocate a set number of money a month, and from there they can choose to spend a dollar or two towards whatever article they enjoy.
It allows for a lot more flexibility, and I'd rather choose an option that allows more people to pay less than a few to pay more, but at the same time part of me is rather curious if this just means that the higher, more click-bait Substacks end up reaping most of that allowance in the end.
Anyways, good luck to your endeavors weedom! Hopefully this avenue becomes fruitful!
Something tells me that people would use the tip jar mostly for the little guys, thinking that the big guys have enough income. While I am writing for free, I don’t feel as bad about reading for free. That will change when income returns. Good capitalism means I should stimulate the economy with my cash. :-) Wishing you fame and fortune! Dedication to facts and truth will become widely admired again, with the next swing of the social pendulum.
I would hope so, but as I stated in my post I think people may actually be more inclined to give to the bigger guys as they may consider it more bang for their buck. It's one of my curiosities with the badges and wondering if their use is intentional.
At the end of the day, it's people's money to use as they see fit, but I hope people support those they enjoy if possible to help them continue their work. I actually wouldn't care too much for fame and fortune, just enough to get by would suffice!
I do appreciate your comments! It takes a lot to try and find the information, and so I hope people at least find it all informative and useful, especially if it helps people think more critically.
I prefer the monthly subscription as that way I don't really have to track it. I get a notice monthly and all is good.
I am thinking of this as if I were writing:
----
I want to attract more paying subscribers.
I do put out a lot of free content and while it's appreciated it also means that there is no real motivation to subscribe since everyone is getting most everything for free.
Maybe if I tried having shorter articles about different subjects but also include some back and forth (as I normally do..) but maybe I make it an article that is designed for discourse and not so much a report.
Then I might end up getting larger subscriber engagement, new ideas for articles and perhaps more income to offset my time spent writing the longer PAID articles.
The difference between $30 and $50 is not a huge amount when in fact an annual subscriber gets 2 months free already, perhaps I'll change some of the things above and constantly measure how things are going and maybe look at the $$$ factor to what I am seeing/measuring is not biased based on $$$.
That's very interesting Tab. I have looked at that perspective. The shorter articles are ones I really struggle with in which case I try to give some space between posts. One big issue is that I find shorter posts, especially relating to a study, lack so much context and it makes it so easy to misconstrue information. A lot of the shorter posts I've seen has generally posted the abstract and just comment on that, or they just put results without looking at the methodology. The end consequence is that readers may be more invested in being told what to think about a study rather than how they can break it down and examine it themselves. I'm finding more and more than Substacks are posting information on studies that don't align with anything that is actually found within the text of the study.
I really appreciate what you do. I admit, not having a medical background, some of your material goes over my head. However, I read most if not all of it. I plan to continue to subscribe. What about 2 levels of subscription? Or non-subscribers get part of the article rather than the whole summary?
Yep, that makes sense. I was striving more for an example than something that you would actually do.
Lack of information can cause serious harm. The whole point of doing research is to have facts instead of off the cuff anectdotal beliefs.
If I remember correctly you may have asked what kinds of topics people are interested in. If so then I would take the top 2-3 topics and do short posts which invite interaction.
Then consider following up with a larger, paid, post for the one with the most interaction.
The point was to not burn a bunch of your time writing all the longer posts that you are not getting paid for. Grow your base.
I appreciate the sentiments DeBlob. It's understandable that many people may not have as much available money. I've seen a few people raise their prices either on Substack or Locals to compensate for inflation, in which case I kept it the same since it would inherently be "cheaper" than maybe a year or two ago. But $50 a year may still be considered a hefty payment to ask, so hopefully something such as Ko-fi or a more flexible payment option becomes available.
It is interesting to see how much the doomer, fear porn appears to ramp up now that things are "slowing down". I wonder how everything will eventually play out to be quite honest.
The future of this Substack is always on my mind so I'm grateful that readers can provide their own insights into how they view everything going on.
My quandary is this. I read about 30 substacks. I certainly can’t pay for all of them so I end up paying for none. If I was going to subscribe to 2 or 3, how do I choose which ones? I like your idea of a substack pool that I could choose to give to articles as a one off and I guess ko-fi is the nearest to that. I will give this more thought.
I know that for one of the niche video subscription service I use, they use a similar pooling method, where they collect all subscribers' money but divvy out payments (royalties) to the publishers or content owners based on viewer statistics. I assume a similar model is used for Amazon Kindle unlimited and Rakuten's Kobo subscription model as well as some tech book publishers I use. These services can offer a relatively low price for a very large library because each individual is only going to consume a few of the media at a time, so allocating the payments back to the content creators or publishers works out without loosing money. If the same model is used for Substack then it could perhaps be based on article ratings
That's understandable. I mostly expect that the number of Substacks out there plays a huge role so if Substack could provide a more flexible payment model that may work out much better.
I only read 2 substacks, plus Epoch Times and few other things and I have trouble keeping up and I'm retired!
If you come up with the secret sauce, please share!
I have the same struggle. It takes time to assemble the data for even a simple analysis of the Fed's interest rate fiasco, and I am constantly torn between what should be free and what should be "premium" paid content.
One thing I am testing currently is setting my paid articles to unlock after a week's time. I figure that by then the paid subscribers will have read it, and so the benefit of a paid subscription has been realized. Time will tell if I'm right or wrong.
Unlocking the premium content also makes it easier to reference them later on, which helps building a foundation for future articles.
But I am always looking to refine the model. While I do not plan to tailor my articles simply to work the crowd, I do want to have the crowd as regular subscribers.
Reading papers are hard, and I won't even say that I do it well, but I think it's a more earnest attempt than just posting the abstract and saying, "look, this is TOTALLY what's happening!". It can be a bit frustrating because writers know that most people aren't clicking on links and so they're more than likely not reading studies for themselves. This leaves us in the position of either trying to break down the study or just posting the abstract and extrapolating from there where it really lacks context. I do hope readers understand that a lot of work happens behind the scenes and not just what gets posted.
I still haven't figured out the paid content to paywall. I've tried taking the approach that paid content will just be additional bits of information that may not be completely necessary but interesting for people to look at. I try to have it be more of a "thanks for being a paid member" more than a paywall of critical information. The only problem becomes that the free work takes up all of my time so I barely have time to make anything for my paid content. It's one of the reasons why I stopped my monthly posts because it just ended up taking several days to look up stuff for those alone.
It's hard to figure out what works the best. I'm inclined to think that Substack may just be oversaturated now. I'm also inclined to believe that it may just come down to personalities or the person more than the content.
It is, alas, all too easy to just be an echo chamber.
Myself, I strive for putting something of original value in my content. That means looking not just at a few popular metrics, but dissecting them and looking for confirming or countervailing trends, and hopefully to present a cogent picture of what I think the data means.
Some days I succeed more than others. My hope is that people will value my work, and enable me to do more of it.
It's always about looking at the wider context. I'm finding that too many people are picking up on bits of information but aren't able to interpret them within the necessary context or within models that they should have formed through all of the things they read on Substack. I'll harken on the fact that the whole story of egg antibodies getting passed around should have been met with more pause if one were to use a model of adaptive immunity (albeit one based on mammals) that should alert readers to the point that chickens won't produce anti-spike antibodies unless shown the spike.
I think that the monthly subscriptions can work, provided readers get a notice before it renews. I know this makes it harder for writers to anticipate income though. I say this b/c I have ups and downs with my work. At certain times I don't have a lot of time for extra anything. The auto renews means we only get notice after the fact. I' like to get notice in advance, so I can assess my timing.
I"m not sure if you've done this, but sometimes a writer will introduce a topic, and then for detailed content require a paid subscription. That would be the time to decide whether to spend the 1 or 2 dollars for the article if it was set up like you suggested. Locals is like that - you deposit the coins all at once, then use them accordingly (which is better than pulling out the credit card for 2 dollar purchases.
I really appreciate substack - I think that we always want to be open to changing our minds. I like that you provide that questioning our biases piece, as does Mathew Crawford and Stephanie Brail.
I think people should be receiving renewal notices. I think Substack generally sets it up to alert people a week in advance. For me I've added that bit at the beginning of my paid content to warn people in case their renewal is coming up. I think it doesn't help that subscribing to several Substacks means that you have to keep track of different renewal time periods.
My paid articles generally start with a bit of a set-up, albeit maybe not a good one. It becomes a bit of an issue if the set-up has to be clickbait before leading into the actual story, but so far most of my paid posts are not entirely paywalled.
Thanks for the comment. I think we may forget that we all have our own biases and we may be susceptible to groupthink- we just tend to assume that those who share our biases may be inherently correct or trusting which is where things can go wrong.
I actually only get a notice if I cancel: Your paid substack subscription is about to expire. Otherwise, I only get the notice when the payment has been taken from my card.
I understand that people must make a living. Many writers have lost their jobs or taken a step back from their jobs due to concerns about what has gone down!
Re: biases - Dr.Naomi Wolf had an excellent line in her Substack today: The Crime of "Talking to Tucker Carlson:
"Above all it horrified me because the Left thus had departed from the post-Enlightenment metric of “is it true?” to return to a pre-rational metric of “is this within our tribe and according to our rituals and our cult?”
Those who have (unexpectedly) landed on the "other side," must be wary of the same trap.
That would be pretty bad if so. In that case, it may be within my interest to provide more notifications in order to remind people to check and see if their subscription may renew.
That's an interesting quote, although as I've stated in my article these comments may be seen from a perspective that one side is inherently "better", and that may put things aside from rational/critical thought ahead of the discourse. I at least try to remind myself that it's about the facts and not in-group/out-group dynamics when looking at data and information.
One of my favorite Stacks to read is The Free (but I pay for, okay, wrong type of free) Press which features many different authors on a myriad of subjects, albeit mostly social issues. I know Bari Weiss is coming with a lot of journalistic experience and social media savvy, but maybe there is a way for some of these smaller, but incredibly VALUABLE Stacks to join forces. It might be more financially feasible for the consumer to subscribe to a newspaper type of Substack and be able to see economics, science & social issues under one roof instead of each writer trying to fend for him/herself. I have no idea if that's even possible, but The Free Press seems to rock it. I feel bad in a way as I can only support a few people, but I WILL NOT support shallow thinkers who post clickbait (and boy are they doing well). Anyways, your work is awesome - I can't even imagine how much effort you put into each article ... and then we see the MSM and how each outlet just pushes nearly the same articles everyday. Literally NO ONE is doing their homework. I'm glad I have found a few here on Substack to support.
Thank you Clarisse! I see a lot more of those types of Substacks and even independent websites popping up. It'd be really interesting to see how these models fare relative to the mainstream press. Unfortunately, so far from what I've seen some of these places end up falling into the same issue that the mainstream press does, which is to cite stories based on what other writers have written rather than looking at studies for themselves. This just creates another self-referential model of disseminating scientific information. It's frustrating to see that most writers aren't spending time reading, including those who should probably know better not to do that.
I do find The Free Press to be very interesting. It's a model that allows writers a lot more time to flesh out their posts. They also likely have a team of editors which helps as well.
Hopefully those who spend more time reading and parsing information can gain more attention than the immediate, quick posts.
Very nicely done. I was not aware we could use Ko-fi but am delighted to learn differently. Personally, because of the nature of my writing (spiritually) I keep my Stack free. But will look into adding a Ko-fi button, as well on clicking yours.
If you mean linking Ko-fi onto Substack I think Substack has stated that such a thing is allowed. They even allow people to have promos on their posts if explicitly stated I believe. Ko-fi is nice since it allows people more flexibility in how they want to pay rather than dealing with monthly subscriptions, so it's something worth considering as an alternative payment method.
I would definitely take you up on the more discounted annual offer! Substack needs a more flexible model IMO. If they did have more options, then some authors would not need to resort to Ko-fi or external means for one time payments. I only pay for a handful while I subscribe to a lot. It's unfeasible for every subscriber to pay for the monthly or discounted annual subscriptions for every substack they might find interesting. I don't have time to read everything but I do find your work in going through the research valuable. I actually wanted to comment on some other posts that I found more interesting and relevant to me, like the microbiome and gut flora articles and the Ozempic / semaglutide (in relation to GLP-1) ones,.. but again, time :-)
No problem VJ! Like I stated most readers are likely passive readers who do so on their own time.
I think if Substack felt some pressure with respect to 3rd party models then they may be more inclined to create more flexible payment options. I suppose the recent announcement of investors may provide some insight into the direction Substack may head including in how they operate financially.
A lot of this may just come down to a war of attrition, retention, and unfortunately saturation.
I would struggle with shorter articles as well if I were writing the kind of content you do. I like the content, if it does not engage me I just move on. So let me add this: The shorter articles could/would be something along subject lines that you write about, or not. Nothing wrong with mixing things up.
For instance, I look into supplements and while not terribly scientific, posting a short Q & A article:
What type of supplements did you use during Covid and do you still take them now? Let's discuss what was perceived to be effective. For instance, what do you think of Dr. Peter McCullough's Spike Formula from The Wellness Company for treating after vaccine/covid long haul spike proteins that may remain in the body? Here is a link: https://www.twc.health/collections/covid19/products/long-haul-formula
And so on.. Setup a subject pose a question or two and give you own answer.
The above idea might seem like a waste of time but the purpose is user/subscriber engagement, and also to have content come back to you that you might find interesting and worthwhile to invest time in. So given the above sample you might come out with a longer (paid) article about an ingredient in the formula, Nattokinase, "... has been researched to dissolve spike proteins and blood clots...". Or any ingredients or maybe alternatives or maybe debunk the supplement with research
Doing studies is great and I agree about the lack of alignment. I see it all the time in things I read. Those people are counting on others to NOT check the references. You job is to point this out as well and there could be another short post with a question or statement to engage and elicite feedback and then a longer article about some substack writing and the lack of alignment.
This is an interesting idea! One problem I have with asking questions is more along the lines of whether responses may be directed towards providing medical information. I'd like to cover supplements, but if asking people what supplements they took for COVID it may lead to an issue of people using that as justification to take many different supplements based on comments they saw. I want to try to avoid such a suggestion in case it may either harm an individual or offer them false promises.
This actually came about when covering East Palestine and looking at information on dioxin. I saw several people posting that eating sprouts will provide you with a compound that helps you "detox" from dioxin. In reality, the compound in question was an aryl hydrocarbon agonist which is what dioxins are, and so these people are essentially telling readers/viewers to consume something that has a synergistic effect with dioxin. This is a case where lack of information can cause serious harm, and why care needs to be taken for people to avoid providing medical information unless they provide additional context.
At the same time, if worded properly it can probably be done in a manner that ensures readers that what they are reading are opinions and that they should do their own research. I found that engagement tends to be hard regardless, but having more open inquiry may help offset the longer posts.
Thanks for the thoughts. As for new subjects: write about what happens to our Neuro system when we get out in nature, and stop for a moment to be grateful. Or Neuroplasticity and how to change our sense of self and world. Good skills for these times
That'd be something to consider. I would have to make some time for it in the future but if you haven't seen it yet Heather Heying had an interesting post on near-IR and its effects on melatonin. I haven't looked too deeply into the research but it seems rather fascinating.
https://naturalselections.substack.com/p/it-is-dark-inside-your-head
Thanks, nice article. Now I know why I go out of my way to find incandescent light bulbs, and why I feel better than the florescent or LED bulbs
If you've read their book I believe they mentioned a similar phenomenon with respect to fire, which adds another possible puzzle for IR exposure and may relate to the type of light bulbs we use as well. I haven't researched this topic much but it's an interesting one to say the least.
A $$ quandary for sure. Prior to turning on paid for my own substack, I'm being cheap, as I gave up my profession for the mission to get people outside and lost in the weeds.
Modern Discontent Stack is certainly worth much more than the media to which people traditionally subscribed.
Each person needs their own model based on the $ demographics of the target audience. People who read scientific literature will gravitate here, but we are not in the higher echelons of income. Kofi is a terrific idea. So is a tip jar for Substack so they can get a cut of the tips. I saw a thought experiment which proposed that Substack create a venue for one-off sales by writers. I hope for them to continue spinning out platform ideas that can bring income to themselves and to us.
I can't recall who stated it but I brought it up once on one of their forum posts. Substack can create an allowance fund in which people can allocate a set number of money a month, and from there they can choose to spend a dollar or two towards whatever article they enjoy.
It allows for a lot more flexibility, and I'd rather choose an option that allows more people to pay less than a few to pay more, but at the same time part of me is rather curious if this just means that the higher, more click-bait Substacks end up reaping most of that allowance in the end.
Anyways, good luck to your endeavors weedom! Hopefully this avenue becomes fruitful!
Something tells me that people would use the tip jar mostly for the little guys, thinking that the big guys have enough income. While I am writing for free, I don’t feel as bad about reading for free. That will change when income returns. Good capitalism means I should stimulate the economy with my cash. :-) Wishing you fame and fortune! Dedication to facts and truth will become widely admired again, with the next swing of the social pendulum.
I would hope so, but as I stated in my post I think people may actually be more inclined to give to the bigger guys as they may consider it more bang for their buck. It's one of my curiosities with the badges and wondering if their use is intentional.
At the end of the day, it's people's money to use as they see fit, but I hope people support those they enjoy if possible to help them continue their work. I actually wouldn't care too much for fame and fortune, just enough to get by would suffice!
I do appreciate your comments! It takes a lot to try and find the information, and so I hope people at least find it all informative and useful, especially if it helps people think more critically.
I prefer the monthly subscription as that way I don't really have to track it. I get a notice monthly and all is good.
I am thinking of this as if I were writing:
----
I want to attract more paying subscribers.
I do put out a lot of free content and while it's appreciated it also means that there is no real motivation to subscribe since everyone is getting most everything for free.
Maybe if I tried having shorter articles about different subjects but also include some back and forth (as I normally do..) but maybe I make it an article that is designed for discourse and not so much a report.
Then I might end up getting larger subscriber engagement, new ideas for articles and perhaps more income to offset my time spent writing the longer PAID articles.
The difference between $30 and $50 is not a huge amount when in fact an annual subscriber gets 2 months free already, perhaps I'll change some of the things above and constantly measure how things are going and maybe look at the $$$ factor to what I am seeing/measuring is not biased based on $$$.
That's very interesting Tab. I have looked at that perspective. The shorter articles are ones I really struggle with in which case I try to give some space between posts. One big issue is that I find shorter posts, especially relating to a study, lack so much context and it makes it so easy to misconstrue information. A lot of the shorter posts I've seen has generally posted the abstract and just comment on that, or they just put results without looking at the methodology. The end consequence is that readers may be more invested in being told what to think about a study rather than how they can break it down and examine it themselves. I'm finding more and more than Substacks are posting information on studies that don't align with anything that is actually found within the text of the study.
I really appreciate what you do. I admit, not having a medical background, some of your material goes over my head. However, I read most if not all of it. I plan to continue to subscribe. What about 2 levels of subscription? Or non-subscribers get part of the article rather than the whole summary?
Yep, that makes sense. I was striving more for an example than something that you would actually do.
Lack of information can cause serious harm. The whole point of doing research is to have facts instead of off the cuff anectdotal beliefs.
If I remember correctly you may have asked what kinds of topics people are interested in. If so then I would take the top 2-3 topics and do short posts which invite interaction.
Then consider following up with a larger, paid, post for the one with the most interaction.
The point was to not burn a bunch of your time writing all the longer posts that you are not getting paid for. Grow your base.
Pepe Lives Matter does a lot of short posts, e.g.
https://pepelivesmatter.substack.com/p/no-going-back
And longer posts, e.g.
https://pepelivesmatter.substack.com/p/bush-911-the-cia-secret-societies
The above 2 are not related, just pointing out the shorter/longer idea.
Plainly the shorter posts are quick, easy to manage discussion and see what comes out of that discussion to warrant longer posts.
Anyway, that's the idea but then I write software for a living so I look at things from a different perspective than the areas you write about.
Happy Monday!
I appreciate the sentiments DeBlob. It's understandable that many people may not have as much available money. I've seen a few people raise their prices either on Substack or Locals to compensate for inflation, in which case I kept it the same since it would inherently be "cheaper" than maybe a year or two ago. But $50 a year may still be considered a hefty payment to ask, so hopefully something such as Ko-fi or a more flexible payment option becomes available.
It is interesting to see how much the doomer, fear porn appears to ramp up now that things are "slowing down". I wonder how everything will eventually play out to be quite honest.
The future of this Substack is always on my mind so I'm grateful that readers can provide their own insights into how they view everything going on.