Latest / Substack Writers Salon / How Orel Zilberman Built WriteStack (and What Substack Creators Can Steal From His Playbook)
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: And we are live.
- 0:01SPEAKER_00: Hello, hello, everyone.
- 0:03SPEAKER_00: And I am so happy to have with me business entrepreneur Aurel Zaberman,
- 0:10who is a full-time solopreneur building a SaaS for busy
- 0:15sub-stack creators.
- 0:17SPEAKER_00: And he is on his way to make $100,000 a year.
- 0:23from his app or platform rightstack.io which i am a huge fan of
- 0:30so if you're not
- 0:30subscribed to it please please subscribe to it no i'm not
- 0:34getting any kickback from
- 0:35this i just love i just love the app all right thank you so
- 0:39much for for joining me
- 0:41SPEAKER_00: today and
- 0:43SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
- 0:44SPEAKER_00: Yes, of course.
- 0:46SPEAKER_00: So I started learning about your journey on Substack.
- 0:50SPEAKER_00: I saw your short videos talking about how you're building your platform.
- 0:55SPEAKER_00: And I was really inspired, you know, this young man doing this.
- 0:59SPEAKER_00: So, okay, Aurel, how did you come up with the idea for WriteStack?
- 1:06For anyone who does not know what this app is about,
- 1:08it helps you schedule your node.
- 1:10SPEAKER_00: Not only that, but it also gives you inspiration to create your nodes.
- 1:16SPEAKER_00: There's AI.
- 1:18SPEAKER_00: It analyzes your performance.
- 1:20SPEAKER_00: It's like a whole ecosystem.
- 1:21And personally,
- 1:22it helped me really grow on Substack by using this.
- 1:26SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm not getting any kickback from this.
- 1:30SPEAKER_00: So I just love this app a lot.
- 1:33So Aurel,
- 1:33just tell me about how the idea came and how you built this
- 1:36app.
- 1:37Yeah,
- 1:37so a fun story about it,
- 1:39actually,
- 1:39because it didn't start with this goal in mind,
- 1:44right?
- 1:44SPEAKER_02: So in the beginning, it was an articles generator.
- 1:48SPEAKER_02: So I had an issue, like I found it hard to come up with article ideas.
- 1:52So I built something that will learn how you write and what you
- 1:56write about and
- 1:57SPEAKER_02: then generate article outlines for you.
- 2:00SPEAKER_02: And so for that specific project,
- 2:02I decided that I'm going to give it six months because nothing
- 2:05before that ever
- 2:06SPEAKER_02: worked.
- 2:06SPEAKER_02: And so I decided this one is going to get six months of dedicated work.
- 2:11SPEAKER_02: And so what I did is I sent it to a bunch of people.
- 2:14I sent a lot of direct messages to find people who would use it
- 2:17and give me feedback on that.
- 2:21SPEAKER_02: All of them told me that writing articles is not their issue,
- 2:25SPEAKER_02: but they just don't have the time for that.
- 2:28But I think one or two told me that their issue is writing
- 2:32notes and staying
- 2:33SPEAKER_02: consistent with notes.
- 2:35SPEAKER_02: And then I figured out, all right,
- 2:37SPEAKER_02: That's what everybody else does,
- 2:39SPEAKER_02: like platforms that I'm looking up to,
- 2:42SPEAKER_02: like TweetHunter,
- 2:43SPEAKER_02: Tapleo,
- 2:44SPEAKER_02: HypeFury,
- 2:45SPEAKER_02: many people know.
- 2:47SPEAKER_02: They help you create short content and manage your account.
- 2:51SPEAKER_02: So that's when I figured out,
- 2:53SPEAKER_02: okay,
- 2:53SPEAKER_02: I need to pivot completely and just build it around the notes.
- 2:57SPEAKER_02: And that's when I started writing.
- 2:59In the beginning,
- 2:59it was a note scheduler with an AI to help you come up with
- 3:03notes ideas.
- 3:04SPEAKER_02: And then I built more and more and more and it became WriteStack.
- 3:09SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
- 3:09SPEAKER_00: So what is your background that you know how to do this?
- 3:14Do you use sites like Riplet where it's like AI coding or do
- 3:18you actually go into the coding?
- 3:20SPEAKER_00: So what is your background that you know how to do all of that?
- 3:24SPEAKER_02: Yeah,
- 3:24so building that with VibeCoding is going to be a little bit
- 3:28hard just because it
- 3:30SPEAKER_02: involves so much infrastructure that's beyond just coding.
- 3:34Yeah,
- 3:36and a lot of different projects that are combined together into
- 3:40WriteStack.
- 3:40SPEAKER_02: So yeah, it's a bit hard to do it with VibeCoding.
- 3:44SPEAKER_02: And my background is software development.
- 3:46SPEAKER_02: So I am a software developer for almost nine years now.
- 3:52And who did you work with before being a solopreneur or you're
- 3:56always worked on your own?
- 3:58SPEAKER_02: No, no.
- 3:58SPEAKER_02: So I started, I worked, I was at the army for three years.
- 4:02SPEAKER_02: Then I worked for two startups for like, I think two and a half years.
- 4:07SPEAKER_02: And then I quit my job.
- 4:10SPEAKER_00: And here we go.
- 4:12SPEAKER_00: And did you reach your goal of making 100?
- 4:14SPEAKER_02: Not yet, but I think it's 76% there.
- 4:21SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
- 4:23SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're close.
- 4:24SPEAKER_00: You're very close.
- 4:25SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I'm going to get a bit geeky here and talk about the API.
- 4:30SPEAKER_00: So Substack does not have an open API.
- 4:34SPEAKER_00: So how did you manage to...
- 4:37SPEAKER_00: How did you manage to do the work around when they don't have an API?
- 4:42SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I'm using a Chrome extension.
- 4:44SPEAKER_02: And with the Chrome extension, I can send notes on your behalf.
- 4:48So what I do is the Chrome leaves on your computer the
- 4:51extension and everything is
- 4:53SPEAKER_02: on your computer from your IP and everything.
- 4:57And so that's why I need to leave your computer running for
- 5:01notes to go out because
- 5:02SPEAKER_02: I send them from your Chrome.
- 5:05SPEAKER_02: And so we just do it for you, right?
- 5:08SPEAKER_02: Okay, I see.
- 5:09SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's, yeah.
- 5:11SPEAKER_00: So, okay.
- 5:13What would happen if Substack opens its API and also allows you
- 5:19to schedule notes
- 5:21SPEAKER_00: from their app?
- 5:21How would that affect your business and how would you pivot
- 5:25when that actually happens?
- 5:28SPEAKER_02: It will help me grow much faster.
- 5:30SPEAKER_02: How?
- 5:30SPEAKER_02: It's counterintuitive.
- 5:33SPEAKER_02: So here's how I see it happening, all right?
- 5:35SPEAKER_02: So in the beginning,
- 5:36SPEAKER_02: first,
- 5:36SPEAKER_02: if they'll have API,
- 5:38that would be huge because I'll be able to do everything so
- 5:40much more smoothly.
- 5:42SPEAKER_02: And even if they don't and they just add the scheduling,
- 5:46SPEAKER_02: the first thing that will come to mind,
- 5:47SPEAKER_02: okay,
- 5:48SPEAKER_02: they solve the issue that you solve so nobody will use your product.
- 5:53SPEAKER_02: But first, WriteStack is not revolved around scheduling.
- 5:56SPEAKER_02: Scheduling is a feature that's useful.
- 5:59SPEAKER_02: But there are so many more useful features that saves hours of work.
- 6:02SPEAKER_02: That's number one.
- 6:03SPEAKER_02: Number two,
- 6:04SPEAKER_02: in the beginning,
- 6:05SPEAKER_02: yeah,
- 6:05SPEAKER_02: maybe people will feel like,
- 6:07SPEAKER_02: okay,
- 6:07SPEAKER_02: I can now maybe use WriteStackLess.
- 6:10SPEAKER_02: But then as you start using the schedulers on other platforms, like...
- 6:16SPEAKER_02: They won't make something that's very convenient.
- 6:17They'll just allow you to schedule notes and cancel schedules
- 6:20and stuff like that.
- 6:21But RightSacker lets you manage everything so conveniently that
- 6:25if you have more
- 6:26SPEAKER_02: than five or six or seven notes that you schedule ahead of time,
- 6:31handling and managing all that with the Substack scheduler will
- 6:36probably be hard and
- 6:38SPEAKER_02: will waste a lot of time.
- 6:40SPEAKER_02: So yeah,
- 6:41SPEAKER_02: they'll have this functionality,
- 6:42SPEAKER_02: but like other platforms,
- 6:44SPEAKER_02: no platform ever made it convenient.
- 6:46SPEAKER_02: Like no other platform ever made notifications convenient to use,
- 6:51SPEAKER_02: like to reply to people,
- 6:53SPEAKER_02: right?
- 6:53So if you have a bunch of notifications on Substack and you need
- 6:57to reply to dozens
- 6:58SPEAKER_02: of people,
- 6:59SPEAKER_02: it will probably take you like 30,
- 7:01SPEAKER_02: 40,
- 7:01SPEAKER_02: or one hour to reply to everybody.
- 7:04And if you do it through the activity center on WriteStack,
- 7:07it will take you 15 minutes stop.
- 7:10SPEAKER_02: So it saves you hours of work that otherwise you would just spend.
- 7:15So you have this extra time to work on something else and build
- 7:19your business.
- 7:20SPEAKER_00: So I have a suggestion for you.
- 7:22SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to ask it live.
- 7:27SPEAKER_00: And since we like to build in public.
- 7:31SPEAKER_00: So I actually paid for a tool that would help me to send DMs in mass.
- 7:38SPEAKER_00: On Substack?
- 7:40on Substack it's a very cool tool and it sends um personalized
- 7:47uh messages because i
- 7:49have 5 000 subscribers right if i go and yeah i send you
- 7:53letters whatever but
- 7:54SPEAKER_00: people like to get a personalized dm
- 7:58SPEAKER_00: And this tool really helped me connect with my audience.
- 8:03SPEAKER_00: They immediately respond, what do they want?
- 8:06SPEAKER_00: Most of them want content about ghostwriting and book publishing.
- 8:12SPEAKER_00: And I would not have known this if I just used the email.
- 8:16SPEAKER_00: Would you be able to add this tool to your WriteStack?
- 8:21And if you do that,
- 8:22I would cancel my other one and will focus specifically on your
- 8:26tool.
- 8:27SPEAKER_00: And that actually would make it very, very powerful.
- 8:30And they also use a Chrome extension where you have to open
- 8:34your subscribers tab
- 8:37SPEAKER_00: open so that they can actually do that.
- 8:39SPEAKER_00: Would you be able to add that to WriteStack?
- 8:42SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
- 8:43SPEAKER_02: So first, it is possible, right?
- 8:46SPEAKER_02: So my goal is to be Substack friendly, right?
- 8:52I really love this platform and I wouldn't want to implement
- 8:55features that will
- 8:57SPEAKER_02: slowly make it into
- 8:59something like twitter right so in twitter you have a lot of uh
- 9:03tools that help you
- 9:04auto dm and write ai generated comments and stuff like that and
- 9:09i i never liked it
- 9:11it just feels like spam to me i mean yes it's helpful to
- 9:15creators like you for sure
- 9:16because you don't spam but there will be a lot of people who
- 9:19will just use it to
- 9:20SPEAKER_02: just mass send direct messages of their products of the
- 9:25coaching sessions whatever they want yes it's useful but it
- 9:28will just become very
- 9:29spammy and I'm just I just don't like it maybe maybe sending
- 9:37direct messages to
- 9:38SPEAKER_02: your subscribers that's more like that's okay
- 9:42SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 9:42SPEAKER_00: And it's only to subscribers.
- 9:48SPEAKER_00: It's only to subscribers and there's a limit.
- 9:51SPEAKER_00: So they limit you to like 100 messages or 50 messages.
- 9:55SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
- 9:56SPEAKER_00: Can you move them through?
- 9:58SPEAKER_00: Like right to...
- 10:02SPEAKER_00: I'll send it to you.
- 10:04SPEAKER_00: Actually, another creator on Substack here, Claude Faith.
- 10:07SPEAKER_00: If you know her, she's really into AI.
- 10:09SPEAKER_00: She told me about it.
- 10:10SPEAKER_00: I can send it to you.
- 10:11SPEAKER_00: But I thought that would be a great addition to the platform.
- 10:16SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 10:16SPEAKER_02: So I've had many suggestions like that.
- 10:19SPEAKER_02: So auto DMs and like send the first comment after.
- 10:23So when you put out a note,
- 10:25you can send the first comment as like,
- 10:29like you do on Twitter.
- 10:30So you put out the note and then you send a tweet and then you
- 10:33put out the first comment.
- 10:35SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
- 10:36SPEAKER_02: Like promoting your product.
- 10:38SPEAKER_02: And yeah,
- 10:39SPEAKER_02: so that and also,
- 10:42SPEAKER_02: so like,
- 10:43SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 10:43SPEAKER_02: those messages when you say those notes,
- 10:45SPEAKER_02: reply,
- 10:47SPEAKER_02: burger here and I'll send you a PDF and then do it automatically.
- 10:51Yeah,
- 10:51so I got many,
- 10:54many suggestions and they're all good and they're all doable
- 10:58quite easily.
- 11:00I'm just not sure where it fits in the Substack ecosystem right
- 11:05now.
- 11:07SPEAKER_00: So what are people using the most with your app?
- 11:10SPEAKER_00: Like, what is the thing that makes people excited about your product?
- 11:14SPEAKER_00: What is the most used feature in WriteStack?
- 11:19SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 11:20So right now,
- 11:21the number one,
- 11:21obviously,
- 11:22is the scheduler and the notes management.
- 11:25SPEAKER_02: But the number two,
- 11:26SPEAKER_02: a very close number two,
- 11:27SPEAKER_02: is the activity center,
- 11:28SPEAKER_02: like I talked about it before.
- 11:31SPEAKER_02: Replying on Substack to comments is tedious.
- 11:35SPEAKER_02: It takes a lot of time to reply to everything.
- 11:38And so in the activity center,
- 11:39you see all the things that you need to reply to.
- 11:42SPEAKER_02: You see their context.
- 11:44SPEAKER_02: So like if you have a bunch of comments on one note,
- 11:48SPEAKER_02: then you'll see the note at the top and then all the comments.
- 11:50SPEAKER_02: So you can reply to them one by one with keyboard shortcuts.
- 11:54SPEAKER_02: So everything is just so smooth and fast.
- 11:58SPEAKER_02: So that's the number two most used.
- 12:00SPEAKER_02: And then number three is the analytics.
- 12:03SPEAKER_00: Yes, the analytics is great.
- 12:05SPEAKER_00: So what I've been doing,
- 12:07SPEAKER_00: and this is something that is I've been looking at the analytics,
- 12:12SPEAKER_00: looking at the most,
- 12:14SPEAKER_00: the best performing notes,
- 12:16SPEAKER_00: and then take it and then scheduling it into Mutaply,
- 12:21SPEAKER_00: which is the LinkedIn one.
- 12:22so i have two schedule so i take the intelligence from but my
- 12:26main platform is
- 12:28Substack because you have to have one main platform right not
- 12:31like the top of the
- 12:32funnel so i use the Substack notes whatever performs the best
- 12:37take it drop it in tap
- 12:38leo and then see it's interesting to see if it's both performed
- 12:43the same thing if
- 12:44SPEAKER_00: it's kind of but sub yes but sometimes
- 12:49They perform better on Substack,
- 12:51which is interesting,
- 12:51but at least it gives you an idea.
- 12:53SPEAKER_00: So I loved that because I play with these two platforms.
- 12:58SPEAKER_02: I'll let you in on a secret about that.
- 13:02SPEAKER_02: So very soon, Buffer is going to have a public API.
- 13:07SPEAKER_02: All right,
- 13:07SPEAKER_02: and they already have a closed API,
- 13:09SPEAKER_02: which I have access to,
- 13:10SPEAKER_02: and I'm integrating Buffer into WriteStack.
- 13:13SPEAKER_02: So people will be able to schedule their notes on WriteStack,
- 13:16SPEAKER_02: and it will be sent to LinkedIn,
- 13:19SPEAKER_02: Twitter,
- 13:19SPEAKER_02: Facebook,
- 13:20SPEAKER_02: Instagram,
- 13:20SPEAKER_00: whatever they want.
- 13:21SPEAKER_00: Okay, good, good.
- 13:22SPEAKER_00: So I'll probably have to cancel my tap, Leo.
- 13:25SPEAKER_02: Because then you'll be able to do everything,
- 13:27and that's another cool feature that will be useful even if
- 13:31Substack implements
- 13:35SPEAKER_02: scheduling notes.
- 13:38oh wow okay yeah that's that's amazing so how did you actually
- 13:43grow like how many
- 13:44subscribers now do you have if you're comfortable yeah that's
- 13:47fine i share
- 13:48SPEAKER_02: everything so right now i have 261 paid subscribers on right stack
- 13:53SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 13:53And you have the potential to grow even more because I honestly
- 14:01think it's an amazing tool.
- 14:03So how have you been pushing for or promoting it for people to
- 14:09know about it?
- 14:11SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 14:11SPEAKER_02: So first I try,
- 14:13SPEAKER_02: I make sure to write every day at least two notes about WriteStack,
- 14:17SPEAKER_02: right,
- 14:17SPEAKER_02: to promote it.
- 14:18SPEAKER_02: Then I write, I promote it in every newsletter that I send.
- 14:22SPEAKER_02: I send direct messages to people and I try recently,
- 14:26SPEAKER_02: like lately I'm sending direct messages to bigger creators,
- 14:29SPEAKER_02: like show them WriteStack and then maybe collaborate with them.
- 14:31SPEAKER_02: I had great collaborations from that alone.
- 14:35SPEAKER_02: collaborations with creators that I already know.
- 14:37SEO recently raised the amount of people that come to
- 14:42Rightstack significantly.
- 14:44SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, I pull a few levers to grow Rightstack.
- 14:51And are you in touch with the Substack founders or the Substack
- 14:55creators to see if
- 14:56SPEAKER_00: there's any way you can collaborate with them?
- 14:58SPEAKER_02: I tried to reach them, but...
- 15:02SPEAKER_02: Didn't manage to.
- 15:03SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 15:04SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 15:04SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
- 15:05SPEAKER_00: So your focus now is sub-stack tool.
- 15:08Would you want to expand to other sub-stack tools or is that
- 15:13your main focus?
- 15:14SPEAKER_00: Is the right stuff?
- 15:16SPEAKER_02: So my main focus is the right stuff.
- 15:17SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 15:18SPEAKER_02: So one other idea that I had that I built something already,
- 15:23SPEAKER_02: but it's not,
- 15:24SPEAKER_02: I don't maintain it is a sync.
- 15:33SPEAKER_02: sorry,
- 15:33SPEAKER_02: like a middleman between a kit or whatever email platform that you use,
- 15:38SPEAKER_02: email provider and Substack.
- 15:39So every new subscriber that you get to Substack will
- 15:42automatically be added to your
- 15:44SPEAKER_02: kit or whatever you use with tags that you want,
- 15:48SPEAKER_02: with sequences that you want to send them,
- 15:51SPEAKER_02: whatever you want.
- 15:51SPEAKER_02: So like, yeah.
- 15:53SPEAKER_00: I actually tried to do that.
- 15:56SPEAKER_00: With make.com.
- 15:58SPEAKER_00: With make.com.
- 16:01SPEAKER_00: Yana,
- 16:01SPEAKER_00: another big creator here,
- 16:04SPEAKER_00: taught me how to do that because I'm a paid subscriber to her newsletter.
- 16:09SPEAKER_00: And it worked.
- 16:10SPEAKER_00: It had some issues that I'm trying to, you know, fix myself.
- 16:17SPEAKER_00: But honestly,
- 16:18SPEAKER_00: if you have a tool,
- 16:19SPEAKER_00: I would get the tool immediately instead of me,
- 16:22SPEAKER_00: like messing with the blueprint and the scenario.
- 16:25SPEAKER_00: It's just, I do not have time.
- 16:28SPEAKER_00: And yeah, go ahead.
- 16:30SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I agree.
- 16:31SPEAKER_02: So my goal was to make it as simple as possible.
- 16:34SPEAKER_02: So like you sign up with Google and that's it.
- 16:39SPEAKER_02: Like,
- 16:41All right,
- 16:41so you sign up with Google,
- 16:43you put in your API key from Kit,
- 16:46and that's that.
- 16:47SPEAKER_02: It all works for you.
- 16:49SPEAKER_02: Is it working now?
- 16:51SPEAKER_02: It's working now, but the thing is I'm not actively fixing it.
- 16:57SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
- 16:58SPEAKER_02: So the thing that stopped me is I needed approval from Google.
- 17:03So you can sign up with your email and I can read your emails
- 17:06to find out which of
- 17:07SPEAKER_02: them is subscriber.
- 17:09SPEAKER_02: And you can do it right now.
- 17:10SPEAKER_02: But when you sign up,
- 17:11SPEAKER_02: it tells you that the app is not approved and you need to click advanced,
- 17:15SPEAKER_02: see more and then approve it sort of.
- 17:18SPEAKER_02: So it looks fishy.
- 17:20SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 17:21SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 17:21SPEAKER_02: And then after six months, you need to reapprove it.
- 17:23SPEAKER_02: It's just it's a bit of a mess.
- 17:24SPEAKER_02: And then to make it compliant with Google's security measures,
- 17:33I need to pay like it was five or six thousand dollars to
- 17:36someone who would help me
- 17:37SPEAKER_02: and show me.
- 17:38SPEAKER_02: And like it's a it's a mess.
- 17:40SPEAKER_02: It's a mess.
- 17:40SPEAKER_02: So I just put it on hold for now.
- 17:43SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 17:44SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 17:45SPEAKER_00: So Aurel, I noticed you have over 5,000 subscribers.
- 17:51SPEAKER_00: So that's like a big number.
- 17:54SPEAKER_00: It's like a whole tribe.
- 17:57SPEAKER_00: And how did you grow on Substack that fast?
- 18:01SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm assuming it was fast.
- 18:03and i know just two years okay i mean that's pretty fast for
- 18:07two years and i also
- 18:08noticed you doing like that every day this is how i found you
- 18:12is like who is that
- 18:13young man that keeps popping in my young handsome man that
- 18:18keeps popping in my feed
- 18:21SPEAKER_00: talking about this and so i was wondering like what are your um
- 18:28kind of tactics for growing to 5k in two years if you want to
- 18:33help those who's
- 18:34SPEAKER_00: listening now how can they grow that fast
- 18:38First of all,
- 18:40it's new information to me that that's how you found me through
- 18:43my videos.
- 18:44SPEAKER_01: I did.
- 18:45SPEAKER_02: That's good because,
- 18:45SPEAKER_02: yeah,
- 18:46SPEAKER_02: in the past,
- 18:47SPEAKER_02: like,
- 18:48SPEAKER_02: maybe two months that I've been putting out these videos,
- 18:53SPEAKER_02: the growth has steadily grown.
- 18:54SPEAKER_02: And then I see that on days when I don't put out videos,
- 18:59SPEAKER_02: the growth in the next following days just slows down.
- 19:02SPEAKER_02: So that's interesting, you know?
- 19:03SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 19:04Yeah,
- 19:04sometimes I miss days,
- 19:05but like,
- 19:06yeah,
- 19:06okay,
- 19:07that's good to know,
- 19:07right?
- 19:07SPEAKER_02: That's great information.
- 19:08SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, sorry, what was the question?
- 19:11SPEAKER_00: I was just... The question is, how did you grow to 5,000 subscribers?
- 19:16SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, yeah, all right.
- 19:17SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 19:18SPEAKER_00: So,
- 19:18SPEAKER_00: because I know creators who've been grinding for two,
- 19:21SPEAKER_00: three years,
- 19:21SPEAKER_00: and they're like stuck at the 1,000,
- 19:23SPEAKER_00: and they're doing everything right,
- 19:25SPEAKER_00: you know?
- 19:26SPEAKER_00: But how can you grow to 5K, like the way you grew?
- 19:30SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 19:31SPEAKER_02: All right,
- 19:31SPEAKER_02: so the first thing that I tell everybody,
- 19:33SPEAKER_02: the first thing,
- 19:34SPEAKER_02: especially to people who say that they do everything right,
- 19:38SPEAKER_02: I bet I'll open their profile and I'll see something that I don't like.
- 19:42SPEAKER_02: I mean, I just won't know what they're talking about, right?
- 19:45So if I open your profile and I don't know in two seconds what
- 19:49you're talking
- 19:50SPEAKER_02: about,
- 19:50SPEAKER_02: I'm just going to leave.
- 19:51So people don't have a very long attention span and they open
- 19:55it and they just see
- 19:56a random banner picture of the sun and then in the bio you say
- 20:02that you're a
- 20:03SPEAKER_02: professor and you do this and that and you have disease.
- 20:06SPEAKER_02: I mean, people will just leave, right?
- 20:08SPEAKER_02: So you need to tell them as soon as possible what you're talking about,
- 20:12SPEAKER_02: what they'll get from reading your newsletter and then
- 20:17SPEAKER_02: I saw one that is an awesome example.
- 20:23SPEAKER_02: I'll read out loud her bio.
- 20:27SPEAKER_02: So it's the menopause professor.
- 20:29SPEAKER_02: First, you learn from the name that she probably talks about menopause.
- 20:33SPEAKER_02: And then Professor Carrie Ann,
- 20:35SPEAKER_02: professional menopause nerd,
- 20:37SPEAKER_02: they give you science-backed tools so you can lose weight,
- 20:39SPEAKER_02: boost brain power,
- 20:40SPEAKER_02: and feel like yourself again.
- 20:43SPEAKER_02: So you know what you're going to get from reading her newsletter.
- 20:46SPEAKER_02: And the name tells you.
- 20:48SPEAKER_02: So everything tells you exactly what you're going to get.
- 20:53So if it's a topic that interests you,
- 20:55you'll know exactly what it is and you'll subscribe.
- 21:00And if she would just be the menopause professor and would
- 21:02write some things about
- 21:04SPEAKER_02: herself and her past and a random banner picture,
- 21:07SPEAKER_02: then she would probably have way less than 16,000 subscribers.
- 21:13SPEAKER_00: I see.
- 21:14SPEAKER_00: So your tactic was your profile, your bio.
- 21:18SPEAKER_00: What else?
- 21:19SPEAKER_00: How did you know?
- 21:20So first,
- 21:20okay,
- 21:21my bio personally is meant to drive traffic to right stack.
- 21:25SPEAKER_02: All right.
- 21:26And it's also interesting,
- 21:28right,
- 21:28because I talk about how I develop a SaaS to $100,000 a year.
- 21:30SPEAKER_02: So for
- 21:32People who are interested in building stuff and following these
- 21:35types of journeys,
- 21:36SPEAKER_02: it will be interesting,
- 21:37SPEAKER_02: but it will also drive traffic to ride stack.
- 21:39SPEAKER_02: So that's number one.
- 21:40SPEAKER_02: That's the first thing that you need to do.
- 21:42SPEAKER_02: All right.
- 21:42SPEAKER_02: So number two, you need to put out content consistently.
- 21:49SPEAKER_02: I mean,
- 21:50SPEAKER_02: I take it for granted,
- 21:51SPEAKER_02: like put out notes every day,
- 21:52SPEAKER_02: put out a post at least once a week.
- 21:55SPEAKER_02: That's for sure.
- 21:56But then one more very powerful thing that you can do is
- 21:59collaborate with other
- 22:00SPEAKER_02: creators in your niche.
- 22:02SPEAKER_02: So if you can find someone who's bigger than you,
- 22:05it doesn't have to be a creator that has 10 times the amount of
- 22:09subscribers you
- 22:10SPEAKER_02: have,
- 22:10SPEAKER_02: but just like one or two or three steps ahead of you,
- 22:13SPEAKER_02: collaborate with them,
- 22:14SPEAKER_02: share your audience,
- 22:15SPEAKER_02: you'll grow much faster.
- 22:16SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 22:19SPEAKER_00: And how do you get the ideas for your notes or for your posts?
- 22:23SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, so I use WriteStack.
- 22:28And one of the things that actually personally helped me is I
- 22:32repurpose stuff,
- 22:33SPEAKER_00: whatever,
- 22:34SPEAKER_00: but what helped me,
- 22:35SPEAKER_00: I loved
- 22:36then in riot stack is you go to your past articles and you get
- 22:41ideas from that that
- 22:42was like genius i also like the inspiration tab where you
- 22:46actually look at what
- 22:47other creators are talking about and then it's like ah you know
- 22:50the books feel like
- 22:51an artist so it's kind of similar idea like that but for you
- 22:56how do you make sure
- 22:57SPEAKER_00: that you never run out of content ideas
- 23:01SPEAKER_02: So I always have this fear that I will run out of content ideas.
- 23:05SPEAKER_02: But to be honest, first of all, I have the AI to give me ideas.
- 23:11SPEAKER_02: I'm there with you.
- 23:12SPEAKER_02: I have the inspiration page.
- 23:14SPEAKER_02: I have my previous notes, the analytics.
- 23:18SPEAKER_02: And then I also have...
- 23:20a button that I added on Substack,
- 23:22like WriteStack button,
- 23:24save to your WriteStack draft.
- 23:26So if I see a note that's interesting or a comment,
- 23:31I'll just click that button.
- 23:33SPEAKER_02: It will save it as a note to WriteStack.
- 23:35SPEAKER_02: And then I build like a library of all of these in my drafts.
- 23:38SPEAKER_02: I go over them.
- 23:39SPEAKER_02: I build notes from them.
- 23:40SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 23:41SPEAKER_00: And how do I get access to this thing?
- 23:44SPEAKER_02: You already have it.
- 23:44SPEAKER_02: So if you'll go,
- 23:45SPEAKER_02: you'll see one of your notes,
- 23:47SPEAKER_02: not your notes,
- 23:48SPEAKER_02: but like anybody's notes or comments,
- 23:50SPEAKER_02: you'll see like a light bulb icon there.
- 23:52SPEAKER_02: All right?
- 23:53SPEAKER_01: In the extension?
- 23:55SPEAKER_02: No, no, on Substack, on Substack, natively on Substack.
- 24:00SPEAKER_02: Like you have the like button,
- 24:01SPEAKER_02: the comment,
- 24:02SPEAKER_02: the restack,
- 24:02SPEAKER_02: the share button,
- 24:03SPEAKER_02: and then next to the share button,
- 24:05SPEAKER_02: you have this light bulb icon.
- 24:07And the Light bulb outcome,
- 24:09that's called save to Substack or save to write stack?
- 24:12SPEAKER_00: To write stack.
- 24:13That's something that I added and it automatically saves your
- 24:16node to write stack.
- 24:18SPEAKER_00: It's because I downloaded the extension.
- 24:20SPEAKER_02: Right.
- 24:22SPEAKER_00: Ah, I didn't know that.
- 24:24SPEAKER_00: And that's amazing.
- 24:26So I think you need to advertise more because I had no idea
- 24:29that this existed.
- 24:31SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I'm going to run a workshop next Thursday.
- 24:38SPEAKER_02: for everybody.
- 24:39SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I know.
- 24:39SPEAKER_02: I'm very bad at marketing.
- 24:41I mean,
- 24:41I've been doing it for like 10 months now and I suck at this so
- 24:46bad.
- 24:46SPEAKER_02: So, I mean, so many things to do.
- 24:49SPEAKER_02: It's so hard.
- 24:50SPEAKER_00: I know.
- 24:50SPEAKER_00: You need the VA.
- 24:54SPEAKER_00: So, okay.
- 24:55SPEAKER_00: You have an affiliate program.
- 24:57I think for yours,
- 24:59like creating an affiliate program would make you like explode.
- 25:03SPEAKER_00: You don't think so?
- 25:04SPEAKER_02: I have an affiliate program.
- 25:07SPEAKER_00: Oh, you do?
- 25:07SPEAKER_00: Okay, see, I don't even know that.
- 25:09SPEAKER_02: Yeah, all right, yeah, yeah.
- 25:10SPEAKER_00: This is so many things that it's, because it's so extensive.
- 25:17SPEAKER_00: Okay, so what shall we get excited about in the future?
- 25:20SPEAKER_00: All right,
- 25:21SPEAKER_02: so first I'll tell you about the ambassador program that I call it,
- 25:24SPEAKER_02: and you get 30% for life for anybody that you bring in.
- 25:27SPEAKER_02: So for as long as you're subscribed, you get 30%.
- 25:31SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and what you should be excited for.
- 25:34First of all,
- 25:35if you're not subscribed,
- 25:36then you should be excited for subscribing.
- 25:38SPEAKER_02: Now, second, I'm going to add, like I said, the buffer thing.
- 25:43SPEAKER_02: I'm going to add another feature very soon.
- 25:45SPEAKER_02: I call it follows.
- 25:47SPEAKER_02: And then you'll be able to follow people that you're interested in.
- 25:51And then you'll have a tab on WriteStack that will show you all
- 25:54their new notes.
- 25:55SPEAKER_02: So you can reply to them like their content,
- 25:58SPEAKER_02: restack it,
- 25:58SPEAKER_02: whatever you want,
- 25:59SPEAKER_02: right from WriteStack.
- 26:01SPEAKER_02: So you won't have to go through the entire feed to find their notes.
- 26:04SPEAKER_02: You'll see it directly on WriteStack.
- 26:07SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 26:08SPEAKER_02: Write's filtered.
- 26:09SPEAKER_00: So what helped you grow the most?
- 26:11SPEAKER_00: Like, when did you notice?
- 26:13SPEAKER_00: Was it going live with creators?
- 26:16When do actually people pull out their credit card and
- 26:19subscribe and pay for WriteStack?
- 26:22SPEAKER_00: Was it your notes?
- 26:24SPEAKER_00: Like, where was the biggest ROI for you?
- 26:27SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I can actually tell you the exact numbers for that.
- 26:34SPEAKER_01: Let's go here.
- 26:41SPEAKER_01: Oh, sorry, it's not that.
- 26:46So I have a page that shows me where did people find me based
- 26:49on their comments.
- 26:50SPEAKER_02: So in the past, let's say 90 days, word of mouth is 43%.
- 26:57SPEAKER_02: Google is 34%.
- 26:59SPEAKER_02: And my content is 30%.
- 27:00SPEAKER_02: And then like a little bit of many other things.
- 27:05SPEAKER_02: But these are the top three channels.
- 27:09SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
- 27:10SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 27:10SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 27:11SPEAKER_00: So you're a solopreneur.
- 27:13SPEAKER_00: So can you walk me through your day-to-day?
- 27:17SPEAKER_00: How does your day look like in terms of work?
- 27:21SPEAKER_00: Like where do you focus your time?
- 27:24SPEAKER_00: How do you allocate your time?
- 27:25Because time management as a solopreneur is extremely important
- 27:30and also energy management.
- 27:32So I'm interested to see how you manage your time and how do
- 27:36you keep your energy up?
- 27:38SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 27:38SPEAKER_02: So to be honest, I'm pretty awful at that.
- 27:41SPEAKER_02: I'm still learning.
- 27:42SPEAKER_02: I mean, maybe VA is a good idea.
- 27:44SPEAKER_02: I mean,
- 27:45SPEAKER_02: I never,
- 27:45SPEAKER_02: I heard about it,
- 27:47SPEAKER_02: but I don't know how it's helpful,
- 27:48SPEAKER_02: but maybe it's something to look into.
- 27:50But I have so many things that I want to accomplish and need to
- 27:54do that sometimes I
- 27:55SPEAKER_02: get decision fatigue and then I just don't do anything and that sucks.
- 27:59So what I try to do essentially is try to focus on one thing
- 28:02every day and like
- 28:04SPEAKER_02: have my dailies that I need to do.
- 28:06And it's like writing notes,
- 28:08replying to comments,
- 28:09writing an email,
- 28:10doing my dailies.
- 28:11SPEAKER_02: That's the first thing that I want to accomplish as fast as possible.
- 28:16SPEAKER_02: And then once I did it, I'll choose another task.
- 28:20SPEAKER_02: And if I can accomplish that, that's good.
- 28:22SPEAKER_02: If not,
- 28:23SPEAKER_02: that's also good because I have my dailies,
- 28:25SPEAKER_02: which are good enough for me for my every day.
- 28:30SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 28:32SPEAKER_00: And what is your top priority every day?
- 28:36SPEAKER_00: What is the one thing that you have to accomplish every day?
- 28:39SPEAKER_02: The checklist.
- 28:40SPEAKER_02: So I have write 15 notes,
- 28:42SPEAKER_02: reply to all sub-star comments,
- 28:43SPEAKER_02: reply to all direct messages,
- 28:46SPEAKER_02: send 10 direct messages,
- 28:48SPEAKER_02: reply to all support tickets that I do throughout the entire day,
- 28:51SPEAKER_02: and write one email.
- 28:52SPEAKER_02: So if I finish this checklist, I'm happy for the day.
- 28:56SPEAKER_00: So you basically spend all your day on Substack, pretty much.
- 29:00SPEAKER_02: Right, yeah, yeah.
- 29:02SPEAKER_00: Wow, so you're dedicating like eight hours of your day on Substack.
- 29:09SPEAKER_02: It takes me like maybe five hours, but yeah.
- 29:12SPEAKER_00: Ah, wow, wow.
- 29:14SPEAKER_00: Okay,
- 29:15SPEAKER_00: so if there's one thing Substack creators need to do to grow,
- 29:20SPEAKER_00: what is that one thing?
- 29:23SPEAKER_01: Fix their profile.
- 29:24SPEAKER_01: Fix their profile.
- 29:26SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
- 29:26SPEAKER_02: because when you bring in a lot of traffic into your profile,
- 29:35SPEAKER_02: but then people have no clue who you are or what you do,
- 29:39SPEAKER_02: they won't subscribe.
- 29:40SPEAKER_02: You'll get a bunch of subscribers from your notes,
- 29:43SPEAKER_02: but the bigger percentage of subscribers will come back.
- 29:49from notes but not directly from notes they won't click the
- 29:52subscribe button on the
- 29:53note they'll go to your profile and then they'll subscribe or
- 29:56read a post and then
- 29:57they'll subscribe but like if they don't know who you are when
- 30:00they come in through
- 30:01the door then they will just leave yeah all right so that's the
- 30:07first thing that
- 30:07SPEAKER_02: you need to do make your profile as clear as possible
- 30:11yeah yeah yeah and so are you planning to create other tools
- 30:17for other platforms
- 30:18like let's say linkedin or your not not really i mean i barely
- 30:24scratched the
- 30:24surface on uh Substack i mean i i ran an experiment and what i
- 30:29did is i sent direct
- 30:30messages to people who engage with my content and then i asked
- 30:35them if they know
- 30:36SPEAKER_02: right stack
- 30:37And I think maybe one or two out of maybe 100 direct messages
- 30:42that I sent knew
- 30:44SPEAKER_02: about WriteStack.
- 30:44SPEAKER_02: All of them replied with, what is WriteStack?
- 30:48SPEAKER_02: So that just got me thinking about how many people...
- 30:53SPEAKER_02: I thought that I reached so many people on Substack,
- 30:55SPEAKER_02: but the fact is I barely scratched the surface.
- 30:59SPEAKER_02: Correct.
- 30:59So there's no reason for me to jump into another platform
- 31:03before I exhausted this one.
- 31:07yeah i i found out about you yeah from the videos but i was not
- 31:12like i you're
- 31:14exactly sure what you were doing but then yana another creative
- 31:18told me about more
- 31:20i was like oh yeah that's the guy that i always see his videos
- 31:23and that's when i
- 31:24SPEAKER_00: connected the dots and that's when i subscribed
- 31:28SPEAKER_00: You're actually one of the very first SaaS creators.
- 31:35SPEAKER_00: And I think you're very early in the game.
- 31:38So if you go to LinkedIn,
- 31:39there's so many tools that are created for LinkedIn.
- 31:43SPEAKER_00: Like you have Taply or you have whatever...
- 31:46and yeah but you're like one of the very first and do you
- 31:52recognize the power
- 31:54there's no other platform like right stack no other platform
- 31:57even too close to
- 31:58being as extensive as right there do you recognize the
- 32:02potential that you have of
- 32:05definitely of being very early in the game yeah definitely like
- 32:10i thought about it
- 32:11SPEAKER_02: a lot and
- 32:12SPEAKER_02: they always say that growth looks very,
- 32:16very flat and takes some time and then suddenly it starts
- 32:19shifting and the growth
- 32:19SPEAKER_02: is much faster.
- 32:21SPEAKER_02: And the more I thought about it,
- 32:22SPEAKER_02: the more it made sense because like in the beginning,
- 32:25SPEAKER_02: a small group of people know you and the more people know you,
- 32:28SPEAKER_02: the more they talk with other friends.
- 32:30right and then like it grows sort of exponentially because like
- 32:35in the beginning
- 32:36like let's say 10 people then 10 people talk about you then you
- 32:39get 20 people 20
- 32:40people talk about you and then you get to like let's say 100
- 32:42and or 200 and then
- 32:45suddenly you see my videos and yana knows who i am and so she
- 32:48tells you about it so
- 32:49you subscribe then next time yeah someone from your community
- 32:52will see something
- 32:53they'll ask you and you'll know about it so like yeah and
- 32:56you're just one person so
- 32:58SPEAKER_02: if i have
- 33:001,000 people that know about RightStack or like I think 1,800
- 33:04people who signed up,
- 33:05then these are people who know about RightStack and will know
- 33:08to reply to someone
- 33:08SPEAKER_02: who asks them,
- 33:09SPEAKER_02: what is it?
- 33:10SPEAKER_02: Who is this guy?
- 33:13SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 33:14SPEAKER_00: So what is the main source of income for you?
- 33:17SPEAKER_00: Is it only the paid subscription or do you do other like...
- 33:22SPEAKER_00: You know,
- 33:22SPEAKER_00: I know,
- 33:23SPEAKER_00: for example,
- 33:25SPEAKER_00: other creators who sell products on Gumroad,
- 33:29SPEAKER_00: who do workshops,
- 33:30SPEAKER_00: who do...
- 33:31SPEAKER_00: What is your income streams as a solopreneur?
- 33:36SPEAKER_02: So I give everything that I have for free besides Brightstack.
- 33:41SPEAKER_02: So all the knowledge that I have,
- 33:43SPEAKER_02: all the analytics that I do,
- 33:45SPEAKER_02: all the workshops,
- 33:46SPEAKER_02: all the PDFs,
- 33:47SPEAKER_02: all the custom GPTs,
- 33:48SPEAKER_02: whatever I have,
- 33:48SPEAKER_02: I just give it away for free.
- 33:51SPEAKER_02: And I funnel all the traffic into RideStack.
- 33:53SPEAKER_02: So my only source of income is RideStack.
- 33:56SPEAKER_02: So some people,
- 33:57big creators ask me if I'm full time on that because they want
- 34:01to know if that's
- 34:02SPEAKER_02: something they can invest their time and their money on.
- 34:06SPEAKER_02: And the answer is yes, that's what I do full time.
- 34:08SPEAKER_02: That's my only source of income.
- 34:11SPEAKER_02: And yeah.
- 34:12SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow, it's amazing.
- 34:14Well,
- 34:14I'm not going to take much more of your time,
- 34:16Aurel,
- 34:17but this has been fascinating.
- 34:19SPEAKER_00: And for anyone who's watching or listening,
- 34:22SPEAKER_00: you know,
- 34:22this is going to also go as a podcast because I turned these
- 34:25into a podcast called
- 34:27SPEAKER_00: The Substack Writer's Salon.
- 34:30SPEAKER_00: And I highly, highly recommend this tool.
- 34:33SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm not getting any money from recommending it.
- 34:36SPEAKER_00: I just love it.
- 34:37And it helped me grow a lot on Substack,
- 34:40especially with notes,
- 34:41especially with analytics.
- 34:44SPEAKER_00: And I'd love to support as well young creators like Aurel.
- 34:48SPEAKER_00: So please go check it out and check out his profile.
- 34:51SPEAKER_00: He shares amazing stuff.
- 34:53SPEAKER_00: He creates on rightstack.io.
- 34:57Before we conclude,
- 34:58does anyone here have any questions for Oral or for me?
- 35:03SPEAKER_00: Please feel free to ask them.
- 35:05SPEAKER_00: I just give a minute or two for anyone who has any questions.
- 35:08SPEAKER_00: If no one has any questions, we can go ahead and conclude this talk.
- 35:15SPEAKER_00: But again, thank you very much for your time, Oral.
- 35:18And thank you for all the people that joined us today for
- 35:22another episode of the
- 35:23SPEAKER_00: Substack Writer's Salon.
- 35:27SPEAKER_00: Again, thank you, everyone.
- 35:28SPEAKER_00: Thank you, everybody.
- 35:29SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
- 35:31SPEAKER_01: Of course.
- 35:31SPEAKER_01: Take care.
- 35:32SPEAKER_01: Bye-bye.
- 35:33SPEAKER_01: Bye-bye.