This is a very generous post for aspiring content creators. I am not one of those, however, I read the entire email because I was fascinated about how much work goes into it. Thanks for the look behind the curtain.
This was so insightful. Your transparency and standard of excellence are really 2nd to none in this realm! You’ve made me want to learn things I didn’t even know I *could* learn. Xx
This is so helpful! I loveeee that you leverage analytics so much in your day to day. My daughter wants to go into marketing when she grow up because she loves math and numbers, but also likes creating. While you may not like analytics as much, you certainly embrace them and it's such a good example for women everywhere.
Always a class act for sharing this, thank you! I've been following you for about 5 years and your writing has always been great, but you can tell you've been focusing on it. :)
I love the concept of using private collections in ShopMy. That’s the kind of high level stuff I just adore. So you just keep track of those links on the backend? I’ve never left a post on “private” - such a good idea. I’m going to play around with that. I too love Claude for analyzing commission data. I had a product go viral-ish in April and Claude made my entire May content calendar revolve around that one product. Like um sir, that’s not how that works. Silly Claude.
The beauty of the hidden collections is that I don’t keep track of anything anymore, once they are classified, I don’t think about it anymore. Prior to doing this, I had it all in my head.
I replied in greater detail to Jess’s comment about how I make the collections but I have hidden sections (Blog, Substack, Stories, etc) on my ShopMy page and then collections within each one. You can definitely leave collections on private but it looks cleaner having all the hidden stuff in different sections.
So helpful! Thank you for sharing all this insight based on your trial and error and hard work. Really informative for others looking to parlay themselves into the space. You are always so honest and open with your subscribers! Thank you!
Loved this deep dive! And I've heard so much about Coreli. Tempted to finally try it.
Completely agree with you on AI. It's great for data pulls...but could never replace the expertise and day-in-and-day-out of being a creator. I do feel that IG is becoming like LinkedIn in a way (ugh) as I'm seeing so much more AI-generated slop on the platform.
I don’t enjoy it. Even as a source of inspiration, I struggle so much. It used to be my biggest source of inspiration and discovery and now it’s just same same same! And SO MUCH slop. I feel like I was part of the problem because I watched every single AI cat video. Or the AI generated grannies giving life advice. I miss the old days!
Thank you so much for this article! The fact that it's available for all readers only shows that you're an incredible human being. <3 I'm a blogger myself (although my blog still runs on WordPress) and it's so great to see that your blogs are your most valuable income sources. Blogging definitely is not dead! :D
Love looking at data! I just recently did a big deep dive into my analytics on Claude and came up with some new tasks (love that it links up with Asana so it divided up my Pinterest tasks and SEO tasks that feels manageable). For affiliate date though, I have been a little disappointed in ShopMy's ability to tell us where sales are coming from. I started naming some of my links if I knew it was being shared in multiple spots. But curious how you had your invisible collections set up? I ask because when you export your sales, collections aren't listed it's just the name, product etc. Or did you just use the handful of collections to see the overall analytics within ShopMy and export sales just to see the retailer level?
It is disappointing, we shouldn’t have to do this — I wish they had the tech to tell us where everything is coming from! I set my hidden collections up on my Shop Page - there are hidden sections for each category . . . one for stories, one for broadcast, and then a blog section and substack section with each individual post named, i.e. “5.9 weekend reading blog” or “5.9 saturday group text substack”
But when I export my data, the collection names are definitely showing up. Claude then knows a) the post title and b) where it’s linked — blog, substack, etc. Maybe we are exporting our data from a different place? I select the month and hit download . . . I also have claude clean the data which may help!
I JUST downloaded Claude (I've previously used Chat for all random projects for work/volunteer positions/etc.) and I cannot wait to use your prompts to learn more. This type of help is invaluable for me so THANK YOU for writing it.
you inspired me to have cowork analyze all my shopmy and substack data, which i had never once done before! now i have a scheduled task and a skill that just automatically updates my reporting for me. (doing or changing anything based on that reporting is another bridge i've yet to cross, lol...)
i use claude design for work and have experimented with having it pull and arrange book covers for the images for my book round up posts. (the book cover post thumbnails are an example of an image that i think needs 0 artistic integrity so feels like the right place for claude design.) i'll be curious to see if you ever play around there! it saved me some time in canva, but i think it needs another month or two to get brilliant.
OMG you use Claude design for that? How cool! I’m so impressed, your roundups always look great. I’m going to play around with it this weekend as I’m working on this app and I’m told Claude Design is the way to do it!
So much great information here--thank you for taking the time to share this with us! Also, love that you keep white guy Claude around to pull data and make us pretty charts! I've been wondering how to bring more people to my Substack. What are your thoughts on buying email lists within a geographic area?
My thought is that it’s a really bad idea. (If any commenters disagree, please: chime in!) My take is that it pisses people off when they’re signed up for yet another email, and it’s going to mess with your open rate when they send you to SPAM!
I am a purist but my take is that paid growth does not work, unless it’s some sort of advertising where the reader opts in on their own (vs. gets signed up because you bought their email). I have heard of folks running paid ads for their Substacks on Facebook but haven’t tired this. The one thing I have done (when I first moved to Substack!) is pay for ads in other Substackers’ newsletters. I did one in Anne Helen Peterson’s, and one in Clare & Erica’s and got around a hundred or so new subscribers from each.
I never considered buying on others’ Substack! I’m going to look into that when I can publish more consistently on Substack. And so appreciate your thoughts on email lists—makes sense. Thank you Grace!
This is a very generous post for aspiring content creators. I am not one of those, however, I read the entire email because I was fascinated about how much work goes into it. Thanks for the look behind the curtain.
you’re welcome!
This was so insightful. Your transparency and standard of excellence are really 2nd to none in this realm! You’ve made me want to learn things I didn’t even know I *could* learn. Xx
aw this makes me happy, thank you!
This is so helpful! I loveeee that you leverage analytics so much in your day to day. My daughter wants to go into marketing when she grow up because she loves math and numbers, but also likes creating. While you may not like analytics as much, you certainly embrace them and it's such a good example for women everywhere.
I love that! I can’t wait to see what she ends up doing.
Always a class act for sharing this, thank you! I've been following you for about 5 years and your writing has always been great, but you can tell you've been focusing on it. :)
thank you, that means a lot!
I love the concept of using private collections in ShopMy. That’s the kind of high level stuff I just adore. So you just keep track of those links on the backend? I’ve never left a post on “private” - such a good idea. I’m going to play around with that. I too love Claude for analyzing commission data. I had a product go viral-ish in April and Claude made my entire May content calendar revolve around that one product. Like um sir, that’s not how that works. Silly Claude.
The beauty of the hidden collections is that I don’t keep track of anything anymore, once they are classified, I don’t think about it anymore. Prior to doing this, I had it all in my head.
I replied in greater detail to Jess’s comment about how I make the collections but I have hidden sections (Blog, Substack, Stories, etc) on my ShopMy page and then collections within each one. You can definitely leave collections on private but it looks cleaner having all the hidden stuff in different sections.
Ahhhhh! This makes perfect sense! Thank you for elaborating!
of course! xo
So helpful! Thank you for sharing all this insight based on your trial and error and hard work. Really informative for others looking to parlay themselves into the space. You are always so honest and open with your subscribers! Thank you!
It’s so important!!! I’m glad you enjoyed the post. x
Loved this deep dive! And I've heard so much about Coreli. Tempted to finally try it.
Completely agree with you on AI. It's great for data pulls...but could never replace the expertise and day-in-and-day-out of being a creator. I do feel that IG is becoming like LinkedIn in a way (ugh) as I'm seeing so much more AI-generated slop on the platform.
I don’t enjoy it. Even as a source of inspiration, I struggle so much. It used to be my biggest source of inspiration and discovery and now it’s just same same same! And SO MUCH slop. I feel like I was part of the problem because I watched every single AI cat video. Or the AI generated grannies giving life advice. I miss the old days!
Thank you so much for this article! The fact that it's available for all readers only shows that you're an incredible human being. <3 I'm a blogger myself (although my blog still runs on WordPress) and it's so great to see that your blogs are your most valuable income sources. Blogging definitely is not dead! :D
so glad it’s helpful!
So fascinating - loved this!
so glad!
So much great info in here, thanks for sharing it!!
you’re so welcome!
This is a wonderful tool- thanks!
you’re welcome!
Love looking at data! I just recently did a big deep dive into my analytics on Claude and came up with some new tasks (love that it links up with Asana so it divided up my Pinterest tasks and SEO tasks that feels manageable). For affiliate date though, I have been a little disappointed in ShopMy's ability to tell us where sales are coming from. I started naming some of my links if I knew it was being shared in multiple spots. But curious how you had your invisible collections set up? I ask because when you export your sales, collections aren't listed it's just the name, product etc. Or did you just use the handful of collections to see the overall analytics within ShopMy and export sales just to see the retailer level?
It is disappointing, we shouldn’t have to do this — I wish they had the tech to tell us where everything is coming from! I set my hidden collections up on my Shop Page - there are hidden sections for each category . . . one for stories, one for broadcast, and then a blog section and substack section with each individual post named, i.e. “5.9 weekend reading blog” or “5.9 saturday group text substack”
But when I export my data, the collection names are definitely showing up. Claude then knows a) the post title and b) where it’s linked — blog, substack, etc. Maybe we are exporting our data from a different place? I select the month and hit download . . . I also have claude clean the data which may help!
I JUST downloaded Claude (I've previously used Chat for all random projects for work/volunteer positions/etc.) and I cannot wait to use your prompts to learn more. This type of help is invaluable for me so THANK YOU for writing it.
Yay, I hope it is helpful!
i loved this post!!
you inspired me to have cowork analyze all my shopmy and substack data, which i had never once done before! now i have a scheduled task and a skill that just automatically updates my reporting for me. (doing or changing anything based on that reporting is another bridge i've yet to cross, lol...)
i use claude design for work and have experimented with having it pull and arrange book covers for the images for my book round up posts. (the book cover post thumbnails are an example of an image that i think needs 0 artistic integrity so feels like the right place for claude design.) i'll be curious to see if you ever play around there! it saved me some time in canva, but i think it needs another month or two to get brilliant.
OMG you use Claude design for that? How cool! I’m so impressed, your roundups always look great. I’m going to play around with it this weekend as I’m working on this app and I’m told Claude Design is the way to do it!
Ooh, thank you!! I want to hear what you think when you try!
Such a great post! Loved learning what works for you!!
Thank you!
So much great information here--thank you for taking the time to share this with us! Also, love that you keep white guy Claude around to pull data and make us pretty charts! I've been wondering how to bring more people to my Substack. What are your thoughts on buying email lists within a geographic area?
My thought is that it’s a really bad idea. (If any commenters disagree, please: chime in!) My take is that it pisses people off when they’re signed up for yet another email, and it’s going to mess with your open rate when they send you to SPAM!
I am a purist but my take is that paid growth does not work, unless it’s some sort of advertising where the reader opts in on their own (vs. gets signed up because you bought their email). I have heard of folks running paid ads for their Substacks on Facebook but haven’t tired this. The one thing I have done (when I first moved to Substack!) is pay for ads in other Substackers’ newsletters. I did one in Anne Helen Peterson’s, and one in Clare & Erica’s and got around a hundred or so new subscribers from each.
I never considered buying on others’ Substack! I’m going to look into that when I can publish more consistently on Substack. And so appreciate your thoughts on email lists—makes sense. Thank you Grace!