My topic, pro wrestling, is in a crowded market across many platforms where there's lot of free content for fans to consume and much of it is from names known from TV. The potential audience is vast on the surface. The challenge is bringing people to a publication written by a non-celebrity. What from your experience have you seen is one…
My topic, pro wrestling, is in a crowded market across many platforms where there's lot of free content for fans to consume and much of it is from names known from TV. The potential audience is vast on the surface. The challenge is bringing people to a publication written by a non-celebrity. What from your experience have you seen is one key strategy for a newer niche market publication to grow in substack and build an audience from outside?
This is hard. I'm pretty good friends with Michael Kingston from Headlocked, but his major strategy is to work with wrestlers. My question is what is your angle? New entries into a mature market need to do something like flip a trope or flip the script in order to make it, and they need to hone in a really underserved niche of that bigger market.
Michael was able to get wrestlers excited for writing comics at a time when there wasn't a lot of wrestling comics. Now there's a ton, but he was able to build that market up.
So, what is your market? For instance, one that I would be interested in "side businesses of wrestlers".
Is there a lot of content on that? IDK, but when I started I was able to punch way out of my class when it came to booking podcast guests because nobody was talking about the business of writing and audience growth back then.
Trapital took off b/c it was business writing for hip hop and nobody did that stuff before. The other thing you can do is try to aggregrate other pro wrestling publications together by hosting a summit or conference about something that isn't covered normally, or try to bring in voices that don't usually talk about wrestling.
IDK, the thing that you need is an angle that is fresh and different to stand out. Either that or you need buy-in from the existing stake holders who can annoint and validate you. The problem is that they won't validate you if you are going to eat into their market share. If you do the same thing, they might want you to write for them, though, which will give you some cache.
Thanks so much for the detailed and thoughtful response. I really appreciate it, and your comments made me self-reflect on what I’m doing, which helped me a great deal.
My angle is focusing on nostalgia via the ‘80s and ‘90s period with heavy emphasis on profiling the wrestlers from that era and re-telling their stories both in front of and behind the “camera”.
I am drawing a lot of the material for my narratives so far from my direct experiences in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s as wrestling magazine writer and later wrestling referee. If I can’t weave in personal stories because I didn’t have personal interactions with my subject, I am drawing from my fan/viewer perspective from having watched with great enthusiasm wrestling since the mid-’80s.
I think the nostalgia perspective is underrepresented in wrestling. Most of what I see in the wrestling segment is commenting on current events within the two major promotions. Outside of substack, a great deal of it often comes across as having a negative tone.
I see my market as long-time viewers who want to re-celebrate the past, as well as newer fans who want to learn some of the history of wrestling (like I did as a newer viewer many years ago).
That’s a great idea you mentioned about me seeking validation from successful existing stakeholders. Since I am not trying to replicate what they’re doing, perhaps their validation will put me in front of some of their audience, or they will see value in having me as a guest voice in their content.
From my perspective writing about pro wrestling with a nostalgia focus, the motivations of my older fans are to re-experience the landmark moments from ‘80s and ‘90s pro wrestlers and learn more about the wrestlers themselves from that era. This would include both their on-screen persona and the individual behind the character. For newer fans, the motivation is to learn about wrestling’s past.
Love this. Sometimes comparison creeps in and it's not needed. Your curation here is the expertise people want, your take, your opinions with it all. It's like online yoga - there are millions of people doing it and millions of people offering it for free, low price, high price. My advise - cull all of those who are in your niche out of your peripheral vision and just CREATE for you. You can collaborate with them further down the line if you want to. Getting to know your fans and growing that base is going to be a work of joy - you don't want to be worrying about how other's are doing it. Great things are coming for you!
My topic, pro wrestling, is in a crowded market across many platforms where there's lot of free content for fans to consume and much of it is from names known from TV. The potential audience is vast on the surface. The challenge is bringing people to a publication written by a non-celebrity. What from your experience have you seen is one key strategy for a newer niche market publication to grow in substack and build an audience from outside?
This is hard. I'm pretty good friends with Michael Kingston from Headlocked, but his major strategy is to work with wrestlers. My question is what is your angle? New entries into a mature market need to do something like flip a trope or flip the script in order to make it, and they need to hone in a really underserved niche of that bigger market.
Michael was able to get wrestlers excited for writing comics at a time when there wasn't a lot of wrestling comics. Now there's a ton, but he was able to build that market up.
So, what is your market? For instance, one that I would be interested in "side businesses of wrestlers".
Is there a lot of content on that? IDK, but when I started I was able to punch way out of my class when it came to booking podcast guests because nobody was talking about the business of writing and audience growth back then.
Trapital took off b/c it was business writing for hip hop and nobody did that stuff before. The other thing you can do is try to aggregrate other pro wrestling publications together by hosting a summit or conference about something that isn't covered normally, or try to bring in voices that don't usually talk about wrestling.
IDK, the thing that you need is an angle that is fresh and different to stand out. Either that or you need buy-in from the existing stake holders who can annoint and validate you. The problem is that they won't validate you if you are going to eat into their market share. If you do the same thing, they might want you to write for them, though, which will give you some cache.
Thanks so much for the detailed and thoughtful response. I really appreciate it, and your comments made me self-reflect on what I’m doing, which helped me a great deal.
My angle is focusing on nostalgia via the ‘80s and ‘90s period with heavy emphasis on profiling the wrestlers from that era and re-telling their stories both in front of and behind the “camera”.
I am drawing a lot of the material for my narratives so far from my direct experiences in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s as wrestling magazine writer and later wrestling referee. If I can’t weave in personal stories because I didn’t have personal interactions with my subject, I am drawing from my fan/viewer perspective from having watched with great enthusiasm wrestling since the mid-’80s.
I think the nostalgia perspective is underrepresented in wrestling. Most of what I see in the wrestling segment is commenting on current events within the two major promotions. Outside of substack, a great deal of it often comes across as having a negative tone.
I see my market as long-time viewers who want to re-celebrate the past, as well as newer fans who want to learn some of the history of wrestling (like I did as a newer viewer many years ago).
That’s a great idea you mentioned about me seeking validation from successful existing stakeholders. Since I am not trying to replicate what they’re doing, perhaps their validation will put me in front of some of their audience, or they will see value in having me as a guest voice in their content.
Tell me more about the motivations of your fans?
From my perspective writing about pro wrestling with a nostalgia focus, the motivations of my older fans are to re-experience the landmark moments from ‘80s and ‘90s pro wrestlers and learn more about the wrestlers themselves from that era. This would include both their on-screen persona and the individual behind the character. For newer fans, the motivation is to learn about wrestling’s past.
Love this. Sometimes comparison creeps in and it's not needed. Your curation here is the expertise people want, your take, your opinions with it all. It's like online yoga - there are millions of people doing it and millions of people offering it for free, low price, high price. My advise - cull all of those who are in your niche out of your peripheral vision and just CREATE for you. You can collaborate with them further down the line if you want to. Getting to know your fans and growing that base is going to be a work of joy - you don't want to be worrying about how other's are doing it. Great things are coming for you!
Thanks so much for the thoughtful response, giving me an outside perspective on things, and the motivational words. Much appreciated!