The internet is one giant circle jerk: do not be taken in by the charlatans.

Some content creators are manipulating you into growing their subscriber base.

For this post, I have some complaints to get off my chest. 

It’s been a couple months since I quit being a BigLaw litigator and started working on my science fiction novel full time. In the past few weeks, the inner voice that is critical of my writing has been getting louder and louder and I’ve had to work harder to drown it out. 

Part of the reason why is because the online writer spaces I’ve joined (e.g., Substack, Discord, Reddit) seem to be rife with people complaining about the book publishing industry, waxing cynical about how unlikely it is that authors get traditionally published anymore, and extolling the virtues of building gigantic author platforms on social media. Apparently having your own gigantic following is the key to getting a traditional book deal because it means you can do all your own book marketing for the publisher. 

Content creators are creating the poison in order to sell the cure.

This doom and gloomerism is, in my opinion, creating a huge driver for strategic content creators to sell products that will supposedly help writers (and other creative types) build big followings. I should not be so surprised. How did I miss the memo? The internet is full of people who like to talk about how big problems are and then try to sell you solutions. What’s on offer are things like: online courses, Patreon, exclusive Discord servers (community is key, they all claim), coaching of some sort, or a “mastermind.” If a writer on Substack is prolific but doesn’t push you to pay for a subscription, it’s because they plan to sell you something far more expensive.

Everything is an ad. 

If you dip your toes in basically any creator economy space like Substack you’ll find yourself in an endless sales funnel where a lot of the articles you’re supposedly subscribing to for content are actually stealth advertising copy for something the author is trying to sell. God forbid you join a content creator’s “free” one-hour webinar on some subject of interest and half of it is just a sales pitch for you to buy their course. And don’t even get me started on affiliate marketing and embedded links sprinkled throughout blog posts like they’re just there for information but really, they’re there to sell products, of which the author gets a referral fee. 

Substack was hailed as a way to escape the excessive ads crowding out the rest of the internet, but people are still finding ways to advertise on Substack. It’s just slightly more subtle than a banner ad. And this is troubling because when you expect to enter a space to learn something, it feels like a bait and switch when what is on offer is actually just advertising for a paid product. 

The most popular content creators just churn out the same productivity articles and how-to listicles. 

After a while it feels like everything you’re reading is literally the same. It’s the same advice listicle over and over again about how to get the most views, how to maximize reach on Notes or LinkedIn or X, how to eschew your corporate overlords and work for yourself, how to have a four-hour workweek, how to be super productive, how to write super fast, how to get by on four hours of sleep, how to be super sexy and not workout or diet, and so on. People just keep dumbing down and repeating old ideas, like implementing tiny habits, or having a structured morning routine. 

Some content creators are manipulating you into growing their subscriber base. 

The worst of these content creators are the kind that are trying to sell you something based on how big their follower/subscriber counts are, but the reason those numbers are so high is because they’re getting you—the person who is reading that very same article to like and comment on their post. It’s like a fucking circle jerk. Their whole shtick is basically: Subscribe to learn how I grow such a huge following! And by subscribing, you are actually growing their following! After a while, it’s hard to know what the content is: the writing or the subscribers themselves. 

I’ve always read these articles with a dose of skepticism, but even more so now I basically consider everything I consume on the internet to be ad copy unless proven otherwise. That’s not to say there isn’t a nugget of wisdom or helpful advice or even a beautiful story buried under all that advertising. I just feel bad for the countless consumers that have shelled out hard-earned dollars on something of no value just because they were duped by a charismatic content creator who followed a marketing formula and manipulated the algorithm adequately. 

End rant. Next Tuesday I’ll try to be more positive. See you then.