Tag Archives: Substack

Why I Despise the Steps to Success

Sometimes I think that half of the people writing on Substack are telling people how to write on Substack. So they can in turn tell people how to write on Substack.

But the people promoting Substack success are nothing compared to the ones promoting LinkedIn success.

Bredemarket currently manages four LinkedIn pages, and recently received a notification from LinkedIn that someone commented on one of Bredemarket’s LinkedIn posts, and why haven’t I engaged with the commenter?

Then I went to the post and read the comment.

“Are we ready for better identification systems? Let’s explore potential solutions. 🔑 #Innovation”

LinkedIn.

Frankly, that comment sounded…formulaic. And I had a hunch that the commenter had left similar comments on other posts.

I was right.

LinkedIn.

Obviously the well-meaning commenter had read some advice on How To Maximize Your LinkedIn Profile Reach With Text, An Emoji, And A Hashtag. And frankly, it doesn’t matter whether the comments were self-written or bot-written. Either way, they’re ineffective.

I was going to have Bredebot write a response to the comment for me, but in the end I didn’t bother.

Avoid rote steps to success. Be yourself.

And yes, I will probably post this to the same LinkedIn page, in case the commenter revisits.

Eight is Enough: Eight Reasons This Substack “Compromised Firmware” Post Sounded Like A Hack

Last night I saw a Substack post from one of my subscriptions, but I immediately distrusted the post.

The post was purportedly from Kathy Kristof from SideHusl.com. Now Kristof herself is legitimate, and her SideHusl website evaluates…well, side hustles.

But this message didn’t sound like Kathy, and my spidey sense was aroused.

First part of scam post.
Second part of scam post.

Let me count the ways.

  1. “We.” Normally if an entity suffers a breach, the entity uses its name.
  2. “Your device”…”the firmware level.” Substack posts can be viewed on a variety of devices. So this supposed breach affected all of them?
  3. “If you are receiving this email.” While Substack subscribers can receive emails of posts, they also appear on the Substack website. I happened to be on the Substack website when I saw the post. I was not reading an email.
  4. “Take immediate action…by updating your firmware.” The typical scam sense of urgency, coupled with a non-sensical request (see 2).
  5. “The FBI has been notified.” Such a report should probably go to a different agency.
  6. “support@trezor.io.” Trezor is a legitimate company that secures crypto assets…which has nothing to do with SideHusl or Substack. And by the way…
  7. “Substack” (not). In the same way that the post does not explicitly mention SideHusl, it doesn’t explicitly mention Substack either.
  8. “Access Dashboard button.” The reader is asked to click this button, supposedly to update their firmware (see 2).

My immediate reaction?

“I ain’t clicking that Access Dashboard button.”

My note restacking the scam post.

And:

“Suspicious message, purportedly from Kathy Kristof at Sidehusl.com, asking you to click a button.

“No way.”

Independent note with screenshots of the original scam post.

Be careful out there.

Conceptualization of the Planet Bredemarket and Its Rings

Inspired by the Constant Contact session I attended at the Small Business Expo, I wanted to conceptualize the Bredemarket online presence, and decided to adopt a “planet with rings” model.

Think of Bredemarket as a planet. Like Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Jupiter, the planet Bredemarket is surrounded by rings.

Google Gemini.

The closest ring to the planet is the Bredemarket mailing list (MailChimp).

The next closest ring is the Bredemarket website (WordPress).

Moving outward, we find the following rings:

  • Search engines and generative AI tools, including Bing, ChatGPT, Google, Grok, Perplexity, and others.
  • The Bredemarket Facebook page and associated groups.
  • The Bredemarket LinkedIn page and associated showcase pages.
  • A variety of social platforms, including Bluesky, Instagram, Substack, and Threads.
  • Additional social platforms, including TikTok, WhatsApp, and YouTube.

While this conceptualization is really only useful to me, I thought a few of you may be interested in some of the “inner rings.”

And if you’re wondering why your favorite way cool platform is banished to the outer edges…well, that’s because it doesn’t make Bredemarket any money. I’ve got a business to run here, and TikTok doesn’t help me pay the bills…

The Nomad Returns

My nomadic journey has ended.

The relative’s outpatient surgery was a success, and recovery is progressing.

Meanwhile, I met with one client and advanced several client product marketing projects, including a requirements document (done those for years), some product talking points (done those for years), a price/cost/supplier exercise (done those for years), and a project status report (done those for years).

I also published four Bredemarket posts (including this one) and the usual assortment of social media content on various channels (with the exception of one).

U.S. persons should pay special attention to my coverage of IDGA’s DoD/DHS border security report (blog, Substack, elsewhere).

I think I need a vacation.

Imagen 4.

On Communities

My written content usually targets a PRIMARY channel:

This content has a new target: my Substack “subscriber chat” https://open.substack.com/pub/johnebredehoft/chat

Because unlike the others, Substack subscriber chat is DESIGNED as a community.

A community that I’m not currently utilizing, but one that I should in the future.

By the way, if you want to read my Substack, visit https://substack.com/@johnebredehoft

Are All Your Eggs in One Social Basket?

(Imagen 4)

If your strategy is solely based upon a single platform such as TikTok, CapCut, Substack, Canva, or any other, you’ve already lost by putting all your eggs in one social basket.

Social dependence

My Saturday TikTok post got me thinking about companies whose entire STRATEGY is based on TikTok.

Not tactics.

Strategy.

  • Even though the chance remains that TikTok may be banned in the United States, as it is already banned in India…and is not available in China.
  • Or the companies that depend on CapCut who may have just surrendered their intellectual rights. Oh, and CapCut may be banned in the United States also.
  • Or the people that are so thrilled with Substack that they are stopping all other social media activity and concentrating solely on Substack.
  • Or the companies (I know of one) who base their strategy solely on Canva.

Or you can cite any other platform, dependence upon which could devastate your business overnight.

So own your own website and mailing list…right?

Well, at least Bredemarket doesn’t have to worry about losing access to my prospects and customers.

Even if I lose access to every single social media service, I still have my WordPress website and my MailChimp mailing list. 

So I am 100% insulated, right? 

Um, right?

OK, guess I’m threatened also.

Omnichannel distribution

In the biometric world, we talk about five factors of authentication and identity verification. If you depend upon a single factor, you’re in trouble. But using multiple factors lessens the risk.

Similarly, if you distribute your content via multiple channels, then a threat to any single channel doesn’t put you out of business.

(Sales pitch incoming)

And your distributed content can take multiple forms. Blogs. Case studies. White papers. Social content on multiple channels.

Assuming you actually create the content.

Or get someone to help you create it.

(Told you there would be a sales pitch.)

So rather than reading Bredemarket’s sales pitch (call to action), why don’t we work on creating yours? Click the image below and reserve a free meeting time.

CPA
Bredemarket’s “CPA.”

Stealing and Awareness

The reason that I redirected the purpose of my Substack posts is because much of my audience there isn’t familiar with the…um…minutiae of biometrics and identity. (For example, my reference to minutiae would probably go right past all but two of my Substack subscribers.)

My Substack audience is best served with awareness content.

But awareness content is not only informative and educational.

Awareness of you

It also makes prospects aware of your company…which is critically important.

Last month I said the following about awareness:

“Technology marketers, do your prospects know who you are?

“If they don’t, then your competitors are taking your rightful revenue.

“Don’t let your competitors steal your money.”

Perhaps steal is a harsh word, but it’s accurate. 

Or perhaps a better word is indifference: your actions indicate that you don’t care whether customers buy from you or not. If you cared, you’d actually market your products.

Who needs marketing?

“Nonsense, John! We have a sales staff. Who needs marketers?”

Especially when content marketing may take up to 17 months to convert. That doesn’t help the current quarter.

But your sales staff cannot be everywhere. If your prospects don’t know about you and aren’t reaching out to you, then you have to reach out to them.

And the calls? “Hi, I’m Tom with WidgetCorp.” “With who?”

So how is that current quarter looking now?

You need marketing, now

Your current quarter and future quarters would look better if your secret salesperson were working for you. As Rhonda Salvestrini said:

“Content for your business is one of the best ways to drive organic traffic. It’s your secret salesperson because it’s out there working for you 24/7.”

But the secret salesperson won’t engage your prospects until you act to create that content.

Talk to Bredemarket about your content, proposal, and analysis needs: https://bredemarket.com/cpa/

Before your competitors steal more from you.