Don’t Just Build An Audience (Grow A Community That Buys From You)
Because 10 true fans who buy are worth more than 10,000 silent scrollers.
I used to think audience growth was a numbers game.
More followers = more impact.
More subscribers = more sales.
More claps, likes, hearts, and emoji fire = validation that I was doing something right.
Then one day I woke up and realised my newsletter had grown to 2000 people... and more than half of them hadn’t read my last five emails. Forget buying anything, they hadn’t even left a comment on any of them.
“thanks for writing this.” I was beginning to wonder if anyone was even reading.
Welcome to the glamorous world of vanity metrics.
The lie that “Likes” tell.
Social media wants you to believe that success = reach.
But reach is not relationship.
Impressions are not income.
And 100 likes don’t pay the electricity bill.
I’ve met people with 50,000 Instagram followers and zero clients.
And I’ve met people with an email list of 300 who earn six figures from coaching or courses.
The difference?
The second group didn’t build an audience.
They built a community.
The difference between an audience and a community.
An audience sits in the dark and watches you perform.
A community turns the lights on and talks back.
An audience claps. A community connects.
An audience consumes. A community contributes.
An audience follows. A community supports. And shares. And buys.
This is especially true for writers, creators, solopreneurs, people like us who build from scratch, with nothing but our stories, skills, and a Wi-Fi connection.
You don’t need millions. You need a few hundred who care.
Who trust you. Who feel seen, heard, and helped by your work.
How I accidentally built a buying community.
When I started my Substack (Author Circle), I had no grand monetisation plan. I just wanted to write things that helped aspiring authors. And maybe find a few kindred spirits who also liked books, tea, and the thrill of chasing first drafts.
But something beautiful happened.
People started replying. They asked me questions. They told me their stories. They told me they finally started writing after years of procrastination.
Then they asked:
“Do you do coaching?”
“Do you run courses?”
“Can you help me finish my book?”
That was my lightbulb moment.
Community members don’t need aggressive funnels or pressure tactics.
They just need you to show up with heart, help, and honesty.
They’ll take care of the rest.
They’ll ask to work with you. They’ll tell their friends.
They’ll show up again and again because they don’t feel like a number.
They feel like they belong.
Okay, Neera, this sounds lovely, but how do I actually do it?
You grow a community one small, deliberate act at a time.
Here’s what’s worked for me, and what I now teach in the Grow stage of my 90-Day Write Grow Monetise Program.
1. Focus on connection over collection
More subscribers is not the goal. More connection with subscribers is.
I'd rather have 115 true fans (like I wrote about once) than 10,000 ghosts.
Make it easy for people to reply to your newsletter.
Ask questions. Invite stories. Respond like a human, not a brand.
Be the person they look forward to hearing from.
2. Treat email like a dinner table, not a billboard
Your newsletter isn’t a place to shout into the void. It’s a place to gather people around your ideas.
Don’t be afraid to be personal.
Share a moment from your week. A mistake. A win.
A weird conversation with your cat.
Give people a reason to stay, beyond just “value.”
We don’t remember value. We remember people.
3. Give before you pitch
I spent months writing useful, heartfelt, funny, and occasionally embarrassing content before I asked my readers to buy anything. By the time I did, they trusted me.
They’d seen my consistency.
They knew my voice.
They knew what I stood for.
When I finally said, “Hey, I’m launching a coaching program,” they said, “Where do I sign up?”
People don’t mind being sold to, if they already believe you care.
4. Use your writing to invite action
Every email is a tiny bridge. You can use it to lead your readers to:
Reply and tell you something
Share your piece with a friend
Join your waitlist or course
Buy your book
Simply think differently about something
Make sure your writing always leaves the door open for connection, curiosity, or commitment.
Some community signals to look for
How do you know if you're building a community, not just attracting passive followers?
Look for things like:
Replies to your emails
Word-of-mouth referrals
Readers quoting your work
People tagging you or recommending you in their posts
Subscribers who stick around through the quiet patches
People who don’t just like your content—they buy from you
These are the quiet signs. The real signals.
Not loud, but powerful.
But Neera, this sounds slow…
Yes. It is.
But it’s also sustainable.
You don’t need to keep feeding the content machine to stay relevant.
You don’t need to chase every new platform or trend.
You don’t need to be online 24/7.
You just need to:
Write with purpose
Connect with sincerity
Invite people into something that feels real
Community isn’t built with likes.
It’s built with trust. And trust takes time.
But once you have it, you don’t need to shout.
A whisper will do.
Let me wrap this up like an old-school email footer:
If you’re tired of shouting into the void...
If you're done chasing viral reach and want real resonance...
If you’d rather have 50 buyers than 5,000 lurkers...
Grow a community. Not just an audience.
Start by writing things worth responding to.
And then respond.
Invite. Share. Encourage. Welcome. Celebrate.
Community is built in the little things.
But it becomes the big thing your business needs most.
What to do next:
Hit reply and tell me how you’re building your community. (Or if you’re stuck, I’ll help you get unstuck.)
Keep your eyes peeled for next week’s piece on How to Monetise Your Knowledge Without Being Salesy.
Because writing grows trust.
Trust grows community.
And community?
Community grows everything else.
That’s all from me today.
As always, thanks for reading.
This is the exact idea I came to Substack with. It feels odd to be a complete “nobody” in any world and think I can create a community, but we shall see! I’m going to try.
I've seen writers with a couple of thousand subscribers who get very few comments. After four years on Substack, I still have fewer than 1,000 subscribers. Yet, I get many comments, and people seem engaged with my thoughts. The desire for more is ingrained in us by the writers who write about writing on this platform. Increasing subscribers is not the solution. I have Seth Werkheiser (Social Media Escape Club) to thank for helping me redefine what I want. People buy from writers they like, know, and trust. I just keep showing up and sharing.