I Wasted Five Years Writing on Substack Before I Understood Positioning

I thought I had a marketing problem. In reality, I had a memorability problem.

In 2019, I walked away from a secure, well-paid career to become a full-time writer.

I wasn’t chasing fame. I wasn’t after freedom or meaning. What I wanted was to quietly building a life around words, may be write for magazines, and perhaps publish a book one day.

Instead, I stepped into a world that had completely reinvented itself while I wasn’t looking.

The writers who were thriving weren’t writing for newspaper or magazines. They were writing blog posts, newsletters, social media and building audiences online. They owned their platforms. They had loyal readers who eagerly opened every email they sent.

I wanted that too.

So I did what I thought I was supposed to do.

I wrote. And wrote. And wrote some more.

Every article was carefully researched. Every post was published with hope. Every time I clicked “Publish,” I secretly wondered if this would be the one that changed everything.

It never did.

Months turned into years. I accumulated hundreds of posts, but if someone had asked me, “What do I write about?” I would have fumbled to answer that.

The painful truth was that I wasn’t positioning myself. I was creating a library.

For a long time, I thought my problem was marketing. Maybe I needed better headlines, more consistency, or a growth strategy.

When I finally understood what positioning was ( thanks to the book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind), the penny finally dropped.

It wasn’t the kind of book I would normally have picked up. In fact, I almost ignored it. I’m glad I didn’t. Instead, I read it. From cover to cover. And one idea stopped me in my tracks.

Positioning has very little to do with what you say about yourself.

It has everything to do with what people remember about you.

That sentence was both liberating and uncomfortable. Because it meant I didn’t get to decide how I was perceived.

My readers did.

Imagine someone asks, “Have you heard of Neera?” If the reply is, “Yes, she’s the one who helps writers turn their ideas into books,” then I’ve earned a position in that person’s mind.

But if the answer is, “I know the name… I think she writes, but I’m not really sure what about,” then I haven’t earned a clear place in my readers’ minds.

Looking back, I realised I had spent years trying to produce great content without giving people a simple reason to remember me.

I had mistaken publishing for positioning.

And once I understood the difference, everything else, from my newsletter to my books to my business, started to fall into place.

My positioning became clearer when I wrote my latest book, One Book To $100K. Until then, I thought I was helping people write books. But as I worked through the manuscript, I realised that writing was only a small part of the transformation I wanted to create.

The deeper idea was that a strategically written book can become the foundation of an entire business. It can clarify your message, establish your authority, attract the right audience, and open doors to speaking engagements, consulting, courses, and communities. The book isn’t the end product, it’s the starting point.

Ironically, writing One Book To $100K didn’t just strengthen my positioning, it created it. The process forced me to decide what I wanted to be known for and what promise I wanted to make to my readers. That’s the hidden gift of writing a book: it doesn’t just tell the world who you are; it helps you discover it for yourself.

I think most writers ask the wrong question.

They ask, “How do I position myself?”

A far better question is:

“What do I want to be remembered for?”

Positioning isn’t about inventing a new identity or squeezing yourself into a niche that doesn’t fit.

It’s about making it effortless for people to understand who you are, what you stand for, and why they should come back tomorrow.

The more I observed successful writers, however, the more I realised something different was happening. Some wrote about many topics, yet readers instantly knew what they stood for. Others produced excellent content but remained forgettable because there was no clear thread connecting their work.

In online writing, positioning answers one simple question:

Why should someone follow you, trust you, or return to your work instead of the thousands of other writers they could read?

Notice that this has nothing to do with being the smartest person in the room. You don’t need a PhD or decades of experience. You don’t even need to be an expert. You need to occupy a clear place in your reader’s mind.

For some writers, that place comes from their expertise. They’re known for explaining investing, nutrition, or leadership.

For others, it comes from a unique perspective. They’re known for challenging conventional wisdom or helping people see familiar problems in a new light.

And for many, especially those writing memoirs or personal essays, it comes from the lens through which they observe the world. They become known for their honesty, humour, curiosity, or reflections on a particular stage of life.

Positioning is the process of deliberately shaping how readers perceive you

and what they remember you for.

Positioning is not about changing who you are. It’s about making your value clear.

Here are some ways to think about it:

Without positioning:

“I share marketing tips.”

“I write about writing books.”

“I write about productivity, mindset, and business.”

With positioning:

“I teach therapists how to build six-figure practices using educational content.”

“I help Substack writers turn their newsletters into authority-building books.”

“I help overwhelmed founders build simple systems that free up 10 hours a week.”

Good positioning creates a strong mental association.

When people think of a problem, they should think of you.

For online writers, positioning typically involves five elements:

1. Audience – Who do you serve?

   • e.g., first-time founders, therapists, retirees, women in their 30s and 40s.

2. Problem – What specific challenge do you help them solve?

   • e.g., burnout, writing a book, overthinking, career reinvention.

3. Unique Perspective – How do you approach that problem differently?

   • Your philosophy, framework, story, or methodology.

4. Evidence – Why should people believe you?

   • Your experience, results, case studies, research, or published work.

5. Consistency – Do your newsletter, website, social posts, products, and book all reinforce the same message?

In practical terms, positioning affects everything:

• What you write about.

• Who subscribes to your newsletter.

• Which opportunities come your way.

• What products or services you can successfully sell.

• Whether people see you as “just another creator” or as a trusted authority.

Positioning is not just a marketing exercise; it’s a clarity exercise.

When you’re clear about what you stand for, who you help, and the transformation you provide, your content becomes focused, your offers make sense, and your audience knows exactly why they’re there.

If you’re struggling to answer the question, “What should I be known for?” you’re not alone. Most writers don’t need more ideas; they need more clarity.

If what you are reading is resonating with you, I want to invite you to the Inner Circle of Author Circle.

I’m an author, book coach, and Substack strategist who helps creators turn their knowledge into authority, income, and lasting impact.

Through Author Circle, I share practical insights on writing books, growing on Substack, building an engaged audience, and creating products that people genuinely want to buy.

If you want to build more than a newsletter, if you want to build a creator business, here’s how we can work together:

→ Live Bootcamps & Cohorts: Join hands-on programs such as Write Grow Monetize, Substack To Book Project and Sell It Before You Build It, where I guide you step by step to achieve an outcome in a specified timeframe.

→ Substack Publication Review: Get a comprehensive review of your Substack with actionable feedback on your positioning, publication strategy, audience alignment, growth opportunities, monetisation potential, and practical steps to help you stand out and attract the right readers.

→ Book-to-Business Mentoring: Work with me one-on-one as I help you transform your expertise into an authority-building book, grow your audience, develop products your readers want to buy, and build a sustainable business around your knowledge through personalised guidance and accountability.

In the crowded internet, memory is scarce.

The biggest challenge facing writers today isn’t a lack of talent.

It’s a lack of reader memory.

Your readers are overwhelmed. They scroll through hundreds of posts every day. They subscribe to dozens of newsletters. They save articles they never read and follow people whose names they can’t even recall a week later.

In that environment, being “good” isn’t enough. You have to be memorable. The human mind is overloaded with information, so it naturally simplifies. It creates shortcuts. Instead of remembering every detail about every person, it stores a simple association.

Think about some writers you follow. You probably don’t remember every article they’ve ever published. Instead, your brain has filed them away under a single idea.

“She’s the one who writes about women navigating midlife transitions.”

“They’re the couple travelling the world in a campervan.”

“She’s always reflecting on life after retirement.”

“He’s obsessed with behavioural economics.”

That’s positioning in action.

Notice that none of these descriptions require the writer to stay rigidly within one topic. The campervan writer might also discuss relationships, minimalism, books, or grief. The retirement writer might occasionally write about politics or gardening.

What readers remember isn’t the individual posts.

They remember the pattern.

This is where many writers unintentionally make life difficult for themselves. One week they write about AI, the next about baking sourdough, then cryptocurrency, then mindfulness, then their recent holiday. Each post may be excellent, but together they create no lasting impression.

The problem isn’t variety. The problem is the absence of a connecting thread. Readers need a mental hook to hang your work on.

That hook could be your expertise, your philosophy, your life stage, your sense of humour, or even your way of asking questions. But it needs to be clear enough that when someone recommends your newsletter to a friend, they instinctively know how to describe it.

Because in the crowded online world, the greatest compliment isn’t that someone enjoyed one of your articles.

It’s that they remembered you long enough to come back for another.

You don’t have to teach to be well positioned

When people hear the word positioning, they often assume it means becoming an expert.

They think they need to solve a problem. They have to have a framework. They need to tell people how to do something.

That’s one form of positioning, but it’s not the only one.

Some of the most compelling writers on the internet aren’t teachers at all.

They’re observers.

They notice things the rest of us overlook. They tell stories that make us laugh or cry. They share books that changed their thinking. They write honestly about grief, travel, ageing, marriage, or the strange experience of being human.

People don’t follow them because they’re looking for a seven-step system.

They follow them because they like the way those writers see the world.

In fact, I think there are at least four ways to become well positioned as an online writer.

• The first is through expertise. You become known for helping people solve a particular problem.

• The second is through perspective. You consistently express ideas and opinions that challenge, clarify, or inspire.

• The third is through storytelling. Readers return because your experiences illuminate something universal about life.

• And the fourth is through exploration. You invite readers to join you as you ask questions, experiment, and learn in public.

None of these approaches is inherently better than the others.

A woman documenting her search for purpose in midlife can become just as memorable as a career coach teaching people how to change jobs.

A man writing thoughtful essays about life in a campervan can build a devoted readership without ever claiming to be an expert on travel or minimalism.

What matters is not whether you’re teaching. What matters is whether you’re consistently giving readers a reason to return.

This is particularly important for writers who have no ambition to build a business. If your goal is simply to express yourself and connect with like-minded people, don’t feel pressured to manufacture expertise.

Your curiosity is enough. Your lived experience is enough. Your way of noticing the world is enough.

Because positioning isn’t about convincing people that you have all the answers. It’s about becoming the kind of writer whose voice they recognise, whose perspective they value, and whose next piece they’re looking forward to reading.

After reading all this, you might think “How do I position myself?”

That’s not the right question to ask. Instead ask, “What conversation do I want to be known for?”

Because in the end, positioning isn’t about squeezing yourself into a box.

It is about how you want to be remembered.

The real goal is to be remembered

Readers are being bombarded with thousands of articles, videos, podcasts, and social media posts every week.

Your greatest challenge isn’t getting someone to read you once. It’s getting them to remember you. You don’t need a slick personal brand, or a logo, or a carefully crafted tagline.

If you want people to come back, recommend your work to a friend, or eagerly open your next email, they need a simple answer to the question:

“Why do I follow this person?”

That answer might be your expertise. It might be your stories. It might be your humour, your honesty, or the way you make sense of midlife, travel, books, or everyday life.

Whatever it is, your goal is not to fit into a box.

Your goal is to leave an impression.

And here’s the good news: you don’t have to figure it all out before you start writing.

In fact, many writers discover their positioning by writing consistently over months and years. Patterns emerge. Certain themes keep resurfacing. Readers begin reflecting your own work back to you by saying, “I always think of you when I read about...”

That’s when you know your positioning is taking shape.

That’s all from me today.

As always, thanks for reading.