A Privileged Tip

Thanks to some inside information

In the opening of Dances with Wolves, John Dunbar (Kevin Coster) lies mortally wounded in a Civil War medic tent.

His leg is shot. Gangrene will kill him if they don’t amputate.

Delirious with pain, he takes matters into his own hands.

He puts a boot back on his bloody foot, gets on a horse, and rides in front of the rebel line with arms outstretched. The rebel infantry take the bait and fire away.

They miss, but Dunbar’s desperate action gives the union line a chance to ambush, leaving the surprised rebels scrambling to reload their muskets.

The rebels are routed.

The union general personally attends to Dunbar, ordering his aide to treat the heroic soldier with the general’s field ambulance and surgeon. Dunbar will get to keep his leg after all. The general’s tent probably has far better drugs and equipment—possibly even hand-washing technology.

Sometimes big social-media platforms do this. They notice a user with an impressive following and reach out to them personally, offering privileged access to tools, data, and hands-on assistance that can help them grow even more.

When I was still with The Onion in the 2010’s, YouTube invited us to be part of their partnership program. Membership gave me access to luxurious studio space, special partners-only workshops, mastermind groups, parties, and a personal representative who gave me customized advice on how to improve our channel.

Partnership programs are the general’s tent of social media.

Substack has a partnership program, too. I’m not in it, but I know someone who is (an esteemed subscriber to No Dikkering Around). And this confidant shared some insider advice with me about how I could make my Substack newsletter better.

With this post, I’m implementing the advice. With all No Dikkering Around posts from now on, you’ll see an additional feature at the bottom: a concise daily tip relating to the day’s post.

With these new daily tips, I’ll give you the behind-the-scenes story of why I posted what I posted and show how you can do the same to grow your following, engage your audience, and make more money from your creative ideas.

Believe it or not, I rejected this secret Substack advice when I first heard it. I thought it was foolhardy. Still, I thought about it, and tried to imagine how I could implement it.

These daily tips, which are behind a paywall, start today with the specific tip I got from my friend in the Substack partnership program. Do you think it’s foolhardy? Let me know.

If you’re a paid subscriber, you get this new tips feature as part of your subscription. If you’re a free subscriber, nothing will change. You’ll continue to get my free daily posts in their entirety. I’m not subtracting from what I’m offering, I’m adding.

If you’re a paid subscriber, the daily tips will pay you back several times over. If you’re not a paid subscriber and decide to become one, each tip will cost you less than 25 cents. (I did the math.) Today’s tip, if you implement it, could earn you 1000 times that.

And that’s just today’s! I’ll post a new valuable tip every day. In fact, today I’m even throwing in a bonus tip to give you a little extra incentive to sign up as a paid subscriber.

Here’s what else you get for signing up:

• Unlimited access to the article archives. There’s so much motivation and inspiration there, you’ll be an unstoppable productivity machine!

• Our weekly accountability post, where I share what I’ve been working on and spur you to do the same, and we keep each other on the ball.

• Our monthly Accountability Meeting on Zoom. We check in and see how you’re doing on your goals and remove any obstacles in your way.

Enjoy! I’ll see you in the general’s tent.

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TODAY’S TIP: