You do not need the algorithm (but it helps)

Every creator I know has a complicated relationship with the algorithm. We complain about it, we try to decode it, we change our work to please it and then feel strange about it. This issue is my attempt at a healthier relationship, one where the algorithm is a helpful extra, not the boss.

Rented land and owned land

Here is the simplest way I know to think about it. Social media platforms are rented land. You can build something beautiful there, and one change to the rules can take it away overnight. Your email list, your website and your own community are owned land. Nobody can switch them off.

Rented land is great for being discovered. Owned land is where you build a relationship. The mistake is treating rented land as home.

Use the algorithm to be found. Use email to be known.

Priya Nair

What the algorithm is actually good at

Let us be fair. Recommendation feeds are extraordinary at one thing: putting your work in front of strangers who might like it. Nothing else does this as fast or as cheaply. If you are starting from zero, ignoring social media completely is a real handicap.

So do not ignore it. Just be clear about the job you are giving it. Its job is to introduce you. It is not to hold the relationship.

The bridge: every post points home

The practical fix is simple. Every piece of work you publish on a platform should give people a reason and a way to come home. Not a pushy sales pitch, just a natural next step. "I wrote the full version of this in my newsletter, link in bio." "The template I mentioned is free for subscribers."

When I started doing this consistently, about one in every two hundred people who saw a post joined the email list. That sounds small. Over a year, it added up to thousands of readers who hear from me directly, every week, whatever the algorithm decides.

Word of mouth is still the best algorithm

The most powerful recommendation system in the world is still a friend saying, "You have to read this." No feed can match the trust in that sentence.

Word of mouth cannot be gamed, but it can be encouraged. Make work that is specific enough to be recommended to a particular person. Make it easy to forward. And every so often, simply ask. The line "forward this to one person who needs it" at the bottom of an issue has grown this newsletter more than any post ever did.

Designing work for people, not feeds

The quiet danger of the algorithm is not that it hides your work. It is that it changes it. Hooks get louder. Titles get more dramatic. Work gets shorter and more predictable, because that is what the feed rewards.

I try to catch myself when this happens. The test I use: would I make this if nobody could see the numbers? If the answer is no, I probably should not make it at all.

When a post does go big

Every so often, something you make will travel much further than usual. When that happens, the only question that matters is: where do those people go next? A post seen by half a million people and followed by nothing is a nice feeling for a day. The same post with a clear, friendly link to a free resource can add thousands of readers to your list in a week.

Before you publish anything, make sure your profile has one link, and that the link leads somewhere useful. It is a small thing that makes a big difference on the rare days when luck is on your side.

Measuring what matters

I stopped tracking likes and followers as goals. They are useful signals, but they are not the business. The numbers I watch instead are: how many people join the email list each week, how many of them are still reading after a month, and how many go on to become paying members.

Those three numbers tell me whether the work is building something real. Likes only tell me whether a post was entertaining on the day.

A healthier setup

Post on one or two platforms where your readers actually are. Point every post home. Write for your list first and let the best pieces travel outwards. Check the numbers weekly, not hourly. And remember that a thousand people who chose to hear from you are worth more than a hundred thousand who scrolled past once.