I sent it along to one of my fellow business owner friends, who immediately said, “You HAVE to publish this. Every entrepreneur can relate to this reaction from their parents (or any paternal figures in their life) in some way.” It felt odd to share something so personal so publicly, but I decided to go for it, and I was amazed at what happened after…

Keep in mind, this was in the earlier days of LinkedIn publishing, where articles were still a hot commodity, and VERY few people were even creating status posts.

An hour after I published the piece, however, the reactions and comments started pouring in— it went “viral.” I felt so validated and less lonely hearing people say they had a similar experience with their parents when they started their business.

I started writing articles once a week. I’ll admit…it became addictive—the liberating act of reflection through writing, sharing the content, and reading comments from others about how the sharing of my personal journey was helping them with their own.📝

In 2017, I launched my first LinkedIn newsletter, "Build a Brand," and ended each article with a call to action. My email list started to grow by the hundreds. It was through engaging with this email list that I was able to sell the idea of my first online course, resulting in 7 people purchasing my beta program for LinkedIn.

Flash forward 8 years, and this newsletter is paramount to generating 7 figures in sales. The newsletter became the vehicle that led LinkedIn members to know, like, and trust me and, ultimately, the tool that helped me scale my business.

Even though articles featured in a LinkedIn newsletter don’t collect as many immediate “reactions” or comments as long-form status posts do, over time, they collect way more views (that article about my parents is still earning views every day), Additionally, the overall level of engagement from my audience when I post articles on my LinkedIn newsletter is much more than when I only post statuses.

This makes sense logically, right? If someone is reading through an article that’s around 1,000 words (roughly the size of the email you’re reading right now), they are invested. They are sticking with the content because they are intrigued, and they are reflective. The content incubates a bit more just by virtue of the time it takes to read it. 

I also sell a lot more from articles than I do when I merely write status posts. I think it’s because longer-form pieces allow people to really get a feel for your personality faster than watching it unfold over a series of statuses. My hypothesis could be wrong here, but I think it’s rooted in sound logic.

Of course, LinkedIn is teeing articles up nicely again, too. With the introduction of LinkedIn Newsletters to anyone who has “creator mode” turned on and has more than 100 followers, LinkedIn allows you to brand a newsletter and email it to subscribers. (When I started in 2017, it was "invite only.")

That means even if subscribers aren’t actively on the LinkedIn newsfeed, as long as they have a good email address tied to their LinkedIn account, they’ll receive your article directly to their inbox.

Additionally, LinkedIn now turns any new follower into a subscriber, so the platform does the leg work of “building your list for you.”

People are often shocked to hear that I have a newsletter following of 50,000 on LinkedIn and only a profile following of 25,000.

That makes sense, though. Initially, it was easier to find my LinkedIn newsletter, “Build a Brand,” than it was to find me. And now, every new connection request (even if I don’t accept it) or new follower means an automatic subscriber.🤯

The other reason it’s smart to write regular articles on LinkedIn? Search engine optimization.

Have you ever Googled a trending business topic or “business how-to,” and at the top of the search results page was a LinkedIn article? Happens all the time. Why? Because LinkedIn holds a lot of credo with the algorithm, and when you optimize your articles properly, your probability of getting found for certain keywords outside of LinkedIn increases when you write articles on LinkedIn.

In fact, LinkedIn double-downed on this benefit earlier this year by introducing SEO-optimization tools to their article creator (among many other upgrades they made to the tool).💼