The Dark Side of Growth Tactics

Growth is exciting, but pay attention to what you're losing.

Over the holidays, I realized I had been letting my brain rot.

In Gmail, I file the most important newsletters under the label "Must Read". In December, I realized I hadn't touched it for months. The irony!

So, I read some old emails from the authors I admire. And you can't imagine the relief.

I felt as if my mind woke up after a long (like, multiple-years long) hibernation. It flashed with new connections. It burned with the desire to go deeper.

For more than a year, I had been consuming only the content written by my peers to research what worked and borrow their audience through my comments.

But they write for their audience. And while their audience is similar to mine, it doesn’t include me. I mean, I hope I’m a few steps ahead of my audience, right?

I prioritized audience growth and neglected my own. This experience pushed me to reconsider my strategy.

The "reply guy" strategy

One popular growth strategy is commenting on other creators' content. The logic is simple: find creators with overlapping audiences and comment on their content. This way, you get the attention of the audience and possibly of the creator.

There are two main approaches:

1. Comment on mega-creators with massive audiences to maximize visibility.

2. Comment on creators at your level for relationship building.

Both can work. But they often come at a cost.

I didn't want a regular job in the first place

The main reason I became a blogger is to avoid the annoying (and sometimes downright stupid) assignments you get in a regular job. I bet you know what I mean.

When I started writing in English, I first tried X. There I learned about the reply technique.

I'm a diligent student and an experimenter of best practices. So, every day I set aside at least half an hour to hit my daily quota of comments.

I saw some results. But soon, I began to feel burned out.

Look, I know we can't spend every minute doing what we love. Every creator needs to invest in promotion. "Build it and they'll come" doesn't work.

But for me, this kind of promotion was particularly draining.

It wasn’t just the volume. It was the mental effort of always trying to "sound right." What should have been a relational practice—commenting on others' content—had morphed into a sterile growth tactic that felt disconnected and insincere.

But engaging only with the people and content I loved didn't bring enough traffic. A conundrum.

A new kind of rat race

Commenting on mega-creators' posts came with its own problems. It felt like shouting in Times Square to get attention while everyone else was shouting, too.

Everyone knows the power of commenting. So, everyone races to be the first to plant its flag under the posts of the biggest creators.

You have to be lightning-fast to get noticed. This means turning on notifications to jump on those posts as soon as possible. But isn't this the opposite of what we should do to create insightful content? Don't we need long deep work sessions?

And, by the way, most of the time, your effort is wasted. Mega-creators receive hundreds of comments daily, and yours is unlikely to stand out. It’s a high-energy, low-reward game.

Do similar creators make your brain rot?

Commenting on creators at your level sounds more sustainable than chasing humongous creators. You’re engaging with peers who will probably reply, opening the door to collaborations. But here’s the catch: they're peers because their audience is at the same level as yours.

That’s what happened to me in the story at the beginning of this post. We all have limited time to spend on consuming content. And we need to feed our minds with content above our level and original ideas.

If we use all of most of it on the content of other creators in our niche, we end up parroting the status quo. And good luck standing out!

So, how can we grow sustainably?

Reading within your niche, building relationships, and commenting, are well-known growth tactics. But all the other tactics have their dark sides.

I don’t have the perfect advice for constant growth without the side effects. The best strategy is always personal, nuanced, and fluid. But here's what I'm experimenting with.

Finding balance

Often, it's not a matter of "stop doing this, do that instead". Commenting can be a part of our strategy, but we can limit the time we spend on it:

• set your priorities (e.g., consuming inspiring/insightful content, creating content, creating products...)

• block time for those activities,

• allocate the minimum amount of daily time needed for growth tactics.

You hit jackpot if you find ways to turn your most important activities into growth engines. For examples, if you’re a writer, guest posting is a perfect way to do what you love and leverage your skills while attracting a new audience. (Here’s my free tutorial on guest posting)

And set your expectations very low. Avoid attaching the faith of your publication and your sense of fulfillment to the success of your comments.

Trying multiple tactics

Your growth strategy can include many, many more tactics. Here's what worked for me and other creators. Try everything and choose what works best for you:

1. Guest posting: Write for other creators' platforms. It’s more time-intensive but delivers higher-quality exposure.

2. DMs and emails: Build relationships through genuine direct messages or emails. Share compliments, insights, or questions without expecting anything in return.

3. Authentic commenting: Comment only on content you truly enjoy. Forget quotas and deadlines. Be serendipitous.

4. Community Engagement: Join niche communities, especially paid ones where members are more committed. Help generously, and you’ll naturally stand out.

5. Podcasts and events: Be a guest on podcasts or participate in live events like webinars.

Rembember: this is an ultra-marathon

Grinding for a short time can be necessary. For example, when you're launching a new product.

But it should be an exception.

A creator career is a very long-term game. You need years to understand what works, build a large enough audience, and start leaving your dream.

We need to spend more time than we wish to on promotion. So, we need to find what feels less tiring, icky and stressful.

Try everything. Then choose the tactics that align with your values, leverage your skills, and fit your schedule.

What are your favorite sustainable growth tactics?

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