Maybe It’s Time to Call This What It Is

Reflecting on what this newsletter became

My apologies for the avalanche of posts recently. I’m slowly catching up by republishing everything I posted on Substack over the last few months. As I’m posting twice daily, the weekly newsletter, I should be all caught up soon. Then back to weekly posts. Previously published October 26 2025, on Writer on the Edge.

I didn’t want to start this newsletter talking about branding. But if you’re running paid subscriptions, this stuff probably matters quite a bit. However, that’s not really where I am with Substack. For me, my writing is more about the community, about having a good reason to commit to this newsletter every single week. That’s the real value.

Although I’ve got over several hundred followers, my subscriber base is much less. Only the subscribers receive the weekly email. Followers might see posts in their feed, but that’s about it. I’m not complaining, just being realistic about where things stand.

Dawn over the Julianakanaal, The Netherlands

Realistic Reader Engagement Notes

Yesterday evening, while I was prepping for Novel November, probably after one beer too many, I had one of those thoughts that won’t let go. What if I could see which posts actually resonated with readers over the past 2.5 years? Not just a gut feeling, but actual data.

So I downloaded everything. All my stats, all my posts compiled into PDFs, the whole lot. Then I fed it all into Claude and asked it to find the patterns. The results weren’t exactly shocking. Creativity, creative writing, and practical how-tos. That’s what people engage with. That’s what they want from me. Suits me, thank you very much.

A couple of years ago, this kind of analysis wouldn’t have been possible, or at least would have taken several hours to get anything remotely useful. Now, it’s simple; you can do this sort of deep dive with any of the major AI tools. ChatGPT, Google Notebook LM, or Claude, take your pick.

The Name Doesn’t Fit Anymore

Looking at that data made something obvious. The Everyday Solopreneur. This publication’s name has nothing to do with what I actually write about anymore. I’m not writing business tips or entrepreneurial strategies. I’m writing about creativity. About the messy, frustrating, occasionally rewarding process of learning to write. About the tools and techniques I’m discovering along the way.

With Novel November approaching fast, this feels even more true. I’m planning to post daily updates throughout November, tracking progress and sharing the wins and the struggles. Every weekly newsletter will include a summary of how the novel writing is going. None of that has anything to do with being a solopreneur.

The URL Problem

This is where it gets tricky, however. You can change your Substack publication name at any time, rewrite your about page, and update your description without any negative impact. But the URL? That’s different.

If, like me, you link your Substack post to the various social media platforms every week. For me, this means Facebook, Twitter (OK, X, whatever we’re calling it now), and LinkedIn. Changing the URL will break those links, which is a bit of a shame. Perhaps the day will come when this becomes less important to me, but for now, I can’t bring myself to go this far.

The solution is simple enough, fortunately. Keep the URL as is, for this newsletter that would be: everydaysolopreneur.substack.com, but change everything else: the name, the branding, the focus. The old links still work, but the identity shifts to match what I’m actually doing.

I think that’s probably what I’ll do. I’m still thinking it through, though.

Reimagining the Future

As part of this exercise, I fed my about page into Claude. It wasn’t terrible to begin with, already leaning more toward creativity than business. But I asked Claude to rewrite it completely, factoring in the new publication name I’m considering and a 90-day content calendar built around the topics that actually get engagement.

Am I going to follow this plan exactly? Honestly, I’m not sure.

These posts are for my readers, yes, but they’re mostly for me. This newsletter is how I keep writing every single week without fail. Over two years now without missing a post. Christmas, birthdays, holidays, it doesn’t matter. I write.

It’s a matter of pride more than anything else.

Paid Subscriptions Commitments

There are endless Substack posts about growth strategies and monetization. How to get more subscribers, increase revenue, all the usual advice. Honestly, I couldn’t care less right now. Maybe at some point in the future, it might become important to me. But do I actually want that now? Not really.

Sure, extra cash every month would be nice. But paid subscriptions come with obligations. You’re committing to regular, meaningful content that people are willing to pay for. That’s a different kind of writing, a different kind of pressure.

I’m not sure I’m ready for that commitment. Maybe I never will be. If it’s important to you, I support you all the way. But it’s just not me at this moment in time.

What About Your Creative Edge?

The entire process of using Claude to analyze my data made me think about my other publication, Your Creative Edge. I launched it at the start of the year with big plans, then promptly abandoned it for months. It’s not forgotten; it’s just that, so far this year, I simply haven’t had the time.

I know that it’s time to revive it. After all, I have so much to share after an incredibly eventful year in the AI space. For example, the technical side of what I’m doing: the AI tools, how they’re evolving, and the actual process of using them. That should live there. Some of you will find that interesting. Others won’t, and that’s fine too.

No pressure either way.

What’s Actually Changing

So, where does all this leave me?

Publication name? Probably changing. About page and description? Definitely updating those. Profile photo? Absolutely. Now that I’ve got teeth again, I might as well smile properly. The URL? Staying exactly where it is, for the practical reasons already outlined.

Final Thoughts

Sometimes you need data to confirm what you already know in your gut, especially if, like me, you constantly question yourself. My writing has evolved. I’m not documenting the solopreneur journey anymore because that’s not the journey I’m on. Looking back at my previous posts, the last one that had very little to do with creativity was way back in December 2024, a brief sidetrack introducing my other publication.

I’m a creative trying to figure out how to write well, one week at a time. That’s what this newsletter has become, and maybe it’s time the branding caught up with reality.

The beauty is that I can make these changes without breaking anything. The links stay intact, the URL doesn’t change, but the identity shifts to match what I’m actually doing. Exploring creativity, sharing the messy process, and documenting my experiments with AI tools that are genuinely helpful.

Novel November starts soon, and it feels like the perfect moment for a fresh start. The plan is to dictate every morning, together with that all-important first cup of coffee, to hand. But that means planning what to write (or dictate) the evening before. I don’t know if I’ll make the 50 thousand words or not, but that really isn’t the point. Committing to doing my best is what’s important.

What do you think? Should I go ahead with the rebrand? Have you ever faced something similar? If so, how did you handle it? Will any of you be participating in Novel November? Leave a comment and let me know. I promise I’ll reply to every one of you.