Why (and how) to do a roundup

Hi friends,

I talked to a very nice human recently who told me they already have a roundup of things they like, but weren’t highlighting people in their industry doing work on Substack.

So in short, they missed the point.

The point of a roundup is to create community and highlight other people on Substack that your readers should also read to help you grow your network and your publication.

Or, if you want to grow on Facebook, or Linkedin, or wherever, then who’s doing work on that platform instead.

You should be sharing articles by people working at your level, above, and below you. Then, everyone in your industry will want to subscribe so they can stay informed on the important news of the day and connect around them.

You can’t just share the biggest stories, because everyone will likely have already seen those. You have to get good at finding the hidden gems everyone needs to read but aren’t getting enough attention, too.

This is how you can shine a spotlight on smaller publications. People really want to read those articles, btw. Those are the ones I hear about all the time. I rarely hear about the viral ones because everyone’s already read them.

If you create a roundup with the best articles you have read surrounding your publication’s topic and also tag the people who wrote them, they will see that you care about the same things they do, that you care about their work, that you have good taste, and that you are a cool person who deserves their attention.

Then, they will be more open to letting you into their bubble.

If you keep doing it for months and years, it will all build on itself even if you don’t do anything else. Newsletters have made killer eight-figure business on nothing but this concept.

As more and more people connect with you, it creates a virtuous cycle that amplifies everyone, including you.

STILL, YOU MUST ANNOUNCE YOUR PRESENCE.

You have to announce yourself subtly, but you need a way to show that you see them. That’s a big reason why you are tagging them, so they get a subtle ping that you noticed them. At every level, people like to feel seen and know their work matters.

That said, you can’t do this in a cheap way. People can sniff out a gimmick a mile away. I really, really care about every article I share. I believe in everything I put into my weekly roundup, but I also do it with intention.

If you do it in silence, there’s no reason to have a roundup, unless you really, just want one, that is. Then, you do whatever you want. Still, it will almost certainly be better if more people know about it.

Aside from improving your writing, being a good curator is probably the best skill you can develop, and being a good connector is an art that can give you a career faster than anything else if you do it well.

Not everyone will appreciate it, but some people will, and it will be enough. Luckily, it’s relatively easy to make a roundup part of your routine. So, let’s talk about how to do that.

The good news is that there’s almost no wrong way to do a roundup. Personally, my favorite roundup is Today in Tabs. Here’s an image of one of their emails.

As you can see, what I love about it is that there is a story. Yes, there are a hundred links and tags, but you could read this without clicking any of them and have a great time doing it. While mine is not a complete clone, it was the inspiration for how I do a roundup. Hopefully, you get a smile or a chuckle reading it.

I have found that because I like to send out a lot of links, it works better to write in a format that’s a little more entertaining than a standard roundup. There seems to be no upper limit of links people will accept as long as they are entertained.

Another popular option is what does with theirs, choosing articles and doing writeups of them.

This is the traditional Morning Brew method of writing a digest.

If you’re a Desert, then this method probably resonates with you a lot. It’s also the easiest to train somebody to mimic. Personally, I like more personality to my work, which means it won’t resonate with as many people, but will resonate more deeply with the people who do connect with it.

One of my favorites that sits at the intersection of these are ’s roundups for her publication

You can also choose to do a roundup for only paid subscribers, which is what does with the Sunday Scrolls.

One thing I do recommend is consistency. It’s always a good idea to set expectations early. When I started, my main newsletter was called 7 Cool Things, based on the 5-Bullet Friday method developed by Tim Ferris.

One of the best examples of this on Substack is the newsletter run by . Every week they send out ten interesting things they found worth sharing that week.

Of course, does this with their Weekly Stack, an email they send out with personalized recommendations.

They also run all sorts of digests through their newsletters. Most notably, is their weekly roundup of the most interesting articles on Substack.

As you can see, like Snickers, there’s almost no wrong way to eat one. However, whatever you choose, you should maintain consistency. For my own, I like to open with a little update on my life and a photo that will act as the main image.

Then, I ask a poll to gauge how people are doing.

I follow up with any important notes, or books that are launching. The next section I put in every newsletter is “What we wrote”, which highlights every article launched during the week.

Then, I mention anywhere I’ve been interviewed during the week.

Followed by a snippet of next week’s article.

Then comes the roundup, broken into three sections.

I set up my roundups like this because I expect it to be the most-read article on my publication every week. I set it up in its own section so that readers can unsubscribe from every other section and only read this one piece to get all the news they need to know. When you write multiple articles a week, it’s very important to allow options for your readers to only get the work they want to read. I have dozens of sections in my publication and wrote a big article about the methodology I used to make them.

I’m also just…very busy. So, this allows me to talk about everything going on with me at one time. Whether they want to know what’s up with me, what’s up with my work, or what’s up on Substack, I want to deliver something everyone can enjoy.

One final note. I can’t do this alone. I rely on other creators I trust to share interesting articles and lead me down fun rabbit holes when it comes to finding what to share with readers. Additionally, I look at the virality of a piece to see if it warrants inclusion. Sometimes I pass on a piece, but then it gets shared a hundred times, I see how it’s resonating with people as they share snippets, and I grow to understand why it’s important.

What do you think?

• Do you have a roundup?

• Are you tagging other publications?

• Are you using it as a hub to connect your community together?

Let me know in the comments.

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