I made $80 on Substack in 1 week - why have I been spending so much time on LinkedIn?

First up, it bears mentioning that making <$100 on Substack is barely a #humblebrag lol, but getting that reward after posting once, in just one week, begs the question:

Is LinkedIn dying?

I've been posting consistently on LinkedIn for six years (honestly, since "BC" - Before Covid!) at a minimum rate of four times a week. With each post averaging 300 words, that means I’ve written the equivalent of five books on LinkedIn now! Five books! And no book deal!

I know what works; I’ve used myself as a guinea pig over the years, analysed the data, studied others, and even delivered LinkedIn trainings for clients.

So, what gives?

My gender test during the whole algo bias furore a couple of months ago proved nothing.

Spending hours a day commenting on other posts to hack the algo was a waste of time.

And when you reap rewards on another platform that go beyond just eyeballs in this “attention economy,” well… Sometimes maybe it’s the environment that must change.

LinkedIn needs to do better

It's always easier to be the spectator of the sport than the player on the field, and so - without ungratefully bashing LinkedIn to the floor - I'll admit some wonderful things have come off the back of my commitment to the platform.

For all its flaws and controversies, it’s still the biggest B2B social networking site, but with mounting competition (that actually seem to reward and respect their creators - hello Substack and YouTube) plus the rise of GEO (does all this content I’m publishing on here get crawled by the top LLMs?) LinkedIn needs to reassess their strategy for this second half of the 2020s...

Here are six recommendations from me:

• Show content from people you’re actually connected to;
  

• More prompts to reconnect and go deeper with existing connections (other than a notification it's their birthday or they got a job promotion, where every Tom Dick & Harry piles in on the comments hoping to land a new client);
  

• Prompt if you want to remain connected to people after zero interactions in, let’s say, 5 years. (How many of you know the 1,000s of connections you have? And how many times have you asked someone for an intro to someone you see they’re connected with on here and their response is “sorry I don’t actually know them”?!)
  

• With permission, allow the top LLMs to crawl creators content so it contributes to their GEO;
  

• Reward creators with more than manufactured accolades and consider monetisation models to rival the likes offered by Substack and YouTube;
  

• And for the love of Christ ban the AI-generated comments PUH-LEASE!

LinkedIn could do so much better - and I think that's part of the frustration.

Now that I’m actually experiencing greater rewards in a much smaller time frame on other platforms, that frustration has just dialled up a notch.

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What do you think? Have I got Stockholm syndrome and need to just move on? Is this a toxic relationship I need to leave? Or am I being too cynical about a professional networking site that has actually given us a lot over the years?

As ex-CEO of the award-winning marketing consultancy, Stephanie Melodia (ironically her LinkedIn profile is hyperlinked!) is ranked as one of the UK's Most Influential Female Founders. With expertise in entrepreneurship and innovation, Stephanie now hosts the UK Top 20 Business Show; advises MBA students in Entrepreneurship, and works 1:1 with a few select scale-ups when not travelling the world delivering keynotes or workshops for clients.

Her eye-opening signature topic, ‘Hacking Luck,’ features research-backed insights, real-world stories, plus unique frameworks & formulas to stack the odds in our favour.

Trusted by global brands like Soho House, Qatar Airways, WeTransfer, Harvey Nash Group, and international conferences like Web Summit, TechBBQ, and Women in Tech, Stephanie brings a special kind of energy to her bold keynotes and dynamic workshops.

Her talks on innovation, resilience, and creativity have been described as "pithy, positive and insightful" by Oli Barrett MBE, "engaging, informative, and insightful" by Rupert Englander of WeTransfer, and "engaging, professional, and talented" by Elissa Karakalla of Web Summit. She has a combined social media following of 20,000. (A large portion of which, is in fact, on LinkedIn!)