32 Comments

I posted this in our last Writer Office Hours, and several people agreed it was a good idea, so I'll add it here too to give it extra emphasis. It would be great if we had the capability to offer a discount for people who are giving a gift subscription. Currently discounts are not included in the functionality of the Gift a gift subscription button. This would be a really great feature to have!

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Thanks Karen! I've passed this feedback along to our product team.

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Yes! I agree. We are offering a holiday special, but they cannot purchase for the discounted price. I think it would definitely increase the amount of people who would give a gift subscription if we could do that.

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Hi Karen thank you for this- what's the difference between donating and gifting a subscription? I tried searching for how subscription donations work in the substack help page but wasn't successful 🤣

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I think they are essentially the same thing? Gifting a subscription is when you purchase a paid subscription for someone else. How would your definition of donating a subscription differ from that?

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Thanks so much Karen for your reply- that's what I'm not sure about - Substack gives two options when creating a button - gift and donate. Sorry I didn't mean to bother you in this- I thought you were part of the Substack support/writer's office hours team

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No problem! I'm happy to problem solve.

I went to the two buttons, and this is what I think is the difference. Gifting a subscription is when you have a particular person in mind that you want to give a subscription to. So, for example, you buy a subscription for your sister for her birthday. Donating a subscription is paying for a subscription so that the author of the newsletter can gift subscriptions to those who want one but can't afford it. So in gifting a subscription, you pick who gets the subscription. In donating a subscription, the author of the newsletter picks who gets the subscription.

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Can you give a generic gift and allow the recipient to apply it to one or more authors of their choosing?

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Thank you for putting this together...! I was just in the midst of soliciting a few testimonials for this purpose--well-timed.

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GIFTING INSTRUCTIONS DID NOT WORK. I added /gift to the substack homepage url for Jon Finkel's Books & Biceps. Substack flips it to my account page and shows my subscription. Same result if I enter Books&Biceps instead of Finkel's name. Ubelievable that one has to search for the method to gift a PAID subscription and then it doesn't work.

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I want to give complementary subscriptions to my Contributing writers/authors how do I do that?

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I love the discount idea Karen has suggested. Also, a post on how growth on substack actually works, (one consolidated post) will be a great idea.

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Love the idea of the gift subscription button. We are gifting 2 premium subscription upgrades to investrly, the weekly financial newsletter empowering you to invest early in yourself.

Learn NFTs, DeFi, why your credit score matters and everything in between. 💸💸

investrly.substack.com/subscribe

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A paid subscription to a Substack publication is a fantastic gift idea! It not only supports writers but also fosters a deeper connection between readers and their favorite content creators. Plus, the ease of gifting—without worrying about packaging or delays—makes it a practical choice for the holidays. It's a thoughtful way to encourage great writing and share meaningful ideas with loved ones! https://prefabrikhazirev.com/

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I’m not a writer, but going a little nuts trying to gift a subscription to a friend. Can’t seem to get the instructions in order. Any tips?

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Query, not comment: Does anyone in Substack corporate even read these comments and questions? I see that mine is not the only one not answered.

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How do you give multiple gifts? Make it easier please.

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How this can happen, I did not give any subscription as a gift, but I got a paid subscriber and in reports it is writing that it’s a gift subscribtion?

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