Do you think you would have been as successful starting as a paid subscription if you didn't have the Instagram base to pull from? If one does not have this foundation/name recognition, would it be better to start free and then add paid subscriptions?
I love the Evergreen paywall idea. It works. My first subscription that I ever paid for did this with her posts and it prompted me to become a paid subscriber. Her work was so interesting I wanted to read the full archives.
Wow the conversion rate is so damn low! Hey Substack, we've read tons of successful Substack writers and they all had a big community on social media before coming here... people rarely want to go out of insta, stop scrolling and start to read... Of course we can get paid, people sometimes wait for permission to start paid subscriptions. You can have 20 subscribers and 2 paid subscribers, and 1000 and 20 paid... Engagment also depends on what you offer, not matter what the numbers are.
NOT interested in this at all. She is obviously well off which to my mind means she own a house? Give the poor some free readership.
Whilst everything is falling apart you interview a woman about 'trivia!'
IF substack wants to continue it needs to make some FREE reads for the poor people who cannot pay.
When I eventually get on here and write something it will be free. I am not rich or broke BUT I know substack is going in the wrong direction right now.
Look at all the people who commented..........always about fu90-ing money!
I felt the same way about Substack being SO EASY and turnkey is a great way to describe it. I turned on paid subscriptions to celebrate a year of writing this summer and it did feel like getting a hug... especially when you live in a place often hostile to women and LGBTQ folks. Thanks for sharing your insights!
Be sure to visit the SubStack master class on how to launch a page that I am conducting tomorrow (Thursday) night at 8 pm EDT for the Society of Professional Journalists...everyone's welcome....just sign up ... might want to have a look in advance at my site, Andelman Unleashed ....
This was a nice read. I have only just started my Substack and am going back and fourth about the paid portion, since I'm only starting out, so it was good to hear advice of "just start with paid." I do feel, perhaps like others (?), at a disadvantage not having much of a social media following to promote my Substack to. Is that how most people grow their subscribers on Substack, or grow initially, by having a following from a previous platform?
This make me wish that I made an effort with social media in days gone past to build a following. I'm certainly not interested in doing so today. I can't help but feel that despite all of this great advice, I'll forever be a no one on here.
Very interesting to paywall older content yet continue to promote it. Most of my readers live on Instagram (Gen-Z) so this article is quite a think piece for me. Cool takeaways!
It’s very difficult to pull people from Instagram. Don’t worry if you haven’t got an account with Instagram. Follow the advice - write! Substack plus other social media platforms can be bring in subscribers. Try and get your own domain name. It’s worth the small cost and the Substack set up fee.
I've added paid subscriptions to my Substack as well last week. Mainly for people who want to support me. Both free and paid subscribers get the same content. I did notice a bug in the e-mail and app though. Four subscribe prompts right underneath eachother and a fifth one at the bottom of the post. And I had deactivated 'Subscribe prompt' in the settings as I would like to just place one with a custom text. Heard back from fellow Substackers that they encountered the same issue. I hope the Substack-team can fix this really quick as it costed me already a few subscibers who taught I was spamming them with this amount of prompts.
Do you think you would have been as successful starting as a paid subscription if you didn't have the Instagram base to pull from? If one does not have this foundation/name recognition, would it be better to start free and then add paid subscriptions?
I love the Evergreen paywall idea. It works. My first subscription that I ever paid for did this with her posts and it prompted me to become a paid subscriber. Her work was so interesting I wanted to read the full archives.
Wow the conversion rate is so damn low! Hey Substack, we've read tons of successful Substack writers and they all had a big community on social media before coming here... people rarely want to go out of insta, stop scrolling and start to read... Of course we can get paid, people sometimes wait for permission to start paid subscriptions. You can have 20 subscribers and 2 paid subscribers, and 1000 and 20 paid... Engagment also depends on what you offer, not matter what the numbers are.
Content like this is so helpful thank you. Would also love to learn more about growth without an already large online audience 🙏
Ken Wilber fan club, oh yes!
One thing about being a paid contributor on Substack: it tends to keep the trolls down. They want to GET paid, not pay!
It would be great to hear from someone who hasn’t used an outside base to grow as well
NOT interested in this at all. She is obviously well off which to my mind means she own a house? Give the poor some free readership.
Whilst everything is falling apart you interview a woman about 'trivia!'
IF substack wants to continue it needs to make some FREE reads for the poor people who cannot pay.
When I eventually get on here and write something it will be free. I am not rich or broke BUT I know substack is going in the wrong direction right now.
Look at all the people who commented..........always about fu90-ing money!
I'm learning so much through this series. "Turn on paid and just write." Thank you, Elise and Substackers!
I felt the same way about Substack being SO EASY and turnkey is a great way to describe it. I turned on paid subscriptions to celebrate a year of writing this summer and it did feel like getting a hug... especially when you live in a place often hostile to women and LGBTQ folks. Thanks for sharing your insights!
Did Homer use subscriptions to support him as he wrote " The Odyssey?" His content of eternally Beautiful language and the narrative was enough.
Be sure to visit the SubStack master class on how to launch a page that I am conducting tomorrow (Thursday) night at 8 pm EDT for the Society of Professional Journalists...everyone's welcome....just sign up ... might want to have a look in advance at my site, Andelman Unleashed ....
https://daandelman.substack.com/
Here's SPJ's FB invite!
https://fb.me/e/6MDx7EKvi
This was a nice read. I have only just started my Substack and am going back and fourth about the paid portion, since I'm only starting out, so it was good to hear advice of "just start with paid." I do feel, perhaps like others (?), at a disadvantage not having much of a social media following to promote my Substack to. Is that how most people grow their subscribers on Substack, or grow initially, by having a following from a previous platform?
This make me wish that I made an effort with social media in days gone past to build a following. I'm certainly not interested in doing so today. I can't help but feel that despite all of this great advice, I'll forever be a no one on here.
Very interesting to paywall older content yet continue to promote it. Most of my readers live on Instagram (Gen-Z) so this article is quite a think piece for me. Cool takeaways!
It’s very difficult to pull people from Instagram. Don’t worry if you haven’t got an account with Instagram. Follow the advice - write! Substack plus other social media platforms can be bring in subscribers. Try and get your own domain name. It’s worth the small cost and the Substack set up fee.
I've added paid subscriptions to my Substack as well last week. Mainly for people who want to support me. Both free and paid subscribers get the same content. I did notice a bug in the e-mail and app though. Four subscribe prompts right underneath eachother and a fifth one at the bottom of the post. And I had deactivated 'Subscribe prompt' in the settings as I would like to just place one with a custom text. Heard back from fellow Substackers that they encountered the same issue. I hope the Substack-team can fix this really quick as it costed me already a few subscibers who taught I was spamming them with this amount of prompts.