As you explore launching paid subscriptions, consider the following:
If you want to earn money today on Substack, especially if you have an audience already, on Substack or elsewhere, we recommend enabling payments by connecting to Stripe, our payment processor. This takes less than five minutes to set up.
If you’re still building your list or getting into the hang of regular writing, we recommend launching quietly to start. You can still enable paid subscriptions and pick a price—some readers might be ready to support you already—but wait to start paywalling posts or do a marketing push until you’ve found your rhythm and grown your audience.
If your really not sure about paid subscriptions, all new publications have Pledges enabled. This lets your readers commit to paying a future subscription and helps you build confidence that readers love and value your writing.
As part of the paid subscriptions process, writers often ask, “What should I offer paid subscribers?” and “How should I let them know about paid subscriptions?” We rounded up our best resources for you:
The going paid checklist will help you pick a price, build a content strategy, craft an announcement post, and promote your publication far and wide.
🧠 I finally went paid this week as I neared 100 free subscribers, and I’m excited to share that I already have 10 paid subscribers! My advice is to just go for it. It’s been so exciting to see those payments roll into my Stripe account!
Another tip is to share your subscriber milestones in Notes. I posted a screenshot of my 100 subscribers, and new ones have been rolling in ever since! 😄
Here’s my celebratory note, as an example if you want to use this strategy:
✏️ Hi, About to go paid in the sense that I'm ready to send out that terrifying email plea.
Wondering what has worked best for people: an emphasis on supporting you and independent journalism, an emphasis on new perks or elevated content, or a combo of both? TIA for any advice!
✏️ Hi! I have a weekly newsletter for artists. I'm reading below that I should just go paid, but I have also heard advice about waiting until 1k free subscribers. I have 325 after a year, so 1k would take me a while.
My question: How do you go paid while still giving value to your free subscribers? Do you follow something like the 80-20 rule so that only 20% of content is behind the pay wall?
🧠 I soft launched payments on a new pub today and have two already!
It’s called Sparkle ON Substack and it’s a space for co working on our Substacks plus collating articles and spaces writers can hang out! ✨🙌🏻
One of the big sticking points was working out how to hook stripe in but my friend shared what had worked for her and it was creating a new project within Stripe! If you could share this knowledge more widely that would ace! ✨🙌🏻
😊🥳🤪 I've written about my going paid process here before, but in case this resonates with someone today, here's what I decided to do:
1. EVERYTHING IS STILL FREE.
2. I turned on paid subscriptions about five months ago, after a year of writing.
3. I felt I needed to wait that long to prove to myself that I was in this for the long haul, and to prove to my readers (and future subscribers) that they could count on a certain type and frequency of content.
4. I am pushing back - everywhere, really - against the notion that only those who can afford nice things get to have nice things. That doesn't feel like what I want my Stack to represent. I know others choose to give "scholarship-type" free subscriptions for those who ask, but I wanted to try a different approach.
5. I framed the ask (no pun intended) like how one might invite someone to consider when they purchase a piece of fine art. They pay for what they get. They can look at it anytime they please, share it with others, interpret it as they feel motivated. They don't get "extra" stuff because they paid for the first stuff.
6. This is my art. Supporting me through a paid subscription helps me continue to produce it. But, if you can't, or don't, that doesn't change my desire to make it available to any and all.
7. Out of 450 subscribers, I have 36 paid. Not a terrible ratio.
8. I like doing what I can to create a more generous world. Just my $.02.
🧠Lots of great advice here already! As someone that "went paid" awhile ago, here is my .02:
-Go paid today. Right now, even. Open a separate tab, and turn that option on. Leave the overthinking for later.
-As writers, we often get caught up on what "more" to offer paid subscribers. Substack is different from other platforms in that often readers want to support you, the author, or your project in general. It's a model closer to, say, PBS than anything else. if you are consistently putting out work that resonates with people, they will support it.
- You will constantly be (happily) surprised by what drives people to upgrade. In my own case, it's almost never what I thought it would be.
I'm a believer in keeping everything available for free, and asking people to choose a paid subscription if they are able to and want to support your work financially. In my experience, people are not motivated by exclusive content as much as supporting my mission (independent journalism about Iowa politics).
Hi! I've been offering monthly online creativity themed workshops that are still a work in progress. So far I've had pretty poor attendance. Sometimes one person, sometimes two, sometimes none. I'm about to do my fifth one in August and I'd love some advice/ideas!
How heavily do you promote your online workshops and how far in advance?
I've been using Eventbrite and asking for folks to register, is there a better option out there?
What topics/themes do you explore in the online gatherings? I created a free new moon journal with affirmations, monthly themes, and creative prompts that the online workshops are based off of. The idea is to connect our creativity to the seasonal changes and work in harmony with the energy around us. Is there a better way to market that?
Thanks everyone for your help/tips! I really believe in this project and I'm excited to share it with more people!
✏️ I haven't gone paid yet but plan to shortly. With my limited bandwidth, I'm struggling with what incentives to offer my paid subscribers. Would love some ideas!
I was thinking of offering an "occasional" short humor/satire story, which isn't what I typically write but which I enjoy writing from time to time. Maybe limit comments to paid subscribers? Maybe I'm overthinking it because my paid subscribers really just want to support me and don't necessarily need extra incentives?
🟧 - I am moving my list of 130,000 (free, high open rate) subscribers to substack, both for a paid option and to grow the list. But when I created my first email and sent a test email to myself, it went into my promo folder. Do you have any advice to avoid this? Any stats about how often this happens? Obviously, it would be a huge problem if that happens to even a small percentage of my list. (This has never been a problem with mailchimp.) Thanks!
✏️🟧 I have seen some writers who give a certain % of their paid subscriptions to charity, I love this idea & it might help me jump into the paid idea - I’m curious if there’s any internal mechanism for this (I’m assuming not and that $ can only go directly to the writer’s acct) and/or if subscribers just trust that you’re sending in your charitable contribution as you say you will. Would love to hear how writers who offer this are doing it. Thanks!
🟧 I have not turned on paid, but have a handful of pledges. I am considering turning off the pledge feature to make growing free subscribers seem more efficient and effective.
Question: if I turn off pledges now, will I lose the current pledges (for when I eventually go paid)? I plan to turn on pledges and paid features in about 6-9 months when I hope to be much larger. Hope that question makes sense. Thanks!
✏️ - I have two newsletters, but have been skittish about turning the second one into a paid one out of fear something will break. I've received at least $300 or so in pledges for the second one. I'm concerned that I'll break the first one somehow. Over half of my income comes from the first one and I'm fully independent as a journalist.
On a second front, my "Notes" is connected to both. How can I adjust that? I ask this with zero research because I'm ridiculous behind publication-wise.
How do I drive contributions or subscriptions, and how do I drive INVOLVEMENT? My work is very authentic, humorous, and deep as well. I tend to be at a 29%-32% readership, which is good. But I do NOT get a lot of responses and I have had a few people make donations, and I have exactly one person paying monthly. What am I missing?
Liz’s 10% paid rate is likely because her first one hundred subs likely included a lot of friends and family. Nothing wrong with that but as she grows the percentage is likely to go down. I went paid at 500 subs, now have 900 and about a 3% paid rate. I’d like to see that number bump up to at least 5%. Like a lot of things growth can take awhile to build momentum.
After writing Nichelle Newsletter for over three years, I finally went paid this week. One reason is because people really like my newsletter and have offered to pay for it. Two, it is because I got laid off from a restaurant that closed after five years of being open. I worked there for four years. I only got 48 hours notice that I was losing my job. My plan is to post at least twice a week and to do exclusive podcasts for paid subscribers. I have seven subscribers in less than a week.
✏️🟧 I write or publish posts 6 days a week on napping. I’m looking to encourage my subscribers to use Notes to report on their experience with the subject of my Substack: napping. Share when they take a nap, respond to questions related to napping that might inform future posts, etc. I find that most of the folks I know only read via email, rather than engaging through the Substack app. Any thoughts re ways I might utilize the platform and Notes to improve engagement?
✏️ - I have not gone paid and I am curious to hear from people who have...
- do you offer anything to paid subscribers that free subscribers don’t receive? If so, what?
- and for those who have paid subscriptions on but who have all their writing freely available: do you get many paid subscriptions? And do you think you’d get more if you put some of your writing behind a pay wall?
Anyone who takes the time to answer any of these questions I greatly appreciate it.
Don’t be afraid to ask for money for your work. There’s a lot of back and forth on the integrity of doing that, but if you’re a serious writer who values your work: There’s 100% nothing wrong with asking for compensation for your art. Nothing could be more reasonable. I started with 50 free subs (friends and family) August 24 of last year. Eleven months later I have 900 subs with 75 paying. I write regular, quality prose and I ask for money.
Katie I hesitate to go paid too soon. Been on for 9 months and wrote poems of inspiration. I do t want to turn off the members that read it everyday. I find it’s a turnoff if done the wrong way. Any suggestions? Thanks.
🧠 *I do not get hung up on numbers.* You don’t need 1k subscribers to “go paid”. If someone wants to support you then please let them. In fact, just having a little paid support will hopefully make you more consistent in publishing. Judiciously view your stats but don’t let numbers control your emotions or feelings of self-worth. One paid subscriber means you have a paying audience. They are worth it. Keep doing the work. You will get better. And the Substack community wants to support you. We want you to do well.
🧠 I currently have 319 free subscriptions and one paid subscription. After reading the comments on here, I am wondering if it would be a good thing to do a post on why I have a pay option. (you know, supporting artists and all that)
✏️ Hi everyone! Fairly new to Substack here. I currently use Substack to publish my newsletters and am nearing my first 100 subscribers! I have an idea for the kind of content that I might provide to paid subscribers, and I also have a technical questions regarding how I might go about setting up paid.
For some context, I run a grant writing consultancy focused on regenerative agriculture. We provide a lot of educational information and awareness to folks who are involved in agriculture or related nonprofits and want to learn about applying for grants as well as what grant opportunities are out there. I big goal of mine is to help these readers to connect with others who may have similar ideas and therefore have strength in numbers that may help them to build out fundable projects.
My first question in regards to this is can I make a paid community groups? What kind of Substack/strategies would work best for such a group that I might be the orchestrator of? Thoughts? Suggestions?
✏️ I've been reviewing movies free for 20 months now, and I recently went paid. The earth didn't move. I fear some readers aren't even seeing the "Upgrade to Paid" button. Or maybe they are and just don't want to pay me. Okay, I understand that. I publish reviews every Sunday at noon, but I don't offer premium content -- I don't have the time -- so I'm asking them to pay in support of my work. In any case, since the slow movie release period is now underway, I'm going on hiatus for all of August and the first part of September. Not that many interesting movies to write about.
I'll be sending the hiatus notice this Sunday, and I'm going to include in it a HARD push to "Upgrade to Paid". On top of the "Upgrade to Paid" button I'll insert a rule with a short note saying, "Here's where you can Upgrade to Paid". I know that sounds desperate. I'm desperate. I can't go on doing this without bringing in a modest amount of dough. Modest. But I've got to have some return. I love doing this. But I'm income-challenged, you might say. Anybody else feel something like this? If you think I'm pipe-dreaming, please tell me. I often feel that way myself.
For my second Substack I'm thinking about crowdfunding on a platform like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. I've done a photography book before this way, but launching a Substack is different. It's not a tangible thing you can send to funders, unless you've got a related book or merch. Anyone here do this before? I'm trying to decide btwn the two platforms.
✏️ - I have a question about tiers for subscribers. Another substack author has configured his account so people can subscribe based on what they can afford. $10/year, $20/year, and so on, up to $100/year. How can I enable a similar system?
🧠 I started out going paid from the very beginning. I don't know if it was the right thing or not since Substack strategies encouraged me to make my newsletter paid later on, but I do have some paid subscribers now and even founding members and they are those who are really into my work. So alls well that ends well. If you give it a few months and get a few paid subscribers, even those few will be a vindication of both your writing and the monetization of your newsletter. After all, your writing is worth something if it's good, compelling and meaningful to other people.
✏️The issue I have (and still haven't come to peace with) is with paywalled content vs. free content. I think that while it's fine to start having paid subs at the beginning, the initial perks should not include paywall content but something else that doesn't affect your writing. I found that I couldn't put in as much effort for my paywall articles as the free stuff for the simple reason that people were reading the free stuff, and virtually nobody was reading the paywall stuff. Maybe some people can squeeze motivation out of $5-7 a month from 1 or 2 paid subs, but for me it was eyeballs. Maybe it's better to have paywalled content after, say, twenty paid subscribers? I'm curious if other people have that issue.
✏️ Like others have mentioned here, I am struggling with what to offer as incentives for going paid besides offering my archives. I enjoy writing for everyone and hesitate to paywall new posts as I feel like my writing offers encouragement to others and I don’t want to be selective in offering said encouragement. I am in a bit of a quandary if anyone has any tips ✍🏼
@substack I would love to see the rate of conversion from free to paid subscribers by CATEGORY . I am sure it will really give perspective to a lot of creators
✏️ I've started in May and have been publishing at a weekly rate. Till now I have published 13 articles. Some of them have been very well received with thousands of views from outside. I do want to go paid, but I am not able to figure out what exclusives I can offer to the paid subscribers.
Most of my articles are long-form and take considerable amount of research and time for me to write. So in a way they themselves are valuable. However, if I close them then I will stop driving outside traffic which is bringing new free subscribers.
🟧 good afternoon, I am planning to release a first collection of short (paid) sports-themed stories with a moral on Substack, a progression from my factual analysis column ‘why sport matters’. Despite intensive research I have many questions that I am desperate for the Substack team to answer. May I at least start with - 1. can one email a LINK to subscribers, not the actual text, which at 10k words would be too long for some inboxes. 2. if someone subscribes three stories in, does the system allow them to ‘see what they’ve missed. Huge thanks and best wishes, Lee W x
Hi everyone, so many useful things below! I feel as though I’ve hit a bit of a growth wall as I haven’t had any new subscribers in a while (I only publish twice a month at the moment as I am still working full time- hoping to increase this soon) so any tips would be greatly appreciated. I’ve tried notes but they don’t seem to get much traction and I am hopefully collaborating with a fellow substacker soon! Thanks so much - I really appreciate all your insight!
🟧 I am brand new. Is this thread still active after the office hours are over? If not, is there a regular schedule of Office Hours sessions I can consult to catch the next one?
I've selected "accept payments" and set up an account with Stripe, but I've received no feedback and those wanting to pay continue to be listed as pledges. What's up?!
This is pretty basic, but I don't understand where to place the paywall. SUBSTACK really doesn't explain that very well, and I have tons of free subs I'd like to convert.
I have been working on a new newsletter called Rooms where I feature creative individuals homes as well as a brief interview regarding their thoughts on design - https://rooms.substack.com/
-Wanted to ask what growth strategies worked best in the early days for everyone?
-Would also love any general feedback or ideas to improve the newsletter
If anyone would like to be featured or knows someone who might, send them my way!
I've been running 4 subscription tiers (free, paid, founding and group) for the past 10 months since I migrated to Substack from Mailchimp. Yet, conversion to paid is still low.
Open rate is solid so i know the content is good.
Should I keep existing tiers as they are as it takes longer to see paid subs spike (any stats?) modify tiers or should I switch to everything free and have people use pledges?
I went paid pretty early on because I had a pre-existing list. The problem I'm dealing with though is knowing what value to give people. One of the things I struggle with, no matter what I post, is getting feedback from people. I pose questions, ask for responses, share polls and give people a chance to tell me what they'd like, but I rarely get anything from my community. It's the single most frustrating aspect of this process.
I started with Substack about 3 months ago and its been an amazing experience. My mission is to "separate health fact from fiction, because your wellness shouldn't be based on magic beans and unicorn tears. I do the research, so you don't have to. No lab coat required."
Sarah Fay from Writers at Work has excellent information on how to navigate through Substack. Check it out. It has helped me!! And she encouraged me to go paid and not wait. So, I'm going PAID on August 1st. Substack Support has also been extremely helpful. They have answered all my personal questions.
What are some unique perks writers are offering paid/founding members? The common/default ones seem to be access to pay-walled archives, bonus posts, pay-walling comments/chat, "support the cause," yada yada. I'm curious to learn about the more unusual tactics!
For my part, I went paid immediately. I previously had a subscription-based newsletter on Patreon and switched here with that so it wasn’t a question for me.
My goal is to get 1000 people to pay $100 annually in support of my work and my larger mission to change the cultural narrative around art from one of “must produce constant content” to “slow evolving creativity benefits us all”.
I have been slow to get those paid subscriptions but I keep working at it. And I offer a pay what you can option for people who find themselves at a lower budget.
✏️ - I'm curious if anyone has seen a drop-off or stagnation in paid subscribers lately with all the talk of inflation and recession. My paid subscription rates have totally stagnated and I'm trying to figure out why.
🧠 I finally went paid this week as I neared 100 free subscribers, and I’m excited to share that I already have 10 paid subscribers! My advice is to just go for it. It’s been so exciting to see those payments roll into my Stripe account!
Another tip is to share your subscriber milestones in Notes. I posted a screenshot of my 100 subscribers, and new ones have been rolling in ever since! 😄
Here’s my celebratory note, as an example if you want to use this strategy:
https://substack.com/@lizexplores/note/c-21355821
🧠 Just a thought for anyone who had grand plans way in the future to go paid when they get 1k subs or more...
Don’t wait. Do it now.
I just did and I’m so grateful for the good will that people have shown, even with a smaller subscriber base than I envisaged having.
Your writing is worth it. Take the leap!
To help organize the conversation, please use one of the following emojis when you start a new comment.
🧠 - when sharing strategy or advice for fellow writers
✏️ - when asking questions or seeking feedback from fellow writers
🟧 - when asking a question you hope the Substack team can help answer
Use your emoji keyboard or simply copy and paste the emoji at the beginning of your comment.
✏️ Hi, About to go paid in the sense that I'm ready to send out that terrifying email plea.
Wondering what has worked best for people: an emphasis on supporting you and independent journalism, an emphasis on new perks or elevated content, or a combo of both? TIA for any advice!
✏️ Hi! I have a weekly newsletter for artists. I'm reading below that I should just go paid, but I have also heard advice about waiting until 1k free subscribers. I have 325 after a year, so 1k would take me a while.
My question: How do you go paid while still giving value to your free subscribers? Do you follow something like the 80-20 rule so that only 20% of content is behind the pay wall?
🧠 I soft launched payments on a new pub today and have two already!
It’s called Sparkle ON Substack and it’s a space for co working on our Substacks plus collating articles and spaces writers can hang out! ✨🙌🏻
One of the big sticking points was working out how to hook stripe in but my friend shared what had worked for her and it was creating a new project within Stripe! If you could share this knowledge more widely that would ace! ✨🙌🏻
😊🥳🤪 I've written about my going paid process here before, but in case this resonates with someone today, here's what I decided to do:
1. EVERYTHING IS STILL FREE.
2. I turned on paid subscriptions about five months ago, after a year of writing.
3. I felt I needed to wait that long to prove to myself that I was in this for the long haul, and to prove to my readers (and future subscribers) that they could count on a certain type and frequency of content.
4. I am pushing back - everywhere, really - against the notion that only those who can afford nice things get to have nice things. That doesn't feel like what I want my Stack to represent. I know others choose to give "scholarship-type" free subscriptions for those who ask, but I wanted to try a different approach.
5. I framed the ask (no pun intended) like how one might invite someone to consider when they purchase a piece of fine art. They pay for what they get. They can look at it anytime they please, share it with others, interpret it as they feel motivated. They don't get "extra" stuff because they paid for the first stuff.
6. This is my art. Supporting me through a paid subscription helps me continue to produce it. But, if you can't, or don't, that doesn't change my desire to make it available to any and all.
7. Out of 450 subscribers, I have 36 paid. Not a terrible ratio.
8. I like doing what I can to create a more generous world. Just my $.02.
https://elizabethbeggins.substack.com/?
🧠Lots of great advice here already! As someone that "went paid" awhile ago, here is my .02:
-Go paid today. Right now, even. Open a separate tab, and turn that option on. Leave the overthinking for later.
-As writers, we often get caught up on what "more" to offer paid subscribers. Substack is different from other platforms in that often readers want to support you, the author, or your project in general. It's a model closer to, say, PBS than anything else. if you are consistently putting out work that resonates with people, they will support it.
- You will constantly be (happily) surprised by what drives people to upgrade. In my own case, it's almost never what I thought it would be.
I'm a believer in keeping everything available for free, and asking people to choose a paid subscription if they are able to and want to support your work financially. In my experience, people are not motivated by exclusive content as much as supporting my mission (independent journalism about Iowa politics).
Hi! I've been offering monthly online creativity themed workshops that are still a work in progress. So far I've had pretty poor attendance. Sometimes one person, sometimes two, sometimes none. I'm about to do my fifth one in August and I'd love some advice/ideas!
How heavily do you promote your online workshops and how far in advance?
I've been using Eventbrite and asking for folks to register, is there a better option out there?
What topics/themes do you explore in the online gatherings? I created a free new moon journal with affirmations, monthly themes, and creative prompts that the online workshops are based off of. The idea is to connect our creativity to the seasonal changes and work in harmony with the energy around us. Is there a better way to market that?
Thanks everyone for your help/tips! I really believe in this project and I'm excited to share it with more people!
✏️ I haven't gone paid yet but plan to shortly. With my limited bandwidth, I'm struggling with what incentives to offer my paid subscribers. Would love some ideas!
I was thinking of offering an "occasional" short humor/satire story, which isn't what I typically write but which I enjoy writing from time to time. Maybe limit comments to paid subscribers? Maybe I'm overthinking it because my paid subscribers really just want to support me and don't necessarily need extra incentives?
🟧 - I am moving my list of 130,000 (free, high open rate) subscribers to substack, both for a paid option and to grow the list. But when I created my first email and sent a test email to myself, it went into my promo folder. Do you have any advice to avoid this? Any stats about how often this happens? Obviously, it would be a huge problem if that happens to even a small percentage of my list. (This has never been a problem with mailchimp.) Thanks!
✏️🟧 I have seen some writers who give a certain % of their paid subscriptions to charity, I love this idea & it might help me jump into the paid idea - I’m curious if there’s any internal mechanism for this (I’m assuming not and that $ can only go directly to the writer’s acct) and/or if subscribers just trust that you’re sending in your charitable contribution as you say you will. Would love to hear how writers who offer this are doing it. Thanks!
🟧 can I interview someone from Substack for my new podcast here?!
🟧 I have not turned on paid, but have a handful of pledges. I am considering turning off the pledge feature to make growing free subscribers seem more efficient and effective.
Question: if I turn off pledges now, will I lose the current pledges (for when I eventually go paid)? I plan to turn on pledges and paid features in about 6-9 months when I hope to be much larger. Hope that question makes sense. Thanks!
✏️ - I have two newsletters, but have been skittish about turning the second one into a paid one out of fear something will break. I've received at least $300 or so in pledges for the second one. I'm concerned that I'll break the first one somehow. Over half of my income comes from the first one and I'm fully independent as a journalist.
On a second front, my "Notes" is connected to both. How can I adjust that? I ask this with zero research because I'm ridiculous behind publication-wise.
How do I drive contributions or subscriptions, and how do I drive INVOLVEMENT? My work is very authentic, humorous, and deep as well. I tend to be at a 29%-32% readership, which is good. But I do NOT get a lot of responses and I have had a few people make donations, and I have exactly one person paying monthly. What am I missing?
Liz’s 10% paid rate is likely because her first one hundred subs likely included a lot of friends and family. Nothing wrong with that but as she grows the percentage is likely to go down. I went paid at 500 subs, now have 900 and about a 3% paid rate. I’d like to see that number bump up to at least 5%. Like a lot of things growth can take awhile to build momentum.
After writing Nichelle Newsletter for over three years, I finally went paid this week. One reason is because people really like my newsletter and have offered to pay for it. Two, it is because I got laid off from a restaurant that closed after five years of being open. I worked there for four years. I only got 48 hours notice that I was losing my job. My plan is to post at least twice a week and to do exclusive podcasts for paid subscribers. I have seven subscribers in less than a week.
✏️🟧 I write or publish posts 6 days a week on napping. I’m looking to encourage my subscribers to use Notes to report on their experience with the subject of my Substack: napping. Share when they take a nap, respond to questions related to napping that might inform future posts, etc. I find that most of the folks I know only read via email, rather than engaging through the Substack app. Any thoughts re ways I might utilize the platform and Notes to improve engagement?
✏️ - I have not gone paid and I am curious to hear from people who have...
- do you offer anything to paid subscribers that free subscribers don’t receive? If so, what?
- and for those who have paid subscriptions on but who have all their writing freely available: do you get many paid subscriptions? And do you think you’d get more if you put some of your writing behind a pay wall?
Anyone who takes the time to answer any of these questions I greatly appreciate it.
Don’t be afraid to ask for money for your work. There’s a lot of back and forth on the integrity of doing that, but if you’re a serious writer who values your work: There’s 100% nothing wrong with asking for compensation for your art. Nothing could be more reasonable. I started with 50 free subs (friends and family) August 24 of last year. Eleven months later I have 900 subs with 75 paying. I write regular, quality prose and I ask for money.
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
What are some of your best suggestions on going paid?
I have figured out a plan that I’m planning to implement but I would like to know things you’ve tried and they worked. Or things which failed to help.
Katie I hesitate to go paid too soon. Been on for 9 months and wrote poems of inspiration. I do t want to turn off the members that read it everyday. I find it’s a turnoff if done the wrong way. Any suggestions? Thanks.
🧠 *I do not get hung up on numbers.* You don’t need 1k subscribers to “go paid”. If someone wants to support you then please let them. In fact, just having a little paid support will hopefully make you more consistent in publishing. Judiciously view your stats but don’t let numbers control your emotions or feelings of self-worth. One paid subscriber means you have a paying audience. They are worth it. Keep doing the work. You will get better. And the Substack community wants to support you. We want you to do well.
🧠 I currently have 319 free subscriptions and one paid subscription. After reading the comments on here, I am wondering if it would be a good thing to do a post on why I have a pay option. (you know, supporting artists and all that)
✏️ Hi everyone! Fairly new to Substack here. I currently use Substack to publish my newsletters and am nearing my first 100 subscribers! I have an idea for the kind of content that I might provide to paid subscribers, and I also have a technical questions regarding how I might go about setting up paid.
For some context, I run a grant writing consultancy focused on regenerative agriculture. We provide a lot of educational information and awareness to folks who are involved in agriculture or related nonprofits and want to learn about applying for grants as well as what grant opportunities are out there. I big goal of mine is to help these readers to connect with others who may have similar ideas and therefore have strength in numbers that may help them to build out fundable projects.
My first question in regards to this is can I make a paid community groups? What kind of Substack/strategies would work best for such a group that I might be the orchestrator of? Thoughts? Suggestions?
✏️ I've been reviewing movies free for 20 months now, and I recently went paid. The earth didn't move. I fear some readers aren't even seeing the "Upgrade to Paid" button. Or maybe they are and just don't want to pay me. Okay, I understand that. I publish reviews every Sunday at noon, but I don't offer premium content -- I don't have the time -- so I'm asking them to pay in support of my work. In any case, since the slow movie release period is now underway, I'm going on hiatus for all of August and the first part of September. Not that many interesting movies to write about.
I'll be sending the hiatus notice this Sunday, and I'm going to include in it a HARD push to "Upgrade to Paid". On top of the "Upgrade to Paid" button I'll insert a rule with a short note saying, "Here's where you can Upgrade to Paid". I know that sounds desperate. I'm desperate. I can't go on doing this without bringing in a modest amount of dough. Modest. But I've got to have some return. I love doing this. But I'm income-challenged, you might say. Anybody else feel something like this? If you think I'm pipe-dreaming, please tell me. I often feel that way myself.
For my second Substack I'm thinking about crowdfunding on a platform like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. I've done a photography book before this way, but launching a Substack is different. It's not a tangible thing you can send to funders, unless you've got a related book or merch. Anyone here do this before? I'm trying to decide btwn the two platforms.
✏️ - I have a question about tiers for subscribers. Another substack author has configured his account so people can subscribe based on what they can afford. $10/year, $20/year, and so on, up to $100/year. How can I enable a similar system?
🟧 If someone signs up for a yearly subscription, do they still get billed monthly? Or it is billed all at once?
🧠 I started out going paid from the very beginning. I don't know if it was the right thing or not since Substack strategies encouraged me to make my newsletter paid later on, but I do have some paid subscribers now and even founding members and they are those who are really into my work. So alls well that ends well. If you give it a few months and get a few paid subscribers, even those few will be a vindication of both your writing and the monetization of your newsletter. After all, your writing is worth something if it's good, compelling and meaningful to other people.
✏️The issue I have (and still haven't come to peace with) is with paywalled content vs. free content. I think that while it's fine to start having paid subs at the beginning, the initial perks should not include paywall content but something else that doesn't affect your writing. I found that I couldn't put in as much effort for my paywall articles as the free stuff for the simple reason that people were reading the free stuff, and virtually nobody was reading the paywall stuff. Maybe some people can squeeze motivation out of $5-7 a month from 1 or 2 paid subs, but for me it was eyeballs. Maybe it's better to have paywalled content after, say, twenty paid subscribers? I'm curious if other people have that issue.
✏️ Like others have mentioned here, I am struggling with what to offer as incentives for going paid besides offering my archives. I enjoy writing for everyone and hesitate to paywall new posts as I feel like my writing offers encouragement to others and I don’t want to be selective in offering said encouragement. I am in a bit of a quandary if anyone has any tips ✍🏼
@substack I would love to see the rate of conversion from free to paid subscribers by CATEGORY . I am sure it will really give perspective to a lot of creators
✏️ I've started in May and have been publishing at a weekly rate. Till now I have published 13 articles. Some of them have been very well received with thousands of views from outside. I do want to go paid, but I am not able to figure out what exclusives I can offer to the paid subscribers.
Most of my articles are long-form and take considerable amount of research and time for me to write. So in a way they themselves are valuable. However, if I close them then I will stop driving outside traffic which is bringing new free subscribers.
✏️ How do you even know if your subs will pay ? Doesnt it affect morale ?
🟧 good afternoon, I am planning to release a first collection of short (paid) sports-themed stories with a moral on Substack, a progression from my factual analysis column ‘why sport matters’. Despite intensive research I have many questions that I am desperate for the Substack team to answer. May I at least start with - 1. can one email a LINK to subscribers, not the actual text, which at 10k words would be too long for some inboxes. 2. if someone subscribes three stories in, does the system allow them to ‘see what they’ve missed. Huge thanks and best wishes, Lee W x
Hi everyone, so many useful things below! I feel as though I’ve hit a bit of a growth wall as I haven’t had any new subscribers in a while (I only publish twice a month at the moment as I am still working full time- hoping to increase this soon) so any tips would be greatly appreciated. I’ve tried notes but they don’t seem to get much traction and I am hopefully collaborating with a fellow substacker soon! Thanks so much - I really appreciate all your insight!
🟧 I am brand new. Is this thread still active after the office hours are over? If not, is there a regular schedule of Office Hours sessions I can consult to catch the next one?
I've selected "accept payments" and set up an account with Stripe, but I've received no feedback and those wanting to pay continue to be listed as pledges. What's up?!
This is pretty basic, but I don't understand where to place the paywall. SUBSTACK really doesn't explain that very well, and I have tons of free subs I'd like to convert.
✏️ Hi All !
I have been working on a new newsletter called Rooms where I feature creative individuals homes as well as a brief interview regarding their thoughts on design - https://rooms.substack.com/
-Wanted to ask what growth strategies worked best in the early days for everyone?
-Would also love any general feedback or ideas to improve the newsletter
If anyone would like to be featured or knows someone who might, send them my way!
🟧 Happy Office Hours all!
I've been running 4 subscription tiers (free, paid, founding and group) for the past 10 months since I migrated to Substack from Mailchimp. Yet, conversion to paid is still low.
Open rate is solid so i know the content is good.
Should I keep existing tiers as they are as it takes longer to see paid subs spike (any stats?) modify tiers or should I switch to everything free and have people use pledges?
Thoughts?
I went paid pretty early on because I had a pre-existing list. The problem I'm dealing with though is knowing what value to give people. One of the things I struggle with, no matter what I post, is getting feedback from people. I pose questions, ask for responses, share polls and give people a chance to tell me what they'd like, but I rarely get anything from my community. It's the single most frustrating aspect of this process.
I started with Substack about 3 months ago and its been an amazing experience. My mission is to "separate health fact from fiction, because your wellness shouldn't be based on magic beans and unicorn tears. I do the research, so you don't have to. No lab coat required."
Sarah Fay from Writers at Work has excellent information on how to navigate through Substack. Check it out. It has helped me!! And she encouraged me to go paid and not wait. So, I'm going PAID on August 1st. Substack Support has also been extremely helpful. They have answered all my personal questions.
Worth it if you still have 0 pledges?
What are some unique perks writers are offering paid/founding members? The common/default ones seem to be access to pay-walled archives, bonus posts, pay-walling comments/chat, "support the cause," yada yada. I'm curious to learn about the more unusual tactics!
Has anyone experimented with offering "merch" as a gift for higher level subscribers? For example, a coffee mug with the newsletter's logo on it?
For my part, I went paid immediately. I previously had a subscription-based newsletter on Patreon and switched here with that so it wasn’t a question for me.
My goal is to get 1000 people to pay $100 annually in support of my work and my larger mission to change the cultural narrative around art from one of “must produce constant content” to “slow evolving creativity benefits us all”.
I have been slow to get those paid subscriptions but I keep working at it. And I offer a pay what you can option for people who find themselves at a lower budget.
✏️ - I'm curious if anyone has seen a drop-off or stagnation in paid subscribers lately with all the talk of inflation and recession. My paid subscription rates have totally stagnated and I'm trying to figure out why.