I don't regret going paid, but I do regret paywalling my Friday post. 2.5 years in. 250 subs. 8 Paid. It doesn't really matter I guess, since I'll just keep making/writing either way but I had some hope of it growing. Open rates are nice, which I guess I can actually thank my 250 engaged readers for that! Though it bums me out disproportionately when I see people moaning about their 3000 subs and they've only been on here for 4 months or something. (I'm exaggerating) Thanks for sharing your math! (Or maths as I would say)
Hey Jen -- thanks for tagging me! Your analysis is astute and spot on. The Substack math is grim, even if you're crushing it like Alex D. My guy Michael Estrin, who's amazing and so funny, has a similarly dismal conversion rate. Last I checked he had about 90 paid subs on a subscriber base of well over 4,000. For full transparency, I have 25 on a base of about 800.
Before becoming a full-time writer I got a fancy MBA and worked in many corporate settings, so I knew the business and marketing challenges of writing a paid newsletter were substantial. Even still, I'd say the model has been more difficult to execute than I expected. It's a really, really tough business.
Thanks for linking to the webinar I'm doing with Jane Friedman on November 17 as well. I'm very excited about it, because it's going to be an important discussion about the viability of this model, and Jane has a massive audience of over 30,000 readers who will certainly be interested in the topic. Hopefully you registered, too!
Finally, at the risk of more self-promotion, I discussed the challenges of the model in the following interview, and how I've adapted my paid strategy over time. Most of the relevant discussion happens in the first 20-odd minutes: https://ifnotparis.substack.com/p/finishing-the-hat-w-amran-gowani
Thanks for commenting, and for the link! I've queued the audio for my walk later today, but this quote from the written synopsis got me: “The best way to make money as a writer is to dupe other writers who don’t know anything about business.” This is partly why I wasn't intending to write a stats post for my first year - I feared coming across this way.
Awesome! It's a fun listen and hopefully you find it entertaining, if not informative.
Preying on the uninformed is a staple of vulture capitalism, so I totally get your perspective. I've found, however, that real talk on this stuff is particularly valuable for writers. Nobody wants to hear they're going to fail, but better to know before you waste money on schemers who are all too willing to sell you a false narrative.
I decided to abandon the paid option (or at least stop mentioning it or having anything paywalled), as, similar to how you describe, being essentially a personal essay writer and a decidedly horrible self-promoter, it was too much stress and time to try and get "paid" for my newsletter. I began this newsletter thing not for money but to tell my stories and hopefully find community. Success on both fronts!
I have about 270 subscribers and about a 50 percent open rate, which seems good enough for me. My paids maxed out at 6 and my wife was one of them, so really it was 5. I assume all new subscribers find me via one of the other writers who follow me or comment on a post I write. I don't attend Thursday open forums (I'm working at that time) and I rarely go on Notes. So I don't expect the numbers to go up, and I don't care all that much if they do. I've got a solid base and that is friggin' awesome.
I come to read your 'Stack because I love your writing and value your outlook on life. I don't have kids or a vagina yet I always get something out of your parenting-focused and female-focused posts! I was proud to be the one dude who commented on your menopause piece!
I think a 50% open rate is great! Mine is in the low 50s as well. Thanks for showing up in my comment section! Your substack is so relatable, and I love it. Music is a huge part of my creative process, so I love your personal essays around earworms.
I am also on Substack to write, get better at writing & (maybe) put together a book some may like to read. Thanks for reminding me as a personal essayist that I don’t have to feel badly about not offering things I don’t even want to offer. I’ve been here a long time, my subscriptions are slow, but my open rate is (usually) high. I’m good with that, for now.
Thank you so much for being so open about it! I haven’t come even close to thinking about going paid or god forbid relying on substack for income but this is really interesting insight. A lot of food for thought. I definitely think your now not very recent rebrand should be counted into the substack math! ☺️
I agree mostly with your perspective here! And can really appreciate your realism and love how it releases a sense of pressure and therefore simply frees you up to write. I also do think there needs to be an honesty about the “get rich quick” etc because this IS a slow burn kinda love.
AND
I do believe that if we want to change the game for ourselves we have to throw realism out the window. Maybe not in it’s entirety but enough for magic to move in.
I can try offer a personal example
I began Substack with a more “personal musings” approach.
I came over here with around 500 free subs from a community I had build trust with on instagram for over a decade.
I thought people would just want to read about my thoughts and life updates. I had enough of a reputation on my Instagram for that to be true BUT the people of Substack had no idea who I was so I was limited to just trying to call over my Instagram audience into this space rather than growing through Substack. Substackians didn’t want to read about my random musings haha
There’s a “likely and realistic” outcome for me if I continued to share my musings which was- what I really enjoyed writing about.
Though my vision here is similar to you in the sense that I want to be full time here rather than anywhere else.
So even though it made sense for me to keep writing the way I had, and treating myself as a bit of a Substack noob haha (in my first 6 months here).
I asked myself what if I took it seriously- what if I did go all in? What would that look like and am I willing? Could I pivot and still be in integrity, how could I make space for magic.
To me that looked like studying the platform, reading and researching, etc
It looked like me pivoting with my Substack branding and intention to make it clearer for people what I offer AND made it all more community focused rather than “me” focused. I began showing up on notes way more and really going above and beyond to interact with people here in a meaningful way.
With that- the realistic expectations dissolved and because I made space for change, magic entered, and now things are growing with more and more momentum because I shifted my posture and how I held my space here.
I think I share that simply to offset that there is a “realistic” path for each of the different ways we COULD use this space and so I think it’s important to reflect on how attached we are to doing it all in one specific way or if we are open to a new way with a different version of realistic that maybe could feel more rewarding ?
Yes, exactly! I love this mental shift you describe in your last couple paragraphs that went along with digging in to engage more.
"I asked myself what if I took it seriously- what if I did go all in? What would that look like and am I willing? Could I pivot and still be in integrity, how could I make space for magic."
This "all in" that you speak of is spot on. I recognized early that I don't currently have the margin to go all in, so instead of upping my engagement, I decided to reset my expectations to better suit the time and space I do have for engaging.
I will add that I used to say, "I'm going to write here like it's my job!" Turns out my actual job didn't really allow for that kind of time commitment. LOL This is my idealism again.
I love your transparency here. It helps everyone else on the same journey. And for anyone's info, I'm NOT paying to read Cheryl Strayed. Or Elizabeth Gilbert for that matter. They don't need my help 😂 I'd much rather support regular folks like you and I who actually appreciate the little guys carving their pathways.
Oh my gooooooooosh the F bombs from the 3 year olds! I had my second child when my first was that age, and all the oldest heard from me were F bombs for months. I was sooooo frustrated by that age combo. Well well well, the oldest’s language was COLORFUL those first months and I was too stressed to do anything about it. I really enjoyed this post, thank you (And I hate math! lol sad face) Cancer is good for business omg 😱 good one. I love some black humor around the house. Sending 🫶🏽 to all of you!
Adding my thanks and appreciation for this post. It seemed to me to be about much more than the numbers, it's about why we turn up here. As a newbie, I'm learning a lot right now, above all about my writing habit. And your reflections on the platform are some of the most insightful I've read.
I really appreciated this post and your style of writing made me hit subscribe before I was even a paragraph in.
I just hit 350 subs in my fourth month here, with no following to bring over other than probably 50-60 friends from Facebook who appreciated my rants and funny observations about living with long COVID. I have not turned on paid subscriptions because I’m on private disability and in the middle of my SSDI appeal as well. I feel like if I make any money here, they’re going to deduct it from my checks. And why have my good readers paying for what disability should be paying for? And furthermore, I don’t want disability to put my newsletter on their radar and find a way to use my ability to write it to say, “SEE? You CAN work!” (my one post a week literally takes me all week to write, in short increments of time. There is no way I could sustain even p/t employment right now).
While it sucks not to be able to go paid (I have at least 10 pledges right now, not all from friends or relatives, including one hefty founding pledge), in a way this time has given me a chance to better analyze the paid/paywall/growth situation on Substack based on reading posts like this and ones from guys like Alex and Amran.
What I’ve concluded is this: if I ever go paid, I’m not paywalling anything. I’m not doing preview posts or paywalling my comments sections (those two things from writers here drive me away so fast - I won’t even open posts that say preview - why should I start to read something I can’t finish? - and the comments thing is a huge missed opportunity at engagement that would likely turn many folks into paid subs. So I think both are misguided).
But the reasons I wouldn’t paywall anything are two-fold: as someone with significant disability, I can’t promise you anything extra. One post a week sometimes wrecks me.
And the second reason applies to anyone writing or reading here: how often have you paid for a subscription and then sat in your house with nothing to do wondering if the person’s free subs were getting as much content as you were?
I’ll bet the answer is never. Who has time to tee-total here on Substack like that? I don’t have a JOB and even I don’t have time to do that. Nor would I want to. If I’ve started paying you (from my extremely limited income), it’s because I DIG YOUR STUFF so much that I just want you to keep doing it. My hope in humanity is that that’s why most readers here go paid. They love what we’re doing. They don’t necessarily need more of it. They value what you already give.
You remind me of SB—both of you have an amazing way with words. But you have a way better sense of humor! If the writing thing doesn’t pan out I think you could do standup.
Does it show “opened” if someone just reads it in email or only if we click through to this page?
My second anniversary will be in March. My goal for 2023 was to double my free-subscription numbers and possibly hit 500. I've doubled my numbers and less than 70 away from 500! Yes, paid subs is a struggle, but as you said, I want people to read my stuff so I need to keep most of it free. I've decided to paywall the stuff that gives readers more intimate access to me, and I'm slowly figuring out what that means.
I agree wholeheartedly. When I started looking under the hood of many popular newsletters and saw how few have a critical mass of paid subscribers, it just made no sense to charge for my own. I am not trying to replace my income as a copywriter and editor with SS subscriptions. That would be an ungodly feat. My goals with SS are similar to yours, and I appreciate your candor in letting everyone know what you want and what you've learned. Thank you.
I don't regret going paid, but I do regret paywalling my Friday post. 2.5 years in. 250 subs. 8 Paid. It doesn't really matter I guess, since I'll just keep making/writing either way but I had some hope of it growing. Open rates are nice, which I guess I can actually thank my 250 engaged readers for that! Though it bums me out disproportionately when I see people moaning about their 3000 subs and they've only been on here for 4 months or something. (I'm exaggerating) Thanks for sharing your math! (Or maths as I would say)
I 100% agree with your “slow and steady” strategy-- especially if compared to writing clickbait or hustle culture stuff.
So far, I’m still paywalling the one post weekly, but it seems to work well? I dunno. I haven’t quite figured it all out yet, either!
Someday, we’ll get to retire to full time writing!
P.S. The laptop looks great! Strong sticker game.
Seems like you're killing it! And yes, I do have a significant sticker addiction. LOL
Thanks! This is some of the most fun writing I have all week, and I'm just stoked people seem to enjoy it.
Hey Jen -- thanks for tagging me! Your analysis is astute and spot on. The Substack math is grim, even if you're crushing it like Alex D. My guy Michael Estrin, who's amazing and so funny, has a similarly dismal conversion rate. Last I checked he had about 90 paid subs on a subscriber base of well over 4,000. For full transparency, I have 25 on a base of about 800.
Before becoming a full-time writer I got a fancy MBA and worked in many corporate settings, so I knew the business and marketing challenges of writing a paid newsletter were substantial. Even still, I'd say the model has been more difficult to execute than I expected. It's a really, really tough business.
Thanks for linking to the webinar I'm doing with Jane Friedman on November 17 as well. I'm very excited about it, because it's going to be an important discussion about the viability of this model, and Jane has a massive audience of over 30,000 readers who will certainly be interested in the topic. Hopefully you registered, too!
Finally, at the risk of more self-promotion, I discussed the challenges of the model in the following interview, and how I've adapted my paid strategy over time. Most of the relevant discussion happens in the first 20-odd minutes: https://ifnotparis.substack.com/p/finishing-the-hat-w-amran-gowani
I'm registered for the webinar!
Thanks for commenting, and for the link! I've queued the audio for my walk later today, but this quote from the written synopsis got me: “The best way to make money as a writer is to dupe other writers who don’t know anything about business.” This is partly why I wasn't intending to write a stats post for my first year - I feared coming across this way.
Awesome! It's a fun listen and hopefully you find it entertaining, if not informative.
Preying on the uninformed is a staple of vulture capitalism, so I totally get your perspective. I've found, however, that real talk on this stuff is particularly valuable for writers. Nobody wants to hear they're going to fail, but better to know before you waste money on schemers who are all too willing to sell you a false narrative.
I decided to abandon the paid option (or at least stop mentioning it or having anything paywalled), as, similar to how you describe, being essentially a personal essay writer and a decidedly horrible self-promoter, it was too much stress and time to try and get "paid" for my newsletter. I began this newsletter thing not for money but to tell my stories and hopefully find community. Success on both fronts!
I have about 270 subscribers and about a 50 percent open rate, which seems good enough for me. My paids maxed out at 6 and my wife was one of them, so really it was 5. I assume all new subscribers find me via one of the other writers who follow me or comment on a post I write. I don't attend Thursday open forums (I'm working at that time) and I rarely go on Notes. So I don't expect the numbers to go up, and I don't care all that much if they do. I've got a solid base and that is friggin' awesome.
I come to read your 'Stack because I love your writing and value your outlook on life. I don't have kids or a vagina yet I always get something out of your parenting-focused and female-focused posts! I was proud to be the one dude who commented on your menopause piece!
I think a 50% open rate is great! Mine is in the low 50s as well. Thanks for showing up in my comment section! Your substack is so relatable, and I love it. Music is a huge part of my creative process, so I love your personal essays around earworms.
I am also on Substack to write, get better at writing & (maybe) put together a book some may like to read. Thanks for reminding me as a personal essayist that I don’t have to feel badly about not offering things I don’t even want to offer. I’ve been here a long time, my subscriptions are slow, but my open rate is (usually) high. I’m good with that, for now.
I'm glad this resonated! So easy to lose our way when we forget why we're doing things.
Thank you so much for being so open about it! I haven’t come even close to thinking about going paid or god forbid relying on substack for income but this is really interesting insight. A lot of food for thought. I definitely think your now not very recent rebrand should be counted into the substack math! ☺️
hahaha thank you for the shoutout! also idk about 10% being the average! I feel likeI have heard that 5% is Reaaally Good for conversion rate but idk!
I agree mostly with your perspective here! And can really appreciate your realism and love how it releases a sense of pressure and therefore simply frees you up to write. I also do think there needs to be an honesty about the “get rich quick” etc because this IS a slow burn kinda love.
AND
I do believe that if we want to change the game for ourselves we have to throw realism out the window. Maybe not in it’s entirety but enough for magic to move in.
I can try offer a personal example
I began Substack with a more “personal musings” approach.
I came over here with around 500 free subs from a community I had build trust with on instagram for over a decade.
I thought people would just want to read about my thoughts and life updates. I had enough of a reputation on my Instagram for that to be true BUT the people of Substack had no idea who I was so I was limited to just trying to call over my Instagram audience into this space rather than growing through Substack. Substackians didn’t want to read about my random musings haha
There’s a “likely and realistic” outcome for me if I continued to share my musings which was- what I really enjoyed writing about.
Though my vision here is similar to you in the sense that I want to be full time here rather than anywhere else.
So even though it made sense for me to keep writing the way I had, and treating myself as a bit of a Substack noob haha (in my first 6 months here).
I asked myself what if I took it seriously- what if I did go all in? What would that look like and am I willing? Could I pivot and still be in integrity, how could I make space for magic.
To me that looked like studying the platform, reading and researching, etc
It looked like me pivoting with my Substack branding and intention to make it clearer for people what I offer AND made it all more community focused rather than “me” focused. I began showing up on notes way more and really going above and beyond to interact with people here in a meaningful way.
With that- the realistic expectations dissolved and because I made space for change, magic entered, and now things are growing with more and more momentum because I shifted my posture and how I held my space here.
I think I share that simply to offset that there is a “realistic” path for each of the different ways we COULD use this space and so I think it’s important to reflect on how attached we are to doing it all in one specific way or if we are open to a new way with a different version of realistic that maybe could feel more rewarding ?
Yes, exactly! I love this mental shift you describe in your last couple paragraphs that went along with digging in to engage more.
"I asked myself what if I took it seriously- what if I did go all in? What would that look like and am I willing? Could I pivot and still be in integrity, how could I make space for magic."
This "all in" that you speak of is spot on. I recognized early that I don't currently have the margin to go all in, so instead of upping my engagement, I decided to reset my expectations to better suit the time and space I do have for engaging.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment!
I will add that I used to say, "I'm going to write here like it's my job!" Turns out my actual job didn't really allow for that kind of time commitment. LOL This is my idealism again.
I love your transparency here. It helps everyone else on the same journey. And for anyone's info, I'm NOT paying to read Cheryl Strayed. Or Elizabeth Gilbert for that matter. They don't need my help 😂 I'd much rather support regular folks like you and I who actually appreciate the little guys carving their pathways.
I wish you much success in your journey! 😊
Aw, thank you! And thanks for commenting!
Oh my gooooooooosh the F bombs from the 3 year olds! I had my second child when my first was that age, and all the oldest heard from me were F bombs for months. I was sooooo frustrated by that age combo. Well well well, the oldest’s language was COLORFUL those first months and I was too stressed to do anything about it. I really enjoyed this post, thank you (And I hate math! lol sad face) Cancer is good for business omg 😱 good one. I love some black humor around the house. Sending 🫶🏽 to all of you!
Thanks for the reminder. I think I lost my “why” somewhere along the way and need to spend some time considering that.
It's so easy to lose the *why* when we get caught up in the current. Good to see your name and voice here again!
Adding my thanks and appreciation for this post. It seemed to me to be about much more than the numbers, it's about why we turn up here. As a newbie, I'm learning a lot right now, above all about my writing habit. And your reflections on the platform are some of the most insightful I've read.
Thank you, Jeffrey. And thanks for commenting!
I really appreciated this post and your style of writing made me hit subscribe before I was even a paragraph in.
I just hit 350 subs in my fourth month here, with no following to bring over other than probably 50-60 friends from Facebook who appreciated my rants and funny observations about living with long COVID. I have not turned on paid subscriptions because I’m on private disability and in the middle of my SSDI appeal as well. I feel like if I make any money here, they’re going to deduct it from my checks. And why have my good readers paying for what disability should be paying for? And furthermore, I don’t want disability to put my newsletter on their radar and find a way to use my ability to write it to say, “SEE? You CAN work!” (my one post a week literally takes me all week to write, in short increments of time. There is no way I could sustain even p/t employment right now).
While it sucks not to be able to go paid (I have at least 10 pledges right now, not all from friends or relatives, including one hefty founding pledge), in a way this time has given me a chance to better analyze the paid/paywall/growth situation on Substack based on reading posts like this and ones from guys like Alex and Amran.
What I’ve concluded is this: if I ever go paid, I’m not paywalling anything. I’m not doing preview posts or paywalling my comments sections (those two things from writers here drive me away so fast - I won’t even open posts that say preview - why should I start to read something I can’t finish? - and the comments thing is a huge missed opportunity at engagement that would likely turn many folks into paid subs. So I think both are misguided).
But the reasons I wouldn’t paywall anything are two-fold: as someone with significant disability, I can’t promise you anything extra. One post a week sometimes wrecks me.
And the second reason applies to anyone writing or reading here: how often have you paid for a subscription and then sat in your house with nothing to do wondering if the person’s free subs were getting as much content as you were?
I’ll bet the answer is never. Who has time to tee-total here on Substack like that? I don’t have a JOB and even I don’t have time to do that. Nor would I want to. If I’ve started paying you (from my extremely limited income), it’s because I DIG YOUR STUFF so much that I just want you to keep doing it. My hope in humanity is that that’s why most readers here go paid. They love what we’re doing. They don’t necessarily need more of it. They value what you already give.
In my experience, readers digging our stuff is exactly why they choose to go paid--far more so than the promise of any extra content (or whatever).
You remind me of SB—both of you have an amazing way with words. But you have a way better sense of humor! If the writing thing doesn’t pan out I think you could do standup.
Does it show “opened” if someone just reads it in email or only if we click through to this page?
Be well and keep going!
I feel this post so much for so many reasons.
My second anniversary will be in March. My goal for 2023 was to double my free-subscription numbers and possibly hit 500. I've doubled my numbers and less than 70 away from 500! Yes, paid subs is a struggle, but as you said, I want people to read my stuff so I need to keep most of it free. I've decided to paywall the stuff that gives readers more intimate access to me, and I'm slowly figuring out what that means.
Great post!
I agree wholeheartedly. When I started looking under the hood of many popular newsletters and saw how few have a critical mass of paid subscribers, it just made no sense to charge for my own. I am not trying to replace my income as a copywriter and editor with SS subscriptions. That would be an ungodly feat. My goals with SS are similar to yours, and I appreciate your candor in letting everyone know what you want and what you've learned. Thank you.