Hey hello there, Karen here!
I’m an Aussie business owner and water sports addict with a split personality.
On Substack I have a paid publication that makes $21K+ per year, published under my real name,
. It’s for food safety professionals (niche!).I also run this publication,
, where I’m known as . Here I help other creators by sharing everything I’ve learned on my way to building solid, recurring revenue with my paid publication.When I launched my first Substack newsletter in 2021 I was stumbling around in the weeds. It was easy to start a newsletter but hard (so hard) to figure out how to monetize.
I knew Substack had potential – if only there was some proven way to unlock it!
At the time there was nowhere to ‘learn’ Substack. No books, no ‘How to Substack’ publications, and no support bot to hold my hand - I soon realised I would have to figure it out for myself.
I started to forensically examine what other creators were doing to make money with Substack and began to collect and sort through the countless strategies and systems they were using.
Meanwhile, I was writing: one newsletter per week for an audience that didn’t even exist on day one.
Three years later, my first newsletter publication is going from strength to strength. I’ve written 168 regular weekly issues, 420 posts in total and made $55K. Gotta tell you, it feels amazing!
A year later I launched this newsletter to share everything I was learning about growing and succeeding on Substack. As of December 2024, I have 7,771 subscribers in my two publications.
Honestly, it’s not a lot. There are tens of thousands of Substack creators making more money than me and hundreds of thousands with more subscribers. Thing is, most of those creators aren’t sharing their secrets. The ones that do mostly make money on Substack by talking about making money on Substack.
My paid publication isn’t about Substack. And my paying subscribers don’t care about Substack – they probably don’t even know what it is.
I’m living proof that you can make money with Substack writing about topics that have nothing to do with writing online or the creator economy.
So, here I am, writing a free publication every week as a side-side-hustle. Why? Because I want you to succeed too.
I want you to learn from me, take inspiration from what I’ve achieved and use the insights I share to do even better than me. I want you to smash your goals, to kick them out of the park. I want you to build a Substack empire with millions of dollars of income and surpass even your wildest dreams.
This publication will get you started.
By the way…. How’s your About page?
A good About page describes why a newsletter exists, and what a reader can expect from it. It explains a little about who you are and who your intended readers are too. The aim is to have a potential subscriber think “This sounds fun/interesting/helpful, this newsletter is for me”.
It’s also okay to use your About page to disqualify readers who aren’t your ‘tribe’. For example, my other newsletter is for a very specific professional audience and definitely not for everyone. That’s okay! I deal with this by describing exactly who the newsletter is for so I don’t waste anyone’s time.
Use your About page to show off your best work, share what others are saying and let your readers know where to find you. And of course, your About page should encourage new readers to become subscribers.
Best Posts of Pubstack Success
How to Customize Your Substack Pub
Social proof
Social proof is a great addition to any About page. It encourages new readers to ‘follow the smart people’ and sign up. Here’s some social proof for my work:
Where you can find me
I live in Sydney, Australia and hang out on Substack Notes and Medium.
In 2024, I appeared in the No to Normal podcast , talking about how to monetize a community with Substack (Episode 35) and
where I shared what inspired me to start writing on Substack and discuss the challenges I have faced along the way.Before you go… I wrote a book for you!
If you love my work but don’t have time to wade through all my posts and tutorials you need my book. It’s sharp, focused and packed with clear, actionable advice about how to get your Substack publication growing and monetized successfully in weeks, not months.
Got questions? Need help? Send me a DM and let’s talk. Cheers!
