Can You Make Money with a Substack Newsletter (and Should you Try)?

Pocket money or new career, it's up to you

Apr 01, 2023

Hi,

If you love writing online and want to make money from it, you’ve probably heard that you need an email list. Email lists are the number one way to earn money by writing - either by selling products or services to your readers, or by asking your readers to pay you directly for your writing with a subscription model.

Substack makes it easy to build an email list and monetise it.

But with hundreds of thousands of newsletters on Substack, is it really possible for an ordinary, new writer to make money? Or are only the ‘big players’ successful on Substack?

Can you actually make money with a Substack newsletter?

The short answer is yes!

But it's important to have realistic expectations. You're not going to make a million dollars right away. So before you start a Substack newsletter, it’s important to ask yourself a few questions:

Do you want to quit your job and start a new career?
Are you looking for a side hustle to earn some extra coffee money?
Or do you just want to start writing and creating for fun?

All three are achievable on the Substack platform, but it's important to set your priorities before getting started.

It's also important to know that building a successful newsletter is a long-haul game. You're not going to get rich overnight, no matter what e-marketing course you take. That only happens for writers who pay tens of thousands of dollars for ads or to influencers to sneak their way into success. Or for writers who are already famous.

So, assuming you're a normal person like me, success on Substack (or any platform) comes down to time, repetition, and quality. If you follow the advice below, and are willing to be patient, you can be on your way to making money with Substack.

Switching careers

If you're here to start a new career, know that it takes time. For me, Substack writing is now a significant proportion of my ‘career’ but that didn’t happen overnight.

I started writing online as a side hustle while in a corporate job, and the success of that side hustle gave me the confidence to leave when my corporate bosses began pressuring me to return to the office after covid. But I had been side-hustling for almost six years before I took that leap (I was also single-handedly raising two teenagers, so the corporate salary was a necessity).

Success on Substack (and any platform) takes time, and there are no shortcuts to building an audience or improving your writing skills.

So my advice, if you want Substack to be your career, is to do it on the side for a while and gain some traction before you jump in head-first. Either way, start right now and learn the basics so you can improve and iterate as you go.

The side hustle

If you are looking for a source of extra (but not main) income, Substack is a brilliant choice!

One of the nice things about newsletters is that you don't necessarily need to work on them full-time. The choice is completely yours if you want to put in 1 hour a week or 20. And since this is a time-based game, it makes sense to do a little work consistently every week to slowly build a content base and an audience.

The magic of Substack, compared to a normal blog, is that your audience and following grows right alongside your content production.

Just here for fun

If you're a hobby writer looking to showcase your work and get more eyes on it, Substack could be the perfect platform for you. It's free to use and super user-friendly, so you won't end up wrestling with technical challenges. Instead, you can focus on writing interesting, valuable content.

Of course, there are plenty of other places to post your writing as a hobbyist, but right now, my personal favorites are Substack and Medium. One of the great things about Substack is that it's completely free to use, unlike some other blogging platforms that can be expensive or time-consuming to set up.

If you're just starting out and not looking to make money, freemium platforms that are easy to use - like Substack - are perfect for you. And who knows, if people really enjoy your work, you always have the option to start earning some cash from it too!

What’s your plan?

Substack has something to offer for everyone, whether you're a hobby writer, a professional journalist or even looking to create a new career for yourself.

Just remember that success on any platform takes time, so be patient and keep at it. With a little persistence, you could definitely end up earning a few extra dollars each month, and perhaps much much more.

Let me know what your plans and goals are in the comments, and have a productive week,

Karen