Thank you for this Karen. The timing for me is perfect. This week marked one year of weekly posts for my Substack. I have 511 subscribers with 20 paid. The majority of those paid have been with me for months - converting more has been a slog these past few months and I think it is because I haven’t been clear or consistent with my offer to readers as to what else they will receive if they upgrade. And I think it’s because I’m overthinking it all.
I love Annabel’s approach above. I love your reminders here that sometimes less is more. Sometimes we over complicate creativity. Sometimes we get in our own way 🙃
An insightful and helpful post, thank you. I am enjoying my writing and don’t want to get into the downside of ‘having to’ produce material. I’d much rather stay in the realm of ‘wanting to’ produce my Newsletters. The original aim was twice a month but as I get into it I will do more. I will have some sort of monetisation eventually. It may be a paid subscription scheme but all posts will go to free subscribers too. I will probably offer paid subscribers extras. Discounts on my products, 1-2-1 advice, webinars, tutorials etc are my thoughts at the moment. I feel I should make better use of Notes as I have always been one for shorter posts.
Substack is providing me with interesting but rewarding challenges and I feel it’s working better for me both for reading and writing, than Medium has.
I have close to 600 subscribers and 50 paid. I write what I want when I want. And ALL of it goes to everyone. I am upfront about this.
I want people in general to read my stuff.
My pitch to paid subscribers is that they are supporting my work. I am clear that I only want people who can afford it and find value in my writing to pay. And they do.
This approach has served me well and I believe it has served my readers well.
Wow Annabel, that's an impressive conversion rate, well done! Thank you for being transparent with your numbers. So glad that readers are supporting your work.
Hi Karen! Thank you for this timely advice. You have really made me think about my Substack. I haven't written all summer, I thought I'd lost my inspiration, but your advice has made me realise that's not true; what I really need is to reassess, and drill down on my offer and be more specific with my content. Thank you again! 💕
This was so specific and helpful. My conversion rate has been high, but it has plateaued. I have almost 700 (699) subscribers and 110 paid. I removed the paywalls to create more of an NPR-type model because that is more inline with my mission. After reading your advice, I think I need to make it clearer what problem I’m solving for my readers. I haven’t made a push for paid subscribers the way I had planned because I was diagnosed with cancer the week after my announcement. I was uncertain how consistently I would be able to publish. This has given me more ideas about how to plan it when I’m ready to make my push.
After reading this I'm almost ready to back to free subscribers only. I'm not providing the value I myself would read. my paid subscribers are who keep me going. It's an emotional and financial boost that helps build the why. The problem is I'm all over the map and can't seem to commit to a narrowed down topic. It's a work in progress. This is a really interesting post, thank you for doing a deep dive. On the subject of the Substack gurus, or shall I say those who claim the fame, I'm staying as far away as possible. You'd better provide liquid gold for a $300 an hour consultation. I've done two and would have rather thrown the money out the window than listen to the "me, me, me, my way" group. I gained more value from a fellow writer/subscriber than anything I paid for. But maybe I haven't found the right person.
Thank you for this Karen. The timing for me is perfect. This week marked one year of weekly posts for my Substack. I have 511 subscribers with 20 paid. The majority of those paid have been with me for months - converting more has been a slog these past few months and I think it is because I haven’t been clear or consistent with my offer to readers as to what else they will receive if they upgrade. And I think it’s because I’m overthinking it all.
I love Annabel’s approach above. I love your reminders here that sometimes less is more. Sometimes we over complicate creativity. Sometimes we get in our own way 🙃
An insightful and helpful post, thank you. I am enjoying my writing and don’t want to get into the downside of ‘having to’ produce material. I’d much rather stay in the realm of ‘wanting to’ produce my Newsletters. The original aim was twice a month but as I get into it I will do more. I will have some sort of monetisation eventually. It may be a paid subscription scheme but all posts will go to free subscribers too. I will probably offer paid subscribers extras. Discounts on my products, 1-2-1 advice, webinars, tutorials etc are my thoughts at the moment. I feel I should make better use of Notes as I have always been one for shorter posts.
Substack is providing me with interesting but rewarding challenges and I feel it’s working better for me both for reading and writing, than Medium has.
I have close to 600 subscribers and 50 paid. I write what I want when I want. And ALL of it goes to everyone. I am upfront about this.
I want people in general to read my stuff.
My pitch to paid subscribers is that they are supporting my work. I am clear that I only want people who can afford it and find value in my writing to pay. And they do.
This approach has served me well and I believe it has served my readers well.
Wow Annabel, that's an impressive conversion rate, well done! Thank you for being transparent with your numbers. So glad that readers are supporting your work.
I love not being a paid newsletter.
Hi Karen! Thank you for this timely advice. You have really made me think about my Substack. I haven't written all summer, I thought I'd lost my inspiration, but your advice has made me realise that's not true; what I really need is to reassess, and drill down on my offer and be more specific with my content. Thank you again! 💕
This was so specific and helpful. My conversion rate has been high, but it has plateaued. I have almost 700 (699) subscribers and 110 paid. I removed the paywalls to create more of an NPR-type model because that is more inline with my mission. After reading your advice, I think I need to make it clearer what problem I’m solving for my readers. I haven’t made a push for paid subscribers the way I had planned because I was diagnosed with cancer the week after my announcement. I was uncertain how consistently I would be able to publish. This has given me more ideas about how to plan it when I’m ready to make my push.
After reading this I'm almost ready to back to free subscribers only. I'm not providing the value I myself would read. my paid subscribers are who keep me going. It's an emotional and financial boost that helps build the why. The problem is I'm all over the map and can't seem to commit to a narrowed down topic. It's a work in progress. This is a really interesting post, thank you for doing a deep dive. On the subject of the Substack gurus, or shall I say those who claim the fame, I'm staying as far away as possible. You'd better provide liquid gold for a $300 an hour consultation. I've done two and would have rather thrown the money out the window than listen to the "me, me, me, my way" group. I gained more value from a fellow writer/subscriber than anything I paid for. But maybe I haven't found the right person.
Thank you for giving us something to chew on here.