What Makes You Pay For A Substack Subscription?
A poll
I’ve got a question for you. And although it might sound super-needy 😁, my aim with this question is not to find out what would make you pay for my publication, but to collect some data to help you with your publication.
Clear? Nope? Stay with me.
In 2022, after launching paid subscriptions in my other publication, I ran a survey of readers and discovered there were three types of people when it came to paying for a newsletter.
The information was valuable because it helped me build a way better strategy and almost doubled my conversion rate.
But times have changed, and readers have changed too. So let’s find out together what makes people pay for Substack subscriptions in 2025.
In this post, there are four questions to answer.
Tell me how you feel about paid subscriptions by reading the questions below and clicking on the buttons that best represent your thoughts. If you’re reading in your email inbox, clicking will open the online version of the post.
For the next two polls, I haven’t provided you with a “Don’t know/Not sure” option1, so just hit the price point that would make you go No way - don’t overthink it.
What did I miss?
What else would you like to know?
What other thoughts would you like to share?
Let us know in the comments.
Please share this post!
More poll answers = better information for everyone.
Share this post by re-stacking it to Notes (click the circle-arrow icon at the bottom of the post).
Tell your Substack besties about it by dropping a link in your next post.
Steal this idea and poll your readers - find out what motivates them.
But most of all, spread the word about this poll so we can get the best possible dataset.
The results
If you’re late to this post, there should already be some results in the polls for you to see. Otherwise, pop back in a week or so to see the results.
These polls have no expiry date, so they will keep collecting data as long as people keep finding this post.
I’ll publish a breakdown and key learnings next month.
Have a fabulous week,
Karen
I did this because poll results are significantly more useful if all respondents are forced to make a choice.
Hi there, the main thing that makes me want to subscribe, after finding the writer interesting, resonant, and aligned with who I am, is their desire to form a connection with me. Be that by opening up comments to everyone (not behind a paywall— how am I supposed to get to know you enough to commit to you financially, if I can’t interact with you directly?) or responding to my questions and being genuinely interested in connecting. Too often, I feel the attitude on Substack is “pay me” instead of “let’s connect and see where it leads.” I’ve canceled subscriptions bc someone doesn’t bother to thank me, or interact back. The only people I’m willing to support are those who reciprocate my presence with their presence.
I pay for several subscriptions. I've only been on Substack since June but find that now I tend to follow people first before signing up for a free sub if the others are paid for. At first I signed up to a lot where the free subscription tier description said 'occasional public posts' thinking I'd be quite happy with that frequency to start with and maybe upgrade to paid at some point.
But I have to admit (this may be a bit controversial!) that I get fed up with also getting the emails that are for paying subscribers ... but just the first para or so. Arg! I realise the idea is to show what you're missing, but my inbox has become cluttered because of it so I've unsubscribed to a few. I don't mind the odd 'look at what you'd get' email, but would really appreciate it if more substack accounts would click on the 'send to paid subscribers only' button more often.🙂