I find your comments about the paywall interesting. I do not paywall any of my content, nor do I use that kind of annoying technique where you get halfway through and then the rest is for paid subscribers. Honestly, I find it personally annoying, and I am trying to get a message out in addition to hopefully supplementing my income.
In terms of getting to know my readers, I only allow comments for paid subscribers, which I think is a big benefit, but I am not sure how compelling it really is. It does exempt me from the troll issue. I did a survey of readers the other day, and I got a whopping 10 responses. That particular technique of getting to know my readers has not worked very well. However, I have only tried it twice, so perhaps I can do a better job of trying to sell people on completing what was really a very short survey.
Yeah, low response rate for surveys is super common, George. Especially if your readers mostly read in their inboxes, rather than in the app. (since clicking through will be a pain in the neck)
My solution in my other publication (that's not about Substack) is to personally email new paying subscribers offering a free 1:1 call with my professional advice. They mostly don't say yes, but when they do, I get a great sense of who they are, what challenges they have and what they most value about my work.
Yes, that is a great idea. There is a guy who writes a Substack called Escape the Cubicle who advocates stuff like that, you know, white papers and listicles and all that stuff. I read it, but I never followed through on any of his suggestions, so I do not know if there is much point in reading it, but I still do.
At this point, that is not my game. I do not have a handy-dandy guide on how to save America. If I were to do anything, I think it would be an e-book, but I have not gotten motivated to do that. Maybe someday. Hey, there are days when I do, but today is not one of them. And you do not make much money off of books, from what I understand. So I am not that interested in a vanity project, and pulling together all the things that I have said over the last 18 months would be a challenge, even though I fancy myself as a quasi-professional writer. If I ever get to the point where I think I have enough material on how to succeed at Substack without really trying, I might go that route, because I do know that the people who seem to be monetizing—I do not want to say the best, because as somebody else said, if you bring a celebrity following in, you can make a ton of money. You can think of political figures and media figures who have crossed over. Paul Krugman is probably the classic example. He just walked away from the Times and started a Substack, and now he is making a fortune, and good for him. But I am not Paul Krugman. So I do notice a lot of people who are kind of “selling the picks and shovels to the gold miners” types. I am not, I do not consider myself to have that level of expertise, but if I generate a hundred grand a year doing it, then I might have the temerity to consider myself to be a Substack advisor. But I am not there at this point, as technically challenged as I am, I do not know that I would necessarily even recommend myself.
I suppose that is kind of negative self-promotion, so I hope I do not get in trouble with the moderator.
Haha, the moderator (me) says "all good" on your self-promotion, George 😀.
I also follow Wes from Escape the Cubicle - feel like he probably needs a quiet pivot as he seems like a one-trick pony right now, saying the same things over and over... but who knows, maybe he is doing great?.
Can confirm book sales are not the path to riches. My Substack book makes around $100 to $200 per month, nothing to write home about, even though people love it and it has 4.7 stars.
I haven’t set up paid subscriptions yet, so this is critical information for me. I have 100 free subscribers. Should I add a pledge option or anything at this point? Or just keep writing and growing for now?
Hi Tamara, before you activate paid subscriptions you’ll need to have a clear sense of what you’ll be offering paid subscribers. If you do, then there’s no reason not to turn them on now. I cover all the basics of when to activate payments and what to do before you activate payments in this post: https://pubstacksuccess.substack.com/p/substack-payments-everything-you
These are all good points, but I don't think the saturation effect can be disregarded so easily. I have just over 10K subscribers. I stopped paywalling and in fact turned off paid subscriptions about six months ago. I decided I don't want to monetize my posts. I only send posts to subscribers twice a month (about 750 wrds). I don't think I'm overwhelming them. I post at least one note a day.
About 2 months ago my subscribers started bailing - a couple of dozen every time I posted, and new subscribers are not keeping pace. I've plataued and nothing is budging. This coincided with Substack's change in how the feed works. I think a lot of Substackers don't realize they can set their feed to see who they already follow, or to see writers they may be interested in. You just choose "following , or "for you" at the top of your feed. You can switch it any time.
I've done most of the things suggested here. I've added new sections, changed up the content, even managed to get some engagement on chat - although nobody ever answers when I ask what they'd like to see more of.
Still, new subscribers are barely keeping pace with unsubscribes. Since the flood of unsubscribes comes when I send a new post, I'm attributing to another substack feature I think many readers don't quite understand. When you subscribe to any Substack, the next choice is to subscribe for free to three recommended Substacks. I believe many are not unchecking that option, and then when these random Substacks they have no recollection of subscribing to show up in their inbox, they unsubscribe.
Also, Substack should allow us to set the minimum amount for paid subscribers. I know that I would subscribe to many more writers if it was $1 a month. And for me, $1 on a 10% conversion to paid, when I have 10K subscribers, would bring $1,000 a month. Maybe not a living, but certainly a nice side hustle.
Yes, Simple, good point re subscribers who come from recommendations.
If the unsubscribes are people who accidentally added themselves during recommendations, then isn't that actually a good thing? The readers who aren't 'your people' are self-pruning.
Two thoughts:
(1) People find it very hard to trust brand names these days, your name is a brand name, not a person's name.
(2) Every post needs a brief intro near the top saying who you are and what you do, for people who don't remember signing up - don't rely on the email header for this, since people reading in the app don't see that.
Thank you for replying to my comment. Yes, right—the self-pruning is a good thing. And normally I would agree with you regarding the brand name / person’s name. But in the witchcraft community it’s not as off-putting. But then there is the whole real person or AI consideration too.
I’m happy with reaching 10K subscribers. I’ll find a way out of the slump. Contemplating podcasts and lives.
Thank you for these suggestions! What I just noticed is that the only thing that’s dropped a cliff for me is discoverability: Substack is not showing my Notes or work to new people. In Notes stats the people seeing my Notes are subscribers and followers with only a tiny fraction of unconnected or new people. I’ve experienced exponential growth as well as the majority of my growth in the past from my Notes. I use all the strategies: recommendations, engagement, livestreams, guest posts, consistent posting, etc. But I see that my work is not discoverable by enough new people to grow, only to sustain the current growth. So it’s not falling. But it’s not rising because new people don’t see it. I’d love suggestions.
Kelly it’s always a good idea to have more than one source of traffic - and this applies to all platforms, not just Substack.
So do think about where else outside of Substack you can meet new readers.
Within Substack it’s great to increase the amount of time you spend interacting and sharing the work of others in similar and adjacent topic areas, as the Notes algorithm rewards this, and because your presence in a comments thread on a post can encourage people to check out what you do.
Yes, I interact with and share the work of others regularly. So I’m doing all the things. I share my posts on FB, Instagram, LinkedIn as well. But they - like Substack- are not surfacing posts to new readers only to your current followers mostly. At least that’s my experience across the board. Very little discovery anywhere. I also publish work in literary magazines, publish guest posts on my lit zine on my Substack, and have my work published on other Substacks.
Congratulations, Franklin, that's great news, and well done for stopping the bleed. So glad you shared your experience, since I'm starting to feel like everyone just doesn't believe it's possible to grow in today's economic climate.
Not neglecting current readers is a great reminder! And leaning into what makes your stack unique is great advice too.
Well said. I’m as guilty as anyone at commenting on those threads.
I find your comments about the paywall interesting. I do not paywall any of my content, nor do I use that kind of annoying technique where you get halfway through and then the rest is for paid subscribers. Honestly, I find it personally annoying, and I am trying to get a message out in addition to hopefully supplementing my income.
In terms of getting to know my readers, I only allow comments for paid subscribers, which I think is a big benefit, but I am not sure how compelling it really is. It does exempt me from the troll issue. I did a survey of readers the other day, and I got a whopping 10 responses. That particular technique of getting to know my readers has not worked very well. However, I have only tried it twice, so perhaps I can do a better job of trying to sell people on completing what was really a very short survey.
Yeah, low response rate for surveys is super common, George. Especially if your readers mostly read in their inboxes, rather than in the app. (since clicking through will be a pain in the neck)
My solution in my other publication (that's not about Substack) is to personally email new paying subscribers offering a free 1:1 call with my professional advice. They mostly don't say yes, but when they do, I get a great sense of who they are, what challenges they have and what they most value about my work.
Yes, that is a great idea. There is a guy who writes a Substack called Escape the Cubicle who advocates stuff like that, you know, white papers and listicles and all that stuff. I read it, but I never followed through on any of his suggestions, so I do not know if there is much point in reading it, but I still do.
At this point, that is not my game. I do not have a handy-dandy guide on how to save America. If I were to do anything, I think it would be an e-book, but I have not gotten motivated to do that. Maybe someday. Hey, there are days when I do, but today is not one of them. And you do not make much money off of books, from what I understand. So I am not that interested in a vanity project, and pulling together all the things that I have said over the last 18 months would be a challenge, even though I fancy myself as a quasi-professional writer. If I ever get to the point where I think I have enough material on how to succeed at Substack without really trying, I might go that route, because I do know that the people who seem to be monetizing—I do not want to say the best, because as somebody else said, if you bring a celebrity following in, you can make a ton of money. You can think of political figures and media figures who have crossed over. Paul Krugman is probably the classic example. He just walked away from the Times and started a Substack, and now he is making a fortune, and good for him. But I am not Paul Krugman. So I do notice a lot of people who are kind of “selling the picks and shovels to the gold miners” types. I am not, I do not consider myself to have that level of expertise, but if I generate a hundred grand a year doing it, then I might have the temerity to consider myself to be a Substack advisor. But I am not there at this point, as technically challenged as I am, I do not know that I would necessarily even recommend myself.
I suppose that is kind of negative self-promotion, so I hope I do not get in trouble with the moderator.
Haha, the moderator (me) says "all good" on your self-promotion, George 😀.
I also follow Wes from Escape the Cubicle - feel like he probably needs a quiet pivot as he seems like a one-trick pony right now, saying the same things over and over... but who knows, maybe he is doing great?.
Can confirm book sales are not the path to riches. My Substack book makes around $100 to $200 per month, nothing to write home about, even though people love it and it has 4.7 stars.
I haven’t set up paid subscriptions yet, so this is critical information for me. I have 100 free subscribers. Should I add a pledge option or anything at this point? Or just keep writing and growing for now?
Hi Tamara, before you activate paid subscriptions you’ll need to have a clear sense of what you’ll be offering paid subscribers. If you do, then there’s no reason not to turn them on now. I cover all the basics of when to activate payments and what to do before you activate payments in this post: https://pubstacksuccess.substack.com/p/substack-payments-everything-you
Thank you!🙏
These are all good points, but I don't think the saturation effect can be disregarded so easily. I have just over 10K subscribers. I stopped paywalling and in fact turned off paid subscriptions about six months ago. I decided I don't want to monetize my posts. I only send posts to subscribers twice a month (about 750 wrds). I don't think I'm overwhelming them. I post at least one note a day.
About 2 months ago my subscribers started bailing - a couple of dozen every time I posted, and new subscribers are not keeping pace. I've plataued and nothing is budging. This coincided with Substack's change in how the feed works. I think a lot of Substackers don't realize they can set their feed to see who they already follow, or to see writers they may be interested in. You just choose "following , or "for you" at the top of your feed. You can switch it any time.
I've done most of the things suggested here. I've added new sections, changed up the content, even managed to get some engagement on chat - although nobody ever answers when I ask what they'd like to see more of.
Still, new subscribers are barely keeping pace with unsubscribes. Since the flood of unsubscribes comes when I send a new post, I'm attributing to another substack feature I think many readers don't quite understand. When you subscribe to any Substack, the next choice is to subscribe for free to three recommended Substacks. I believe many are not unchecking that option, and then when these random Substacks they have no recollection of subscribing to show up in their inbox, they unsubscribe.
Also, Substack should allow us to set the minimum amount for paid subscribers. I know that I would subscribe to many more writers if it was $1 a month. And for me, $1 on a 10% conversion to paid, when I have 10K subscribers, would bring $1,000 a month. Maybe not a living, but certainly a nice side hustle.
Yes, Simple, good point re subscribers who come from recommendations.
If the unsubscribes are people who accidentally added themselves during recommendations, then isn't that actually a good thing? The readers who aren't 'your people' are self-pruning.
Two thoughts:
(1) People find it very hard to trust brand names these days, your name is a brand name, not a person's name.
(2) Every post needs a brief intro near the top saying who you are and what you do, for people who don't remember signing up - don't rely on the email header for this, since people reading in the app don't see that.
Thank you for replying to my comment. Yes, right—the self-pruning is a good thing. And normally I would agree with you regarding the brand name / person’s name. But in the witchcraft community it’s not as off-putting. But then there is the whole real person or AI consideration too.
I’m happy with reaching 10K subscribers. I’ll find a way out of the slump. Contemplating podcasts and lives.
Like lemmings to the sea
I never look at unsubscribes, or get notifications of unsubscribes , so there’s that. A Zen approach. 😇
Thank you for these suggestions! What I just noticed is that the only thing that’s dropped a cliff for me is discoverability: Substack is not showing my Notes or work to new people. In Notes stats the people seeing my Notes are subscribers and followers with only a tiny fraction of unconnected or new people. I’ve experienced exponential growth as well as the majority of my growth in the past from my Notes. I use all the strategies: recommendations, engagement, livestreams, guest posts, consistent posting, etc. But I see that my work is not discoverable by enough new people to grow, only to sustain the current growth. So it’s not falling. But it’s not rising because new people don’t see it. I’d love suggestions.
Kelly it’s always a good idea to have more than one source of traffic - and this applies to all platforms, not just Substack.
So do think about where else outside of Substack you can meet new readers.
Within Substack it’s great to increase the amount of time you spend interacting and sharing the work of others in similar and adjacent topic areas, as the Notes algorithm rewards this, and because your presence in a comments thread on a post can encourage people to check out what you do.
Yes, I interact with and share the work of others regularly. So I’m doing all the things. I share my posts on FB, Instagram, LinkedIn as well. But they - like Substack- are not surfacing posts to new readers only to your current followers mostly. At least that’s my experience across the board. Very little discovery anywhere. I also publish work in literary magazines, publish guest posts on my lit zine on my Substack, and have my work published on other Substacks.
I found this really useful. I'm launching my membership in the spring. So I'm working behind the scenes on it at the moment.
I actually made this note here about my drop in subscribers back June: https://substack.com/@unorthodoxy/note/c-278811382?r=19qd1i&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
That actually led to like 3 posts on me investigating what was happening.
I did what was mentioned here — only back then — took a step, dove into the numbers, reoriented myself, and got back to it.
Glad to report I stopped the bleed and am back on the come up!
Congratulations, Franklin, that's great news, and well done for stopping the bleed. So glad you shared your experience, since I'm starting to feel like everyone just doesn't believe it's possible to grow in today's economic climate.