39 Comments
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leftiejane's avatar

I’m interested in how this could work to benefit small creators instead of just putting more money into the hands of already big creators who have recently started substacks.

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Burk's avatar

That remains to be seen.

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Jasmine Nnenna's avatar

I have a feeling the algorithm will change. Because if they’re positioning themselves as a kind of matchmakers for sponsors and taking a cut then in order to find the “right ones”, won’t the algorithm change in some way? Reward certain people and not others. I’m curious to see how this plays out. Thanks for sharing!

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Paul Chaney's avatar

Big creators they’re paying to come here is what I heard.

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NUK's avatar
Jun 21Edited

Why would Substack ever do anything to help small creators?

https://substack.com/@ifrqfm/note/c-127755501

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Gino Cosme's avatar

This is such a grounded take on what actually matters, not just the money, but what the money enables. The shift from “newsletter tool” to full-blown creator ecosystem is real, and if sponsorships roll out smartly, it could unlock way more paths for indie writers to actually sustain this work.📱✍️💸

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Sam(antha) M. Burns's avatar

And I would STILL like to see a "Farm & Garden" category. Substack is getting their cut of my paid subscriptions, but lack discoverability for a huge number of their writers.

"Taxation without representation"???

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Kayla Geter's avatar

I hope this true, sponsorships would be real helpful being in a small niche like mine.

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LINDA AMATO's avatar

So much to learn. Thank you🌹

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Fred Szkoda's avatar

Could be very good. Very exciting.

My feeling is that it would probably work a little bit like YouTube where the pay out for smaller writers is tiny. And different niche’s pay different amounts.

I think it has promise but the most profitable way will still be your own affiliate links or digital products.

But who knows, willing to eat my works if needed!

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Nicola Farnhill's avatar

Now this is what I'm talking about. Sponsorship seems to be the word at the moment, it's being bandied around a lot. Super exciting as I feel my niche could do well, but also I've a feeling that the spiritual/wellbeing industry will get the lift necessary to help support some groundbreaking changes. Luck? I think not...this just could be divine timing! ✨🙏

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Krystal's avatar

This is exciting. I understand that this could potentially be more favorable for the bigger writers. However, I'm embracing a more positive perspective and believing that all of us will garner some success from it.

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Kwame Twumasi-Ankrah's avatar

Sounds interesting. It could be a huge boost for all writers, especially the small ones.

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Tony Momoh's avatar

Brilliant, I just finished reading one of your articles on Medium hence the message. I’m also a writer on Medium and Substack, and I’m looking to do more with my Substack to monetize my content. Right now, I have a viral article on Medium, which I’ve reposted on Substack, but it hasn’t gained much traction there yet.

I’d love to chat sometime and hear any tips you might have!

Thanks so much for sharing your insights.

https://medium.com/ai-mind-labs/5-industries-ai-will-completely-takeover-by-2026-d16d36b70cce

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Anne Manning's avatar

Thank you for the heads up on this! I would love a sponsorship model!

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Jill Button's avatar

Love the growing ecosystem and the ability to replace multiple tools and platforms with one clean, and powerful Substack platform. I am also a huge fan of the success based monetization that allows creators to build and grow without a massive upfront investment. I’m looking forward to Sponsorships and hope Affiliate Marketing follows, replacing yet more disparate platforms saving valuable time and money!

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Giulia Cassara, PhD's avatar

This is such a relief and great news for the company! I have a very niche audience and an engaged following. I’m the only one who is in both science and fiction. I’m not really good at marketing, that’s why I only have 6 paid subscribers. I would definitely be open to sponsorship!

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Caytlyn Cole Tolliver's avatar

I’ve already been seeing a lot of the substacks I subscribe to (paid and unpaid) who have sponsors supporting their writing! It’s great to see this platform grow!

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Meera Menon's avatar

Sounds interesting and exciting indeed! 😀 Obviously those days are gone when writers had to die being poor and unknown. Those days authors would become popular long after their books caught dust. But now, writers also want to be recognized and earn money for what they are worth. When I was in my 7th standard, that is junior school, my class teacher asked everyone what they aspire to be and most of them said, they want to be Doctors, Lawyers etc. I said, " writer and painter" and my teacher asked, " why so 😴 boring?" to which I remarked that there is nothing wrong in choosing a non-traditional path!Little did I know back then that I will write some day, because, I later went on to study pure Science and Maths for my bachelors and Management for my post graduation followed by currently learning software development! But, here I am enjoying writing on all that I studied earlier.

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Sarah Henrik (Sara Read)'s avatar

Isn’t “sponsorships” another word for “ads?” That is not something I want on substack.

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NUK's avatar

The irony is: just normal ads would be far more equitable than the way it’s set up now. Currently, if you’re not bringing in paid subs, Substack wants nothing to do with you — you’re just here so they can show investors how busy and filled with potential the site is.

Sponsors don’t want to spend money on ads no one will see. So… guess who will be getting all the sponsorships? That’s right — the people Substack paid to post here (who also just happen to be the accounts with the highest number of paid subs).

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Meera Menon's avatar

That means tiny writer newbies like me should ditch substack while the going is good, right or wrong?

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Burk's avatar

No you should utilize it as much as you can as long as it’s going well. But don’t depend on only one platform, no matter which one.

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