My Medium friends can read this story over there as well.
Many people think monetizing a Substack means one thing: Adding a paywall on your posts and hoping people care enough to click “upgrade.”
I’ve done an experiment with just that the past few weeks. Before that, all of my content was entirely free. Some awesome people still paid for my newsletter.
Then, I wanted to experiment with the paywall. I started putting most of my content behind paywall. And it seemed to work. 110% increase in paid subs over just two weeks.
Great right?
Not really. Because, then it flatlined. And not only that. My other income streams took a huge hit.
So, here’s what this experiment told me & how I am going to continue.
Paid Subs
It’s kind of the romantic idea of a writer, right? You simply get paid for what you write about. Because people love it.
And for some lucky bast*rds, this actually works.
Buit it’s not feasible for most of us. And even if it was, it’s not lucrative enough, either.
I recently saw a Substack Notes from a big-time writer who just crossed 1000 paid subs (with over 30K free subs).
What a huge win. Right? But 1000 paid subs took years. And this comes down to 1000*$70 = 70K — 10% cut and Stripe fees, so at least 13% cut. That’s 61K.
Now, don’t get me wrong. That’s a load of money. But imagine how long it took to get to 1000 paids subs. How long would it take you?
And even then, that’s before taxes. For me in Germany, I’d have to at least give away 45% of that for taxes, insurance and stuff. That means, I’d keep maybe 35K, if I am lucky.
35K a year is not much in a Western country. In many of them.
If we then factor in fluctuations. Subs come and go. People unsubscribe quickly.
Then, paid subs become the slowest, most stressful, and least fun way to earn a living as a writer.
So Multiply
That’s not entirely bad, though.
Because we all know, there isn’t just one income stream. There are more.
For me, there are three main ones.
And the best Substack writers use them all.
Here’s the model:
“You can support me.”
“You can learn from me.”
“You can use what I use.”
Three clear paths. Three different types of value. Three ways to make money. Let’s unpack them.
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