4 Tips That Will Help Your New Paid Newsletter Grow
I'll be offering a video chat later today to answer your questions
Hello Friends!
Well, the time has come for us to organize. The good news is that readers are fleeing the mainstream media at a record pace. I feel we’ve reached a tipping point. Our society has created a void that must be filled with the voices of rational people.
We’re sick of hearing the sales pitches of slick venture capitalists that are designed to separate us from what’s rightfully ours. Instead, there’s a longing to hear the wisdom of your neighbors once again. We want the real stories of people who have lived through tough times and who have gained the wisdom that comes from humility and tenacious survival.
The word “survive” has been on my mind a lot recently.
Then again, we should aspire to do more than just survive. We should aspire to thrive, and when we get organized that gives us the power to create the world we deserve. I think we’re in a bad place because we’ve spent too much time sitting on our hands and trusting others to come to our rescue.
Well, if it wasn’t clear before, it’s clear now. No help is coming. So it’s time to rouse ourselves, roll up our sleeves, and put our hands upon the wheel. For those of you who like poetry, I feel this little quote from Shakespeare perfectly sums up how I feel:
Perfect Shakes! But how do we do it?
Well, I suggest the first thing you do is seize the power of the paid newsletter. I’ve been on Substack for over a year. Today I’m a bestseller and it honestly feels pretty powerful.
I do my best to lend support to my fellow writers whenever I get a chance, and I’ve found that’s the secret to success. Spend your energy helping others to rise, never waste your strength holding others down.
If you’ve been thinking about starting a Substack newsletter, here are a couple easy tricks to get started:
1. Go paid from day one
I think I waited until I had 1,000 subscribers to go paid, and that was a mistake. The reason is that Substack has to make money, so they’re more interested in promoting paid newsletters.
When you start your newsletter, readers will have the option to offer pledges that will go into effect should you decide to go paid. I generated 8 pledges in my first year, but I got another 150 paid subscribers within 6 months of going paid.
Ultimately, a paid newsletter is what you’re trying to create, so start with that from the beginning.
2. Don’t use the paywall
This is where it gets counter-intuitive. Yes, my newsletter is a “paid” newsletter, but all the content is free.
People say, “Wait a minute, what’s the incentive to sponsor you if all your content is free?”
That’s the beauty of it! The incentive is that my readers want to support me. My readers want to see more representation for the topics I write about. My readers are fed up with the injustices of the world. They’re sick of giving money to politicians who don’t do anything. They’d much rather toss $20 to somebody like me who might actually TALK about the true source of all our PROBLEMS instead of constantly regurgitating the same old LIES!
I think the idea of a paywall could be compared to the appendix. It seems like something you’d need, but it’s going to go away with time. The need for a paywall seemed to make sense in theory, but in practice it doesn’t work.
Substack allows you to create discount coupons. This permits your readers to sponsor you at a level that is comfortable for them.
The thing is, people actually have to read your work to determine if they want to sponsor you or not. How are they going to do that if your work is behind a paywall?
They can’t.
Make your work free. Support your community. Give back as best you can, and TRUST that they will support you in return.
Imagine that, a society built on trust. They told us it wasn’t possible, and yet it already exists in the form of a paid newsletter with the paywall turned off. Welcome to the revolution!
3. Notes is a tremendous growth tool
On Substack you have “followers” and “subscribers.” Here’s how that works:
Followers see your notes and turn into subscribers
Subscribers see your articles and turn into paid subscribers
There are many growth strategies that work on Substack, but Notes is unique to the platform. In practice, Notes is sort of like a version of Blue Sky built right into the platform (Blue Sky is the only short form social media site I’ve ever heard of).
My advice here is to just experiment with notes. Write things. See the kind of engagement you get. Share your articles, share the comments, share dog photos, share your thoughts. Have fun with it, it’s a good tool.
For a longer discussion on Notes, check out this article I did for The Writing Cooperative.
Other than that, most of the growth strategies you’ve already heard of also apply to Substack:
Import your existing email list (more of a launch strategy)
Leave thoughtful comments
Share articles
Collaborate with other writers
Experiment with audio and video content
Etc.
4. Use sections
The age old advice when it comes to writing is “you have to pick a topic.”
Meh… I’ve never liked that advice. I write about all sorts of things and most of the writers I know are the same.
There’s a temptation to start up multiple Substacks. I think that’s a mistake because then you’re asking the people who like you most to sponsor you twice. Also, that divides up your email list.
Substack allows you to create “sections” within a newsletter. Then, your readers can unsubscribe from a section. Here’s how:
I want this article to be a general overview rather than a tutorial on every step, but let me just say that you can find the “sections” option under the “settings” tab:
You can change the name of both your newsletter and these sections after you launch. I’d suggest you just get started and see how it goes. It took me a year of tinkering before I figured out how I wanted this to look (and I’m still tinkering to be honest).
Join me for a video chat later today!
I’ve had a few people reach out to me about getting started on Substack, so I’ve scheduled a video meet on Zoom for later today. This meeting will be open to anyone with the link. Here are the details:
I've scheduled the meeting for:
Jan 21, 2025 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Here's the link:
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/73425886233?pwd=nomD7Df1fd3cjsjgyDNuCThv4F5vtW.1
A couple of people have already sent me lists of questions, so I’ll go through those along with review what I’ve written here.
If you can't make it at that time, I'll post the replay in an upcoming newsletter.
This is a lot of information if you’re just getting started and your head might be spinning a bit. That’s okay! We’re here to help each other!
Using the indominable force of your will, bring your newsletter into the world! Just get started! Good things will happen! As always, I’m here to answer your questions!
“I'd rather Be Writing” exists because of your generous support. If you have the means please consider upgrading to a paid sponsorship. I have payment tiers starting at as little as twenty dollars a year. I'm so happy you're here, and I'm looking forward to sharing more thoughts with you tomorrow.
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Here’s my referral link to my preferred headline analyzer tool. If you sign up through this, it’s another way to support this newsletter (thank you).
I've been on Substack for about 2 years now and I still learned something from this article (re: creating sections instead of multiple newsletters). Thank you for writing.
These are rough days. Your emails/newsletters and notes of encouragement (not just on writing, but the general state of life in the US right now) are consoling and comforting. 1 day down, 1459 to go.
Thanks again for the video call and this article, Walter! At first, I was concerned about how to choose a pub name that encompassed all my topics. But I realized it doesn't have to. (E.g. Your pub name is "I'd Rather Be Writing," so you didn't have to explicitly mention the politics topic in the name.)
What I plan to do, is to combine everything under "The Transgender Therapist," even the fiction writing craft stuff. Then split them into sections. I learned that we can email our subscribers without publishing the email as a post, too. And that we can even choose which specific subscribers (including specific newsletter sections) to email. Didn't know that! I should offer those discounts too to encourage subscribers who have less money but still want to help.