Is Becoming a Substack Bestseller an Accidental Income Trap

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I currently have the goal of becoming a Substack bestseller. That would indicate that I have 100+ subscribers/community members supporting Creators Getting Paid as paying subscribers. As you could imagine, I spend a lot of time thinking about Substack as a platform, growing a wonderful community and what it looks like in this moment to assert and insist that I get paid for my work. On a recent walk I had a revelation about why people are having a hard time monetizing on Substack. It’s something subtle, but important to be mindful of if you’re looking to make money on Substack.

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How to Make Money on Substack

The Course

Do you currently run a Substack newsletter and have decided to monetize your project? Are you looking for tips, ideas and strategy to help you make money with your newsletter? I’m launching a new course called “How to Make Money on Substack” be a part of the inaugural launch. Right now the course is available for pre-order for $37 instead of the regular price of $67. What will students get?

Access to once a month live Q & A sessions

A resource that you can reference as you’re building your revenue streams

A community of people who are on the same journey as you-you don’t have to do it alone

That’s a crazy amount of value for $37 dollars. I’ve made thousands of dollars on Substack in the past couple of years, currently have 3,000 subscribers and Creators Getting Paid is hitting its stride. Become a part of the community and get started earning money with your creative work. Go to https://creatorsgettingpaid.com/substack-course to purchase the course. Access to all students will go live on Monday, June 9, 2025.

Show Notes

One of the most compelling arguments for being on Substack besides its incredible eco-system of creators, is the ability to monetize your work. Typically the monetization conversation is framed around the idea of having a monthly subscription, annual fee or Founder’s tier. Ideally, a creator would have all three of these set up.

If you’re currently monetizing on Substack and people love your work…but, aren’t saying yes to paywalled content or non-paywalled content but a monthly or annual show of support I have a few things to ask you and to remind people of.

There is a very real issue with Subscription fatigue. In fact, I recorded a podcast episode about it. Just because Subscription fatigue exists doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t offer a monthly payment option. You may just have to a approach things a little differently.

It’s my personal opinion that Substack newsletters typically converts people to the paying tier around 1-5% of total subscribers. I’ve seen other Substackers mention similar conversion rates.
- Some examples:
  - If you have 100 subscribers, you’ll like have 1-5 paid subscribers. If you’re converting at a higher rate, that’s awesome and double down on what you’re doing.
  - If you have 1,000 subscribers that could turn into 10-50 paying subscribers there’s a point where these numbers aren’t sustainable especially in the immediate moment. Fortunately, once someone hits 1,000 subscribers or more they’re likely pretty dialed in and will continue to grow their list. Once they hit 3,000, 4,000+ the skills, confidence and copy needed to increase their conversion rate will naturally happen and it’s my view that the higher the subscriber number the creator’s ability to understand, communicate and deliver “Value” will also increase and help the creator make a better case for why people should say “yes” to the paid tier of their work.

How to Earn More Money

While Growing Your Paid Tier

I absolutely adore all of the people who’re supporting Creators Getting Paid. They’re also in the process of building incredible projects and we’re in it together. My community’s spoken and unspoken actions made me rethink how I approached working with my list.

Respect Your Free Tier

It’s really strange to me when a creator disparages the people who’re subscribed to the free tier of their newsletter. Real talk, I don’t see this as often on Substack as I do off the platform. Instead I see this type comment most often on social media and at conferences. The reason why I made so much money with my small list during the first 12 months of Creators Getting Paid was that I was selling to both my free and paying tiers. It made sense because I had MORE free subscribers than paying subscribers. I’ve made peace with the fact that my paying tier will likely grow slower than I would like and to meet people where they’re at…in the free tier LOL!

Be Clear About Your Goals

I got tripped up when I was trying to do several things at once. It’s perfectly fine to just focus on growth. Even though I’m of the opinion you should actually sell something-even if it’s a $5 ebook. Your spoken and unspoken goals will influence the following:

Newsletter content

Copywriting

Who you collaborate with

How you speak to and connect with the audience that you’re serving

You can have multiple goals, but it can confuse your approach.

Tune Out the Haters

It’s very frustrating to have to bring this up but there are a lot of people on Substack who hate the necessary activities that people need to use to sell their products.

Marketing
Active selling
Sharing growth metrics

I literally glanced at Substack before adding this section to my script and I read a Note where some is annoyed by someone selling. Do I love how everyone sells? No. Do I get in my feelings about their process? No. But, if you don’t think about how to deal with negative feedback-it’s going to be really challenging to make money directly on the Substack platform.

Become a Substack Bestseller

Let’s be clear, I absolutely want to become a Substack bestseller. I just don’t want the pursuit of this goal to distract me from the fact that there’s more than one way to make money. Having paying subscribers is just ONE WAY to earn money with your Substack. Don’t get distracted.