It’s kind of a surprising and not so surprising story that is connected to starting my Substack. It’s a chilly, rainy day in Denver as I work on this episode. For the past year or so I’ve found myself struggling with what I would call “Creators Getting Paid” the part of the project hosted on the Substack platform. What I was experiencing within my community was very different than “just sending out a newsletter” in fact, I struggled with the language to describe what Creators Getting Paid actually was. Towards the end of last year it was clear that what I was building was a community and that they also needed a communication experience. Like a newsletter. In today’s podcast episode, I’m going to break down what was happening behind the scenes and why I’m launching The Creator Income Collective off the Substack platform while keeping my newsletter on the platform.
Listen to the Episode
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How to Make Money with Substack
I’m consciously decoupling parts of my brand from the Substack platform but that doesn’t mean that I’m not optimizing the huge opportunity to grow and monetize my brand while optimizing the Substack platform. I’m currently launching the Beta version of my course How to Make Money with Substack. What do I mean by Beta version? I’m still building out the course. It’s not complete and the students are helping me build it with their feedback. This course is $27 and I also offer once a month office hours for students to connect, talk about their projects and connect with. Well worth the price. Go to https://creatorsgettingpaid.com/substack-course
5 Reasons Why I Launched a Membership
(Off of Substack)
I am very bullish on the Substack platform. I love the type of creative work that creatives are curating on the platform and I love that it’s very much a place where long-form content thrives. It’s a space where organic discoverability and community shares are a recipe for aggressive growth of your brand. So, why am I launching a membership? And why have I opted to host the community off the platform? Well, in my past life I’ve often been the person who fosters and nurtures community. I’ve been a social chair, Student Services Coordinator and the community lead. I’ve always been the person who has enjoyed connecting people to other people.
One of the most joyful things that I enjoy doing (as an entrepreneurial creative) is connecting people with other people, sharing resources, hosting fun events and learning about the cool work that other creatives are producing. I also love helping people get paid for the work that they’re doing. Like most creatives, I want to be in control of as many parts of my business and brand as is possible. There were conversations that I wanted to have that I didn’t feel like having on a third party platform. There were also some concerns around platform design and how I wanted the Creators Getting Paid community to be experienced.
- Limited Substack platform functionality-There were just things that I wanted to curate and share behind the scenes that I wouldn’t be able to do as things are currently designed. I’ve decide to use Circle.So to host the Creator Income Collective which is the name of the membership. I actually demoed several products and as is the case with my life-the most expensive option was the one that worked the best. Painful for my wallet, but I think it will work well in the long-term.
- Customer Service-I keep bringing this up in my comments about Substack. Creators are frustrated with the customer service experience which is primarily a chatbot. The problem with that is the bigger my community gets, the more likely that I will need to reach out to the platform because something will come up. I don’t want to primarily work with a chatbot. I’m annoyed just thinking about it.
- Pricing Flexibility-A membership’s price is often a reflection the “value” within the community. While I deeply believe in hosting a low-cost membership as a part of my mission, if I want to host another membership product that’s a higher ticket product-I think that there would be headwinds around the pricing due to the pricing culture connected the paid tier on the platform. I want to price my memberships or other products without dealing with unexpected platform constraints.
- Easier to Integrate courses and other resources-Into a cohesive and clear design. I have a ridiculous amount of content that I’ve built out and developed throughout the years. I’m updating and re-recording this content and these tools and resources will be added into the membership.
Circle.SO was intuitive for me to use, I can go live in the platform and I just feel a lot more at ease curating a protected space off of any third party platform. While there are still concerns with any platform, setting things up this way made sense to me. Also, I’ve spent the entire summer refining and building out my offerings. I now know where I’m sending people and that’s a very exciting feeling.
Creators Getting Paid
(The Newsletter)
I’m sending people to Creators Getting Paid in several different ways. Most importantly I’m building out a brand eco-system where there are multiple points of entry to the Creators Getting Paid world.
- Opt-Ins
- Newsletter
- Podcast
- Membership
- Products
What about the newsletter? I’m still hosting it on Substack and I’ve made the decision to provide an open subscription tier. Think of it like a Buy Me a Coffee. You like the content and support the project? Pay an annual fee or a monthly fee and I keep it moving. This is a very freeing feeling to just create and if you pay, you pay. In the next week or so I’ll be reaching out to currently subscribed community members and sharing the changes. I’ll also be offering them a gift as well. There’s one downside which is that members will have to get used to going to the Circle platform to log-in to the community.
I Love Substack…But,
We often forget that many of the SAAS tools out there are constantly in the process of being improved. While Substack doesn’t have the components that I’m looking for right now, it doesn’t mean that they won’t be added in the future. I just need to address brand related issues and concerns that are happening in real time for me right now.
- I truly enjoy the work that people are developing on the Substack platform
- The creativity of the work that people are sharing.
- Discoverability on the platform is currently unmatched
There are so many upsides of the platform, but the current downsides were slowing down my business as I tried to find solutions for my concerns. Unless you build out a resource or SAAS tool yourself, it’s likely that you’ll find yourself dealing with similar issues (figuring out what tools make sense for the things you’re trying to do) Have you had a similar experience?
Interested in The Creator Income Collective?
Get on the Waitlist
Want to be in community with incredible people building important communities, resources and projects?
- Do you believe in collaboration vs. competing
- Are you looking for like-minded individuals building cool brands online
- Needing to be in community with creators who are thoughtfully monetizing their work and are happy to give feedback, encouragement and support as you monetize YOUR work?
- Who this membership and community is best for:
- People who lead with empathy
- Black and Brown creators building impactful, incredible works, communities, experiences or spaces
- Allied creators who understand what it really means to be an ally
- People who are fun and encouraging to be around
- You are serious but don’t take yourself too seriously
- Sign up for the Waitlist. Go to: https://creatorsgettingpaid.com/membership to get on the waitlist. You don’t have to do this alone and now is the time to build your community on and offline.
