Should You Start a Substack Newsletter

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At the time that I’m working on this post it is almost two years from the beginning of my Substack journey. I’ve got a lot of thoughts about Substack, what creators are getting wrong and share thoughts about recent changes to the platform. Is it becoming social media. It’s my hope that you’ll leave with a greater insight into how to leverage a newsletter, what to consider and the opportunities that people are leaving on the table.

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Creators Getting Paid Newsletter

Are you looking for ideas on how to monetize your impactful brand and community without causing harm? Are you building social good aligned communities and spaces that you need to bring money into in order to sustain your mission and efforts? Sign up for the Creators Getting Paid newsletter. I share thoughtful tips, creator case studies, free and paid workshops. It’s free or $5 a month-the price of a cup of coffee.

Show Notes

What exactly is Substack? It is a platform that has positioned itself as a newsletter platform. Originally, Substack really was for writers. Folks who were publishing books and other creative work specifically in the written form. When I joined Substack in August of 2022, my intention was never around building out a newsletter that celebrated and shared the writing that I was doing. Instead, I was looking for a platform that had the following: organic search from an audience looking for content, a great place for a curated portfolio piece and the ability to monetize that resource easily.

Uniquely Curated Content

Before I get into whether or not you should start a Substack newsletter I think it’s important to touch on leaning into spaces that allow you design art, writing, video, resources, that otherwise wouldn’t be created. My newsletter that I host on Substack is a purposely curated resource that features mostly Creators of Color growing online brands that they’ve monetized. Many of these amazing creators approach monetization differently from many of the names we often hear in the online business space.

Creators Getting Paid allows me to high light the work that they’re doing, share their expertise and give them their flowers. I love Substack because it is a space focused on gaining access to the written word, long-form content and other creative endeavors. What I’m also struck by is how resistant many creators are by the notion of anything related to marketing those or making money with it.

I’m not a trust fund baby.

As much as I would like to be a purist around the work that I’m doing…I can’t afford to be. I have bills to pay. But, it’s my hope that sharing these different takes on monetization that are thoughtful, nuanced and different from what we typically hear when discussing monetizing online-will change how people creators strategize building healthy online brands that will allow them to publish their work, negotiate better and create inclusive pricing for the people that they serve.

Lessons Learned from Substack

Yes, there is an audience of millions of people using Substack. There are people consuming the work of different creators on a daily basis.

Don’t assume that the people on the platform are actually the people who are a good fit for your newsletter. You have to focus on connecting the people you would like to serve to your newsletter. Just because you built it doesn’t mean that they will come to what you built.

What community are you trying to build? If you’re building a community specific to your Substack, you need to be thoughtful about how you curate experiences designed to foster connection.

Most creators on the platform are way undermonetizing their newsletters because they’re only focusing on subscriptions vs. all of the other ways you can monetize a significant list of people that you’re over service to.

Behind the Paywall

What’s in it for them? I noticed that my paid subscriber numbers plateaued for quite awhile. I spent some time looking at the content that I was providing behind the paywall, copy and what other Substackers were doing to successful convert free subscribers to paid. Things that I make sure to focus on before hitting publish:

What is the purpose of the behind the paywall content? Does it answer a question? Create insight, make the community member feel seen or validate a feeling or experience?

Does the content behind the paywall help users to better understand Creators Getting Paid and me as a content creator?

Will the paid content move the community member forward?

Is the content curated for a unique behind the scenes experience? Such as:
- A prequel to an upcoming book
- Music that won’t be heard anywhere else
- A video short (movie/video)
- A TedX type talk

What I also realized was that you should have fun curating the behind the paywall content. The more fun you have, the easier the process will be. And, set up systems. I batched all of those content creator conversations so that I didn’t have to stress out about getting them done at the last minute. Then I used Castmagic to create transcripts of those conversations. It’s a great AI tool.

Social Media Moves on the Platform

Substack is changing some things on the platform. For early adaptors to Substack these changes are causing some friction and questioning of what will they do next. What are these changes? There are two, specifically, that I want to point out.

The addition of Notes-A feature that feels somewhat similar to Twitter

Followers-This may feel like a departure from encouraging subscriptions to a publication. I have a different view.

For those you who have heard me speak in public or on the podcast in recent years-I’ve shared that I’m purposely becoming algorithm agnostic. I just am so tired of being reliant on a platform’s whims. So, when I see Substack making these moves focused on discovery I’m a little tired. However, this might be the one time when my timing is right. I will lean in to the Notes feature a bit cynically. I’m plan on riding the wave.

As for the follower feature, instead of being annoyed with it, I realized that it would save me from subscribing to newsletters that I wanted to support but would read infrequently. Thus, clogging up my in-box. I love that the follower feature notifies me of content created by that creator-I can share it and get it in front of people who could subscribe. Win-win feature.

No, I do not think it discourages people from subscribing. I can only subscribe to so many newsletters before I am overwhelmed and will stop actively enjoying them.

Opportunities for List Growth

One of the reasons why I decided to launch a newsletter was to grow my list. I’ve grown lists before but the process was sometimes painfully slow. I’m happy to report that I’m pretty pleased with the growth of my list and after almost 2 years working on the process things have gotten easier.