Well said. I will be upgrading later today - was planning to anyway!! Slightly frustrating that it cant be done in the app - hopefully Substack will implement that functionality at some point! I will do it on my laptop this eve (oh and I also sit at 4%) ❤️
Oh interesting that 4% is common here. I usually hear to expect 10% ... but I think this goes back to the fact that almost all of us are here as both writers and readers and can only afford to support so many but want to read ALL.
Yes I hope that the app is better developed in the future. A couple months ago I learned that there's only one iPhone app developer on the time (don't know if that's still true) so they're doing good considering.
Thanks it was a really busy month. This Friday I'll have a digest that rounds up all of the January Friday digests so you'll show up again there ... hope it finds you a new subscriber or two <3
This Friday I'll have a digest that rounds up all of the January Friday digests so you'll show up again there ... hope it finds you a new subscriber or two <3
Hi Kathryn! Wow, I am looking at your list of links to people whose work you have shared. Great list I am going to check them out. Thanks for including me in it! I'm going to have to take some time from you on community building! I don't know how you have time for all that. But let's do a podcast conversation some time soon to add to both of our substack pages.
I included your excerpt in the Friday roundup last week. This coming Friday I'll be doing a full recap of all the January digests so you'll see it there again. Hope it leads more readers to you!
I plan to pick up where my gift subscription leaves off in April. I think that what you're doing here is very worthwhile, and I will support it for as long as I can!
Kathryn, perspective is everything. I really look forward to 30 paying subscribers! Of course, I still have income from my businesses (which I'm still very much involved with). so it's certainly not apples to apples. You are among the most prolific and supportive people here on Substack, and you bring a lot of value to the table in lifting people up. I'm not sure how precisely to tap into that, but that's one of your superpowers.
Thanks. I know I’m grateful for the subscribers. But as you know it doesn’t put food on the table so either I have to stop doing this full time or it has to fund itself. Most likely I’ll be changing things to focus on those who do subscribe and reduce time and energy on anything else where for a while. We’ll see.
Definitely. It's something I've been trying to figure out for a while. Timehop recently told me that I first launched subscription-based writing on Patreon 8 years ago. 8 years of trying and tweaking to make that work. And it's really not working. I am hoping to figure out how to make it work here but we'll see. I'm going to keep giving it a solid go and if not shift that focus to something else. <3 I do believe in us though!
I've been attempting to monetize my writing for maybe 10 or 12 years, but Substack is the first subscription-based model I've tried. That being said, I've essentially run 3 subscription-based businesses (martial arts gyms and an online site), so I live and breathe the concept every day. It's an interesting mashup for me, but I'm also still figuring it out.
I had decent success with a combination as-supported blog and subscription newsletter but when I moved from the very specific niche of writing about crochet as therapy to my broader current niche most of that following dropped away. (I sold my blog and its related social media at the time which was a large reason for that.)
Oh gosh, thank you for sharing this. I’m new to Substack as a writer and reader and to your publication which I still need to explore. It sounds like you put so much work in with so much value. This is such a useful post and I appreciate your honesty. I need to keep my dreams balanced with reality as I continue - I also need paying subscribers too if I’m here long term 💛
I think it's important to be transparent if we can (if our situation/boundaries/needs allows for it). Timehop recently showed me that it has been 8 years since I first launched a subscription based model of writing on Patreon. It has never supported itself. I do work as a full-time writer but that is a combination of royalties on past work, freelance pieces, subscriptions, and (unfortunately mostly) paid content work.
When I moved here in May last year, I gave myself a year of self-funding to turn this into work that supports itself, but I realized at the end of December that I can't actually financially sustain even until May. I had mistakenly assumed there would be more support before now in those calculations.
I am SO grateful for every single person who does subscribe. But I have to be realistic.
Much big luck on your journey. There's a lot of rewarding aspects here if you aren't focused on making a full-time income from it. <3
I really appreciate all you’re saying. I agree boundaries are so important, especially time boundaries -I can already spend days on a post which is a lot for free! And getting lost in notes. That said there are some fabulous writers I’ve connected with here and it’s like a wonderland! I enjoy it though will keep a check on my expectations 💛🙏🏻💛
Yes, the non-financial rewards here are so valuable. I don't want to lose those. And yet I can't pay myself to do this full-time to keep those. So it's going to be a balance for me. But I wouldn't change anything about the past months here in conversations with others. Absolutely worth it.
If you haven't seen it, one of my most popular posts has been on doing a virtual book tour here, which can be adapted to a blog tour for a project, a topic, whatever.
I appreciate your honesty and openness about how tough it is to grow a community and reach financial stability through a subscription model. “1000 true fans” seems so straightforward and simple on the surface, but in reality, it’s a slog and we’re competing against hundreds of thousands of others trying to do the same thing. What you offer is unique and important, so I hope you find a way to restructure and recalibrate to co to use the growth without burning yourself out. Rooting for you!
Thank you. I really appreciate that. As I was just saying in another comment, I recently realized that I've been trying to make subscription-based writing work for me financially for eight years and it's not ever worked. So I have a few more ideas here on Substack to see if it can really begin to support itself and if not I'm going to have to switch to other things in terms of my energy and time. But I believe so much in this work. We'll see.
I do want to emphasize how much I love the non-financial rewards I get here. The community and support and collaboration and inspiration is so amazing. But it might need, as you said, restructuring and recalibrating in terms of its actual payoff. If only I were independently wealthy :-p
I appreciate and support you - both in your work and in figuring out what is working for you. Im hoping to be able to pay in the next month or two.
Side note: Maybe I wasn’t sent that email, but if I was, I didn’t see it so maybe you can knock the number down by 1. That probably won’t make much difference, but it’s worth a shit. 😂
I wonder if people are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of your work? I have far fewer paid subscribers than you... so take my observations with a grain of salt. But I am also someone who tend to be prolific and I once had a Patreon subscriber unsub because “they couldn’t keep up.” I wonder if that’s happening here?
I think it’s so interesting when people feel obligated to read everything which isn’t necessary at all but i totally get the impulse and appreciate that feedback. I try to make it really easy to subscribe only to the types of material you want and tomorrow is an announcement about how to just get one monthly digest of links to everything from the month instead of frequent emails. I want people to have options. 💕💕💕
I'll say it again but I think there is definitely a call for pay walling some of your content. If half your free subs suddenly miss, whatever you paywall, it might at least create a reaction and response.
Just based on the sheer number of emails I get too it's very easy to miss things, forget things or even put it on the 'oh yeh I was meant to...' list.
I upgraded from the choose your own adventure. I liked that post.
I'm no where near your numbers even free subs so feel free to ignore me completely especially if it just doesn't feel right to you but maybe look at what your top readers are reading and start there with the pay walling.
I have been thinking a lot about your comment ever since you left it. I’ll have more details soon but I think I’ll likely stop doing digests and interviews until more people opt in with payment and paywall some/all of the rest. Working on those details.
I hope the 'again' didn't come across as aggressive or self-righteous - it's mainly referencing my belief in the value you offer and wanting others to see my opinion (which is all that is) who haven't before.
Just to clarify my intention 😊 I'm rooting for you ✨
Didn’t feel that at all. Honestly I leave a lot of space between what someone says in a text/online and what I think they’re saying because I know it’s common enough to have misunderstandings in regular conversation let alone on screen. So if it had felt aggressive I would’ve probably assumed “eh that’s me reading it that way”. But it didn’t anyway. I very much appreciate your feedback. What I hadn’t really articulated before was that I don’t want to paywall any material that quotes or references the work of others like my digests and interviews and guest posts. For various reasons and we all have different opinions on it but that’s a clear one for me at this stage. So I am working on a model where I’ll add that content back if people show they want it by paying for it. And then I have to decide how much of my other types of writing I want to do and if I want to paywall some or all of it. I’m considering. Honestly I had hoped that the reality of this post would result in enough new paid subscribers that I wouldn’t have to deal with the decision yet but that decidedly did not happen. 🤣
That's a healthier and gentler way of reading - I'm overly cautious and heavily conscious. But glad it was read as intended.
I understand - I've seen a number of posts that are partially paywalled although that might be tricky with the interview ones. Another option I'm sure you have already considered, are mulling over.
Let's see shall we 🤞🤞 I'm going to share outside of substack but given the lack of engagement on mine, when I've done this, it may bear you no further fruit... Or cheddar 🧀
Kathryn, I totally resonate with all of this. I wish I could be a paid subscriber but I can't afford to. I am living hand to mouth, right now. That's the only thing preventing me from subscribing. Thank you for your candour. Your situation here on Substack, including subscriber responses or engagement with your posts, pretty much mirrors my own. Alongside writing, I have also been trying to build a practice as a facilitator and creative process mentor which I hope will carry me through because - as you pointed out - Substack is an echo chamber. There is much I like about Substack - it's a very useable platform - as a business model it just doesn't work for, probably, most of the people here.
I’m paid as you know but honestly I wonder if you are trying too hard with the quantity of content. I’d pay for less - I can’t keep up with all you write so some of it is a bit wasted on me. If others are the same then I wonder if there is then a danger that come renewal times you set up a situation where people feel they are wasting their money because they won’t get to it all but if we had less we would look forward to it and treasure it more. And if people don’t subscribe because there’s a lot of quantity well written but not of a type of quality (as in characteristics rather than skill in writing) that actually hits a pain point for them. I don’t know - just thoughts.based on my experience. Take or leave them as works best for you. Adjustments may or may not help you get more subscribers but it would at least leave more time for other freelance work.
Yes I appreciate all that. I started thinking of this as a place to create an archive of resources related to art and mental health so I want to add everything I have on that here ... I think it’s interesting how people do feel they need to keep up and read everything which is never my intention but I am increasingly aware that it is a pain point as you say. But people are subscribing, just not paying to subscribe, so I’m not sure that’s the issue. 🤷🏻♀️ either way, I’ll definitely have to spend less time here so I can earn income elsewhere. It’s just a bummer because doing this full time is what I really want and believe in. 💕 still working on. Value your feedback and ongoing support so much. It really really means a lot.
It is so hard, because I WANT to pay everyone I read but I can't! And I want people to pay for my work if they are able, but they also have tons of writers they love! I would love more options to make it easier for folks to pay what they can.
Definitely there's a component here with the supply-and-demand of Substack. Most of my subscribers come from Substack but each of us can only pay for so many writers no matter how many we want to read so it means we have to somehow find subscribers from elsewhere maybe? I'm not sure.
A post is coming Sunday with more of my take-aways and thoughts generated from the conversation around this article. I appreciate everyone's insights.
ooh thanks for this. I want to set up something similar. I don't have a paywall on most of my posts, but I decided that for personal essays that don't directly relate to my mission of ADHD awareness that I would paywall those so the people get SOMETHING for their dollar! :)
I've tried so many various models of this over the years. So many things come up around this concept of what exactly people are paying for. Some of my thoughts on that are in the upcoming post on Sunday. And some are swirling in my head :)
Well said. I will be upgrading later today - was planning to anyway!! Slightly frustrating that it cant be done in the app - hopefully Substack will implement that functionality at some point! I will do it on my laptop this eve (oh and I also sit at 4%) ❤️
Interestingly, my conversion rate is also right around 4%!
Oh interesting that 4% is common here. I usually hear to expect 10% ... but I think this goes back to the fact that almost all of us are here as both writers and readers and can only afford to support so many but want to read ALL.
Yes I hope that the app is better developed in the future. A couple months ago I learned that there's only one iPhone app developer on the time (don't know if that's still true) so they're doing good considering.
Also, GRATEFUL for you <3
❤️
I am once again impressed by the collection you’ve put together Kathryn. Thank you!
Thanks it was a really busy month. This Friday I'll have a digest that rounds up all of the January Friday digests so you'll show up again there ... hope it finds you a new subscriber or two <3
Thanks for the mention, Kathryn.
This Friday I'll have a digest that rounds up all of the January Friday digests so you'll show up again there ... hope it finds you a new subscriber or two <3
Thanks Kathryn that's very kind of you
Hi Kathryn! Wow, I am looking at your list of links to people whose work you have shared. Great list I am going to check them out. Thanks for including me in it! I'm going to have to take some time from you on community building! I don't know how you have time for all that. But let's do a podcast conversation some time soon to add to both of our substack pages.
I included your excerpt in the Friday roundup last week. This coming Friday I'll be doing a full recap of all the January digests so you'll see it there again. Hope it leads more readers to you!
I plan to pick up where my gift subscription leaves off in April. I think that what you're doing here is very worthwhile, and I will support it for as long as I can!
GRATEFUL.
Kathryn, perspective is everything. I really look forward to 30 paying subscribers! Of course, I still have income from my businesses (which I'm still very much involved with). so it's certainly not apples to apples. You are among the most prolific and supportive people here on Substack, and you bring a lot of value to the table in lifting people up. I'm not sure how precisely to tap into that, but that's one of your superpowers.
Thanks. I know I’m grateful for the subscribers. But as you know it doesn’t put food on the table so either I have to stop doing this full time or it has to fund itself. Most likely I’ll be changing things to focus on those who do subscribe and reduce time and energy on anything else where for a while. We’ll see.
I had a resolution for last year, where I decided I wanted to focus on doing fewer things, but with greater consequence.
The trick (for both of us) is to find the spot to focus on and ignore most of the other stuff.
Definitely. It's something I've been trying to figure out for a while. Timehop recently told me that I first launched subscription-based writing on Patreon 8 years ago. 8 years of trying and tweaking to make that work. And it's really not working. I am hoping to figure out how to make it work here but we'll see. I'm going to keep giving it a solid go and if not shift that focus to something else. <3 I do believe in us though!
I've been attempting to monetize my writing for maybe 10 or 12 years, but Substack is the first subscription-based model I've tried. That being said, I've essentially run 3 subscription-based businesses (martial arts gyms and an online site), so I live and breathe the concept every day. It's an interesting mashup for me, but I'm also still figuring it out.
I had decent success with a combination as-supported blog and subscription newsletter but when I moved from the very specific niche of writing about crochet as therapy to my broader current niche most of that following dropped away. (I sold my blog and its related social media at the time which was a large reason for that.)
Oh gosh, thank you for sharing this. I’m new to Substack as a writer and reader and to your publication which I still need to explore. It sounds like you put so much work in with so much value. This is such a useful post and I appreciate your honesty. I need to keep my dreams balanced with reality as I continue - I also need paying subscribers too if I’m here long term 💛
I think it's important to be transparent if we can (if our situation/boundaries/needs allows for it). Timehop recently showed me that it has been 8 years since I first launched a subscription based model of writing on Patreon. It has never supported itself. I do work as a full-time writer but that is a combination of royalties on past work, freelance pieces, subscriptions, and (unfortunately mostly) paid content work.
When I moved here in May last year, I gave myself a year of self-funding to turn this into work that supports itself, but I realized at the end of December that I can't actually financially sustain even until May. I had mistakenly assumed there would be more support before now in those calculations.
I am SO grateful for every single person who does subscribe. But I have to be realistic.
Much big luck on your journey. There's a lot of rewarding aspects here if you aren't focused on making a full-time income from it. <3
I really appreciate all you’re saying. I agree boundaries are so important, especially time boundaries -I can already spend days on a post which is a lot for free! And getting lost in notes. That said there are some fabulous writers I’ve connected with here and it’s like a wonderland! I enjoy it though will keep a check on my expectations 💛🙏🏻💛
Yes, the non-financial rewards here are so valuable. I don't want to lose those. And yet I can't pay myself to do this full-time to keep those. So it's going to be a balance for me. But I wouldn't change anything about the past months here in conversations with others. Absolutely worth it.
If you haven't seen it, one of my most popular posts has been on doing a virtual book tour here, which can be adapted to a blog tour for a project, a topic, whatever.
https://createmefree.substack.com/p/how-to-do-a-virtual-book-tour-on
Thank you I’ll check it out 💛
Let me know if I can do anything to help on your journey here <3
I appreciate your honesty and openness about how tough it is to grow a community and reach financial stability through a subscription model. “1000 true fans” seems so straightforward and simple on the surface, but in reality, it’s a slog and we’re competing against hundreds of thousands of others trying to do the same thing. What you offer is unique and important, so I hope you find a way to restructure and recalibrate to co to use the growth without burning yourself out. Rooting for you!
*continue the growth
Thank you. I really appreciate that. As I was just saying in another comment, I recently realized that I've been trying to make subscription-based writing work for me financially for eight years and it's not ever worked. So I have a few more ideas here on Substack to see if it can really begin to support itself and if not I'm going to have to switch to other things in terms of my energy and time. But I believe so much in this work. We'll see.
I do want to emphasize how much I love the non-financial rewards I get here. The community and support and collaboration and inspiration is so amazing. But it might need, as you said, restructuring and recalibrating in terms of its actual payoff. If only I were independently wealthy :-p
I appreciate and support you - both in your work and in figuring out what is working for you. Im hoping to be able to pay in the next month or two.
Side note: Maybe I wasn’t sent that email, but if I was, I didn’t see it so maybe you can knock the number down by 1. That probably won’t make much difference, but it’s worth a shit. 😂
Or shot. Kinda like the shit though.
Thank you. You are appreciated. And these conversations are valuable 💕
I wonder if people are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of your work? I have far fewer paid subscribers than you... so take my observations with a grain of salt. But I am also someone who tend to be prolific and I once had a Patreon subscriber unsub because “they couldn’t keep up.” I wonder if that’s happening here?
I think it’s so interesting when people feel obligated to read everything which isn’t necessary at all but i totally get the impulse and appreciate that feedback. I try to make it really easy to subscribe only to the types of material you want and tomorrow is an announcement about how to just get one monthly digest of links to everything from the month instead of frequent emails. I want people to have options. 💕💕💕
Also as a ps - people seem fine subscribing free but not paying. Even at a discounted rate as low as $10 for the whole year. 🤷🏻♀️
I'll say it again but I think there is definitely a call for pay walling some of your content. If half your free subs suddenly miss, whatever you paywall, it might at least create a reaction and response.
Just based on the sheer number of emails I get too it's very easy to miss things, forget things or even put it on the 'oh yeh I was meant to...' list.
I upgraded from the choose your own adventure. I liked that post.
I'm no where near your numbers even free subs so feel free to ignore me completely especially if it just doesn't feel right to you but maybe look at what your top readers are reading and start there with the pay walling.
I have been thinking a lot about your comment ever since you left it. I’ll have more details soon but I think I’ll likely stop doing digests and interviews until more people opt in with payment and paywall some/all of the rest. Working on those details.
I hope the 'again' didn't come across as aggressive or self-righteous - it's mainly referencing my belief in the value you offer and wanting others to see my opinion (which is all that is) who haven't before.
Just to clarify my intention 😊 I'm rooting for you ✨
Didn’t feel that at all. Honestly I leave a lot of space between what someone says in a text/online and what I think they’re saying because I know it’s common enough to have misunderstandings in regular conversation let alone on screen. So if it had felt aggressive I would’ve probably assumed “eh that’s me reading it that way”. But it didn’t anyway. I very much appreciate your feedback. What I hadn’t really articulated before was that I don’t want to paywall any material that quotes or references the work of others like my digests and interviews and guest posts. For various reasons and we all have different opinions on it but that’s a clear one for me at this stage. So I am working on a model where I’ll add that content back if people show they want it by paying for it. And then I have to decide how much of my other types of writing I want to do and if I want to paywall some or all of it. I’m considering. Honestly I had hoped that the reality of this post would result in enough new paid subscribers that I wouldn’t have to deal with the decision yet but that decidedly did not happen. 🤣
That's a healthier and gentler way of reading - I'm overly cautious and heavily conscious. But glad it was read as intended.
I understand - I've seen a number of posts that are partially paywalled although that might be tricky with the interview ones. Another option I'm sure you have already considered, are mulling over.
Let's see shall we 🤞🤞 I'm going to share outside of substack but given the lack of engagement on mine, when I've done this, it may bear you no further fruit... Or cheddar 🧀
There's some back story about why I'm sensitive to the paywall here: https://createmefree.substack.com/p/questions-for-you-around-substack
Kathryn, I totally resonate with all of this. I wish I could be a paid subscriber but I can't afford to. I am living hand to mouth, right now. That's the only thing preventing me from subscribing. Thank you for your candour. Your situation here on Substack, including subscriber responses or engagement with your posts, pretty much mirrors my own. Alongside writing, I have also been trying to build a practice as a facilitator and creative process mentor which I hope will carry me through because - as you pointed out - Substack is an echo chamber. There is much I like about Substack - it's a very useable platform - as a business model it just doesn't work for, probably, most of the people here.
I’m paid as you know but honestly I wonder if you are trying too hard with the quantity of content. I’d pay for less - I can’t keep up with all you write so some of it is a bit wasted on me. If others are the same then I wonder if there is then a danger that come renewal times you set up a situation where people feel they are wasting their money because they won’t get to it all but if we had less we would look forward to it and treasure it more. And if people don’t subscribe because there’s a lot of quantity well written but not of a type of quality (as in characteristics rather than skill in writing) that actually hits a pain point for them. I don’t know - just thoughts.based on my experience. Take or leave them as works best for you. Adjustments may or may not help you get more subscribers but it would at least leave more time for other freelance work.
Yes I appreciate all that. I started thinking of this as a place to create an archive of resources related to art and mental health so I want to add everything I have on that here ... I think it’s interesting how people do feel they need to keep up and read everything which is never my intention but I am increasingly aware that it is a pain point as you say. But people are subscribing, just not paying to subscribe, so I’m not sure that’s the issue. 🤷🏻♀️ either way, I’ll definitely have to spend less time here so I can earn income elsewhere. It’s just a bummer because doing this full time is what I really want and believe in. 💕 still working on. Value your feedback and ongoing support so much. It really really means a lot.
It is so hard, because I WANT to pay everyone I read but I can't! And I want people to pay for my work if they are able, but they also have tons of writers they love! I would love more options to make it easier for folks to pay what they can.
I love offering a pay what you can option and am baffled why so few people take me up on it.
https://createmefree.substack.com/p/launching-pay-what-you-can-on-my
Definitely there's a component here with the supply-and-demand of Substack. Most of my subscribers come from Substack but each of us can only pay for so many writers no matter how many we want to read so it means we have to somehow find subscribers from elsewhere maybe? I'm not sure.
A post is coming Sunday with more of my take-aways and thoughts generated from the conversation around this article. I appreciate everyone's insights.
ooh thanks for this. I want to set up something similar. I don't have a paywall on most of my posts, but I decided that for personal essays that don't directly relate to my mission of ADHD awareness that I would paywall those so the people get SOMETHING for their dollar! :)
I've tried so many various models of this over the years. So many things come up around this concept of what exactly people are paying for. Some of my thoughts on that are in the upcoming post on Sunday. And some are swirling in my head :)