10 Comments
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Bruce Ivar Gudmundsson's avatar

Congratulations! Congratulations!

(The first is for reaching your milestone, which is a worthy achievement. The second is for the idea "pay what you can," which is something likely to inspire me to engage in the "sincerest form of flattery.")

Margaret Goff's avatar

I love the idea of the sliding scale! Thank you for being so bold in offering this option. My monthly income is $100. That’s for everything and I’m trying to keep my car going because there’s very poor public transportation where I live. I will be a subscriber in an upcoming month when I can! I believe in what you are doing and your column brings me much Joy! More on that another time!

Kathryn Vercillo's avatar

Thank you ... I know that some people here are on really limited income. We are all trying to figure this out together.

Phyllis Cole-Dai's avatar

Hi! I love your sliding fee scale and am wondering how you generated these different payment plan options on the Substack platform. Can you fill me in? (If you'd rather, drop me a line at phyllis@phylliscoledai.com. Thanks in advance for any help!

Phyllis Cole-Dai's avatar

Ah! Of course! Thank you so much, Kathryn! 🙏🏼

Jas's avatar

Hi I am also wanting to offer a sliding scale to my readers, I'm just starting and honestly quite lost but figuring it out as to how to set everything up. I am wondering about your comfort level with me using the methods you are sharing here? I can give you credit and a share link to your page or something that feels good to you. (:

Kathryn Vercillo's avatar

Hi Jas,

Thanks for reaching out. I think that offering a sliding scale thing is a great idea ... but ultimately it didn't work out well for me here on Substack.

I set it up using discount codes (special offers). I created a handful of them at different rates and then listed them here on Substack with their links so that people could just sign up at the rate that they wanted to pay. It was great for a year ... a lot of people took advantage of it.

But then when the year was up, they started auto-renewing at the full rate, which upset a lot of people and caused me a big headache issuing refunds. I hadn't realized that it wouldn't renew at the special offer rate. I imagine there is probably some workaround for this, but I didn't find it, and I'm putting less time into my Substack these days, so I just discontinued the Sliding Scale ... (your comment reminds me I need to update this post!)

I'm sure there's a great way to do this and I don't regret it. Being able to offer this was wonderful. So I encourage you to find the right way!

Kathryn

Jas's avatar

Thank you Kathryn, your experience has been incredibly helpful. Thank you for sharing!