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Growing on Substack: A Subscriber a Day in December
Where are they coming from?
Writing a Substack newsletter can be great — but what if you put up post after post and no one signs up?
If you’re going to earn money from a published newsletter, you need subscribers — and you need a steady flow of paid subscribers.
I’ve written before about the appeal of Substack — the opportunity to own your audience.
On my education policy Substack, I’ve seen consistent growth over time. Specifically, in December, I added 31 total new subscribers. 27 of those were free and 4 signed up as paid.
There are lots of different ways to monetize at Substack.
Here’s how I do it:
I offer all my content for free. I then have a paid subscription option. This is for people who really like my work and essentially want to sponsor it.
The tradeoff is this: Once I reach a critical mass of paid subscribers, I can devote more (or most) of my writing time to that paid project.
I’m excited, too, about the free subscribers. Sometimes, these members become paid subscribers after they’ve had some time to read my content.
Sometimes, they share with friends interested in the topics I cover. Either way, new free subscribers expand my content’s reach.
Where are they coming from?
So, if you’re going to add subscribers to your Substack, where do you find them?
Here’s what my December report from Substack shows:
Roughly half of all new subscribers (paid and free) came from the Substack network. That means people who were recommended to my newsletter by another Substack writer OR people who were shown my content based on what they are reading.
That’s a pretty powerful system.
The other half came from a variety of sources. I get a fair amount of traffic from Facebook and Twitter. I even saw one paid subscriber come from a post on Instagram.
I use Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to promote my pieces.
Key Takeaways
It takes time to build a following on Substack.
The Substack network is a great way to expand your reach.
It’s important to use social channels to get your content in front of potential readers.
Do you write on Substack? What ways have you found to grow your following?
