Kisane, this is incredibly valuable information. Thank you!
I'd like to understand the mechanism(s) for attracting sponsors to a Substack column. Will look up online but please expand on that if you have info.
One of the challenges is that there are so many fantastic older women writers (my typical read) that I can't support them all. So I'm wondering about the "cup of coffee" scenario (although I don't drink coffee), or other creative ways to solicit one-time payment for folk's favorite columns.
As a side note, I'm actually more interested in tracking followers than subscribers - but in this brave new world of publicly traded Substack, sounds like I need to up my game.
I also wonder if we could game the system by trading paid subscriptions with our pals.
Adding to my previous reply - re sponsorship: check out Substack’s Publisher Agreement and Content Guidelines and Marketing and Promotion guidelines ☺️ Sponsorship is fine if guidelines followed but it’s not a primary goal for building on Substack where the primary goal is to build engagement and trust. Hope that helps ☺️
Definitely looking into the ‘Cup of coffee’ options. ‘Sponsors to a Substack column’ is new to me! I’ll have to look that up too! Not sure how trading subscriptions would work 😏 My preference is for creating digital products because, once done, there is no ongoing maintenance - less pressure 😊 I’m also thinking about audio and video, but it does require a basic setup. It’s quite exciting 😉 I’ll be reporting on my progress 😂
I,too, have not monetized, but I have been considering it for months. I’m older and not proficient with “lives”. I have no desire for appearing in Videos (one of those designated Unphotogenic). My current raspy older voice isn’t exactly welcoming either these days. So have I outlived by usefulness on Substack? Is the “pen NO LONGER mightier than the sword”. Making money is more of a necessity as I age, yet my lack of talent in the newest technology leaves me only with a gift of the written word. (Writing that last sentence makes the idea feel so real). Perhaps I am already fossilized, but the decaying was so rapid I never recognized its’ initial jab nor the jolt of pain from my dying dream and goal. There are no regrets just overwhelming sadness caused by a dying breed.
Nooooo, you have not outlived your usefulness on Substack, Kathy. And there are heaps of people who don't want to appear on video. My suggestion is that you create downloadable digital products. A perfect candidate for this would be your post on Hidden Facts re Medicare Social Security. Include an introduction in your post and then provide a downloadable PDF that contains all the necessary facts. Bingo! And you only have to set it up once, and it's done. Of course, you have to learn how to set it up, but you can do that! There are people on Substack who can help. For example, check out Veronica Llorca-Smith's 'The Lemon Tree Mindset' - Digital Strategy (a group process) or Landon Poburan's 'Landon's Letters' and his mini-workshop Subliminal Selling on Substack or Wes Pearce's 'Escape the Cubicle' and his Six Figure Digital Product Masterclass. I'm going for digital products rather than paywalling! You can do this Kathy, I know you can :-)
Wow, this is a huge conundrum I know we all face. I’ve been writing Veranda Vibes for two years now for free subscribers. Merrily rolling along.
Five weeks ago I launched a new Substack that I thought I could monetize. I had read one of my Medium stories to a reader. They said, this is it! You need to read your stories to your audience.
With a memoir in mind I curated some of my Medium stories about my crazy life as a disabled, 68 year old woman who landed a marshmallow in a cup of hot chocolate in Jamaica to live her best life. Health and wellness is my game.
Discoverability is a problem. Then now, who wants to read about an aging expat struggling to balance life in a developing nation of Jamaica?
All said, I love, love, love to write my newsletters.
Substack I’m trying to monetize for you! Don’t change too fast. I know there is a pony at the bottom of this pile of capitalist (albeit necessary) s…t.
Love your comment, Diana. Yes, discoverability is the challenge, and that's where participating in Sarah Fay's Notes Boost Challenge helped me to have that initial breakthrough. In my case, I thought, 'Who wants to subscribe to an 83-year-old?' Then, to my amazement, I discovered that there are so many wonderful women on Substack who are 60 and beyond. Now I'm considering making videos. I used to hop on using my computer and iMovie about twenty years ago. But even then, I was older than the average female creating videos on YouTube! I'm also considering reading my novel myself. It won't be audiobook quality for Amazon, just something I'll upload to my podcast. But this all involves a huge learning curve in terms of figuring out how to use the technology! It takes time, and like you, I hope Substack gives us time to adjust! I wish you all the best with Veranda Vibes - https://dswezy.substack.com/
Yes. Learning curves are slow for me complicated by my erratic internet. I also have been considering using video. I love reading my Medium stories in my new experiment Writing in your ear. I use garage band to create my primitive audio recordings. That has been a learning curve. Substack has a good recording interface but suddenly my MacBook won’t allow the internal speaker to work. Gosh it’s always something but typically we old girls have limitless patience to achieve what’s important to us! Good luck with your endeavor.
Thank you for this. I’m slowly seeing my subscriber numbers slowly increase… I might add a pay option at some point, but I’d hate to do that. I get more traction here than I ever did on my blog!
Thanks, Kisane. Monetising a Substack is not all that easy. It's hard to know as few writers announce the number of their paying subscribers to the world, but you can tell by the coloured ticks what their minimum number is (100, 1000, 10000!).
I decided to offer paid subscriptions after a year and to give all my income to a charity. Did this help to get payers? I don't know. Would I have got more if my charity was in the US and not the UK? Would I have got more if the charity was a more cuddly one? Would I have got more if all the money was going to myself? (One friend said she would have been happy to pay me, but was reluctant to pay the charity, although she eventually did pay.) Then, there are all the ways people solicit payers by offering extra material or finishing a sentence in the middle unless you pay.
I will be interested to see what other people say, but it seems to me that the great majority of writers won't earn enough from Substack to substantially change their standard of living.
Thank you for explaining! I only have free subscribers enabled so hopefully I don’t become a dinosaur!
😂 Wow, Julie you are a fast reader!
It helps to read fast when you provided interesting content!
Aww! 🙏
Same + monetizing it has not been my goal
I suspect many on Substack would be the same, Marjorie. They just love writing for the joy of it!
Kisane, this is incredibly valuable information. Thank you!
I'd like to understand the mechanism(s) for attracting sponsors to a Substack column. Will look up online but please expand on that if you have info.
One of the challenges is that there are so many fantastic older women writers (my typical read) that I can't support them all. So I'm wondering about the "cup of coffee" scenario (although I don't drink coffee), or other creative ways to solicit one-time payment for folk's favorite columns.
As a side note, I'm actually more interested in tracking followers than subscribers - but in this brave new world of publicly traded Substack, sounds like I need to up my game.
I also wonder if we could game the system by trading paid subscriptions with our pals.
Adding to my previous reply - re sponsorship: check out Substack’s Publisher Agreement and Content Guidelines and Marketing and Promotion guidelines ☺️ Sponsorship is fine if guidelines followed but it’s not a primary goal for building on Substack where the primary goal is to build engagement and trust. Hope that helps ☺️
Definitely looking into the ‘Cup of coffee’ options. ‘Sponsors to a Substack column’ is new to me! I’ll have to look that up too! Not sure how trading subscriptions would work 😏 My preference is for creating digital products because, once done, there is no ongoing maintenance - less pressure 😊 I’m also thinking about audio and video, but it does require a basic setup. It’s quite exciting 😉 I’ll be reporting on my progress 😂
I,too, have not monetized, but I have been considering it for months. I’m older and not proficient with “lives”. I have no desire for appearing in Videos (one of those designated Unphotogenic). My current raspy older voice isn’t exactly welcoming either these days. So have I outlived by usefulness on Substack? Is the “pen NO LONGER mightier than the sword”. Making money is more of a necessity as I age, yet my lack of talent in the newest technology leaves me only with a gift of the written word. (Writing that last sentence makes the idea feel so real). Perhaps I am already fossilized, but the decaying was so rapid I never recognized its’ initial jab nor the jolt of pain from my dying dream and goal. There are no regrets just overwhelming sadness caused by a dying breed.
Nooooo, you have not outlived your usefulness on Substack, Kathy. And there are heaps of people who don't want to appear on video. My suggestion is that you create downloadable digital products. A perfect candidate for this would be your post on Hidden Facts re Medicare Social Security. Include an introduction in your post and then provide a downloadable PDF that contains all the necessary facts. Bingo! And you only have to set it up once, and it's done. Of course, you have to learn how to set it up, but you can do that! There are people on Substack who can help. For example, check out Veronica Llorca-Smith's 'The Lemon Tree Mindset' - Digital Strategy (a group process) or Landon Poburan's 'Landon's Letters' and his mini-workshop Subliminal Selling on Substack or Wes Pearce's 'Escape the Cubicle' and his Six Figure Digital Product Masterclass. I'm going for digital products rather than paywalling! You can do this Kathy, I know you can :-)
Wow, this is a huge conundrum I know we all face. I’ve been writing Veranda Vibes for two years now for free subscribers. Merrily rolling along.
Five weeks ago I launched a new Substack that I thought I could monetize. I had read one of my Medium stories to a reader. They said, this is it! You need to read your stories to your audience.
With a memoir in mind I curated some of my Medium stories about my crazy life as a disabled, 68 year old woman who landed a marshmallow in a cup of hot chocolate in Jamaica to live her best life. Health and wellness is my game.
Discoverability is a problem. Then now, who wants to read about an aging expat struggling to balance life in a developing nation of Jamaica?
All said, I love, love, love to write my newsletters.
Substack I’m trying to monetize for you! Don’t change too fast. I know there is a pony at the bottom of this pile of capitalist (albeit necessary) s…t.
Love your comment, Diana. Yes, discoverability is the challenge, and that's where participating in Sarah Fay's Notes Boost Challenge helped me to have that initial breakthrough. In my case, I thought, 'Who wants to subscribe to an 83-year-old?' Then, to my amazement, I discovered that there are so many wonderful women on Substack who are 60 and beyond. Now I'm considering making videos. I used to hop on using my computer and iMovie about twenty years ago. But even then, I was older than the average female creating videos on YouTube! I'm also considering reading my novel myself. It won't be audiobook quality for Amazon, just something I'll upload to my podcast. But this all involves a huge learning curve in terms of figuring out how to use the technology! It takes time, and like you, I hope Substack gives us time to adjust! I wish you all the best with Veranda Vibes - https://dswezy.substack.com/
Yes. Learning curves are slow for me complicated by my erratic internet. I also have been considering using video. I love reading my Medium stories in my new experiment Writing in your ear. I use garage band to create my primitive audio recordings. That has been a learning curve. Substack has a good recording interface but suddenly my MacBook won’t allow the internal speaker to work. Gosh it’s always something but typically we old girls have limitless patience to achieve what’s important to us! Good luck with your endeavor.
Thank you for this. I’m slowly seeing my subscriber numbers slowly increase… I might add a pay option at some point, but I’d hate to do that. I get more traction here than I ever did on my blog!
I know, right! It’s not such an easy decision to monetise!
Interesting idea @stellafosse
Thanks, Kisane. Monetising a Substack is not all that easy. It's hard to know as few writers announce the number of their paying subscribers to the world, but you can tell by the coloured ticks what their minimum number is (100, 1000, 10000!).
I decided to offer paid subscriptions after a year and to give all my income to a charity. Did this help to get payers? I don't know. Would I have got more if my charity was in the US and not the UK? Would I have got more if the charity was a more cuddly one? Would I have got more if all the money was going to myself? (One friend said she would have been happy to pay me, but was reluctant to pay the charity, although she eventually did pay.) Then, there are all the ways people solicit payers by offering extra material or finishing a sentence in the middle unless you pay.
I will be interested to see what other people say, but it seems to me that the great majority of writers won't earn enough from Substack to substantially change their standard of living.