Substack, a year in (what's worked, what hasn't)

Also, I'm sharing the juicy stats that are often kept secret. And the rather interesting results of an experiment I did with payments.

Wherever I am, whatever I’m doing: I write. Notes in my phone, scribbled words on scraps of paper and - since the advent of ‘blogs’ - personal essays online.

Also, I write professionally, as a journalist, non-fiction author and ghostwriter.

So Substack was always going to be a fun platform for someone like me, as I love writing regularly and now, I get paid each month by my generous readers.

I’ll share the stats below.

However, I’m now a year into writing on this platform and I’ve realised that while I’m not going to leave, I’m also not going to try and make it my whole career.

It will be a part of what I do, alongside:

• Instagram (that’s where I share the free stuff and off the back of it, get commissioned by editors).

• Writing my own books.

• Writing celebrity’s memoirs.

• Teaching (through online courses and lecturing. I’m manifesting the latter).

For those new to the platform, or looking to grow on Substack, I have some wisdom from my first year of experiments that you might find useful. Here it is…

What’s worked

• Writing every single week, often twice a week. I’m committed, I deliver, the subscribers - both paid and free - keep coming. Though more on re-thinking ‘frequency’ of posts below.

• Putting the paywall in early (after a few weeks). There’s an argument for growing your free subscribers for a year or so before adding in the paywall but I’ve done my free writing and this is about earning a living.

• I paywall most articles and then sometimes, I’ll have a week or two where everything’s free to read. There’s no pattern to it, I just do what I fancy. If the pattern is too clear, people become wise to it and it stops working.

• Sometimes it’s the free articles that get me new paid subscribers, as new readers get a good taste of how I write and want to then access the archives. I love it when that happens.

• Sometimes people pay to subscribe because they want to read what’s hidden behind the paywall. This is also wonderful but I wonder if people are more committed once they’ve read a whole piece and know my writing style?

• I have nearly 6000 ‘free’ subscribers. I started with 3000 subscribers that I brought over from Mailchimp and the Substack network has sent a lot of new subscribers my way. This is a massive ‘pro’ of this platform.

• Today, I have 420 ‘paid’ subscribers (paying between £1-£7/month each). They come and go but in general, my stats show it’s on the up rather than down. The percentage increase on paid subscribers is always green, which is a positive.

• I can see that there are people who subscribe to my Substack who then go onto buy my books and sign up to my online courses. For this reason, publishers are happy about their authors being on Substack.

• When I put the general price higher - £7 - and then offered a discount, I got a flurry of new paid subscribers and they stayed with me. An occasional discount can be an incentive for someone to sign up.

• For this reason, I’m going to put the price up a little for new subscribers. It’s currently £3.50/month, I’m going up to £5/month. Sign up now, if you’d like to get in at the lower price (existing subscribers always stay at the same price).

• Some subscribers are happy to pay £7/month just to support me and my writing. I’m incredibly grateful to all paying subscribers. You keep me on this platform, sharing these essays and articles.

• If you create compelling marketing messages, people will want in on your Substack. But you have to decide if you want to spend your time 1. Writing articles. 2. Marketing them. I want to focus on the writing.

• My most popular articles are the first-person essays on subjects like home, relationships and the awkward online exchanges I sometimes have to navigate (and don’t do so well with).

• People also like articles on my writing career - like this one on being a ghostwriter - work-life balance (as a mum of three young children) and the pieces where I share writing tips.

• I loved having Rosamund Dean write a piece for me. She’s a writer and I didn’t have to edit it at all, so it was really easy and changed up the content a bit. We did an exchange, which meant neither of us had to write an extra article that week.

What hasn’t worked

• I have so many ideas and that’s why I write two pieces each week. However, I wonder if it’s too much for people’s inboxes? I’m thinking of cutting back to one article a week - what do you think?

• Articles like ‘how to start and grow your own Substack’ got me a bunch of new subscribers but they quickly left when they realised I wasn’t only writing about Substack.

• I experimented with price - offering a massive discount so that the monthly payments were just £1. Quite a few people signed up. But when a handful of people left, I checked and they were all people who’d signed up on the massive discount.

• Your most committed readers will often be up for paying a bit more. Some people love a discount; some need it. It’s lovely to offer it to loyal readers. But others jump on the discount and then quickly jump back out.

• In conclusion: big discounts don’t equal longterm subscribers.

• In fact, a higher price can create a sense that you’re offering something of higher value. If you confidently price yourself at £7/month, you may get more paying subscribers than if you go in as low as possible, like I have (£3.50/month).

• I offered the seven-day free trial for a while but stopped, as people were leaving notes about finding the autorenew annoying. I don’t want to be annoying. I only want people paying if they are clear that’s what’s happening.

• If there’s an issue with someone paying who doesn’t think they should be, or a refund is requested for any reason, it’s all on you, as the writer. This is pretty annoying, as usually, the ‘fault’ lies with Substack. Beware.

• I’ve written guest pieces for other people like Rosamund Dean and Emma Gannon. I find that I get more subscribers from people recommending me than from writing guest posts.

• It’s disheartening when people stop subscribing. Especially paid subscribers. This is why I’m not going to put all my eggs in the Substack basket: I don’t want it to determine whether or not I can pay my bills. It’s a lovely ‘extra’ income.

• Obviously, we shouldn’t fixate on the numbers. Obviously, we all do because this is about freelancers earning a living. The money element matters. It’s helpful when people are honest about this.

• When I did think Substack was going to be my main income - when I had my heart set on £100,000/year just from this platform - it started to shape the content of my writing. That’s not the right way round.

• I’ve reduced the pressure to earn from Substack, and now the writing is back to being what I want to write and what I think might be useful, rather than what will get me loads of new paying subscribers. They’re not always the same thing.

• Again, I’m now writing more than marketing my writing. That’s where I want to be: the writer. And if my writing is good, I get paid. If that creeps up into six figures, that would be bloody lovely. I’ll tell you, if it does.

I think that’s probably enough for now.

If you have any questions, please do ask away in the comments and I’m more than happy to help if I can.

Annie x

Want to read more? You might like this intro piece I wrote…