Should You Run a Free or Paid Substack Newsletter?
Substack seems to have two strong communities of writers: those who run free and those who run paid newsletters. Here’s what actually works best.
Free or Paid newsletter?
That is the question…
I keep getting it from people in my Substack community.
Substack seems to have two strong communities of writers: those who run free and those who run paid newsletters. Both have their strong oppinions about why you should do one and not the other.
Not me.
Yes, I run a paid newsletter. I became a bestseller in just 3 months, but this doesn’t mean I don’t believe in free newsletters. I do have one outside of Substack.
But we’re talking about Substack.
So here’s the thing…
You can monetize your subscriber list both ways:
With a paid newsletter — you gain paid subscribers
With a free newsletter — you sell your offers additionally
It’s not EITHER / OR.
WHY?
Here’s how I see the pros and cons of both…
Free newsletter benefits:
Simple and easy
Monetization as of the start
Grows faster organically on Substack
It’s a straight forward strategy. Subscribers grow easily (just use Notes) and you simply write. Without thinking of paid subscirber offers, sales strategy, promotions and all that stuff.
All you need is a good portfolio of paid products you can sell to your list.
Free newsletter downsides:
Against Substack business model
Needs constant creation of new offers on top of your content
You need strong sales skills to monetize with digital products
See, the problem is that Substack doesn’t make money out of this. I belive at some point they will limit the distribution of free content (just a hunch, I have no facts to prove that).
Another problem is that you can’t offer the same digital product to the same subscriber more than 3 times (roughly). You’ll need to constantly create new digital products.
Yes, affiliates and sponsorships are an option, but they still need proper curation effort.
Paid newsletter benefits:
In line with Substack business model
No need to have sales skills (but they help)
Your content is your offer, no need to constantly create new offers
I follow the money.
If the platform I use has a business model that works in my interest then it’s a fit. That’s why I went all in with my paid newsletter.
One strong benefits of this is that you don’t need digital products. Yes, you still need tangible benefits to add in your paid subscription, and one of them could be a digital product but you don’t have to create them upfront.
That’s the sweetest thing about paid newsletters: you can build your digital products in public.
For example you can run a book business on Substack.
Start writing a book in public — one chapter at a time and offer it to paid subscribers. When the book is ready, sell it to your free subscribers. It’s that easy!
Still there are some downsides.
Paid newsletter downsides:
More complex, it’s a business
Needs more time to compound the effect of paid subscribers
You can’t just write. Your content for your paid members should be more than that — it has to be a tangible benefit. For example:
tools
books
guides
templates
checklists
infographics
case studies
workshops
researches
deep dives
analyses
That’s a lot of work. And it’s only the “product” part. It’s a business. You’ll need to know how to promote and sell it, and then how to retain your paid subscribers.
You need business skills. Mostly: product development, sales, marketing and customer realtionship skills.
Full disclosure here: I became a bestseller because I have that background from my 9–5. All of that: product development, sales, marketing and customer realtionship skills. And it’s in developing subscription based services.
To me it was simple, but I know it’s not the case for a lot of writers. Getting a mentor might help you.
Bottom line
There are benefits to both types of newsletters, but there are also trade-offs.
So why not do both?
That’s the thing!
You can start with a free and then add paid. Or do both from the start.
Here’s what actually works best.
Run a paid newsletter
Build additional offers that complement your paid subscribers’ offer
Import automatically all your Substack subscribers to Kit (or other EMS)
Build your funnels to sell these offers to your free subscribers
Voila!
You’ve got the best of both worlds!
Yana
Yes, ALL of that.
First of all, I joined Substack less than 3 weeks ago, so take my plan with a grain of salt. (And please let me know your opinion of said plan)
I don’t plan on using Substack for traditional newsletters. I plan to use it to publish my fiction. Science fiction to be more precise.
I just posted the first episode of an ongoing serial. The plan is to keep the serial free (released weekly) and offer short stories about serial side characters at least once a month. I also have several novellas almost ready to go that I’ll release chapter by chapter here on substack. The shorts and the novellas would be for paid subscribers.