I guess it's a matter of balance? I think about it like, the main point of the free posts [in terms of how the business side of the newsletter works] is to travel widely and find new free subscribers, while the main point of the paywalled posts is to turn those free subscribers into paid subscribers. More of the former can't hurt, so long as I'm doing a paywalled post or two a week to keep up conversions. More paywalled posts probably would alienate free subscribers to the point of quitting, though. (Maybe the other key thing is that every single email, free and paid, has a "subscribe" or "upgrade subscription" button near the very top.)
But it probably also depends on your pitch to paid subscribers -- if you make everything free and ask for subscriptions as a gesture of support, like public radio or something, the balance is going to be different.
I've been blogging since 1996 (translation: I'm old ) and the problem with places like Substack, where you take money from people monthly or yearly, is that you never feel as if you're writing enough to justify people subscribing to you. It's one thing if you have a tip jar on your site or people make a one-time donation, but the math changes when it's a regular payment (and you want them to renew).
It's one of the (many) reasons I left Substack and just went back to my own site. I wrote about it here if you're interested:
You can do a lot of testing and monitor feedback to figure out the optimal balance to generate your revenue and professional goals.
There will always be churn тАУ┬аpeople will drop because they can't afford it, they get bored of your stuff, you piss them off, etc. So you always have to be doing things to acquire new subscribers.
I appreciate the candid advice, but it kinda sounds like the goal here is money. тАЬPost and let people yell at you, ignore the shame.тАЭ Quantity over quality.
Am I misunderstanding something? Genuinely curious.
Doesn't this churn-churn-churn approach go against the Substack money-making model of two (posts) for me and one (post) for them (paid subscribers)?
I guess it's a matter of balance? I think about it like, the main point of the free posts [in terms of how the business side of the newsletter works] is to travel widely and find new free subscribers, while the main point of the paywalled posts is to turn those free subscribers into paid subscribers. More of the former can't hurt, so long as I'm doing a paywalled post or two a week to keep up conversions. More paywalled posts probably would alienate free subscribers to the point of quitting, though. (Maybe the other key thing is that every single email, free and paid, has a "subscribe" or "upgrade subscription" button near the very top.)
But it probably also depends on your pitch to paid subscribers -- if you make everything free and ask for subscriptions as a gesture of support, like public radio or something, the balance is going to be different.
I've been blogging since 1996 (translation: I'm old ) and the problem with places like Substack, where you take money from people monthly or yearly, is that you never feel as if you're writing enough to justify people subscribing to you. It's one thing if you have a tip jar on your site or people make a one-time donation, but the math changes when it's a regular payment (and you want them to renew).
It's one of the (many) reasons I left Substack and just went back to my own site. I wrote about it here if you're interested:
https://sassone.wordpress.com/2022/11/05/the-substack-experiment-is-over/
I write four times a week on Substack and I feel like it's enough.
I think 4 x a week is extraordinary.
You can do a lot of testing and monitor feedback to figure out the optimal balance to generate your revenue and professional goals.
There will always be churn тАУ┬аpeople will drop because they can't afford it, they get bored of your stuff, you piss them off, etc. So you always have to be doing things to acquire new subscribers.
I appreciate the candid advice, but it kinda sounds like the goal here is money. тАЬPost and let people yell at you, ignore the shame.тАЭ Quantity over quality.
Am I misunderstanding something? Genuinely curious.