
Don’t assume more = more paid subscribers.
Know how much, when, and how often to post on Substack.
How to create a valuable, not a more-extra paid offer.
How to use hard data to inform your decisions.
The 4 steps to creating a paid strategy that converts (+ PDF).
First, the idea that we should give away anything for free to subscribers is absurd. I don’t expect free stuff when I go to Nordstrom or Home Depot or on Amazon and certainly don’t expect someone at McDonald’s or anywhere else to work for free, but here we are.
To get paid subscribers, you need to convert them, but that doesn’t mean giving them more “stuff.”
STEP 1: Don’t assume more = more valuable.
So many of us think that giving paid subscribers more stuff, more often will lead them to pay—extra posts, extra audio, extra video, or (my favorite) “behind the scenes” (which, unless you’re Taylor Swift, no one cares about); twice a week instead of once, thrice instead of twice.
This way of thinking is reasonable because 1) if someone is paying us, what they get should be valuable; 2) the internet is driven by consumer culture so we’ve been conditioned to think more and extra is better; and 3) we’ve been brainwashed to believe that churning out “content” is normal, leads to positive results, and could ever give us the lives we really want.
But no one wants more stuff; they want the best, preferably in less time because they’re busy.
STEP 2: Know Substack’s posting best practices
If you want more paid subscribers, when, how much, and how often to post is nuanced and individual, but here are some guidelines.
How often:
Once a week for most, but it depends on your category.
As Substack gets more crowded, I’m telling people to go to fortnightly or even once a month if it means:
the quality of what you post is higher and
you can dedicate time to being on Notes because that’s where all the growth is, not in posting more.
For help deciding how often you should post, see another post in this series Post Less Often, Please.
When:
There’s no perfect day to post on Substack; we’ll often sit in people’s inboxes for days.
Just post on the same day/days each week/month. We want to be something they look forward to—like the Sunday paper.
How much:
It varies depending on the content, i.e., storytelling/narrative can draw people in and be on the long side.
For help deciding how much to post, see Write Less, Please.
STEP 3: Create a valuable, not a more-extra paid offer.
We’re at the paywall. Expert guidance + a community of the best Substack writers and creators = you earning an income and having the platform you deserve. Invest in your Substack.
As I said, value doesn’t come from offering extra and more. It comes from these perhaps surprising approaches: