Here’s an actual statistic: 100 percent of the people I’ve helped on Substack once believed that going paid and having a paid Substack means paywalling.
It doesn’t. I promise you it does not.
It can, of course, but randomly placing annoying paywalls in your posts isn’t the way to go about it. That comes from outdated marketing ideas and (often) the plethora of “subhacks” being sold to people right now.
Amongst digital media publishers, the thinking around paywalling has changed a lot even in just the last six months. (I totally geek out on this. One of my favorite podcasts is about trends in digital media paywalling. That’s all it’s about, and I’m riveted.)
If and how to paywall isn’t a one-size-fits-all way to make money. There are no tricks on Substack. Actually, the only “tricks” (if there are any) are 1) having support and help and 2) making your Substack entirely you—right down to the presence or absence of paywalls.
Having helped so many Substackers grow and earn an income, I’ve learned 3 things about what works and doesn’t when it comes to paywalling.
Paywalling on Substack
It’s not the only or necessarily the best paid strategy on Substack.
To be effective, it has to be done intentionally and with a generous spirit.
You need a paywalling strategy (that’s the intentional part) and to think less about some abstract idea of “producing quality content,” which is relative and vapid, and instead more about connecting with your subscribers.
#1: Paywalling isn’t necessarily the only or best paid strategy on Substack
Paywalling isn’t necessarily necessary
If paywalling just “worked,” Judd Legum, Heather Cox Richardson, and others would be very poor and the majority of Substack writers out there haphazardly paywalling would be very rich. Judd Legum has over 10,000 paid subscribers and paywalls nearly none of his posts; Heather Cox Richardson—who is supposedly the highest-grossing Substack writer—was 100 percent free and only recently started paywalling the audio of her posts.
Another case in point: Anne Helen Petersen—90-ish percent of her posts aren’t paywalled. Her entire paid strategy is paywalling her wonderful threads (now called discussion posts). And it’s working because supposedly—and who knows if this is true—she’s making $500,000/year.
Paywalling has to gel with your values and vision for your Substack
Yes, Emma Gannon and others are nearly 100 percent paywalled. Why? Mostly because it makes sense for them. It matches their philosophy on what people should have access to. Your approach has to match yours.
Paywalling isn’t the only paid strategy
It’s only one of three strategies that can help you be (deservedly) paid for the good work you do. Two others are the service model and the NPR model. I won’t go into all three because I cover them in-depth here.
#2: To be effective, it has to be done intentionally
Avoid automatically paywalling the archive in your dashboard settings
Irritating people by interrupting their reading mid-sentence with an ellipsis doesn’t make for happy, long-term subscribers. They may become a subscriber to read that post but it’s unlikely they’ll stay.
That’s the default on Substack’s automatic paywall: a mid-sentence paywall.
Read on to learn how to set up a paywall intentionally, and how to develop a paywalling strategy that works for you and your readers.