The Gentle Art of Paywalling on Substack
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 doesn’t.
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 That comes from outdated marketing ideas and (often) the plethora of “subhacks” being sold to people right now.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
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