91 Comments

One I would add: first get a job for a well-known publication as a columnist and cultivate a readership.

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I wonder who is most successful Substack author who wasn't already "known" via being a columnist or author.

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Byrne Hobart, maybe?

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Noah- Huge Fan and loved this post. I'd like to submit a couple possible answers to this question. If you look at the charts on substack, under the Business category (select All not Paid), Packy McCormick's #1, Lenny's Newsletter is #2, Weekend Briefing (by yours truly) is #6. As far as I know, none of us have built an audience at a major publication . (NB: I write for Forbes now, but that was actually after I built my newsletter following, not before.)

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Excellent advice. I have read your output for several years, and trust your economics expertise and ability to explain what is going on to me as an interested but otherwise non-expert observer. Your explanations are particularly helpful in creating a framework and testing it against the evidence. It's not an easy task, as we all tend to operate from a jumble of pre-conceived notions and expectations.

My problem with Substack subscriptions is being able to afford the several authors that deserve to be read. One NYTimes subscriptionn costs a fraction of what I would have to pay five Substack authors. Perhaps there is a solution I am not aware of.

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Substack needs to create a way to bundle subscriptions.

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I would really, really like Substack to just charge me once for all my monthly subscriptions the way Patreon does.

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I also subscribe to several Patreon creators and even more Substack writers. I find that having the $5 and $7 charges spread out over the month is easier to take than one big bill. Obviously it’s an illusion but it seems like I’m spending less that way.

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I don't thinks that necessary, the old 1000 fans theory, there are 1000s of creators out there making a living doing what they love and yet I support only a tiny tiny fraction of them. So obviously unbundling wprks.

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Works

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Or a number of like-minded experts need to coalesce into an organized digest of regular information, guidance, and advice on specific fields for the broad public that understands the role of expertise. The world is very complicated, but we do know in general where expertise resides in our personal affairs, like health, or schooling, or banking, or major purchases, etc.

It's the wider world that's beyond our usual reach. It's huge, of course, but subject to segmenting, and coherence, if you can organize your offering.

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I thought I heard on a recent Cortex podcast (where Grey talks about starting his own Substack) that, upon upgrading to Paid for a given writer, before you finish checking out Substack will prompt you with a handful of similar (by whatever metric/algorithm) writers you may be interested in upgrading to, and these similar Paids are offered at discounted prices on that screen only type of deal. Haven't tested this for myself.

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Your readership would expand, even more, with an updated travel guide to Japan.

Just saying.

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When Japan is fully open for travel, I will write one, I promise!

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doh! He's on the record!

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With the weakening yen, and Japan opening up, this should come up!

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Stop by Taiwan while you're at it, first bubble tea is on me

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i had two rabbits in the early 2010s. first died in 2013 second died in spring of 2016.

mine is btwn narrow and broad. i would say if you are narrow go more paid. the ppl who want that content will pay for it, and you don't need that many free posts to market yourself (i'm probably 30% free posts). if you are broader, do a higher proportion of free posts since your potential appeal is wider but shallower. ppl need to see why they want to pay for your paid content. in contrast, if you want a genetically informed history of the corded ware you need to pay for my substack.

finally, i do one podcast a week. i could probably do better production, but i have an editor in india who's fine for now. i've had one podcast a week since the fall of 2020, and i manage it by doing mostly evergreen topics so i can sit on a podcast for a year or more and release them whenever.

speaking of evergreen, that makes a paid option more feasible. if you material goes out of date who is going to pay for gated pieces years later? in contrast, with a post on the history of the avars or something, ppl might want to read that a year later.

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Noah, Razib, others, could you comment on the general pricing vs volume of subscriptions, growth, and earnings produced of beginning to medium to popular substackers? Also thoughts on effects of anonymity vs public substacks? And last, comparison to other platforms?

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i've been jacking up pricing cuz inflation and stuff. but it was 5 to begin and 9 now. you get lock in early on. i have been increasing the pay % cuz now you see enough free to get a sense. you like it or don't.

marketing/reach is more important for beginning if you have a narrower focus. once word is out, it's out, and you are pushing on the margin. if you are broad, you audience potential is bigger, so keep going free

i think anon will have harder traction. stay free and prove yourself longer.

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Could you speak to the volumes of subscriptions you've seen at each period of time and level, and what the growth looks like?

Do you own/have access to the details/contact info for your subscribers, in an easy to access/manage way?

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i do have access. not necessarily easy

lots of ppl see subscriber growth linear than saturation. yglesias has talked about it. you hit a fixed churn and fixed new sub, and it equilibrates.

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What are your thoughts on engaging with readers in the comments section? Obviously you do this (and I value it!), but what sort of advice would you give budding substackers?

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I'm not sure if it helps, but I enjoy it!

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I'm delighted you have been successful with your Substack. One thing you perhaps left out was self-discipline. You ought to be writing every day. Not everything needs to be published, but flexing your writing "muscles" is important. Also, subscribers need to see regular content to justify their subscription.

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One of the reasons I subscribe is because I know that people need to make a living and if you want this type of information to be available. I have several substack subscriptions though at times I worry about the degree to which I have favored opinion versus what I used to read in the daily newspaper

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How do you decide which posts are paywalled and which aren’t?

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Well, usually I think "Ugh, I guess I need to paywall a post, I haven't done that for a while."

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But as for topics, stuff that's about financial markets is more likely to get paywalled, but really it can be anything.

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Well, at least I have the bunnies thing down.

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Yesssssss

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I'd also note that a lot of people use Feedly and other RSS readers. I.e. Feedly shows that you have 1k subscribers there.

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Really appreciate this, I am thinking of writing again, I was struck by this: "people don’t really know how they accomplished what they accomplished"

I had a successful blog for about ten years, and when the platform I was on told me my numbers I couldn't believe it--big. I didn't understand it. When I looked back later I realized that I had written on a niche topic to a platform that had a lot of people interested in that particular niche. They didn't have wide reach generally, and I was just writing about something that I was genuinely interested in so I never thought about, like what is the market for this? So when I heard those numbers I was truly befuddled as to how that could happen. Not that I minded :).

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BUNNEH!!!

All right, now that the fuzzbutt squee is over with...son had two rabbits for 4H and I spent several years as a small animals 4H leader and got to know and see many, many rabbits--show rabbits are quite fun.

I have three Substacks. One functions somewhat as a means to distribute my blog across several platforms (Speculations from the Wide Open Spaces). Then there's the political one that I need to blow the dust off of (Speculations on Politics). My most successful one so far is the serialized fiction one (Martiniere Stories), centered around one particular set of characters.

Why is Martiniere Stories doing well while the others aren't? I suspect it's partially because I participate in a Substack fiction writers group, the Fictionistas, and we're currently doing a round robin, exquisite corpse, whatever-you-want-to-call-it story called the Grisly Ghosts of Gruesome Time. The Fictionistas not only have our own Substack, but we have a Discord group and we chat once a month on Zoom while muttering about our nemesis, the Food Writers (obligatory stink-eye in their direction). Seriously, Fictionistas and the Food Writers seem to be the major organized writer groups on Substack. That provides a means for promotion. We usually get new people every Zoom, which leads to a flurry of subs after. Like all fiction writers, some of our best fans are other writers....

Most fiction writers on Substack are using it as a simpler, less demanding form of Patreon. It's not so much the subscription button as it is the donation button that seems to draw in financial support from readers. I haven't set up a paywall yet, for complicated reasons, but probably will in the next month or so. Martiniere Stories is a bit focused as it's an extension of an existing series, but a series where the characters are demanding more stories, across several universes, and, well...not gonna run out of story material soon.

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Hi Noah, I have no intention of starting a substack, as I am not a writer. I am a reader though, and one who will be one of your paid subscribers as soon as I get off my duff and pay. I enjoy a few other substack writers, some paid ,some not. I found them, as I found you, through one of them. Is there a place to browse through all of the substack writers?

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The Substack phone app lets you do this!

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Ah ha! I didn't know there was such a thing. That's why I am becoming a paid subscriber. I feel like I learn something every time I read your post. And now, while I'm thinking about it, I am off to send some money you way. THANKS!

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My pleasure. :-)

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There is a sidebar on your substack profile page that has a link to “discover” or “explore.” Apart from the well-known ones, though, it’s not very well organized. I get a lot of (too many?!) substacks and a fair number of non-substack newsletters and I have found most of them through Twitter or links in other newsletters. Tyler Cowen’s blog, Marginal Revolution, is also a good source for links to newsletters on a wide range of topics, not just econ.

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Thank you, both.

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Awww Bunny! Great advice, and thank you.

Again awwww Bunny!

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I just wish there was somehting like the chip cards used by most public transit agencies that would allow you to pay for what you consume. But I get it that authors prefer a steady income stream.

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Thanks for sharing! I am just getting started, so this is much appreciated. Having had a hand-coded blog, and having experienced TypePad (mid-2000s) and the combo of Wordpress+Mailchimp (my last blog+ email, and agree that the integration that Substack provides is powerful), I have really enjoyed my Substack experience thus far. Particularly appreciate all the resources they provide to writers. Onward and upward and thanks again for sharing your experiences.

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