Why Substack isn't paying the bills (some theories)
It's my newsletter's first birthday and I've adjusted my expectations
To celebrate a year of A Considered Space on Substack, I’m offering 30% off annual subscriptions. I haven’t offered a discount in the last six months, so this doesn’t happen often! Use the link below to buy a year’s access to everything for £35 (usually £50). That works out at just £2.91 a month. On a personal level, the support of my few paid subscribers makes a vast difference to the amount of time I’m able to spend writing here, so thank you – it’s very much appreciated!
At the end of August, it’ll be my first Substack anniversary (FWIW, it still feels like I’m just getting started). It’s been fulfilling as a writer and I’ve loved it even more so as a reader, BUT I think it’s important to acknowledge that if you’re starting a newsletter now, your experience won’t be the same as someone who started theirs three or four years ago. Unless you’re famous. We’ll get to that later.
I’m not even close to reaching what I hoped for in terms of subscribers or income and I don’t think I ever will. On reflection, my expectations simply weren’t realistic, so after adjusting those, I feel way more chilled going along with my instincts and enjoying it, rather than being fixated on numbers.
I had no specific monetary goals when I sent that first newsletter on the 28th of August 2023 but I’d seen some life-changing figures on screens concerning other writers and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t appealing. Ultimately though, I joined Substack so I had a place to write about whatever I liked, without a word limit and without needing to build myself a website.
Some people are gatekeepers, I’d be the chump who accidentally let the Trojan Horse in because I wanted to offer a tour. The urge to overshare courses through my veins. If people compliment my bag with no request for further info, I’ll compulsively tell them where it was from, when, how much and which discount code I used for an extra 10% off. I’m the same with personal experiences – I process things best by talking or writing about them. I wanted somewhere (other than my brain and the tabs on my internet browser) to share curated edits and honest essays, hoping they might strike a chord with others.
Did I also hope for a supplement to my income, one that would grow until I was no longer always worrying about money? Hell yeah. I wanted to write about topics of my choosing AND I wanted to pay my council tax bill while I was at it.