How to Get Your First Paid Subscribers on Substack

A practical guide to understanding when to turn the paid tier on, how to get your first paying members and what to offer them.

Your Substack journey won’t look exactly like mine, or anyone else’s for that matter, but learning from others can inspire you to keep going, show you new strategies to try, and help you build the mindset necessary to turn this into a real writing business.

So that’s why I’m writing this post - a simple guide on how I got my first paid subscribers, and how you can too, in your own way, but by following the same principles.

If you aren’t interested in monetizing your newsletter, that’s totally fine, and you are free to skip this post. Invest your time in something that is more relevant to you instead.

If you live in a country where enabling paid subscriptions isn’t an option, this won’t be helpful to you, unfortunately, but there are other ways you can monetize and I will write about them in the future.

For anyone else, keep reading and enjoy.

Let’s start with one of the most common questions I get…

When to turn the paid tier on?

I’ve answered that question more times than I can count. It depends on your particular situation. But usually, it comes down to this:

Do you feel ready?

The intention behind monetizing (especially for the first time) plays a huge role. Are you doing this because you think you have to, because every other writer seems to be doing it, and because the gurus are telling you to?

Or are you doing it because you want to offer something exclusive to your biggest supporters, because you want to keep your best content (most strategic/personal/sensitive info) paywalled?

The former is for the wrong reasons, as you can tell, and you’re likely to not enjoy having a paid tier if you turn it on from that state of mind.

Do you have a clear promise?

With the paid tier, you’re monetizing. That means you have an offer to sell.

Maybe it’s just to give loyal readers a way to support all the personal essays you’re publishing. Maybe it’s to offer a paid chat and other community features to paying members. Maybe you want to give them a monthly bonus, or just to keep your deep dive articles for them.

Whatever that is, make sure you have a clear promise. Only then can you explain it to them and sell it with confidence.

Is this sustainable for you?

Most writers on Substack have a busy schedule, many are doing this on the side and already have enough going on. So the next big decision about paid subscriptions is whether you can sustain it without burning out.

And this comes back to the promise. If you offer paid members something weekly, or monthly bonuses, or a chat, can you keep up with all that, without compromising on the quality and amount of free articles you post, and on engaging with others daily?

It’s possible that you answer Yes to all 3, turn the paid tier on, and still feel that pressure, fear of not being able to deliver, imposter syndrome, and even the desire to turn it off again.

It happens, it’s normal, and it doesn’t mean you aren’t meant to build a writing business.

It just means that either the timing wasn’t right, or something else wasn’t the way it should be specifically for your situation.

If you do want to have paid subscriptions on but aren’t sure what exactly to give paid subscribers yet or whether you’d have the time and energy for extra content, then don’t make any big promises.

It’s possible that you come up with the best ideas later on, or even that your audience tells you what they need, and you create something to fill those needs. This is how you can be of service.

Let me share my experience so far, after which I will list some steps that might help you get your first paying members.

How I Got My First Paid Subscribers

I came to Substack to teach blogging as a business (and how to monetize a blog with brand partnerships).

But as I began growing on the platform, enjoying it and documenting my journey, and getting questions about it all the time, I began writing about Substack.

My paid subscribers joined because of that - they liked my content on Substack growth, and wanted to learn more directly from me.

I had some paywalled posts early on (but on blogging and monetization) and was planning to release new ones weekly, so I sort of turned the paid tier on to create my archive of paid posts before any paid members actually arrive. And I didn’t think anyone would join anytime soon, but I was here for the long haul. And then one day someone joined.

I was humbled. It happened before I was officially promoting my paid tier, but that’s just proof that your free content and having the paid tier on are already doing the work (as long as your free content is already helpful, inspiring or both).

This meant a lot for me because it proved that:

• You can hit publish before you’re ready;

• You can release that paid tier sooner rather than later (I wasn’t even promoting mine actively yet or expecting anyone to sign up any time soon);

• You never know when or from where your first or next paid subscriber will come from.

• Your monetization path might be different than expected, be open to it. (My first revenue here came a brand reaching out to do a sponsored post for them.)

That happened when I had around 350 free subscribers, and around 3 months after I started using Substack actively.

Then I began writing more of the content people asked for (but which I was super passionate about too), and that brought the next few subscribers.

Here’s what I shared about them in a Note:

Then, I also released my first paid offer - The Substack Growth Audit, and that became the reason most of my paid subscribers chose to sign up, and picked the annual tier.

Now I have 18 members, and some time ago I started offering them something extra - a weekly Q&A thread in the chat. That turned out to be super valuable too, and I’m so glad I added this benefit.

I recently restructured my paid tiers in a way that allows me to handle more volume and sustain it, and also in a way that reflects how long doing an audit takes me and how valuable that product is.

I wrote about it here:

The Next Chapter of My Substack (+ Last Chance for This)

In a nutshell:

This is the last chance to get a personal Substack Growth Audit as part of the annual membership at this price. I won’t offer this combination again.

You have from now till September 13th to take action and claim your audit.

From September 14th on, it will be part of the new Founding member tier I’m introducing, and the price will reflect that.

I keep releasing exclusive content only for paying subscribers, and will have many more benefits for them in the near future. This is just the beginning.

Now, obviously, I ended up writing about Substack growth as this is what I love and think about all the time, so it’s natural for me. But that isn’t the case for most writers here.

You can still make it in almost any niche by creating value, forming real relationships, and giving people something worth subscribing to.

And now, here are some tips that might help you turn free readers into people who invest in your work and take action on it:

How to Get Your First Paid Subscribers

Clear niche + good positioning.

I know many of you are multi-passionate writers and entrepreneurs. That’s great but it can be a distraction for you, and the reason you don’t turn free subscribers into paid ones.

If you’re serious about turning this into a business, and if writing on many different topics so far hasn’t worked for you, you may consider narrowing things down.

Who do you write for? Who do you help? Who is your content for?

Narrowing down your ideal reader also counts, even if you write on a few topics. Then all of them can be created with the same person in mind. And when that person finds you among many other writers on Substack, they will know your newsletter is the right one for them.

As for positioning, make sure it’s clear what you do here, what you’re building, who it helps, and how it’s different from other newsletters covering the same topics.

Grow your free audience.

I’ve seen writers at any stage land their first paid subscriber. Anything is possible, really.

But if you have no prior experience, no audience yet, then it’s usually best to get to at least few hundred subscribers simply to learn things along the way.

To find your voice, connect with people, help the algorithm understand what your newsletter is about and start sending you the right people, become more confident in the brand you’re building, and learn how Substack works.

If you engage a lot, post Notes regularly, and write good content related to your niche, you will likely have continuous growth after some time.

Be helpful and form relationships.

I am in the business of helping people, of solving problems, of providing a transformation. I love it.

How about you?

What do you bring to the table?

Be helpful, and you will be remembered. But here’s the tricky part - it has to be genuine. You have to really mean it.

This is your brand - who you are, how you communicate with people, anything you write, how you respond, how you sound in the comments, etc.

This is how people remember you.

In the first months here, I was giving really long answers in the DMs. Now I don’t have the time anymore so I usually refer people to an article I’ve written that answers this, or inform them of the Substack Growth Audit I’m offering to anyone interested in an actual analysis (as I am simply not able to review people’s publications and strategies any time they ask me).

I also often write long comments with many tips and sharing my experience. I’ve done that in publication chats too. On other people’s articles. And my Notes are informative and inspiring too.

With everything I do, I try to be helpful and form connections, while staying true to myself and doing what I love.

Find that combo, and you’ll likely grow.

Build your expertise.

But there’s another piece to the puzzle - become known for one thing. Become people’s go-to person on one topic.

Expertise matters on Substack. Even if you build it right here over the course of a few months.

Once you do, demonstrate it in any way you can. Talk about your topic to everyone who would listen. Appear on other publications, in interviews and lives. Or write content so good that it gets shared. That works too.

Also, share your lessons, wins, unique perspective, stories, frameworks, case studies, etc.

Study other writers.

Substack is like no other platform. Many things work here which I thought weren’t really possible in business. So go out there, find people writing about the same topics, and see what they are up to, how they’ve structured everything, what content they post, what their paid tier consists of, etc.

Study, don’t copy.

Use them as proof to believe it’s possible for you too. This is idea validation, my friend.

Have something ready for paid members.

What helped me was to already have something for paid members. After I had a few, though, I learned what actually would be more valuable and adjusted my strategy.

This is not necessary as others have monetized without have any extra content for paid members, but I add it as a step here because it helps you be confident in selling the paid tier, and I believe that’s important.

The easiest thing is to go back to old articles and add a paywall.

Or release a template, a PDF guide, a video, just something extra and which is valuable. Something people can benefit from.

You can also add the chat as a perk for paid members if you like that and will have the time for it. The room might be empty in the beginning, though, so keep that in mind.

Turn on paid subscriptions.

When the time has come, turn the paid tier on and feel good about it. Don’t forget to write a special welcome email for paid subs.

If any pressure comes, analyze it, let it be and keep writing good content.

Don’t compare yourself to others. You don’t know their circumstances.

There’s no right or wrong as to when you get your first paid member. But the only way to actually get them is by having the paid tier on, offering them something, being confident in selling it, and regularly creating good content.

Promote your paid tier.

And last but not least, here’s a part many writers forget or consciously avoid - the promo. And I don’t mean a one-time promo, I mean continuously talking about your paid tier, offering it as an extra step to anyone interested in learning more, and informing people that it exists.

Add it to your About and Start Here pages and to your welcome email for free subs. Write a post to introduce it. Mention it in posts when relevant.

Want to work work with me?

The Substack Growth Audit is the best place to start.

I’ll take a look at your publication and give you personalized recommendations to help you grow, improve your positioning, and monetize your content.

Annual paid subscriber get the audit as a bonus until September 13 🎁

So that’s my practical guide for you on how to get your first paying subscribers. I hope it helped you decide whether you’re ready for the paid tier or not, and what next steps to take.

And if you think it’s just you struggling with these decisions, it’s not. Here’s the proof:

Now, tell me, do you have the paid tier on?

Are you confident in what it promises?

Are you ready to welcome your first or next paid members?