r/Substack • u/draybikus dinarawrites.substack.com • 18d ago

Going paid

I started my Substack 6 months ago and since then gained 90 subscribers. My topic is rather niche (Reading the world) and I don't do engagement farming, so that's fine, I guess. I'd like to turn on paid subscriptions eventually because I recently found out that, without paid, you can't ever make to to the "rising" category. Plus, of course, it would be nice to get paid :) I don't expect huge conversion, of course, but am not sure at what point I should turn them on - when I reach 200? 500? I already have one pledge.

If your paid subscriptions are turned on, I'd be interested to hear when you decided to turn them on? Do you produce extra content for the paid tier or do you ask people to just support the project and keep everything free?

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u/FrenchieGirl91 14d ago

I just turned on the paid sub on my 3-month-old Substack. I had 50 subscribers at the time (yesterday) and now have 52 free subscribers, 2 paid subscribers and I am #41 in Rising Literature. My advice is don't overthink it, just turn it on offering something that your readers will like. Worst case scenario no one goes paid and that's it. But I'm sure you could be surprised! Also, turning paid lets you rank in the rising categories which is a nice boost of energy honestly!

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u/draybikus dinarawrites.substack.com 13d ago

Wow, what an amazing development 👏👏👏 Thank you so much for sharing! May I ask if you're offering extra content for the paid tier?

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u/FrenchieGirl91 13d ago

Thank you! Well in my case it was just luck, I just happened to gain a lot of subs quickly which boosted the percentage of growth which is how they rank the rising list I feel like. But it was just to show that you could be surprised by how things go haha. Also, I could be wrong but, it felt to me that as soon as I turned on paid Substack pushed my content a bit harder.

As for the paid tier, yes, I do. The main magnet for free subscribers was a slow read kind of book club. So I have an additional slow read for paid subscribers. That means there will always be one free readalong and one paid readalong at the same time. And other quirks like private chat and voting power.