I have the same problem, and it surely is a dilemma.
My all-time favourite economist, Paul Krugman, has started a ‘stack, and is a *very* prolific writer. I can get two or three emails from him each day, and I would hate to miss any of them. But combined with all the others I get, including yours, I am up to about 50 Substack emails EVERY. DAY.
I am going to try your suggestions, because it sure beats unsubscribing!
Ohmygoodness James, RUN don't walk to Phase 1. Your comment gave me instant hives. You poor creature. Get yourself fixed up quick-like. Thoughts and prayers.
Oh yay! I find it really useful and have made it a game to keep iterating until I get to 78% or higher. The final result is always better than what I started with. Enjoy!
Are you finding it difficult to find enough paper magazines to write for? I used to freelance almost exclusively for magazines, and now it seems like it's looking for hen's teeth.
I worked specifically in a niche (dog sports) and eventually became an associate editor of Clean Run Magazine. But we stopped printing in December of 2020. Not enough subscribers to carry it since the advertisers had largely moved online. Now we (Clean Run) run a dog training online school. I think some paper magazines are making a comeback but in larger and more expensive formats. I have not tried to find a magazine writing job in a long time but I would think they would be hard to find. Good luck!!!
Thank you! Literally, one minute after publishing, I got an email from someone I don't even know saying, "Oh my fucking god. THANK YOU." That's some universal validation right there!! 😎
Thank you for this! I am definitely more tech-challenged than you. And thank you for subscribing to my little Stack. I feel honored! I subscribe to both of yours and love your voice. Glad to connect in the Substack universe. Also, I agree about paywalls. Lord they piss me off! I do not like to be teased. (Probably goes back to 4th grade taunting by Bobby Keith.) I have not turned on paid subscriptions yet, but when I do I will keep my once a week article free and add other features for my paid people. Seems reasonable to me.
Yes, I’m so happy to be connected, Leslie! And I’m glad you’re with me on the teasing bit. I think everyone deserves to be paid, but there are ways of paywalling that piss me off and ways that don’t.
A bit of unsolicited advice? Unless you think it will stress you out to have to create on a schedule for your paid subscribers, I’d recommend turning on paid now. At a minimum, throw a “Buy me a coffee” link at the bottom of your posts. You don’t even have to make paid content until you’re ready, but it doesn’t hurt to have it on and - BONUS - you might be pleasantly surprised.
I appreciate this advice. I have about $700 in annual pledges so far, but I don't feel like I'm in a rhythm or productive enough to have separate offerings for paid subscribers yet. I'm still ramping up to being in a comfortable groove with my once a week regular article. I've only been here since October, so I feel like I'm still getting the hang of it. Still at the point where I'm scared I might run out of things to write about. (Another form of imposter syndrome I'm sure...) But maybe I'll do the buy me a coffee thing in the meantime (although I don't drink coffee, so tea maybe)... Thank you! And keep doing what you're doing. I'm always happy to have your stuff pop up!
Haha just think of it as a tip jar! Buy yourself some ice cream or put it in a kitty to get yourself a massage. I only suggest you do it because I read some advice early in my Substack career about waiting until you had 300 subscribers to turn on paid, decided to ignore it and got my first paid subscriber WAY sooner. It was a glorious example of not letting my limiting beliefs win. Since then, I've been an evangelist about creating some way to let your readers pay you even if you don't feel ready or worthy. Because I'm not sure that ever really happens?
And thank you so much for all your support! I appreciate you being here so much 🩵
Ooh have you read Big Magic? This reminds me of that. The muse visited both of us at the same time. Please send me the link and I’ll share it as a companion piece to mine.
Well, blow me down, if this isn't a fabulous post. I, too, have emails running out my ears, and I can hardly keep up with my inbox. I had no idea about "headline analyzer" but, hey, you've opened my eyes (figuratively). I also HATE, HATE, HATE being locked out of an account. What really gets my goat is when you are not allowed to comment. OK, so what I have to say doesn't count? That really doesn't make me want to sign up to your Substack. I'm sure they feel the loss. (Not!)
Absolutely! And my biggest issue with the paid walls is I couldn't possibly afford to subscribe to all of the Substacks I like, and really, I know writers want to be paid (I am one!) but who can afford extra expenses these days when milk (in my area) costs OVER $7 now and EVERYTHING costs way more than it should. People can barely survive with the cost of living like it is, and no raises to counteract it... and expenses for my own writing career... I want to support other writers, but I can't pay them for articles.
Quite right. If you want/need to be paid, I think it is only right to go to markets that pay. I think the Substacks that do well financially are telling other Substack people how to do it. Could be wrong.
Shannon and Rose, I concur with all of these statements! Yes, the most immediately financially lucrative publications do seem to be the ones that teach people how to make money on Substack. That's not what I set out to write at all, but the few posts I've written about Substack have performed the best (by a mile). What are you gonna do? The people have spoken. 🤷🏻♀️ (I mean, I still plan to write my other stuff, but you get my point).
I think a great option is to tip the writers who have a "buy me a coffee" link. If you feel especially moved by a piece, that's a nice way to show support. And it's probably equivalent to subscribing for a month and then canceling. I set an annual budget for myself and stop when it runs out.
And lastly, please know that writers don't WANT to lock you out of comments on a paid post for being a free subscriber. We have no choice. It's a feature that I HATE about SS with the passion of 1000 burning suns. If they ever care about my opinion, I plan to give them an earful about this. Comments are lifeblood. Everybody wants them. SS has created a weird gatekeep-y system in this regard. So please don't penalize the creator. We always want you to tell us your thoughts!
I am also subscribed to sooo many publications and had to turn of email notifications, so thank you for this!
Though now my head is spinning about my paywalled posts…I felt so proud of myself when I learned how to do that, haha! But now worried they might not be helping. I just don’t know how else to inform people of the gold that’s available when they become a paid subscriber, so I like to show a good chunk of the post but then leave the audio lessons I do behind the paywall. Now I’m thinking maybe I do a separate free post the day before that’s complete in its own way and tease to what’s going to paid subscribers the next day. Maybe that’s better? I want to give some of it for free, just not all.
Marcy, far be it for me to tell anyone how to paywall. I'm just doing what I've seen and liked, and I think everyone should use that as their compass. I think what you suggested is a great idea. If someone can read a lot of your content for free but, once in a while, swipes away from a paid post, that's not so bad. Or, knowing how valuable your paid stuff is, they may go ahead and try reading the preview just to see if they want to buy. I just feel bad for the people who paywall everything because I never even try. I'm going to end up unsubscribing eventually.
I do a duplicate free version of my posts with paid audio. I use the same image but write "read by author" over the top to distinguish one from the other. At the top of the free post I write, "paid subscribers have access to [these fancy things] at [this link]." That way I can still get comments on the free post but also the incentive/upgrade on the paid. It's clunky, but it works. You can see an example here: https://magickandmocktails.substack.com/p/do-these-pants-make-me-look-naked-4c0
Also, I don't know if you offer downloads or worksheets but I keep mine in a paywalled vault on this pub. Often, an article will say: "paid subscribers can access the downloadable whatever here" and then link to that Vault Page.
Ohhh a duplicate version, that’s a great idea! And you’re right, it’s good so you can get comments on both! That always annoys me, that a paywalled post won’t let free subscribers comment too. Thank you so much for sharing that.
And thanks for getting me thinking about this…without getting into an annoying amount of detail, the whole what goes behind a paywall thing has been something I’ve been working through as I develop new offerings for this year. This gives me such a great jumping off point for exploration!
We’re all in that boat, Marcy. What to paywall, what to offer for free. It’s a dance and debate. We’re trying not to starve, but we wish everyone could have everything all the time!
I just archive and deleted far too many notifications from Substack and headed over to the app to change my settings when I saw your post. Thanks for the tips and tricks.
You're welcome. Apparently, there is a right way to do this and a nuclear-danger-this-will-implode-your-account-wrong way to do it, so I'm glad you saw this post first!
OMG, you've pointed out yet more differences between desktop and phone. These kinds of things drove me crazy when I started here. For instance, the bell is a different icon; on the phone (Android, anyway) it's tilted to the right. (It's in a different place, too, though that's due to having t handle different aspect ratios.) Clicking on it shows Notifications on the phone and Activity on the desktop. Same things. Grrr.
LOL. I am (or was) a software developer, and I guess that they have three development teams for Android, iOS and web, and weak upper management who have delegated too much power and do not understand the importance of a consistent UI/UX (User Interface/User eXperience). I'm Android, just looked at my wife's iPhone: bell is on top/below; labels are Notifications/Activity; other differences, too. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I just used the "ask a question" feature to try and solve this very problem. It helped some, but your advice included reasons why and resonated with the way I think. So, thank you from this newbie!
I'm curious what "doing this with my fantasy-series substack" means. What's the "this?" Because changing your notifications to "push" applies to everyone and isn't creator-specific, so you absolutely should not take it personally.
I recently discovered a hidden feature of newsletters on Substack.
They all have a RSS feed link. Instead of those authors pushing emails to your phone, you can just pull them whenever you prefer. And categorise them according to your taste
Another commenter mentioned that and this is totally foreign to me. Can I trouble you to explain where you find the feed link and how you view them in aggregate? Must you seek those out one by one? Please treat me like I know nothing because well . . . I know nothing 🙏🏻.
I have the same problem, and it surely is a dilemma.
My all-time favourite economist, Paul Krugman, has started a ‘stack, and is a *very* prolific writer. I can get two or three emails from him each day, and I would hate to miss any of them. But combined with all the others I get, including yours, I am up to about 50 Substack emails EVERY. DAY.
I am going to try your suggestions, because it sure beats unsubscribing!
Ohmygoodness James, RUN don't walk to Phase 1. Your comment gave me instant hives. You poor creature. Get yourself fixed up quick-like. Thoughts and prayers.
"Headline analyzer" is a whole new thing for me! The vast majority of my writing has been done for paper magazines. Life is full of things to learn!
Oh yay! I find it really useful and have made it a game to keep iterating until I get to 78% or higher. The final result is always better than what I started with. Enjoy!
What's better than a game! :)
Are you finding it difficult to find enough paper magazines to write for? I used to freelance almost exclusively for magazines, and now it seems like it's looking for hen's teeth.
I worked specifically in a niche (dog sports) and eventually became an associate editor of Clean Run Magazine. But we stopped printing in December of 2020. Not enough subscribers to carry it since the advertisers had largely moved online. Now we (Clean Run) run a dog training online school. I think some paper magazines are making a comeback but in larger and more expensive formats. I have not tried to find a magazine writing job in a long time but I would think they would be hard to find. Good luck!!!
I would be drowning in inbox overwhelm without your genius on this! You're single-handedly saving Substack with this solid gold. 🥳
Thank you! Literally, one minute after publishing, I got an email from someone I don't even know saying, "Oh my fucking god. THANK YOU." That's some universal validation right there!! 😎
Keep the joy hits coming! 💃🏽
People, just bow to this goddess already. I mean, seriously.
Jennie, stop being so awesome; you’re turbocharging everyone’s imposter syndrome.
Haha says the ACTUAL Queen.
We’re a dynamic duo. Trio with Dre. Love us.
The substackiverse has no idea what’s coming for them. Woooot.
Thank you for this! I am definitely more tech-challenged than you. And thank you for subscribing to my little Stack. I feel honored! I subscribe to both of yours and love your voice. Glad to connect in the Substack universe. Also, I agree about paywalls. Lord they piss me off! I do not like to be teased. (Probably goes back to 4th grade taunting by Bobby Keith.) I have not turned on paid subscriptions yet, but when I do I will keep my once a week article free and add other features for my paid people. Seems reasonable to me.
Yes, I’m so happy to be connected, Leslie! And I’m glad you’re with me on the teasing bit. I think everyone deserves to be paid, but there are ways of paywalling that piss me off and ways that don’t.
A bit of unsolicited advice? Unless you think it will stress you out to have to create on a schedule for your paid subscribers, I’d recommend turning on paid now. At a minimum, throw a “Buy me a coffee” link at the bottom of your posts. You don’t even have to make paid content until you’re ready, but it doesn’t hurt to have it on and - BONUS - you might be pleasantly surprised.
I appreciate this advice. I have about $700 in annual pledges so far, but I don't feel like I'm in a rhythm or productive enough to have separate offerings for paid subscribers yet. I'm still ramping up to being in a comfortable groove with my once a week regular article. I've only been here since October, so I feel like I'm still getting the hang of it. Still at the point where I'm scared I might run out of things to write about. (Another form of imposter syndrome I'm sure...) But maybe I'll do the buy me a coffee thing in the meantime (although I don't drink coffee, so tea maybe)... Thank you! And keep doing what you're doing. I'm always happy to have your stuff pop up!
Haha just think of it as a tip jar! Buy yourself some ice cream or put it in a kitty to get yourself a massage. I only suggest you do it because I read some advice early in my Substack career about waiting until you had 300 subscribers to turn on paid, decided to ignore it and got my first paid subscriber WAY sooner. It was a glorious example of not letting my limiting beliefs win. Since then, I've been an evangelist about creating some way to let your readers pay you even if you don't feel ready or worthy. Because I'm not sure that ever really happens?
And thank you so much for all your support! I appreciate you being here so much 🩵
Thank you for this. I’m close to convincing myself to pull the trigger.
Omg. Go ahead, be a slut. I’m dead. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
😝 That was channeled from divinity.
Coincidentally, I also have a post about this coming out on Saturday. I'm def going to link to yours in mine because it needs to be heard 😁
Ooh have you read Big Magic? This reminds me of that. The muse visited both of us at the same time. Please send me the link and I’ll share it as a companion piece to mine.
Nope, I don't do Elizabeth Gilbert. But I definitely will send you the link. It'll be out tomorrow morning on Unstack Substack 😊
Well, blow me down, if this isn't a fabulous post. I, too, have emails running out my ears, and I can hardly keep up with my inbox. I had no idea about "headline analyzer" but, hey, you've opened my eyes (figuratively). I also HATE, HATE, HATE being locked out of an account. What really gets my goat is when you are not allowed to comment. OK, so what I have to say doesn't count? That really doesn't make me want to sign up to your Substack. I'm sure they feel the loss. (Not!)
Yes this! Not being allowed to comment after reading because I don’t pay!
They should want to know what people think, right?!
Absolutely! And my biggest issue with the paid walls is I couldn't possibly afford to subscribe to all of the Substacks I like, and really, I know writers want to be paid (I am one!) but who can afford extra expenses these days when milk (in my area) costs OVER $7 now and EVERYTHING costs way more than it should. People can barely survive with the cost of living like it is, and no raises to counteract it... and expenses for my own writing career... I want to support other writers, but I can't pay them for articles.
Quite right. If you want/need to be paid, I think it is only right to go to markets that pay. I think the Substacks that do well financially are telling other Substack people how to do it. Could be wrong.
Shannon and Rose, I concur with all of these statements! Yes, the most immediately financially lucrative publications do seem to be the ones that teach people how to make money on Substack. That's not what I set out to write at all, but the few posts I've written about Substack have performed the best (by a mile). What are you gonna do? The people have spoken. 🤷🏻♀️ (I mean, I still plan to write my other stuff, but you get my point).
I think a great option is to tip the writers who have a "buy me a coffee" link. If you feel especially moved by a piece, that's a nice way to show support. And it's probably equivalent to subscribing for a month and then canceling. I set an annual budget for myself and stop when it runs out.
And lastly, please know that writers don't WANT to lock you out of comments on a paid post for being a free subscriber. We have no choice. It's a feature that I HATE about SS with the passion of 1000 burning suns. If they ever care about my opinion, I plan to give them an earful about this. Comments are lifeblood. Everybody wants them. SS has created a weird gatekeep-y system in this regard. So please don't penalize the creator. We always want you to tell us your thoughts!
A headline analyser!! What a great tool. Thank you for sharing.
You're so welcome! It's a common tool among email marketers, but it applies to anyone trying to create a headline people will actually click!
Yes, I'd never heard of it. But then I'm not up on tech.
I am also subscribed to sooo many publications and had to turn of email notifications, so thank you for this!
Though now my head is spinning about my paywalled posts…I felt so proud of myself when I learned how to do that, haha! But now worried they might not be helping. I just don’t know how else to inform people of the gold that’s available when they become a paid subscriber, so I like to show a good chunk of the post but then leave the audio lessons I do behind the paywall. Now I’m thinking maybe I do a separate free post the day before that’s complete in its own way and tease to what’s going to paid subscribers the next day. Maybe that’s better? I want to give some of it for free, just not all.
Marcy, far be it for me to tell anyone how to paywall. I'm just doing what I've seen and liked, and I think everyone should use that as their compass. I think what you suggested is a great idea. If someone can read a lot of your content for free but, once in a while, swipes away from a paid post, that's not so bad. Or, knowing how valuable your paid stuff is, they may go ahead and try reading the preview just to see if they want to buy. I just feel bad for the people who paywall everything because I never even try. I'm going to end up unsubscribing eventually.
I do a duplicate free version of my posts with paid audio. I use the same image but write "read by author" over the top to distinguish one from the other. At the top of the free post I write, "paid subscribers have access to [these fancy things] at [this link]." That way I can still get comments on the free post but also the incentive/upgrade on the paid. It's clunky, but it works. You can see an example here: https://magickandmocktails.substack.com/p/do-these-pants-make-me-look-naked-4c0
Also, I don't know if you offer downloads or worksheets but I keep mine in a paywalled vault on this pub. Often, an article will say: "paid subscribers can access the downloadable whatever here" and then link to that Vault Page.
Hopefully some of those ideas are useful!
Ohhh a duplicate version, that’s a great idea! And you’re right, it’s good so you can get comments on both! That always annoys me, that a paywalled post won’t let free subscribers comment too. Thank you so much for sharing that.
And thanks for getting me thinking about this…without getting into an annoying amount of detail, the whole what goes behind a paywall thing has been something I’ve been working through as I develop new offerings for this year. This gives me such a great jumping off point for exploration!
We’re all in that boat, Marcy. What to paywall, what to offer for free. It’s a dance and debate. We’re trying not to starve, but we wish everyone could have everything all the time!
I just archive and deleted far too many notifications from Substack and headed over to the app to change my settings when I saw your post. Thanks for the tips and tricks.
You're welcome. Apparently, there is a right way to do this and a nuclear-danger-this-will-implode-your-account-wrong way to do it, so I'm glad you saw this post first!
OMG, you've pointed out yet more differences between desktop and phone. These kinds of things drove me crazy when I started here. For instance, the bell is a different icon; on the phone (Android, anyway) it's tilted to the right. (It's in a different place, too, though that's due to having t handle different aspect ratios.) Clicking on it shows Notifications on the phone and Activity on the desktop. Same things. Grrr.
I think it's part of a diabolical plan to drive us all insane. Although, what there is to be gained from that, I can't figure out.
LOL. I am (or was) a software developer, and I guess that they have three development teams for Android, iOS and web, and weak upper management who have delegated too much power and do not understand the importance of a consistent UI/UX (User Interface/User eXperience). I'm Android, just looked at my wife's iPhone: bell is on top/below; labels are Notifications/Activity; other differences, too. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I just used the "ask a question" feature to try and solve this very problem. It helped some, but your advice included reasons why and resonated with the way I think. So, thank you from this newbie!
You're so welcome! I'm happy to exist to take explanations further than the chatbot or help page ever can :)
Too late. 😵🥴
Maybe you can be saved? 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
Well this is freaking useful, thank you! I wonder if others will be doing this with my fantasy-serial substack?
You're welcome!
I'm curious what "doing this with my fantasy-series substack" means. What's the "this?" Because changing your notifications to "push" applies to everyone and isn't creator-specific, so you absolutely should not take it personally.
Gotcha thanks for the advice appreciate it!
I recently discovered a hidden feature of newsletters on Substack.
They all have a RSS feed link. Instead of those authors pushing emails to your phone, you can just pull them whenever you prefer. And categorise them according to your taste
Another commenter mentioned that and this is totally foreign to me. Can I trouble you to explain where you find the feed link and how you view them in aggregate? Must you seek those out one by one? Please treat me like I know nothing because well . . . I know nothing 🙏🏻.
Thanks in advance.
> Can I trouble you to explain where you find the feed link and how you view them in aggregate?
You just add "/feed" to the newsletter URL. Then use this URL in a RSS aggregator like Feedly.
Yes you need to import them one by one.
Unless you find a way to export all the newsletters you are reading in batch from substack.
I haven't checked if that is possible.
I'll checks and let your know.
Thank you so much for this, Guiseppe!