Jerry, I appreciated your honest share about your numbers and experience with paid subs. I recently had an exchange with another Substack publisher and they too fell in the 1-3% range. I've experienced the same.
I have found the same benefits you mentioned about the 98% and they mean the world to me.
As I've mentioned, I already have a small coaching practice and am writing another book so to me Substack paid subs are the gravy, not the focus as you always emphasize.
I also get a lot of other benefits in the form of an opportunity to be creative to balance out my day job and experiment with various topics.
Melanie, I appreciate you sharing this. And you're right — honesty is the only way to have this conversation.
Too many people come to Substack chasing the paid subscriber dream they saw in someone else's highlight reel. That's not reality for most of us, at least not early on.
The real value is often everything around it — the creativity, the connections, the thinking out loud, the slow building of something that actually means something.
The gravy analogy is perfect. And sometimes the gravy ends up being the best part of the meal.
Jerry, I appreciated your honest share about your numbers and experience with paid subs. I recently had an exchange with another Substack publisher and they too fell in the 1-3% range. I've experienced the same.
I have found the same benefits you mentioned about the 98% and they mean the world to me.
As I've mentioned, I already have a small coaching practice and am writing another book so to me Substack paid subs are the gravy, not the focus as you always emphasize.
I also get a lot of other benefits in the form of an opportunity to be creative to balance out my day job and experiment with various topics.
Melanie, I appreciate you sharing this. And you're right — honesty is the only way to have this conversation.
Too many people come to Substack chasing the paid subscriber dream they saw in someone else's highlight reel. That's not reality for most of us, at least not early on.
The real value is often everything around it — the creativity, the connections, the thinking out loud, the slow building of something that actually means something.
The gravy analogy is perfect. And sometimes the gravy ends up being the best part of the meal.