Why This One Thing Is More Important Than Anything Else for Your Newsletter
Hear me out.. 👂
I launched my Substack in May last year with no other following. Just six months later, I became a Substack Bestseller and built an incredible community. If you're ready to start earning from your writing in 2025, let me show you the fast-track steps to get there.
Paid subscribers. That’s what we ALL want. 🙌
You show up every day, you write, you engage - you follow all the steps that you are supposed to do. But yet, paid subscribers are as few as raindrops in the desert.
I know that feeling all too well, trust me.
But let me tell you a little secret in this post, one that we keep forgetting after refreshing that dashboard for the 10th time today…
If you’re looking to get paid for your words, here are some posts to help you achieve that:
Weekly Resource List:
How This Newsletter Can Help You Make Your First $10,000 on Substack
Struggling to Promote Yourself? Here Is How to Break Through
How Your 5K-Subscriber Newsletter Can Become a 5-Figure Business (Proof Inside)
What We All Forget When Staring At Our Paid Subscriber Numbers
I make this a quick one.
It’s the FREE subscribers.
It’s the number of conversions.
The truth is that the conversion rate from an average Substack newsletter is far from the promised 10% that Substack suggests. There might be exceptions that actually reach that number, but the truth is that it’s rather around 0-5%.
How much exactly you can calculate here with my free newsletter income calculator.
It’s a great tool that gives you an idea about which number of paid subscribers you should aim for (realistically!) with which amount of free subscribers.
And get this: My paid subscribers come ~90% from upgrades from free subscribers.
Which if you think about it, makes so much sense. People on the internet usually want to get to know you first before they invest in you. Just as in real life, you need to create a trust base and a relationship with your readers.
The best way to do it is to show them first what you offer for free and thus create trust. Eventually, when they are ready and you offer the right incentives, they will update.
But for that to happen, you NEED a great free subscriber base. The more the better. Because at the end of the day, it’s pure statistics.
To sum this up, one of my best advice (also to myself) would be:
Don’t over-focus on paid subscribers, but focus on creating that big mass of free subscribers first. The paid ones will come.
Get my proven SUBSTACK BLUEPRINT to help you grow
➡️ 🚀 Grow Your Substack Course
➡️ ✨ Substack Notes That PAY Guide (incl. templates and cheat sheets)
➡️ 🗓️ Calendar with events for free and paid subscribers
Or if you want it all to save money and time, you can subscribe here:
7 Ways To Get Free Subscribers (And Build Your Base)
Now that we know, that this is easily one of the most important things for your newsletter, let’s jump into my blueprint on how to get and build up your free subscriber base fast.