The Author Stack

The Author Stack

Share this post

The Author Stack
The Author Stack
[DIGEST] Free vs. paid
Weekly Digest

[DIGEST] Free vs. paid

Your weekly stackable roundup

Russell Nohelty's avatar
Russell Nohelty
May 18, 2024
∙ Paid
49

Share this post

The Author Stack
The Author Stack
[DIGEST] Free vs. paid
47
5
Share

Hi friends,

The debate between paid vs. free articles on Substack is also the debate between growth and monetization eating at Silicon Valley.

If you want to grow, then you should make everything free and pay as much as possible to acquire a metric ton of subscribers.

“Eliminate friction points” is what they say in order to maximize your potential audience.

If you want to make money, you should make everything paid so that you get the most money for your effort. The problem is that paywalls put a massive obstacle between you and your potential subscribers that turns a lot of people off.

Even best case, you can only reasonably expect at most 10% of your subscribers will become paid members, and if you only have 100 subscribers…well, you can only make so much charging 10 people $5/mo.

The more people on your list, the bigger that pie becomes, but growth costs. Most estimates peg advertising costs for a new subscriber to a newsletter costing between $1-$3, which I can tell you from recent exp…

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to The Author Stack to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Russell Nohelty
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share