How to start a paid newsletter on Substack
Launch a paid newsletter on Substack — setup, pricing, free vs paid mix, and the first 90 days that get you to your first 100 paying subscribers.
- An email + Stripe account (Substack uses Stripe Connect for payments)
- A defined niche and at least 10 sample posts in mind
Step by step
- 01
Create the publication
substack.com → Start writing → pick a name, URL, and About page. Use your name unless you're building a media brand.
- 02
Set up Stripe
Settings → Payments → Connect Stripe. Substack takes 10% + Stripe fees. No way around it on Substack — switch to Beehiiv or Ghost if margins matter.
- 03
Pick your pricing
$5/month or $50/year is the Substack benchmark. Higher prices ($10+/mo) work for B2B niches. Always offer the yearly discount — it's where 70% of revenue comes from.
- 04
Decide the free vs paid mix
The proven model: free post weekly (top-of-funnel), paid post weekly (the meat). Free posts must be genuinely valuable, not teasers.
- 05
Write 4 free posts BEFORE turning on payments
Subscribers want to see what they're paying for. Publish 4 strong free posts, then turn on paid tier with a launch post.
- 06
Launch with a 7-day founding member discount
Subscribers feel urgency, you get social proof for the next 6 months. Founding membership ($150/year) attracts your power users.
- 07
Drive traffic with Notes + recommendations
Substack Notes (their Twitter clone) is the biggest free traffic source on the platform. Post 3-5 Notes/day. Set up recommendations with 5-10 other newsletters in your niche.
We plan, write and ship blogs, newsletters and short-form video on a cadence.
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