Substack

Anyone can write on Substack. There are amateur writers who share their random thoughts, and well established journalists who write exclusive investigative content that would otherwise be featured in The Wall Street Journal.

Substack makes it easy to both create a newsletter and to charge readers for access to this newsletter. Click here for detailed steps outlining how to create your own subscription newsletter, in just a few minutes.

Substack does not charge any initial fees to create your newsletter. They do take a 10% cut of revenue, should you decide to enable monetization of your newsletter, and successfully attract paid subscribers. Writers also should factor in the fees charged by Stripe, Substack’s payment processor, which are 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction.

As with most digital publishing platforms, the answer varies significantly based on the number of paid subscribers and the subscription fee (which is set by the author). Top earning Substack writers generally earn between $5K per month and $30K per month. However, these newsletters are successful outliers. For more detailed examples of verified Substack earnings, click here.

The optimal price of your newsletter depends on a number of factors, including how much content you have/plan to publish, what is included with a subscription to your newsletter, and who your target audience is. It also depends on the length of the subscription. Typically, annual subscriptions are offered at a 10%-20% discount when compared to the monthly subscription price. The minimum that Substack allows you to charge is $5 per month or $30 per year. Generally, most monthly subscriptions range from $5 to $15 per month.

Substack vs. Medium

Substack and Medium may serve an overlapping user base, but the actual offering of each platform are quite unique. Medium allows bloggers to easily create, publish and monetize their blog. Substack allows users to create a subscription-based email newsletter and charge readers for access to this content. Learn more about the differences between Medium and Substack.

Medium vs. Revue

Substack and Revue may both serve newsletter creators, but the actual offering of each platform are quite unique. Substack is an email newsletter platform designed for small publishers who want to monetize their content. Revue is a Dutch start-up company, branding itself as an ‘editorial newsletter platform’. Just like Substack, Revue also offers the option to easily monetize your content by adding the option of paid subscriptions. It is aimed at small companies, start-ups and writers who lack time and resources to create extensive HTML templates for their newsletters. Learn more about the differences between Substack and Revue.

Medium vs. Patreon

While Substack has recently opened up to podcasters and other audio content creators, its main target market is still people who write and publish newsletters. It offers a simplified newsletter writing experience that allows users to focus on creating quality content. The editor has all the necessary tools to create a clean and logical post, and then some. The writer-centric platform also makes publishing a straightforward experience, with options to publish only to the web or send email and publish on the web. As it compares to Patreon, there are many writers and journalists who use it to create and share their content. But compared to Substack, it is more of a multi-purpose platform than one specifically for writers. Video creators, musicians, podcasters, course creators, gaming creators, and other fields are also represented on the site. Learn more about the differences between Substack and Patreon.

Substack Alternatives

While Substack does a decent job creating an easy to use subscription-based newsletter, there are several other services essentially offering the same thing. Learn more about the various alternatives to Substack.