avatarAamir Kamal 🚀

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

3054

Abstract

sing Substack is <b><i>“They are quite a good platform, their whole infrastructure is so designed to help you optimize for getting more subscribers in form of emails”</i></b></p><p id="5dc8">They give you the technology for free at a very low cost. You can monetize your article through multiple ways like adding paying, using your newsletter for affiliate marketing or running sponsored posts, or in some cases, you can promote your own products.</p><p id="cf91" type="7">Substack only makes money when you make money.</p><p id="4cc1">The company is new and they are evolving. When I created a Substack newsletter, there wasn’t an option of a custom domain and design your profile. But, now they have added an option to make your newsletter a brand and give you limited design options. Before that, I did the mistake of joining Ghost subscription which cost me 350 and I think that was a bad decision on my part.</p><h1 id="9f9f">How much does Substack cost?</h1><p id="e929">Companies that provide something for free and charge money when their users make money. This business model has usually three clients; the content creator, the consumer, and the company. YouTube, Substack, Amazon Affiliate program, Netflix, Medium, and Substack, and countless other companies have this very same business model. They create a business model around a Win-win-win situation.</p><p id="c8e6"><i>So, what is the business model of Substack? </i>Substack business model revolves around paying reader. When you get a paying reader, Substack charges 10% of every transaction between you and your reader. That is how they are making money.</p><p id="cae0">Now, they also started offering custom domain offer. In this package, you have to pay 50 (A one-time fee) in order to connect a custom domain with your Substack newsletter. If you are serious about starting a newsletter, I would recommend going with a custom domain.</p><h1 id="f01d">Some benefits of using Substack as a newsletter</h1><p id="aa06">Following are some of the benefits of using Substack as a newsletter:</p><ol><li>It is free. What could be the biggest turn-on for anything to test a product or service for free?</li><li>You write for the platform and don’t have to worry about your content being disappeared because your account was suspended or anything.</li><li>You can build an email list and monetize it in multiple ways. Substack is a great free tool to send emails to your subscribers without worrying about any constraints, In the case of Mailchimp, you have certain restrictions if you use their free plan.</li><li>It is very easy to manage your newsletter or use their interference.</li><li>Substack uses a modern Fin-Tech solution called “Stripe” to process payments. You need to be living in countries where Stripe is available in order to get paid.</li></ol><h1 id="50b8">PS: Should you use Substack as a newsletter?</h1><p id="6ffb">Deep analytics might be one issue that you face with running a newsletter on Substack, it takes time to build an audience on Substack, but the audien

Options

ce is yours. It is definitely one of the best writing platforms for something new today. The business model is lucrative. As you have to promote your work, the side effect of it will be that you will also be an influencer on other social media platforms; which is quite interesting.</p><h2 id="d190">Read more article about Substack:</h2><ul><li>Medium Vs Substack: Which writing platform is best for making money writing?</li></ul><div id="7afe" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/medium-vs-substack-which-platform-is-best-to-make-money-writing-3ef1a0b6f46d"> <div> <div> <h2>Medium Vs Substack: Which Platform Is Best To Make Money Writing?</h2> <div><h3>Substack Vs. Medium, a complete review of both the blogging platforms.</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*cBi-daCBYaA_I_a183_0pA.png)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><ul><li>Substack writing: How to make money writing on Substack?</li></ul><div id="9baf" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/substack-writing-how-to-make-money-writing-on-substack-1e7254197857"> <div> <div> <h2>Substack Writing: How To Make Money Writing On Substack</h2> <div><h3>An article that goes through the whole process of starting writing on Substack and how you could make money through…</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*q5bi7d4FI_fiVqwgo4ekYg.png)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><ul><li>Substack Alternative: Best sites like Substack</li></ul><div id="1cd8" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/substack-alternative-7-sites-similar-to-substack-com-where-you-could-start-paid-newsletter-8f8fd50a77f2"> <div> <div> <h2>Substack Alternative: 7 Sites Similar To Substack.com Where You Could Start Paid Newsletter</h2> <div><h3>We have listed some sites that are similar to Substack where you could start a paid newsletter and getting paid.</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*eZ0DGANQ_HG3DW_ys7akeA.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="a456" type="7">Writing online is privilege, it will benefit you in many ways.</p><p id="8515">Join 100+ members to receive emails about different writing platforms and Blogging by subscribing to my Substack newsletter <a href="https://aamir.substack.com/p/welcome-to-my-newsletter">here.</a></p></article></body>

What Is Substack? A Substack Review And How Much Does It Cost?

Understanding the business model of Substack could help you start another content-related business online.

Photo by Cytonn Photography on Unsplash

What is Substack?

Substack is a writing platform where you could start a blog (newsletter) and add a subscribe button in form of email marketing and monetize it in multiple ways. A substack writer who runs a newsletter with the name of “NotBorning” monetizes their substack newsletter with sponsored posts from small businesses and startups. There are other types of monetization ways which are through letting only those people read your articles if they pay.

Substack is inclined toward email marketing. I run a substack newsletter with the name of Aamir Kamal newsletter where I share stories related to getting successful on Medium and other writing platforms. You could use your Substack newsletter for a variety of purposes. As other email marketing platforms charge handsome money on monthly basis to give you the opportunity to sent emails in bulk, Substack provides you a free alternative.

My experience running a Substack newsletter:

In the picture given below, you can see I have over 141 email subscribers and growing. 1 subscriber means that there is one paying reader.

My substack total email list showing numbers / Screenshot by the Author

Even though the average email open rate is decreasing day by day, some writers who write about a very specific topic getting a high open-rate. The more email you receive, the less the chances that you will open all emails, some email may end up in your spam or promotional folder, very few will make it to the main or primary inbox.

I have quite good experience using Substack. Substack is now introducing more options as they are getting more traction and more and more celebrities and controversial figures are joining the community. An article by Alex on OneZero titled “The Moderation War Is Coming to Spotify, Substack, and Clubhouse” clearly explained that as Twitter and mainstream media platforms are banning controversial figures, they might join Substack and other smaller platforms.

My experience with using Substack is “They are quite a good platform, their whole infrastructure is so designed to help you optimize for getting more subscribers in form of emails”

They give you the technology for free at a very low cost. You can monetize your article through multiple ways like adding paying, using your newsletter for affiliate marketing or running sponsored posts, or in some cases, you can promote your own products.

Substack only makes money when you make money.

The company is new and they are evolving. When I created a Substack newsletter, there wasn’t an option of a custom domain and design your profile. But, now they have added an option to make your newsletter a brand and give you limited design options. Before that, I did the mistake of joining Ghost subscription which cost me $350 and I think that was a bad decision on my part.

How much does Substack cost?

Companies that provide something for free and charge money when their users make money. This business model has usually three clients; the content creator, the consumer, and the company. YouTube, Substack, Amazon Affiliate program, Netflix, Medium, and Substack, and countless other companies have this very same business model. They create a business model around a Win-win-win situation.

So, what is the business model of Substack? Substack business model revolves around paying reader. When you get a paying reader, Substack charges 10% of every transaction between you and your reader. That is how they are making money.

Now, they also started offering custom domain offer. In this package, you have to pay $50 (A one-time fee) in order to connect a custom domain with your Substack newsletter. If you are serious about starting a newsletter, I would recommend going with a custom domain.

Some benefits of using Substack as a newsletter

Following are some of the benefits of using Substack as a newsletter:

  1. It is free. What could be the biggest turn-on for anything to test a product or service for free?
  2. You write for the platform and don’t have to worry about your content being disappeared because your account was suspended or anything.
  3. You can build an email list and monetize it in multiple ways. Substack is a great free tool to send emails to your subscribers without worrying about any constraints, In the case of Mailchimp, you have certain restrictions if you use their free plan.
  4. It is very easy to manage your newsletter or use their interference.
  5. Substack uses a modern Fin-Tech solution called “Stripe” to process payments. You need to be living in countries where Stripe is available in order to get paid.

PS: Should you use Substack as a newsletter?

Deep analytics might be one issue that you face with running a newsletter on Substack, it takes time to build an audience on Substack, but the audience is yours. It is definitely one of the best writing platforms for something new today. The business model is lucrative. As you have to promote your work, the side effect of it will be that you will also be an influencer on other social media platforms; which is quite interesting.

Read more article about Substack:

  • Medium Vs Substack: Which writing platform is best for making money writing?
  • Substack writing: How to make money writing on Substack?
  • Substack Alternative: Best sites like Substack

Writing online is privilege, it will benefit you in many ways.

Join 100+ members to receive emails about different writing platforms and Blogging by subscribing to my Substack newsletter here.

Writing
Email
Technology
Money
Business
Recommended from ReadMedium