Paywall vs. No Paywall (What's the Right Answer for Your Substack)

How to Earn from Your Substack without Switching on The Paywall Button

I was on a call with a frustrated Substack writer last week. She'd been publishing consistently for 8 months, had grown to 2,500 subscribers, but was only making a few hundred bucks per month from her paid tier.

"I feel stuck," she told me. "Everyone says to put your best content behind a paywall, but that seems to kill my growth. And when I do put something good behind the paywall, barely anyone upgrades to read it."

I hear this exact same story at least twice a week from different writers. They're caught in the classic creator's trap: Trading time for pennies, hoping that "one day" they'll hit some magical subscriber number where it all works out.

Here's what I told her: The paywall vs no paywall debate is asking the wrong question entirely.

The real question is, “How can you generate meaningful revenue from your audience starting *now*, not in some hypothetical future when you have 10x more subscribers?”

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The Hidden Math Problem of Paywalls

Let's do some quick math that most Substack writers never consider:

To make $5,000 per month from a paywall at $7/month (a typical price point), you need about 715 paying subscribers. Sounds doable, right?

But here's what nobody tells you: The average conversion rate from free to paid subscribers is around 2-5%. Being generous, at 5% conversion, you'd need 14,300 free subscribers to hit that paid subscriber number.

How long will it take you to get to 14,300 subscribers? At typical growth rates, probably 2-3 years of consistent writing.

That's a long time to wait for a full-time income.

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The Solution Nobody Talks About

Here's what smart creators do instead: They create digital products that solve specific problems for their audience.

Instead of trying to convert free subscribers to $7/month subscriptions, they create focused solutions that sell for anywhere from $20 bucks to $1000+.

Let's look at the math on this approach:

• To make $2,000 with a $50 product, you need 40 sales

• With a 5% conversion rate (very achievable), you need 800 subscribers

• That's achievable in 3-6 months for most consistent writers

This is exactly what I did with my newsletter. Instead of grinding for years trying to build a massive paid subscriber base, I created a simple digital product teaching my exact system for remote job searching and then one for my LinkedIn system.

The results?

- First two weeks, I made nearly $1500

- Now: Consistent $3K to $5K months from both new and current subscribers

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"But I Don't Know What Product to Create!"

I hear you. This was my biggest mental block too.

The truth is you probably already have everything you need to create a digital product your audience will love. You just need a system for:

1. Identifying the burning problems your audience will pay to solve

2. Creating a solution they can consume easily

3. Selling it without feeling sleazy

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The Real Answer to the Paywall Question

So, should you use a paywall? Here's my advice:

• Keep your newsletter 100% free to maximize growth

• Use that newsletter to build trust and showcase your expertise

• Create digital products that solve specific problems for your audience

• Use your free newsletter to sell those products

This approach gives you the best of both worlds: rapid audience growth AND immediate revenue.

It's exactly how I grew my newsletter to six figures in revenue while keeping it 100% free.

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Here's a Quick Win You Can Use Today

Let me give you something you can implement immediately to start testing this approach. The "Minimum Viable Offer" technique:

1. Look through your last 5 to 10 newsletters

2. Find the ONE topic that got the most replies/engagement

3. Email your list this simple question: "I'm thinking of creating a detailed guide about [that topic]. What's your biggest specific challenge with it?"

4. Write down every response you get

This simple process will give you immediate insight into what your audience will actually pay for. I've seen writers use just this one technique to generate their first $1,000 from their newsletter within a week.

(One writer discovered her audience was desperate to learn how to write viral Twitter threads - she created a simple guide and made $2,300 in 3 days with just 900 subscribers.)

This is just one small piece of my product creation system, but it's enough to get you started today.

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Want to Learn My Exact System?

I've packaged up my complete system for creating and selling simple digital products through your newsletter into my Six-Figure Digital Product Masterclass. You'll learn:

• How to identify profitable course ideas your audience will love

• My "bite-sized" creation method that eliminates overwhelm

• The exact email sequences I use to sell courses without being pushy

• The technical setup that lets you sell on autopilot

You can sign-up for this masterclass through Sunday Jan 12th at Midnight (Eastern Time) and the class will be delivered on Tuesday Jan 14th.

Once you join, you’ll immediately get access to our private community of 100+ other writers, collaborating and supporting each other’s growth.

If you're ready to stop trading time for pennies and start building real revenue from your newsletter, click the button below to join us 👇

Remember: Your expertise is valuable. It's time to package it in a way that generates the income you deserve.

P.S. Still wondering if this is right for you? Think about this: In the time you spend debating whether to put a paywall on your newsletter, you could have already created and launched your first digital product. The choice is yours.

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Question - Do you use a Paywall? or no Paywall? Share which strategy you think is best in the comments below and let’s discuss 🤔

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📌 PS - If you found this post helpful, would you please consider restacking it and sharing it with your audience?

This spreads the word and keeps me writing content that will help you grow your Substack and “escape the cubicle” life. 🙏