Why 97% of Substack Writers Never Make Real Money

They're using the platform completely wrong. Here's the fix.

I've been watching online writers struggle for years now.

And Substack is no different.

They launch with big dreams. Write consistently for weeks. Build a small following. Then hide some of their best content behind a paywall, expecting money to roll in.

But it doesn't work that way.

Most writers are stuck making $50 a month after a year of grinding. They're frustrated, burned out, and ready to quit.

I've been creating content and building email lists for the past decade. And I've watched countless writers make the same costly mistake on Substack – and everywhere else on the internet.

Let me share my two cents about what 97% of writers get wrong – and how to fix it.

The biz model sounds too good to be true

Log in to your Substack dashboard or check out your Notes.

Everyone will tell you this:

"Wohoo! I'm a Substack Bestseller." Or "Just got my first paid subscriber!"

The subliminal message is simple: Turn on paid subscriptions. Charge $8 a month. Your readers will pay for quality content.

It sounds logical. You write good stuff. People read it. They should pay for it, right?

Wrong.

97% of your Substack subs are worthless

Let's do some brutal math.

The average conversion rate from free to paid subscribers on Substack is around 3%. Some writers hit 5 or 10% if they're outrageously good.

But most hover around 1-2%.

So if you have 1,000 subscribers and charge $8 a month:

1,000 subscribers × 3% conversion = 30 paid subscribers.
30 paid subscribers × $8 = $240 a month

That's it. $240 a month after building a thousand-person audience.

Want to make $3,000 a month? You'd need about 12,500 subscribers at a 3% conversion rate.

The math sucks its pants.

And those conversion rates? They're optimistic. Most writers are sitting at 1% or lower. They're making $80 a month with 1,000 subscribers.

But most of the time, they haven't even 1,000 subs.

No wonder they're frustrated.

Everyone hates subscriptions

Now, it can get even uglier.

Imagine you finally pull the trigger and launch your paid subscription. Two people sign up. You're making $16 a month.

Now what?

You still have to create exclusive content for those two people. You still have to grow your free audience. And you still have to figure out what stays free and what goes behind the paywall.

It's a nightmare.

You're juggling three jobs at once:

• Content creator for free subscribers

• Premium content creator for paid subscribers

• Growth marketer trying to get more eyeballs

That's 3 full-time jobs.

But you're a spare-time writer. Noticed the issue here?

You're constantly second-guessing yourself. Should this post be free or paid? Will I piss off my free readers if I put this behind the paywall?

Then there's churn.

People subscribe, read for a month, then cancel. You're on a hamster wheel trying to replace churned subscribers while creating content for existing ones.

Writers burn out in 6 months trying to manage this mess. And I totally get them.

Who wouldn't?

The subscription model only works when you have a massive audience.

You don't need 10,000 Substack subs

I don't know if you have been writing on Medium or not.

But the same garbage strategy happened there.

Writers think that the right way to make money is to monetize their articles with the Partner Program, which pays pennies for one read.

I never treated the Partner Program as my main source of income. Instead, I used Medium to build my list.

With just 3,000 email subscribers, I was making a full-time living. While most writers were just dabbling around with spare change.

Sorry if this comes off a bit pretentious. It's not.

You don't need a massive audience to make serious money. You need the right audience with the right backend.

We want to attract readers who aren't just willing to read – but who are willing to pay.

Maybe they're willing to pay $497 for a coaching program that solves their problem. Or $97 for a course that saves them time.

The difference is huge.

Instead of trying to convert 3% of your audience to $8 monthly subscriptions, you're converting 1% to a $497 offer.

The math becomes beautiful:

1,000 subscribers × 1% conversion = 10 customers.
10 customers × $497 = $4,970

Same audience size. Lower conversion rate. 20x more revenue.

Use Substack for this, not for that

I know this goes against everything Substack preaches.

The platform wants you to turn on paid subscriptions. It's how they make money. But sometimes you have to do counterintuitive things to win.

Use Substack as your audience-building machine, not your cash register.

Substack has incredible organic reach. The recommendation engine actually works. Writers regularly go viral and add hundreds of subscribers overnight.

But the moment you put up a paywall, you kill that growth. Your content stops getting recommended as widely. New readers hit your paywall and bounce instead of subscribing to your free list.

You're trading long-term audience growth for short-term pocket change.

Keep your whole Substack free.

Focus on writing content that spreads. Build relationships with your readers. Get them excited about what you're building.

The biggest struggle for writers on Substack isn't monetization – it's growing an audience.

Charge what you're worth

Once you have an audience, monetization becomes easy.

You can monetize it with the 3Cs:

• Courses

• Coaching

• Consulting

The beauty of this approach? You're not limited to subscription pricing. You can charge what your expertise is actually worth.

A $397 course sells easier than a $8/month subscription because the value proposition is clearer.

People understand they're buying a solution to a specific problem, not another recurring expense.

Plus, you're not dealing with churn. Someone buys your course, they own it forever. You're not constantly replacing cancelled subscribers.

There are writers who pivot from struggling with paid subscriptions to making $10k months selling their own products.

Same audience size, completely different business model.

Build before you bill

Now it's time to get serious about knowing who you're writing for.

Understand their problems.

Keep your Substack content free to attract them.

Then create solutions they'll actually pay for.

Your Substack becomes a lead generation machine instead of turning into a digital hamster wheel.