Pivoting to Substack

[JayFarrar]

So I did something, maybe really dumb, and pivoted to Substack. And by pivot, I mean I started a substack and keeping it free but asking for subscriptions.
In my case, I didn't walk away from a gig, more the gig moved on and left me behind.
While I've been working on it here and there for a couple, three months, I actually flipped the switch on Monday and the first newsletter went out today.
I'll keep this short but starting a substack is easy, maybe almost too easy, and entirely free on the front end. They take a 10 percent cut once you start charging, but if you keep it free, you never pay them a dime.
Substack's CMS is rudimentary and limited. Like you can't make things flush right.
But the basics are easy enough.
It also is really not designed for a news site, more essays and long reads. You can throw a photo in, but not a photo essay or album.
If anyone is thinking about making the leap, let me know. I'll answer what I can.

 

[Elliotte Friedman]

Good luck

 

[Azrael]

Knock 'em dead, my friend.

 

[Severian]

So I did something, maybe really dumb, and pivoted to Substack. And by pivot, I mean I started a substack and keeping it free but asking for subscriptions.

A big meme going around is people thinking that by switching to Substack, they're on track to make a six-figure income. Just like podcasts, not everyone needs a newsletter. I'm sure you're more realistic about this.

 

[Carlkolchak]

Grip it and rip it champ.

 

[JayFarrar]

A big meme going around is people thinking that by switching to Substack, they're on track to make a six-figure income. Just like podcasts, not everyone needs a newsletter. I'm sure you're more realistic about this.

Yeah, I'm hopeful to hit between $5,000 to $10,000 in year one.

After two weeks, I'm on track to hit the low end of that by year's end. I've already passed my hoped for subscriber number and about halfway to my hoped for paid subscriber number.

That allows me to have some cash flow and also give my contributors, one of whom is a regular here, money for a case or two of beer. My advantage now is my market is where I was editor of now-closed papers, so I have some insight into the people and what they want, along with what they're willing to pay. I think that market could support a couple, three thousand paids, which would put it into very low six figures. I'm charging $5 month or $50 annually with a lifetime sub going for $200. Almost all my paids are annuals. so that's good for immediate case but not so good as you don't have a steady monthly stream of cash.

My model is a subscribe if you like, pay if you can model and the not really dirty and maybe secret of substack is if you can get your subscriber list number to a certain point, it will unlock some sponsored content opportunities and that's where some real cash can be paid, assuming you can provide some metrics to those paid content shops, which I can.

Anyone thinking about doing this, and it isn't for everyone, needs to think that the locals who you freelance for now, will tell you to straight go to hell now that's you've launched something they view as a competitor. Nor that it really matters because at least for here, the freelance market has dried up tight. The other is get your spouse completely onboard because you will absolutely need their support. My wife has been an absolute champion on this and, for me, she always had the better paying job, even when I was a full-time regional editor for a poorly paying chain in a job that no longer exists.

The last and bonus thing is contact your local small business assistance center. It is probably located at the nearest local college and the help they provide is amazing and free. I just literally spent an hour talking to a CPA for free about tax issues for startups. I have no idea what that would have cost me in real-life, but I suspect more than what I would have been willing to pay.

 

[Carlkolchak]

I started a Substack. Nice set up.

Biofile Ted Williams

 

[JayFarrar]

I started a Substack. Nice set up.

Biofile Ted Williams

Good luck!

 

[Situation]

I don't know the first thing about Substack, but perhaps a better option is building a wordpress news site and making money through Google Adsense (or the like once you grow) and affiliate marketing.

You may only want to cover sports, but mixing in some affiliate content may help you pay the bills (i.e. Best Baseball Gloves For Beginners).

With wordpress you would also have the option to reach out to local businesses to display their ads.

http://bit.ly/37oJeEQ

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

And we’ve circled all the way back to 2004 SJ.

BLOGS!

 

[Severian]

I don't know the first thing about Substack, but perhaps a better option is building a wordpress news site and making money through Google Adsense

Google gets a huge cut of that ad revenue. Substack, meanwhile, gets a much smaller cut after a newsletter starts generating a certain amount of money. Substack is the way to go in this situation.

 

[wicked]

If the Post and Times couldn’t make it with an advertiser-only model, what makes you think anyone could?

 

[Carlkolchak]

It's hard to believe the NY Post loses millions every year. Such a good quality read every day, when it's not brainwashing or fake newsing. The best paper in the world possibly. Is it a money loser because so many people distrust the fake news/media manipulation factor? Bad sign for the media when the best paper in America is losing millions. And reflective of how bad the media industry is now.

Malcolm X said "The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent.” Media has the power to influence minds, ideas, behaviors, and attitudes of the masses."

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

And we’ve circled all the way back to 2004 SJ.

BLOGS!

I guess that makes Jay the pivot man in the circle jerk.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

I guess that makes Jay the pivot man in the circle jerk.

Wait — how do you know so much about the protocols of circle jerks?

 

[Songbird]

And what does that pivot look like?

 

[JayFarrar]

Like a jailhouse spit roast, I’d imagine.

Is the goal making enough money so some asshole executive veep can have a second vacation home or enough money to satisfy shareholders? Then the answer is no, it will not.

If the goal is to make enough money that it could grow into a large enough income to support one full time person, plus pay freelancers? Then the answer is yes.

My old place, the annual overhead just for rent, phone lines and internet was $100,000.

I’d be over the moon with joy if I made 100k annually. I’d be over the moon if I made that combined over first two or three years. Those numbers are achievable in my area as that translates to roughly 2,000 paying subscribers and the now closed weeklies I edited were pushing half a million annually in circulation revenue. Or at least they were before the bottom fell out and circulation plunged.

I looked at an ad model. It wasn’t worth it the way the money was divided up and you’d always be chasing clicks. **** that noise. Give people something to read. Tell them about their communities. Ask them to pay a fair price. Readers, paying readers, will come.

I might be naive and it could fail miserably but I’m willing, and more importantly, my wife is willing for me, to take that shot.

[/Hamilton.gif goes here]

 

[gingerbread]

I followed Anne Helen Petersen, a really smart journalist, over to Substack when she pivoted, and this recent piece of hers introduced me to another brilliant writer named Patrick Wyman-- turns out he was a freelance sports journalist covering MMA while getting his PhD.
He's now known for his "enormously popular podcasts Fall of Rome and Tides of History," along with having some interesting ideas about bro culture.
I'm thrilled to see how they've both succeeded with Substack, and I hope it works for you, too, @JayFarrar

Bro Culture and Empire in Decline

Bro Culture, Fitness, Chivalry, and American Identity

 

[Severian]

If the Post and Times couldn’t make it with an advertiser-only model, what makes you think anyone could?

The Post and The Times managed to focus less on revenues from ads and more on revenues from acquiring subscribers.

Unfortunately, that's not the case for local newspapers, many of whom owned by hedge funds and conglomerates who's only concern is lining shareholder's pockets. The ad-only model is dead, thanks to Google and Facebook sucking all literally all the oxygen. If this Texas AG lawsuit has any legs, and the courts decide to eviscerate Facebook and Google's online ad monopoly, perhaps there is hope for this model to return to newspapers. That, of course, is unlikely in this age.

 

[sgreenwell]

As someone who's poked into the WordPress and online advertising thing, I think the allure of the Substack is that it simplifies even that. I have Google AdSense for my Blogger blog (I don't know how the **** to write that), and because I wrote some (what I now consider) ****ty and snarky posts "first!!!" on the Internet in 2000s about some stuff, I'll get a check every 6 to 18 months for $100. My all-time number of hits is about 800,000, and I've probably banked like $500 total, so it's not exactly an incredible conversion rate there, although admittedly, I haven't tried incredibly hard.

In contrast, Substack seems like a neat way to generate consistent income, and also, it probably feels less like you're shouting into the wilderness. You have a much more identifiable niche and consumers that follow along, which probably spurs you along when it comes to writing. Along related lines - The thing that finally got me to subscribe to the Boston Globe, even though I moved to Texas, was The Rhode Map, which is a morning round-up of news about the state that I get emailed to me five days a week. I think there can be a lot of value in these smaller, targeted productions, but the economics are probably more on the scale of "modest living" vs. "breakout lifestyle potential."

And by the way, if you're a HS writer busting your ass to cover the hell out of 6 to 10 schools in an affluent area, and getting paid in the $20k to $30k range to do it... Have to think that Substack is an incredibly alluring thing.