It’s said you can make a living writing on Substack. I’m doubtful.
It’s been 30 days here on Substack after where switching from Ghost and I think that so far it’s been working. I liked Ghost and I believe that they are in some ways better - but you’re on your own with Ghost. There’s no way to meet others and that’s what is great here. I have already enjoyed a few writers here and read more and more everyday.
Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash | This is a more reasonable expectation of earnings
Anyhoo..The numbers speak for themselves:
The numbers are not over the top by any stretch, but I am calling an income of any kind from my writing a win. I found 23 subscribers over the course of the month so for my very first month I am happy with the results.
Am I a Substack guru yet? No. Not even close. In fact, I don’t think I want to be one. I just want to write and have fun. Would it be great to have an income of six-figures?
Sure.
I doubt it will happen though.
These claims of making a living from writing a newsletter by having just 1000 paid subscribers seem over the top. Assuming I need to have 10,000 total subscribers 1 to get there - this all seems rather - well impossible.
I have almost doubled my subscriber count. I started with about 25 or so. So let’s for the sake of argument say I managed to get one new subscriber to my newsletter daily
That’s 365 subscribers per year. The math works out to 27 years from now, if I want to “make a living” writing with this newsletter.
This does not sound possible. At all.
The first thing to consider is my age: 27 years from now I will be 86. 86! I may not even be here at that age. And even if I do make it - I wonder if I will be ABLE to write.
In short, there’s a deadline here. It could be literal.
Then you have to figure inflation. I’m not in charge of the Fed and math is hard but I am going to guess that things will cost more in 27 years. The 5k a month number that gets bandied about here seems even more out of reach because by then the tariffs will have ruined everything and we’ll need six figures a day to survive.
Barbie will be expensive by then, that’s for sure - even if we can afford two of them (don’t forget about Ken!)
I don’t think this is at all possible. There’s many factors at play here: the age, the money - all of it. This is my mission impossible.
But.
There’s always a but.
I’m going to try. I mean heck, why not? This is my 251st post here.
Two Hundred and Fifty-One!
Back on the first day of school or so:
I wrote about how she was ready to start school.
And then the next day I wrote something else, and then I figured if I had two days in a row then I may try again for a third…and now I am at day 251 days of writing since early September
Assuming the fifteen bucks or so I made is the total to date (it is) and it takes me an hour to write this because I never paid attention in typing class (both are true) I have made five cents an hour writing this year to date.
That’s it. You’ve read it here first folks: I am a paid an published writer!
I am so excited! I make a nickel an hour. Five cents!
How I Made all The Money
I have two sources for this wild and crazy ride:
- Subscriptions. All friends and family. They got the family rate at two bucks a month so that’s six dollars a month.
- Amazon. I get a small percentage if you click a link I place here and there. When you click it and then you buy something I get a small percentage. Last month somebody bought a Roomba. I got 9 bucks and change.
That brings us to the princely sum of $15.85.
Not much, but it’s a start.
Now, the next question I have is: If I ask the universe to bring me all the monies, how long would it take for me to actually make the five grand a month that seems to be the number tossed around here.?
1 year?
2 Years?
TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS!!??
I read here that this writer was interviewed by the folks at Substack recently and in the interview stated that she has 1800 free subscribers and something like 38 paid. I mean almost 40x5 = $200 a month. That’s great! But it’s a far cry from 5 grand.
All these gurus on here seem to make it seem so easy. Just find your niche, they say. Oh, wait - don’t find your niche - be everything to everyone.
If you buy their money machine masterclass it will all work out - just $497.00 for a limited time!
Time? That I’ve got.
I don’t have the $497.00 so I guess I will just keep writing.
Here’s to 27 more great years.
PS> I would love to hear from anybody that’s actually making money here legitimately and how they got there. It would be great to hear how you went about it.