My first rant about SubStack...

You're all missing the point!

Photo by matthew Feeney on Unsplash

I’m seeing all these videos on YouTube basically along the lines of ‘This is when it’s acceptable to start monetising your SubStack blogs’. The upshot of these being - don’t waste your time asking for or expecting paid subscribers until you’ve proven your worth, developed a track record.

This is a very 1980s magazine-circulation and ABC-grading mindset and has no place in your utilisation of the SubStack offering.

The traditional advertising-space model (then and now) is based on how much traffic a site attracted, and that would determine its worth - how much to pay for advertising space on that site. What was true for print magazines was taken to be axiomatic for website space as well.

Then in 2005 along comes a young upstart called Alex Tew, who ditches that notion completely. ‘Milliondollarhomepage.com’ started off with zero website traffic - a single blank webpage. The idea was to sell space on that single homepage in blocks of 10-square pixels - at a dollar per pixel. So the very first buyers were looking at spending money to advertise on a website with zero traffic! Crazy, whacky, hare-brained, bananas - call it what you like. Whilst initial custom came from the less savoury parts of the Internet - word soon spread, and towards the end, the last pixels were selling for thousands of dollars (iirc). That was it - and the site is still up.

It was a case-in-point - and Alex Tew in interview said that people have no idea how the Internet will completely obvert traditional business models and ways of thinking and operating.

Now we have SubStack again seeking to ditch the traditional models and allow writers and authors to interact and interface directly with their readership - and get paid in an effective manner. We for example also have Medium to contrast with as an example of how to devise an ineffective pay mechanism, and actually how not to respect your authors.

So back to my main point - we need to stop curtailing the true power and potential of a business and opportunity like SubStack - with traditional and defunct pay-model concepts. We have Patreon as a great example of how someone might watch one single YouTube video - and instantly subscribe to that content creator - because that one video was so fantastic, or spoke to them so well. Most of my own Patreon subscriptions (me as subscriber) came about exactly like this. I wouldn’t care if the channel only had 5 subscribers. Indeed - there’s something definitely exciting about being one of the first to spot new talent and to be one of the ‘original followers’.

Of those people who are the market for this kind of stuff - ready to pay for good content - these are actively looking for such content. If they then find said content - then that is that - found and found! There’s literally no good reason for the content creator not to suggest a paid relationship there and then. ‘You came here looking for content worth paying for? Found it? Great - here’s the Subscribe button - see you with more great content next week’.

Further - I’m not convinced that the herd-mentality is what needs to be played upon here. ‘Ooo look - so many sub’s - I must sub too’. Be it a finance blog (with potentially material financial benefit to the reader) or something sciencey or arty - if the content is objectively good there and then, then it will be worth paying for there and then. Heck - the best time to jump on bandwagon is when there’s hardly anyone else on it.

So - stop with the ‘waiting’ for when to monetise this. If you have something worth saying - then really by definition it is worth reading. That value is immediate - so offer a subscription ( as well of course as free views of your initial works)!! You will then release and realise the true potential of this place.

There will never be a paywall, as I don’t write here often enough to warrant a paid subscription. I write here purely to convey thoughts which I think are worth conveying