There are 5 Obvious Ways To Make Money on Substack...and yet...

80% of Substackers are Devoting the Majority of their Time to the Wrong One

Photo by Nikola Johnny Mirkovic on Unsplash

I thought making money on Substack would be as easy as typing out my thoughts and then relaxing in the shade like my friend Mittens is doing above. 

(Actually, I have no idea if his/her name is Mittens because he’s/she’s a fancy stock photo model Cat, so his/her name is probably some exotic like Fluffikins McDitzy or Floyd T. Jones, III or..you know… something similar.)

Anyway, even if my illustration wasn’t very serious, my underlying point is:

Paid subscriptions aren’t easy to come by

Unless you have a dynamic paid resource like David McIlroy put together for How to Write for a Living or Kristina God did for her Online Writing School, you’ll have a tough time converting free subs to paid members.

Other than attracting paid subscribers —who are among the most wonderful people on the planet— there aren’t many ways to make a decent living writing on Substack. 

Sure, there are exceptions, but they’re rare. 

Where does that leave the rest of us who aren’t Law professors, best-selling authors, political celebrities, or famous journalists?

What about us regular folks? 

“Listen, children. All is not lost
All is not lost
oh no, no”*

*lyrics from ‘Saturday in the Park,’ by Chicago.

Here are five ways to make money via Substack.