What is Substack? An overview of the newslet­ter pub­lish­ing service

Substack makes it easy for people to subscribe to newslet­ters on hundreds of different topics, or for them to create and send a newslet­ter them­selves. The sub­scrip­tions to newslet­ters on Substack are usually paid-for, one of Substack’s USPs. Find out what Substack is, how to create and send out a suc­cess­ful newslet­ter and how to use Substack in business.

Substack is a US online platform where authors can offer newslet­ters in a sub­scrip­tion model. The company wants to promote in­de­pen­dent jour­nal­ism in this way. Because of this, there is virtually no cen­sor­ship on the newslet­ter platform and only a few pub­lish­ing guide­lines. Unlike per­son­al­ized newslet­ters, Substack newslet­ters are aimed at a more general audience.

Even though you might think emails are in the realm of pre-mil­len­ni­al gen­er­a­tions, Substack raises the question whether e-mail really is dead. Substack newslet­ters add a lot of value to a medium often con­sid­ered an­ti­quat­ed – showing that people are willing to pay to receive them. In some cases, they are also made available for free on the platform.

Substack has excellent UX form, boasting an interface that allows its users to create a suc­cess­ful newslet­ter with ease. Substack moves between a jour­nal­is­tic platform, a blog and social network due to the pos­si­bil­i­ty to react to newslet­ters on the platform itself.

The principle of Substack is quite simple: In­ter­est­ed parties can register on the Substack website or in the app, which is currently only available for iOS. After com­plet­ing reg­is­tra­tion (you only need to provide an email address), you can view various newslet­ters or create your own.

On Substack, it is possible to filter by different topics such as cryp­tocur­ren­cies, culture, or politics. The algorithm then ensures that content is displayed that is relevant to you and fits the specified topics. Once you have found the right newslet­ter for you, you can usually subscribe to it for a fee. However, some newslet­ters are also available free of charge without a sub­scrip­tion.

Substack newslet­ter sub­scrip­tion fees start at $5 per month or $30 per year. Payments to the newslet­ter provider are made via the online payment service Stripe.

You can also publish your own newslet­ters on Substack and offer them as a sub­scrip­tion. For this, you need nothing more than your profile and a topic you want to write about. Apart from the content, the de­scrip­tion that can be added to each pub­li­ca­tion is important for your pub­li­ca­tions. This is because potential sub­scribers will see it before they subscribe to your newslet­ter. It is similar in im­por­tance to a newslet­ter’s subject in tra­di­tion­al mailing newslet­ters. If you have chosen to make your Substack newslet­ters available for a monthly fee, you pay 10 percent of your earnings to Substack as a service fee.

Substack is a platform that sends out loads of newslet­ters that reach a large read­er­ship. Some of the most popular authors generate up to six-figure annual sales via the newslet­ter platform and have very good newslet­ter-KPIs. Here are three of the best Substack newslet­ters:

“Sinocism” is a Substack newslet­ter that has been readable since the birth of the platform. Four times a week, sub­scribers receive in­for­ma­tion about the country of China and its political and economic situation by email for $15 a month. The author, who lived in China himself, now also produces his own podcast. This is also published via Substack.

Substack’s Popular In­for­ma­tion newslet­ter is a political newslet­ter by attorney Judd Legum, who spe­cial­izes in in­de­pen­dent jour­nal­ism. The newslet­ter explores daily news stories and is published four times a week. Readers can receive the full scope of the newslet­ter for $6 a month.

For anyone in­ter­est­ed in the financial market, Substack’s PETITION newslet­ter is the right choice. For $29 a month, sub­scribers receive twice-weekly com­men­tary and analysis on current financial events. According to its own in­for­ma­tion, the newslet­ter is read by in­vest­ment bankers and lawyers, among others.

Suc­cess­ful Substack newslet­ters have one thing in common, namely that they all focus strongly on a single category. Which category this is plays a rather sub­or­di­nate role for the success of the newslet­ters. The most important thing is that the content demon­strates expertise and appeals to the read­er­ship. Con­ti­nu­ity and newslet­ter release time are also essential factors for success on the platform. Newslet­ters published two to four times a week are more likely to attract paying readers. Meanwhile, many cat­e­gories on Substack are already covered by top newslet­ters, so it can be worth finding a new niche for your own newslet­ter.

Traffic around a Substack newslet­ter is an obvious factor in the success of a newslet­ter. Twitter posts referring to content or mentions within other newslet­ters increase the awareness of a Substack newslet­ter enor­mous­ly. To evaluate its success, Substack doesn’t even need special tools for newslet­ter-tracking. The click-through rates, sub­scrip­tion numbers and comments on your newslet­ter on the platform itself are good in­di­ca­tors.

Whether it is possible to use Substack as a platform for companies is a very in­di­vid­ual matter. Above all, it depends on the industry of the company in question. It is feasible, for example, that IT companies could report on de­vel­op­ments in in­for­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy and software de­vel­op­ment and drive their newslet­ter marketing using the platform. However, the previous top newslet­ters have really been projects by in­di­vid­ual authors who focus their attention on pub­lish­ing paid newslet­ters and earn their living in this way.

Substack is a platform that gives freelance authors the op­por­tu­ni­ty to reach a wide audience. Substack newslet­ters can be in­ter­est­ing for a reading audience because they cover almost all subject areas. However, it remains to be seen how sus­tain­able Substack’s success will be. The expansion of the platform to include podcasts suggests that Substack will continue to be suc­cess­ful in the future.