The one change that might save my Substack

In my last piece about my slow decline on Substack, I promised to share what I do know works, on this platform. Writing about failure is one of them, as my stats are now back on the green - on the up - which feels good. But, there’s something else, too.

As I mentioned, I have three platforms on Substack and I’ve experimented with different pricing and offers across them. Writing is always at the centre of what I’m doing, as it’s what I want to be doing most of, but it needs something sprinkled on top.

In this piece, I will share the stats from my new platform, The Creative Way Collective, a writer’s membership hosted on Substack with a free weekly ‘writers, writing’ email for everyone, a podcast that is also free and Zoom sessions for members.

There are two things I do every week that seem to always lead to a new member joining us. And over on The Creative Way Collective, the paid subscription is £40/month, so one new member a week makes a big difference.

Also, importantly, I have the most free subscribers on The Creative Way Collective and the general readership is continuing to grow. I’m approaching the whole platform quite differently to my personal one and so far, it seems to be paying off.

I’ll then write about We Hyperfocus. There, I share weekly personal essays by neurodivergent creatives and I’ve approached pricing differently. But, I’m gonna shake it up now. I’ll explain what I’ve been doing and why I’m now changing it.

And, I’ll write about how running both of those other platforms has taught me about what matters on my personal Substack, this one. I’m going to be adding in something extra for paid subscribers. I’ll explain what it is, below.

As writers, on Substack, we want to be able to write, freely, in our style and voice. And it is your writing that will draw in new readers. But, we then need to help readers feel that a paid subscription is justified. A great investment of their time and money.