How I launched my paid newsletter
And why I did the way I did
Welcome to Follow Your Gut, a newsletter about the artist life and business from a mother of two. After soon a decade as an independent artist and writer, the question is not only how to do it, but how to continue to follow your gut in a world that tries its best to stuff it with fluff.
85% of new letters are free to read for 3 days, whereafter they go behind a paywall. If this is our first date, I warmly invite you to check out the free archive first. I’m Swedish after all, don’t want to be too pushy (just a loving nudge ❤️).
Hi there!
Today is a juicy one, brace yourself.
About a month ago (on the International Happiness day, 20th of March to be exact), I turned on the paid feature for this publication.
It felt big. But also like it was about time…
Even though I was (publicly) intentional since the beginning with how I wanted to do it, it was still difficult to stay true to my gut for 4 months without changing my mind… I admit, I frequently asked myself;
Did I make the right decision?
Should I have turned on the paid feature from the beginning and just let it “float by”?
Is a big loud launch even suitable on here…?
Will anybody sign up?
These question-marks are what we all know as our dear friend imposter syndrome. Or shall I say not-so-welcome-friend, perhaps?
Whether he is welcome or not, Mr. Imposter tends to show up at the most inconvenient times. Especially when you are at a breaking point on the road towards your next goal.
Thankfully, having lived off my art for the majority of my adult life, I am quite used to turn a blind eye and just keep going anyway. Sooner or later, he gets bored and gives up for a bit. Until next time that is *winkwink.
I share this because as much as I have been intentional and feel incredibly proud of having pulled off the launch with a 3% conversion rate (considering that 99.9% of my readership originates from WITHIN* the Substack network), the creative process is never smooth sailing.
There will ALWAYS be bumps on the road, BIG feelings and a sense of wanting to give up. This is resistance who pays you a visit, which is a sign that you’re into something.
Resistance wants you to give up, and this is the moment when it’s of uttermost importance that you don’t.
Ps. Another in… The 3% upgrade has already resulted in a few hundred € directly to my non-profit work for mother-empowerment with my midwife Sandra. I’ll write more about it, it’s just a slower process as it has to be heartfelt and gentle (the initial funds will already help us to finalize the first educative material for women to be able to go into motherhood better equipped with what will happen to them physically, emotionally and mentally), so THANK YOU, your support means the world to us ❤️
*Before diving into the report of what I did, didn’t do and why, let’s just address the concept of growing your readership within the walls of Substack.
The marketing advice that I’ve come across since joining this platform have mostly focused on the need to attract readers outside of Substack (which of course is valid, but not an obligation…)
The argument being that those who hang out on Substack (I’m especially referring to the Notes network), are writers not readers (and potential clients).
My perspective, which is the same reason as to why I decided to set up my bookshop right on the creative high-street of Substack, is that I’ve never come across a writer who isn’t also an avid reader. And I don’t mean just a reader/consumer of content that teaches you how to make it on (insert platform of choice), but readers of all genres.
Of course, I get it, some may immediately think that it’s easy for me to say because I write non-fiction about the creative life and creative business, which tend to be topics of interest for writers in general.
And yes, I don’t have a valid argument against that notion - maybe I have a hidden advantage there. But more than the topic, I think my “advantage” (and I hate to refer to it as that because I’ve worked my ass off for many years to reach this point) is that I already grew an audience and lucrative business for my art in the past and therefore have been able to transfer my experience and skills to this new platform, which *shocker* works very similarly.
How dare I say that to our beloved Substack?!
Hear me out… Principles around how to form genuine connections, fans of your work and honour your creativity are the same. They’re NOT platform specific no matter what in-house self-proclaimed experts may tell you.
For context;
I grew my first art business in hand embroidery (yes you can build a flourishing business with a slow art form like embroidery, I did it) primarily on Instagram and Pinterest. I’ve amounted a social audience (excluding a significant email list) to about 500k+ across platforms. And that’s for what many consider “a dying art form”. Not only that, it’s an extremely slow art form and yet I found ways to creatively share it on fast-paced social media.
With that in mind, taking into consideration my not-so-unique stubborn artist brain, I don’t see why you cannot successfully grow your writing gig on a platform that promotes writing and reading without having to use a gazillion of other marketing tactics too.
This doesn’t mean that I’m naive or ignorant about the fact that it may be easier to convert readers from outside the platform to paying readers (and this may be where the idealized statistics of a 10% conversion rate comes from, which… TRULY is very idealized for the vast majority…)
As
said in a note recently, 2-3% conversion of any launch is a GOOD launch in today’s digital environment. Why should this be any different on Substack? To set too high expectations will do nothing but pull you down and make you feel like you’re failing, when frankly you’re probably already a success simply for showing up consistently in the name of creative fulfilment and proactive dream manifestation!But hey, that’s just my 2 cents from my experience through the years, including now having done an official launch on here too.
With that fuss out of the way, let’s dive in shall we!
There are three overarching things that distinguish this launch from others on Substack (I actually haven’t seen anyone else make a deal about turning on the paid feature the way I did…) as well as one obvious difference compared to a typical email campaign that otherwise do to my off-substack art-list…
I decided to make a BIG deal out of my launch rather than silently turn it on in the background, and there are reasons for this + It’s the first time I actually GREW my audience while being in launch-mode… a launch typically makes you lose subscribers. Well, not this time (big win!)
I decided to emphasize the launch around the re-release of my book When Will You Get a Real Job as opposed to only chat about the newsletters themselves, and there are good reasons for this too (ps, if you upgrade today you can download your kindle copy right away 💞)
Last but not least, I ran a pre-sale campaign with an early-bird deal leading to a price raise as opposed to making a discount on D-day.. And you guessed it, there’s a clear reason for that too.
Last but not least, the main difference of this launch compared to the typical email campaign is that it was all done for the world to see, whereas under normal email circumstances it’s only your subscribers who’ll see what you do (a bit like sending emails to paid subscribers only… so this will be a first taste of that!)