Growth Strategy: Don’t Panic If You Lost 40%+ of Paid Subscribers on Substack in December 2024.
It is like the stock market; you grow at least 10% monthly, so celebrate it. Here is an educational case study for you after analysing the results of 500+ students and proteges
Insightful Strategy Lessons for Freelance Writers: I also published the summary of this post on Medium. I no longer publish the full version of my advanced Substack Mastery book chapters on Medium, as most new writers cannot conceptualize the ideas, take them out of context, and cause confusion for others. I will publish all chapters on Substack for subscribers who can benefit from them.
Dear Friends, I hope this post finds you in good health. Today, I want to share an important life lesson from the recent initiative of Substack. My goal is to help you strengthen and make your strategy more flexible for sustainable growth.
In November, I wrote a few stories about the special gift offering by Substack to support creators and build vibrancy on the platform. It was a unique and creative gesture by Substack. I created a 22-day writing plan for my subscribers to benefit from it. Many of my students and protégés loved the idea and shared their success stories with me.
However, in the last 10 days, I received many messages from these freelance writers that some of them lost 40% of paid subscribers in such a short time, and they felt concerned and even awful about it. Some even thought of quitting Substack, and some considered giving everything away for free to attract paid subscribers.
This reminds me of the stock market. When gains happen, people get elated; when losses happen, they get frustrated, disappointed, and even consider quitting, like selling their shares at the wrong time, leading to substantial losses. Experts like Warren Buffett or Ray Dalio know this well and have taught the public for decades.
We can use the same principle in freelance writing. Like many writers, I also lost around 20% of paid subscribers, but this did not upset me. In fact, I gained at least 10% overall growth in a single month, which is higher than other months.
The reason writers lost so many paid subscribers is that Substack gave them gifts for a month’s trial. As you may know, a huge number of readers on Substack are after free content. These subscribers are not for profit. They can add intangible value but cannot make you rich directly.
So, the key lesson from this unique experience is to reevaluate our content development and marketing strategies. Instead of making everything free, one approach can be making 10% paid and 90% free as a growth strategy for beginners.
However, as I mentioned in a chapter of my new book for advanced writers, it should be just the opposite: 10% free and 90% paid, based on my observation of best-selling freelancers and book authors for years.
So, please don’t despair if you lose a lot of paid subscribers in December 2024. You did not lose; you gained. You grew and learned lessons. It is time to create an updated plan and strategy. Here is some guidance on how to do it from my Substack Mastery book, which is free for the members of this platform and my website.
I want to share one key and unique strategy. As I mentioned before, the size of free subscribers does not necessarily reflect success if you are a freelancer and do it for business. It helps, but you need to maintain your subscribers in smart ways.
For example, I removed around 1,000 inactive subscribers, which caused issues with my growth. They add no value. For example, some of these subscribers did not even open a single email or click on a single post. Since they don’t engage, it affects my engagement rate. I believe the Substack algorithm uses this metric for distribution.
After removing these 1,000 inactive subscribers, I noticed some improvement. For example, I gained 255 extra active subscribers, and my free subscribers increased from 25K to 26.2K in 30 days in just one publication, as shown in the following screen capture.
As you can see, all 3 critical matrix items are green.
Number one is when I started pruning. Number 2 indicates an algorithmic pick. Number 3 shows the new and accelerated growth.
Here is the before and after November Paid Membership Status for the Content Strategy Insights publication
The first image shows the start of November when Substack gave us free paid subscription gifts.
The second image below shows that after 4 December 2024, 90% of gifts disappeared, as those are readers who are solely interested in free content and don’t like contributing to the growth of creators. So, losing them is not a loss but a blessing, and lessons are learned.
I saw this pattern in at least 300 proteges so it reflects the outcomes of majority.
What can you learn from this unique and timely case study?
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