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 per­son­al­ised 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 spe­cial­ises 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.