Subsack Chat Creators Make 19% more annual revenue
What Does Community in a Newsletter Mean?
Hey Everyone,
Lately for myself I’ve been thinking about the intersection of conversion optimization and community in a Newsletter readership.
Signs of Community
Comments on articles
Interaction in dialogue threads and Substack Chat
Your articles get shared on Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc…
Your Readers hit REPLY on your Emails and you get valuable information from it
You get comments on social media posts that link back to your articles
Value-Ads on Newsletter Platforms
Podcast interviews
Asking your audience what they want you to cover
Seminars (Zoom or calls recorded sent to Paid subscribers as unlisted YouTube)
Workshops (e.g. Gumroad) or Courses (e.g. Thinkific)
Video rants (Substack)
Video content: YouTube Shorts, TikTok and YouTube Channels
Polls: on Substack or somewhere like a LinkedIn or Twitter post.
The big reveal for me was recently when Substack said their in App Chats were coming to desktop. So from a November 2022, launch of Chat to a Desktop launch in March, 2023 they have had time to refine the product based on feedback. That’s when you want to join it, after the Beta testing.
So I’m struggling with “conversion optimization”, getting free readers to become paid readers. So the deal-breaker for me is that Substack says creators that do two or more Chats earn 19% more! Guys that’s a lot of potential revenue for a bit of extra nudging of free readers.
Substack Chat to me is like an augmentation of dialogue threads, which were already fairly good for inciting interaction especially if your content pushes buttons or has a sentimental or communal aspect.
You can read the Chats you follow now on desk here.
You can set your paid or free readers to be able to create discussions on Substack Chat. (more customization).
Reading community, I myself have elected to create a Reddit for my Newsletter that’s my own version of a value-add (I cover A.I. news).
You always want to be improving on iterations of what community might mean to your Newsletter growth and revenue generation. Ultimately the more you give, the more the incentive for your free readers to convert to paid subscribers will be. Although this will also depend on your niche, so don’t take it personally if your conversion rates are lower than others.
My impression is that political Newsletter have the highest conversion rates, followed by investing Newsletters. Substack has some kind of bias in the kinds of Creators it attracts which has to do with how they scaled their product.
For actual journalism around news, conversion rates tend to be way lower. So you want to pick a niche for your Newsletter with enough emotional and communal (a cause) content that touches people personally. Otherwise it may be difficult to build a profitable side gig.
The Social Media Great Death - Twitter and TikTok Could be on their Last Legs
Twitter has lost over 40% of its advertising revenue and its Paid subscriptions have not gone well, thus I believe Twitter may actually fail in the 2023 to 2026 period. TikTok is about 65% likely to get banned in the same period. This means you want to be investing in places that are more secure like YouTube, LinkedIn and Substack.
For your Newsletter to be fortified to churn, you want to produce great community experiences for readers and not just great reading experiences. This means eliciting:
Comments
Shares
Substack Chats
Dialogue Threads
Private Email Replies
Basically anything that improves time on site on your Newsletter, anything that creates more immersion.
The whole only idea of why Substack is better than beehiiv comes down to fundamentally two things, a laser focus on paid subs and a product emphasis on community development.
Thus if you happen to be on Substack, you want to double-down on these two things, to get the maximum out of the effort and creativity you are putting in.
Substack Improves Chat
Substack announced in March, 2023 that it’s expanding the controls regarding who can start new conversations in a Substack. Publishers can now choose to give all subscribers, only paid subscribers or only founding members the power to start a chat.
Substack notes that writers who have hosted two or more chats on Substack are earning 19% more annual revenue than those who have not (from their PR with TechCrunch).
Community also Means Collaboration
Many Substack Creators create Twitter audio events with other creators.
Doing guest posts and appearing on Podcasts is another way to get known
Calling others to do guest posts on your Newsletter is also great
Interviewing others in your space on your Podcast
And of course, recommending the Newsletters of your peers so you can boost targeted traffic (while also doing this on beehiiv to grow your list faster is a no-brainer).
Community to me therefore means immersion, iteration and diversification.
You may find out that Podcasting is more trouble than its worth, so you will go back to interacting via text and thus this makes Substack Chat (now that’s it’s on a desktop) worth it to begin once your free list is big enough to warrant the added investment.
If for example you are doubling down on conversion optimization like I am, then perfecting your Substack Chat is crucial. Observer how others are using the product feature.
Chat is a community space reimagined specifically for writers and creators— it’s like having your own private social network where you make the rules. Writers set the topic and the tone for every discussion, and can turn the feature on or off at any tim - Substack
As popular as the Substack for text called Subtext is becoming, Substack Chat is best viewed on mobile. That instant chat feel that feeds real debates and dialogues can be a valuable reason why a new reader keeps coming back to your Newsletter. It’s not all about just reading.
A lot of popular Substack writers build a community where access to people with the same interests is a huge incentive to join. Think about it, people want to discover good content but also people like them. People who have the same interests, values, passions and causes they follow.
Read this to see how to get started (watch the video).
I was surprised to see the 19% boost to Creators who use it, as for me that’s a significant amount. As a reader I find the feature (very spammy) a bit intense. As a writer I’m worried that it will be draining to start, but I’m willing to try it even in moderation. I’m already a high-frequency writer that resembles more of a blogger than a Newsletter writer.
The Last Resort - Community Building is Non-negotiable
But as conversion slows down and churn is rather high, I see it has a no-choice option now. To survive as a Newsletter Creator, you have to do community. It’s non-negotiable. Especially if you are serious about this stuff. You have to give to get in this Universe.
I don’t see Substack Chat as taking on Twitter or Discord, but it’s yet another layer that we should be experimenting with. A lot of comments on Substack are tied to how well you are doing on Twitter, which isn’t ideal. Consider that realistically Twitter could fail as it’s lost a lot of momentum and is barely worth the $20 Billion Elon Musk says it is worth.
At the end of the day, people are lonely. They aren’t just looking for information.
We aren’t just educators, entertaining but connectors. That’s our job guys.
We connect people with inspiration, ideas and community. That’s the best case scenario.
Many of the most successful Substack Creators are just examples of people who have built incredible Communities, look around if you don’t believe me. You can find dozens of examples of how this is true.
Now in 2023, I think Substack Chat is ready to be adopted more by Creators. It’s more of a boost to revenue it looks like than creating a Podcast, as far as I can tell. Granted, it’s a lot less work. (It does look like a grind though). A grind I can manage on desktop (I’m old).
Another crazy idea I’m interesting in is creating a Private Substack for your paid subscribers. Substack recently introduced Private Substacks, which are publications that you can host alone or readers can request to subscribe to read your posts. I like the idea of tiers and exclusive clubs. After all we put a lot of work into this.
Creating Live-events e.g. Twitter audio or a YouTube or TikTok Live seem like a good idea to me to develop rapport with readers and tap into larger audiences.
Doing Substack video and YouTube Shorts for other kinds of mobile video immersion also makes sense to me.
So a writer can choose to diversify into video and community, and eventually they will have to just to survive. We have to keep up with digital trends. I was previously skeptical about Substack Chat (because I write so many Newsletters), but now I need to double down on it as well.
19% more revenue is a deal-breaker.
Substack said:
As the quality of writing on Substack has blossomed and comments sections lit up with intelligent discussions, subscriber communities began to take shape. Some enterprising writers have taken matters into their own hands, hacking together integrations with Discord, Slack, and Telegram to cultivate communities of supporters.
I’ve started a Pallet, and that’s definately a communal thing. I’ve also started a LinkedIn Group related to my Pallet. Even having your Newsletter on Paved, is a way to show that you are serious about the business aspect of your Substack content. Don’t take my word for it though, I’ve only been doing this a little over a year. Why not try yourself.
Substack on Chat
As of March 15, 2023 Chat is also available on the web. For the most up to date guidance on getting started with Chat, visit our guide to Substack Chat.
4 key steps to launching and succeeding with your chat:
Announce Chat to your readers via email—the most important step!
Substack Chat could be fun! What do you think?