"Growth Hacking"
Aemula Writer Spotlight - 3.6.25
There is a growing trend of writers choosing independence, driven by a desire for creative freedom, new avenues for direct audience engagement, and fewer opportunities for work in traditional media outlets. The media industry has seen significant consolidation in recent years as legacy publishers and media conglomerates acquire smaller, local newsrooms. As publications compete for market share by capturing niche audiences, they cut costs by looking for economies of scale, inevitably leading to layoffs and fewer institutional outlets forming the narrative. This ultimately results in less diversity of thought and freedom in the press.
However, the decision for a writer to go independent is characterized by risk and uncertainty. The potential value of financial and creative autonomy that comes with building a direct network of paid subscribers is enticing, but it requires grueling work and marketing acumen to reach a point of stability.
We have witnessed the recent prevalence of independent, direct-subscription platforms such as Substack, Patreon, X, and Beehiiv. They market themselves as engines of growth for creators to build their own audience of engaged subscribers. Admittedly, their ethos in supporting the creator economy is well-aligned with empowering writer independence.
Unfortunately, their business models do not seem to truly support the needs of independent writers who are starting their journey. Instead, they shift the burden of growth and paid subscriber conversion onto the writers themselves, leaving many writers spending years attempting to build their following to be able to earn a full-time living.
In fact, the vast majority of independent writers struggle to hit the threshold of 1,000 paid subscribers — a rough benchmark for the amount necessary to earn a stable living. The success of independent writers follows a familiar power law distribution, with the top earners capturing the vast majority of subscription revenue on any given platform.
For instance, the top 10 Substack newsletters earn over $25 million annually, and only 50 newsletters earn over $500k annually. This represents less than 0.1% of the 75,000 newsletters on the platform. Additionally, many of the success stories come from writers who brought previously established audiences onto the platform. On Patreon, the top end of the average earnings range is still less than $19k/year in subscription revenue — before expenses.
The reason for this distribution of success on platforms like Substack becomes clear when you look closer at their growth mechanisms. Substack requires each individual writer to handle paid subscriber conversion. Many writers spend 50% of their time on marketing and promotional activities instead of writing the content they wish to create. This is an unfortunate reality when you realize that a writer's success is often correlated with marketing ability rather than their capability to create quality writing.
The rationale platforms provide for shifting the burden of growth onto writers is that they they are providing the tools to facilitate growth. On Substack, features like notes, referrals, live videos, chats, and recommendations are all designed to fuel the growth of individual Substacks. However, these typically result in non-monetized follows or free subscribers, while Substack uses these features to draw users into their ecosystem — users initially attracted by the writers themselves. Writers are then left to compete for the finite resources of users already paying for multiple subscriptions.
In the current inflationary environment, many users are attempting to reduce their subscriptions rather than increase them. In a saturated, shrinking market, convincing a free follower to become a paid subscriber is exceedingly difficult since each subscriber must believe your content is among the top one or two subscriptions available to them.
If a platform truly wishes to support independent writers, it should take on the burden of growth itself. With Aemula, writers can freely publish directly to a network of paid subscribers. Every interaction is monetized, and a writer’s reach is directly tied to the quality of their work. This allows writers to focus entirely on creating, rather than forcing them to discover their own growth hacks for building an audience. Simultaneously, writers on Aemula maintain full ownership and control over their content and remain free to promote their own platforms to build their personal audiences further.
Additionally, readers benefit by paying a single subscription for access to every writer on the platform. This simplifies their decision-making process, providing greater value in an environment of consolidating subscriptions. Without the fatigue of constantly hitting paywalls, readers can freely explore new content and easily support the writers they enjoy without facing repeated payment decisions. This structure gives writers greater reach, higher monetization potential, and similar pay-through rates compared to managing their own Substack — all without the additional work required.
This week, we highlight the significant burden placed on writers by most independent platforms by sharing Substack’s own instructions on how creators can grow their paid subscriptions.
How creators are bringing their paid subscription audiences to Substack
An example from Substack’s creator partnership resources showing how they shift the burden of paid subscriber conversion onto their writers
“Start by letting your audience know you’re making the switch to Substack.
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Export your paid member list from your current platform and import it into Substack.
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Spread the word on your social media channels to let everyone know they can now find you on Substack. This is also a great opportunity to turn casual followers into subscribers—and, ideally, paying supporters. Be sure to pin the post on your Instagram for extra visibility.
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People are busy, and not everyone will update their payment details right away. Remind your audience several times over the course of the first month to re-enter their payment info so they don’t lose access. A single announcement isn’t enough; keep it top of mind with follow-ups via email, posts, and even a quick video message.
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Your first month on Substack is your chance to set the tone for what’s to come. Lean into live video, Substack Chat, and Notes to create excitement and show your audience that you’re doing bigger and better things here.”
Interested in cross-posting your content to Aemula? Reach out to writers@aemula.com to get started! With cross-posting, you can:
Instantly expand your audience
Increase your earnings
Maintain full ownership of your work
Plus, you will have the opportunity to access community resources and grants to support the content you want to create! Cross-posting comes with no costs, no obligations, and you can stop or remove your content at any time.
The open beta version of the Aemula platform is live at aemula.com! Claim your 1-month free trial today! All it takes is an email address and 30 seconds!
If you want to support any of the writers we spotlight in our Substack, we highly encourage you to subscribe to their individual publications. If you want to support independent journalism more broadly, we offer both paid and free subscriptions for you to stay informed!
All Substack subscription revenue is reinvested directly into the independent journalism community.
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