
The time it takes to run a paid newsletter - exolymph
https://simonowens.substack.com/p/the-exact-time-commitment-it-takes
======
MaximumMadness
I've been writing about the world of gaming via Substack for the last year or
so ([https://pausebutton.substack.com/](https://pausebutton.substack.com/))
for somewhat sizable audience, and this is a particularly accurate breakdown.

Links/Round-ups = retention. They make sure your brand stays top of mind for
folks, but very rarely are they the thing that makes new subscribers come in.
The tradeoff is that this is way more time-efficient that writing your own
long-form.

New Long-form Content = Growth. The long-form stuff takes us 10x the time to
write, but is consistently responsible for the increase in audience size. If
you're going full-time, this is the place to invest. Particularly because
Substack is so bad at reader Discovery, you need to invest in getting people
onto your publication in your own way (original content), because Substack
only really helps the biggest creators drive traffic.

It's why the I think the idea of bundling is going to be so big with
newsletters, akin to how traditional newspapers started through a bunch of
independent writers coming together. Eventually producing new long-form stuff
wont be able to drive sustained growth and there's a cap on how much content a
single person can put out.

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PatrolX
You're better off with "self-hosted" Ghost.

[https://ghost.org/](https://ghost.org/)

I don't understand the obsession with substack.

Get on Ghost, run it on your own domain, own the entire asset, and stop paying
the substack tax.

~~~
foxdev
You need a mailing address in the footer of emails in the US and any country
with a CAN-SPAM-like law. Substack lets you use their PO box. It's even auto-
filled. That adds cost for a self-hosted option unless you want your home
address dangling out there or already have a business address.

~~~
anonAndOn
Small USPS PO boxes are ~$10/mo. Is the convenience of Substack's PO box worth
$10/mo?

~~~
foxdev
You can ask that question up and down the yak shaving continuum and get an
infinite number of answers. Is it worth it to me? No. How many people would
answer yes? That's the 50 billion dollar question.

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louisswiss
Interesting article, however I'm surprised the author only went into the time
it takes them to create content.

I run a bootstrapped product called
[SparkLoop]([https://sparkloop.app](https://sparkloop.app)) which makes it
easy for creators to add a referral program to their newsletter, and by far
the biggest (and most annoying) time investment we hear newsletter creators
complaining about is marketing, not content creation.

For most newsletter creators, marketing takes as much (if not more) time as
content creation does!

~~~
Swizec
Can confirm. Have an okay sized mailing list and writing is the fun part.
Getting new readers is a slog that I hate doing.

~~~
chiefalchemist
Not only that, marketing is hard - even for marketers. Even so, if you commit
(read: regular schedule) some time to it you'll likely be less overwhelmed /
intimidated / discouraged.

Set a couple reasonable goals. Work towards those, and only those. There's no
magic potion. No magic bullet. No magic nuttin'. That's marketing :)

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jamestimmins
This is fascinating because while tools like Substack lower the technical
barrier to entry for starting a newsletter, they don't make it easier to
create good content. That part is still a grind.

On a few occasions I've thought about creating a newsletter on a whim, only to
think better of it when I consider how long it would take to create great
content.

~~~
pryelluw
The grind will always be there, but can be offloaded to ghost writers. The
focus then lies on building the theme of each issue. Which itself is another
grind.

People dont realize that running a newsltetter is akin to publishing a
magazine. They tend to see it more as publishing a blog, but are super wrong.
Blogs are suspended in time. Newsletters expire (most do).

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pembrook
I understand why journalists are starting newsletters en masse, but I think
most people in tech are going about newsletters the wrong way.

Instead of trying to start a media business (which is by nature, a low margin
slog, save for a few B2B markets), why not use the newsletter as lead gen for
a much more lucrative business like Saas or Courses or high end consulting?

In which case substack is not a great platform for you, given they provide
zero SEO value for your domain. Like with Medium, when you write on substack
and share your content, you’re growing substack’s backlinks and authority. Not
your own.

The newsletter being the product itself is only going to work for a very tiny
group of writers in the end. If you’re not writing about a niche business
topic, or don’t already have a massive audience, forget about it.

Remember, Bloomberg created the media company as a distribution channel for
selling their terminal (one of the most profitable SaaS businesses on earth).
Not the other way around.

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Firebrand
What’s frustrating about discovering Substack content is I would have no idea
Simon Owens wrote about why Patreon’s business model is under threat if I
didn’t see this post on HN. I’m unable to come for the topic, and then stay
for the author.

If I search “Patreon” on Substack I get a bunch of people who moved there from
Patreon:

[https://imgur.com/a/L0qYrUQ](https://imgur.com/a/L0qYrUQ)

What gives? How do I search by topic?

~~~
MaximumMadness
From the Substack-related interviews/content I've consumed, it seems like the
company is more concerned with tools/support [0] [1] for its creators, before
it worries about consumer growth.

The idea is that once you have an excess of supply (writers), who are all
bringing in their own readers, it's easier to connect the dots for readers to
other publications. Whereas if your reader demand outweighs supply, people
will not see any value from sticking around.

As a writer on the platform[2] itself, I think the general tools/support for
the non-Top 20 creators leaves a ton to be desired, so would love to see them
step it up in a number of ways if they're really trying to get behind the
average writer.

[0] [https://on.substack.com/p/announcing-the-next-substack-
fello...](https://on.substack.com/p/announcing-the-next-substack-fellowship)
[1][https://on.substack.com/p/legal-support-for-substack-
writers](https://on.substack.com/p/legal-support-for-substack-writers)
[2][https://pausebutton.substack.com/](https://pausebutton.substack.com/)

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archibaldJ
Glad to see more writers & content creators starting small businesses like
this! I’ve been working on a set of podcast and vlog pre&post-production
toolkits as well as an invite-only virtual event/work space creation & live-
streaming platform ([http://lo.fish](http://lo.fish)) for independent
creatives/writers/publishers/etc to organize online events & interviews ads-
free, in a highly-customizable 2d setting and with a more friendly price point
vs services like Zoom. We are going public beta next week! For any hn reader
who would like to grab an early-access sign-up code just drop me an email at
a@castella.art =)

------
aaron695
If Substack is getting meta it's not a good sign.

The top stories on Steemit were constantly meta.

That said, I met a digital nomad who wrote for Steemit, he figured out the
cheapest place to work was in a sauna/spa. Steemit sure created interesting
people and I'm sure he just pivoted. Assuming Steemit has collapsed, maybe
it's still going strong.

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DigitalSea
Substack is amazing, it's like Tumblr meets Medium for newsletters. The UI is
quite bare, the publishing tools are quite primitive, but it works so well.
The ease of use inspired me to start my own newsletter where I talk about
ideas and trends, I called it The Ideas Digest
([https://theideasdigest.substack.com/](https://theideasdigest.substack.com/)).

Admittedly, I've been going for barely a week now, but I've got a months worth
of content already in the pipeline that I am working on and I am hopeful in
the future that I can grow it into something I can make a little side income
from. Not having to manage my own infrastructure is highly motivating, to be
honest.

The thing is, I am a developer and more than capable of getting something like
Wordpress setup and self-hosting my own Substack type newsletter, but it just
seemed like a waste of time, especially for an idea I wasn't even sure I could
pull off or people would be interested in. But, I am surprising myself and
although I didn't have a preexisting mailing list, I've got a few subscribers
now with almost zero marketing.

I see the value in no-code solutions like Substack that cater to specific
niches like newsletters.

The struggle for me is long-form content writing usually comes natural to me,
but given Substack is newsletter-focused, I feel like I need to not go too
overboard with the word count. I know long-form content gets social shares and
whatnot, but I feel like Substack is more of a private network type of thing
where people are emailed content. I would be interested in knowing if any
research has found what the ideal content length should be for Substack
specifically.

------
hammock
What are examples of the biggest Substack newsletters? I don't think I've ever
encountered one, although I keep hearing more and more about Substack.

~~~
mukundmohan
There are over 20 newsletters making over 100K according to
[https://digiday.com/media/how-substack-has-spawned-a-new-
cla...](https://digiday.com/media/how-substack-has-spawned-a-new-class-of-
newsletter-entrepreneurs/)

The article also has a list of about 5-10 of them including a) Hell World, b)
the Dispatch, c) Superorganizers (Part of Everything bundle), etc.

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amelius
> The time it takes to run a paid newsletter

Isn't that about 40-60hrs/wk, like everything we do for a living? †

† Except for Elon Musk.

------
iuguy
I've been running Tales From The Dork Web
([https://thedorkweb.substack.com/](https://thedorkweb.substack.com/)) since
January on Substack. In some respects TFTDW is a bit like Tedium.

So far it's been a pretty good experience, but I keep expecting the day to
come when it turns into Medium.

