Today I want to return to something I wrote about a while back.

But this isn’t to re-tread old ground.

You see, every now and then, I report on an online business tool, platform or strategy that I like the look of while it’s in its early stages…

Then it goes METEORIC!

As months pass it becomes even more exciting…. even more accessible… and even more potentially profitable.

In this case, the explosion in popularity does NOT mean there’s now too much competition or that it’s too late to get in.

Far from it…

It actually means that there is more scope to attract customers and make money than there was when I first wrote about it.

Best of all, you can get involved in this without needing any of the skills, time, experience or expertise that you might expect.

Okay, so let’s dive back into… SUBSTACK!

How to Get Paid to Share Information On this Booming Platform

If you missed my emails about this the first time round, let me quickly recap.

Substack.com is a platform that allows you to share information directly with readers and get paid for it.

You can post your content on the site, and also send it to your subscribers’ inboxes as an email newsletter.

It means there’s no need to create your own website, sign up to an email broadcasting system, or use an external payment processing service.

Everything you could possibly need can be done through Substack.

You can make your newsletter free or paid – or a combination. For instance, it lets you set up a free-to-paid system where readers can access some posts for free…. then they pay around £5–£15 per month for premium content.

The platform processes the payments and handles admin in return for a flat 10% cut of your revenue.

So you can make decent money from a relatively low amount of subscribers. For example:

• 300 paid subscribers at £10 per month would earn you £3,000 per month
• 100 paid subscribers at £15 per month would earn you £1,500 per month

However, as well as earning from subscriptions you can also make money from:

• Sponsorships & ads
• Selling your own information products (eBooks, courses etc)
• Affiliate commissions from promoting other peoples’ products.

Which means you can build a diversified income from a single newsletter.

For example, after a year on Substack sharing information about self-help, Emma Gannon started charging £6.99 per month, or an annual membership at £65.

Within 18 months she was on a 6-figure income.

She then used Substack to promote her book, The Success Myth.

Another Substacker, Karen Cherry, earned $45K from direct subscriptions in her first three years.

She says: “I started my first Substack publication in 2021 with zero subscribers, and grew it into a sustainable (and super enjoyable) side stream of income for my food safety consulting business.”

And here’s what one Reddit user said about their experience:

“I first joined Substack in April 2020 during the pandemic to chronicle my lockdown. I had no intention of making any money but in 2022 I decided to host my podcast, Sex Advice for Seniors, on the platform….

I now have just over 3000 subscribers 85 of which are paid. I also receive affiliate revenue from brands that I work with and have a few sponsorship deals as well. In total I earn about $25,000 per year with the potential to earn much more”.

As you’re about to see, Substack is not necessarily for people who are already successful, famous, or published.

But before I get onto that, let’s look at what’s happened to Substack recently.

Why Substack Has Gone Mainstream

Initially, Substack was just another digital publishing platform… a convenient way of posting blogs and email newsletters through one system.

However, things have escalated rapidly.

Many writers, journalists and influencers flocked to it because they could no longer reach their audiences via Meta, Twitter and Google.

The algorithmic changes and demands for payment on these social media platforms – not to mention the bad behaviour of their CEOs – drove millions away.

Many were shocked to see huge follower lists that they built over the years VANISH.

Because, of course, they didn’t own any of this material – it was all the property of the social media company.

Content publishers realised that if they want to grow and KEEP an audience long term, they need ownership of their work, and their email lists.

Catherine Valentine, Substack’s head of politics, told Newsweek magazine: “When people come to Substack and they see the power of subscriptions and what it’s paying them directly, their eyes just open.”

Like social media, Substack helps readers find your content via internal recommendations, trending lists, and discovery tools.

Last year, it revealed that 32 million new subscribers came from within Substack in just three months.

These were not coming from Google searches or via links on social media sites X and Facebook – but from readers discovering publishers inside the Substack ecosystem.

Which means you can now grow an audience without doing marketing outside the platform.

But the difference with Substack is, YOU have control of your subscriber list.

That’s why many YouTubers, TikTokers, and other creators have been launching Substacks as backup income streams.

And as big names have moved onto Substack, so too have other content publishers followed.

Which means Substack has crossed over from being just another fringe “email newsletter tool” to a widely recognised publishing platform used by businesses, brands, journalists, influencers, and everyday creators.

This has created a thriving, growing network in which many different niches are flourishing.

And it’s changing the culture of online content to one where people are willing to pay for practical information from trusted sources that’s delivered to their private inboxes.

And this is where you come in.

Which of these Profitable Subjects Will Suit You Best?

I know that the idea of an email newsletter sounds daunting to many people.

Surely you need loads of knowledge, expertise or experience in a specific field?

But you don’t need to be an expert to share content on Substack.

You can share what you already know about a subject, or what you already do in your life (or work) anyway.

For instance…

• Your job, field, or industry
• Your life experiences or lifestyle
• Your home business journey
• Your hobby or special interest
• A transition you’re going through, a problem you’re solving or goal you’re trying to reach

Secondly, as I explained in Wednesday’s WRMM (if you missed that email you can access it HERE), you can get extra information from numerous free online sources.

These include websites, books, free reports, courses, social media feeds, email newsletters and – of course – AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity.

All you need to do is find good information online… filter it out the fluff and rubbish… then organise it into something practical and useful for your reader.

To get you thinking, here are some broad subjects that are popular and profitable on Substack:

• Self-help – productivity, focus, motivation, confidence.
• Content Creation – How to grow audiences and monetise content (e.g. email, social media, digital products).
• Personal Finance & Wealth Building. Investing, savings strategies.
• Entrepreneurship and Startups. Research and idea validation, business strategies and outsourcing.
• Remote and Hybrid Work Mastery. Productivity systems, tools, workplace trends, culture shifts.
• Health and Fitness. Nutrition, recovery, neuroscience and performance tracking.
• Struggles of Modern Life. Mindset, burnout prevention and emotional health.
• Sustainability. Clean energy trends, recycling, self-sufficiency.
• Tech Culture Social platforms, AI ethics, privacy.
• Trading and Cryptocurrencies. Market predictions, trading strategies, psychology.
• Parenting and Families. Modern parenting, family finance and caregiving.
• Creative Practice & Artistic Growth Writing, photography, music creation, creative process insights.
• Travel. Guides for authentic trips, digital nomad living, budget hacks, safety insights.
• Education and skills. How to learn faster, micro-credentials, career changes.
• Niche Topics – Narrow topics with passionate communities (e.g., vintage clothes, bread baking, drone piloting).
• Science Translators – Breakthroughs in biotech, space and materials science, all explained simply.

These are just some broad subjects to get you thinking, so make sure you drill down into a narrower niche, where you can build more expertise, more quickly.

No Writing Talent Required!

You don’t need to be an adept writer to create successful Substack content…

Readers aren’t looking for elegant, poetic prose.

Instead they want clear thinking, useful insights, practical steps and honesty.

So if you can understand a topic and explain it plainly, you have everything you need.

Once you find the essential information on a specific topic, you can feed it into a tool like Chat GPT which will turn it into good, readable English.

Here’s a method you can try:

1. Do your research online. Read 3–5 articles, threads, or blog posts. Then extract the key ideas and put them down as rough notes. You could also use AI to help you with this prompt: “Summarise the key ideas in these 3 articles”.
2. Add your interpretation, opinion, or personal experience (again, this can be rough notes, with no attention to grammar or style).
3. Record yourself talking out loud about the topic for 5–15 minutes. Use the ‘Dictate’ function on a word processor to record your words as text. Or you can get a transcription app like Otter.ai
4. Feed the resulting text into AI with this prompt: ➡️“Here is a transcript of me thinking out loud about [topic]. Turn this into a clear, friendly Substack post with a strong opening, 3 main points, and a short closing. Keep my voice conversational.”

You can also give the AI tool some information about your personality, interests, likes and dislikes, so that you get something which reflects your unique self.

Try to stick to a structure like this:

• Title – a compelling headline that’s urgent, unique or useful to know
• Hook – grab attention by suggesting why this matters, what’s at stake or why this is timely or relevant.
• Problem or Goal – paint a picture of the issue your reader (or the public) is facing, or of what they might want to achieve.
• Proof – a real story to back it up, or research, facts, statistics and expert quotes.
• Insight – what you think is important about this, what you think is actually going on, or what a trusted expert recommends.
• Call-to-Action – one practical thing the reader can do, including any steps, links, further reading or useful resources.

Again, you can feed this broad template into an AI tool to guide it.

So what do you think?

Are you intrigued by the idea of publishing content on Substack?

If so, please email me ASAP and let me know, because I will happily prepare more advice about this if there’s a clear demand!