I’ve been writing about Substack a LOT recently.

And yes, you can start following me for FREE by clicking HERE.

You see, I can’t help myself!

Because the more I dig into this platform, the more excited I get about the opportunities it opens up for you.

Substack makes it possible for ANYONE to create a digital publishing business without writing skills or complex tech tools.

The platform deals with all the email broadcasting, list management and payment processing for you.

And they’ll deliver you subscribers from the MILLIONS of new readers who come to the platform every month looking for content.

If you use AI, you can get the content researched and written very quickly, without specialised knowledge.

So you could get this set up within a few days….

And potentially earn £540 – £1,640 per month as a side project in your first year.

…or scale it up to bank £5,400–£10,000+ every month.

All in your spare time!

I’m so excited about Substack, in fact, that I’ve something special lined up for you this weekend…

So please keep your eyes peeled for an email from me tomorrow morning.

But today I want to tackle the ONE thing that puts most people off trying something like this..

“But Nick, I’m no expert!”

I don’t know you personally, but I can guess you’re not a top expert in a specialised field, a CEO, journalist, or an author.

(If you are, DEFINITELY get onto Substack as there’s a paying audience there waiting for you!)

So I understand if you think this is only something for professionals.

But the first thing to understand is that you don’t need to be an expert to make money from Substack content.

And you don’t need a following on social media or an existing subscriber base.

As I explained on Wednesday, internet users are increasingly seeking out private sources of information from real human beings who are LIKE THEM, and who share their goals and frustrations.

You could offer this kind of privately-delivered content through Substack, using AI to fill in any knowledge gaps.

And you could do it from the perspective of someone who is undergoing similar struggles and setbacks, and who has similar goals and dreams.

You’re simply looking for tips, strategies and tools that help you… and sharing them with readers.

Which means there’s no need to establish yourself as an expert.

And you don’t need millions of readers.

You simply need to find a small, dedicated group of people who are passionate about a subject – and willing to pay a few pounds a month for useful information about it.

To give you an idea…

Just 100 paid subscribers at £6 a month would bring you £540 per month in recurring income (Substack takes 10% cut of your subscription as a fee).

With 300 subscribers you’re looking at £1,620 a month.

Thousands of Substack creators publishers are achieving this and more, right now, in niches you’d never expect.

Which of these Substack niches would suit you?

I’ve spent hours browsing Substack’s discovery pages to see what’s getting attention.

Of course, there are a lot of newsy subjects such as politics, news, business, finance, science and sports that get huge numbers.

For example…

• Letters from an American (Politics) – 3M subs
• Lenny’s Newsletter (Product management and startup advice) – 1.2M subs
• The Honest Broker (Arts, books, and music) – 450K subs)
• The Diff ( Finance) – 350K+ subs
• Platformer (Technology and policy) – 200K subs

But by no means is it only journalists, authors, CEOs and political commentators who are earning from this platform…

There are also strong lifestyle categories like Health & Wellness, Parenting, Fashion & Beauty, Food & Drink, Travel, Music, and Literature.

These are categories in which you could easily find a niche where you can find and share useful information with a small, keen audience.

I’m talking about things like…

Anti-inflammatory foods… cold water swimming… beekeeping… narrow boat living… vintage sewing machines… sourdough baking… allotment gardening… wild camping… classic cars… retirement planning…

Now, you might think, “Who on earth would PAY for a newsletter about narrow boats?”

Well, a person who lives on a narrow boat, of course!

Or a person who takes holidays on narrow boats!

As I’ve said, you don’t need tens of thousands of these narrowboaters to make money… just a few hundred!

Which is why even very specific niches can work well.

For example, on Substack you can find (and yes, these ARE real)…

• The Department of Salad (literally, it’s about SALAD) 69K subs
• Old Jewish Men (humour and culture) – 15K subs
• Laid Off (first-person stories of job loss) – 9K subs
• Sex Advice for Seniors (intimacy guidance for over-50s) – 8K subs
• Jokien with Tolkien (Lord of the Rings fandom) – 16K subs
• The Croydon Edit (yes, local news about… Croydon!) – 2K subs
• The Yachting Investor (finance for yacht crew) – 1000+ subs
• Seeking the Sacred (spirituality and mental health) 3,000 subs
• Create Me Free (depression and creativity) – 2K subs
• Outgrow (Gardening and Self-sufficiency) – 2K subs
• Gray Camper Van Writer (Travel) – 1,900 subs

Even those subscriber numbers are way bigger than you need to earn a decent recurring income!

Let’s say you have 2,000 free subscribers…

For your premium content you charge £6 per month.

And let’s say just 10% of your 2K subscribers pay.

That’s 200 X £6 per month = £1,200 PER MONTH RECURRING INCOME!

Even after Substack takes its 10%, you’d still be clearing more than £1,000 per month for something that would probably take a few hours per week.

So you might be surprised by what you could potentially set up, based on your own interests and experiences.

How to Search for Niches on Substack

Go to Substack and you’ll see that there’s an ‘explore’ option.

If you click on a category like ‘food and drink’, for example, it will show you the fast-rising creators:

You can also scroll down below this list to see public posts from Substack creators in that category.

Or use the search box to put in a subject that you have some interest in, for instance, ‘side hustles’.

The page that comes up will give you different options…

You could click on:

‘top’ to get the most popular accounts and notes (‘notes’ are short form social media style posts designed to attract an audience).

‘recent’ to get the most up-to-date notes

‘posts’ to see the longer form Substack articles on this topic

‘publications’ to get a list of relevant newsletter titles

‘people’ to get a list of creators

You can also use the search box to narrow it down to more specific topics. For instance ‘loft conversion’ would reveal posts like these:

Or here’s what you might find if you look for ‘sleep problems’.

Check out (and subscribe to!) any of the newsletters which appeal to you, and see what kinds of things they share and talk about.

Look at which newsletters have paid subscriber counts. And take notes of any with healthy numbers in narrower niches.

If someone is already making money from a newsletter about, say, budget travel for over-50s… that tells you there’s a Substack audience who will pay for that kind of information.

How to Use AI As Your Research Assistant

You can also use AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude to help you find a niche, using this prompt.

“Give me 20 Substack subject areas with passionate audiences that are underserved by newsletter content. Focus on areas where people are already spending money on books, courses, or magazines. For each, tell me: the topic and who the audience is.”

This will give you a menu of possibilities. Pick the 3–5 that genuinely interest you, then use this:

“For each of these niches [PASTE YOUR PICKS] give me: existing Substack newsletters in or near this area (with subscriber estimates if possible).”

Or you could even get AI to make you a detailed spreadsheet.

Here’s a great prompt you can put into an AI tool like Claude or Perplexity (just copy and paste this in!):

“Research 50 diverse Substack newsletters spanning [INSERT 3-5 BROAD CATEGORIES THAT APPEAL] including obscure niches. For each, extract subscriber counts, paid subscriber estimates, niche description, and growth indicators. Compile into a searchable comparison spreadsheet sorted by subscriber size with filters for category and niche obscurity.”

Look through the spreadsheet and ask yourself: Where are people paying £5+ a month for content that you could cover from a different angle?

Pay attention to the obscurity column, because here you can potentially dominate the niche more quickly.

Once you’ve found two or three potential niches that excite you, ask AI one more question:

“For [YOUR NICHE], who is the ideal paid subscriber? What are they currently frustrated by? What would they pay £5 a month to receive every week that they can’t easily find for free?”

You can also follow it with:

“Give me a list of topic ideas and angles that I could share every week with this target reader, so that I can understand the potential scope of this over the long term.”

This will help you understand what the content of your Substack might look like – and if there’s enough material to sustain it.

How to Take the Next Step

If your mind is buzzing with possibilities right now then I’d love to help you take the next step.

Because I’ve put together a complete, step-by-step Substack training programme that takes you from zero to your first paying readers as quickly as possible.

And you don’t need to write a single word yourself.

Keep your eyes peeled for an email all about it tomorrow!